#echoing whispers

Echo regretted his decision to ride in the cage.

It had seemed like a smart choice back at the house. After all, it was where he was supposed to end up. Why wouldn't he just ride in it? It would be a bit silly not to honestly

Except this did not take into account that the puppets were made to have realistic body movements. And that the cage would be attached at the hip.

This meant that as the puppet's legs moved, the cage would be jostled about. It would happen as the thigh swung forward, as the foot hit the ground, and again as the other leg went through its motions.

And Echo was along for the ride with every movement.

He gripped the cold iron bars and braced himself against the smooth floor as best he could. At the very least he was able to keep his back from touching the bars. While he might not have wings that could be burnt against the metal, the little nubs on his back were still sensitive to it.

It was also shockingly dark under the puppet's cloak. Echo could hardly see the outline of the bars. If he lost his grip he might not find it again and spent the rest of the trip sliding around the cage floor.

Which would not be great.

Thankfully the trip wasn't much longer. Soon the puppet paused for a moment, and a long creak signaled their arrival. Though the reprieve didn't last long as the puppet opened the door and walked inside.

"Please stop walking soon" thought Echo as he nearly lost his grip.

Finally the puppet, presumably, reached the counter. A voice came out of the puppet.

Even with the magic altering it, Echo recognized Leaf's voice. He felt a twinge of guilt. This was going to be the last time he heard it after all.

Leaf talked with the store owner for a couple minutes. Then the puppet's hand came for the cage.

Carefully the puppet unclasped the cage and pulled it out of the cloak.

Echo blinked as his eyes adjusted to the brighter light. He was set down on a wooden counter right in front of a bored looking human.

The human leaned forward to scrutinize the tiny fairy.

Echo leaned away as much as he could. This was going to be the worst part.

"It doesn't have wings." said the human.

"Correct." said Leaf. "But it is still a living fairy."

The human absentmindedly scratched their neck "It is... but what good is it if it can't make fairy dust?"

Echo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The human's eyes had nearly fallen out when he saw the fairy. No way did the smuggler not know of the uses of fairy magic outside of their dust.

Eventually Leaf wore down the human's hard to get charade. Then came the haggling.

Instead of paying attention to that nonsense, Echo looked around the room. Most of his view was blocked by the two giant figures right by him but he could still see a bit.

It wasn't as run down as he had been expecting. There wasn't the huge piles of dirt, or mouse holes, or sad animals chained up in the corners. It was pretty plain actually. Everything was some shade of brown but relatively clean. There was even of vase of colorful flowers on the other end of the counter.

While Echo was glad to not have to witness the terrible conditions just yet, it was a bit disappointing. The cleanliness and generally lack of clutter would not help in his escape. And some mouse holes would have been really convent. But at least the flowers would hopefully mean there would be more plants than anticipated. He could have fun with that.

Finally the two giants exchanged a heavy coin bag. The deal had been made.

"Well than." said Leaf "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

Echo couldn't help but look over his shoulder as the puppet walked out of the store. Guilt gnawed on his spine. He knew that he was never going to see Leaf again. But Leaf didn't know that and would never really be able to say goodbye.

Suddenly the cage was grabbed roughly and Echo was barely able to hang on. He was raised up and up until he was level with the human's face.

The human stared at the fairy, clearly scrutinizing the smaller person.

Echo gritted his teeth. He really really wanted to flip this guy off or do anything. But he also wanted to be left alone as soon as possible. Then he could slip through the bars and be off to freedom. Hopefully that wouldn't tip this human off to the fact that iron only affects fairy wings.

Regardless, making the giant mad would only prolong this dreadful experience. So Echo would have to keep his cool somehow.

"Sal! Get in here!" yelled the human abruptly.

"Do not cuss him out." thought Echo as he clamped his hands over his ears. "Do not tell him to shut his fat mouth."

After some more unnecessary yelling, Sal appeared. "Yeah boss?"

The human, Boss apparently, handed over Echo's cage to Sal. "Take this to the back."

Sal also decided to inspect the fairy. "Really? It has no wings, why'd you buy it?"

Oh boy, Echo was really excelling at self control today. He was only glaring the human's soul away. There had better be a blueberry bush nearby because he certainly deserved a reward.

Boss shrugged "What does it matter, it still has magic don't it?"

"You're right." With that Sal turned and went back through the door he came from.

Past the doors was a large room filled with cages.

Echo looked down at his own cage's floor. He really didn't want to see all the creatures being cruelly kept here. There was no way he'd be able to stand looking into their eyes and not freeing them. But he couldn't. It was too risky and he had no way to get them back to their homes. So he had to keep looking down. Bad enough that he had to hear them...

It was really quiet actually. No whines or growls or even the clicking of claws on metal. In fact it was almost completely silent, save for the sound of the human's shoes.

Unable to stop himself, Echo looked up around the room.

The cages were empty.

All of the cages were empty.

Some of them had their doors shut and were cleaned to were you almost couldn't tell they had been occupied. Others doors hanged open, with bits of fur or feathers or droppings still left in them. But every last cage in the room was empty.

A cold icy dread crept over Echo's bones. This made no sense. Theses humans were known to have a large collection of magical creatures. That was how the hive had found them. So where was their collection?

Echo shook his head. He was panicking for no reason. So what that literally every cage was empty? Surely they just had a couple big sales recently?

Right?

Sal finally crossed the room, arriving at another door. He opened it.

Inside was a very dark room that's only light was what trickled through a small window slit and what came from the bigger room. It was empty except for a large cage and the odd equipment next to it.

Echo recognized the equipment. It was very similar to how the hive powered the puppets. There was a large barrel connected to a black metal box on top of a table. Inscribed on the box were various runes that would translate collected magic into the desired form. These seemed to be making it into a liquid and then depositing it into the barrel.

There were more tubes going from the box to the cage.

That was when Echo finally realized that the smugglers did have one occupied cage.

Curled up inside was a demon of sorts. They were alarmingly thin, with nothing but rags on. And a thick metal caller that the tubes from the box were connected to.

"Ah. That's why." Echo thought as the cold came back "Instead of having to take care of a bunch of animals they just suck the life out of them. And then sell it." He was going to be sick. Maybe he'd still have a chance of escape. Though Echo wasn't sure if he could be happy about it, as it was going to come at the expense of this person getting killed.

Did he dare to get them both out?

Before Echo could even try to think of a plan, there was a loud click as the lock to his cage had been unlocked.

Suddenly Echo's vision was filled with the human's hand. He couldn't even squirm before it was wrapped around him.

Sal roughly pulled the fairy out of the cage. He seemed to be aware of the fairy's urge to bite him, as he quickly dropped Echo into the larger cage. Not even bothering to open the door, just shove his hand through the bars and let go.

Echo tumbled to the ground. It hadn't been a high fall at least.

The demon shrunk back away from the noise, their tail curling around them. It was an odd tail for a demon, thicker and it didn't have the usual spike at the end.

A slam sounded through the tiny room, making Echo and the demon jump. Sal had left them alone.

"Okay" thought Echo "now time to..." he turned towards the bars. While the thick bars were spaced far enough that he could have easily walked through them, wooden planks twice his height had been attached to them. "...escape."

This was fine. Totally fine.

There was a shuffling behind Echo.

He turned backs towards the demon.

The demon had uncurled themself slightly. Despite the fact that there was less light now, Echo noticed more... odd things about the demon.

Like that they had scales. Echo was pretty sure that demons didn't have scales. And then he noticed the wings. They were hard to spot in the darkness, but they were there folded tightly against the 'demon's' back. Demons definitely did not have wings.

Echo reflexively stepped back. There was no way. It couldn't be right? Those things live so far away and are imposable to see let alone capture.

The creature leaned forward, an arm outstretching.

"Shit!" Echo turned and slammed his hands on the planks. He poured magic into them, hoping something would grow.

But nothing did. The planks were long dead.

He looked down, he could feel seeds nestled deep under ground. But the cage's floor was metal. There was no way they would be strong enough to pierce it.

He had stood still for too long.

A hand wrapped around his waist.

Echo jolted and tried to struggle. But the thin fingers held him easily, and they raised him up and turned him around to face the creature. The creature's white eyes were focused on the fairy in their grasp. They started opening their mouth. It was wide. Way too wide. And so many teeth lining it.

And it confirmed Echo's fears.

This was a soul-eater. A magic eater. A Drake.

"No no NO NO" Echo kicked his legs around and squirmed. He was going to have the life drained out of him and then chewed up. And his magic wasn't even going to go to the Drake it was going to go to those stupid bastards.

The Drake paused. Their mouth closing slightly.

Echo was still panicking. His mind finally found something other than mindless failing to focus on. Echo bit down on the Drake's finger. His tiny sharp teeth managed to find their way past the scales.

The Drake screeched, and they let go of Echo.

For a few moments Echo felt like he was floating.

And then he hit the ground. 

His back took the brunt of the fall, knocking the wind out of his lungs.

Whenever Echo read about a character losing their breath it was a quick affair. They got hit, they wheezed, and then they were back at it.

That was not what loosing your breath was like.

Echo tried to breath in, but no air filled his lungs. It was like a thick cloth was in front of his mouth blocking all the air. He couldn't move. He couldn't even tell if he really was trying to breath or if he was just laying there. Or even feel how empty his lungs were.

All he could do was stare at the ceiling.

And he couldn't do anything about the hand slowly approaching him again.

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"Please Echo, can't you just ask him?"

The fairy crossed their arms as they looked at the human, Ryan.

Normally the table Echo was standing on would only come up to Ryan's waist. But the knight was on his knees so that his head was level with Echo. It had been comical watching the tall human scrunching himself up in hopes of swaying the tiny being.

It wasn't going well.

"And why can't you?" Echo smirked. "Last time I checked you have less magic than a gnome."

Ryan fidgeted, glancing over Echo towards the door next to the table. "I know that. But well, you know?" he looked at the fairy pleadingly.

"I don't actually." Echo shot it down mercilessly.

"Echo, please! I'm pretty sure he still hates me."

"Oh yeah definitely. He does not like people messing with his books." Echo laughed.

Ryan stood with speed he really shouldn't have covered in armor and threw his arms in the air "Than why are you being like-" he looked at the door again.

Echo causally looked over their shoulder "Hi Whisper."

Without any noise, the door had opened. Now a cloaked creature stood there. Their white eyes were half focused on the human.

Ryan stuttered for a moment before abruptly turning and dashing down the hall.

"He can be quick when he wants to. If only he could talk that way." Echo turned towards the creature "Took you an awful long time to investigate. Loosing your hearing too old man?"

Whisper huffed and put a clawed hand palm up on the table.

"Yeah I don't blame you for not wanting to deal with him." Echo walked over and plopped themself down on Whisper's hand. "It's just going around in circles with that guy."

"Not you?" said Whisper.

"Of course not."

Whisper rolled his eyes as he raised his hand up so that it became level with his shoulder.

"Nope! Higher up." said Echo.

With some more judgmental huffing, Whisper raised his hand up to his head.

"Thank you sir." Echo jumped from the hand to Whisper's head. They leaned back onto one of Whisper's horns and wrapped their arms around it. It was a bit of on awkward position, but it worked.

Whisper, as silent as ever, shuffled back into his tower.

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Echo stared up at the ceiling, bored out of his mind.

He sighed loudly and threw his arm over the side of the shelf. He looked down to see if there was a reaction.

There was none. Whisper hadn't even paused as they stirred the bright purple potion they were brewing.

Sighing dramatically, Echo sat up. "Wwwwhisper."

Whisper again ignored the fairy. Instead they shuffled over to a table laden with bundles of herbs and began shifting through them. They pulled one out.

"That's wolfsbane. The lavender is next to it." said Echo.

Still silent, Whisper put down the wolfsbane and grabbed the correct herb.

"Seriously?"

Whisper's shoulders shook in their laughing manner. They held the bundle of lavender over the cauldron and pulled off the flowers letting them drop in the boiling liquid.

Echo rolled his eyes. With dramatics that were wasted on this audience, Echo grabbed a nearby vine and rolled so that he fell off the shelf and onto the vine. Clinging to the vine, he climbed down to the lowest table part of the cabinet.

The drake wasn't even looking at Echo, they were looked over to the side. Their hand was just above the cage floor, letting the claw tips lightly scrap across.

Echo could do nothing but watch the hand come closer and closer.

Then the tips of the drake's claws finally bumped the fairy's prone form.

And suddenly air filled Echo's lungs.

For a moment Echo was disoriented. Despite the time without air and his rapid beating heart, Echo's lungs were now going about business as usual. The rest of his body had been ready for the sudden flow of air that wasn't actually coming.

But then he saw the giant claws wrapping around his leg.

Echo pushed himself up and scrambled backwards until his back hit a metal bar. He flinched away from it, unsure if it was iron.  He stared up at the drake.

They still did not look at the fairy. For a moment neither of them moved. Then the drake began slowly moving their hand forward again.

"No! Stay back!" yelled Echo as he flailed around trying to move away while also keeping his wing stubs away from the potential iron.

Surprisingly the drake stopped and... moved their hand away.

Echo paused. He hadn't really expected that to actually do anything. Had he bit the drake that hard?

The two sat there unmoving for a few moments. Echo didn't dare look away in case the drake made a move. But the drake just sat there with their hands in their lap, looking off to the side.

Eventually Echo dared to move. He slowly stood up.

The drake's ear twitched but otherwise they didn't move.

"Okay" thought Echo "They're not going to grab me... for now. I need to look around." He turned his head, trying to look around the cage while still keeping the drake in his sights.

Which wasn't too hard given how small the cage was. It was only big enough for the drake to sit in with a small amount of space to shuffle around. All sides were covered with planks expect for the one against the wall. The only way out would be to somehow get over the planks. Which would require Echo to turn his back to the drake.

There was no way around it so Echo turned around. He only turned halfway, that way he could still see the drake while looking at the wood. There might be some spots were the wood was splintered or had cuts. He could use those as footholds to get out.

Echo walked around the edge of the cage, turning and twisting to keep eyes on both his targets. He even walked backwards at one point.

The drake never looked at him. Their head did turn as the fairy moved, but only so that their ear would be facing them.

It was odd but Echo didn't question it. He didn't dare give his mind the slightest opportunity to wander.

Unfortunately, search turned up empty. The wood was surprisingly smooth. Echo half wondered if it was on purpose given his luck so far.

Echo chewed his bottom lip. He could feel the static of panic nibbling at the edges of his mind. While he had known that this would be a stressful day, it was suppose to be simple. Just wait until he was left alone, slip through the bars, and then find a way out to live a life free from... certain people.  

Now he couldn't just slip through the bars. And the consequences for not were now so much imminent.

But there had to be a way out right? All that was stopping him was a wall that wasn't even double his height.  Surely Echo could get himself over it.

The fairy glanced around. Even through there wasn't any grooves perhaps he could use the corners?

Still keeping tabs on the drake, Echo shuffled over to the corner farthest from the giant. He put his back into the corner and put his hands against the planks.

Theoretically, Echo should be able to push against the planks with his hands and feet to climb up. Assuming he had the stamina and strength to do it that is.

Well it was the best option so far. Even if was also the only one.

Echo stiffened his arms and raised his legs so his feet were also planted against the planks. He was now off the ground completely. Now came the hard part.

One at a time, Echo inched up his hands and feet. He was slowly making progress. Maybe even feeling a bit hopeful this would work.

Which of course meant that that was the moment one of his feet slipped. Sending him crashing back to the ground.

Echo hissed as pain flared up in his rear. It had taken the brunt of the fall. But that was lucky, he wouldn't be having to worry about a twisted ankle or worse.

The fairy heaved himself back onto his feet. He waited moment for the pain to dull, and to make sure the drake still wasn't looking, before he made another attempt.

He fell again.

This time his knee hit the ground first. It was definitely going to bruise.

But it wasn't bruised yet, so Echo forced himself back up.

It was the fifth time he fell before he couldn't try again.

Echo pressed his forehead against the grainy wood. He was panting and sweating, this musty room was not a good place for so much physical exertion. His body needed air, water.

"Fuck" He whispered.

Was this really how it was going to end? Being to weak to get himself out of as situation that his own stupidity brought him to? Maybe she had been right...

Echo took a deep breath and tried again. Like hell he was going to die giving credit to her. He'd rather go arrogantly and stubbornly.

For a moment Echo's spite energy was giving him progress.

Then he realized he hadn't been watching the drake.

Just as he remember that, his foot slipped.

And landed on something far too close to be the floor.

The rest of Echo's body soon joined his foot on the drake's hand. The scale covered hand wasn't as hard a landing as the metal floor, so he shouldn't get any bruises from this fall. Not that that would matter if Echo couldn't get out of it.

Echo scrambled to get back up to try and get away before the hand closed.

But it wasn't closing. It was going up.

The moment that it was close enough, Echo jumped off of the drake's hand and onto the top of the plank.

He nearly went flying off of it and down onto the ground below, but he managed to grab one of the bars and slam into it.

Echo looked back expecting to see a hand coming for him. Instead the drake had moved their hand away and was back to sitting in the corner.

"Had... had they meant to do that?" thought Echo. For a moment Echo stared at the giant.

And then he realized that he should be thinking this after he was out of arms reach.

Echo looked down at the floor.

The way down was further than the way up, as the bottom of the cage added some extra height. And since the planks fit almost perfectly in the gap between the bars and the edge of the lip, it was a straight shot down.

Somehow Echo had to get down without breaking a leg.

"It's fine" thought Echo "I just... do this" he knelt down and turned to face the inside of the cage "Then I can just lower myself down. That should put me low enough to not get hurt." He paused for a moment, looking behind him at the floor "At least not enough to break anything."

Carefully Echo laid on his stomach and began lowering himself down. He easily swung the first leg off. But the second was proving to be difficult to convince off the plank. For a few moments he sat awkwardly with one leg dangling off the edge. Then he finally got the second one off.

And imminently regretted it.

The movement of his leg caused the rest of his body to slid off the plank.

Echo managed to catch the edge and he stopped his fall with a painful jerk. But his arms were still weak from the failed climbing.

With not even enough time to blink, Echo's hands slipped and he fell the rest of the way.

He landed with a thud. His left side took most of the hit.

Echo hissed. That had hurt worse then that thorn he stabbed himself with when he was ten.

But unlike that time there wasn't blood. Or a cracking sound. So his bones should be intact.

Though as Echo tried to stand, his body didn't really seem to care. Everything ached and his whole left side felt stiff with the shock of the impact.

Finally he just let himself lay there on the ground. The drake couldn't to him now, so he should be safe to just lay here for a second. Just long enough to take the edge of the pain and exhaustion.

The universe granted him that one moment. And just that one moment.

Soon Echo heard footsteps.

"The humans!" he thought "How did I forget the humans?" Echo forced his body up. He had to hide, but where?

No way he was going near the cage. He couldn't even if he wanted to, it was backed completely against the wall and all the other sides were easily visible in the cramped room. The only option was under the table. Not ideal, but at least the humans would have to be in certain positions to be able to see under.

Far slower than he'd like, Echo limped over to the table.

The footsteps were coming closer. They were heading for this room.

Echo made it under the table but he wasn't done. He had to go all the way to the back to the wall. That way he could only be spotted if the human bent down.

Just as the fairy reached the wall, the door swung open.

Two pairs of thick leather boots stomped into the room.

"Alright, let's see how much magic that fairy had." Boomed one of the humans.

One pair of boots went over to the barrel. The human grabbed it and titled it, seeming to look at some kind of indicator. "It's the same as this morning."

"What?" The other boots stomped over. "How? That thing had to have had something in it."

The two began arguing on how it could be possible.

Reflexively, Echo shuffled away from the loud giants. It would do nothing but he couldn't help it-

He stepped on something. Echo looked down and law a leaf.

It was a little tiny leaf. Probably fell off a bush and got stuck on the human's boots, only dislodging when they came into this room. It was a bit torn up, but other wise still green. Still alive.

Echo snatched it up. He could use his magic on this! While it was too small to really help him escape, it could still be useful.

Keeping his ears listening to the humans, Echo ran his hand along the sides of the leaf. He was careful as he let his magic flow into it. He had already used up some magic trying to make some dead pieces of wood grow, he couldn't afford wasting any more.

But he was still able to make the edges of the leaf nice and sharp. It was almost like a sword now. While it still wouldn't do a lot of damage against the giants, it was better than his teeth.

"I don't know, maybe there's a leak?" One of the humans kneeled down next to the barrel and began inspecting the ground around it. Their eyes wandered around the stone floor looking for wet patches. In the tiniest briefest of moments, their eyes glanced under the table before going back to work. Then the human looked back and stared at the fairy.

For a moment the two just stared at each other as they processed what was happening.

Then the human's face scrunched up "Hey!" their arm shot out, heading straight for the fairy.

Echo's heart seized as the giant hand came rapidly towards him. His mind screamed, and he swung up his new leaf sword.

The sword sliced through the tip of the human's finger. It was deep enough that blood began pooling imminently.

The human yelled and pulled back their hand.

Echo wobbled, but didn't fall. He turned and ran away from the human. That cut wouldn't stop them for long. He ran right out from under the table.

And into the sight of the other human.

They shouted and dove for the fairy.

Once again Echo managed to slice the huge fingers that threated to close around him.

But this time the human didn't retreat their hand and instead tried again.

This time Echo didn't slice, he stabbed. He ended up driving his leaf right under the human's fingernail.

That made the human retreat their hand. And absolutely howl.

Echo booked it. He ran right under the howling human and towards the door.

With every step Echo was sure his legs would fail. He could feel his bruised leg protesting the exertion. Adrenaline was keeping it moving for now, but the bruises were still slowing him down.

Which wasn't good given the first human's hand was reaching for him again.

Then there was a scraping noise.

The souleater had grabbed onto the tubes connecting them to the machine and was pulling them to drag the machine across the table.

"Hey!" shouted the human as the lunged for the machine before it could fall.

Echo redoubled his efforts. He passed through the still open door and into the larger cage room. "There has to be somewhere to hide." he thought. Then he spotted it.

A hole in one of the wooden floorboards. It had once been a knot in a tree, but had since been knocked out.

Echo sprinted for it, and all but slid into it.

There was a small space just big enough for a fairy under the floorboards. It must have been part of some borrowings animals home at one point, but got filled in. There was no sign of the potential animal. Or any tunnels that might connect the hole to the outside.

Panting, Echo slumped down against the dirt walls. It wasn't a way out but it should be good enough shelter for now.

Soon that was put to the test.

The humans came back. They were both swearing up a storm and blaming enough other. One went stomping towards the other door, their heavy boots landing right on the hole.

Echo stifled a gasp as the boot rattled the board, showering him in dirt and dust.

But the human continued on, muttering about a stupid leaf. Leaving the other human to search for the fairy.

The other human walked much more carefully, to the point where Echo couldn't accurately track their movements around the room. It was only when the human passed by or on the board Echo was under that he knew where exactly they were.

After a nerve wracking amount of time, the human finally gave up and stormed out of the room.

Echo let out the air he had been holding. He was safe. For now. He still needed to get out of this building. And then...

Well. He could figure out how he was going to survive outside the colony later. There was no sense in counting your eggs before you had the butterflies. Right now Echo needed to find a way out of here.

Echo's body disagreed with that statement. It needed rest. Which was natural as calling today draining would be an understatement.