Chapter Text
His head throbbed with a pain that was comfortably debilitating. Nevertheless, he pushed himself up with only a groan of complaint. Opening his eyes, he winced at the brightness.
After gathering his bearings he took a breath and examined his surroundings. Emma and Norman, still passed out, although Emma was stirring. A vast expanse of trees all around them.
Suddenly, he realised what had happened. They had been transported to the human realm.
Realising this, he continued to scan his surroundings, looking for his siblings. Perhaps they had simply been transported into a different area?
He braced to stand before taking a breath and manoeuvring himself. A blinding pain hit him. He gasped, toppling over with the grace of a baby deer.
To his right, he heard a familiar voice, “Ray?”
Ray turned sharply, the pain all but forgotten, even as it should have spiked from his movement. He scrambled to get up, grimacing at his janky movements. Nevertheless, he trudged forward. “Emma! Are you okay? You aren’t hurt are you?”
His concern was met with only a laugh and a reassurance, “It’s okay Ray, I’m not hurt at all!”
He sighed, adrenaline leaving him to deflate. He then turned to Norman who was still knocked out in the grass. Crawling over, he beckoned Emma, “Come here, I want to check on Norman.”
Emma wasted no time before shuffling over, concern etched on her face at Norman’s mangled body, “Is he okay?”
Ray’s face was grave as he replied, “I don’t know Emma, it looks like he has a broken bone and some nasty wounds.”
Emma didn’t reply. She simply started tearing at her ragged clothes. 7 long strips of fabric were produced, and each was haphazardly wrapped around an open wound.
The more wounds were revealed in the process of patching Norman the more Ray felt a familiar helpless rage simmer just beneath the surface of his skin.
Just then, Norman awoke, groaning in pain. The sound of him in pain caused that anger to flare and a small, controlled flame was created, setting his hair alight.
Emma turned to stare at him, eyes haunted. It was like a premonition of what could have been.
Ignoring the strangeness of his newfound power he instead turned to Emma, concernedly questioning, “Are you okay?”
“Y-your hair. It’s on fire? Don’t joke like that!” she sounded desperate.
Ray shifted, eyes softening imperceptibly (if you weren’t Emma or Norman), “I’m not going to die Emma, take deep breaths.”
As they both calmed, Ray’s hair returned to normal and Norman spoke for the first time since falling, coherency returning to him, “Emma, Ray…?”
They both whipped their heads round to Norman, the deepest cut having already soaked through the rag. Ray hissed, purple eyes narrowing. Norman’s hair, usually a pristine white was now died a crimson red.
“Emma, Norman, I think we need to seal that cut.” He hesitated before continuing. “Emma, I think I can create that fire again, I just need to redirect it to my finger.”
Her face paled before she spoke, “you want to cauterise the wound?!”
Ray nodded solemnly in affirmation. “Can you help me?”
Despite her grievances, Emma understood the severity of the situation and nodded in fake enthusiasm, “Yeah, we can do this!”
Without a word, Ray moved. Seemingly in sync, Ray and Emma moved, systematically preparing the wound while Norman prepared himself. He’d had a wound cauterised before, they all had. It’d hurt.
After their preparations had finished Ray backed away to attempt the reigniting and redirecting of his self produced fire. He breathed in, in taking as much oxygen as he could. He first felt heat pool in his chest and he slowly ebbed at it, pulling it towards his pointer finger. Suddenly, a huge flame sprouted that he quickly smothered. He tried again, this time making sure to move the heat in smaller, more controlled increments. A small flame, appeared, the size of a penny.
He moved to Norman, continuously sourcing his heat in order to sustain the flame.
He bent down, Emma holding Norman’s leg. “Hey, Norman, I’m going to do it on the count of 3, ‘kay?”
Norman nodded in understanding.
Ray started counting, “1, 2-“ all of a sudden he brought his finger to the wound and the scent of flesh burning filled the air. They all cringed, Ray and Emma at the memory and Norman at the discomfort.
As the wound continued to burn, flesh sealed to flesh grotesquely Norman began to scream. It wasn’t that he was unused to pain. It was simply too much. Finally, the flesh had mended and was no longer spewing blood. Still, a persistent ache remained.
By the end they were all out of breath, the air smelt like sweat, burnt skin and gasoline. Ray and Emma practically collapsed with relief. Still, Emma asked, “Norman are you okay?”
Bleary eyed and tired after the procedure, Norman replied, “‘m okay, thanks Emma.”
All of a sudden, a barrage of crimson feathers fell, sharp as daggers. Thankfully, they seemed to bend away from the three teens.
Following the barrage Ray and Emma stood up on shaky legs, guarding Norman. Emma drew her bow, preparing to shoot whichever intruder had decided to invade their space.
Slowly, a blonde man with large red wings glided down. Seeing the teens cautious demeanour he raised his hands in surrender before introducing himself as ‘Hawks’.
The teens whispered amongst themselves, Emma piping up, “I think we can trust him!”
Ray replied, hissing, “Emma, he could be dangerous..”
‘Hawks’ glanced down at the teens, only offering an easy going smirk.
“He can’t hurt us Ray! He hasn’t got a weapon.”
“Emma. Maybe so but his wings match the feathers that were fired at us, who’s to say he can’t attack us again?”
Emma grinned, trustworthy and placating, “Don’t you think if he wanted to hurt us he already would have?”
Throughout this exchange Norman just smiled, happy to take the backseat for once in his turbulent life, he trusted whatever decision Emma and Ray came to would be a good one.
Ray sighed heavily, “Just look at his appearance, how does he have wings? It’s clearly a demon that has consumed a lot of humans to maintain such a sophisticated human form. Don’t you agree Norman?!”
Norman only hummed a noncommittal noise in reply, “I think we should trust him, after all, demons only are humans to not devolve and he might not even be a demon, you used fire right? It might not be that strange.”
Ray produced a strangled noise before shrieking, “You’re both insane!” However, he still ended up conceding, just as he always did.
Emma spoke up, “So, Hawks, what did you want from us?”