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"The Capture" Feather woke up after having dozed a bit in the woods while waiting for the search parties to go away. He cocked his head to one side, listening, but heard nothing out of the ordinary. He thought to himself, "Good! That means I can finally go home now that those annoying humans have gone!" He didn't waste a minute; he fairly exploded out of the forest, getting into the air in record time. He was in such a hurry, he didn't notice that there was a group of men holding something odd, and made entirely of ropes, between them. Feather, not being human and neither having much of any experience with fishing equipment, didn't even notice the large net. Too late, he heard a concerted grunt as the men all threw the thing at him at once. He didn't really understand fishing equipment, but being targeted, now... He tried to dodge, then noticed it wasn't an arrow, or even a boulder that had been thrown. It was a net, spread wide, too wide to avoid. Even now it was spreading out farther, the weights around the edge ensuring that Feather would be completely helpless when it hit him, wrapping him up tight. Now Feather realized what it was. And he guessed why it was being thrown at him. Stupid humans., he thought. Why did they have to pick on him? He curled himself into a ball and dropped, trying to avoid the net anyway. It caught him, just like he figured it would, wrapping all around him. Because he was rolled up when he was caught, he was stuck that way, and was angry with himself for being so stupid. Now Feather realized another problem. He was wrapped up in the net, but he was still in the air. He couldn't fly, but he sure could fall. In fact, that's exactly what was happening. Falling. Fast. Feather eyed the trees as they approached, and hoped this wouldn't kill him. It would be a rather pathetic way to die; a broken back, taken down by a few bits of rope. Feather hit the trees with a shattering crack! as branches and splinters flew everywhere in an explosion of wood fragments. Feather himself got quite a few buried in his own flesh. How odd, he thought. Everything's going in slow motion, and I haven't felt pain from my wounds yet. Then that crystal clear moment of thought broke, right at the same time that his left hind leg did, snapped cleanly in half by it's impact with a thick branch. Feather hit the ground finally, and time resumed it's normal speed. Unfortunately for him, so did the pain. Feather hurt so bad all he could do was screech in searing pain. His vision even blurred from it. He almost didn't notice a human sneering down at him, the same man that he had startled before. "Hurts, doesn't it, monster?" The man smirked. Feather could only screech in reply. The pain made it impossible to move. After what seemed forever, the agony made Feather pass out. Before the darkness swallowed him, however, his last thought was that this human was very nasty. He might have to be killed. Feather woke up at last, for one drowsy moment thinking he was still in the forest - that all those horrible things were just some bad nightmare. His hurting body told him otherwise. He cracked open his eyes, and saw only what he guessed to be a town square. He realized happily that the net was off him. That was good. Then he noticed how his broken leg was tied to a stake in the ground. That was bad. He looked around some more and notice further that the pain was less. Either that or he was getting used to it. There seemed to be a circle of villagers around him, none of them looking happy. Feather made an attempt to perform a proper battle scream, but all that came out was a strangled wheeze. The circle of villagers began to contract, some of the men had a glint in their eye that Feather immediately recognized. It was the glint of predatory instinct. These men were acting like wolves instead of humans. Feather couldn't understand why they would do this. And it looked like he never would. Feather would have cried, if he could.
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