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atinydragon · 2 years

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Echoing Whispers Part 1

Oooooooh boy here this is. Hope you enjoy! Summary: A fairy hive desperate for money, agrees to to ‘sell’ one of it’s members who will be able to escape. Unbeknownst to them, he never intends to return after escaping. Unknown to any of them, his escape won’t be as easy as they thought.

Edit: old version

part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/atinydragon/696559479630741504/echoing-whispers-part-2?source=share Word count: 2k

Content Warnings: selling people, treating people as objects, implied animal abuse and death, mouth horror, grabbing, man-handling (kinda), and cages.

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.

——————————————————————————- taglist that I hopefully did right

@gtinthepot

#g/t #g/t writing #oc #g/t ocs #fairy #my writing #fearplay #angst #g/t fearplay #g/t angst #does this count as those?#I’ll add more to the next part if not #actually the next part should be more intense regardless lol #echoing whispers #writing #also let me know how good the content warnings are #im not used to sharing my work lol

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