Zosk POV

One thing they never tell you or warn you about when you run away, or fly away like I did, is how much time you lose track of. I pretty well much lost track of time very quick in my flight.

Just spent most of the time since I first fled learning how to just take care of myself while still on the run. I had to learn what I could and could not eat and where I could get the best water from. I pretty well much couldn’t keep to a normal diet anymore.

I ate what I could pick from trees or the ground. Mostly fruits and some veggies I could eat raw.

I also tried a few mushrooms. I was lucky that I didn’t get too sick off anything though one mushroom did leave me loopy for the rest of the day. Causing me to just rest in a forest till the effect wore off. When that happened a second time a bit later, I decided I had to learn to taste test something first before eating it fully. Less I want to make myself super sick or worse. It took me some time before I knew what to do on how to taste test something. Once I knew something was okay, I would just eat if fully right away. But if I felt a little funny after the taste test, I pretty well much threw the rest of whatever it was away.

I learned also what helped me with the most energy for myself. Ripe fruits and some raw veggies were the best. The tarter it it was, the less effective it was.

I also occasionally snuck into towns and villages on my flights to see if I could find some left over scraps. Beggars can't be choosers after all. It was the only way I could get anything cooked or meat wise. As I couldn’t cook at all. I didn’t ever learn how to cook yet. Nor could I really make too much of a fire if I needed to anyway. But I still survived without such.

I also picked up some clothing this way, usually things thrown away that others can’t use anymore. Mostly pants, shorts or undershorts. Shirts were useless to me by now. Even something ripped was enough for me.

The one thing I didn’t like doing when I went into these towns or villages is the amount of stealing I would do. Even if it’s just one time that I’m doing so in that area.

Usually I would sneak in at night, if I was up anyway. Gather what I could from some place. Then get away as quickly as I could before I could be spotted. I’m pretty sure I was spotted from time to time. But I had to get some things somehow.

I would never stay in one area for too long, maybe at most a few days before flying off once more.

I started to fly further and further every day too. Some days not so much if the winds were kind of bad. I watched birds and hawks in their flights to learn from them on how best to fly. I also used what I learned before I fled so that helped some too.

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Another thing they should warn you about, if you tell them you plan to run away, is that once alone like I am, if something should happen to you, you’re kind of out of luck for help.

Had a bad landing which caused me to break one of my wings. It hurt like hell. And I didn’t know too much about first aid. I also couldn’t fly for a while. Somehow, I learned how to set the bone right so it wouldn’t hurt so much. But I was grounded for at least a good week. Least I crashed in an area where I could gather supplies pretty easy for myself.

What I found odd was how fast the wing healed. It was pretty well much like new after that week. I know with one of my friends, who broke an arm, had to have it in a cast for quite a while. Another friend broke a leg in a sporting game a year prior to that and he too had to have a cast for quite a while. I just shrugged it off.

I also got quite a number of cuts and scrapes from things that I’ve lost count. I’ve had other bad landings before, mis judging something or other… and not coming up with anything worse than a scraped hand.

Any cuts I got, I would wash off in streams as best I could. Least none ever got too deep, otherwise I’d have to seek out a healer. Had a few that did leave scars but I put up with them. Started to think that they gave me character. Each one would have a story to tell…. If I had someone to tell a story too anyway.

I had no one I could talk to other than animals. While it’s sad for sure, I kept it this way for fear of being discovered. I didn’t want to know what could happen to me if others found out I had wings.

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One thing I had to learn, that I don’t think anyone could really help me with, was how to take care of my wings. I did happen to have another molt take place not too long after I fled. Left me without any feathers for a while. They did regrow but it took a while, about a week or so. I also had to learn what I could eat to help the condition. I also did rest a lot during that time cause much of the energy I had went to regrowing feathers.

I left the feathers where they lay. Doubting anyone would really notice or if they did, just likely think it was a really large bird who left them.

I also learned how to preen my wings using my hands. This was difficult as I couldn’t reach part of the wing closest to my back. For those of you who don’t know, preening is just another word for cleaning and taking general care of. For me and the wings, it was just me removing broken feathers from them as well as trying to clean off as much dirt or dust as I could from my wings. Getting the bugs out of the wings as well.

I did take advantage of deep ponds that I found in my travels to bathe in. While I didn’t have any soap, I just did what I could to rub my body and wings down in the water to clean myself up. I felt pretty refreshed afterwards. I would also sometimes clean my clothes this way as well. I would leave them to dry on a branch or something while my body dried off.

Didn’t really care any if I was nude. No one was around to see me anyway. But I decided that I wouldn’t stay that way for too long. Was a bit itchy to not wear any clothing. I wanted some dignity at least.

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While for the most part, the weather held pretty good. Though it was pretty unpredictable for sure. Winds were the worst…

I was being careless one day when the winds got very gusty while I was in the air. It took pretty much everything I had to keep going. I was buffeted and thrust about pretty much every which way possible. Landing in such times was tricky at best but somehow I managed.

A lot of birds didn’t fly much during such bad wind storms. I did see some that would take off now and then only to get tossed backwards quickly. Poor things.

Rainstorms weren’t too bad. Least light showers weren’t. The heavier they were, the more waterlogged I became. They were also colder the heavier they were. If I was flying before such a storm and I entered one, I was pretty much forced to land and take shelter. Often I was shivering the whole while.

If I was lucky enough, I found a cave or abandoned building I could shelter in while the storm passed. If I wasn’t, I just did what I could to make due under a tree.

One thing I did my best to stay clear of or never fly into was a thunderstorm. I could tell when one was brewing just by the shape of the clouds. Sometimes I could even see the flashes of it in the clouds. I would always keep my head on a swivel while flying so nothing could really sneak up behind me. I would do my best to keep my eyes ahead if I was too close to the ground or trees. Didn’t want to crash into a tree high up… though have had a few close calls.

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Sleeping was one of the hardest things to do at first. That old barn I slept in the first night I ran away had hay piles I was able to sleep on. Not the most comfortable thing for sure but better than the hard ground.

The times I would shelter in a cave, all I had was the hard ground. Not much other than rock or dirt.

If I was out in the open when I slept, if I slept, I sometimes could use the moss on the ground or something else to lay on. Which wasn’t any better than the ground itself really.

If I was able to break into a cabin, barn or other building to sleep in, sometimes I could use something inside as a bed. Often though, they weren’t more than a roof over my head while I slept.

I did learn on my own how to take fallen twigs and fallen branches, to pile them up in such a way to make a bed of sorts, that I could lay on that and it was a little better then the ground.

I didn’t have access to leaves as I flew south in the fall. If it was too hot for me somewhere, I would fly to a cooler area. Kind of like most birds would do. The leaves, if there was any on the ground by the time I got to the northern areas again, were not much more than compost for other things.

Living shrubs or anything else wasn’t all that comfortable to sleep on.

I often slept on my back when I was on the ground. I couldn’t turn over that way and the wings did add a little comfort. But it caused them to ache a lot for a few hours after waking. So I would do my best to make sure I didn’t have to sleep on the ground that often.

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Speaking of flying and flying south. I learned how best to give myself the most flying distance I could in a day. While I had no way of really measuring that distance, I could tell mostly just by how far I flew. Some days were better than others but sometimes I wasn’t focused on going very far. Just flying around in the air was all I wanted to do.

If I flapped my wings, I don’t think I flew as fast as I could if I was just simply riding air currents. The winds up in the sky can whip around faster than on the ground. But are more predictable but like I said before, not always.

I’m not even sure how I was able to be high up in the air, like most birds, and not be cold. Maybe it was just from the exertion of energy that I was using in the flight to keep me warm. The cooler air would also help to keep me from being too hot so there was that. Breathing wasn’t too difficult either, even if I dived at a high speed.

If I had to guess, the highest I could get off the ground, depending on where I was at the time, was maybe 5000 feet up. Pretty high but than even birds can fly pretty high up too. Higher locations, such as mountain areas or the high plains, I couldn’t fly as high there as I could in a lower location. Mostly because at that elevation, the air was already pretty thin.

As for distance, I could cover many miles in a day in flight. If I flew non stop, if I even had the energy for that, in a straight line, I could likely fly for around 300 to 350 miles in a day. Maybe further. I’m not sure cause again, I didn’t have any real way to measure the distance. I also didn’t fly in a straight line. I flew much like any hawk or eagle would. Circling around to find the best currents to ride on or finding the best winds from behind to push me forward.

I traveled the most in the shift of seasons. Traveling to warmer/cooler locations as need be. Plus I didn’t want to stay in any one place, unless I had to, for more than a few days unless it was a big forest. There, I often would stay longer than if I was out in the open. Didn’t want to be discovered after all.