Chapter Text
Jewel sighed, looking wistfully at her reflection.
The urge to flutter her wings was strong, but without any wings to flutter what could you do?
She shifted around, staring at her scarred back with something akin to grief in her heart. It hurt, knowing that she would never fly again. But—
A crash, a bit of thumping, and a loud bang announced a certain mobian’s imminent arrival, and Jewel made sure to grab her shirt before taking a seat on the edge of her bed.
The door slammed open, and a smile lit up her face as it revealed none other than her best friend, Tangle, basically vibrating in place as she quickly scanned the room. The moment their eyes locked, she bound over, practically tackling Jewel in a hug.
“Jewel! Ohmygosh, you’re never gonna believe what I found while I was out—”
As the lemur rambled on about a new mineral she came across on her trek, Jewel’s eyes drifted downwards, landing on her friend’s tail.
Or, at the very least, what was left of it.
She could still remember it all so clearly; the way the blade felt against her back, the pure fiery agony that coursed through her, the smell of burning wood, the sound of yelling and a sudden, ear-piercing snap .
Everything had gone by so fast, from the moment she had stepped foot into that tower to the moment she was being carried out of it by a frantic and panicking lemur.
Ever since that day, she had been plagued with the same thoughts over and over again. What if Tangle had never found out about a lost treasure, what if she had decided to mind her own business like her parents had told her to, what if she had simply gone about her life as she naturally did, what if she had never found Jewel before—
A hand rapidly waving in front of her face startled her out of her thoughts, and she jolted back before realizing who it was.
“O-oh! Tangle, m-my deepest apologies, I must’ve, ah, go-gotten lost in thought! Ah, what was it you were saying, again?”
Tangle’s face was a mix of unimpressed and sad, and Jewel knew instantly that she knew what she had been thinking about. She felt a pang in her heart and did her best to ignore the feeling.
“Jewel,” Tangle grabbed her hands, holding them to her chest, “ Please listen to me. It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known what Clutch—”
She flinched, shuddering at the mere mention of his name. She could almost feel the exact spot on her back where he had used the knife.
Tangle looked apologetic, guilt written on her face, and she quietly corrected herself.
“You couldn’t have known that… he …would do any of that. Neither of us could have.”
She could feel the tears burning in her eyes, her throat constricting and her chest tightening as she stared at their intertwined hands.
“You’re my best friend, Jewel. I may have lost my tail,” Tangle’s hand reached out and caressed her face, tilting it upwards so that they were looking at each other, “And you may have lost your wings…”
Jewel could clearly see the tears falling down her face as she smiled, “But I think we both gained something better, right?”
As Tangle said that, it felt like the dam inside of her broke. A sob tore itself from her throat as she threw herself into her best friend’s arms, and they held onto each other like it would be their last.
She had spent so much of her life locked away in a tower—so much of her life where the pinnacle of her entire being was her wings. What gave so many mobians freedom was the reason she was locked away.
“Nobody would want you for anything but your wings, my dear. It’s the reason I keep you up here, safe and sound where nobody could think to hurt you.”
“The people out there would lay their eyes on your wings and want for nothing but to harm you to get to them. You must stay here, where it is safe. Where I can keep you safe, my pet.”
“You are to never leave this tower, Jewel. Do you understand? The people out there want to hurt you. They want to rip your wings from your body, to mutilate you for your treasure. The only thing keeping you safe from them is me , and this tower. Never forget that.”
She had listened to Clutch for so long, believed every lie he told her, let herself be afraid of what the world would do to her— of what the world would do to her wings .
She used to think they were the only part of her that truly mattered.
It hurt, knowing that she would never fly again, but…
As she let herself be held, the weight on her back long gone, crying with the first person to love her without condition—to love her without her wings …
She supposed she
had
gained something better, hadn’t she?