Of course. This dark little room must feel horrible to someone who was used to being outside, in a forest, having open air and sunlight around them all the time.
Amaryllis nodded and walked over to the window, drawing back the curtains to let in as much sun as she could. The bright spot on the floor reached the cage now, if only barely, but it was something.
"A bit of air probably would be good, too, right?" The room felt a little dusty and not very fresh, even to her who was used to being inside. Most likely nobody had thought to air it regularly while it was not occupied. She opened the window wide, breathing in the pleasantly warm and soft breeze.
Then she returned to face Nox again, crouching as before to look him in the eyes. "Goodbye Nox. I'll come back as soon as I dare."

And with that she left the room, carefully peeking out the door to see if someone was on the corridor. But it was all empty and silent. She slipped out and closed the door carefully, so as not to make any noise. Then she hurried downstairs and out into the garden, heading straight for the sundial on the lower terrace. It was almost noon, but she was not too late yet. She let out a sigh of relief.

During her needlework lesson, she might have been a bit quieter than usual, but she hoped her teacher thought nothing of it. Nox' words were echoing in her head. She thought of Yggdra, trying to imagine what it might be. She thought of what he had said about her. Was she truly caged in her own nest? And she also thought of Nox himself, seeing the picture of him in his cage in her mind as clearly as if she was still standing in front of it. Sometimes her mouth would set in a hard line when she thought of the wrongness of this picture.

(( I can't help but smile every time I read your parts, hahaha~ ))

Nox watched Amaris as she drew back the cloth that hid the light and breathed in as he left a breeze enter the room. He watched her as she said her goodbyes and continued to watch her as she left the room. And only then did he move. He crawled towards the sliver of light that touched the cage and held a hand to it. He extended his arm until the light reached his upper arm and closed his eyes.

He could feel the warmth of the sun and the breeze of the wind. It was enough. He brought his arm back into the cage and pressed himself on the bars as he looked to the outside. A horned bluebird landed on the window sill, flapping it's wings. It stared at Nox and he stared back, both tilting their head at the same time and continued to stare until the loud clanging of a bell startled it away, flying back into the forest.

He smiled sadly, watching it fly away, and wondered what Amaris was doing right now.


The day turned into night. The sun only moved further away from the cage, bringing the warmth with it. Darkness enveloped the room and the cold night wind entered the room, filling it with the chilling breeze. Nox felt cold and he shivered, but is face stayed serene as he slept, his head laying between two golden bars. The soft moon light reflected on his pale features, accentuating the black markings over his body.

A raven landed on the window sill, watching the boy.

((Hehe, that's good :)))

The rest of the day passed by without Amaryllis taking much note of it. After the needlework she had a singing lesson, but her heart was not in it today. The teacher complained that she lacked the expression he was used to from her and she excused herself saying she was feeling a little unwell.

Her parents were busy, so she had her dinner served in her own room with Mia keeping her company. She of course noticed that something was off, having known Ama for years. She tried to ask her what it was, but Ama dared not to let her friend in on the secret. While she knew that Mia considered her a friend and not just the lord's daughter as well, she was still employed by her father. Ama did not want to force her to pick her loyalty and she was also not entirely sure what the outcome would be if she did.

The next day she was very busy, her mother having loads of little tasks for her. She tried stealing off to Nox' room in the afternoon, but a stablehand was in the lower floor of the eastwing, cleaning out some cages. She had no way to get upstairs unseen, so she had to resign herself to play with the swankittens for a bit to explain her presence. Usually that brought her joy, but today it only brought questions. Were these little creatures just as unhappy here as Nox? They didn't seem unhappy, but what did she know... But since they had been bred in captivity, they probably really weren't, since they didn't know any other life. That thought brought back the memory of something Nox had said the day before: "Your wings have been clipped before you were given a chance to fly."
Was that what he had meant? That she just didn't know any other life? It was true, sure enough. But she couldn't imagine what a different life would be like.

The day after, she had more free time, but again the east wing was not empty. She was starting to worry that someone had caught onto her. Had her behaviour been too unusual? But she had done her best not to let any of her thoughts show on her face!
Desperate to look after Nox again, she resolved to sneak out of her room and into the menagerie during the night. Surely, even if they were onto her, they would never expect this from her, so she doubted that the eastwing would be watched at night.

Nox had woken up the next morning to the sound of the door opening. His heart leaped as he stared at the door but felt a sense of loss wash over him when he saw a man enter with some bread and a wooden cup of water. "Here you go." the man said, coldly, as he pushed the food into the cage and quickly left, closing the door behind him.

Nox looked at the bread the man gave then looked to the window. The curtains had been drawn and the window shut tightly. The room was dark except for the little sliver of light that shone between the two curtains.

Midday had come and there was no sign of anyone nearing the room he was held in. Nox's mind had wandered of yet again to Amaris and what she could be doing right now. Were they keeping her away? Did the other humans find out that she had come to see him? His heart was troubled as he fiddled with the wooden cup.

Night fell and morning came. His only visitor was the man who brought him food the night before and now at morning, taking back uneaten bread every time. He was tempted to ask the man where Amaris was, but he knew better. Midday came again and soon enough, it was night time. The curtains had finally been pushed open and the window left slightly ajar to get rid of the stagnant air in the room and the man had once again left with an uneaten loaf.

The cup was pushed to the side, its contents spilling over the wooden floor. Nox faced the moonlight as he lay in his cage pulling his knees to his chest and closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the wind passing through branches. And soon enough, he had fallen asleep.

After going to bed in the evening, Amaryllis waited. She wanted to stand up again and go see Nox right away, but she knew it was not late enough, the servants would still be out and about, cleaning up after the day and preparing things for tomorrow.
The minutes ticking by felt endless. She pinched her arm from time to time to make sure she would not fall asleep.
Finally, when she heard a far away bell ring midnight, she got up. She did not bother to change from her nightgown into a proper dress. It would only waste time and hopefully Nox would not care and think less of her for it. She couldn't imagine that he would. What she could very well imagine was the horrified expression on her mother's face if she knew that her daughter was sneaking around in her nightgown to see a boy. The thought made her giggle despite herself.
Her heart was beating hard and fast while she carefully made her way through the dark manor, finally reaching the upper east wing and Nox' door. She slipped in quietly, closing the door behind her.
The picture before her was of an alien beauty. The bruised raven boy lying asleep in his golden cage, moonlight washing over him. His dark markings were highlighted by the whiteness of his skin in the moonlight. His feathers were shining as if a thin sheet of silver was covering them.
For a few moments, she just looked at him in fascination. She wondered for a bit if she should let him sleep, he probably needed it badly to keep up his strength in this horrible situation. But she had no idea when she would be able to return and the thought of leaving again without hearing his voice filled her with an intense sadness.
So she softly called out to him: "Nox! It is me, Amaris!"
It was the first time she was pronouncing the name he had given to her herself. It was a strange feeling, but she liked it. It made her feel all warm inside.
She tried to reach out to him through the cage, wanting to touch him, but stopped short, afraid that she would startle him, afraid that he would not welcome it and draw back from her.

He was dreaming. His brothers were playing along the branches of Ygddra, children's laughter filled the air. They were jumping into the crystal clear waters below, calling for him to join them. Nox smiled as he sat on one of the branches, feeling the cool breeze blow through his hair and laughed as a brother summersaulted into the waters, drenching those that just got out. He looked beside him to see his sun smiling at the boys below, laughing at their antics. She looked at him with a grin.

"Nox! It is me, Amaris!"

Nox's eyes opened wide and immediately turned to face the girl. A smile grew on his face as he looked at her. He hoisted his upper body with his arms then crawled slowly towards her. He grasped the bars separating them and took the image of her in. The moonlight made her hair look even softer and her eyelashes created a shadow on her bright eyes.

"Amaris." He spoke softly then breathed a sigh of relief. "You are safe. They have not locked you away. I am glad."

Nox' eyes shone brightly in the darkness when he turned to look at her. Seeing him smile made her heart jump a little in her chest. She had been afraid that in the moment of waking up he would not recognize her, only seeing a human, a threat, and being scared.
But no, he gave her the sweetest smile she had ever seen and came closer.

His relief to see her again was written clearly on his face, and it made her smile as well.
"No, they didn't lock me away. I would have come sooner, but there were always other humans close by."
The thought of how long he had been sitting in this cage all alone made her sad. She at least had had tasks to occupy herself with, but he must have been bored and lonely.

She hesitated, but decided to be open with Nox. "I'm worried they might have noticed me behaving strangely and suspect something. But I hope the others were there just by chance and not to keep me away."
She grinned a little. "But just in case I decided my best chance would be to sneak to you in the night. Nobody would expect that of me!"
She thought again of her mother and couldn't suppress a laugh.
"But how have you been while I was gone?"

Nox wanted her to stay away, to keep safe from prying eyes, but he also wanted to see her everyday. Nox, simply, didn't know what to do. He watched her face turn sad and head the hesitation in her voice and smiled at how she turned to smile, telling him of her decision to sneak at night.

She is growing wings.

He ignored her question, asking how he has been while she was gone. He knew she would disapprove if he were to tell her that he hasn't eaten since the night he was caught and that she might do something reckless if she found out he had been living two full days of darkness in his room.

He chuckled as he shook his head then leaned closer and poked the area between her eyebrows. "What if they caught you?" he scolded, "How much farther would you be from me then?"

"But you are here now. There is no need to worry with the past." He sat back down at looked at her expectantly. "Tell me about you." he said, "Why are you so different from the other humans?"

She noticed how cold his hand was when he touched her face. Why had nobody bothered to give him some warmer clothes and a blanket?
His tone was a little reproachful, but his chuckle took the bite out of it.
She smiled a little. "What's the difference if I am close but too afraid to visit or far away?"
His next question had her think a bit more. Was she so different? Maybe it was just that he had only met the worst humankind had to offer so far.
She sat down in front of the cage, hugging her knees and trying to be comfortable on the cold, hard floor with just the thin fabric of her summer nightgown protecting her from it.
"I don't know if I am so different, Nox. I think most humans are not like the ones you have met so far. This hunter man? Most people I know would be appalled by his behaviour."
Not her father, though, apparently. She would not have expected that. She entertained a little hope that the hunter was just a very good actor and showed her father a much more pleasant side of himself, but deep inside she knew it was untrue. Her father was responsible for the way Nox was held in this cage, without a proper bed, cold and alone. It made her sad to think that the man she had always respected, even if they were not very close, had this ugly side to him that she had never seen. It also made her angry.
"I have a hard time understanding how my father would deal with such a man. Why he would treat you like this... I always thought better of him."
She wondered for a moment if her mother had seen Nox and what she thought of the situation.
"Has anyone else come to visit you while I was away? How have they treated you?"

"If they caught you, then we would never meet again." He answered with eyes clouded over. He watched her sit down in front of him and noticed her discomfort. He wanted to shield her from the cold, but his captivity prevented it. The most he could to was lean closer, hoping that he could share even a bit of warmth like how he and his brothers did during the winter.

And he listened to her speak. She spoke of the other humans and how they are not like the Hunter. She spoke of this 'father' who she thought better of. And finally, she asked if anyone has come to visit him.

He breathed in at that last question, a little scared to answer. "But don't all humans like to keep forest creatures in cages? Isn't that why the Hunter is always trying to catch everything?"

He fiddled with his fingers as he looked down at them, his bangs covering his eyes. "There is a man. He would come every morning and every night and he would leave right after. He opened the window." He looked past her and to the door. "But sometimes, the door would open just a crack. I could feel something staring, as if it wanted to eat me alive. It would continue to stare even if I looked at it hiding in the shadows, like it took enjoyment in seeing me in here. I ... I do not like that feeling." he shivered as he remembered it.