The ground moved beneath Mercian. It was so sudden that it jolted him back from the dark abyss. As he regained consciousness he could faintly make out objects going by him. I’m not flying. How is this happening? His head was still reeling. Suddenly he felt a large thud and the movement stopped. As he gained his footing he peered into the darkness once again.
The only source of light he could make out was coming from the fire. I’m in someone’s house. He fluttered his wings and they beat against something. As his eyes continued to adjust he looked toward the fire. He could make out what seemed to be bars. He reached his wing out and felt them. He made a complete circle and felt the cage around him. I’m trapped!
Although the room was too dark to make out much, he could tell the cage was on top of something. He came up with a quick plan. He wasn’t sure it would work, but he had to try something. First he had to make sure there was no one in the room. If anyone suspected him of trying to escape, things could get bad quickly. Since his vision wasn’t an option, he decided to use his hearing.
Mercian heard a clock ticking somewhere in the far corner of the room. He could hear the wind howling outside and thought for a minute. Living in a cage in a nice warm house might not be all that bad. He knew though that if he didn’t find the soul of Barhelow Mooreshire he wouldn’t live long anywhere. He tried to concentrate on the sounds again. It sounded like someone was snoring ever so slightly. The sound was so faint, he couldn’t get a bearing on how close or far away it was.
He decided it didn’t matter. He had to put the plan into action and find that soul. Since the cage wasn’t large enough for him to fly in, he backed his tail up to the back of the cage. With his tail feathers sticking outside, he gathered all of his strength and ran toward the direction of the fire. He slammed into the bars and the caged rocked slightly. He backed up and did it again. It rocked a little more, but he hit his head and stopped. I’m going to have to do this quickly and repeatedly to get this cage to turn over. He wasn’t sure his head could take another blow.
He backed up once more and prepared himself for the knockback. He ran with all of his might and used his wing to smack the side of the cage. It bobbled this time. Quickly he ran back and did the same thing once more. The cage tumbled over onto its side. He stopped to listen. He could still hear the slight snoring. Once Mercian maneuvered the cage into position, he pushed with all of his might. The cage fell from the side of the table and smacked the floor with a loud thump.