Winged 2

Chapter Twenty: The Hawk and the Falcon

Arthur saw the signs of Leo's presence long before he actually saw him. Trees around him had been slashed by what seemed like an enormous tiger. He found broken branches and fallen leaves where he had made his forced landing. Finally, he heard grunts, roars and gasps for air.

Leo was truly a pathetic image. He was dropped to his knees, holding his head as if it threatened to explode. Leo didn't see or hear Arthur arrive, at first, so he just leaned against a tree to enjoy the spectacle. He saw Leo get up, shout, then attack a rowan with violence such that it seemed the tree was guilty of all of Leo's misfortunes.

Tired of watching, Arthur cleared his throat. Leo turned around and, as soon as he saw him, charged towards him, his talons aimed directly at his throat. Arthur might not have escaped unscathed if not for Hama, who used her magic to conjure up a rope which tied itself around Leo's neck and the trunk of the unfortunate rowan.

Restrained like a dog on a leash, Leo fought against the cord. He pulled the lasso around his neck, clawed at its length to tear it, but the enchanted rope did not give in. Once he realized his attempts were futile, his arms dropped and hung limp from his body. His breaths became less frequent and intense, and when Leo looked up at Arthur, there was little of the animalistic fury from before, though his body still shook from the subdued rage.

"You," Leo growled. "What did you to me?"

"What do you mean?" Arthur smiled. "Is there something wrong with you?"

"You know damn well there is! I hurt Lucy. I attacked a guy. I know you have something to do with it. You brainwashed me, admit it!"

Arthur chuckled, amused at how almost correct, yet completely wrong, Leo was. He sat on his ankles, so he could be face to face with him.

"Do you know what a warbug is, Leo?"

"Never heard of it!"

"It's this amazing little creature. It latches onto your mind, not your brain, your mind, and it feeds off your rage. I don't know if it's a magic thing, or if it literally feeds off the chemicals your brain gives off when you're angry. And because it feeds on the stuff, it can also stimulate you to make more, become even more enraged. So the angrier you get, the stronger the bug becomes, and the stronger it becomes, the angrier you get."

"So I was right, you did brainwash me! You put that thing in my head!"

"No, no, Leo. You're using the wrong term, once again. I'm not controlling you, I didn't make you do anything. Everything you did, is because you wanted to do it."

"Liar! I would never hurt Lucy!"

"But it's true," Arthur stood back up, to look at Leo from above. "We've all been in a situation like this. Imagine you're at the theatre, seeing an incredible movie. Then, right at the best part, a baby starts crying its lungs out. Then you get pissed. You think 'God, I could just kill this baby'. You don't, of course, because you're not a maniac, and that murderous instant gets drowned out by the filter of your conscience. But what if you didn't have that filter? Better yet, what if you were paused right at that baby killing instant, and left with it? This is what the bug does, it takes your angriest moment and just holds you in it, drowning out other things, like sense. It's still not control, though. I'm less of a puppeteer and more of a record producer. I take a song, and I remix it. I raise the volume on some elements, muffle some others, distort another one. In the end, it's still the same song, it's just my version of it."

"I'm guessing I'm not the only one you did this with," Leo said, between gasps. "The queen of Anwun, she's been acting pretty impulsively, hasn't she?"