A Taste Of Freedom (2)

The courage welled inside of me to callout to him.

His momentum upwards was stopped completely. 

My hands were trembling, desperately gripping onto the feather.

A burst of wind radiated around him and my fabric blew off for good.

“I- tho- those wings!”

He stood up slowly from his crouched position.

“Can I… have your wings?”

His ears perked at the request.

A voice the flowed soft like rushing water echoed across the shadows

“Why do you yearn for them?”

My heart thumped harder than it ever had

“I- I want to fly! I want your wings so I can fly!”

A small chuckle escaped from his breath. Perhaps at the innocence of that young girl’s request.

“…I want to know what freedom means!”

Just as he was about to leave, those words pried his eyes wide open, as they dazzled like diamonds. Those eyes don’t belong here.

The corners of his mouth raised ever so slightly as his words flowed,

“Then you shouldn’t be in a place like this. If you stay on the ground, they will break you.”

The folded wings spread out 4 meters in length so fast that it practically teleported.

The kinetic energy from the movement created a sonic boom that was amplified by the cramped walls on either side.

One could see blades of circular wind emanating from his body like an aura.

As the surroundings were crushed against the brick walls—including the three boys—I sat there, unharmed by the wind as the faint colour of moonlight traced the silhouette of my body.

My eyes began to glow the same colour as his, the hairs on my now naked body reacted with the same luminescent glow, a tingle was felt all throughout, as my breathing was exponentially deepened.

It was as if my lungs were being inflated by the minute—I kept on inhaling with one continuous breath.

I shot my eyes up, and the dark night sky was illuminated as bright as daytime. The silhouette of the man was painted in navy blues and pastel whites, it traced his wings swinging down upon the ground.

Before I could even process what had happened, before I could even ask for his name, he shot up into the sky, leaving behind only the gentle swaying of wind in the now bright, unveiled night sky.

I closed my eyes.

I couldn’t feel the wind on my skin, but I felt every other part of it.

It’s direction, the speed, the currents, it was all intuitive.

A spot on my upper back began to grow hot, the muscles around the area began to tighten so much it looked as if a black hole was sucking in my whole body from the back.

“Auraaaahhh…..”

A moan escaped from my mouth, my thighs were pressed together and every muscle in my body jerked like getting pulled by puppet strings.

The pain started to subside throughout my upper back, and my consciousness began to fade.

That’s precisely when my vision barely caught the edges of a feather falling from the sky.

It landed exactly on the spot where the skin glowed on my upper back and burned itself into my skin.

In moments notice, the light was sucked into the imprint, and a burn mark was left in the spot.

Like a tattoo, an intricate feather pattern was traced onto my skin, and my sense came back to normal.

*pant* *pant*

My breathing was abnormally hard transitioning to a normal sized lung.

I was on my knees, hands on the floor with my hair sprawled over my head blocking my exasperated face.

My body was trembling, but my eyes sparkled like diamonds—just like his.

“OMG”

The muffled voice of my mother barely reached my ears just before my consciousness slipped.