The Gods' Realm

Caisey was sound asleep, arms bent over his head as he slept on his stomach. Until the flesh around his shoulder blades began to itch and burn uncontrollably. Caisey jerked a little in his sleep, twitching his arms and stretching his back in hopes of making the discomfort go away.

But the pain persisted and grew until Caisey's back felt like it was set aflame by an impossible inferno. Caisey snapped his eyes open and cried out in pain. He writhed against the bed sheets, arching his back, kicking his feet, grasping blindly behind him at his burning shoulder blades.

What is happening?!? Caisey cried, tears of pain forming in the corners of his eyes. Then, the sound of flesh tearing and bone breaking filled his ears, the pain so intense, he thought he would pass out.

Caisey was gasping for air, clawing as best he could at his upper back… before he felt it. Something hard protruding from his back, centered between his shoulder blades. His mind was swirling, his eyes going blurry and unsteady as the protrusion grew rapidly beneath his fingers.

“Aaaghh!!” Caisey screamed, the sound coming from deep within his chest. Drool escaped from the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t see anymore, nothing but red. Hot red flashes of pain as the heat in his back grew and grew and grew.

Finally, a burst of motion and energy exploded from his back and Caisey felt instantly relieved, still in pain but no longer in agony. With long, gasping breaths, Caisey laid still to reorient himself. Without hands, he felt his back, felt a movement that shouldn’t have been there. It was as if his back muscles were working on their own, breathing, living.

Beating.

Opening his eyes now, Caisey saw a glistening white feather longer than his face on the pillow next to him. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, nor did he want to make sense of it. Because, no way. Just, no way.

But really, what choice did he have?

Gingerly, as his back was aching beyond reason, Caisey raised himself up out of bed and walked over to his closet door, which had a full-length mirror. Aside from one major change, everything about him was what he'd expected to see as he reviewed his reflection in the mirror: wild brown hair and a sleep-deprived face. However, the one thing out of place was somehow what he’d expected to find there; though it was still so hard to believe. Impossible!

Wings.

As Caisey was shirtless and only in a pair of plaid pajama pants, it was too easy to see. And horrifying. 

Massive white wings protruded from Caisey’s back the way a gnarly broken bone would rip a hole through the skin. Except, his peach-colored skin here was melded together with the whiteness of a joint meant for flying. Pearly white feathers speckled the full area of the wings coming from both his shoulder blades. The wings themselves reached, at peak, a head above his own 5-foot 10-inch figure and fell nearly to his ankles.

Caisey was mesmerized, but not in a good way. He felt confused, worried, and sick to his stomach. “W-What is happening… to me?” He asked no one. He couldn’t remove his eyes from his reflection in the mirror.

To his utter horror, he received an answer from a booming, disembodied voice, “You are Chosen, Caisey Legna.”

Without a moment’s notice, an immensely blinding white beam crashed down from above, illuminating everything in sight. Caisey himself was engulfed in this light and felt tugged toward it like a magnet. “What- Wait! Wait!!” He cried and strained futilely to keep control of himself.

Caisey screamed as he was yanked upward towards his bedroom ceiling and sucked out through to the other side without so much as grazing it. The momentum never ceased and only grew more rapid as Caisey was dragged far above street level.

Fearful, he closed his eyes and the rushing sound of wind in his ears vanished at once. The pull on his body ceased as well, and Caisey felt as though he was floating. Peeking his eyes open, he found that he was in fact floating, but he was entirely unfamiliar with where he was floating.

The sky in which he was suspended was the most magnificent blue he had ever seen in his entire life. Around him on all sides was the clear view of an unobstructed sky with a bustling land below it. Though Caisey was far above the land, he could make out roads of golden stone, colorful palaces of marveling sizes, striking winged individuals traveling on air about the city, and an assortment of other things Caisey could neither see clearly nor make sense of.

“Where am I?” He mumbled, staring wide-eyed down below.

“In the Gods’ Realm.” Said a voice much too close to his right ear.

“Ahh!” Caisey screamed, and flinched so violently to the left that he lost control of his floating body and went spiraling away from the unexpected visitor. He was traveling so fast, spinning and wheeling, that he was unable to see where he was going.

I’m gonna die! Caisey cried internally and tried with all his might to stop himself.

“You have wings!” The voice from before called after him. Caisey had totally forgotten that and wondered for a moment how having wings he didn’t know how to use would save him from certain death when he crashed full body into something on—probably—his left side.

“You have wings.” The owner of the voice said again, and Caisey realized it was this individual that he had crashed into.

It was an old, very old, man, just a little shorter than Caisey, who was looking at him with real judgment in his eyes. The man had shiny, silver-ish hair tied back into a low bun. His pearly white, silver-lined clothing reminded Caisey of the cool martial arts masters he had seen on television as a kid. The man wore it with elegance and great poise.

“Uhm—” Caisey had no idea what to say. This whole situation was astounding.

“Don’t say ‘uhm’ like that, it makes you seem daft.”

“Oh, uhm- I mean, okay… Where did you say I was again?”

“The Gods’ Realm.” The elder answered.

“The Gods’ Realm…” Caisey repeated and felt ready to pass out. This was too much. “Could I ask why I’m in this… Gods’ Realm?”

The elder made a face, muttered, “I wonder the same thing,” and the moment was gone as quickly as it had come. Caisey could have imagined it. Then, “Come with me,” the man ordered and started descending toward the ground before Caisey could so much as blink.

Trying to follow, Caisey flexed his back muscles hard and succeeded in dropping his body like a torpedo towards the land below. “Aaaaaaaarghhhhh!” He screamed, shooting past the old man who cried, “You have WINGS!!” on his way down.

I know that!! Caisey wanted to scream back but focused instead on not dying. Again, he flexed his back muscles while thinking of flying, and the shell-white wings between his shoulder blades burst open and slowed his momentum. Beating his wings like a scared bird lifted Caisey away from the golden ground.

A few seconds later, the old man touched down on the stones below, toes tapping down first like a dance. He folded his hands inside his arm sleeves and waited for Caisey to join him. When he didn’t, the old man looked up at Caisey and said, “Well, come down.”

Caisey was hovering a several feet off the ground, his feet parallel to the man’s head. Closing his eyes, Caisey envisioned himself lowering to the ground and closing up his wings, except that didn’t happen. His wings stopped fluttering right where he was and Caisey plummeted six feet to the ground, landing on his back and tailbone.

“Owww,” he groaned, “I think I broke a wing.”

“Get up,” the old man said, not sparing him a backwards glance. “Lady Terpsichore (terp-si-ker-ee) is waiting.”

“Lady Terpsichore?” Caisey asked as he stood, rubbing his bruised behind with a hand. “Who is that?”

The old man moved ahead at an unreal walking pace without answering Caisey. “Hey! Wait up!” Caisey shouted and jogged ahead to keep up. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out how the man was walking so quickly. He studied his feet and his calm posture: he had never even drawn his hands from within his sleeves, and his feet moved at a totally average walking speed.

“How are you doing that?” Caisey asked. He was starting to become winded from his jogging.

“Doing what?”

“Walking so fast. You’re, like, speeding over the road but you’re really just walking. What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Replied the old man. Caisey made a puzzled face which prompted the man to explain, “I’m just walking. With spirit. Even the most common things can be done marvelously if it is done ‘with spirit.’

“The Gods’ Realm is overflowing with spiritual energy. Not one thing would exist without it and not one thing could be done without it. Spirit is in the air here, just as it is in the stones and walls, the fields and their flowers, the temples and palaces and even the woven cloths used and worn throughout the Realm. I use spirit in the same way that I breathe.”

For a time, Caisey was struck into silence. A breathy, “Wow,” was all he could say, and he tried his best to keep up with the old man for the remainder of their journey—though he had no idea where he was being taken.

Then, “We have arrived,” said the elder once they had reached the base of a shimmering, towering building the color of blue moonstone. At least forty steps led from the stone road to the entrance. Multiple times throughout their trek through this palace, Caisey had to stop his mouth from hanging open at the mere sight of things (the elder said it made him look daft). It was hard for him to imagine that such splendor could exist anywhere in the universe.

Finally, the pair stopped outside a set of double doors seemingly as tall as the palace itself. Caisey had to tilt his head back to see the whole thing.

“Head inside,” the elder said. “This is where I take my leave.”

“Eh?! But I don’t even—”

“Speed it up! You’ve kept Lady Terpsichore waiting long enough,” the old man said, and then he was off down the hallway before Caisey could protest more.

“What in the world, man?” Caisey mumbled, “How did I get myself into this?”

Caisey balled his fingers into fists and clenched them hard several times. He drew in a deep breath and, as he let it out, he pushed the double doors open.

Time to meet this ‘Lady Terpsichore,’ he thought.