Exhilaration swept through her core as the blanket of dark clouds blurred, becoming nothing more than a streak of gray. Everything around her was dismal, yet none of it could quench her excitement. At the speed she was going it was hard to make out anything clearly, but it didn’t matter to her. All that mattered was the wind through her hair and the powerful rhythm her wings beat out against the darkening sky. She was finally free.
A blaze of lightning crackled through the air close by and she could feel air tighten with tension. A deafening roar ripped through the silence to accompany the lightning, one always trying to outdo the other.
The wind grew stronger and caught beneath her wings, carrying her higher. She looked down to observe the scene below her, but she was too high now to see anything but clouds. The rest of the world couldn’t touch her.
She zipped forward with amazing speed, preparing to make a dive when a sudden jolt of pain ripped through her shoulders, spreading through her wings and rendering them useless. It felt like her wings were being torn from her back. She cried out and thrashed about, attempting to stay airborne, but it was no use; she was falling.
Drops of blood floated upward, and at last she saw her wings as they were tossed upward in the wind. Pure black feathers coated the limp appendages that grew from her shoulders. She could feel wet sticky blood coming from their base as it made its way along her wings, soaking them in crimson. Turning her gaze back to the sky she extended a hand, grasping for what she knew she could no longer have. A tear escaped from her closed eyes, sliding off her cheek into the air, and finally joining with the blood stained sky.
It would all be over soon.
She plummeted through the forest of trees and hit the ground with a sickening thud. Another tear slid down her cheek as she gazed at the sky, a world away, one she would never grasp again. The ground was her prison. She could never return. She was Fallen.
A pool of blood seeped from beneath her, growing larger until it enveloped her tattered broken frame. Her blood stained wings lay useless beside her, a reminder of what she once had been. Still gazing at the sky, she let her eyes slowly slide shut, accepting her fate. A feeling of apprehension swept over her, overwhelming her senses. Something was coming.
Senn bolted upright, panting heavily and drenched with sweat. Her sheets were twisted around her thin frame and her pillows were gone. From what she could make out in the dark room they were strewn across the floor. She’d had another dream. Just like all the others. She’d been having dreams like that for almost three months now, always the same thing. But the end of the dream always seemed to escape her memory, just that feeling that something important would happen and then… nothing.
She wiped the tears that still lingered on her cheeks and swept away the dark hair plastered to her neck. Her back felt sore, but there was nothing there that suggested she had done anything to it during her dream. Her shoulders were as bare they had ever been. No wings.
There was no use trying to get back to sleep now, so she untangled herself from her bed and waited a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. No light came from the horizon yet, but she could sense the dawn was not too far away. She made her way to the window by memory and fumbled with the latch until it opened. A soft early morning breeze came through, cooling her heated skin and soothing her pounding heart. She closed her eyes and let it ruffle her hair, trying to relive the sensation of flying. The subtle breeze just wasn’t enough, though, so she gave up trying and instead climbed out the window.
The house was made directly in the hollow of a tree, so climbing to one of its huge branches was not the concern on her mind. Her people liked to live in high places, and the upper levels of the colossal trees that grew there suited their purposes quiet well. For her, though, they had designed a special hollow of the tree much lower to the ground, a place she could climb down from without hurting herself. She hated the special treatment she had to have and insisted that she just live with her parents and make her own way down the tree, but they had refused. Supposedly it was for her safety, but she knew the truth. They were ashamed to have such a disgrace of a child, let alone live with her in the same hollow. She was handicapped in a way that was unheard of; she was a freak.
The branches that ran up the tree were fairly dense and of good size, so it was easy for her to reach the higher branches. It took her a while to get up high enough, but once she was there it was definitely worth the climb. The wind was much stronger there, and she could see the valley which their town was built upon. Most of the trees they lived in skirted the edges of the valley, but a few were hollowed deeper in the forest.
Several miles past the valley was more forest and beyond that was where the mist covered mountains lay shrouded in mystery. It was too dark to make out the mountains now, but she knew they were there. The gray sky let off little light and the stars were just beginning to fade, but it was enough for her to make out a figure against the dark sky. Edging closer to the base of the tree her figure blended with the darkness, out of view of any prying eye. She hadn’t thought anyone would be out this early.
The figure dashed by the tree she was perched in and it was enough for her to tell it was a male. His face wasn’t clear enough in the dim light to see who it was, though, but she could see his wings. His pure, white wings.
]
