Cicily, Our Last Hope

Chapter 2: Cicily's Breakdown

        Cicily arrived home just as Adelina was setting out food for their small lunch of squirrel and cabbage. She ran up to her mother and jumped into her arms, giggling and kissing her cheek. "Mother, I did it, I finished my painting!"

        "Oh, my dear, that's amazing! Just in time for your 17th birthday!" Adelina replies excitedly, knowing that the painting was Cicily's pride.

        Cicily sighed, her mood changing dramatically. Her wings fluttering slightly as she flew herself up onto a wooden plank a few feet from the cieling and sat. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them, burying her face in her scales. She mumbled something inaudibly.

         "My darling Cicily, what is the matter? I have never seen one this upset over fulfilling their goals," Adelina said, climbing onto a table to get nearer Cicily.

        "Mother, I've just gotten a new dream, which I wish to fulfill. However, in doing so, I may learn things that I am afraid of."

        "What things?"

        "Things of my past, which would lead to things of my future."

        "Stop speaking such nonsense and  just tell me about this dream you speak of," Adelina frowns, getting frustrated. 

        "Mother, why do I transform like this? I wish to know why I am the monster children learn to fear from fables, why I must be hidden from the world. Why have I been cursed in such a way that I can never make any friends?"

        Adelina was speechless due to shock. She had forgotten- she never had thought that she would need to tell Cicily of her mother. "Cicily, that's not a curse, don't you see? It is a blessing given by-" She was cut off by a violent knocking at the door, which widened both their eyes and caused a great panic. 

Cicily flew down the hall into her room, where she quickly pulled on her clothes and transformed back into a human body. Adelina ran towards her room, pulling up the bed and rushing Cicily underneath it and into a hidden cupboard that had a year's supply of picked foods and jelly, anything preservable was down there. She called toward the door, "Just a moment!" as she erased all signs of Cicily's existence. She opened the door with a gasp, then shut her eyes in false relief, appreciative she could lie easily.

"Oh, good soldier, I was afraid that you were a thief, come to take advantage of me." she smiles warmly.

"Of course not, ma'am. I've recieved a report that there was a strange... Creature flying towards your home. Have you seen anything out of the normal in your house?" He says officially and looks around what he can see of the house from the doorway.

"No, sir. In fact, I was taking a relaxing bath just as you came knocking. Gave me quite a fright, I'd say." She blocks the doorway with her arms.

"Sorry, ma'am. Would you mind if I take a look around, just to make sure no thieves have come to 'take advantage of you?'" He chuckles to himself

"Be my guest!" She says with a gracious smile and moves out of the way. When he's looking away from her she frowns.

The soldier came in, shutting the door firmly behind him. He did some looking around the house, checking that nothing was out of order. As he was about to leave, Adelina let loose a sigh of relief. But then, instead of opening the door, the soldier locked it.

"I can't believe you fell for the 'soldier' trick, ma'am," he said, turning around with a devious look in his eyes. "I will easily take you, or you will suffer."

"No!" Adelina screamed as she realized what he wanted with her. "Cicily!" she screamed, but the girl was already transformed, in flight toward the false soldier. Her teeth bared and her fist outstretched, she caught him off guard and blackened one of his eyes.

"Leave my mum alone!" she cried, landing on top of him with two more blows to the face. He kicked her off and stood back up, astounded. He made a fool's leap toward the door which he had previously locked. Cicily did a spinning kick in the air, which landed perfectly against his head and knocked him out.

Cicily lifted the man, his limp body was light in her unnaturally strong arms. Her strength was a part of her transformation. She flew him to a field of poisonous mushrooms. put one in his hand and put his head on a rock. When she got back home, she was panting. Her mother was sitting in a chair, with a crumpled piece of cloth in her hand and a tear in her eye, and she whispered, "Are you ready to hear the story of your birth?"