Angels on Earth

First Encounters

Sathian led the way through the field, talking animatedly with Ariel as they discussed the importance of not being recognised as anything other than Earth beings.

    "Blowing our cover would be a humiliation. It's my responsibility to lead this mission but I can't do it without you all," he said turning to Isda, Nathaniel and me too this time, his tone of voice a slight mixture of warning and sternness.

    "We've been through all this before," Isda whined. "We've just got here and your already lecturing us."

    "I'm not lecturing you," he argued. "I'm just simply warning you that this journey isn't for fun or recreational purposes. We will treat it as a mission and complete it faithfully, in reward for freedom," he said. We all sighed.

    "Loosen up, Sathian," Nathaniel spoke in his cool, clear voice that always made me shiver. "We know what we're doing, and we're be sure to abide by your rules." I couldn't help but note the discreet hint of sarcasm in his voice and smiled. He hastily let go of my hand, realising he may have been holding it for a touch too long.

Soon enough we reached a high wooden fence, blocking our way through. I stretched out my wings with ease, about to fly over, without thinking about where we were, let alone who might see us. But before I could let my feet leave the ground, Sathian, being the as aways protective leader of the group held me back and began his lecture once again.

    "What have I just told you Lucy?" he sighed. I resented the way he spoke to me as if I were a 6 year old. Sometimes his patronising tone made me feel like I was the let down of the group, the unnecessary tag-along that nobody really wanted there.

    "Leave her alone," Isda said seeing my expression. "Lets just get going. I'm beginning to get impatient! I can't want to see Earth up close, for real."

    "What do you mean 'for real?' Ariel asked laughing. "This is as real as it gets, I'm afraid." She gestured at the field behind us and I struggled to understand what at all there was to be afraid of. As far as I was concerned this place called Earth was something of majestic beauty, and I was determined not to let a minute go by when I didn't admire it.

So deciding not to waste anymore time, we climbed the fence, our white robes billowing in all directions. I couldn't help but wonder what we must have looked like to the many innocent humans who may have caught a glimpse of us as they scurried down the street on their way to work or school; five extraordinary, pale looking celestial beings mounting a fence to get over it, all dressed in white and still glowing from the energy and power that had been focused on us by the Lord to fly us through the clouds so we could touch Earth itself. I found it comical that this mission was so complicated and difficult yet at first it involved just the simple tasks of climbing a fence to get to the  other side; no high tech gadgets or special powers included.

Our first encounter with the humans didn't go as expected. We were unfortunately caught off guard as the human approached but at least our wings were folded and hidden discreetly beneath our unusal looking clothes.

The human was male, about in his mid-fifties, it was hard to say. He looked astonished and slightly fearful of us as he walked towards us, obviously seeing that we were in need of help. I could see Nathaniel didn't like to admit it, but the map he had brought was so small and unhelpful that it failed to tell us how to get to the village church, where the vicar would be waiting for our arrival. I felt sympathy towards him as Sathian scolded him and said what a bad start this was to the mission already.

    "Do you...need any help?" the man asked, not quite meeting Sathian'seye. I guessed we did look slightly strange to him. If we were going to go by unnoticed in the future then we would have to resort to wearing more appropriate clothing.

    "Yes, we're looking for St Augustine Church," Ariel said, not forgetting her manners with the human.

    "Ah," the man said, nodding his head as if everything suddenly fitted into place. He now regarded us a simple church-goers not actors or travelling circus teenagers. He gave Ariel some directions, still looking intimidated by Sathian's stone, icy glare and hurried off in the other direction after Ariel had kindly thanked him.

    "Sathian," Ariel fumed, "If we're ever going to fit in here then we need to be polite. It's just something called common courtesy. There's no need to be so off-ish with people."

    "We don't want to fit in here. Growing attached to humans or their environment is forbidden you know that, Ariel."

I watched as Ariel sighed in frustration. She wasn't growing attached, she was just simply being friendly just as she always is. I was beginning to get impatient with Sathian and his hostile ways and I sensed that the rest of the group was too.

We followed Ariel to the church the way the man had directed us and as we reached it, we realised there was actually no reason for directions or a map. This church stood huge and solid in all its glory, the spire reaching high up into the sky like a finger pointing upwards to where we had just  came from. I suspected if we had used our brains and looked around at our surroundings then we probably would have spotted the churchs tall spire from miles off, without the need of a map.

Sathian ushered us inside, and I suddenly felt safe. We were out of view of any suspicious, prying humans and I felt everyone relax their shoulders in relief. To me, and probably Isda and Nathaniel too, it was nerve-racking setting foot on this unknown land. Sathian and Ariel had been here before, on other, less important missions where they simply had to just fulfil their duties as angels. This mission however, was of much higher importance and it felt like a lot of pressure and responsibilty would build up, and the thought of doing anything wrong and disappointing the group was unbearable.