What It Means To Fly | ✓

5 | relief

Napar glanced down at the girl below her. "What's your name?!" She called down below, shouting over the increasing melody of the water droplets falling, surrounding the two girls as they gently felt the water sink into their clothes, drenching their bodies.

"Vita," she replied back, her voice only a whisper in the bellowing songs of the wind around them.

Napar smiled, "What a lovely name!" She could feel the strain in her forearms, "Now, Vita, shall we climb back up to the fortress we've fallen from?" She pulled her arm, lifting herself up, compelling Vita to do the same.

She wondered if perhaps the wind was on their side, for it felt as if it was providing its strength to the pair and pushing them up the the rooftop, with gravity providing its aid as well by loosening its grip on them.

As Napar felt Vita's nimble and thin fingers wrap around her hands after her own successful attempt at lifting herself up, she could hear the collective sighs or relief that came from below, and teachers that had just arrived at the scene rushed forward to provide their sturdy arms as support.

It was overwhelming how the motion of the entire school had seemed to stop, freezing in their places, and fixating their attention on the pair that had done the unexpected.

Napar glanced towards Vita, her eyes soft, understanding, "Hey, Vita, why did you wish to fly?"

Her response didn't come, but instead a waterfall of tears did, dripping out of her eyes, falling softly along with the droplets of rain that engulfed them.

The senior student pulled the younger one into a hug, her warm embrace a comfort Vita had not realised she had desperately needed.

"Sometimes, when these moments occur, when you feel as though only flying through the wind — falling at a speed much faster than it — would help with overwhelming emotions inside of you... it helps to shout, to cry, to scream, to remember the reasons why everyday we keep on living, despite everything that tries to push us down... and maybe even do all of that at once."

And as an example, Napar pulled away from the hug, looking out over the edge of the roof and at the swarm of students below. She glanced at the gray clouds looming above, and let out a scream, a waterfall dripping down her face, washing away the facade she had been keeping for years.

She didn't stop. She just kept screaming, feeling the relief of letting her building emotions escape as her voice cracked, her vocal cords straining.

She let out a soft but encouraging laugh as Vita joined along, the tears escaping her eyes, perhaps erasing away not only her pain but also her will to fly away, and replacing with it a newfound sense of belonging and understanding, and along with it a reason to power through.