Blood Feather

The Spirit and The Boy

*For best reading experience, please wait until the music begins to play, then start reading. I don't own any of the songs, only the story and characters. The song belongs to the lovely and amazing Lindsey Stirling.

A long, long time ago, there was a lost boy wandering the world. He had no name and he knew not his exact destination. His only knowledge was his mission to continue walking until he could find a place of true peace and liberation. He walked the earth with strong brother eagle watching and protecting him from the skies, warning the boy when there was any danger nearby. During the night, he slept in the forest with his brother moose, drank the water of rivers with his sister deer, and ate the sweet berries of the sun loving plants with father bear. He met many friends in his travels, but none knew the true answer to his predicament. Their only guidance for him was 'north, go north'. So he did, continuing on and on with the journey, his only direction north. Walking day after day, continuing on step by step, searching for his own place.

The winters grew longer and colder, the summers shorter and cooler. The man eventually ran out of provisions, and in his hunger, devoured sister deer. When he came to his senses, he wept for the beautiful and kind being, who had sacrificed her flesh for his survival. He prayed to the great beings for forgiveness, and they sent down an angelic soul to him. A great and wise spirit to act as his guide. She told him the answer that none of the animals could give him.

His destination, the great paradise of peace and harmony among the creatures. The vision he had seen that impelled him to go on a journey, was one which he would create. She taught him the meaning of life, and in doing so, she guided him to create a magical place. Where all creatures would live in harmony, not needing to feast off each other, knew what they were meant to do, and would follow their destinies. But the place lacked a name, and names contained great power. The boy seeked guidance from the great spirit one last time, and in return, the spirit gave her sacred name to the boy, who incorporated her power into the name of the paradise.

Her name was Michael, she said, revealing to him her mysterious violet eyes, which were closed all the moments before then, full of the secrets of the world and beyond. And so, the spirit had left, leaving the boy, now a man, with a new destiny to share the knowledge with the world, and thus doing so, give the world true peace.

"Sounds like something written by a kid. It sounds two dimensional and far too idealistic." Feather flips through the childish drawings again, stopping at the page with the man's mouth, chest and hands covered in dark, glistening blood as he kneels down with his hands clasped in the air, praying. Feather didn't mean to be insulting, it was just something that came to mind when she saw the cover, and became even more defined as she read through the picture book. The sun streams in from the six panels from behind her back, inch by inch black squares with transparent glass inside, piled two by two from the bottom up. It warms her brown hair, tinting it with the darker shades of honey. Her light blue towels drapes over her small shoulders, keeping her semi wet hair from wetting the camisole she wore underneath her uniform and beneath that are blue denim shorts, halfway to her knees.

"You sound like a kid." Doe shoots back, insulted.

"I am a kid." Feather reminds her, closing the book. "And I still can't believe you think this is some sort of 'key'. This is all too impossible. Spirits? No name? Mission? What is this, Star Wars?"

"Have you ever seen Star Wars?" Doe questions.

"No, and I probably never will." Money problems, Feather thinks. Movies are a waste of savings.

"Then you have no right to say that. Go apologize to the creators of Star Wars."

"Oh, I supposed you've seen it then." Feather reasons otherwise, based on Doe's flinch. "Put aside your huge sense of justice for a moment, and answer my questions first." Feather realises how rude she must have sounded and tries to make up for it. "Please."