Draconia Offline vol. 1

30.1. Wings Catching Up - Part 1

I have the sweetest of the sweetest dreams. At least for a Celestial. In the dream, my wings are fully grown already and I'm flying across the country. It does resemble Japan a bit but since I don't really remember it from my childhood, it looks more like an idealised image from some movie. But I don't care about the terrain below me, I own the sky!

The wings listen to my every whim and I'm doing pirouettes. After one such acrobatic performance, however, I notice that the sky behind me is getting darker. That freaks me out and I'm desperately trying to fly away but it's getting closer and closer by each second and not even my super speed can measure up.

I start coughing when the dark cloud swallows me as it's suddenly very difficult to breathe. My wings stop listening to me and I'm falling. Down... down... into the darkness.

*****

I fall into the blankets, still unable to breathe properly. My wings are pulsating with sharp pain and I have no idea what the hell is going on. Erik is towering over me with a scared expression on his face and is trying to calm me down. I clutch him around his neck and he pulls me up onto his lap. I scream when my wings change position and drop uncontrollably behind my back which gives me another blow of excruciating pain.

"Erik, my w-wings... I...," my eyes water. "It hurts! W-what's h-happening?"

"I don't know, Ryuu," he's this close to panicking. "I woke up and found you levitating half a metre above the bed. I was trying to wake you up but then you screamed in pain and fell."

Another throbbing sensation goes through my feathered limbs.

"Ouch ouch ouch," I'm properly crying now. The pain is too much, not even my migraines can compare. I clutch him even firmer, like a tick-bug.

Erik stretches for his phone and quickly dials someone. He's cursing himself that he didn't ask our bodyguards for a phone number but he does have Julia's.

"Wh... what?" I can hear Julia yawning. It's the middle of the night after all.

"It's Ryuu, something's wrong with him," he blurts out. "He was levitating in his sleep and then he woke up with immense pain in his wings. Come quickly!"

"Shit, shit, shit," Julia is swearing on the other side and is apparently getting up. "Call your guards, get him to my infirmary."

"I don't have their number and Ryuu won't let go of me," Erik cries hysterically.

"Okay, keep calm, coming!" she says and ends the call abruptly.

You're going to be okay, you're going to be okay, he keeps repeating in his mind, sending me tons of love.

I want to believe him but the pain is maddening. It's pure torture. I literally feel my wings expanding, bones growing and new feathers being formed in a hurry. And it's taking all my mana, all my energy. Preferably, it would probably take my fat but as I don't have any, the process is probably eating my very muscles.

And then the door finally bursts open and Julia with our bodyguards storm the bedroom. I would have never guessed that the time will come when I'll be glad to see a doctor come for me.

To my embarrassment, I realise that I'm totally naked under the blanket. We always fall asleep with Erik in the middle of our deepest telepathic connection, making it impossible for us to put on pyjamas.

"I've seen something like Celestial nightwear in the wardrobe," Erik says quickly.

Someone rummages our closet and three pairs of hands are trying to dress me. It's extremely uncomfortable, especially when they're pushing my wings through the holes but, in the end, they manage to dress me into a simple two-layered kimono.