When Angels Fall In Love

Chapter 4: Flower Crowns and an Unexpected Visitor

Soft grass tickles Erelah's feet as they touch down onto the cool earth. Her wings tucked against her back, a green meadow surrounds her with its silence and beauty. She was at the meadow center, the plain grasses encircled by great oak trees that towered and stretched high into the sky. It was like its own little world, whispering soft words of tranquility as she stood almost statue-like, reveling in the momentary silence. For a long time, Erelah just stood there, smiling when the sun came out to play, peaking out and through the white clouds and warming her skin. She felt content to stand here forever, forgetting who, what, and where she was just to fully soak in what was left of this little paradise the humans hadn't touched. Breathing a long sigh, she let herself fall back onto the cool earth until the green grass stretched just as high as the oak trees above her.

Her eyes fluttered shut, fingertips digging into the damp dirt that was still saturated from previous rain. For what seemed like a blissful eternity, Erelah lounged in the meadow. Her skilled fingers fiddling with the long grasses as she weaved intricate crowns of leaves and vines and overall enjoyed the comforting peace. An idea forms in her head as she studies one of the three crowns she had made, they lacked color. Stretching into her well of power, Erelah pulls at its tether, dredging up energy until it sparks at her fingertips and flushes her skin a light pink. She places her palms against the ground, fingers once again digging into the earth as little by little she left the accumulated energy trickle into the ground. Erelah releases it with a long lingering sigh, smiling as her flutter shut and she can feel the earth accept the power.

When Erelah's eyes opened again, the smile that rose to her lips made her cheeks hurt as she looked excitedly around the meadow. Before her very eyes, hundreds of flowers break through the earth, the green stems stretching high to bloom in glorious shades of color. Tulips, poppies, cornflowers, and countless other flowers she failed to name now colored the green meadow in an array of beauty that took her breath way.

It was only by God that life is created. Erelah was apart of that creation, though the purpose of her existence was different than that of the humans. She was infused with great power and grace that was bestowed only unto angels. What she had done here was not creation as she roamed the field and picked flowers to weave into the crowns. As soon as she had plucked the blossom's from there stems, the stems withered before sinking into the ground like it never existed. Only the blooms remained, and that was only possible because of the power she used to keep them alive. When she left the meadow, the flowers would disappear...God's intended purpose for the angels was to guide, help from afar, and serve as protection from demons that sought to find compatible vessels among the population of humans. In basic terms, Erelah was a weapon, an extension of God to protect his creation, if these flowers were his own creation they would thrive and live on even after she had left. The colorful field that surrounded her was only a manifestation and would be gone if she ever did return.

The thought of this beauty disappearing made Erelah's heart sink a bit as she returned to weaving the crowns. The blooms she had picked were perfect, her favorite crown, a combination of red and orange wildflowers and small tulips fitting perfectly atop her head as she moved on to making bracelet of vines with purple petals.

A small flurry of birds break through the trees as she weaves, Erelah's eyes following their path in to the sky as she puts down the crown and waits with bated breath. Her ears prick at the sound of distant chirping birds and scurrying of small creatures in the thicket but she doesn't hear anything that raises any of the alarms in her head. Erelah was about to write it off as a common predator but as the breeze shifted directions, shifting through her hair and kissing her face, the scent that filtered her nose made her freeze.

Human...

Erelah's heart lurches, a spark of adrenaline shooting through her veins as her body goes perpetually still even as her mind screamed at her to flee. But the scent...it was intoxicating. Every human she had ever come across smelled of filth and disease but the scent was not of that. It was sweet but masculine with an undertone of burning sage, it captivated Erelah and spoke of tenderness as it wrapped her in its embrace.

The softest of footsteps greet her ears, Erelah's eyes shifting towards the direction as she slowly realized the rest of the forest had fallen silent. No birds chirped or took to the sky, and no animal, small nor large moved as the world seemed to hold its breath. Her heart thumped against her chest as the outline of a figure begins take form in the depths of the shadowy forest. Finally appearing between two towering oaks, the figure stands just within the shadows but still its details are obscured from her vision. That is until they take a step into the light...