In the Gaels

Wings are to fly with

I stared down. My eyes trailing down to The Below, from my tower, and my hands gripping the edge, I felt a tingly sensation run up my arms.

What if I could just jump?

The wind chose that moment to blow a gust of air, lifting my tight curls away from my face. I loved this feeling, this soft caress, beckoning me to come play, to jump...

I opened my hands, pushed forward and fell. I kept falling and falling, but just when I was about to hit the ground, I opened them.

I was not falling now, I was soaring through the sky, becoming one with the air.

My wings, I thought. My wings..

The sun was so beautiful this evening. The last rays of sunlight provided such warm melting colours, with just the very top of the sky being sprinkled with stars. the sun illuminated the others' wings and warmed them.

The Gaella, I mused, they're still here...

"Raaza!"

I turned when I heard the ridiculous nickname I'd been called since birth.

"Raaza!"

Stupid boy, I thought, I just want to be alone.

"Raaza please! You're not to be left alone."

I looked at him then, really looked at him. His hair was Snow White, almost transparent against the sunset backdrop; yet his eyebrows were pitch black, such is the usual colouring of the Gaella. His eyes looked at me, desperation set deep into his dark orange pupils, the colour of the setting sun.

Kiel, my pseudo best friend, had come to comfort me after the death of my guardian, Peth, the only other survivor of my people's massacre so long ago. He had died suddenly, not abnormal for a Gaella like him, but I knew he would never leave me, not him, not Peth.

"He was murdered," I said when Kiel was flying close enough to hear me. "I know he was don't try to tell me otherwise. He would never choose to leave me."

Kiel groaned, trying his best to mask his disbelief. "Raaza, this isn't the way to move on. No one in the Gaels would've killed him and the people who could've killed him are all dead."

I'd landed back on my tower when I turned to face him sharply. "How do you know? You don't know any of that, only what they told you, what they've told us..."

He could hear the hurt in my voice as he tried to make amends, "Raaza, you're right I don't necessarily know anything about the wars, but I do know you and this is not a healthy way to grieve. Besides, what will you do if he was murdered, revenge is forbidden."

"I don't know Kiel, but I can't sit around here and not do anything. I have to act! Peth, he was all I had left..."

Kial frowned at me. I've been suspecting that he was jealous, thinking there was something more between Peth and I. We were older now, old enough to marry and I'm sure he's wondered why I haven't asked him yet.

I had an unusual look, light sky blue curly hair instead of white, and grey metallic eyes instead of warm, so I was believed to be attractive for my differences. Kiel was a beloved citizen of the Gaels and he must be slightly insulted that I, "pretty" as I was, did not want him.

"And what about me?"

"Huh?"

I'd been lost in thought when he spoke.

"What about me?" he said louder this time, "you still have me."

I turned from him not wanting to get into this again. "Kiel, it's not about you, it's not just Peth either. What if he wasn't the only one? I have to-"

"Do something," he finished. I know you always have to do something. If not this, then that, if not that then this."

He flew away after that, leaving me to grieve in silence by myself.

What am I going to do?