A Flight of Fancy

Chapter 2: Coming of Age

Time passed and I got settled into my new life. I built my new home in a nice large tree out in the woods. It was damp, and it was a long walk to town, but at least I didn’t have to live where everyone was staring at me. As I visited town more often, the people didn’t stare at me quite as much. They still wouldn’t touch me or be in the same shop as me, but it was something.

I became quite close with Ether remarkably quick. I could understand him, and he could understand me. So now each morning we went to see each other near the waterfall. Today wasn’t any different.

While I walked down to our spot, I noticed the grass had cleared away a bit. We had walked through here so much a path was beginning to form. I saw him in front of me at the end of our makeshift path. He always got there first. As i appreached and sat down, he didn’t speak, which he so often does. So for a long while we sat in silence, until he spoke up.

“My ceremony is today.”

I couldn’t believe it, yet at the same time I knew this was true. His colors had almost fully come in by this point, all of his feathers were full and prominent, and all of his nails had a natural edge they didn’t before.

“You’ll be choosing a suitor then.”

He sighs and slumps over a bit. “Please don’t remind me. I don’t want any of them.”

“Then why not simply tell your father that?”

“I have. But he says I must choose one. They don’t have to become my mate, but I must give one a chance.”

“Is that truely so bad?”

“And if you were forced to choose a potential mate?”

That made me pause. “Fair enough. Right again, as always.”

He smiles and rolls his eyes. Despite the fact he claimed to be always right, he would always roll his eyes when I brought it up. Unfortunately for him, I find the way he rolled his eyes funny, so not I do it on purpose. Instead of a quick flick up and down, he would roll his eyes all the way around their socet. Bottom, left, up, right, then finally back down. The fact he’d tilt his head too only added to it. It was so strange, yet I never pointed it out as I was afraid it’d make him stop. He only sat for a moment longer before getting up.

“I’m afraid I don’t have time to sit in silence with you today. I need to go home and get ready. Even if I don’t want a mate I still need to look my best.”

I nodded with understanding and he left. I stayed for a while longer, wanting to spend more time enjoying our special spot.

The mainland was already so different from my home, this wonderful spot even more so. The grass was a strong bright green, but it was still soft under my feet. The trees provided wonderful shade and the cool mist from the waterfall made it an excellent place to cool off, especially this time of year.

The sky was the best part, in my opinion, was the sky. In the morning it was always a glimmering orange. It had the same comforting feeling of a warm fire on a cold night. During the afternoon, it was always a brilliant shade of blue. That was often the time I would go flying. Duringthe evening, the sky would turn bright red, as if it was trying to mimic Ether.

Ether heavily disagreed with me about the best part of our spot. While I loved the sky, he was more fond of the flowers. His favorite ones we called purmin. If a human from earth saw one, they’d probably mistake it for a lotus flower. But ours were different, for they were always in bloom and came in a wide variety of colors.

While I sat there staring at the sky and pondering flowers, the realization I had when I first came to this island crossed my mind yet again. We were so similar, Ether and I. No one would touch us, no one would look at us. We both were sent out to uphold duties neither of us ever wanted. And neither of us wanted a mate. I hummed and leaned back. Perhaps if we are so similar, we would not make such a bad pair.