Echoes of Forgotten Wings

Chapter 19: The Fall of the Sky

The gale outside has reached the highest possible point; it was a tornado of wind and lightning that made sounds of a ferocious creature. The clouds enveloping the sky rotated in a darkish color full of energy, angry and ready for war as if they were preparing to split the earth. Ivo had his back pressed against the wall blocking the cave's entrance; this made his heart race more as he witnessed what was happening outside.

In the background, the healing process for Kael's wings had already begun; the shriveled feathers regrowing each and every second. The fractal pieces on the floor of the cave floor, the chains which had bound him for ages were freed from their curse. A bright light emitted out of Kael, illuminating the cave with an ethereal light. Ivo could tell the warrior of the Skyborn was power, elemental and primal and long thrust within internment, but now free.

But even as the magnificence of Kael's wings had fully opened, all was not well. The very ground Ivo stood on erupted into tremors, quaking dangerously, as if the earth was in revolt paving to the raging storm overhead. Outside the hut wails of the villagers fleeing for their lives could be heard, as the violent ground cracked and split its surface in the center of the village and the locals started to run. Terror and disorder dominated the atmosphere.

"Ivo!" a voice called out to him from the below chaos. He rotated his body searching the village with his eyes. Among the frightened lots trying to escape the village, he spotted his mother, looking very scared with a pale face and hands on her chest trying to get toward him.

But that way was disintegrating, the ground rumbling and fracturing beneath him. In addition, the rainstorm appeared to have no end since the strong windy aspect and the downpour hammered the village as if it were uncontrollable.

Ivo felt torn apart; he was worried about his mother but felt a great power building up behind him. Kael was rising. The Skyborn warrior stood tall, not without some suffering, as he rose to his full height. His wings have now completely recovered, their silver-white plumage shining so brightly it seemed to defy darkness itself.

Kael raised his head, looking above. His wings grew, this time ready for action and without scars. Ivo noticed a strange emotion in his eyes for a brief moment. It was the emotional need to be in the air; the need to enjoy something that has been enjoyed, but so many years ago.

And then almost as if he was being commanded, Kael proceeded, his wings stretching out as he did so. He took off his feet, and with the wind, he ascended into the skies.

Ivo gawked with great intensity as Kael rose up the storm. A Skyborn was flying again after hundreds of years, and this time it was Kael. But something was not right, and it was not right in a terrible way.

The heavens were not friendly anymore.

As Kael continued upward, Ivo saw that he struggled to move. His wings were being blown by harsh winds that seemingly pushed him off balance and back to the ground. The blue expanse that had previously unyielding haven of all erstwhile Skyborns had been transformed. The tempest had morphed into an active agent of repulsion, a never-ending wall separating Kael, from the heavens that he yearned for blindly.

Kael's wings stammered for a second, and that was when Ivo saw the minute confusion adopt the face of the Skyborn. He was losing the battle against the tempest, evident by how furiously his wings were doing the work. But it was of no use; the tempest was too powerful. The sky, which was once a refuge, was now a cage.

"I won't..." Ivo breathed out, his heart rate increasing as he was seeing Kael reverting. "W-What, No, this should not be unfolding."

As the storm crested in volume, so did its rage with every swift tick, and soon enough, Kael's manner of flying grew erratic. The skies had turned him down—turned the return of the Skyborns down. Ivo felt stress in his body, as he came to understand an awful reality: things were no longer how they had been. The skies had changed from how they had been when Kael's kind had once ruled above the clouds. It had been many generations since the treachery that the equilibrium of the earth, the balance of all magic had been altered.

The storm was strong enough to weaken Kael's wings, and in a flash, a howling blast of wind propelled the Skyborn fighter some feet away. He spun in the wind, his injured wings thrashing furiously as he attempted to control his descent. But the storm had established its rule, and there was no hope of it lifting.

With a gruesome thud, Kael fell back to earth, and his impact on the ground sent shock waves all over the village. Dust and rubbish flew into the sky, and Ivo had to step back in panic as he saw something appalling before him.

"No!" Ivo shouted and dashed to Kael's limp form. He felt his heart racing, blood flying in his veins. What was going on? How could the skies turn against one of their own?

Kael stayed where he was on the ground, his wings uncurled on the ground around him, the essence he once held within fading away. His eyes opened, a look of agony present on his face and he moaned a little.

Ivo sank down onto the ground next to him, his hands quaking as he tried to place one on the shoulder of the Skyborn. "Kael... what is going on?"

Kael had difficulty breathing; his body quaked as a result of the impact of the fall. "The skies above us... have abandoned us," he breathed hoarsely. "Only in our hearts were they ours... but the times are no longer. The harmony has been lost. I am not part of the sky any longer,"

Ivo's emotional state transformed, and he had a hard time grasping the implications of what Kael said. The storm, the quaking earth underneath them, the wrath of the heavens—it all screamed of one dreadful thing: the Skyborn were unwelcome in this world anymore.

The villagers' panicked fleeing had ceased as they turned to watch the unfolding happenings, now appropriately petrified. They had observed how Kael had come crashing down from the heavens and also the power that had once been held by them, vanishing. Ivo stirred some complicated feelings in them, whether good or bad, they were not quite ready to accept that fact all the same.

"Ivo..." Kael murmured to him, almost inaudible due to the wind that had begun to die down. "I assumed that we would have liberation... but that world is over. We don't belong here anymore."

There was something heavy on Ivo's heart as he held back tears. It was simply irrelevant to him how many battles he won and how many lives he had spent because that happiness for which he strived for Kael, for the Skyborn, was gone forever.

"Then what's next?" Ivo inquired, losing control of his voice. "What was the point of all this if you were not accepted to the skies?"

Kael's expression softened and he took Ivo's hand that was resting on his arm. "The skies may not be our home, but we have not become hopeless. I can still see a warm ray of hope in the distance. The situation is different – the world as we know it, but I believe we can also change it. We have to look for an alternative way and an alternative way of existing ... as one."

Ivo felt his heart constrict from overwhelming feelings. When he turned his gaze to the cyclonic pit which was somewhat clearing, he noticed the ragged vessels dispersing and a tinge of sun rays in the background. It was not the glance of the future he associated for Kael, yet surely there was still a path – a path for bringing together the disparate fragments of their umbrageous worlds. Kael's wings quivered as he attempted to lift himself higher. Ivo was quick to assist him, grabbing him and lifting him to his position. The Skyborn warrior was on his feet, though the once-elegant law-giving wings reposed helplessly along his sides, a mark of the empire they once had.

"Skyborn will not be as we used to," Kael spoke quietly, but his tone had a determined ring to it. "However, we can find our place in this world. A world where Skyborn and human beings can live within the same sphere." Ivo nodded; fire was lit in his chest. There was a future for them. Not the sort of future that sought to reclaim a lost era, but rather, one that sought to create something all together different – and superior.

While the villagers were still and gaze fixed, Ivo and Kael strolled shoulder to shoulder, comfortably, away from the crumbling pieces of the old world. The tempest was over, and while the weather had altered and the clouds did not seem friendly, there was still a semblance of optimism for what lay ahead.