He Who Fell

Unexpected Meeting

Previously on he who fell: I looked up from my examination of my newly grown toe nails "FIVE WEEKS?!?!?!" I exclaimed. Then I yelped, I got a good look at the people around me. "W-where are your wings?" I whispered

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I stared around at the peopl-were they people?-in the room in shock. They didn't have wings! How could they not have wings? I was the only freak without them that I knew of, but these people... there were so many of them.

This couldn't be real, I must still be dreaming. I must still be floating through the abyss, unconscious and bleeding to death. I grabbed my head in my hands and started pulling at my hair, trying to wake up. I was ignoring the fact that everyone was shouting for me to stop. Why should I listen to them? They're all just a figment of my imagination. This couldn't be real! After all torture and ridicule for me being different from everyone else. There just couldn't be a whole clan of wingless people right here in front of my face. By this point I was digging my nails into my skin, the pain telling me I wasn't asleep and yet still hoping I was.

Hands were trying to push me back down onto the bed. I fought, I didn't want to be tortured again, I didn't want to go back to that life. I didn't want to die. I started fighting harder and harder. The cloth from before was coming closer to my face. I panicked. I ran, I ran through restraining arms to what looked like a door. I crashed through it and ran. I got free and ran. I ran away from the strange people. I ran without knowing where I was going. I just ran...

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I ran until I collapsed (how big was this freaking cloud?) ending up in a strange place....So full of color. I heard voices of birds and...animals? There were so many voices it was starting to make my head hurt. I rose to my feet slowly. Were these...trees? I'd heard birds talk about them before, but never actually seen them. I walked over to one and slowly put my hand on it. Not sure what would happen. Suddenly feelings flashed through my mind: the feeling of being dropped onto the ground, of being covered up and sleeping, breaking through the blanket and growing towards the sky, years of the sun beating down on me, years so dry it felt like I was dying, years that the water was so high I felt like I was going to be swept away in the current, all the while little creatures came and went from my branches and leaves.

It all flashed through my mind in a matter of seconds before I yanked my hand back, panting. I held my hand to my chest, afraid of touching anything else. I frantically look around for somewhere where I could hide. There was an opening in the ground that I ran to. It seemed to be able to fit me.

I quickly crawled into the opening and steadied my breathing. Hoping that no one had followed me. After a few minutes there was a rumbling In the back of the space. My head snapped towards the sound. There was a hulking shape with glowing red eyes behind me. Why hadn't I sense it's mind earlier? It slowly crept forward. I backed up until I was out of the opening and stood up. Hoping to bolt if I got the chance. The, creature stayed just in the shadows and kept growling.

I suddenly heard a feminine voice in my head, "Stay away from them!! I won't let you hurt them anymore! I won't let you kill any more of us!" I was shocked.(He hears animals thoughts in his head since they speak differently than humans/Alatum) This creature's mind's presence was so different from anything I had ever felt. It felt like something so natural to me that I had overlooked it; wind. Her voice sounded like a raging gust in the middle of a storm.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. Kill who? Hurt who?" I questioned.

"My kin! My pups! My mate! We are the last of our kind now, thanks to you wingless-ones!!" She ranted.

That's when I got angry. "What is it with everyone and wings!?!?!?!? MY WHOLE CLAN HATED ME BECAUSE I WAS BORN WITHOUT THEM!!!!!" My outburst seemed to surprise the creature, as she took a step back, "I HAD NO FRIENDS, NO LOVED ONES. MY OWN KIN DIDN'T EVEN WANT ME! THEY THREW ME OUT OVER SOMETHING I COULDN'T CONTROL!!". At this point I had collapsed onto the ground and started crying. "I-I would get it, if it was something I had done. But for something that was beyond my power, just because I was different. They tried to kill me, but were too disgusted to even do it by their own hands, so they just threw me off the cloud..."

I sat there for who knows how long; tears streaming down my cheeks, staring at my scarred hands in shame, feeling as if I deserved every last one of them. When I suddenly felt something breathing on my hair. A muzzle started to nuzzle it in a soothing way. Chasing my tears and sadness away.

"There, there; pup. I know the pain of these things. Of others hating you because you're different. They don't even have to be kin, it hurts either way."

I slowly calmed down and looked up at her... There weren't words good enough to describe the beauty of this animal. She looked sort of like a Vulpes from back home (Just think a small fox with bat wings) but much bigger and the wings were different. Her coat was silver like the moon with a wide patch of sky blue fur running along her spine. She also had blue ears and a blue diamond on her forehead. Her eyes were a deep, fiery red. Her wings were like a dove's; white and feathery. (See pic) She was at least my height, if not taller.

Seeing my awestruckness, she chuckled. "Have you never seen a Tenshi before pup?" I shook my head, having gotten over my awe "Are you not of the Alatum, then?"

"I am...I guess" I answer honestly.

The Tenshi tilted her head sideways in confusion, "You guess?"

"I-I don't have wings, how could I be one of them? I don't act like them, I don't look like them, and I don't have the same same abilities as them-"

"Same abilities? So you do have abilities?"

"...Yes." I then told her about how I could speak in any language I came across, persuade others to do things, move and lift things with my mind, see what others emotions are, see others past by physical contact, my enhanced senses, and musical capability.

When I finished, she looked really excited. "Young one, do you not know who you are!?" I looked at her confused, which was enough of an answer for her "You are the Pax re-incarnated!"she exclaimed 'You do know the story of the pax, correct? Many have waited for this day, My Lord!"

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