Elvirund | ✔️

Chapter Three

"How did he do?"

"Seems like a nice guy. But, you'll have to finish the test tomorrow." Chip rested one arm on my bedpost.

"Of course. I always do. I love the reactions from the cocky ones."

Chip laughed. Not many expected a woman in a hospital to be of a high rank; even fewer expected her to be the famous doctor who was saving everyone. Although, I would never tell how many times I had cried over a loss. Humans were so delicate and fragile, and so easy to love that I found it hard not to get attached.

"I don't know how he'll react. I do expect it'll be met with the utmost attitude."

"Of course. Depending."

I let a smile slowly emerge across my face. It would be interesting to see how things happened tomorrow. But for now, I needed to at least feign sleep until Chip was out. Sharing the same room in this small building wasn't bad until I needed to sneak out. Turning on my side, I closed my eyes and evened out my breathing. Through that, I listened carefully for his breathing to slow, waiting until I was sure he was fast asleep.

"See you in the morning."

I slipped out of bed and crept down the hall to the main clinic area. Before I left, I grabbed my bow and slipped the quiver around my waist. Just in case. Through the back door I went, running through the gardens and into the middle of the field to get a jump start. This was the only chance I got to stretch my wings, and the only time I truly felt back at home. A clear moon, full and bright, winked at me and I waved back. Night birds called softly to each other, a light breeze ruffled the leaves. Peace, even if not for long.

Finally, I could feel the wind ruffling my feathers, blowing at my hair, tugging at my clothes. It had been a while since I had been able to do this, as various residents of the clinic has been awake or wandering many nights prior. Maybe even a week had passed since my last nighttime flight. Oh, how I had missed this freedom. Faintly, then, I heard a small voice ring out from one of the houses that were still standing.

"Mom, look! A fairy!"

I smiled and disappeared into the night.

"No, child. Not a fairy, but an angel."

A lone feather detached itself from my right wing and floated down to the windowsill of the young girl's house. I watched her marvel at it, fingers gently lifting it to observe the wispy gray fluff. It was comforting to know that part of me made another so happy. At the same time, I couldn't help the overwhelming guilt. I might have killed her father, or her brother or sister, or her friend. I had killed many.

"Sleep well, child."

Lifting myself into the air once more, I headed for the mountains, where I knew I wouldn't be spotted and I could reach my aerial limits here on Earth. One peak in particular had become a favorite of mine. Killington Peak, as it was called, was moderately high, but that wasn't my concern. I took pleasure in the snow, the icy layer of frozen ground that defied anything else I had seen. Frozen, yet wet to the touch. At the same time, soft and pillow like. Snow was magnificent.

Scooping a handful up with one hand, I swirled a design in it with the other. Small crystals of faceted ice melted and refroze in my hand, reacting to my touch as only nature could. I chuckled softly and scraped together a snowball roughly the size of a cantaloupe. Ignoring the cold, I patted it into shape and started on the next one. This one was slightly smaller in size as it would be the middle body segment of the snowman, and then one more small snowball would be the head.

When I finished the first, I made more. I fascinated myself with trying to create the perfect snowball, and setting them on top of each other to make little men and women entirely of ice and snow. Hours flew by without my notice, blown away in the swirls of snow until the sun began to peek out from behind the horizon. Slightly disoriented, I stood and stretched my limbs out. A quick dusting of the seat of my pants and I was stepping headfirst off the mountain. By instinct my wings shot open and I sped towards the clinic. There would likely be a few early risers, and the occasional insomniac; I would blend in perfectly, as I had lost track of time often and come back in the first hours of the morning quite a few times.