The Child of Hera

Chapter 16-Birdie

Birdie's eyes shot open.  Then she groaned as they closed again.  She had been, as her mother called it, gifted... again.  She looked to either side of her and saw...feathers?

There was a huge prototype of a wing on either side of her, oddly.  Wasn't this the sick bay?  Why would there be wings?

Birdie sat up, and the wings shifted.  Oops, she thought, I hope I didn't break it.  The more she moved, the more the wings shifted.  Eventually she just stretched her arms.  But something was different.

As she stretched, something felt... new.  Some people say that we only use 10% of our brain, but now she felt like something else was opened up in her head.  New possibilities and horizons.  And something new to move.  She felt like she had another pair of arms, but stronger.

It was then that she realized what her new gift was.  Or curse, whichever.

She stared at the wings behind her.  They were brown and bronze, and stretched out for almost ten feet, five feet to either side (the room was really long).  She tried retracting them, to test her theory, and they came in as easily as she would drop her arms to her side.

She had wings.  The blessing was obvious, she could fly.  Even the curse was obvious this time.  She was a freak.  Maybe she could make them disappear, like Frank could hide his animal... peculiarities.  But right now she didn't feel like she had the strength.  The pain of growing the wings was still there, but not as strong.

Birdie thought that she could get up, so she did.  Her new wings fit perfectly against her back, but still, she now had the weirdest limbs attached to her body.  She walked out of the room, and found two people in the next one.  Chiron and her mother, Queen Cow Face.

"Heracacedralthalite!" her mother said.  Hera was gorgeous, no doubt about that.  She had dark brown hair and peacock blue eyes.  She was wearing a long white dress, with too many golden spangles, and sapphires wherever she could put them.

Birdie grimaced.  She hadn't seen her mother since she was eight, when she told her about the blessing she gave her as a baby.  Hera had shown up a few months after her dad died.  Birdie was on the run, but she was only eight, and monsters were attacking daily.  Her mother told her that she could gain powers from anything she found favor in.  The more they liked her, the more powerful she became.  She also got a curse to counter that.  Stupid curse.  She'd rather have just her mind reading, and only that.  She had gained the skill of writing from her father.  She never went to school, but she could write like a novelist.  Unfortunately, the curse to balance her gift and happiness, was the fire that killed her father.  She ran with nothing but the clothes on her back and her journal.  She was a scared little girl.  What was she supposed to do?

"That's not my name," Birdie stated.  Her father hated the name too.  He called her his little cuckoo bird, and it was eventually shortened to Birdie.

"Chiron, would you be a dear and give me some time with my pride?" she said in a sickly sweet voice.  Her pride.  Not her daughter, not her sweetheart, but her pride.  That's what her name meant.  Hera's pride.  Just like how Heracles meant the glory of Hera.  At least his was pronounceable.  Hercules had visited her a couple of times, but he was a god, and therefore inconsistent.  But still, he kind of took her in.  She had to suffer through Hera's weirdness just like he did.  The first time he showed up, she thought he was going to kill her.  She remembered crying like a baby, and he had taken pity on her.  They could relate, and he was the closest thing she ever had to a big brother.

He hadn't abandoned her nearly as much as Queen Cow Face had.

"My Pride!" exclaimed Hera, holding out her arms, "let's talk!"