Winged

Chapter One: Part I

Scarlett

"Double twist, now!"

At the sharp command, Scarlett immediately moved into action, she tucked her wings tight against her body and ducked downward, the wind whipping small daggers against her unprotected cheeks. A few hundred feet before she hit the snow-covered ground, she spread out her feathers just a little, barely enough to let her twist her body twice in the air before she tucked it back in again. It was almost when she can feel the cold crystals of snow against her nose that she snapped out her wings, the action forcing back up into the clear blue sky.

    "Perfecto!" Magistra Emmalee clapped from her place a few yards away from her. The woman's cheeks were ruddy from the exposure to the cold air but the fiery excitement burning in her eyes made up for the warm wool cloak most people with common sense would be wearing. However, when you are in Advanced Flight Prep class, all common sense goes out of the window.

    "One hundred percent as usual darling!" The professor exclaimed, scratching notes on her notepad as they drifted towards the ground, Scarlett's breathing disheveled, where seven of her classmates awaits their turn for their testing.

    "Good job Scar!" Reychelle waved from her position under the tree, shouting her congratulations, her left hand was holding a hot mug of coffee and her springy auburn curls bounced as she jumped up and down. Scarlett smiled at her self-consciously, blushing at the compliment slightly.

    She started towards where her friend was standing, but then paused mid-movement, glancing at her teacher still concentrating on her writing. Making a decision, she moved her foot back to its original position and decided to wait for the woman to finish, fingers picking at a loose thread on the corner of her uniform.

Magistra Emmalee didn't make her wait long, she finished her scribbling on the pad of paper with a flourish of her pen and looked up, grinning. "At this rate, you'll make it into the Castle in the Sky at no time!" Emmalee clapped Scarlett on the back, brushing the tips of her wings with her palm. Scarlett beamed at the comment, going to the prestigious Winged academy named the Castle in the Sky had been her dream ever since she tested to be Winged when she was four.

"Thank you!" She said instinctively. Magistra Emmalee gave her another hard pat on the shoulder and shifted away, flipping a page in her notepad.

As her teacher turned away, Scarlett's fingers started to entangle with each other nervously, her knuckles pale with the pressure at the anticipation of what she was going to say next. Her mouth opened and closed as if she wanted to say something.

"Um, I've heard that the representatives from the Castle in the Sky are arriving next week? Is that true?" She blurted out the question swirling in her mind since she heard the rumor from Reychelle three days ago.

Magistra Emmalee was gesturing for another girl in her class, Cathleen, to come forward before her head whipped up at Scarlett's words. "How did you know?" She asked alarmed as the information was confidential.

Scarlett searched for a reason that made sense, Reychelle had made her swear to never tell anyone since she eavesdropped on the Headmaster to hear the news.

"Ae-Aerie told me." She stammered, her heart pounding a tad faster.

Magistra Emmalee frowned at her. "That is close enough I suppose. However, I would be expecting the Silvya family to be more accurate since they are so close to the royal family." Her teacher's brows furrowed even more and Scarlett felt a pang of guilt for her lie, but then Magistra Emmalee shook her head. "Never you mind about that since you already knew, it wouldn't hurt to tell you the truth. The correct time is three days, the representatives are arriving in three days."

Scarlett's heart skipped a beat at the date. "Three days?" She paled, it was coming so fast, she wasn't really prepared. What if she messes up? She's been counting on months to prepare herself for the representatives!

Seeing Scarlett's pale face, Magistra Emmalee's face softened "Oh, don't worry darling, I'm sure you'll get in. You're one of our best students this year after all, and" She paused as if she wanted to say something else but then the woman's eyes drifted behind her "You have a good friend." She finished stiffly.

Scarlett turned around, confused until she caught sight of a dark-haired girl just striding into the clearing with her head held high as if she was proud that she was late.

"Sorry Magistra," Scarlett turned back around, readily apologizing for Aerie. "I'll talk to her next time." She said as her teacher sighed exasperated, waving her hand for her to leave. "It doesn't matter anyways, if she's anything like her sister, she'll be a natural born genius " The remark sounds bitter and irritated to Scarlett but the woman didn't display anything on her face. "Go on and stop worrying, you worry too much." With that, Magistra Emmalee turned back to Cathleen and instructed her to start.

"Hey," A familiar hand clapped onto Scarlett's shoulder as she watched Magistra Emmalee and Cathleen's shadows disappear into the clouds. "How's it going?"

Scarlett flinched and turned around to see Aerie's familiar sharp features, the silver angled eyes exactly like the prodigy of their school, Raevyn Silvya, who happened to be Aerie's older sister.

"Good, I guess." Scarlett shrugged, moving towards Reychelle, who was distracted with the hot liquid she seemed to have spilled over her white cloak.

"Why the grim face?" Aerie fell into her step nonchalantly, curling a single dark hair around a finger, her eyes so bright with carefreeness that Scarlett was jealous of her.

"The representatives are coming in three days, I'm worried that they won't show interest in me," Scarlett admitted after a moment of hesitation. She didn't bother to lie, after all, she can never hide anything from her sharp-eyed best friend.

"Oh, that. Don't worry, if you need help I can get Raevyn to recommend you, she likes you anyways" Aerie shrugged, making the rough gesture look graceful as she mentioned her eldest sister, who was a cadre-leader in the Castle in the Sky and also one of the representatives looking for new students in three days.

"You know that's not going to happen, Raevyn is going to recommend you. Besides, I don't want to get in that way. I want to..." She was interrupted by Aerie before she can finish her protest.

"Get in like everyone else." Aerie rolled her eyes "Scar, when can you accept you'll never be like anyone else? Everyone else in this school either has some connection to the nobles or they are coming from a long line of Winged, they're not getting in because of their talent." They had paused in their path now, Reychelle was glancing at them questioningly.

"I know," Scarlett groaned "But I don't want to cheat."

Aerie gave her a look, leaning her weight on one leg, not sympathizing, "Everyone cheats, Scarlett. You can't be an angel all the time, even the sweetest person and the person you trust the most will betray you one day."

Scarlett crossed her arms defensively. "Only to you. You're the one coming from a family where sisters try to kill each other to inherit the duchy."

Aerie wasn't insulted by Scarlett's harsh words like others would. She only continued her way towards Reychelle again, her walk still carefree.

"That's what teaches us to put ourselves before everything else darling. It's what teaches us to survive."

Her words sent a sliver of ice up Scarlett's spine, leaving her with an entire body of tingling cold.