The Demon Within

Unexpected Happenings

Unexpected Happenings

Kyra

It had been two weeks since the furies had attacked Nathaniel, almost killing him with an arrow made from the charred wood of an Ancient tree. He had explained it to me calmly as he mopped up his blood that had spilled onto the wooden floor of the living room. Ancient trees are rare trees that originated in God's garden of Eden, planted by the angels themselves. Their seedlings had spread to rain forests all over the world but now, because of deforestation there were less than a hundred of the trees left. The wood was the one of the few things that could pierce the skin of an angel.

I sat on the edge of the porch, my legs dangling over the edge as I tried to prepare myself for another one of Nathaniel's flying lessons. I was gradually getting better, like a toddler just learning how to walk and it always left me feeling tired and strained. Especially when he tried to show me evasive manoeuvres that would one day save my life, those took the biggest toll on my wing muscles. I looked up just as Nathaniel's shadow fell over me.

"Are you ready?" he asked, gazing down at me as I gulped in a lung full of air. I looked down at the ground below and nodded. My fear still had a grip on me although it was getting weaker every time I took to the sky.

Nathaniel had modified my clothes so that my wings could unfurl easily through thin slits in the back of my tops. It meant that I would be confined to always wearing a cardigan or jacket that could hide the slits and the stark black feathers of my wings. I stood and brushed invisible dirt from my jeans as I unfurled my wings, my night feathers a contrast to his grey ones which were tipped with the purest white.

He smiled at me before he pitched forward, free falling from the porch before spiralling upwards towards the canopy and the sky beyond.

Here goes nothing.

I followed suit, stepping out onto thin air and dropping towards the dirt below. The usual fear gripped at my heart, similar to the feeling you get just before a really high rollercoaster goes over that first crucial hill into a steep dive. I tilted my wings just a little and I caught the air, soaring upwards as I beat my wings strongly to reach the canopy. Unlike Nathaniel, I didn't crash through the canopy like a frightened pigeon. Instead, I looked for gaps in the never ending mass of leaves that allowed me to slip through without even the slightest whisper. Since Nathaniel flew a lot, there was an angel-sized gap in the canopy that I used while he created new ones. I slipped past the numerous broken and sad looking twigs that hung limply from the main thin branch that held them in a tug of war with gravity. Nathaniel was hovering above the trees waiting with his arms crossed when I joined him.

"You take forever," He grumbled, his feathers practically twitching with the need to fly fast.

I pointed at my chest, "Only had wings for two weeks." I then pointed at him, "Had wings since before the dawn of time. Give me a break."

He rolled his eyes, "Do you think Alexander will give you a break when he finds out your alive?"

Hearing his name spoken caused my heart to flutter and pain to spike in my chest but I looked back at Nathaniel calmly, "He can't fly can he? So once I'm in the air, I'll be fine."

"He has minions," He answered blankly and I resisted the urge to laugh as images of the squat yellow minions passed through my mind. "Why is that funny?"

I shook my head, "It's not. Never mind."

He gave me a strange look like he thought I may just be losing my mind then turned to face the morning sun, letting the sunlight warm his feathers before rushing upwards in a single beat of his wings.