Fallen

Chapter Three: Strange and Pained

Avery's POV

    Everything was white behind her closed eyelids. A loud ringing in her ears told her she was alive, but maybe by just a hair. She felt numb to herself... her arms, her legs, everything. It was all lifeless, like dead weight attached to her soul. Had she landed on the ground? How long had she fallen for? Weeks? Months? It felt more like centuries to her... hell she was surprised it had stopped. She was expecting to fall forever and ever, until she passed away. Probably from a heart attack, she presumed. There was only so much excitement a body could take, especially when falling to an almost certain death. But as she laid there she became more aware of her limbs, now knowing, in fact, that she had not paralyzed herself. She had doubts for a moment, she would admit that.

    The loud and obnoxious ringing in her ears seems to last for decades, but once it fades she is overcome by different sounds. Sounds of... well, she wasn't sure. There was rustling, and chirping, and other odd foreign sounds to her, all engulfing her in something she had never experienced before. The only sound she recognized was the sound of the flowing wind, winding through her hair and the surrounding environment to which she had not seen yet. She was almost terrified to open her eyes, fearing that what she had dreamed about for so long, wouldn't meet her expectations, or that she would be disappointed. She wouldn't have wanted to leave her grandmother for something terrible, and boring. But then again, how much more boring could you get than up in the sky like she had lived? Only really surrounded by two or three colors, like white and blue and the occasional orange if she could catch a glimpse of the sun in the distance. It was hard sometimes because of all the damn whiteness, the blank canvass clouds she had known her whole life. She had actually started to hate it.

    She remains still for a very long moment, petrified down to her core. What if she was dead, and this was what it felt like? What if she tried to move her hand, but nothing moves at all? She almost didn't move at all. Almost. Gingerly, she twitches her index fingers, followed by the rest in very slow movements to make sure nothing was broken or damaged. Nothing was in excruciating pain, so she assumed she was alright. Then she moves her arms in very small movements, then her legs and toes. All seemed in a good working order, which completely baffled her because she had probably fallen miles from her home to smack into the hard ground below. Finally, she moves her wings. She could understand why nothing else had hurt now... her wings had taken most of the fall, the damned things. She tries to twitch them, little by little, and each movement felt like someone was stabbing her with a piece of glass. Hopefully she would heal from it... God only knows what she would do if she couldn't fly. A being that couldn't fly... She would be laughed at back in grade school if she had been like this. If it had been someone else she would have laughed too. Everyone could fly by then, and the idea of someone who couldn't was ludicrous.

    She feels the ground beneath her with her palms, and is almost startled by the feeling. They felt like little hairs dancing beneath her skin, short and plush. It was soft, and smelled of something she had never experienced. Something so new. It smelled fresh, like it hadn't existed for long, which was an odd but pleasing thing to her. She would lay here for decades if her body would have allowed her to do so. Sadly, she knew better than to lay there and feel what was beneath her forever. She wanted to open her eyes, to confront everything around her, but she was so scared. She never thought she'd feel this scared in her entire life. But, like all things, it had to come to a end eventually. Her mind was in overdrive of all the possible things that could await her when she opened her eyes. What if there was nothing, and this was her senses tricking her into thinking she was fine? Damage to her nerves? Or what if she had been put into a cage without her realizing it, and people were around her gawking at her because she came from the sky? The second one sounded worse than the first in her mind. She flutters her eyelashes as she struggles to filter all the light into her opening eyes. Wherever she was, it wasn't dark. That was a positive sign.

    The first thing that greets her eyes is a vast expanse of blue, with streaks of white dotted across. The sky... and her old home. But this time, it was so much different. The clouds were above instead of below her feet now, and they were splattered across the sky like patches of wallpaper that had peeled off of the beautiful blue background. The second thing she sees is green, so much green. And it was so gorgeous. Up in the sky, she never got to see colors like this, so vibrant and natural and amazing. Everything up there was blue and white, and whatever color you got to program your pod to be or what you could paint your nails. This, this was so very different. It was huge, engulfing her and filling her senses with something warm, and inviting. She had never seen so much green in one place, but she never wanted to stop seeing it. She glances down beneath her, noticing more green beneath her besides the brown and harsh contrasts of the black scorch marks. Must have been her breaking through the ozone layer. 

   She takes in her surroundings a little at a time, trying to process it all so she wouldn't pass out. It was so much more than she had ever hoped to see in the world below... it was so different, and beautiful, and new. There were trees, things she had never seen in real life, only in her textbooks. They never taught their children about real trees, or real grass or nature. Only the synthetic ones you can program into your front yard to look nice. This was real, and rooted into the ground, pure and sweet. She gingerly sits up, whimpering with pain as her wings move to accommodate the new position she had put herself in. She tries to stretch them out, but fails miserably. She just couldn't... not right now anyways. It hurt too damn much. She looks down at herself and raises her eyebrows in surprise. She wasn't that injured either... just her wings and a gash on her cheek and shoulder. Other than that, just bruises it seemed like. She silently prayed to whatever god there was out there that she had made it to this place alive, taking some of the grass beneath her in her palm to seemingly steady herself

    A soft rustle to her left brings her to attention and she stops dead in her tracks. There was another being here... and they were different than anything she had ever seen before. They had tanned skin, with dark brown locks and the prettiest green eyes she had seen. Eyes could be green? And hair and skin could be those colors? She had only ever seen blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin from her home... was it so different here that their appearance was odd as well? It both thrilled and terrified her down to her very core. The two of them lock eyes, and it occurs to her that they are probably just as frightened as she, seeing a strange being fall from the sky. They stand slowly, holding their hands up to show that they were unarmed.

    "U-Uh... are you alright miss?" They ask softly, their voice deeper than anything she had heard before. They seemed ever so cautious around her, which was understandable. As they inch close to her, she notices something else about this person that catches her off guard more than anything else she had seen.

    This person did not posses wings... and had no evidence on their back of ever having them in the first place.

((Hey lovelies! Sorry I haven't updated anything in forever... I've been busy with school and everything involved in it with testing coming up. I'll try to update as often as I can, and again I apologize))