Rising

The Tower and the Pigeon Boy

Wren took a breath, filling her lungs with the silence of the night. It was very rare to have a moment alone here at the academy. Being surrounded by so many people constantly was like a constant drain on her patience. Along with the test to her patience the people she was surrounded by were unknown variables that she could not predict. She did not know their stories or the depths of their powers, so she was always on alert around them. The tower of the first years had become a safe haven for her and her best friend Lyra, it was a place where they could go to talk without a worry of others listening in on their conversations. Wren had woken from another night terror and realized there was no point going back to sleep, so she climbed out of their window onto the side of the tower and climbed onto the tower's sloped roof.

The academy's founders had built the school high in the mountains where no ordinary person would happen upon it. The school was a place for young people from around the world to train and evolve their powers, as well as to learn their place in the world.

To be able to enter the school you must either be invited, which is the most common case, or an ambitious potential student could trek through the forest and fight their way to the academy. Almost no one survived this endeavor. Wren liked to think that with her abilities that she would come out of the ordeal safely, but she couldn't be certain. She had heard rumors that there were dragons and chimeras dwelling within the canopied labyrinth, and she was not anxious to test herself against such things.

Wren was considering how many stars she could name when she heard some grunting and a muttered curse. She looked over the ledge in surprise. She came up here at least twice a week for the past three months, and she had never been disturbed, especially not this early in the morning. The moon illuminated the still cursing figure enough to see that he was not someone that she recognized. Wren thought to herself absentmindedly, "Maybe I should pay more attention to other people my age."

Wren was waiting with her arms crossed when he finally pulled himself onto the roof. His eyes widened and she noticed that his eyes were a startling gold color, and he took a step back in his surprise. Big mistake. The boy had stepped back into thin air, Wren yelled in warning but it was too late. Without thinking she was reaching to grab his hand, and his momentum had them tumbling through the air. Wren pulled the stranger closer to her, knowing that he would be the last person she saw before the Darkness claimed her. The only thought going through her mind, "This was a horrible idea."

The stupid boy pulled her closer so that she could feel the corded muscles of his chest and shoulders when they suddenly tensed and their decent came to a halting stop. Wren yelped in surprise to see that massive black wings had sprouted from his back. With a rush wind they shot up toward the sanctuary of the ledge and with surprising gentleness he set her down.

Wren quickly put some distance between herself and the winged boy and yelled, "What the hell were you doing? What were you waiting for?! If you had wings in the first place, why would you let us fall for so long?" He smirked at her and she noted that his left cheek had an infuriating dimple in it, to add insult to injury, he had the audacity to start laughing. Hearing her low growl he attempted to sober himself up and said with a straight face,"You would have died just now and your first reaction is to yell at me! That isn't exactly a normal response!" Wren felt her face flood with heat and tried to keep herself from yelling this time, "I was terrified that we were both about to die and we fell for a solid ten seconds before you did anything! How am I supposed to react?" He smiled again and said,"You're correct, it wasn't right to let you believe we were going to die." He saw that her shoulders had loosened fractionally and he continued, "I just never really get the opportunity to fly here, and I haven't ever been able to fly with anyone in my arms. I was curious, but that's really not an excuse, so I really am sorry."