When I Fly

Chapter 5

The next morning, I get ready for school and meet up with Al on our route. I look down at my arms and see the blue patterns again. I quickly put my jacket on to hide them.
     "What's up?" She says.
     "Nothing much! How about you?" I reply.
     "Last week was so boring. I had nobody to hang out with." She moans.
     "Hey, I'm back now!"
We laugh and chat and get to school super early. I make sure to hide the blue glow. All throughout the day, the blue patterns glow. Sometimes, they're very bright but other times they're faint.

I immediately go to Aejithis after school to see if I need to go into battle. I walk into the castle to find soldiers scrambling around while a General barks orders.
     "Your Highness, what is going on?" I ask.
     "There are demons closing in on us rapidly. Go find Luke and tell him you have to go fight. Take this earpiece. The General will talk to you through it. There's a small microphone built in as well. Your codename is Echo 5." The King says, handing me an earpiece. I nod my head and quickly fly off to the house. I burst through the door.
     "Luke!" I call out. He comes out from the living room worriedly.
     "What is it?"
     "I have to go into battle right now. I promise that I'll be safe." I give him a quick kiss.
     "Wait!" He says, running into the living room. He comes back with a black bandana to wear on my ankle. "Wear this. Please." I nod and put it on. He kisses me and hurries me out the door. I fly off as fast as I can and activate my earpiece.
     "This is Echo 5, reporting in. What do we have, General?" I say.
     "Echo 5, this is General Jaluit. We have about 50 to 100 demons along with some new demons. Careful! Watch out for the young ones. They're extremely vicious." He barks.
     "Roger that!" I fly towards the battle.
     "Kamea?" A familiar voice comes from my earpiece.
     "Orion? You're an Elite, too?"
     "Yeah! I was inducted last week! Less talk, more fighting! Get in position!" I find my spot in the front line. The other soldiers and I hover as we watch the demons get closer.
     "Charge!" The General cries out. We all fly forward with our huge wings. We prepare our attacks and start firing. It's chaos. There are demons screeching and dark attacks coming from every side.
     "Echo 5! Behind you!" Echo 1 warns. I turn around and hit a demon with a water attack. It screeches and grabs my throat, choking me. I manage to kick it away and hit it with all I've got.
     "Keep it up, newbie!" Echo 6 says. I dodge left and right, rapidly shooting any and all demons.
     "Orion! Watch my back! I'm going in!" I say.
     "What?! Are you crazy?!"
     "Just do as I say!" I yell. I fly faster than before, hitting every single demon. A demon comes out of nowhere and claws at my leg, making a deep cut. I focus all my energy and perform a powerful light attack, which is my strongest one. The attack sends demons miles away. The remaining ones begin to retreat.
     "Nice job out there, Echo 5!" The soldiers praise.
     "You're dismissed, Echo 5. Nice work." The General says.
I nod and slowly fly into town. I sit down on a bench and take a bandage out of my bag. I wrap up my leg and relax.

A little girl with her mother comes up to me. She looks to be about five years old and has blonde pigtails and green wings.
     "Hi! I'm Destiny!" The little girl says.
     "Hi, Destiny! What can I do for you?" I greet her.
     "You're Kamea, right?"
     "Yep! That's me!"
     "I saw your last test. I wanted to get your autograph but the guards wouldn't let me go see you." Destiny says.
     "I'm sorry. Would you like my autograph now?"
     "Pretty please?" She begs.
     "Of course!" Destiny hands me a poster of me from the test. I'm wearing a flower crown and holding a trophy. I write down a note and sign it Your Friend, Kamea. "Would you like a picture?" I offer. Destiny nods and her mom takes out a Polaroid. I set Destiny on my lap and we smile.
     "My mom took two pictures. You can have this one!" Destiny hands me a photo with us smiling. I give her a hug and she skips away happily. I smile watching her show her mom the photo.

I return home to find Luke passed out on the couch. I laugh to myself and softly shake him.
     "Luke..." I whisper. He opens his eyes and grins. He pulls me down on the couch with him so that I'm on top of him.
     "I'm so happy to see that you're ok." He kisses me.
     "I... I need to rest..." I say. He gives me a confused look and I get up. I go into the bedroom and lie on the bed. A few minutes later, Luke comes in.
     "You ok?" He quietly asks. I don't respond. My leg burns in pain and the bandage is soaked with blood. I have a cut on my cheek and the blood goes onto the pillow. He must've noticed because he immediately picks me up and carries me to the bathroom.
     "What are you doing? I said I'm fine." I lie.
     "You're not fine!" He says, taking out a fresh bandage. "What happened out there?"
     "A demon came out of nowhere and clawed at me. I don't know how I got the cut on my cheek." I explain.
     "You need to be more careful, Kamea! You could be killed!"
     "You're not my parent!" I yell, frustrated and tired. "I'm going home." I start to get up but I fall outside the bathroom, crying. Luke comes over to me and holds me in his lap.
     "Get some rest. You'll need it." We go outside and he brings me to the gates. "Be safe." He gives me a long hug and I slowly drift back down to earth. I limp all the way back home.

Of course, Al yells at me at school and questions why I have a deep cut on my leg. I tell her that I cut my leg on a piece of broken glass.

Back at Aejithis, I train to become stronger. I get a note from Darius saying that he's going to take me somewhere that will help me fly even faster. I go to where he said to meet. He's standing outside of a building that looks like a gym.
     "Hey, Darius! What's this?" I wave.
     "This is where Elites receive intense training for learning to fly faster and hit harder. Welcome to Sundown Gym." We walk inside to see multiple elite angels training. Darius brings me to a room with harnesses hanging from the ceiling. There are small room each with a harness and controls.
     "This is the room in which Elites train to fly faster. Each room is a Flying Chamber. Trainers have the Elite lie face-down on the harness as if they were flying. It works like a treadmill. The large fan in front of the harness can have its speed adjusted. The holes in the ceiling are for water. The trainers can make it seem like the Elite is flying in rain."
     "But I thought we can't fly in rain." I say, confused.
     "That's correct. But the reason we do that is so we can get adjusted to flying in rain so that one day, we can fly in rain." Darius walks into one of the chambers. "Come on. Time to train." He walks to the harness and I walk in after him. I lie on the harness with my face down. Darius tightens the harness around my waist and goes to the controls.
     "When I press this button, start flapping your wings. Ready?" I nod. He presses the button and the fan starts blowing. A screen on the glass wall shows the speed of the wind and conditions. The speed reads ten mph. It's already hard to fly.
     "I'm going to turn it up. Come on, Kamea! You can do better than this!" Darius turns the wind up to 20 mph. I use most of my strength.
     "Come on, Kamea! This is nothing!" I see the speed go up to 40 mph. My wings beat rapidly.
     "Time for a little rain." The conditions change to medium rain. Water comes from the shower in the ceiling and my hair and clothes immediately get soaked.
     "Darius! I can't fly in rain!" I say, spitting water out of my mouth.
     "Yes, you can! Try!" The speed goes up to the 60 mph and heavy rain with thunder. "These are the highest settings!" My wings beat faster. After a few minutes, Darius presses the stop button and the water turns off. He unhooks me from the harness. He hands me a towel and sends me to the castle to learn more about demi-angels.

I walk into the throne room, my wings, drenched with water, dragging across the floor. I curtsy and squeeze some water out of my wings. I realize that Luke is standing next to the king. They are both wide-eyed.
     "Shit..." I mutter. I know I'm going to get in trouble with Luke. Thankfully, before Luke can say anything, the king speaks to me.
     "What is your purpose to be here, Kamea?" He smiles kindly.
     "Darius and I were training in the Flying Chambers at Sundown Gym. That's why I'm wet. He sent me here to learn more about demi-angels."
     "First, let's get you dried off." He nods to one of the handmaids and she takes me to a spa-like room. She blow dries my wings and fixes my hair. I return to the throne room feeling fresh.   "Come with me, Kamea." He gestures for me to follow him and I obey while Luke silently follows. We go to the king's private library. He searched the bookshelves and takes out a thick book entitled, Demi-Angels: Guidebook.
"This has everything you need to know about your kind. We will be building a public library soon. I'll tell you the basics." He explains. "First of all, there are three rules that every demi-angel must follow."
     "What's that?"
     "No pure human can ever know about your kind or even our kind. If a human found out that you are not pure human, you would put all of Aejithis in danger, including yourself. Second rule, flying in rain is not recommended. Third, if you ever wish to fly on earth, make sure that there is nobody around you. Last, but not least, if a human finds you in your angel form, do not retract your wings."
     "I understand. I'll keep those in mind." With that, King Rylon sends me home.
     "Don't be mad at me." I tell Luke as we fly to the gate.
     "I'm not mad." He says, looking straight ahead.
     "You haven't talked this entire flight. All I did was train to be able to fly in rain."
     "I just don't want you to get hurt." He says, looking at me.
     "I'll be ok. I promise." I kiss him goodbye as I fly out of the golden gates.

When I go home, my mom says that Alice came over and waited for me to come back but she fell asleep. I go into my room and she's asleep on the floor.
Time to tell her something. Dreaming leaping. I close my eyes and try to imagine entering her mind. I am teleported into a dream of her and I walking down a forest trail together, laughing and making jokes. I go into Dream me's body.
     "Alice..." I say. My voice echoes.
     "Kamea, what's wrong?" She looks at me worriedly. Fog starts to surround us.
     "I haven't told you everything about me..."
     "What do you mean? I know practically everything about you!"
     "Not everything..." The fog gets thicker. I stand in front of her, my back to the fog.
     "When will you tell me?"
     "In due time... be patient, my friend..." As the dream fades, an extremely faint shadow of a pair of wings form behind me. I exit the dream before she wakes up. She jerks up, drenched in sweat.
     "Kamea!" She screams.
     "Alice, are you ok?" I hug her.
     "You were in my dream. You said that you haven't told me something about you yet. Is it true?"
     "It's probably just nothing. Go to bed. You're very tired." I let her sleep on my bed and lay my sleeping bag on the floor.
How am I going to explain the truth to her?