Wings of Gold (temp title)SHELVED

Chapter 2

My feathers ruffle in the wind as I glide down over the city. I spot the new recruits and wave down to them. The instructor glares at me and yells for me to get back to my patrol. I snort and turn the tip of a wing and swoop into a turn, the hardened muscles ripple as I flap the wings again. I push up and up, tilting my wings to catch the air current. My secondary pecs strain and I feel pain in my chest. Pushing and pushing against gravity I raise higher and higher until I can barely breathe. Suddenly my right wing spasms, pain shoots through it and into my back and pecs and I grab at it with my right arm. It tucks itself in and I descend at a terrifying speed. I try to control my descent with my left wing but suddenly it's too weak and too small. All I'm able to do is angle my landing away from people. As I rocket toward the ground with no hope of survival all I can think is, man, I wonder what mom is making for dinner. My body hits the gravel road with several crunches. Lying limp on the ground I wonder why this happened.

I catch a whiff of cooked eggs and pork and, jerk awake.

"Livi, breakfast time." My mother calls out from the kitchen. "Livi you don't want to be late for recruitment do you?"

While rubbing at my face I clear my eyes of crust and call out, "I'll be right down." I roll out of my tangle of blankets and fall to the floor with a thud. The blanket falls onto me and I kick it off. I roll over onto my front and push up off the ground. After scrambling to my feet I head for the door. There is a loud thud and I hear myself cursing through the sudden blinding pain as my toe jams into the chair next to my bed. I collapse into the chair and cradle my injured toe.

"Livi what is-" My mother comes into my room and stops as she sees me cradling my foot. "Livi what happened?"

"Well you see. This chair jumped out in front of me and attacked my foot." I poke at the red flesh while attempting to avoid my mothers gaze.

"I told you to move that chair. Now hurry up or your eggs will get cold." She turns with a breeze and heads back to the kitchen.

"Yes mother." Breath hisses out of my mouth as I grumble at her. Standing, I use my injured foot to push my chair away, teetering on the balance of one foot. My arms windmill as I slam my other foot into the ground to stop myself from falling. My toe throbs and I limp out of the pain fest that my room has become. As I crash down into my chair at the table my mother sets the steaming plate in front of me.

"Try not to burn your mouth this ti- You're a troublesome child." My mother shakes her head as I shovel the hot food into my mouth.

"Gwud ffoued muhm" Chunks of egg fall from my mouth and back onto my plate, which I promptly shove back into my mouth, eating as quickly as possible.

"Why do I bother with you?" She sighs and sits with her own plate, eating slowly.

Swallowing comes with difficulty but it all goes down. I wipe my mouth and put the plate on the cabinet. "Thanks for the food mom. I'm gonna head out now. I'll be back by dinner." I give her a wave before charging out of the door and into the chilled morning air.

"Livi! Over here!" Rylee, my scrawny best friend since birth, waves at me and darts down an alleyway. I curve my path towards the alley and stroll towards it. Rylee pokes his head back out of the alley. "Come on Livi! Hurry up!"

"I'll get there when I get there." Rylee is a little impatient so I like to mess with him by taking my time.

"Oh come on. There's something cool I want to show you. If you don't hurry up you'll miss it!" Rylee runs out and grabs my arm, dragging me into the alley.

"Oh come on. What's so important that you gotta drag me?"

"The fly-elites are back!" Rylee leaps over the low wall and gestures for me to follow. He runs to the high perch over the main road. "Look. That could be us one day."