Flight (in the writing process)

Town

I woke up to my mother vigorously shaking me awake.

"Honey. Its time to get up."  A thought crossed my mind. This day could determine what the rest of my life was like. I wouldn't get picked. It was near impossible. Nor would Caden. We would be fine, but we still had to enter our names. It was ridiculous.

"I'll go get Caden. Be dressed in your lengthy dress and a cloak in five minutes." I sat up, and blinked. Today was my fifteenth birthday. I stood up, stretched, and grabbed a long dark green dress that I hated. I only had to wear it for just this day one day, but I still wasn’t happy about it.

"Damn dress." I hissed under my breath. "Why can’t women wear breeches?" I put the damn dress on, and then a cloak to hide my wings.

Caden, Mother and I grabbed a slice of last night’s bread each. We set off, shivering due to the chill of the mid september fog rolling in off the lake. We had to travel around it to get to town. It was the only way. No bridge across, and I couldn't fly us over. So, we had to leave early to get there, register and get back home not too late.

"You know; we could have bought horses or something for this." Caden shivered next to me, rubbing his arms against his hands.

"I wanted to talk to you two on the way in. The slower, the better."My mother kept her eyes on the path before us. "There's something I never told any of you." She sucked in a breath. Caden and I glanced at each other. "At the registration, you have the option of changing your name. You can do so If you wish, but know I will always know you by the name You were given, either by me or your real parents. I will try to call you by your new one, but I may forget. Another thing, I want you to know, that no matter what happens, I love you both. I will always love you, no matter what you do with your lives."

For the first time in her speech; she glanced back at Caden and I. And we saw why she wasn't looking at either of us. The poor woman was in tears. They dripped in a steady flow down her face, making tracks of water on her skin. When she looked at her two oldest children, she lost it completely.

"My babies.  My poor little-" She buried her head in her hands and started to sob. "I don’t want either of you to go. I wouldn't be able to bear never seeing you again.” I rushed to her side.

"Shhhh Mother. It'll be okay." I rubbed her back. "We'll be fine."

She took a deep breath with a hand over her heart. "I hope you're right."

We walked in silence for over an hour. My mother, at the head of our little group, Caden and I, side by side. This must've been a very rough day for her. Her two oldest children getting registered for taking, possibly taken away forever.

The town came into view. It was HUGE! How anyone could say it was a small one? The town started at a huge gate made of some strange white stone and an iron barred gate. That itself was a hulking few stories tall. It was impossible to climb over, and too thick to dig under. And the truly amazing thing was,  it had stood for hundreds of years without even cracking.

The inside was even more monstrous. Every road was paved in, cobblestone and every home was made of the same white stone as the wall. All of the roofs had either had wooden boards as the rooftop or were thatched with some sort of straw. Most homes had glass windows with iron frames, some even had flowers growing out of them. Flags of red and gold hung over the streets, waving in the gentle autumn  breeze.

And that was just the buildings. The people, my god, the people. Everyone was dressed in a different color. Either bright or dark; it didn't matter. Women wore their hair however they wanted, and their children were everywhere. They played with things I had never before seen in my life. Caden walked past all this like it was nothing, but he had been here before, many times. I only had come once, way before I can remember.