Wings

Chapter 32: Gail

     "Alright, now put some more force on the right one-- No, your other right! Wrong kind of force! Aagh! You are impossible!" Tyler threw his hands up in frustration, turning away from me for a second. Without his incessant corrections, I quickly lost balance and fell a couple feet back to solid ground.

      What had happened is after I passed out, I had these weird visions of a crystal cave. Then I saw the castle we escaped from, but Ella, Katie, and Ani were there and seemed to be getting along. They also had plumbing! Crazy, right? So I woke up to see Tyler shaking me...

     A number of hours prior...

     Visions of random things flashed through my mind, kind of like an aftereffect of a bright flash of light. I saw Tyler's mouth moving, but couldn't make out the words for a couple seconds. Then the images faded, leaving me with a pounding headache and the average dull screen of gray I had come to accept as part of my existence. I finally focused in on Tyler's words.

     "Hey, sleeping beauty, wakey wakey! You okay?" He showed some signs of concern, but I knew that deep down he was agitated. 

     I grunted, moving into a sitting position before answering. "Um, yeah. Had this awesome but crazy-" Before I could say the last word, "dream", I became aware of something on my back. An uncontrollable grin burst onto my face, and the world got brighter. I leaped to my feet, startling Tyler so much that he fell backward. My wings! My demented totally screwed up wings! They were so dull, so shifty, yet so alive. They had soft feathers that came in and out of focus but portrayed an inner light that battled my own dull screen of gray. I unfurled them, mouth wide. The forest seemed to get brighter, dappled sunlight spotting my wings.

     Tyler stood and shifted nervously, eying my wings. "I don't know what to say. They're not the best. Heck, they're even-"

     "Gorgeous!" I exclaimed. "The most beautiful things ever! Can I keep them?"

     A small chuckle from Tyler sent us both into a laughing fit. Then I got serious.

     "So those monsters, Direlings, why were they chasing us? What happened? I didn't fly, I saw some kind of brown." I stared at Tyler, craning my neck to his back, much to my disappointment there was nothing.

     He nodded. I noticed that his hair had lost its professional touch, and now was an oddly attractive mess. His blue/gray eyes meet mine. "They were after one of us. Rebels, I'd say, by the marks on their arms. And you flew. That's how we survived."

     I felt tugged to him, mentally, and saw the truth of his words for a second, or rather the lack of it. Coming back to reality took a strong amount of force, and I actually recoiled a step. Tyler didn't notice. 

     "I did not fly. I fell. Which one of us were they after?" I was getting suspicious, which was odd for me. 

     He abruptly turned and stalked towards me. The oddball, quiet kid I had known was gone. This was a completely new person. "That is none of your business. Drop it for now." His eyes glinted into a red for a moment.

     "Fine!" I snapped, turning as abruptly as he did and marched towards a log. As angry as I was, fear was worming into me. Those flashes of red were too common to be a trick of the light.

     A few minutes later curiosity got the best of me. So I stood and tested my wings out, experimentally flapping them. Then I jumped off the log. 

     And promptly smacked into the ground. After a few more attempts, Tyler must have taken pity on me because he came over and started coaching me.