Light from Darkness

Chapter 4- Tiny wings

Skies were blocked out by the hundreds of tiny black shapes moving as one gigantic mass in clouds of living organisms. The hundreds, no thousands, no millions of darting swallows dived as one straight at the girl stood in the middle of a flowing field that shifted with the waves of the wind that rode against the corn planted there. They came faster, faster, faster blotting out any light that could reach the girl’s eyes from the sun that hung in the vast blue above but this was not a nightmare, it was a dream of the girl’s that played whenever she were in trouble. It hid her from her fears of the emptiness, loneliness and despair that was held back only by her mind and the birds that she adored so much. Then they reached her encasing her with their wings and kept away the harsh light as best they could by swirling around her acting with the actions of a hurricane, furiously flapping their wings to beat away the rays of sunlight that brought her back kicking and screaming to reality. Eventually you have to wake up though and the first shaft broke through a hole in the swallow’s defensive wall, then another grasped at a chunk of her feathered friends before yanking them away with a crushing force that surely killed them. The rest of the birds did the best they could to protect their queen but she knew when the battle was lost. Whole flocks of birds blasted into light until no more were left. Now the nightmare as the field were no more, as it did every time it had been scorched down to the ground roots and all. Cracks ran along the once fertile soil as if she stood in a savannah not a field full of beauty. The fire had been here and so had the skeleton.

Kara woke up suddenly with harsh breath rushing in and out of her mouth. She had been running through the events before her capture, the people who had wanted to protect her from the demon. Dead. The grand army of swallows she had amassed to please her friends. Dead. Everyone she knew was dead and only her and the skeleton remained, that lying, deceitful pile of bones. She would take him apart and spread him across every ocean she had heard of. That time was not today though and she had to wonder what had kept her alive this long. Forgetting the dreams she glimpsed the room through her sleepy eight year old eyes. It was dark but she could see the sky blue wooden walls around her and she became scared of the nightmare once again. She resolved not to be scared for the people she had lost to that monster and not to the emptiness he had brought with him. The soft white covers reminded her of clouds, things that could halt the sky and she took comfort in them. She wrapped the plump covers around her as a barrier to whatever came at her today, even the skeleton wasn’t going to get her. There wasn’t much else in the room aside from a wardrobe with a few clothes that were all too big for Kara and a dresser with some trinkets inside, Kara took a necklace made out some sort of cheap metal that had an albatross as its pendant with its wings spread open. Kara could only dream of making birds that big one day but maybe when she was older and when she had the peace of knowing the Demon was gone. She dragged her long white cloak out through the door into a hallway and saw on the floor something that made her shiver with fear: a singular bone lying on an ornate carpet with a note saying

“The demon lives and he will come back for you.”

There was no comfort here and she collapsed to the ground while surrounding herself with the covers to once again block out the emptiness, to block out the demon.

Awkward seconds passed by as Rowland tried to work out in his head what he could say to this strange man. He ended up with:

“Nice weather huh?”

“You could say that.” The man said. He smiled at Rowland before lowering his hand to gesture for a hand shake. His eyes had lines below and had a patchy little beard growing showing signs of age as well as being alone on this island for at least a while.

“This is going to seem weird but can I just say you have a tiny little fire in your eyes.” The man told Rowland.

“Yeah that’s something surprisingly common believe it or not.”