Death (BoyxBoy)

I

Perched on the highest branch, I was examining the myriad of specks of lights that illuminated the black void of the universe into the profound shades of dark blue that painted the sky on this cloudless night. My sitting position on the bark of the tree made indents in my skin and wings that reminded me strongly of the pains of life, but I did not want to change it for the fear of losing this grasp thinner than split hairs onto what felt so far away from then and yet so close.

I stayed still, my eyes darting around the sky until the sun rose and hid the majestic lights from me. The lack of stiffness in my body was as always making me lose grip into reality. The shock was akin to the constant falls from the heavens unto the ground I had to endure by Lloyd's insistence, but I had to admit that the grace I had found moving these indescribable gas-like wings of pure blackness had been the source of my liberation.

After quickly looking at the opposite extremity of the branch, I broke into a precarious run until my feet touched the last millimeters and plunged my whole weight into the apparent abyss beneath me. Expanding the four black wings behind my back stopped my fall dead in its track and helped follow the morning air currents that led me skyward.

During my time alive, I had never appreciated the spectacular irony of birds, reptiles who evolved to defy gravity by doing pretty much the same things that their underwater ancestors did, but in the sky. Of course, I didn't know that I didn't appreciate them correctly, since all I had from that time was akin to people never remembering what life was before being born. It just felt right to me, the idea that I would have been unaware.

I spent some time playing around the currents, always finding more thrills to be had instead of going back. I ended up plunging once again towards the ground, but this time only to better jump in an arch form that would offer me the perfect speed to get back to the church before I became late. Or actually later than I already was.

In about three minutes of flight, I was in sight of the little temple-like building in the middle of a clearing in one of the northern boreal forest. The whole place looked like a miniature old European settlement in the Americas, with the houses built all around the church, making it the exact middle of the conglomeration.

When I had arrived, the whole thing was much smaller than what it was now, with only a few huts that had no beds but only one or two chairs in the centre. Of course, I didn't make it bigger instantly, but, as more and more time passed, and the less and less energy I could dedicate to my job during the day, I just started adding more and more houses to accommodate the people waiting.

Now, like every morning, I walked passed the houses noticing as always, the faces looking out from their window and following my somber march up to the temple. It had the shape and appearance of a small church from the colonial time, but the inside was dedicated to the cult of the dead, which definitely did not work well with the intent those structures had in the first place. The building had angered many people coming in, decidedly unhappy of the significant choice of religion it seemed to agree with, but as I had to explain to pretty much everyone; we had a choice to make and we chose the image that spoke to the most people around the world even if it had nothing to do with what we were offering.

Now that I was in front of it, I noticed that the two big doors had been already opened. I was glad that no one had opted to queue up already, but I knew that from my arrival, they wouldn't wait any longer. I walked through the doors and saw a scrambling Lloyd trying to get off of my throne as quickly as possible.

"You are aware that I'm not Magea, right?" I told the poor sack of bones pretending to be my right hand.

"I am truly sorry for my stupid actions, my Lord."