House Of Fire

Chapter 19

Raven's flying had made impressive improvements over the last week. The constant changes of the air currents had exhausted her muscles to the point where they were growing double time to ease the load on her older ones.

Her feathers were in constant motion. When pulling her wings up they contracted further together. They made themselves small. When pushing down again to stay levitated they expanded and stretched, the golden tips throwing off rainbows.

She could feel the two Angels flying beside her staring at them.

Her wings.

Theirs were either blue or cream in colour. The one flying next to the commander's wings were a fiery red like her dagger.

She wondered if the story Fern had told her was true. If the representative of the House of Fire had cut the Banished One's wings. Maybe it was just a story after all.

Yet, there was not one Angel that had had any similar colouration like her wings had. Their wings had all been natural colours.

The colours of the wings lie in the Family.

Fern had said this after they first met. The original Houses had all been given a certain wing colour. The head of the House or family had the biggest wings as they were the oldest. The size then decreased with the generation. Between Houses there were also variations in size. As Angels then age their wings grow larger. They never stopped growing till the day they die.

The colour of the wings identified the Angels. Although matches between Houses had occurred the offspring's wing colour was always that of the Father in varying shades.

There were the Ancients as Fern had explained. They had been the Origins of their kind. The very first Angels crafted by the Almighty.

It had been an army of Angels with six Generals. Five were granted a Match when they had proved their capacity to provide for their female.

The thing she was trying to get back to was that, all the wing colours originated from the first six Generals.

She only had to figure out which colours they had been and then track down her biological father. It gave her new hope and excited her to finally see the Hive.

Her 'escorts' were adamant to keep her in their peripherals. They wouldn't let her deter from their current course and kept heading in a north easterly direction.

It had been midmorning when they met, now it was almost dusk.

The sun had set behind them, bathing the trees in the last warmth before the chilling night. Raven wondered where her Nightmare slept. Fury must have found her other companions by now.

The first stars lit the night sky when floating yellow lights caught Raven's attention.

Above the canopies a massive black pillar rose from the floating forest. It's blackness coiled and twisted in the dark like a writhing snake.

The constant motion seemed dooming as the faint light jumped off the shiny feathers of the three Angels ahead of her.

Before long the Hive grew bigger and bigger. Night had completely fallen and Raven's inexperience at night flying made her clumsy.

The wind pushed and shoved at her weaker wings and she struggled to remain balanced.

Centurion drifted left and began spiralling upwards. Upon closer inspection the Hive appeared to be a monstrous rope of floats that were connected and intertwined with vegetation and mechanical modifications by the Angels.

The floats bore holes carved into the bed rock. Caves and alcoves designed for housing and a primitive way of life.

Amongst the mazes of tunnels, paths and bridges, women and children alike made their way inside.