Feathers That Won't Fly

Chapter X The Second Child

The little girl with the sweet coconut colored skin led them between green bushes painted with a few red, orange, and yellow leaves. It was a short walk, but shoes got tangled in thorns, and knees were scraped. Azlyn kept a hand out in case the girl tried anything sudden. So far, so good.

Azlyn took a closer look at the girl, taking in her surprising beauty. She looked like she was Hawaiian, which made Azlyn wonder if arch-humans had nationalities and migrate just like humans. The girl's skin was brown and smooth; sunlight left straight rays down her limbs. Her hair was long and shiny black, braided in two at the sides. She wore a typical red bandana on top of the braids. The girl walked with a stride that suggested an extremely unconfident personality. Azlyn recognized that as the gait of the hated.

"What's your name?" Haddix asked.

"Kekona. It means 'second-born child.' In Hawaii, my kind had tribes, much like your kind. I was a princess, born five years after my elder brother," the girl answered. "We are here now." She pointed at a decently sized patch of grass.

On it laid a man who was covered in deep red blood. Mud splattered on his face, clothes, and arms. Wild flowers danced around his body, tracing his shape on the ground. Sunlight seeped through the break in the trees, landing right on top of the man, playing with the flowers at his sides. Kekona dropped by his side, caressing his face. She wept silently, tears falling on the man's face.

"Dad?" Haddix said in a small voice. His anger with his dad slipped away by the end of the word. The black tendrils were forced to loosen their grips on Haddix. They didn't let go, only loosened. "He's still alive?"

"No. He's dead, I'm afraid. I took his body before my brothers could finish him. They will scold me when they find me," Kekona replied, ashamed.

"Why have you done this for him?" Azlyn asked in an accusatory tone. Why would she trust something so quickly? Then again, why should anybody trust her?

Kekona looked down at her tiny little feet and knocked them back and forth: first the toes, then the heels. Her hands tied themselves behind her back. "Miss, my kind-we must feed to survive. We will become sick and fever to death if we do not dine on human flesh."

Azlyn grabbed Kekona's arm and squeezed until Kekona's dark, dainty limb turned a dark red. "So you're going to eat us?" Azlyn said with a tight voice.

"No Miss!" Kekona cried. "I only feed on dead humans. I have never fed on living flesh, I swear! My family, they have shunned me for this, but I will not kill. I give the deceased a proper funeral and weep over them before I feed. I beg for your permission to feed, for I am starving and have not eaten in days."

Azlyn rested her eyes on Haddix's. His eyes squinted, a sign of disrespect and negativity. He wasn't going to let his father be eaten, dead or alive. Azlyn looked into Kekona's pleading eyes. The chocolate irises were melting under the heat of the moment.

"Go ahead, eat him."

"What?" Haddix turned angrily toward Azlyn. The tendrils regained their tight grip.

Azlyn held a finger to her lips, motioning for silence.

There is an unspoken fear of Azlyn that probably had to do with the fact that she was almost a completely unstoppable being that could potentially destroy all life forms on Earth. Naturally, Haddix stayed back. Lilly buried her head in Azlyn's side, for Lilly had no fear of Azlyn. When someone saves you, you are in their debt until you repay it, even if your debt collector has gone off the deep end.

Kekona bowed to Azlyn and thanked her hurriedly. She sat down next to the corpse and held her hands together, pressing her forehead to her finger tips. She quietly muttered words in another language. Slowly, she opened her eyes and laid them on her meal. She carefully ripped out sections and chewed slowly. She wasn't vicious and barbaric like the majority-or maybe even the rest-of her kind, and that relaxed Azlyn and Haddix. Kekona didn't slurp, engorge, or get blood and guts all over her face. She just chewed slowly the whole time, when she finished, she stood up and carefully licked the blood off her fingers. She bowed again.