Humans on the same level as creatures of the sky?
Impossible said the gods
It was never their intent to give man both wings and intelligence
The wings are not their worry of course but the feeling that accompanies them
Jubilance
It filled his veins just like the golden ichor of the gods
His wings carried him higher and higher
Words floated in his mind
Warnings of altitude
Wax melting under the sun
But Icarus
The jubilance in his system
Carried him higher and higher
He grew closer and closer to the blinding sun
Closer and closer to being filled with the enemy of the gods
Jubilance, for like helium it drew things closer to their realm
His father shouted and shouted
But to no avail
The jubilance in Icarus' system was to the point where gravity wasn't a concept
Despite popular belief
He knew what he was doing
He knew that Apollo was being sent to strike him down
But what he knew above all
That even though death was the price
(the price to literally end all other prices)
The feeling of blood coursing through his veins
Insistent on carrying oxygen that filled his lungs
(there was barely any)
The slightest flick of a finger out of line
Swaying his entire figure in a direction
(fracturing his finger in the process)
This he would pay any price for
Pain and serenity combined into the most beautiful combination
He finally understood those who talked of a figure
Both black and white and perfectly balanced
For he had never seen pain be so beautiful
He had never felt it either
His father screamed and screamed but Icarus felt everything
Sorrow that his father must see him fall
Joy that he may live on
Satisfaction in the final moments of life
Disappointment that he could only feel this once
But perhaps it was best that way
He fell and fell
Twisting and turning while the wind whipped his back
Gasping for air as the oxygen around him rushed
Smacking into the water
Although he never felt the water
For the Fates cut his string right as he plunged
Hades now had control of the soul of Icarus
Poseidon had control of the body
Apollo had control of the sorrow
Daedalus had control of the grief
And as Icarus was tortured on the racks of hell
Tortured for his arrogance and selfishness
A question was repeatedly demanded
He was asked when he was first chained
And he was asked after all his teeth had been broken
He was asked through all of eternity
Through spitting teeth and tired limbs
"What was the best part?!"
He did not respond by saying the jubilance which rose him to the sky
Nor did he speak of the wind as he ascended
The words he repeated came through gritted teeth and pained eyes
"The fall"
When he was asked
By the bittersweet god of Hell
Black robes swathing across his body
Icarus smiled with his pearly teeth not yet rotted
As Hades demanded that he share this feeling with the world
With himself
But Icarus knew if the whole world felt it
Then no person would ever
His back became a pit of scars
Carrying wounds that would kill a person twenty times over
He was already dead so the pain had no escape
Except for his memory
His only escape
The memory of the wind and the jubilance
The memory of the fear and the regret
The memory of his father and Apollo touching his wings right before
He fell into the hands of the god of darkness
"No."
YOU ARE READING
The Sun and the Sea
AdventureEveryone knows the story of Icarus. The story of how his wings melted as a cause of his ego. How he flew too close to the sun and he was warned not to. How he fell a torturous fall from shining light to utter darkness. But what they don't know is t...