Changing Prudence (EDITING - ON HOLD)

Chapter 6 - Wings

Rue sat at her desk levitating and changing the shape of the water of half an hour, it started off as a rabbit and ended up as a butterfly. She moved the butterfly shaped water around the room in a fluttering manner before gently lowering it back into her glass. She was putting off the transmutation of growing wings, it could go disastrously wrong. She had prepared herself by putting on an old black camisole and sweat pants and clearing the room of any clutter, but every time she brought herself to do it, she chickened out. The fact was she was scared in case it hurt.

About an hour later she finally brought herself to do it. She stood in the middle of the room facing her full length mirror. She focussed on a pair of butterfly wings sprouting from her back (they seemed the least intimidating). She focused on her cells and the mutation taking place inside her. She could feel a slight tingling in her back. But nothing happened. She tried again. Again nothing happened. She decided she needed something a little more challenging mentally to see if she could push herself to get it over and done with.

She decided on a pair of bat’s wings. That sounded scary enough for one night. She tried again and this time as she felt the mutation, she heard the tearing of her flesh, as a black stump forced its way out from under her skin, the only pain she could feel was minimal, like two sharp fingernails running down her back. As two thin, filmy layers spread out behind her, each about three times larger than her, her broken skin bonded with her newly sprouted wings. They weren’t as heavy as they looked; it just felt like she had a half empty backpack on.

It took no effort at all for her to move them forwards and back, in a fanning movement. She put a slight bit more power behind the movements and was lifted slightly off the floor. She was flying. She let a loud giggle escape as she landed, luckily everyone in this house were deep sleepers, so no one came in to see why she was still awake.

She had an idea that was just totally irresistible. She folded her wings in behind her back as she walked over to the window, drew the curtains aside slightly and scanned her road to make sure there was no one in sight. The coast was clear. She opened her window and stood on the sill. Luckily she had chosen bat wings, which have thumb like extensions with excellent grip; this allowed her to climb down her wall with no difficulty. She ran down to the field round the corner from her house, without a single person seeing her.  As soon as she got to the field surrounded by trees, she checked to make sure no one was looking, opened her wings and took off.

She soared high above the trees, so that, if anyone were to look up now she would just look like an ordinary bat. She couldn’t have picked a better night to go out for her first flight.  The sky was completely free of clouds and she could see all of the stars visible from her position as she thought was possible. She focused on turning her skin the same colour as her wings just to finish the look off. She set off on her journey, revelling in delight at the feeling of the wind against her face. She headed for the forest, which she knew would be deserted by now. There she could fly around the treetops until she was too exhausted to continue.

She looked down at the tiny houses, some only just turning off their lights before they went to bed and thought how boring their lives are compared to hers. And then realised her life was probably even more dull than theirs. Until now. She hovered above the forest tree tops for hours on end, watching as it came to life with nocturnal creatures. It had to be the most exhilarating moments of her life so far. And she knew it would only get better.