Flight

Part 1

From the moment he had taken his first tiny breath, they were all terrified. His teeth and nails came out pointed and his ears resembled that of an elves’.  But what had frightened them so; was that right eye of his.  It stood a different color than his left - a golden amber with a straight pupil. That eye seemed to bore into their very souls, judging them, exploring them.

All of his relatives cut their ties to the unfortunate ones that had brought him into this sad world and fled as far to the ends of the earth in order to escape that inhuman gaze his eye would greet them with.  It was not soon after that his fragile mother hung herself, unable to carry the burden to have had such a thing come out of her.  His father became a man of wrath, there were times when the unfortunate distorted child almost faced death at his hands.  Eventually, the boy escaped.  He ran as far as his little uneven legs would carry him and eventually collapsed to a little substantial village.  Here, he lived on the streets and used a cloak made of black unwanted sheep wool to hide his unnatural features.  He was able to blend in for the majority of the time, but the day came when it had slid off while playing with the other boys.  Their harmless little game turned into a torment of abuse and mockery where adults would join in as well.  He became known as ‘The Demon Child’.

Through all the rejections he had endured; one would think the child would be driven insane, or wanting to end his own life just as his mother had done.  Despite all of this mistreatment, the boy had grown wary of crying and began to look on the few positive sides of life.  That realization came to him when he discovered his home - the public library.  It was a place packed with limitless knowledge which seeped into his head as pictures when he dove into it.  He taught himself everything; from mathematics to sciences to literature of ancient and modern languages.  The boy took a particular interest in Greek mythology; he found their stories of gods and monsters something of complete fascination.  Eventually, he dubbed himself ‘Icarus’ after that little boy who dreamed of the sky - a thing that he himself loved as well.

What Icarus lacked in appearance he made up in his heart and mind.  He still had the curiosity of a newborn and would wear that happy go lucky smile even when the older boys pushed him into the dirt.  Icarus was now smarter than the wealthiest businessman in town; but his physical self did not appeal to others as well, which prevented him from moving onwards.