Dawn of Warriors

Chapter 1 A

The passage through the waterfall

He felt the air brush his face, sending his black hair with force back and making his blue eyes tearing from the speed. He shut his lids and allowed his body to fly through a grey cloud, emerging with the cloud like smoke around his body, opening his eyes to look at the sky as he collected his wings close to his body, his body floating momentarily like a star frozen in the dark velvet sky. Gravity took over after a few seconds of serenity, dragging his body to fall towards the ground, feeling as if his heart was dropping faster than he was. The dark forest was coming dangerously closer towards him, pulling him to the ground, whispering in his ear how close he was to dying, ending up like a rotten tomato on the grass.

He opened his wings a few meters before the collision and so he landed, a little unevenly with him tripping to the front, fighting with gravity to maintain his balance and not fall. His angel wings were sprouting large from his back and he allowed himself to collapse back at the clearing, feeling the crystal-like waterdrops the grass had gathered due to the moisture of the atmosphere, cold against his naked back. That was enough to remind him he had to start looking for his shirt, trying to remember at which tree he had hung that shirt of his, so he took a breath to calm down his heart from beating so fast and stood up.

He began wandering in the forest, looking for the tree and wondering why he thought it would be a good idea to leave his shirt at a random tree in a forest, a place filled with hundreds of trees. He surely wasn't the brightest, so it seemed, as he was murmuring such thing to himself, clearly disappointed for that decision he had made. The angel had to keep his wings closer to his body the deeper he was walking into the forest, the dead leaves under him screaming their last breaths under his feet crashing them, the sound coming a little weirdly to his ears, as if... He suddenly stopped moving, listening in and finally understanding why the sound was odd; there was someone else walking there, stopping a few seconds after he did so. His heart skipped a beat with worry and fear to the realization that someone else was there. Had they seen him flying? Were they following him?

And so, the young angel began walking faster and faster, feeling a need to get as far away from the figure as possible, not wanting to face it nonetheless as if that would be enough to stop the other from hurting him. But there was something, call it curiosity, that prompted him to look over his shoulder, unable to see anything and, by turning to look to the front ahead, something covered his face, stunning him for a mere second. That seemed to be enough for whoever was there to catch up, causing the man to feel a shadow creeping to his side, his hands violently removing the clothing from his face and he began running, away from the presence. It felt as if something dead was next to him, as if something cold and dangerous tried to reach out for him but it wasn't fast enough. Holding the clothing with his hand, he managed to find a second clearing, this one larger than the previous, and he was finally able to reach for the one thing that made him feel safe: the sky.

He jumped up and his wings carried him to safety with a sharp movement, his heart beating faster and faster just with the thought that the creature could be right behind him, ready to catch him before he'd be high enough in the air. But he was fortunate enough, or maybe fast enough, to escape it and, looking down, he was able to see the form of the one chasing him: it was a shadow, a creature he had never encountered before, now screaming defeated in the middle of the clearing. The creature was looking up, its arms scratching the air, a scream so deafening and high pitched that the man had to cover his ears with his hands.

What was that? A demon? He had heard about these shadow-creatures but he had never encountered one, surely he didn't expect to see one in the forest, especially not chasing after him like that. The thought to ask his father about it crossed his mind but he doubted that his old man would appreciate to learn that his son had met such creature. He had to persuade himself to look the other way and fly higher and away, the air making the scratches from the branches hurt a little but he knew it wouldn't be that bad in a few minutes. He was able to see the church he lived at from the distance and, at last, he let himself feel relieved that he'd be home, where he could feel safe.