Winged

Chapter 10: Mystery of the Angel

The forest floor seemed to be moving. But no, it was actually the movements of thousands of raptors, writhing along the ground. I felt Torrays steady hand grip into my shoulder, drawing me closer. We were both poised, holding out our knives in front of us.
"How do we kill these things?" I hissed.
"Trust your instincts," Torray replied, rather unhelpfully.
The first few raptors made their way to our feet and I sliced out at them. I really would not like to be turned to minced meat by these futile creatures. My knife cut through five of them at once and I felt like cheering myself. It really was not that hard to attack tiny creatures. Sure, they eat us alive, but they definitely are not fighters. The only problem with the raptors was the amount of them.

Torray and I stood back to back, cutting at any raptors that came anywhere near us. We were destroying heaps of them, but every time we killed one, more seemed to take its place. It was like there was an endless supply of the sticky creatures, and they were not going to give up until they had our flesh stuck in their fangs. As I stabbed about the one hundredth raptor, I felt myself starting to wear down. It was a tiring chore.
"How many are there!" I yelled breathlessly.
Torray did not respond. He was clearing away raptors ten times faster then I ever could.

More and more raptors swamped over the dead bodies of their fellow beasts almost doubling since they first appeared. A few got past my knife and nipped at my boots. One of the raptors long fangs pierced into my boot, where my ankle was and I yelled out in pain. It had bitten me on the scar where the wolf had attacked me a week ago. More raptors bit at my legs and I screamed out. It was no use anymore. This was how I was going to die... Honestly, I never dreamed that I would be dissolved to a skeleton, covered in gruesome, raptor grime.

A raptor had climbed onto my knife arm and dug its fangs into it. I dropped my knife clumsily. It was all in what felt like slow motion. The knife slowly, very slowly floated to the floor. As soon as it touched grass, everything returned to normal and I succumbed to the raptors.
"TORRAY!" I shrieked.
The last thing I saw before I flickered away from consciousness was Torrays concerned face appear above me and a strong hand wrap around my waist.
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She was flying. Flying high above the trees, above the ground, into the safe haven beyond. How she was flying, she did not know. All she could think was how amazing the sensation was and how right it felt to soar through the slightly pink skies. She closed her eyes and relaxed to the lull of the wind. The breeze calmed her, and she felt her worries slowly slipping away. When she noticed a strange twang in her back, she reopened her eyes and peered over her shoulder to see what the cause was. She was astonished at what she saw. To her amazement, two bright white feathered wings sprouted from her shoulder blades. And then she remembered.
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I awoke, my shoulder blades aching. I was almost certain that I had been dreaming, but I had no idea what it was about because it disappeared as soon as I tried to even vaguely recall it. It was probably just like the others anyway, so I ignored it. The blinding light around me was surprising, I had become accustomed to waking up in the shaded room of the house Torray and I had stayed in.
"Torray?" I muttered.
Suddenly I remembered everything that had happened to me. The attack with the raptors. The loss of my knife. Was I dead? I sat up and looked around. The blinding light was not from heaven, but from the sun. Wait. The sun? I looked around and realised that I was not in the forest anymore, but on the outskirts of it. How I had gotten there, I had no idea. Rubbing my sore back, I stood up, squinting in the bright light.

A figure sat on a nearby log, sharpening a dagger. He looked up when he saw me approaching and let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh Sydney, Thank god you're alright," Torray breathed.
He got up and pulled me into a warm hug, wrapping both his arms and batty wings around me like a cocoon. I buried myself into his chest, feeling heat rush through me. I told myself that it was just a friendly hug, nothing more. I felt Torrays chest move up and down against mine as he let out relieved breaths. I was about to pull away when Torray reached over my shoulder and plucked a bright white feather from the collar of my crumpled shirt.
"There," he said, blowing the feather away without giving it a second thought.

Torray released me and I felt disappointed. No. I could not possibly feel disappointed. The stress of the raptor attack must be messing with my head. This reassured me and I turned to Torray with a small smile. 'Don't trust anyone.' My mothers voice ran through my head. I ignored her.
"What happened back there? I honestly thought I died!"
"Well you're not and that's what matters," replied Torray quickly.
My face lit up, but I paused mid smile.
"Wait... How did I get here?"
Torray looked at the ground nervously.
"That isn't important. You're alive okay? Forget about it."
I would not accept that for an answer.
"Torray. How did I get here."
I drew out the last words really slowly, to prove a point.
"It doesn't matter!"
"Yes it does!"

I searched around, wondering how I could possibly have been carried from all those raptors to here. Surely they would not let us escape them. I also did not get why Torray desperately did not want to tell me. When it hit me, it hit me like a ton if bricks.
"You! We flew didn't we! Torray!" I yelled, "I told you to never, ever do that."
"I saved your life Sydney! It was the only thing I could do!" He cried, raising his hands in frustration.
I expected to be disgusted at the thought of being in the air with a demon like I had before, but for some reason it was not affecting me much. I was about to retort to Torray about how wrong it was of him to do what he had done, but after more thought I closed my mouth. He had saved my life, wether I wanted to fly or not.
"Whatever," I grumbled, turning away from him.

With no warning, a remnant of my dream sprang back to me. I could remember a girl. No, an angel. That was all. This made me think back to the time when Torray had let slip something about an angel and had acted really weird when I asked him about it. Before I thought about what I was saying, I asked what I suddenly wanted to know.
"What is the earth angel?"
Torray clearly had no forewarning that I was going to say that, and he froze up. It was only for a second, before he regained his casual look, but I saw it loud and clear.
"Are you hungry? We haven't eaten in a while. Why don't we go hunting for some food," suggested Torray in an attempt to distract me.
"Don't you go changing the subject," I growled, "Now tell me. What. Is. An. Earth. Angel?"

I glared at Torray, dangerously. Torray frowned and let out a sigh. He gestured for me to take a seat. We both plonked down in the soft grass.
"Fine Sydney. I'll tell you the story of the Earth Angel."
I gave an encouraging nod and waited for him to go on.
"Once, a few hundred years ago, Norus's great-great-grandfather decided that he would attack Earth. He was about to go through the portal, when an angel fluttered through the wormhole to The Bellor. She introduced herself as the Earth Angel, and her beauty was astonishingly breathtaking. She said that she had been called to sort the rights and wrongs between the two worlds and that the demons had no right to attack the Earth. The demons felt as though she was some sort of messenger from God, and they obeyed her. The Earth angel eventually died from old age, but she has reincarnated in different forms since then. At the moment, she is nowhere to be seen, so Norus has taken the chance to send the apocalypse to Earth. If the Earth Angel ever did return, she would be the balance of the two worlds and could put a stop to this awful war once and for all."

I found myself gazing at Torray in awe. It was a lot to take in.
"Okay, that is actually pretty cool," I admitted.
"Of course, none of us know if the story is real or if it's just a legend," added Torray.
"Still."
It occurred to me that if we could find the earth angel, then she could put an end to the demons curse upon our planet. I would have suggested to search for her, but I knew it was futile, as for a start, we did not even know if she existed. Plus, we were on our way to The Bellor and the sooner we got there, the better.
"How far to The Bellor?" I asked.
"About a hundred metres."
I raised my eyebrows at him in confusion and turned to where Torray was pointing. To my amazement, a large wormhole was sitting only a few hundred feet from us. I did not know how I had missed it. It was about the size of a truck and it emitted a dark blue light onto the surrounding scenery. The actual portal itself was a rippling water-like structure, which was also dark blue. I gasped in shock.
"Pretty cool huh?"
"Yeah..." I breathed.
I stood up to have a better look at it, but I felt another prick of pain in the back of my shoulders. I jumped up, startled and peeked around. Three pure, white feathers floated gently to the ground.

---------------------------------end of chapter 10--------------------------------