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~ Dark Winds ~
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~Main ~Cast ~Me
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Part 7-
I woke up with my back propped up against the trunk of a stunted tree, twisted by the wind. Ah yeah, the tree atop the cliff Aquariel drove me to. And talking about him w…aha. He was kneeling by my side, a very concerned and worried look on his face. Err, what’s up with that? I mean no one died or anything, right? “Nat?” his voice was soft, and…strange. But I didn’t really know how. Hey, don’t worry Riel, I’m fine, whatever it is you thought. Well, I tried to say that but nothing past a croak emerged from my throat. And it hurt like hell. I swallowed, blinking tears away at the parchedness. God I needed a drink. I’d do anything for a gulp of water. And then I remembered that we were a good two or three hours away from any inhabited place where I could find something to quench my thirst. I groaned, then hastily stopped as my eyes strained to pop out of my head. Holly fuck. Why was I hurting so much? I looked at Aquariel, trying to convey my sense of…disorientation. Yea. I really was. Disoriented. I had no idea what had happened to me to put me into such a state. I mean, I was alive. Right? Yea. I hurt damn too much to be dead. “Nat?” Uggg, what? Can’t talk, idiot. But he doesn’t know, so you are the idiot here. Fine. Arrg. I tried to raise my hand to point at my throat. Oh, a massage. Yeah, that was definitely a must too. But I couldn’t move. I mean, I felt my arms. Too much. They hurt too. You know, the way you hurt after an especially strenuous activity, were all your muscles get sore. And I mean all of them. Fuck. I didn’t need a repeat of that time. Uh oh… I didn’t…did I? I wasn’t that stupid to rock climb after my beautiful showing of skills, eh? But I definitely felt the same way. So I wisely decided not to move. At least not for a while. Since I couldn’t bring my hands up, I glanced down. Logical eh? And then I froze. Held tightly in my right hand were two, huge feathers. Iridescent white and midnight black. I squeezed my eyes shut until I saw wild spots of colors, then opened them again. The feather. The feathers from… from…I…no…I hadn’t seen that….it couldn’t….they…no. They don’t exist. Do they? Do they? Aquariel? Please tell me this is not true? “’Riel?” I implored him, staring at his face, at his blue eyes. He stared back, for what seemed like an eternity, then slowly nodded. … I looked back down at my hand, and painfully slowly unclenched my fist. The feathers fell gently to the ground, and were picked up by a soft breeze, out of my grasp, out of my reach, out. Out of here. Out, like the myriad of others, just like them, down there at the cliff’s bottom. Down there where…my…where my wings broke through. Oh god. Do you ever get this feeling where everything seems to be a dream –not a particularly pleasant dream, in all cases- but really isn’t? And have you ever had someone tell you you’re an angel, then found out it’s actually true? It’s creepy. I can tell you that. Especially when the said “someone” throws you off a cliff to prove you really do have wings. And he doesn’t stop to think that you have no idea how to use them!! Fortunately for him, I was way to tired and sore to jump at him, put my arms around his scrawny little neck and squeeze. But before I even did that anyway, I needed answers. And I needed them now. No matter that I couldn’t really speak two words without scratching my throat to death. Screaming your heart out while you fall to your death does that to you. He would pay for that as well the little bastard. “Why?” I finally managed to get out. “Why I pushed you?” close enough. “To let your wings out. You wouldn’t have believed me otherwise; and the only way to do that is to put your life in danger, in a way that will let them unfurl by instinct.” “Why?” “Why you need a threat to your life? Because it’s based on instinct. Your body doesn’t want to die, so your wings don’t let it.” Not exactly the ‘why’ I had in mind. Let’s try again. “Why?” his eyes narrowed slightly and I smirked. “Why what?” why do I so feel like strangling the daylight out of him? “Why you? Why now?” I croaked, barely hearing the words myself. “Me, because I was one of the nearest, and one of the… errr… mmmmh…. lesser… angels. And why now, because I was getting slightly bored…” the huge grin plastered on his face didn’t last more than a heartbeat before I lurched myself at him and wrapped my fingers around his white neck. The way his eyes widened and almost pooped out was most satisfying, although not nearly enough to pay for what he put me through. He went white, then pink again, turned redish, slightly bordering on blue…before he kicked me in the shins and I sprawled on the grass next to him, staring at the sky. “Nat? You okay?” fucking hypocrite! Worry about yourself. I’m not buying the ‘I’m an angel so I’m always nice’ crap. You are evil! “Stop sulking like a little kid, Nat.” See! I told you he was evil!! I glared at him, daring him to say anything else. The little prick rolled his eyes at me and disappeared from my direct line of sight. Fine. Leave me here to die, you sadistic little b…water!! Give give give!! Yay! I snatched the bottle out of his hand, not caring about his smirk. To hell with him. I had water! I gulped the whole thing down to the last drop, let him carry me to his car, and drank another whole one while slouched on the back seat. My rather extended stomach wasn’t too happy with the sudden influx of water, but my throat felt much better already. Well enough to yell at him and ask questions. Questions first, though. Where was I? Oh yeah. “So why the hell did you do it? Why didn’t you talk to me? Try to explain?” “I did. You wouldn’t listen.” “What?!! You pushed me off the cliff after a minute! What kind of a conversation was that?! And you could have fucking shown me your wings! I think I would have believed those!!” “That’s not the point. You’d still have needed to be in a life threatening situation for your wings to spread.” His calm voice infuriated me to no end. I was screaming here, and he was calmly pulling his car back on the dusty track that passed for a road here. I crossed my arms and glared some more. “So?” “So what?” “What do you mean ‘so what’! You made my wings appear, and now you’re going to drop me back at my apartment and leave? No hints, no tips, no help?” “Why, I didn’t know you wanted me around,” his gaze left the road for a moment to wink at me. “…” no comment. “Don’t worry. Having wings give you free and unlimited access to dial 911-angel.” I do hope he was joking here. “I’m not kidding.” And I do hope that reading minds is not an angel’s intrinsic power. “No it isn’t.” “You can’t…” “Yes I can.” Whaaaaaa!!! Thank god those last few lines did not happen in real life –well except for the 911…thing…- The others stayed a figment of my imagination. Okay, so it was more of a day-nightmare…or…whatever. Sheesh. My mind is fried.
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