Shine

“Whose there?” He asked holding out his lantern into the night. I shivered, and an intense feeling of fear shot around me. “Show yourself!?” He yelled. Another crack in the woods. Zane suddenly pushed me away from him. He leaned back to whisper to me. “When I say so, run. Don’t look back. Just run. Got it?”

I couldn’t bring myself to do anything but nod. So I did.

Figures began to move out of the woods. They were dark, huge and scary. They were making their way towards us. “What now, Zane?” Aiden’s shaky voice asked. He put his hand on the small pouch near his leg. Zane pulled out dust from a bag that was on his back. He held it in his hand.

“STOP!” Cried a dark voice. Zane suddenly blew the dust towards the masked figures and they staggered and coughed.

“RUN!” Zane shouted. My legs took off in the direction we had come from. I ran faster than I ever had before. The chain on my neck felt heavy and huge all of a sudden. The ground shook behind me, so I knew I was being followed. I thought about Zane and Aiden, I didn’t want them hurt because of me. I should have never left Morgan’s.

Energy surged through my body, and I felt stronger than I ever had. I didn’t understand what came over me, but I stopped running and turned around. I grasped my necklace in one hand and then put out my other hand in front of me. The creatures were running towards me, closer and closer.

Suddenly a wave of light hit my hand and shot out of it. The creatures fell to the ground and withered in pain. Then suddenly they vanished into dust. The light in my palm surged, and I wasn’t sure how to make it stop.

For what seemed to be 10 minutes, my light sprung out of me. And then slowly it faded. I felt tired all of a sudden, and drained. I wish I could have controlled it. My back twitched unusually and I whimpered at the increasing pain in my back. My arm flew around to my back, where it was greeted by a feathery feeling. My eyes sprung wide open. I gasped.

Wings.

I sprinted back to find Aiden and Zane. My feet felt unusually light, and I began to float rather than run. I screamed as my feet lifted from the ground momentarily. I stumbled as my feet reached the ground again. I rolled to the ground with a thud. Suddenly, an arm helped me up and hurried me in the other direction.

“We have to get out of here, now.” Zane’s voice boomed as he held me with one arm and slipped a knife back into his pocket.

Zane’s pace quickened and I couldn’t keep up. “We’re going above. We can’t stay on ground any longer. They’re on the move.”

“Wait!” I cried. “What do you mean, above?” I stammered. My stomach dropped, and I feared it was exactly what I thought. Zane continued to sprint. Suddenly I was pulled off the ground and into the air. I screamed.

“Quiet!” Zane hushed me and pulled me closer to him. My wings folded behind me and I cowered, and braced for the impact of a fall. “You have to spread them out!”

“What?” I yelled back into the wind.

“Your wings!” He yelled. “Open them!” He said. I watched wings, much larger than mine, fluttering on Zane’s back. His were brown, like his eyes. It wasn’t a dirty brown, more like chocolate or fudge. I was mesmerized by them. I had never imagined a man with wings. And if I had thought about a man with wings, I thought about a womanly gay guy.

“Elora! Your wings!” He brought me back.

I bit my lip, my hand was still clutched with his tightly. I felt sick to my stomach. “I can’t!” I shuddered. I hadn’t even looked down yet, and I’m sure if I had, I would have vomited.

“Trust me!” Zane’s hair whipped in the wind. Aiden was ahead of us, obviously he wasn’t concerned with our troubles. I looked into Zane’s eyes worriedly. I couldn’t do it. “I won’t let you fall.” He smiled. I nodded slowly. My grip on his hand loosened. I felt my wings expand from behind me. The wind underneath them lifted me up. My hand was released from Zane’s and I screamed. I pushed my legs like I was on a bicycle and waved my arms like I was swimming.

I heard Zane burst into laughter. He clutched his stomach and did a front flip, all while laughing at me. I growled at him and attempted to control myself in the wind. It was dark, and I did all I could to keep up with Zane and Aiden. “How much longer?” I yelled to Zane.

“Not far.”

“Where are we going?” I asked. I was tired, and sick of flying. All those scientific movies had described flying as thrilling, and magical. I just thought it was too much work.

“The palace.” He replied.

I tumbled to the ground. It was like I did summersaults across the forest plot. I grumbled at my lack of gracefulness. Aiden and Zane had landed on their feet. I scraped my knees and my skirt had ripped. I looked around. “This doesn’t look like the palace.” I noted. We were in the middle of the forest now. There was a hut to my left. It had a door made of branches. There was absolutely no light here, and that disturbed me. I still had so many questions to ask.

“It’s not. We’ll have to stay here tonight. I’ll find wood.” Zane said.

“Well how far are we?” I asked folding my arms across my chest.

“We’re not even a quarter of the way there, Princess.” He bowed sarcastically. And in an instant I didn’t find him attractive anymore, the annoying nymph had returned. I rolled my eyes and stalked off towards the hut.