Winged

Chapter 12

"Months had passed since Stracony had landed in the strange land, and met the Grohg people, who had taken him under their wing... ",

"Pun intended" Hej snickered as the nerdy Sokol swiped at her with his beautiful iridescent wing.

"Very funny..." Stracony murmured, his hands cupped in front of his face. He closed his eyes, expanding his mind and using the darkness behind his eyelids to create a space for Healik to flow through him. His ears pricked, almost as if whispers caught their attention. Woven strands of pure light suddenly gleamed ever so faintly, dancing to and fro like a dragonfly in a garden.

Reaching out, Stracony let his ears buzz in effort, like a call to them. He tensed his muscles, and extended the Healik inside his own body, the strands wrapped arounds the very essence of his being. Like a braid of fiber he unraveled them, then reached out in every direction.

In his mind he became a seed, Stracony no longer his name. His muscles so bunched together they became stone, and his body nothing more than the trunk to the seed deep within his stomach. He imagined himself sprouting outwards; branches extending to find the easiest path to sunlight.

Then - when his mind was clear of thought, and his body clear of emotion, did the errant threads of Healik come surging to him from all surfaces and sounds. Like a wave crashing down onto a beach; it began filling his veins.

Hej watched as the Sokol began to glow, the veins in his body once again bulging outwards. It was almost scary, how violent it all seemed.

It hurt, too. Stracony felt as if the sun itself had paid his organs a visit, like maggots were crawling through his body so efficiently, it had become one with his being: for now the only thing between the air and the crawling critters was his own feeble skin.

The winged fool began to shake; radically so. Saliva nipped at the edges of his pursed lips, and his eyes slammed open as he convulsed and collapsed onto the soil - somehow still keeping his palms outstretched.

He had finally channeled Healik into his body. All he had to do now was funnel it into a single source. Quickly, Stracony expelled the Healik from his core to the palms of his hands - overloading them with unimaginable power. It was almost as if the vessels in each of his digits were screaming.

Finally, as the foreign Healik squirmed in his hands, Stracony commanded it to meet at a point in the center of his gaze - using native Healik to slowly force the energy from his fingertips to the air just in front of his nose.

Just a little more He thought. Stracony knew this is what it'd take. Hours upon hours of practice, honing his understanding of the craft. All to harness this power.

Carefully, the Sokol formed a ball of pure Healik - so influential to the space around it that it warped light - floating precariously in front of him.

Using his fingertips, Stracony grasped onto the ball in awe. It no longer burned him as it sat, writhing, in the fingertips of the warrior.

The air around the two buzzed softly, as if waves of energy were emanating from the cluster of strings - so fine they seemed to pass through the very fabric of the world. Stracony felt as if he could send everything around him, all at once and all encompassing. The bees sang in unison, the flowers danced to the call, the sunlight bounced off the dew straddled grass and sent colors flying abound.

Hej, ever so gently, creeped towards her companion in arms - coughing out a meek question,

"Is that-?"

Stracony, as if to answer her, chucked the mass at the nearest boulder. It flew fast - like a familiar sight of brown matted wings - towards the chunk of earth. Instantly when they met, the strands unraveled and wrapped hastily around the stone. Then, like a spider hugging its prey, the threads sliced as neatly as steel does bone; dicing the boulder. A thunderclap; or was it the ball? A spark; or was it just the look in Stracony's eyes? A gasp; this so clearly hushed from the little Grohg's lips.