Fallen Angels

Prologue

A tall fair-haired man walked into his library. He was carrying two cages, the smaller of the cages held a falcon and the bigger cage held a wolf.
"Children," The man spoke. "I have something I need to show you."

Two blonde children walked over to the man. The elder of the twins was a boy with golden eyes, and the younger was a girl with silver eyes. The two children asked their father why he had called them.

Their father opened up the cages and the animals walked out. The kids gasped with delight, but before they could play with their new pets, their father spoke up. "Hold on kids," he said. "I brought you these animals not for you to have as a pet, but for you to train.

"The animals must be well-behaved, obedient, and trained to kill when ordered to," he explained. "You have until the end of the month." The children looked at each other and frowned.

The boy was given the golden falcon and the girl the silver wolf. They trained the animals dusk until dawn, but no matter how hard they worked they always ended up with lots of bites and scratches covering their arms and legs. Finally, near the end of that month, they gave up on trying to train the animals to be bloodthirsty and mean. They started to love the animals and to teach them how to be kind, loyal, and gentle. They grew attached and viewed the animals as pets and not as weapons, like their father had.

When their time was up, they reported their progress to their father. When he saw that the animals were turned into kind and loving creatures, he grew angry. He took a sword and killed both the wolf and the falcon. The children wept and mourned over their beloved pets as their father scolded them for not doing as he said and for disobeying him.

The twins learned that day that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.