Wings

Althea

So basically our esteemed leader found Lo inside a burned village and took her under his wing, so to speak. Lo has little memory of her Wing family, but she has a surprising amount of discipline over her magic. Yes, Lo is a Fire Elemental, and they are notorious for chasing the pleasures of life without regards to the consequences. Oh, and they're really hostile to everyone else, especially Ice Wings, though Lo conveniently doesn't mention that part (Ow! Lo, I wasn't implying anything! Geez!). Anyway, it was a huge surprise for our esteemed leader, and he decided that Lo would be helpful to have in Althea.

- Felicity

***

My eyes took in the splendor of Althea greedily, or what little of it I could see in this room. It looked like I was in a throne room and there was nothing really in it, only a golden chair. The stranger eased himself into it and he summoned his wings again, making him appear instantly more regal, especially against the black-threaded white marble surfaces.

"So, you are a Fire Wing," he said simply, and I knew this to be true in my heart. "The others cannot know, not yet. Most of your kind are undisciplined and warlike, so they probably won't be as receptive to you as they would be if they got to know you first."

"What kind are you?" I asked curiously, but the answer came unbidden in my mind.

"I am a Cloud Wing," he replied. "There are also Sky Wings and Sun Wings that live here. Ice Wings, Fire Wings, and Earth Wings live elsewhere. Except for you, because you're special."

And that was the start of my stay in Althea.

Many centuries later...

I was hiding in my room, hoping that no one would come to see me today. The stranger that had brought me here, Orvin, had asked little of me at first. But after my accidental and disastrous revelation of my true identity, he had me run errands for the others so they would come to accept me. Along the way, I found I remembered things from my distant past, a past that I refused to remember even now. I remembered how to change my form, how to unlock a locked door, how to dart from shadow to shadow unseen. The others still didn't trust me, but a few of them were friendly enough. Felicity was perhaps the closest I could come to a best friend; Irene didn't really count because she probably didn't understand what I was and why that mattered. Things had changed in the centuries I had been living here, though. Now an Ice Wing occasionally roamed the halls of Althea, though she preferred her mountainous homeland. Her name was Sjanka and she didn't like me at all. I wasn't entirely sure why, but I figured it was because she had been taught to hate my kind all her life. Fire Wings and Ice Wings apparently do not get along.

A knock came on my door and a familiar red head poked in. "Hello, Lo. You free this afternoon?"

"Maybe," I replied lazily, not really wanting to give Thom an answer. We got along together just fine, but he was sometimes really dumb. He was also Orvin's oldest son, so I was obliged to be nice to him, which was why I hadn't called him out on his idiodicy yet.

"You just say that when you have nothing to do but don't want to do anything," Thom accused me. "Come on, Lo, let's go!"

I sighed. There was no escaping him now. "Where are we going?"

His grin grew even wider. "Earth, obviously!"

I stared at him. Nobody had been to Earth in two centuries, except for me. Orvin had forbidden it for some reason, and the only reason I was down there was because I had needed some alone time. And Orvin had ordered me to go after someone once, so I took that as permission for the rest of my times. He either never found out about it or didn't find it in his heart to punish me for it. I sometimes visited that village where Orvin had found me, now nothing more than a patch of long-abandoned grassland in an often snowbound land. Although on my first revisit, six months after my arrival at Althea, I erected a giant stone pillar in the center of the village, so even after the wood rotted and the stones were buried under a carpet of grass, the pillar stood and I knew where the village had stood. No one knew my origin story except for Orvin and he promised to never tell.

"Oh, come on, Lokiheku," Thom sighed, looking exasperated. "Orvin lifted the ban, but he warned us all to be cautious and to seek his approval first. And don't give me that innocent face! I know you flaunted the ban!"

I glared at him. "Well, excuse me for following Orvin's orders. And did you get his approval before you decided to go tearing off?"

"Actually, I did." The look in his storm-gray eyes was challenging. I decided to not press the issue.

"What do you want to do?" I asked him, straightening my red tunic. I contemplated changing to my Trueform, but I didn't know if the humans had gotten any more enlightened. I didn't want to get proposed to or slighted along the way, knowing that if I were wearing my male form I wouldn't get treated like this. I then shrugged and decided to take the risk. It would unsettle Thom at least and that would make it worth it.

"I was thinking about visiting a human city," Thom said. "I'd like to see what they have been doing since I visited last." He then gave me a sideways look. "You know more than I."

I rolled my eyes. "I swear, Thom, if you keep insinuating that I have been sneaking down to Earth while Orvin's back is turned, I'll challenge you to a duel."

Thom winced, clearly remembering last time he had tangled with me in such a matter. I hoped his scars were still aching. He had sorely deserved it that time. "Okay, fine. But, are you coming or not?"

I pulled my mouth into its characteristic crooked grin, something I couldn't seem to fix in this form. "Of course I'm coming. And I'll even beat you there!"