Wings

Monster in the Alleyway

What can I say about Surtan?  Well, he was originally a Fire Wing like Lo, but he lost his wings very young.  It's devastating for a Wing to lose their wings, and many die from it.  He survived, however, and tore the wings from an Earth Wing he got into an argument with and grafted them onto his own back.  He lost a lot of his Fire Wing magic, but he also gained a lot of strange, demonic magic.  He also grew a grudge against the Altheans, which eventually led to Ragnarok.  So he's basically a very bad dude.

- Felicity

***

The rest of our journey had so far passed without incident. Now it was growing late, and Thom's hand rested expectantly on the hilt of his sword. Once the darkness of night fell, it was far more likely that creatures of evil intentions walked the Earth, especially since no order-keeping Wings from Althea had been keeping guard in two centuries. Sure, there had been other Wings wandering around, but they were just as devoted to wreaking havoc for the most part and only conflicted with the others when the others had something they wanted.

"Was that a goblin?" Thom whispered to me after a shadow darted by.

I shook my head. "Human child." I had a knack for seeing through the darker glamours, but I suspected that had more to do with my nature as a Fire Wing than any talent of mine.

Thom huffed impatiently and I could easily imagine him tapping his fingers on the hilt of his blade. "I wish something would happen."

"Oh no, you didn't," I murmured.

Thom rolled his eyes. "Just because I said something like that doesn't mean we're actually going to get swarmed by mobs of demons determined to eat us for dinner. You place too much credence in fate. It rules us not."

"That's what you think," I said even more quietly. This time, he didn't hear.

***

Several hours passed and I wondered absently when Thom was going to give up and let me teleport back to Althea. Hunting bad things was good and all, but I was starting to get bored and we hadn't really found anything to attack. Everyone we saw was minding their own business for the most part, which was a good thing if a little unusual considering that there hadn't been a sizable force of Wings keeping order in a good long while. Well, we couldn't police everybody all the time, so I supposed that it was business as usual for most people while the Wings were holed up in Althea for who knows what reason. Orvin might rule Althea fairly benevolently, but he doesn't usually explain his command decisions to us. Which was just as well, I supposed, since I wasn't usually interested in them.

Thom's head suddenly jerked to the left. "Lo! Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" I asked quietly.

"I heard heavy breathing. Sounded like a large monster."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Thom had a romantic obsession with monsters. "You want to go after it?"

"Why not?"

"I dunno, because it might eat you?" I suggested. But I got out my pen and clicked it a couple of times to show that I was in support of his foolhardy idea.

He grinned at me and then drew his sword, jumping into an alleyway as he did so. He suddenly drew his wings out and their white feathers flashed lightning, lighting up the alleyway. A large, dragon-like creature lurked in the far corner of the alleyway and howled at the sudden assault of light on its senses. It then lunged forward, headed blindly for Thom. Thom grinned and easily lopped off its head. He then sheathed his blade and his wings vanished. "That's quite satisfying. Now we can head back and feel accomplished!"

"You're not going anywhere, Wings," a dark voice said behind me.