My Friend

Part 2

"I know ... but you were in worse! What are those things? Why do you have wings? Where are we?"

He sighed. "First thing. Those demonic little nightmares - I call 'em Shadows. You can probably guess why. They come from the Outer Realm, a dimension forbidden to all travelers. Second, I have wings because I am not human. Third, we're in ... " He paused to think for a moment. "Red sky ... black stone ... Pyrotydia."

"Ahh," I remember saying, as if I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?" He sighed again and muttered, "Humans," under his breath. "Okay, I'm this race ... or species, I guess, called something like Aero sapien and each of us are born with a pair of wings and a magical talent. You follow?"

"Yeah ...?"

"I happened to be born with multiple magical talents and black wings, something that doesn't happen. Everyone has some shade of white wings - the purist white is for the purist soul, greys usually become criminals, and so on. But no one has been born with black feathers. Of course, that scared my family, and so they dumped me in the river as a baby, because they didn't want to deal with the disgrace of having a black-winged child." Ryan paused again, adjusting his grip on his sword. I could see the sorrow in his eyes, aching for a family he never had; longing for a family willing to love him. No wonder he never talked about home back on Earth.

"That's terrible," I said, sitting down next to him.

He shifted his black wings and shrugged. "Instead of drowning, like they wanted, I was rescued by someone with no wings. None at all. The old man took me in, raised me, and then sent me on my way to find my destiny. Before I left, he told me everything about my family, and even showed me his back, where he had two stumps - a place where two wings should be. He was just like me. A disgraceful black-winged child. I was determined to prove the world wrong for both of us. So I set off. One way or another, I gained power and status, and eventually became king."

"You're king?!" I yelped.

"Yep." He smiled a little, touching the crown on his head. "And I got this ruby. It's magic, you know, and allows me to travel between dimensions. It also harnesses my other magical gifts and makes them controllable." He shifted again, pausing and then grimacing as he moved his wounded shoulder. "But of course, being king - and one of the most powerful kings in history, on top of that - came with a rather large price. There were - and still are - hundreds of people out to kill me and steal my throne."

"How'd you get to Earth?" I asked.

"Same way I got us here. I went to Earth to hide, and using that magic, I was also able to hide my wings and crown when I went to school. School was boring." He yawned, gingerly stretching his wings out. Each wing was more than twice his height, making the entire wingspan about twenty-five feet. I was impressed.

"Tell me about it," I muttered, trying not to stare as he stretched. "So when you 'moved in' two years ago, you'd actually just teleported yourself there and needed a cover story?"

"Yeah, that's basically the gist of it."

"Then ... where those Shadows trying to kill you because they worked for someone trying to steal your power? Soul sucking because they want your magic?"

"See? Now you're catching on." His face suddenly darkened. "And they're going to pay big time for killing my friends. Lance and Natalie were the only others I took with me. They also had wings, in case you didn't notice. All three of us were able to create a distraction to clear everyone out of the house as we fought the four Shadows."

"The blue fire?"

"Yes, the blue - wait, are you sure you're human? Humans were supposed to see it as a normal fire. That burned."