Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 14

“Miss Zora?” Lucy was the one who spoke first. But she was trembling in fear.

My shoulders sagged as Irene drew Lucy away as if to protect her. “You stay away from her, you . . . you monster!” Irene was angry.

“Monster? Well, that might be a possible understatement. But, at the moment, I am the only thing standing between you two and the shattering of your souls.” I shook, but I didn’t know whether it was from anger or frustration.

Irene was taken aback. “What do you mean, ‘shattering of our souls’? Is that code for something?”

“His men, the Firscath. They are other shattered souls. My brother, he has a method for doing this, though how, I don’t think anyone has learned.” I let my wings drag on the ground behind me as I scanned the area for any more of my brother’s henchmen.

“So, we’ll get turned into those . . .  things?” Irene asked. I looked back briefly to see that her body had relaxed a little bit. She was starting to trust me again.

I nodded and ended my scan. “We should get moving. You never know when that idiot might show up again.”

“Zora?” Lucy piped up. “Your brother . . . do you have to kill him?”

“I sure hope not. Man, what kind of video games do you kids have these days that you think I’m going to willingly kill my own brother?” I put on a light tone and let my wings fade from the human’s plane of existence.

“Call of Duty, Battleship,” Lucy shrugged.

“Violence,” I made a face and she giggled.

“Where are we planning on hiding?” Irene asked as we gathered up what clothes we could salvage from the wreckage.

“Ireland.” I said nonchalantly, setting a rough pace.

“Really?” Lucy trotted along beside me, her shorter legs struggling to keep up with my longer stride.

“Yes. Well, kind of, anyway. Besides, I thought you humans thought Ireland was the land of the lucky. We could use all the luck we could get.”

“But how are we planning on getting there? We can’t just walk across the Atlantic when we get to it, ya know? All the planes were probably burned down in the explosion,” Irene totally ruined the decent mood.

“She has a point,” Lucy muttered quietly.

“Just because we don’t have planes doesn’t mean we can’t fly,” I pointed to where my wings connected to my back.

“Not a lot of us have wings either,” Irene said sarcastically.

“Really?” I innocently snapped my fingers and grinned. “I’d check again.” Wings flapped from where they were attached to the two’s shoulder blades.

“How did you . . . ?” Irene turned to look at me, her speckled brown feathered wings letting her hover above the ground.

“That. Is. Awesome!!!!” Lucy turned in circles, struggling to catch a glimpse of her gray feathers.

“Now, they’re only temporary, so I must insist you be careful with them. Those things don’t come cheap you know. And try not to pull an Icarus on me.” I put my hands on my hips as I began to explain.

“Wait, who’s Icarus, again?” Lucy asked, stopping in midair and forgetting to flap briefly, landing and jarring her knees.

“Greek myth, remember? His father created a pair of wings for him using wax and feathers they had gathered while imprisoned. His father told him not to fly to close to the sun or his wax would melt,” I began to retell the myth while I helped Lucy to her feet.

“So, what?”

“He enjoyed flying too much, and forgot what his father had told him. He flew too close, the wax melted, and his father couldn’t save him in time. Hence, one of the many tragic Greek tales,” I told her. “Well, we should be off.”

“Wait, I don’t know how to fly these things!” Irene called out, waving her arms as if they were her wings.

I chuckled and let my wings back into their view. I calmly walked to her, “You shouldn’t worry. Humans were meant to fly.”

“What?!”

“Why do you think you have the small space on the inside corner of your eye? It was for your second eyelid to protect you while flying.” I opened my wings and gently created a wind current for them to ride upon.

“Cool!” Lucy was ecstatic. “But how come we don’t fly without . . . well, you?”

“There were changes made to the system. You were scheduled to get them in the 1930’s. But there was all of the crime and the loss of money, so the mutation was held back.” I waited for them to rise in the air and corrected their wings’ positions for gliding.

“How do you know all of this?” Irene was breathing heavily. “I didn’t think anything like this could happen.”
“Well, this stuff is for met know, and you to hopefully not find out.” I said, moving into the air and leading the way towards the glade.

“Why can’t we know?” Lucy asked innocently, and I briefly caught a glimpse of my old self in her eyes.

“Because everyone who has known and was human, have all died,” I said quietly, letting the wind carry my voice.