July 8, 10:14 AM
Days and his little sister, Ariel, two sirens, were herding the goats on the
mountainside. The livestock were kept lower than the village, mostly because
the village was above the altitude were most trees grew. Days was lounged on a
tree branch, his light blue feathered wings folded and his gloriously long
tail feathers hanging lazily as he hummed.
"Days! You never do any work anymore. Can't you daydream later? It's not
like Sora's going anywhere."
He looked down and smiled at his sister. She had the most graceful pink
feathers in the village, but she refused to show it like most of the sirens
did. Days suspected that she had a slight fear of heights, but he didn't
mention it because he knew she'd be angry. "Sis, come on. They practically
take care of themselves."
Ariel shook her head. He was far too irresponsible ever since getting
engaged, but he had a point.
"Ariel! Days!!"
The siblings looked back at the path which lead down the mountain. Core, a
girl with raven feathers who happened to be Ariel's best friend, was half
-running, half-flying towards them.
"What is it, Core?" Ariel asked, puzzled. Days gracefully landed next to his
sister.
"There's a human at the village! He came skipping right in like none of his
business. Arick and Lollian knocked him out and tied him up. Okay, so mostly
Arick. But they were right, the humans did come for us!" Tears were apparent
in her eyes. "What are we going to do?"
"Oh, Core..." Ariel stepped forward to comfort her.
Days narrowed his eyes in desicion. "You two stay here. I'll go back and
find out what's going on."
"But Days--" Core started.
"Shh." He remembered that his glares could be intimidating and smiled. "I'll
be back as soon as you know it. Stay here and take over for me until I get
back. Okay?"
Core nodded. Ariel shook her head.
"You'd do anything to get out of work. Go on, hurry!"
Days had to laugh at his sister "I'll be back befor you know it. Don't worry."
12:03 PM
"Oh, come on, Arick!" Lollian pleaded. "Let's put him a ways down the
mountain and let him think it was a dream."
Arick shook his head. "Sis, you're a marshmallow. You can't kidnap a guy and
then let him go out of pity! Sheesh." He rolled his eyes at the thought.
Lollian frowned. "But that goes against my nature."
"So go against the flow, Sis! We need more upstream swimmers in this world."
Lollian sighed, but layed off. Her brother was about a stubborn as a
California Redwood. Try moving one of those with talk. Impossible.
The pair of vampires looked up when a shadow blocked all but a sliver of
sunlight from the door. It was Days, looking tall and feirce. The angel-like
appearance of his white wings spread out behind him and long, platinum hair
didn't make him look any less ominous.
"Yeah?" Arick asked, looking straight into Days' gray eyes.
"What's that." It was a statement, only explained by a gesture from his head
towards the bound and gagged man sluped over in the chair he was tied to.
"Human." Arick said, just as flatly.
"Don't play games with me, kid!" Days warned, his eyes flashing. "We agreed
not to make prisoners of any human who comes across us. We are what we are,
and if and human has a problem with that..."
Arick tok a step backwards. "That's not how your fellow villagers were
acting. They were scared to death. You haven't dealt with humans. We have."
Days finally moved, dropping his arms to his sides and folding his wings to
step in. "Shut up. I'm taking control of this."
Arick glowered, but let Days untie the man.
"And if you do this again, you will be sorry." The siren said just before he
left.
"What a..." Arick mumbled.
Lollian smiled. "I'd never say anything like a told you so."
"Cliche."
1:47 PM
"Days!" Ariel gasped when he landed in the pasture. "What is...?"
Core's eyes widened and she stepped back as Days gently set the unconsious
human on the grass. "Ariel, would you get some water?"
She nodded and went to the nearby stream.
"Is he dangerous?" Core asked timidly. Days laughed.
"I doubt it. Just a lost traveller, more likely. But let's hide our wings
anyway.
Core noded and fell to her knees, nearly crying out in pain as her raven
wings and tail grew visibly smaller until they disappeared. Days closed his
eyes and blanked his mind against the pain that came with doing so.
Fortunately, it left, instead of lingering like it always did when growing
wings.
Ariel returned with a waterskin, freshly filled. "The holes in the back of
your clothes look weird." She informed them as she handed it to her brother.
"Yeah, well..." Days mumbled as he poured a little water over the human's
face. He didn't get any farther because the man's eyes fluttered open and he
groaned as he came to.
"Wha...? What happened... oh!" He sat up straight too quickly and would have
fallen over again if Days wasn't helping him.
"Hey, are you all right? Careful if you're not used to the thin air up in
the higher altitudes."
"No, I was knocked out by... someone..."
"It must have been a dream." Days said, shaking his head. "Not another
person around here for miles."
The man stood now, slower this time. "I'm Reverend Stephens. I was climbing
the mountain and I came to this village where everyone had wings. Like birds.
And tails. Then this guy jumped me and... ugh... I don't remember much after
that."
Days smiled. "That can't be true. See? It must have been a crazy dream. Be
careful in the future."
"Oh... well, I have a question."
"Yes?"
"What happened to my things? I had a bunch of hiking gear with me..."
Days mentally cursed. He should have thought of that before! No idiot would
climb a mountain without anything but the clothes on their back. He shook his
head. "I haven't seen it."
"Hmm... What about you? None of you have anything with you. Are those
goats...? What are goats doing here?"
Days closed his eyes. This guy was asking far too many questions.
"That I wouldn't know. Why don't you go back down the mountain, rest up, and
maybe come back a different time? It'll do a world of good, I'm sure."
"Wait, I still have more questions." The reverend smiled. "Where's your
gear?"
"..........."
He tilted his head at Days. "And.... Why do you have holes in your clothes?
Sewn into your clothes, especially?"
"..........."
Reverend Stephens found Days' silence very interesting. He set a hand on his
shoulder. "Well, don't be disappointed. Really. You didn't have much time to
prepare for me. But you certainly don't have to hide anything from me. I would
rather see my own life endangered than cause anyone discomfort."
Days sighed. "It wasn't us who did this to you. None of the sirens here
would hurt a soul. But there's this new guy..."
The preist nodded understandingly. "Well, they always do disrupt things,
don't they? But we must forgive them, they usually don't realize it, or mean
to for that matter."
"Now what?" Ariel spoke up, leaning on her tall staff. "There's no hiding
it..."
Core almost said something, but decided against it and shyly remained in the
background.
"Oh? What's this?" Stephens asked, stepping toward Core. "Hello. You don't
have to be so shy."
Days quickly stepped forward. "Well... This is Core. I'm days, and this is
my sister, Ariel. Core, would you mind running and getting Reverend Stephens's
things?" She nodded, grateful to get away, and suddenly doubled over with pain.
Reverend Stephens gasped and took a step towards her, but stopped as a pair
of giant black wings grew from her back.
"I'm okay..." She assured. "Hopefully, I won't have to do that again for a
long time..."
With that, Core beat her powerful wings until she was off the ground, and
took off up the mountain.
"Beautiful, just beautiful..." Reverend Stephens said in appreciation. "Tell
me, how did this come to be? Do you know?"
fin.
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