Yelena woke up to an itch. It started between her shoulder blades and began to spread across her upper back. Her small arms were too short to reach. It was quite early in the morning, the sun was only just beginning to peek through. Yelena tried to move her shoulders in hopes of stilling the irritation but to no avail. Groggily she made her way to the bathroom. As she walked up to the mirror, she glanced at her face, how she wished she was older. She was 11 years old, which was a baby compared to so many others in the community. Ignoring her ruffled, tangled mess of silvery blonde hair, she gathered it into her hand to look at her back. Turning in front of the reflective glass she noticed two small red bumps beginning at the origin of the itch over both of her shoulder blades.
Excitedly she ran to her parents bedroom. “Momma, Pappa!!! They’re here, they're here!! I think I'm getting my wings!” She exclaimed excitedly. Startled, her father sat up straight and scanned the room, his eyes resting on his exuberant daughter who rarely was seen so close to dawn at this age.
Her mother rubbed at her eyes to clear the sleep away. “Calm yourself dear and turn around, let us see then.” Plopping down faced away from her parents, Yelena wiggled her shoulders.
Sleepily Lilith’s 9 year old form stood in the doorway, her small body cloaked in her three beautiful coral wings draped around her like a shall. “Lena, what's wrong, why are you making such a racket this early.” Yelena turned toward her younger sister, sticking her tongue out, she replied. “I'm finally getting my wings Lily, come look. I do hope they are as beautiful as yours.” Lilith was two years younger than herself but she had been jealous of her sister for getting her wings before her a few weeks ago.
Making a face, Lilith crawled into their father's lap, “that's impossible. Mine are the prettiest.”
Struggling and failing not to smile, their father put on a stern act “Lilith, all wings are beautiful. It matters not the color, so long as they carry you without fail.”
A small pout formed on Liliths face “mine will when I'm bigger.”
“And mine will too, I just know it.” Yelena said excitedly, “ Well, how do they look? Are they coming in right? What color will they be? How many do I have? Ohh I do wish I could see them coming in?”
Her mother’s sharp intake of breath made Yelena stop. Her father, frowning in thought, leaned in to take a closer look. “Could it be?” he mumbled to himself. “We should bring her to the healer to take a look. They will have an answer.”
Fear welled up in Yelena, her heart felt like it had jumped into her throat. “Papa… is… is there something wrong with my wings…” she stammered, choking back tears. “Do I not have wings…. am I being punished?”
Gently taking her daughter's hand her mother leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “No my darling, your wings are indeed growing, we just want a healer to assure that there are no complications. That is all.”
They made their way to the healers door knocking on the large Jade ring. A woman answered and ushered them inside. The smell of crushed herbs and incense filled the senses upon entering. The sound of trickling water from a large salt stone bath in the corner of the huge room could be heard. A calming feeling washed over Yelena as she was led towards a wooden stool. Turning the healer motioned her to sit. Her parents followed the healer behind a brightly colored curtain with strange symbols on it. As they walked away, Yelena noticed the woman was robbed in the usual loose reddish brown tunic of her people; however, there was one partial sleeve, sleeveless on the other arm with a beautiful green sash like her mother wore. She was the current healer on duty.
Yelena heard them whispering inaudiblly. But as it often did, her mind began to wonder. Hopefully her wings were coming in alright; her parents didn't seem upset, but they were concerned about something. Many children her age were brought to healers when their wings came in. She was still a little early for them to be coming in, though not nearly as early as Lilith. It was very rare for anything to go wrong with the growth but it did happen and one could never be too careful.
Taking deep breaths to calm herself, Yelena's excitement started to bubble up once more. “I wonder how many wings I'll have.” She whispered to herself. Chances were she'd have six. Most people she knew had six, it was the most common. That would be fine, she thought to herself. But what if she had five… she would most likely have to go into training to be a warrior ... or if she had three she'd go into training to be an army captain. That would be so difficult to fight.
On the other hand, she could have four and become a healer. That would be nice, just like mother. She wouldn't mind helping people. Or maybe she could get eight; one of the rarest sets of wings. She would be a guardian, could she trust herself to have so much responsibility to keep so many safe? She shook her head. No way would that happen. There was but one rarer number but that wouldn't happen to her it only happened to….
Suddenly the healers soft voice interrupted her musings. “If you don't mind leaning forward please, I would like to look upon your back.” Leaning forward Yelena felt warm hands trace her upper spine and the muscles around her shoulder blades. The hands moved lower toward the center of her back and slowly applied slight pressure as they moved back up.
Dipping a cloth into a bowl filled with cloudy sweet scented liquid the healer placed the cloth across Yelena's upper back. “This will help soften the skin so the wings will easily break through.”
Suddenly the slight itch became a burn, her eyes began to water and she gasped for air as she felt her skin tear. Warm liquid ran down her back, and the healer began to wipe the area in a rhythmic way while chanting a calming healing verse. After what felt like an eternity. Yelena began to feel the slide of bone and muscle outside of her body. The pulsed burning pain began to fade in her back. The healer’s chanting faded as she brought out a different bowl. This time full of clear liquid that smelled floral with small flowers and herbal leaves floating on the surface.
Taking a fresh cloth, the healer wiped the new limbs protruding from Yelena's back. “Would you like to see your wings dear?” She said softly, holding up a small mirror.
Worried, Yelena asked, “Are they okay? Will I be able to fly?”
Smiling kindly, the healer chuckled, “Most definitely young one.”
Angling the mirror, Yelena was struck by a dazzling silver shine. Her wings were silver, a beautiful silver with the slightest hint of light blue. “ They are so beautiful,” she said, amazed. Looking in the mirror she suddenly froze. “ There.. there are but only two?” She turned to look around for her parents. “Momma, Pappa, I have only two? What… what does that mean?”
Her mother and father looked at each other, then turned to her before her mother squatted down in front of her. A tear ran down her cheek, grasping her hands, “It means my daughter, my sweet Lena, that you are the Seriphiel.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two weeks later, Yelena was struggling to pay attention to her instructor, elder Raivina. The elder was the cultural education professor, and although she was in her early 100’s, she looked barely over 35 years old. She had long brown hair that framed her elegant face. The class of about 7 students was sitting on the stone steps of the marble amphitheater where many of the cultural lessons took place. Classes were usually pretty small, this year there was a boom in the number of children. As she looked out at her classmates, she saw something silver out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head, she marveled at her glossy feathers. They were so beautiful how they almost changed color in the sunlight. She was half listening to the teacher but perked up when she heard her name.
“Yelena, I know you are excited but pay attention.” Raivina whispered her name before she continued on with her instruction. Yelena blushed as she sat, embarrassed that the teacher had caught on.
Turning her head back to the class, she continued, “Today's lesson will be focusing on our people’s greatest strength and treasure, our wings.” At that moment, she stretched out her 8 long, orangish, yellow wings which reminded her of the sun. The class's excitement on the subject was instantaneous and they began chatting happily amongst one another.
“Most of you are getting close to the age where your wings will be coming in and you will begin to start the next chapter in your life... Some of you, such as Yelena here will be getting your wings a little early and will be leaving this group to start your individual training shortly as you draw closer to 21. We will miss you in class Yelena but we all wish you luck as you start your training. She will be leaving class much sooner due to her extensive amount of training.”
At that time, the entire class turned to her and said, “Goodluck Yelena.”
Clasping her hands together, the teacher continued, “Okay, so can anyone tell me why Seraphs generally don’t get their wings until the age of 12?”
Deeadre’s bob of bright red hair jiggled as she hastily raised her hand, “Elder Raivina, if I could answer?” Deeadre had always been a class know it all, Yelena rolled her eyes as she thought about all the previous times Deeadre had insisted on answering all the questions first.
“You may, dear.” The teacher smiled kindly.
“It’s because if we get our wings too early we break a special seal and turn bad, we turn into Maras!” She exclaimed, a huge grin on her face as her shoulders raised in pride.
“Not entirely, generations ago our ancestors created a seal on our powers meant to be bequeathed upon any newborn Seraphs to protect them. This has been the custom for many, many generations, it is meant to subdue the power within us. The seal will remain until we reach an age, usually around puberty.”
Something sparked in her eyes and her demeanor became more casual and less like a teacher, “Actually, it’s quite interesting but have any of you noticed that you age much faster than adults?”
Everyone shook their head, causing the teacher to softly chuckle, “No, most don’t. But it’s because once you hit puberty, when your wings come out, the power slows down your growth process.”
Shaking her head, she continued, “Anyway, it’s at puberty where we begin to have more control of our emotional state; at which time the seal dissolves away slowly over time. When we are young we have little control over how we react to our environment. If we had access to our powers, via our wings, something such as childhood jealousy or a series of bad experiences could cause a child to over react and begin the turning process. Though it is rare, some children experience a sudden welling up of their power through a stressful situation which can overwhelm or burn off the seal and cause an early dissolve, which in turn will start the growth of their wings.”
“Now children, do not worry, it takes an extreme situation to cause the seals to dissolve. This does not automatically cause the child to become mara. Most children don’t even come close to any change; however, it is very important to keep children who wing early under close surveillance.”
“Elder may I speak?” piped up a small boy by the name of Killican. His short black hair was the color of the night sky that looked to have streaks of blue in it. His bright yellow eyes looked almost cat-like.
“You may.” The teacher reached down and shuffled his hair, causing him to relax before continuing.
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“What if the seal doesn’t break?” He asked, seemingly fearful. Yelena remembered hearing of one of his distant cousins whose wings hadn’t grown in. Maybe he was worried it would happen to him.
“The seal cannot last, it dissolves over time, some children may wing later than others just as some have family members that are born without the gift. Don’t worry, your wings will come on their own time. Each set, no matter the number or color, is a beautiful and treasured part of each of us. Speaking of numbers, who can tell me the number of wings each can have and where they generally study?”
Yet again Deeadre’s hand shot up enthusiastically. “Oh, may I answer this one Elder?”
“Yes dear, you may but remember you can’t be the only one to answer my questions.”
“Yes Elder..” Deeadre pouted. “... My father explained all the wings and what they represent.. He said the most common wings are six, those who have six can’t do a lot. Eight wings mean you are a guardian of our people. Then there are five wings which means you get to fight Maras while three means you're a captain in charge of the warriors. And four means you heal people. ” As Deeadre described each wing type, she used her fingers to keep track of the numbers.
“Again Deeadre’s close but not entirely true.” The teacher chuckled, “First, remember that no matter how many wings you have you do not have to pursue a study you do not wish to. That being said, the number of wings does more often than not designate the power inside each of us. It also allows us to excel in the field of study which our wings coincide with easily. If one does decide to take a different path one must work much, much harder in order to succeed in it.”
She paused and raised her eight wings to better display her point, “Starting with the most amount of wings, eight does indeed represent powers of a Guardian. The Guardians job is to protect our city with magical barriers. Typically, guardians don’t finish their training until they reach about 50 to 70 or so. As you can see, I have eight wings but I chose to be a teacher instead of a guardian. Now, I do help with the shields from time to time but my true calling was to teach young ones such as yourself.”
Lowering two of her wings, she left six up as an example, “Six wings are generally the most common, that doesn’t stop them from pursuing whatever field they want to. Generally, those with six wings take on studies that help to strengthen the community such as teaching, craft making, agriculture, scouting, and entrepreneurship. Our home may be beautiful but food is not always plentiful; so we often send six winged Seraphs down to the earth to help in the humans’ fields. In some ways, they are more important than other wing types.”
Lowering one wing, she transitioned one of her wings to angle perpendicular to her back, “Five wings often do take the path of Warrior, their fifth wing is used as a barrier or a shield against both magical and physical attacks. It is visible but in regards to flying, the odd numbered wing doesn’t do much outside of personal protection.”
Lowering the odd angled wing, she now only had four wings lifted, “Four wings almost always take the path to become healers and later often volunteer to become our Ancients and guides. It’s quite often we send our healers down to the Earth to heal the humans we receive food rations from. Another important job healers do is safely remove the seal from young ones as their wings come in. Without their help, it would be very excruciatingly painful to get them in.”
Again, she lowered one wing and angled the third to the perpendicular position, “Three wings take on the responsibility of army captains who lead our warriors into battle and as extra protection for the city. Like the warriors, their odd number wing is a powerful barrier. All of these paths are vital for the survival of our culture and our way of life.”
Lowering the last three wings she beckoned Yelena to come forward, “However Deeadre, you did forget to mention the importance of one set of wings, two. Those with two wings are only born once every few centuries and hold the most power and responsibility of all who fly the skies. That person is a Seriphiel and we are lucky enough to be sitting amongst an example of one. Yelena dear, would you mind showing everyone your wings?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
All around the sounds were returning, as well as her alarm clock going off. Looking over she turned off the alarm, time for school. After getting ready, Ayalet glanced down at her watch, 7:30, plenty of time to get to school, she thought to herself as she quietly tiptoed through the house to not wake her aunt. Running to school, she kept pace until she arrived. Stretching her limbs, she caught her breath before walking up the stairs and into the front doors.
After getting what books and materials she hadn’t left at Jaisons, she closed her locker and headed to English. Up ahead, Crystal was at her locker flirting with her boyfriend, Cody Richards. As she was flirting with him, she accidentally bumped her locker, knocking over one of her magnets from her locker door. A picture of her and Cody drifted to the ground. They had been dating since 8th grade; they rarely fought, and had been voted cutest couple for 3 years now. Cody was a football player, while Crystal was the volleyball captain and the class salutatorian. Crystal was about 5’4”, with short pixie-like light brown hair that shaped her chin, and hazel green eyes. Cody was about 6’0” with dirty blonde hair, and greenish blue eyes. Although the difference in size was huge, it was something that made them that much cuter.
Ayalet was about to pass them when Crystal bent down to pick up the picture and bumped into her. As she stumbled past them, Cody turned his body and his shoulder bag bumped into Ayalet as well. This time she fell to the ground. Standing up, Crystal turned towards her, reached her hand out and said in a sincere way, “Oh my Goodness, I’m so sorry.” She turned to Cody, gave him a stern look and softly hit his shoulder, “I really didn’t mean to do that. Are you okay Ayalet?”
Crystal was the nicest person at this school, well at least to Ayalet she was. She didn’t walk up to her and start a conversation, but she would talk to her during classes and she didn’t ignore her. Compared to everyone else, Ayalet considered that to be considerate. “Thanks, Yeah I’m okay. No big deal” she shrugged smiling at her, “I’m such a klutz.” Bending down, she picked up Crystal’s picture and magnet, “Here;” Feeling a tingle on her neck, she turned her head toward the stairs to see Jaison appear. Jerking her attention back to Crystal she caught the last of her sentence, “Thanks, Oh will you be going to the party later tonight?”
“Uh, I… I don’t know. What party?”
“The Senior Party at the Community Center. You should come, it’ll be a lot of fun. Here, I have an extra flier for it.” Crystal smiled kindly at her, openness in her eyes, as she flipped open her planner and handed her a bright green flier.
“Maybe, I’ll see if I can.” She politely inspected the flier to show her interest.
“Cool, see ya.” Crystal said as she turned back to Cody.
Walking away from the couple, she sped up so that she could get into class before Jaison. Just as she thought she was home free, he took a big step and walked into the doorway looking down at her. He was about to say something, when Tyanne pushed through them into the classroom. She then turned around, facing Jaison, “I am so sorry Jaison.” Her voice emphasized the ‘so’ as she reached over to Jaisons arm. “Are you okay?”
While he was distracted, Ayalet squeezed between him and the doorway. He called after her but she ignored him and headed to her seat. She sat down at her desk with what books she had in her locker, knowing she didn’t have any paper or pens. Just as she was wondering what she was going to do, Jaison walked by and set her bag next to her on the ground. He looked like he was about to say something when the bell rang, the teacher walked in and quieted everyone down for class to begin.
The entire class period Jaison constantly whispered her name and threw paper balls over her head landing perfectly on her desk every time. Every note saying something similar to the last, like sorry, don’t ignore me, will you talk to me, or can we talk about this. Despite her best efforts she kept thinking back to what she asked him about her vision and the kiss, if you could even call it that.
The bell rang signifying the end of class, turning around she glared and said, “Please stop.” Before turning to leave she added, “You should give baseball a try, I bet you’d be good at it.” Instantly she regretted being so mean. His reaction to the kiss though, how could it be anything other than rejection. She had never been more embarrassed in her whole life. How could she have done that, she must look desperate to have kissed him after a day. Why did she even do it to begin with, she's never done anything even close to that before. That wasn’t her, it was almost as if she had been possessed. It was just easier to avoid the subject and give him an out instead of an opportunity to reject her. Grabbing the rest of her books and stuffing them in her backpack she angrily made her way out of the classroom. She understood full well that the anger was at herself, not at Jaison.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Feeling extremely annoyed, she quickly got dressed and was rewarded by making it out of the dressing room seconds after the tardy bell rang. Most students just barely make it into class. Not caring that the class hadn’t joined her yet, she took off through the gymnasium doors to the track field. Why not get a head start on the laps that the class would be running today? Through the corner of her eye, she could see the class trudging their way to the track. Some people just walked the track while others actually listened to the teacher and attempted to run the full mile and a half. Some of the boys goofed off, racing each other while laughing at each other at the same time. Most of the girls walked the entire way, not wanting to ruin their hair or makeup. And then there were the people that enjoyed running and those that were on the track team.
Some of the first people to arrive at the track were Raina, Jose, and Emily. Jose ran the 400 hurdles and 800 hurdles. While Emily ran the 80m, 100m, and 400m sprints. She was really funny too, always telling jokes, the guys basically treated her as one of them. They were always hitting each other’s shoulders and racing each other, she didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable with anybody.
Raina was a three school record holder, two on the track team for the 1600 and the long jump. People say that she built up so much body heat from running that it was practically impossible to touch her. What’s strange was that she didn’t even sweat; well no one had seen her before anyway. She was also on the swimming and volleyball team, where she swam the 800m freestyle and was the school prodigy on the volleyball team. She jumped so high when she went to spike that her feet reached a foot or so below the bottom of the net. She had so many sports scholarships rolling in it was ridiculous.
Ayalet only knew all of this due to rumors that had spread about Raina in the beginning of freshman year. Much like the ones that were spread about her, there were claims that she was on steroids, or enhancers. The difference was Raina chased down the jealous sophomores who had started the rumors and confronted them about it involving teachers and the principal, and the rumors were stifled immediately after. It was Raina’s “Take no crap” attitude that Ayalet admired about her. One of the qualities She wished she possessed herself. Maybe she should start a conversation with her; but how could she without being awkward, or seeming weird.
Ayalet ran 3 laps by the time the three leaders finally made it to the track. Emily and Jose took off ahead of her racing to see who had the better sprint, the same thing they did every time. Raina on the other hand ran up to her and their paces instantly synchronized. They never said anything to each other; it was more of a silent understanding. After a few seconds Jose and Emily slowed down to catch their breath, while Raina and Ayalet passed them up. It was a cloudy day, making the temperature outside slightly cooler; which was good for the people that actually ran so that they could cool down. However, the many students that only walked the laps were constantly complaining to the teachers to go in. And after about the hundredth complaint in the last ten minutes, Coach finally agreed to let everyone go in. Instantly, people started running in the direction of the gym; all except for her, Raina, Jose, and Emily.
What didn’t seem fair was that Raina was just as freakishly athletic as Ayalet, but no one ignored her or was mean to her. Sometimes Ayalet wished that she knew how to be as outgoing as Raina did. She was quiet, and not the shy quiet, like Ayalet, rather the loner type of quiet. She was the type of person that didn’t seem to care about what other people thought and would tell you what she was thinking. She was a very straight laced and blunt kind of person; but that was probably what most people respected about her.
She wished she could join sports like track and volleyball with Raina, Emily and Crystal. They all seemed like they’d be really good friends, she was just not sure how they would respond to her trying to become their friends. She never really understood what stopped her everytime she started to gather the courage to just say something. Mostly it was the combination of overthinking and fear of messing things up for good.
Looking up, she nearly ran face first into the door; however she jerked to a stop an inch or so from the glass.
Snickering, Raina said, “Dang, Ayalet get your head out of the clouds or we might have to send you to the hospital for a concussion.”
Surprised to hear Raina laugh, it took her a second to respond, “Heh, yeah that would suck.”
Grabbing the handle, she opened the door wide enough for Raina to get through, letting herself in afterward just as the bell rang to go to chemistry.
SCREW IT! She was tired of missing chances; she called out to Raina as she was walking away, “Hey Raina, Do you know when tryouts take place for track next year?”
Raina stopped and turned around, she just stared at Ayalet. Before she had the opportunity to say anything, Ayalet added in a little sheepishly, beginning to feel like this was a mistake, “Or volleyball. . .”
A soft smile brightened Raina's face as the bell rang, “I was wondering when you’d finally show an interest in trying out. I’m not sure what day exactly... No worries though, here’s my number.” She said as she quickly wrote her number down on a scratch piece of paper.
“Thanks”, she said as she took the note from Raina, rather mesmerized at receiving a phone number from someone, and in disbelief at how easy it was.
“Text me later and we can chat more about the tryouts coming up.”
Before she had a chance to tell her she didn’t have a cell phone, Raina was gone. She could always call her on her Aunt’s house phone.