Lilly’s wings fluttered as a small gust blew past.

She was on my shoulders, and clung to my head as if worried the wind was strong enough to lift her and carry her away.

Honestly, she might just be light enough for such a thing to happen. She weighed as little as the empty pack on my back.

Or well, it wasn’t empty anymore. I was now carrying Celine’s stuff too.

“No one believed her,” Lilly vocally proved Celine’s story, once again.

“Most don’t. A weird woman showing up, warning of impending death is usually not something anyone wants to believe in… even if it’s a real warning,” Celine said calmly.

“She was nice about it though. She sat with all the elders and debated them for days. She even brought people with her who supposedly knew about it, from the other village,” Lilly added.

I frowned at that. “Those men?” I asked.

Celine nodded.

“Alf and… I don’t remember. I was sick, so I stayed at home most of the time,” Lilly said.

Right. I was glad she seemed better already. Even though it had only been a day.

Not only was she back on her feet… or well, my shoulders, but…

Lilly shifted on my shoulders, and I felt one of her wings bump into my back as she turned to Celine. “How come they believed you, Celine?” Lilly asked her.

“I helped them before. Years ago. They believed me, because like you… they survived after not doing so,” Celine answered the young girl with utter honesty.

“Ah…” I felt Lilly nod, as if in understanding.

And understanding it was.

Her whole family was dead. Cruelly killed. Her home set aflame. And she was now traveling with a strange unknown man, and a woman who had shown up right before it all happened… and hadn’t been able to stop it.

And she hadn’t really cried or sobbed, or broken. Either she was younger than she seemed, or was far more mature for her age than should be possible.

“I wish we had believed you,” Lilly then said.

“Did you?” I asked her.

“Well… no. But dad and the rest didn’t either, so…” Lilly mumbled, as if ashamed to admit it.

I nodded all the same. “Parents usually are right about stuff, so I understand,” I said.

Lilly sighed as Celine smiled at me. She was walking next to me, and I was doing my best to not really look back at her. I didn’t like the way she had been… studying me.

It was not too surprising, so I wasn’t too bothered by it. I knew to her I was probably something weird. Amazing. Terrifying. Especially so if I she had seen… me in her dreams. I could only imagine what she’s seen. Who knows what kind of feats or terrors I had done to those around her, or her herself, in her dreams.

“What are you Vim?” Lilly then asked, bending down a little as to stare at me. She wasn’t big enough to really bend all the way over my head, but with me looking upward I could meet her eyes with my own.

“Vim’s a very special man. He’s something that doesn’t exist anymore,” Celine answered for me.

Lilly frowned at me, and then turned to the Saint. “Yes… but what? What animal?” she further questioned.

“She doesn’t know. Neither do I,” I answered her.

“Oh… that’s too bad. What kind of traits do you have? Maybe we can find out for you,” the little bird girl seemed to have a heart bigger than her wings.

I looked down; back to the dirt road we were walking upon, and smiled. It pleased me to find that humans weren’t the only kind ones to exist.

Though that might only be because she was a child…

“Rather Lilly, I’m told you can fly,” I said, changing topics.

“Huh? Oh… not yet. Not really. I can float around a bit, but eventually I fall back down,” she said softly. As if embarrassed.

“Still that’s quite a feat. I’m jealous. I can do many things, many things that others can only dream of… yet I cannot fly. I bet it feels great,” I said.

“It’s not that neat. It gets cold in the sky, real quick, and if you’re not careful you get hurt. One wrong flap of the wing, and wham! You hit a tree,” Lilly shot her hands out above me, as if to reenact that very thing.

Smirking at her, I nodded. Yes. That made sense. Their bodies, being so humanoid… likely made it impossibly difficult to actually fly. “Still, I’m jealous. Maybe one day when you’re big enough you can carry me and fly around for a bit. I promise to destroy any trees or anything that tries to hit us as we fly around,” I said.

Lilly giggled. “Destroy them? But we’d be hitting them!”

“I’d hit them first,” I said as I raised a hand, balling it into a hard fist.

She giggled and reached out, to grab my balled fist. I lifted it up higher so she could.

As her tiny hands and fingers played at trying to pry open my fist, Celine stepped closer. “Would you have believed me, Vim?” she asked.

I finally looked at her, for the first time in awhile. “Well… Yes. But I know what you are,” I said.

“What if you hadn’t?” she asked further.

If I hadn’t known?

I tried to pretend such a scenario existed. It wasn’t too hard… a long, long time ago… back when I had been but a child, before I had received a proper education and risen in ranks of the army… There had indeed been a time I had not known about Gods or the abilities they had, or gifted their followers.

“Maybe not. I’d like to think I would have at least prepared for the possibility, or verified it, though,” I said honestly.

“Ah… we should have done that. We could have sent someone to fly and see the army approaching, couldn’t we have?” Lilly asked, quickly.

Celine flinched, and I realized she had not really wanted such a thing to have been realized by Lilly. Which was foolish. It would have happened eventually.

“Learn from such mistakes, but don’t dwell on them,” I told her.

“Dwell?” Lilly sat forward, grabbing my hair as she leaned over my head again. I could tell by the way she said the word she hadn’t understood its meaning.

“Don’t think too deeply about it. Don’t let it make you cry, or full of sorrow. He’s saying you and your village did make a mistake, but there’s nothing that can be done about it… and not to endure the whole blame on yourself. Simply never make the same mistake again, so others don’t suffer the same way next time,” Celine went into teacher mode, explaining it all to the young bird.

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I noted the way she spoke, since it wasn’t just the way a woman spoke to a child. It was indeed in the way of a teacher. Someone who often taught others. It wasn’t too uncommon for Saints to sometimes have to teach others, but something told me it was more than that.

“Were you really not able to do anything else? You knew it was going to happen,” Lilly asked Celine.

The Saint’s eyes, their pure white that glowed a little, flinched. She had been hurt by the young girl’s words.

“If fate was so fragile, that a little woman like her could change it with mere words or actions, then it wouldn’t be something so feared,” I said evenly.

Lilly shifted on my shoulders again, and I noted the way her wings fluttered. There hadn’t been a gust of wind either.

“What about you? Could you have done it?” she asked me.

“Had he been there… yes, Lilly. He could have stopped it from happening,” Celine answered before I could.

I usually would have argued against her statement, but… well…

She wasn’t wrong. I might not have been able to save everyone, but it definitely wouldn’t have been as bad as it had been.

And I didn’t feel like lying to this young bird right now.

“You’re strong, Vim?” Lilly asked me from above.

I nodded. “I am.”

“Stronger than the men who attacked us?” she asked further.

“Very much so,” Celine said for me.

For a long moment, as we walked, Lilly made no further questions. She seemed to get lost in thought as her tiny fingers played with my hair.

After we rounded a tiny bend of grass, Celine pointed in the distance. Down a small hill that led to a river. One that was rather big, and flowing quickly. “That river leads to another village of our kind. A large family of goats and sheep,” she said.

“Yea. We traded with them. We gave them eggs, they gave us milk,” Lilly said.

“Really…?” I shifted a bit, and stopped walking. To run my eyes along the river, until it disappeared into a forest. I didn’t see any hints of said village, but I had no reason to doubt the two.

“Where you from Vim? It’s not like our villages are hidden,” Lilly asked.

“Far away…” I whispered.

“Another village is to the north. Over near that weird looking mountain. The one shaped as if something took a bite out of it,” Celine pointed the other way. I found the mountain range she spoke of. It was the one I had thought of walking to earlier, before this all happened.

“I had not realized there were this many left… It’s a little shocking to hear there are entire villages still,” I said gently. I had fully expected for there to be non-humans left, but I hadn’t expected so many. Entire villages? And this was just a tiny corner of the world. So that meant there were still plenty out there.

“There are still many left, yes… but our numbers are dwindling quickly. Sickeningly quick. It’s why we must put aside all our differences, and unite as one,” Celine said seriously.

“We can’t unite with those who would hunt and kill our own,” Lilly said to her quickly.

Although Celine’s eyes hardened… I still nodded in agreement. “This is true,” I said, voicing my agreement with not just a head shake.

Lilly squirmed a little, and bent over my head to beam me a smile. I raised an eyebrow and smiled back at her. She was an odd one. Was she that happy that I’d agree with her?

I mean… wasn’t it obvious? You couldn’t co-exist with those who wanted to kill you. It just… made no sense.

Celine though must not agree, for she shook her head and turned to me. “One must try first. To open a dialogue. To find a common ground. Those who hunt and kill each other, do so because of old instinct and laws that no longer rule us. We must stamp out such flaws not with violence, but education,” Celine said.

Lilly sat up straight again, and I could feel the her thoughts on Celine’s words. She had gripped my hair tightly, and her wings had gone stiff. Yet she said nothing, and so I did.

“You’re a saint, and so I expect such views from you. But even you should realize that some people cannot be reasoned with. If what you believed was true, then Lilly’s village would have been spared. Because you would have been able to convince them to stay their blood-lust,” I said to her.

Celine’s eyes grew a little brighter, and I realized I had touched a very big nerve. She actually stepped towards me, staring up at me with a glare as she did.

“If you had been there, it could have been,” she said to me.

I frowned at her. “If I had been there, Celine, the men would indeed have not burnt the village down. However, the village would have then burnt all of the corpses of the men I had slaughtered. Such a thing is not what you speak of,” I said.

“Right!” Lilly said.

Celine ignored Lilly, and kept her eyes on my own. “No, Vim. With you there, you could have forced them to sit. To talk. To listen. Yes… you might have used force. You may have had to kill one or two, but that would have been it. After showcasing the vast difference between you and them, they would have had no choice but to sit and negotiate. To open a dialogue. And then, then…” Celine slowly stopped talking, and I realized she wasn’t just speaking from her heart… from her emotions, and teachings… but…

“Is that what you’ve seen…?” I whispered the question, afraid to hear the answer.

What she spoke of wasn’t just some kind of religious teaching or a hope in a better society. It was something concrete. Something destined.

She spoke not of the possible future, but rather something akin to the past. Something she had seen, and witnessed.

Celine’s eyes wavered, and the shining light behind them dimmed. It died down, to the point that they barely glowed anymore… then she looked away from me. And to the ground between us.

“I’m sorry for yelling. I… just wished and hoped for a better future. I breaks my soul to know it is possible, yet it never is allowed to happen,” she said.

Lilly shifted on my shoulders, and I wondered what to say. I had expected her to actually get more defensive… not… whatever this was.

Why did she look as if I had just broken her heart? She didn’t just look as if we had just had an argument… but…

Shit, she looked as depressed and beaten down as Celine, the human one, had looked after I had explained to her why I was leaving.

With a small breath, I shifted and glanced around. Both up and down the road, to make sure we were still alone.

Lilly patted my head. “Stop looking around, Vim,” she said sternly.

Frowning at her, I wondered what she wanted from me.

“Ask her how many villages her Society has saved. Using her methods,” Lilly said, patting my head again as if to give me directions. As if I some beast of burden she commanded.

I shifted a little, and was indeed about to ask it… but Celine looked up from the ground, and up to the young bird on my shoulders.

There were tears leaking from her eyes. They glowed, as her eyes did.

Like precious gems.

“Only five, Lilly. Only five,” she answered the girl’s accusation veiled question.

“Out of how many?” Lilly asked further.

Celine held her gaze, but shifted. I noticed her hands tightened into balled up fists. Ones that shook unsurely.

“Too many to say aloud, without breaking my heart,” Celine answered.

“Exactly. I’m surprised you’ve saved five… but Celine… I wish Vim had shown up and not you,” Lilly said, and pointed at her.

“Lilly…” I was about to speak up, to stop her from breaking this saint’s fragile heart, but the young bird didn’t care. She pushed herself up, pushing off my head. She clambered her feet up, to my shoulders, and went to standing on top of me.

Glancing up at her, worriedly, I hoped she didn’t fall. Someone as light as her would likely be hurt if she did… could I catch her without hurting her wings?

She pointed down at Celine, and I noticed the way her wings trembled. In anger.

“I’m thankful you tried, Celine. But next time… don’t come if you can’t do anything! There’s no point!” she shouted.

Then with a flutter of her wings, Lilly leapt off my shoulders… and into the sky.

She flapped her wings quickly. Too quickly. The kind of quickness that told me she was struggling… yet she still didn’t fall. She flew up into the air, flying off a little.

Watching her go, I was worried for a moment she’d actually fly away… leaving us forever… but instead the girl only flew off ahead of us. With unsure wings, she landed just beyond shouting distance from us. She stood up after landing, and went to wiping her face.

She was crying.

Sighing with relief, I realized she was just… upset. And understandably so.

“She must be older than she looks,” I said.

Celine nodded softly. “She’s about sixteen, I think,” she said.

Ah. Woops. I had been treating her as someone much younger. Hopefully she wasn’t upset with me.

“Please Vim. No matter your choice. No matter what side of history you choose to destroy, or protect… please be kind to her. Be gentle with her,” Celine said to me.

I turned, and noticed the seriousness on her face. She was speaking from the heart… and the truth.

She must have seen something in one of her prophecies.

“She will suffer horribly. That poor girl will suffer in ways I can’t even voice aloud. So please… protect her. Always,” she begged me.

Very bothered by this pious woman, who was staring at me… as if she could see my soul, I glanced away as to look at the little bird.

She was still there. She hadn’t moved. She’d likely wait for us to catch up to her… and by the time we did, she’d be back in a good enough mood to climb back onto my shoulders.

With a small sigh, I wondered what I was going to do with myself.

Just what was I getting involved with? What had I stumbled into?

And… whatever it was… had I done so willingly… or was something else forcing it onto me instead?