Fan Fiction ❯ The Waging of Wings ❯ Chapter One: The Past ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One: The Past

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As Aerose had come to the conclusion of destroy, he indeed accomplished that feat. He immediately went after Soaris, whose barrier had slackened, but he again was deflected backwards. He let out a vicious stream of obscenities and thought of another way of abducting the child. He watched as the wizard ran into his hut and came out without the child.

Aerose let out a rumble of laughter. "You old fool!" He roared with malice in his voice as he plummeted down towards the `unprotected' hut, but there was an invisible barrier that the old wizard had placed upon his home. Instead of sending him backwards however, electrical waves surged through the man who possessed wings' body and he was paralyzed. His wings wilted and he fell to the ground in a ruffled heap, unmoving.

Soaris approached the fallen Aerose, his staff in hand in case he was going to be attacked unexpectedly. He got down on his knees and reached out, resting a hand on the young man's chest and felt the beating of his heart. He grumbled a few words of magic under his breath and Aerose let out a gasp and sat up swiftly. His crimson eyes darted to glare at the wizard and he swung his arm out blindly but Soaris blocked the blow with his staff.

"I would not attack in the state you are currently in for I can kill you with ease," The wizard told Aerose patiently, with a sly wink. The young man growled but relaxed a bit, his anger still apparent. "Aerose…"

"What?" He snapped through gritted teeth. The wizard sighed patiently for he had known Aerose since he was a boy.

"What did you do, my boy? You've changed… It's as if you are not your true self any more but two pieces of a broken mind. I can sense the unrest that dwells in your heart and your soul is black…" Soaris finished, watching the young man, wanting answers. His withered gray eyes turned with his head to look across the open field to see the crumpled form that Aerose had quickly discarded. "You even murdered the only person who ever loved or could every love you for the creature that you were."

Aerose's eyes squeezed shut briefly as if he was trying to block the old wizard out of his mind. Aerose, he heard Soaris's voice in his head. Come back to the light. Come out of your madness.

Maniacal laughter escaped from the young man's lips as he struggled against his paralysis to escape. "You think you can save me, old man? I am too far gone to `come out of my madness'! I sold my soul for the power to extract my revenge towards those who deserve my wrath!" Aerose continued to laugh and his wings started to twitch a bit. Soaris's eyes grew wide and he stepped away from the `fallen angel', planting his staff into the soil before him, mumbling a protection spell as Aerose began to rise into the air.

"Aerose! You cannot go on like this. The cursed duty of revenge will come back to haunt you even if you extract it," the old wizard called up to the young man who was hovering in the air.

"I may not have been able to take the child today but I will return again and no mater where you go, I will seek you out. I will come when I believe she will be ready to join me in my plans and when this happens… You will not be able to protect her," Aerose spat down to the old man, completely disregarding the advice he had been given. He spread his large golden wings and stretched his body slightly, as if ridding himself of the rest of his paralysis and soared off into the night.

Panicking, the old wizard rushed into his humble hut, slammed and locked the door; sealing it shut with magic and whirled to look at the child that he had laid on his cot in the corner of the room. He took her into his arms and observed her carefully, noting the inherited traits from her parents. Blonde curls that would probably eventually darken covering her soft and heavy little head as she gazed up at him with large, gentle and fiery emerald eyes. Feeling curiosity take hold, Soaris unwrapped the baby from her blanket and didn't even have to turn her at all to see her small golden wings in her back.

"It's as I thought," He mumbled to himself as he bounced and lulled the baby girl back to sleep. He set her down softly onto the cot and covered her with his blankets as he started his own meddling. How did this all happen? The love that blossomed… The child… When did all of this happen? Soaris thought as he laid his staff on a table next to the cauldron he was about to use. He cleared his throat and said an incantation that made the silvery liquid in the large old pot boil for a moment. It looked frothy but then faded to crystalline as it waited to be told instruction.

"What happened between Henna and Aerose? Why does he now possess a dark heart and a clearly detectable other presence?" The wizard asked and leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand as he watched the images that appeared in the clear depths of the liquid.

~

"Who… Who's there?" A younger looking Henna called into the forest, her blue eyes looked genuinely curious and frightened at the same time. "I know someone is there or else I wouldn't have heard anything," she added, clutching the basket that she was holding in her hand, paranoia itching at her insides.

Out from the trees she saw a looming shadow with wings descend in the darkness of the forest. She squinted her eyes to get a clearer vision of the black enveloped stranger but couldn't.

"Why are you hiding in the dark like that? Come here so I don't feel like you're going to jump out and eat me," Henna stated softly, setting down the basket as she tucked a curly skein of her thick blonde hair behind her ear.

"If I come out… You'll run away," A deep voice answered from the shadows. "Everyone who passes through these woods… they see me and they run… I am a monster…"

Henna let out a short bark of laughter. "I don't run away lest I know I'm in real danger now please. Come out… What is your name?" she asked in a friendly tone, hoping it would soften up his stubborn decisiveness.

"Aerose…" Came the confused and unsure reply of the mysterious stranger with wings.

"Aerose… I think that is a beautiful name," Henna answered starting to step forward. "Aerose, I won't run away. My name is Henna," she introduced herself softly. With that she heard footsteps crackling the dry leaves on the forest floor as the man named Aerose showed himself. Henna was in shock, but not from fear.

What a beautiful person, she thought as she looked him over, her gaze curious and detailed. He was very handsome with unruly, long black locks and emerald eyes that harbored curiosity and other pent up emotion. It looked to be hate. But… he was different than a normal man for he had wings, large, lovely golden wings that seemed to be as long as he was tall.

"You see? I've frightened you," Aerose told her, his eyes sparking momentarily as he stood on his toes to lift off from the ground. He stopped abruptly when Henna's small hand brushed one of his wings and he leapt back like she had stung him. "Please, do not touch me," he told her, his voice stony and impassible.

"Why?" she asked, seeing how goaded and afraid he looked from just the simple caress and liberty she had taken. Aerose turned and revealed large, putrid and unforgiving scars that sliced down the length of his back. Henna raised her hand to her mouth at the site, trying to be overly offensive in any way to him.

"Those are from humans… touching me," he choked out in disgust. "Then… they were frightened and repulsed by me. Then they would attack me. Burn me… Tie me up and spit in my wounds. That's why I live here… Alone and away from all of that except for a few occasional passerby who flee when they see my shadow," the strange young man with golden wings told her.

"I… I'm sorry…" Henna managed to get out, not knowing what to say. She concealed the sympathy and pity in her voice as best she could, seeing that it would not help matters for Aerose at this point.

"There is nothing for you to be sorry about. It is not your fault you were born to act like an animal when your kind fears something different, aside from the last of the magic folk in this world. It's very understandable," Aerose snapped, his voice filled with disgust and deep running hatred.

Henna was speechless. Her mouth had gone very dry, like she had been sucking on a rock. The rest of the world shunned this poor man. It was very plausible for him to harbor such feelings and opinions. But, despite the fact that he had just said many horrible things about her species, she found him quite interesting. "Aerose, would you mind it too much if I returned on this same day next week?" she asked him with a gentle voice as she picked up her basket again, her eyes fixed on him.

Now it seemed to be Aerose's turn to be without words. Someone was actually going to come back to see him? Was she crazy? "No, no of course n-not…" He stumbled over his words, shocked that this pretty young woman was returning to converse with him again.

~

I thought as much, Soaris thought. He wasn't blind, nor was he stupid. He had witnessed when Aerose and Henna had been in the air earlier that night. He had seen their kiss. What made things happen the way they did? He watched the liquid again, hoping to find more answers to his wondrous thoughts.

~

"Why do you hate us so much?" Henna asked as she dangled her slender legs over the tree branch she was sitting on. Aerose had flown them up to the tallest tree in the forest and they were sitting, side by side, getting the clearest view of the entire forest. "Humans, I mean, of course. You've given me some explanation but… what is the real reason you harbor such feelings against us?"

"All humans are the same. They fear and hate what they don't know and they murder when given the slightest reason," Aerose told her, his eyes narrowed in memory. "Those scars on my back are some of the samples of my pain… but nothing like the wounds that will never heal that I felt in my heart and still feel in my heart," he finished and took a deep breath. Henna was silent, her demeanor solemn as she quietly urged him to continue with his story.

"When I was a young boy, my mother never let me go outside. Her excuses were always, `Don't you want to stay with me?' or `I love you, don't go outside.' I didn't know that she was ashamed of me and harbored fear towards me. I was just happy that I had someone to take care of me. As I got older, I started to see how she went to all means possible to keep me out of sight of all the people in my village. No one ever came for dinner; no one ever came to talk… She kept them all away from me…" Aerose shifted his position on the tree branch, his voice growing husky.

"But, I grew angry with her one day and I burst outside into the sunlight and spread my wings wide, watching with confusion as the people who had been outside their homes stared at me in horror. I didn't understand why at the time but now I know. I was pale, paler than anyone they had probably ever seen and my wings were reflecting the sun, blinding them all. I walked forward to help a little girl who had stumbled when she had gotten a look at me but a woman pushed me back and said, `Keep away from her, you beast!' My mother came thundering out of our house and tried to push me back inside but I refused. People started to say, `so this is what she has been hiding all of these years!' and `He's probably dangerous! We should eliminate him before he comes for us!'

"One woman suggested that they kill us both. I was frightened… more frightened than I had ever been in my entire life. I took flight in the sky after a woman had thrown a torch onto my back; another man came beside her and pronged his pitchfork into my raw, burnt skin, ripping it from my body… I never thought humans could be so savage… What's so wrong with a person having wings?" Aerose asked Henna, his emerald eyes catching hers. Her heart tightened in her chest and she slowly reached out and laid her small hand on his large, strong arm. She felt him stiffen at the contact, an awkward blush rising in both of their cheeks.

"I'm sorry…" Henna apologized quickly, her hand sliding back into her lap in embarrassment. Aerose's eyes flickered briefly but he said nothing. The young woman swallowed and looked about herself in discomfort. She then gasped, her azure eyes wide with realization. "I interrupted your story! Oh! How rude of me! Please! Please continue," she urged, her sapphire eyes now shining at the man with wings in interest.

"Well, they slaughtered my mother for bearing such an `abomination'… as they had called me. I watched from on high, no sorrow or remorse in my heart. I did not shed a tear but the act angered me and as the blood from my wounds and the puss from my burns oozed down my back, I felt my temper rise… and I became a different person almost. I destroyed the village and every last one of the inhabitants," Aerose's deep voice became thick and quiet as he spoke the words. "So I came here to hide… Yet, my hatred and anger are not satiated," the young man's voice grew loud as he punched the bark of the trunk of the tree trunk beside him. "I hate them! Worthless creatures who fear difference and do not know what is right!" Aerose roared at Henna, his voice dying in his throat at her broken expression.

She couldn't bear to look at his face. "Henna…" she heard him say, his voice in wonder and guilt.

"Aerose… I'm a human… I am what you hate… I can't come to see you anymore like I have been for these last months if that is how I make you feel," she trailed off, a soft whimper following after she rose a hand to wipe the tears that flooded down her cheeks.

"You… You're the only one that doesn't make me feel that way…" Aerose told her, unexpectedly taking her hand, effectively pulling her against his body. "Look at me… please…" He begged her, his own voice sounding like he was going to crack. Henna's face gazed up and he raised his free hand to touch her cheek, his thumb wiping her tears away. His expression softened and he took in a deep, dragging breath. "When I'm with you… I feel like I've never been mistreated or hated… Henna… Tell me something… say anything please… Your voice… You have a soothing voice…" He pleaded, his green eyes roaming over her fair face, his voice desperate and he looked very vulnerable.

Henna couldn't breath. His body was so warm and his hand so soft against her cheeks, his voice rugged from strained emotion. He was so misunderstood and alone. Her kind had judged him for a beast when he was a very real and loving person. Henna didn't know what to do about her thudding heart or her shortness of breath and she certainly did not know what to say to him. "I… I don't know what to say," she whispered, her voice trembling.

"Say my name them… I love the way it sounds from your lips…" The young man whispered, breaking her from her distracted thoughts.

"Aerose…"

Aerose closed his eyes and leaned his forehead onto hers, letting out a soft, contented sound. Henna swallowed and relaxed a bit against his warmth. "Again…" he pleaded, his hand stroking her cheek gently.

"Aerose…" she said again, her own eyes closing as he pulled her into his chest, her hands sliding up to touch him. "Aerose…" she said his name over and over, her closed eyes twitching in relaxation as he ran his fingers through her long hair that was the color of the purest gold. He kissed her forehead softly and then her lips, ceasing the repetition of his name. Henna's arms slid around his neck as she tried to comfort the poor young man who had never every truly been loved or accepted in his life.

Henna wanted to stay with Aerose but she needed to return home first to gather her things. She told him to wait for her in a hut that was outside her village on the outskirts of her town. "I'll be there in a day. Wait for me," she told him and jumped down from the tree, looking up at his defeated face.

"You're leaving?" he asked. "How do I know you are not going to go and get your village to wait for me? How do I know you will not have them ready to kill me?" Henna's face paled.

"Do you not trust me, Aerose?" she questioned him softly, watching as he descended to the ground by spreading his broad wings. He said nothing. His face was expressionless.

"Give me a reason to and then, yes. I will trust you," he replied and Henna nodded solemnly.

"Come," she said quietly and left the forest, running expertly to her cottage in the town. There, she packed her things, her chest knotted in thought and anxiety. What was she going to do to get him to trust her? She… She had feelings for him, feeling she had never known with a man before. "What do I do?" she thought aloud.

**

Aerose sat, crouched in a ball on the forest floor, his eyes wide and bloodshot as he rocked slowly, shivering.

"Leave me alone…" he murmured, his voice hoarse and tremulous.

"Filthy human… she wants you to die just like the rest of them…" His other self shot back. "She will laugh when you're gone. You should run before she brings her town to finish you…"

"No! Stop it! Henna is not like that!"

A silence passed as Aerose and his inner demon battled.

"You love her… don't you?"

"…"

"You fool! Do you not realize it is all a trick? It is false! Humans slaughtered your own mother for bearing a child such as yourself and gave you those scars. Do you not remember your pain and the suffering?"

"Stop it! Leave me alone, I tell you!"

"Go… kill her, Aerose…"

"Never! I won't go after her!" Aerose roared and stood up, his hands fisting mercilessly in his hair, clutching his cranium. "Not Henna!"

"AEROSE!" His other self shouted in his mind now, his grip on the young man's self-conscious pulling tighter likes a rope as he fought to gain control. "You know I know what is best for you. I helped you slaughter the people and I can help you do it again. You cannot do anything without me you weak, pathetic, grotesque excuse for a living being!"

"Stop talking to me… Go away…"

"You are weak, Aerose. Your sentimentalities will be the death of you. You cannot even fight me off," Aerose's demon laughed insanely. "Your feelings towards her… that human scum are what keep you from being the all powerful, terrible creature you strive to hold back. Well, Aerose… I WON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE!" and with that, the creature living inside Aerose's subconscious came to life and tried to take him over. The young man cried out and clutched his burning head as his other self's laughter echoed throughout his mind, driving him over the edge as blackness engulfed him.

**

Henna waited in the hut alone, the darkness of the night seeming worse than it really was. The cold biting was biting at her skin and her flesh broke out in goose bumps. Where was Aerose? Does he not trust me? Does he really think I would have my village waiting for him? She ran a frustrated hand through her thick hair and sighed, flopping onto the cool cot that had never been used before. She closed her eyes but was startled when the door to the cottage blew open, a gust of icy air blowing onto her already freezing body.

Henna sat up quickly, shivering and saw a familiar figure with wings in the dark. Her eyes lit up and she stood, hugging him when he came close. The door slammed with a redundant bang and Aerose's arms tightened around the young woman's small, cold frame, forcing a squeak out of her.

"Henna…" he said, his voice uncharacteristically gruff and cold sounding. Henna looked up at his face and gasped, pushing away from him.

"You… You're not Aerose!" she cried in complete shock, her azure eyes wide. Fear quelled up in the young woman's chest realizing that she was alone in a hut with a stranger whose strength surpassed her own.

"Oh, but I am. Just not what you are used to seeing, my dear," he whispered, grabbing her arm, hurling her against his body, his demanding hold not allowing her struggle. Henna gazed up at his malicious cobalt orbs that were watching her intently and felt her will go slack. "Don't you recognize me?" he asked, his voice mocking sweet and gentle tones.

"You may resemble my Aerose but you are not him, you fraud!" Henna shouted defiantly, gasping and tensing when the stranger kissed her lips brutally, his strength reminding her that she was truly under him. "Let me go!" she shrieked when he picked her up and she screamed when he hurled her onto the cot, descending down over her, a lusting glint in his eyes…

"I will be back for my offspring, Henna, and there is nothing you can to do to stop me."

~

Soaris rubbed his old, wrinkled brow, feeling slightly depressed after he had seen the whole story of the two lovers. He walked to where the baby girl with wings was sleeping and picked her up gently, so as not to wake her. "Such a pretty child," he muttered to himself. She needed to be named. Looking at her briefly, noting her wings one last time, he said, "Angel" very softly.

~End Chapter One~