People settle in to a daily routine fairly quickly, no matter what said people are made of. The quicker I can establish a “baseline” for Akaiame, the faster I can jerk it out from under her. Sometimes being a writer means to be a terrible person.

Their names are related to how they died. I mentioned Purgatory. They’re dead. This blog is a writing exercise; if you don’t like it, my apologies.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

“Hey!”

Someone yelling from six stories below, down on the ground, shook her out of her reverie and back into the present.  She leaned over the edge of the roof to see who it was.  Oh:  Nike’s friend, Nozh.

“What?” she yelled back.

“We need you down here!”

“Whatever,” she muttered, giving him a small wave.  She turned and made her way to the stairwell.  Round and down, round and down.

Walking out front of the building, she was surprised to see a small crowd had gathered.  After a week, she thought she knew most everyone at the Shop, so who was the girl and what was she carrying?

“Akkie,” Fire said, having taken the liberty of mangling her name in payment of her yakking on him, “this is my friend from The Farm, Ice.”

“Girlfriend, you mean!” Nozh called.  Everyone laughed.  Except Ice and Fire, so that must be true, she thought.  Akaiame walked over to the girl and put her hand out.

“Nice to meet you,” she tried.

Ice was not much over five feet with pale hair pulled back in a bun at the base of her neck.  She wore glasses – wire frame – the first Akaiame had seen.  A faded rose blouse and a skirt that had once been black but was now gray like their wings.  Her cheeks were still red from Nozh’s teasing.  She shifted the metal object into her left hand and took Akaiame’s.

“You, too!”

She noticed the girl looking at the dirty woolen shift she was wearing.

“Snaran says she’s taking me shopping tomorrow.  Sorry.”

“No, no!  Not at all!  I guess the rumors were true…”

Looks as if I’m stuck being the freak.

“You mean these?” 

Akaiame flexed her wings, half again as big as anyone else’s, tossing the wind about them.

“Wow!  And such control already!” Ice fangirled.  “I can’t wait to tell everyone at The Farm!”

“Rather you didn’t…” Akaiame muttered.  “Was that all?”

Ice looked mortified.

“Eeek!  No!  I’m sorry, I’m sorry!  Here!”

She pushed the metal thing she’d been carrying just under Akaiame’s nose.  The fact that it was burning hot made her head snap backwards.  She took a few steps away.

“What is that?” she demanded.

“Sorry!  Sorry!  I’m totally messing this up!  I…”

Fire came over and put his right hand onto the small girl’s left arm.

“You’re making a scene, again,” he muttered, holding up what looked like tongs.  “Just open it.”

“Sorry.” Another tiny whisper.  Akaiame was surprised to feel a tinge of jealousy in her heart.

Ice knelt and placed the object onto the ground.  After twisting a few wingnuts, she split it open.  A mold of some kind…

Fire bent over and grabbed with the tongs.  He came up with a golden halo that was hot enough to steam in the waning day.

“This is yours,” he said to Akaiame.

“It is?”

“Yeah.”

“Er.  Well…” She didn’t know what to do.  This didn’t seem to be a formal ceremony, but the others were still and quiet.

“How does… that is… what do I…”

“Just put it on her,” Nozh yelled.  “I wanna go eat!”

“Hatchling Akaiame,” Fire moved the tongs somewhere over her head.  “You are now Broken Akaiame.”

He withdrew the now-empty tongs.

Was it… up there? she wondered.

Looking up, she of course could see nothing.  She tilted her head back…

Everyone laughed.

“What?” she demanded.

“With… with one known exception,” the older teen, Szikra, said, “you’re acting just as we all first did!  You can look in a mirror later!”

Her hands came up –

“Better not!” he continued.  “It’ll be hot for another hour or so!  See ya’!”

He wandered off, triggering the breakup of their little gathering.  Before she left with Fire, Akaiame thanked Ice.  After, she looked this way and that.

“Looking for someone in particular?” Nozh had been leaning in a shadow against a partly fallen brick building.

She tried not to glare at him.

“Yes.  So?”

Nozh shook his head and gave a smile.  Then he pointed up and past her right shoulder.  She turned to follow his gesture.

A large figure sat in an open window frame on the fourth floor.  There was a faint glow from his cigarette.  That glow moved from his face and shook back and forth as he waved at her.

Akaiame smiled.  She waved back.

There was a tap at the door of the second floor room Akaiame occupied.  There was no handle or latch but there was a door.  She continued to stare at her image in the cracked mirror propped against the wall on a dresser.  The door creaked open.

“Morning!  How’re…oh…!” Snaran’s greeting trailed off as Akaiame turned her exhausted face towards her guest.

“Didn’t sleep well?” Snaran ventured.

“How are we – whatever we are – supposed to sleep with these,” her slightly larger wings flexed from just under the towel she had over she shoulders, “and that!”

She pointed straight up.

“Ah, er… I usually sleep on my side,” Snaran began, “but your wings….”

Akaiame sighed.

“Or you could sleep on your stomach…”

“I tried that.  This stupid thing,” again pointing at her halo, “got tangled in a pillow and I nearly broke my neck sitting up!”

“Oh, my!  Why didn’t you take it off?”

Akaiame swiveled her gaze back to the blonde girl.

“No one told me that!”

“Here!  Let me show you!”

The younger girl walked over to the newcomer and knelt down so she could see.

“You just turn it, slowly,” she said, her hands on her own halo, “and you just kinda feel when you get to – there!”

She held her halo in her hands before her and beamed at Akaiame.

“So I just grab and turn – ”

“Slowly – !” But she was too late.

Snaran watched the new one shudder from her feet to her hair.  Her big wings straight out and quivering.

“Whu… what was that?” she asked, trying to catch her breath.

“That’s why I said slowly!  Otherwise, you get that feeling.” Snaran looked a little embarrassed.  “It’s not exactly a bad feeling… just creepy.  Try again, slower this time!”

Akaiame nodded, almost reluctant now to touch it but she knew she’d have to get some sleep sometime…  As she carefully rotated it right, it grew heavier in her hands.

She lifted it off from above her head and stared.  It was much heavier than she thought.  Up there, she didn’t feel it at all.  If I hit someone with this, I could break their jaw, then eat them.

Now where, she wondered, did that thought come from?

“Great!  Are you ready to go shopping for some clothes?  Those woolen shifts have got to be itchy!”

“Yeah, well…” She looked away and back.  “Snaran?  I’ve not had a bath since I hatched.  I don’t think I stink too bad, but you said about going to a town…?”

“Well, we don’t sweat like humans do, but one girl to another, I understand!  I usually go to the river and a little upstream and splash around there, but that’s out of the way, so come on!

She stood and picked up the homespun shift and tossed it to Akaiame.  While she pushed into it, the younger girl got another towel.

“Ready?”

“Uh…” Akaiame held up her halo.

“Of course!” Snaran tossed hers into the air and stepped under it.  The halo made an abrupt stop just a few inches above the crown of her head.  It wobbled once and was still.  She held her hands out for Akaiame’s.

“I don’t think you should try that trick for awhile unless you fancy a trip to clinic with a concussion!  Like I did!”

Akaiame watched her put both hands over her head and withdraw them.  She reached up to touch… it was there.

Around the north side of the tallest building were some barrels and troughs with pipes leading from above to collect rain water.

“You splash around a bit until you feel better!  I’ll keep an eye out.”

“For what?” Akaiame asked, pulling her shift over her head.

“Eyes prying that shouldn’t be.”

“That wouldn’t bother me,” Snaran was surprised to see the new one shrug.

It wouldn’t?  And she wasn’t even the slightest self-conscious being naked just a few steps from me, Snaran thought.

There was a rattle of metal from high above.  Even with her head in a barrel Akaiame quickly arched her back:  her dark hair describing a great wet arc in the air.  She peered skyward.  Now there was a sound like a ratchet.

“Someone working up there?” she asked.

Snaran gulped while handing her one of the towels.

“Yeah.” She was quiet now.  “Engineer, well, that’s we call him.  ‘Sides Nike he’s the eldest.  Been here so long and up there alone that we’ve forgotten his real name.”

“He never comes down?” Akaiame was nearly dry.  Snaran moved behind her.

“I’ll do your wings!  Well, for food and water, of course,” she continued.  “But also for metal, nuts & bolts, a lot of stuff I don’t understand.”

“He even,” she pointed, “built some kind of counter-balance lift to get heavy stuff up there.  He’s been at it for a very long time…”

“And no one knows what it is?” Akaiame asked, surprised.

Snaran shrugged.

“Would… would it be wrong if I went up there, someday, and asked?”

“Wrong?  No, but…” She was obviously uncomfortable about something.  Akaiame waved her hand after pulling her one piece of clothing back on.

“So, which way to town, friend?”