Wind To Thy Wings

A fairly tall 15-year-old girl wearing a leather tunic and linen pants pushed a cart along a wide dusty road in a small village. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she strained with the heavy load; she pushed her damp, blood-red hair out of her emerald green eyes.
Her name was Fireclaw, she had spent the last couple of years in human form as dragons were now being hunted for sport.
The villagers knew her as Aequor, this suited her fine, she didn't mind. Fireclaw finally reached her destination and left the load there, relieved.
She sat on a low stone wall and stared at the rising sun.

Shaylle, after finishing what he had been doing, found his way over and sat beside his mate on the low stone wall, wrapping an arm around her back lovingly as the sun came up over the horizon.

A boy, aged 17, was trekking down a path not far from Fireclaw & Shaylle. It was inside a dense forest, northwest by compass from Fireclaw's position.

This boy was called Joshua. He stood 6ft almost exactly, hazel eyes, long brown hair; down to his shoulders and a averagely-built body. He is mostly seen in a self-made leather coat that trails a little above his feet, with black denim trousers and a white cotton t-shirt. He was an easy-going teenager, very thoughtful, extremely intelligent, suprisingly caring and gentle, but behind all this, lies a secret, he dare not tell anyone else.

He is a sufferer of Daylight Paranoia, a form of Schkitzophrenia. According to human science, he is slowly moving away from reality. He does things he can't explain well, but his every excuse is that someone called 'Avelore' tells him to do these things.

In Josh's eyes, Avelore is a person in a white, fluffy dragon suit with a metal-textured dragon head with a white mane. He has two voices that speak at the same time through the same mouth; one in normal tone, and a lower toned voice, so it sounds like a dark spirit is speaking.

He appears sometimes when no one is in eyesight of Josh, which sometimes is frequent. The only beings that can see Frank are Lizards, Cats, Young children, Dragons, Gryphons and Phoenixs.

Foliage rustled below Josh's feet as he trekked through the forest. He was looking for toadstools to take home and make dinner with. His eyes scanned across the trees and back down to the ground, and just then he found a patch of mushrooms by the side of the path. "Lovely fungus.." He murmured as he gathered the toadstools in a brown leather pouch he carried. He continued along the path, looking at his list of ingredients. "Ah. Now I need some clean water.." He spoke, heading out of the forest.

Josh's ears sharpened, and his nose sniffed to the smell and sounds of river water. He clambered through bushes to find a snaking river leading to a small village nearby. He walked along the river passing a series of small waterfalls, and was now on the outskirts of the village. He saw two people holding each other, but didn't pay attention to them. He approached to the bank where they sat, and bent over into their sight a little.

"I'm sorry. Do you mind if I collect some water from here?" Josh enquired politely, showing a white flask to them to justify his intentions.

Fireclaw leaned into her mate lovingly and watched as the other boy came into view.

"Go ahead, not my river anyway so I don't really care." She replied with an unusual accent in her voice.

She examined the stranger's thoughts then withdrew her telepathic thought probe quickly before he noticed.
"Daylight Paranoia...So that's what they're calling it now." she thought to herself.

I thanked the girl with a respectable bow, then knelt over the water and pushed the flask under the surface. I watched the bubbles of air be replaced by crisp water, and as all air was departed, I screwed the flask up and wiped my hands on my trousers. Looking up to the sun setting in the trees, I smiled.

Avelore stood beside me, looking in the same direction I was. As he was the effect of my Daylight Paranoia, only I could see him. What he was doing standing here in sight of people I don't know.

"You have things to do." Ave rasped. I turned to the couple and fortunately, they weren't looking at me, but each other, trading love through vision.

"What are you doing here? I thought you didn't show up near humans." I whispered, so the couple couldn't hear.
"They are not human. Do you really think I'd show up near humans?"
"They aren't human? They look human to me."
"They are but mere hosts to another form of species."
"What species?"
"Dragon. Both of them."
I paused to take in what he said. Never have I seen an Otherkin. I respected them as kings, as they were the best of people from their luck of being who they are. They get their awesome true selves, I get this guy. Life isn't fair to me.

I turned, and started to head away. As I passed the couple, I looked at them softly. "Lucky dragons, you are." I headed off towards the village to my home.

I smiled, not surprised that the human had a way of sensing what we were.

"You are luckier than you think, human." I responded, my voice barely audible, but I'm pretty sure he heard.

"Aequor!" A loud voice called from behind.

I flinched and looked around, my boss was staring at me irritably, her hands on her hips.

"Yes m'lady?" I answered, eyes narrowed.

"Don't look at me like that, girl." my boss snapped.

"I wonder what her reaction will be if she discovers I'm four hundred human years older than her..." I thought savagly.

"It's good to see you delivered the cart from the village six miles away, at least you're strong enough to work and not completely useless." My boss said smugly.

I silently willed Shaylle to hold me back before I end up tearing that woman apart. My boss turned and stalked off.

She didn't seem to have carried anything with her, so what does that make her? I asked telepathically to Aequor, to help calm her down and cheer her up.

I didn't think she should worry, because we didn't really need jobs anyway. I didn't even have one myself; I couldn't get one because of my disability, it didn't matter, because the guards and some of the middle-class townspeople just gave us money, thinking I was some soldier or someone who got injured in battle, so most of them respected us.

I was always willing to help Aequor with her work though. Her boss couldn't fire me or anything, because I didn't actually work for her.

A young, 15 year old boy walked into town, he was in human form, and ran away from his cave where his family was killed by dragonhunters, he was lost, wore thin torn clothes and was shivering and begging for money.

The piercing stare of hatred I was giving my boss was interrupted when I noticed a dragon in a young human form enter the village.
I watched him shiver and beg humans for money, a few gave him some but not much. I stood up and shoved past my boss, who was giving me and my mate a sneer. I let the shivering boy see through my guise for a split second to show him that I am a dragon too.

"Well, atleast i'm not the only dragon in these parts..." though gc, going to get some food with the money he got.

I walked into my house, which was a one-floor, cramped little hut of a home. No one was present, as there was a notice on the kitchen side, displaying "Gone to Michael's to inspect his hand-made rooster battery. Be back at sundown. Make yourself something to eat." Yay. I thought to myself.

I began creating food from the collected items from my list. After preparing it, I threw it in a stove and lit the fire underneath it. The crackling of fire and the radiant lights filled the room with wonder. I stared aimlessly into the blaze, feeling warm not only on the outside, but inside too.

"Nice, warm fire." Avelore said, sitting down to my left. "Indeed it is. Why does it make me warm on the inside? It gives me a-"

"-A sense of belong?" He interrupted snappingly. I nodded in approval, and he smiled in return. "You know why?"
"No. Please tell me."
"If you don't know, then you are not ready to know."
He then disappeared.

At that point, I heard voices. No one was in the house, and the only voices outside was the wind blowing past the windows and quiet town talk. They were voices in my head.

They were deepish, almost slurred. Sounded like an animal was talking human english. I looked out my window, and in the slight distance, I saw the group of people I met by the river, save for the grumpy woman and the beggar boy. At that point, I decided to go out and visit them, as I believe the voices are coming from them.

I walked down the road to where the group was. As I approached, the tall, scary-seeming woman spoke to the girl. "When you're done here, which better be soon, get the cart down to the next depo down this road. I need what's in that cart to be at that depo so I can sell it to vendors, then you will get paid." She turned and walked away.

I eyed her with slight hatred. "Evil piece of.." I thought to myself, restraining myself from mentioning that word. I turned to the 3 poeple.

"Is this where all the voices are coming from?" I asked in question.

"The voices?" I queried, turning away from the beggar boy and facing the other boy I had seen earlier.

I remembered that this was the man with the dragon familiar.

"Ah yes, you must have heard our souls talking to you. They sense your Daylight Paranoia as the humans call it." I said in his mind.

"Well." I said to the small group "Mrs whats-her-face needs the cart to be at the depo, see you later."

I kissed Shaylle and nodded in farewell to the others then trudged back over to the cart.

I gazed into my reflection on the water's surface, memorising every crack in every scale on my body. What did I see? What made me stare, spellbound? I had spent unfathomable years asking myself the question. Perhaps it was a sad sight, the fading glory, that my mind didn't want to bear. Or perhaps instead I could see something...more, in the reflection, than my mere self.
"Still another possibility," I begun mumbling to myself as I often did, "that I'm an utter fool, that there is nothing else there and I refuse to acknowledge it." I splashed my apw into the water, breaking the reflection. It could easily have been a mere reflection with no tales to tell, but I was never the type to entertain such thoughts.

I could never wander amongst other dragons, for the simple reason that I had no human guise like the others. Whether it was because I was never given one, or because I refused one, was unknown to me now, so long after. I could only live alone.

Well, not entirely.

I padded up to the edge of my territory, slashing a small pouch filled with an innocuous powder. The substance was all that protected me from the danger my kind faced. I sprinkled it around the edge of my home and chanted the words that brought the magic to life. It did not so much prevent humans from entering - a sudden invisible wall would bring suspicion to the place, and suspicion brought the attention of the curious, attention I didn't want. Instead, the spell played into the mind of any would-be approachers, draining of them all will to enter the circle and forcing them to leave, seemingly of their own accord.

After I had finished replenishing the spell, I looked out on the horizon. Perhaps she would visit me today, with her mate. I vividly remembered her birth, her growing up, even her mask into human form, and it pained me that I could not be with her to watch her further. She still visited, of course, but something about it wasn't the same as being with her - and the others - at my own will.

I dipped my muzzle in the stream and took a deep drink before lifting it out, again staring at my reflection as the water settled.
"What do I see? What makes me stare, spellbound?"

My head slightly shivered to the voices that played in my head. It was obvious it was them who was talking telepathically, but never have I experienced voices like this, so it almost makes me queasy.

Not much makes me queasy anyway. One bit of wrong meat would make me ill for months. I had always been fragile, especially when it comes to myself. I could never grasp the truth that lay behind my eyes to be strong, and the truth is in my past, if only I had one. I can't remember what went on in my life before I was 10. What did happen? What is Avelore saying? Was I something else before?

I attempted to talk to her back, closing my eyes and saying the words in my head, but also saying it to her. "If it isn't Daylight Paranoia to you, what is it to you?" The telepathy ranged out to the group accidentally, and every other dragonkin or dragon within 10 miles of this position.

After eating, i walk down the village, still shivering from the lack of clothing, i sit on a bale of hay and curling up, hoping to grab a quick nap.

I watched her haul the cart away from us, down the road and soon out of sight. I turned to the boy that girl was snuggling with, and I sat beside him.

"You're lucky." I complemented, in a tone that outlines my own misfortune of not having someone. "She looks like such a nice person."

I looked at the ground between my shoes, gazing at the untied laces. "You're also lucky that you have a dragon spirit. I'm stuck with this stupid Spectre following my life everywhere." I spoke in a gradual hatred tone in my voice, hating Avelore for being a part of me.