Caged

Chapter One

The sky was a mix of turquoise and grayish-blue fantasies.  Was it the beginning of a new day or the dying of one?  To the watcher, staring up at it, it meant both.  It was the end of the perfect dream of a day.  A dream soon to be chased away by a nightmare of the night that was soon to follow.  It wouldn’t seem like a nightmare to others, but instead would be a great adventure, especially to those who didn’t know any better. 

Those who didn’t live with pain.

At least that was how it felt to me as I gazed around the area surrounding my home, unaware of what was to come to pass later that night.

The stark landscape may have been beautiful, with its matching perfection of the sky above, but it was dangerous to those who were strangers to it.  The harsh pale whites of the desert during the day seemed like a distant memory.  The mountains that stood guard over the precarious desert were snow-capped and seemed so distant.  It wasn’t hard to believe that it had remained untouched for years.  On the outskirts of the desert known as Death Valley, there was the large inhabited town of Los Olvidados. 

The Forgotten Ones.

And that’s exactly what we were – forgotten.  Except to those who we wished would forget us.

I sighed despondently as I stared up into the horizon, knowing it was soon my turn to look over the city that was so perilously close to falling.  It was my lot in life to be born as other than a normal human and while some called my abilities gifts from a higher power, I saw them as a deterrent from me being able to live a normal life. 

Those gifts had made me one of ‘them’ instead of one of ‘us’ and had segregated me from the normalcy of human life.  It would have been better if my gifts had been given to someone else, because I deserved none of them.  While others felt honored, I felt trapped.  By a cage that was invisible to all, but I could feel its slender coils enclosing my body, even if no one else could.

“Brennan?  Where are you?”  A sharp, piercing voice filled the air. 

I looked down to see the form of my younger sister as she scampered across the ground below me, dust flying everywhere.  Behind her lay a trail of where she had come from, the loose sediment still floated in the air trying to find a place to rest.  Our home stood before the mansion that housed our ruler. The house was minute compared to the building that overshadowed it, but compared to some, we were very fortunate to have a home of its size. 

My family was gifted it for allowing me to join the Sacred Order.

As if I had a choice, I thought bitterly.

The Order consisted of other freaks like me.  We were assigned to protect the city.  We were the first line of defense against our enemies that lay to the east of us.  The thought of protecting the inhabitants of the city made me proud, but the man behind the Order made me nauseous.  He had his own agenda.  One that I was very afraid included me.  An icy chill ran down my spine as I remembered the callous calculation I had seen in his eyes only just recently.

The Order had me as their servant until the day I turned nineteen.  That was the day that I had my freedom and could choose my own destiny.  It was a day that was coming up very rapidly.  The only good thing about being in the Order was that my family’s future was secure the day I had suffered the most unbearable pain I had ever felt, a pain I still felt every day. 

“Brennan!  Come on… stop fooling around.  You’re needed at home.”

Sighing, I unfurled the wings that I had pressed tight against my back, shielding them as best as I could from view.  My shoulder blades ached as they spread further apart.  The feathers were a soft golden brown, similar to the toffee that coated an apple, and meticulously cared for.  Gently, I tested my wing span, making sure all the plumage sat correctly, carefully shaking them free if I felt they weren’t.  I raised my head to test the warm current that caressed my face and gently teased my locks, before it softly caressed my wings.