Wings and Deities

Prologue

"Would you sit still," Ella fusses when I fidget again. She runs her nimble fingers through my hair, untangling it so she can re-do the braid that once held my locks in place. I squirm once again and my sister lets out a huff. "Do you want a braid or not?"

"It tickles," I explain, my voice soft. Then I burst at the seams with laughter as she tickles my sides, tackling me to the ground. I push at her, trying to sit back up. Failing, I beg her to stop because my tummy began to ache.

Suddenly a sound erupts from between the trees, nothing related to any wolf howl or bear rumble I have ever heard. Neither man nor beast could have made, but something else entirely. I squinted at the trees hoping to catch a glimpse of the source of the noise, and the harder I looked the more defined a shape I could see.

More appeared, as if the shadows themselves were transforming to become a silhouette that was neither man nor woman, but rather, a being of no shape. They step across the border of trees and I see them as clearly as the fear on Ella's face.

They were thin, gaunt, bearing no face except for the gruesome mouths that spread across their faces, trapped, as if they were smiling. The first one let out another blood curdling wail, revealing sharp and jagged teeth, gleaming with slobber.

Before I knew what was happening they were upon the whole village, targeting the first things in range, Ella and me. I peered up at my older sister, who had always protected me, who stood in front of me now and commanded one painfully clear thing.

"Fly away."