Godless

Chapter 15

Mother had her hand in Father's, and her black hair blended in with the feathers down her back. Father's silver added the perfect lining to bring out the blue tints to her feathers and hair. They both looked out over the valley beneath our canyon home. I looked out between them and, as always, had to squint to see the mountains on the other side of the grassy plain. A few earth toned dots represented the horses.

"Once our people lived in a beautiful city in the sky," Father was saying.

But he didn't say more, because I remembered. We had had feathers spreading the entire range of the rainbow, but now we had only taken up shades. Gray, black, silver, and tints of blue. My mother and father had actually been pleased that I had been born with such bright blue eyes. They had seen it as hope for the future. Perhaps the color would return.

I remembered the bright feathers of the green man. Was he really not of my kin? Sure he had more feathers on his arms and neck and was half my size, but he had wings...such bright green. We must have once had colors like that.

"Of course, some of us chose to live on the land below, but there was always safety high in the sky, close to our parent gods, who loved us, and we loved them."

"Yes, once we lived in the sky," echoed mother, as though finishing one of her spells.

I woke up with the sound of my slow heartbeat and breathing being reflected back at me by the water in my ears. My limbs felt heavy, as though I had woken up in the middle of the night after days without sleep. I couldn't open my eyes. I wouldn't. Something tender throbbed in my chest, as though a wound had been inflicted there and would smart if I made the barest move.

Through the water, I could barely make out words.

"Stop calling me a fool."

At the sound of that voice, the pain in my chest smarted and I gasped. Link. Why was his voice having that affect on me?

Instantly the water pounded in my ears as someone stepped in and wrapped warm arms around me. I felt feathers embrace me.

"Don't speak!"

"How--" started Link.

I choked for air. It was as though a knife had been lodged in my breastbone.

"Shut up!"

Through the film of fatigue, I managed to open my eyes just barely to meet the acorn gaze of the green man. Something was off about him, though. He seemed to have grown, for he held me with ease, and the feathers had melted from his neck and face. His hair was a darker green, a kind that could almost be mistaken for a natural hair color. It made me think of my old friend in my old life who had dyed her hair that color. What had been her name again?

I couldn't speak to him for the pain in my chest, though. My throat stuck and my lungs felt sticky. The green man carefully turned me onto my side in the water as I coughed weakly. Even through my fuzzy vision I could see the splatters of blood I was leaving all over his wrist.

"So frail," I heard the green man whisper. "I understand that there must be a balance, but why did your weakness have to be like this..." He sighed. "Get over here, bastard, and keep quiet. You're going to do exactly as I say, you got that?"

"What can I do?"

The stickiness in my lungs thickened. I coughed harder and had somehow managed to curl about the green man. What was this water?