Tenshi knew something was happening from the moment she woke. A stone had settled in her stomach; she had a horrid feeling inside that she couldn't explain.
She got up from bed, hastily rummaging through the clothes in her closet.
'Ah, FINALLY!' She inwardly exclaimed, grabbing onto a pair of jeans and a striped blue shirt. She loved the color blue; its tranquility breached her walls; it moved her like nothing else ever did.
And every time she looked at a perfect, clear-blue sky with the wind on her face, she felt at home- something inside her sparkled and yearned for something.
She quickly dressed, turned off her annoying alarm clock, then ran outside her room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.
"Hello, my little Angel." A middle-aged woman greeted her. Golden hair framed her face, lush and vibrant compared to Tenshi's glossy black hair which she got from her father.
"Moo--oom!" Tenshi whined. "Don't call me that!"
"Why not?" Tenshi winced; she could tell her mother was going to lecture again. "It was because Tenshi meant 'Angel' that we named you that. We were hoping for SOME sort of tranquility from you!" Tenshi's mother threw her hands in the air with despair. "Apparently, that didn't work!
"Well, hurry hurry; we're going to be late!" Tenshi's mother continued.
Tenshi suddenly noticed what she had walked in on: Her mother had apparently been in a deep, contorting conversation between her father, which was sitting in a chair, a twisted look on his face while he was reading the newspaper.
Tenshi saw a little bit of the huge, main headline before her father put it away abruptly.
" 'E-Pi-Dem-Ic.'"
She read aloud. "What epidemic? Is something wrong? What happened?"
"Honey, just... just don't worry about it. Don't even THINK about it." Her mother soothed.
"Mom! I'm going to be in public! I don't want to get sick!" Her voice cracked, and lines appeared in her forehead. "Is it deadly? Have they come up with a cure?!"
Tenshi was quickly switching to panic mode.
"TENSHI! Calm. Down. Nothing is going to happen. You. Are. Going. To. Be. Fine. The epidemic isn't in this area." Her mother was careful to leave out the 'as far as we know' part. "Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. That's it. Now, let's get to school! I made you a lunch. Here" Tenshi’s mother handed Tenshi a parcel bundled up with a knot. "Thanks." Tenshi murmured. She couldn't get her mind over it. "But..."
"No buts. You're going to be fine." Her mother assured.
"Ok...” Tenshi didn't really believe her.
Tenshi loaded into the car, her mom got into the other side, and she slowly backed out of the driveway. Tenshi hastily grabbed onto a nearby handle. She knew the procedure. Her mother, despite the slowness of her backing out, quickly got up to speed with a race car. She vroomed down all the streets and such. As they stopped, finally, at a stop light, there was commotion further down the road. Police and ambulances, reporters and news vans. Oh, and some pretty bad wreckage. She gasped at that, but her mom lurched on the turn into Tenshi’s school. Tenshi’s knuckles were white; she was gripping the handle so hard.
She got Tenshi to school just in time. Barely. Tenshi breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't get killed, and then ran into the school before any police officer could notice that her mom’s car's license plates were missing. Her mom zoomed off, making the engine roar as it burned gas and rubber.
Tenshi shook her head. This was always what the first day of school was like. When she went in, there was probably another new teacher that she'd have to meet. Then there'd be the normal classes, blah blah blah, and everything was normal. The tradition never faltered, never was wrong or mixed-up, nor was it abnormal.
Shouldering her backpack, Tenshi walked through the school to her classroom.
There she met Vanessa, a tall girl with long blonde hair, as well as piercing green-gold eyes; Amir, a boy with olive skin, white messy hair and clear blue eyes; Maka, a girl with green eyes, tan skin, and light brown hair; and finally, Ben, her love. Ben is a tall boy with deep brown hair, brown eyes, and white skin.
Tenshi nodded to Amir, and then smiled discretely at Ben. She glared at Maka. An incident had happened last year, and she wasn’t forgetting about that.
Tenshi silently pondered, ‘These kids are totally clueless on what dangers lie in public.’
The teacher introduced himself, and then went on to teach math, science, history, language arts, and finally, technology. There was a short period for lunch and recess between History and Language Arts.
The rest of the day went on normally. All except that she had the same stone in her stomach that she would get sick. She avoided most people. When Amir asked if she wanted her cookie, Tenshi said no.
Her mom picked her up later on, and she got a ride home again. She, again, held onto the handle of her door tightly as her mother burned rubber.
Once at home, Tenshi did the math and History homework the teacher had assigned her.
“What is 12 times 22?” She murmured under her breath.
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It was as if she were in the clouds. Stone was beneath her feet. A colorful design that she couldn’t fully depict lay underneath her. It took her a moment to come up with a word to describe what it was. A dais. She looked on either side of the dais, and she saw Earth. It was below her. She could see the swirling clouds, and noted that she must be in space. That could only mean that the stone dais was floating. And that could only mean that she should be suffocating. She hurriedly rushed around in circles on the circular dais, panicking. But she wasn’t suffocating. What was this? It felt so real to her. It couldn’t possibly be a dream? It must be. Otherwise, how could she be breathing?
Then a lady appeared. She was in a white dress—an angel, perhaps? Maybe her guardian angel? She tried to ask, but found that she couldn’t talk. She was mute. Then, a voice entered her head. With that voice came pictures, images of the Angel’s past experiences.
The thoughts said, “Tenshi. I am not an angel.” With that simple sentiment, as if she were reading Tenshi’s mind, a picture came up with what an angel was. “I am Glory. I have chosen you- and some others- to represent me in your Earth. A disaster has swept through your kind, a horrid thing occurs- you may call it epidemic, but it is worse than that. Beatrice is getting stronger, and I fear that her power is too great for me alone.”
As Glory said that, a flash of pictures came to her head- some humans, shadows, and worse than that- a woman, identical to her, clad in dark colored clothing.
“I am giving you a gift. Accept it.” Glory closed her eyes for a second, and suddenly a bright flash of light erupted from Tenshi. At first she thought she was exploding. Maybe she was. But then, as it faded away, a new, invigorated Tenshi emerged. And she felt new. And she felt divine. Tenshi found her voice soon after the light.
“What happened?” Tenshi growled after the blinding light took place, forcing her to shut her eyes. She started at her voice; it truly was a growl, a deep rumbling within her throat. Her breathing felt different. Her lungs felt longer than usual. She could feel extra extremities along her back and on her backside. Blinking, she looked at herself. Two long, angelic wings were neatly folded on her back. A long, lashing tail was behind the wings. Stretching the wings, she admired how they felt. She also had to squint while looking, as the sun gleamed off of a billion scalene scales along her body. Her talons clacked against the hard stone dais as she walked forward.
Then she came up with the answer to her question: she had turned into a dragon. She roared a true, true dragon roar.
Her sensitive ears perked at the sound, her nostrils shut. A flick of red fire escaped her mouth. She snorted, sort of liking her new features. “Will I ever be able to turn human again?” She asked Glory.
“Tenshi!” Glory suddenly yelled.
“What?!” Tenshi exclaimed.
“Tenshi! TENSHI!”
“What is it? Glory…?”
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Tenshi awoke as her mother shook her awake. “What sort of bad dream were YOU having? You were growling in your sleep! Then you were swiping the sheets away with your hands and feet! By the way—who’s Glory?”
“Oh, um... I...” Tenshi thought back to her dream. With a confused look on her face, she confessed, “I don’t remember!”
And she truly didn’t. She frowned. She had the feeling that it was an important dream, she just knew it.