Title: The Strength of Difference: Chapter One
Author: SynsOrion
Content: PG
Description: A young girl finds that she has grown wings. She runs away because of her confused feelings and finds another like herself. Original story. Please r & r so that I know if I should put up more of it.
**NOTE**: Because of the suckage of this story I have decided to revise it. I do not know when it will be completely revised but I will e-mail those that have taken interest in it (those that have posted and said they liked it) and tell them when I do have it. It should be sometime around December that I have it completely redone but that depends on my schedule. I'm sure that if you're a fan of my work you know that this is very bad quality, more so than all the other bad quality stuff that I have brought to you. So I shall try to bring it up to bad quality from very bad for your reading enjoyment. Thank you.
~*~
Tenshi Hane yawned and stretched as she awoke. Climbing out of bed, Hane walked over to her mirror to brush her waist-length brunette hair. Her brush came in contact with something on her back.
"Ouch! What is this?" She stretched her hand around and felt her shoulder blade, finding something protruding form her skin that was covered in feathers.
"What the hell?!" She felt the other shoulder blade and found a similar form there as well. "Wings?! How does someone just sprout wings, I would like to know!"
"Hane! Are you getting ready for school, dear?" called her mother's voice.
"Y--yes!" 'If anyone finds out about this...' she thought, frowning.
Hane quickly changed out of her nightgown and into her school uniform, trying to hide the small wings behind the fabric of her shirt. She brushed a hand across the shirt and felt the two lumps that were there. 'What am I gonna do?' she thought furiously as she made her hair into one long braid down her back.
"Hane! Come on! Breakfast is ready!"
"Coming, mother!"
Grabbing her books she ran out of her room and down the stairs to the table.
*
Hane walked slowly towards her school, still puzzled over the wings that somehow had appeared over night. At least they weren't really big, so she could hide them pretty well.
"Hane! Wait up! I'll walk with you!" called a voice from behind her.
Hane smiled and turned to wave. "Hurry up, Soyokaze!"
Her friend caught up to her, grinning from ear to ear. "Let's get going!" Hane chuckled as they continued on, her troubles forgotten for the time being.
*
"Come on, Hane! What've you got to eat for me, eh?"
"Leave me alone, Zankoku!" She pulled her lunch away from him and started to leave.
"Get back over here!"
"No!" Hane kept going. Why did he always have to pick on her?
"I said get over here!" He caught up with her then set a hand on her back, grabbing her shirt.
"Ow!".
He released her shirt, realizing that what he had felt wasn't something that should've been there. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.
She closed her eyes. "Leave me alone!"
He grabbed her arm.
"Let me go!"
"No, not until I find out what that thing that I felt was."
"No! I won't tell you!" She blanched as he twisted her arm.
"Tell me!"
"No."
He twisted harder.
"Ow!"
"Tell me!"
'Soyokaze, where are you?' thought Hane.
"If you won't tell me then I'll just find out for myself!" He pulled at the shirt that she was wearing until it ripped. It gaped open, showing her back and the white-feathered wings that she had concealed under it.
He released her and she fell to the ground, trying to hold up the torn shirt so that her wings wouldn't be visible.
"What the hell are you...?!" he questioned as he stepped back.
Hot tears welled up in her eyes as she made it to her feet and risked a glance at his bewildered face.
She turned and found herself running.
*
"Where am I going? Besides, maybe no one else will notice my..." She felt the back of the baggy sweater that she now wore, finding that her wings had gotten bigger. "Shit," she muttered under her breath, knowing that it was a lost cause.
Hane shouldered her stuffed backpack to one side because of her wings and looked down the road both ways. "Where do I go now?" 'And what'll I do with out Soyokaze and mother?' Tears filled her eyes.
"I have money, I'll call them." She said aloud as she started down the road towards the train station, her mind eased slightly by the thought.
*
Hane sat in a seat on a train bound for the south and the open country.
Her wings had gotten bigger and now she was having trouble hiding them under her sweater. Hane couldn't help but notice that people were starting to stare at her bulging shirt.
An old couple was walking by when the man noticed and said to his wife, "Young children these days! Why do they do such weird things, eh?"
Some one across the aisle was glaring at her and a child behind her had gotten a hold of her shirt and was pulling on it saying, "Mommy, I'm gonna find out what she's got!"
She pulled her sweater away from the kid and leaned between the chair and the window, just as a boy her age sat down next to her.
Hane looked over at him, expecting the worst. All he did was stare down at his lap.
She noticed that he had his face covered by a bandanna and was wearing dark glasses and a hat.
'What happened to him,' she thought absently, noticing that the skin that she could see was a dull, green color.
He looked over at her and, seeing that she was watching him, turned his gaze back to his lap.
Hane shrugged. He was leaving her alone so she might as well let him be.
Hane rubbed her arm where Zankoku had twisted it and found that a large welt had risen. She blanched visibly when she hit a particularly tender part of skin.
The young man sitting next to her noticed. "Are you all right?"
"My wrist hurts a little." She pulled up her sleeve so that he could see.
He took his glasses off to see better looked up at her. "Who did that to you?"
She stared for a moment at his face before answering. It was covered in blue-green scales. "A, uh, guy at my school twisted it."
Realizing that he had his glasses in his hand he slide them back to hide the scales around his eyes. "I--I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." He turned to look back at his lap.
"You didn't frighten me. I was just surprised. My name's Tenshi Hane, what's yours?"
"Osoroshii Zasshu." He shuddered, knowing that his name meant horrible mixed breed. "Just call me Suteru." Yes, reject was a better name for him anyway, after all, that's what he was, a reject.
"Suteru?"
"Yes?" He looked up at her.
"Where are you getting off?"
"The next stop, Murdory Village."
She smiled at him. "Me too."
"I'm going there to try to get away from every thing, to try to get away from all the people that call me a freak." He sighed as he slouched forward.
She nodded. "Me too." He looked over at her questioningly and she pointed to the back of her bulging sweater.
He nodded knowingly. "Wings, eh?"
"Y--yes. How'd you guess?"
He shrugged carelessly and leaned back.
"Now arriving at Murdory Village. The train will leave again in a half an hour," came the announcer's voice once again.
Hane and Suteru stood and walked down the aisle then got off the train.
They went away from the station and, as they were walking towards the village, Hane said, "I don't think that I'll be able to hide my wings any longer." She pulled her shirt off, showing a tank top that she had gotten around her wings before she had left her house. Her wings stuck through the openings that they were allowed and folded down her back.
She saw him looking them over and tears filled her eyes. "They make me ugly, don't they, Suteru?"
"No. You're not ugly. I am." He pulled his bandanna and hat off. "I guess that I should stop hiding behind things as well, eh?"
More scales outlined his jawbone and chin and he had the odd one or two that were on his cheeks and neck.
Hane smiled. "We certainly make the odd couple don't we?"
He nodded in agreement. "Yeah. A chimera and an angel."
"Chimera? What's that?"
"Me."
She sighed. "What are you then? And don't say chimera."
"I guess you'd call it a monster or, more appropriately, a demon."
"A demon? Wait a second. Did you call me an angel?"
He glanced at her. "Well, that's what you would be, wouldn't? I mean; an angel is pretty much a person with wings, right?"
She thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess that you're right." She looked up. "Well, I guess that we're here; Murdory Village."
They were already attracting stares from the people.
Suteru ignored them like he had learned to do. "Come on, let's find a place to spend the night. There has to be an inn here."
Hane nodded, sticking close to Suteru as she glanced around at the people that were looking. "Let's."
He went in to the inn, followed by Hane, and walked over to the front desk. "I'd like to get a room, please."
The lady there looked up at him for a brief moment, her eyes growing wide. "I'm sorry! But we don't have any spare rooms at the moment."
Hane stepped up next to him. "Could I get a room then?"
The lady shifted her gaze to Hane. "Angel...yes, I have a room for you."
"Thank you." She flipped her backpack off her shoulder and, opening it, found her money that she had put into it. "How much for a two bed room?"
"Free, angel." she handed her the keys to a room and pointed to the left. "Down there."
Hane nodded with a smile. "Thank you. Come on, Suteru."
He grinned at the woman as he passed her. "You have an angel and a demon staying. Don't worry, She won't let me get loose, after all, she is an angel, right?"
The woman nodded dumbly as she watched them leave.
"Here it is, number seven." She unlocked the door and stepped inside followed by Suteru.
"Good, she did give us one with two beds." He grinned at Hane. "And it's free!"
"You know, Suteru, you're the only friend that I have right now. I know that I just met you and everything. But I can see that you're a good person and that you have a pure heart." She sat down on a bed.
He sat next to her. "How do you know that I have a pure heart?" he whispered in her ear. "What if I really am a demon? You could fall asleep and I might still be awake so I just might sneak over to your bed and--"
"Suteru! Stop! You wouldn't do something like that!"
He grinned suddenly. "You're right." He moved to the other bed and lay down on it. "I wouldn't. But how do you know that I won't?"
She smiled. "I donno. I just get this feeling about you that tells me that you'd never do a thing like that. You just don't seem like that kind of a person."
He removed his sunglasses and turned to look at her. "I would never do something like that."
She nodded. "I know." Hane closed her eyes as her mouth opened and she let out a yawn. "Boy, I guess that I'm tired. Let's try to get some sleep."
Suteru closed his eyes. "'Kay."
*