Chapter 1: Exile

Unblinking eyes, locked forever in a look of surprise, gazed at the ashen angel from the lifeless body of the young girl. Mortified, the angel gently laid the girl's body down as the tears continued to trickle down its anguished face. Gradually, the pained eyes turned upward from the young prophet's face to glare at the maniacal assassin with a tormented and vengeful smile. Dressed in the dead of night, the assassin's demonic fangs could still be seen by the angel's piercing glare.

"Satanspawn! My Lord will not allow you to win this battle, nor will your master win this war!" the angel vehemently declared. In a thrust of her ashen wings the angel charged towards the demon, shimmering dagger directed towards its heart. Howling with a desire for vengeance she thrust forward will all of her might, her mind in shock at the utter brutality she felt inside her heart.

As the dagger became entrenched in the surprised demon's face, the angel let out a shrieking roar of vengeance fulfilled that drowned out the sizzling screams of the demon as it died a horrible, burning death. Her scream of vengeance quickly turned into a cry of despair as the realization hit her with the full effect of the world: not only had she failed to protect Ezrai, the Lord's child prophet, but she had committed murder in the name of her God.

Her cry of damnation echoed throughout the underground shrine and returned to her ears in a haunting accusation of unholy acts. Trembling, her shock gradually gave in to a feeling she had never experienced before: a fear of the unknown. The spine-tangling sensation caused her to shudder and fall to her knees, whispering prayers to her God that He could forgive His servant of her sin.

As she tried to utter the word "Amen" at the end of her prayer, her tongue suddenly grew thick and she became unable to speak. Fear filled her as she fervently tried to say the word, but she could not. Tears began to fall again from her distraught eyes as an image appeared inside of her mind. She knew the technique well, because it was the one that God used to communicate with his angels while they were away from Heaven. Instinctively she flinched as He spoke to her.

"Daughter, why have you failed me?" was His first question. She struggled in her mind to find an answer, but her mind was a jumble even to her.

"I understand that I gave you an important mission. Because of that failure, I was simply going to hand you over to Michael for training on how to use your weapon properly. I felt as I created you that you had the potential for being able to learn from the other angels and to become my most reliable Daughter. But you have disappointed me greatly by committing murder on someone, even if it was a demon! Now I must use other measures to ensure that the same does not happen again. You are no longer my Daughter. Now you will be known as Guendolen, and you will not be acknowledged as an angel again until you prove yourself through pennance."

"Pennance?" she thought to herself, tears welling up in her eyes in both a sense of not understanding and in a sense of realizing that her Father had just left her to fend for herself.

"You are to think on what you have done, and you are exiled from heaven until my expectations of you have been met," the shimmering image of white tinged with light blue said sternly.

As His words were spoken, she felt a liveliness entering her body that she had never felt before. She could feel her heart beating in panic, her hands shaking in fear, and the dampness of the cave floor under her tender feet. Gradually she began to feel to the pain in her feet from the rocks that she had stepped on and run across earlier.

"Father, I --," she began hesitantly, clutching her cold hands across her warming bosom.

"No! You shall not address me as such! You shall call me Lord with the respect of a human being, Guendolen," the shimmering image changed to crimson, only to be replaced with a reflective white again after His admonishment.

Grimacing with the sting of her Lord's chastising, Guendolen gripped her head with both hands as the flood of the imagery filled her mind with His image. Dropping to one knee she began to weep as a flood of emotions engulfed her.

"Learn well from this experience and you shall become the greatest of my angels, Guendolen," the blindingly white image whispered into a softer pink , one that gives off an aura of encouragement. Slowly the image faded from her mind, allowing for the surrounding world to again come into focus.

"What is... happening to... me?" she glanced around, teeth chattering from the cold of the underground temple. She instinctively tried to wrap herself in her wings to prevent the cold from penetrating her slender frame, but has some difficulty in moving them into position.

Her mind began racing at the concept that her wings weren't coordinating with her brain anymore. She goes to stand back up only to feel some strange force resisting her her body's movement. As pain spread in her legs from muscle tissue forming, the pain blossoms into all of her organs and muscles as their existence begins to materialize in her body. Piercing screams of agony are ripped from her now undeveloped body as she comes to terms with a world much, much different from heaven. Her screams had long since faded into a huffing for breath as her lungs began to mature, along with her chest muscles and her facial muscles.

"Why am I in this pain? I've... never... felt this before..." she panted between howls as her eyes rolled back in her head as she collapsed from the sudden exhaustion and her mind's inability to cope with all of the physical changes. Falling face first into the damp soil lying on the temple floor, with her once-white wings serving as a cushion for her body, she began to slumber.

So..what do you think so far? Please leave comments!! Any advice for this story is welcome!

--character information--
Guendolen (at beginning of story)
Hair: faded white blonde, gray tint, hair hangs down to her waist in light, flowing locks
Eyes: soft white/light gray with a slightly purple tint
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Wing span:5'
Other: Guendolen's appearance became this way after the death of her charge, the prophet Ezrai. Prior to this she looked differently, and that shall be posted in a later installment.

--other information--
I will try to update this as much as possible. With each installment I will place notes here relating to the story that may need clarification. With each post I will also put necessary character information as the story calls for it.