Her wings were valuable in battle, certainly, but Acantha felt like she appreciated them even more at other times. There were very few things that could be more fulfilling than the unpredictable blaze of battle – but one of those was simply the feeling of being alive in other ways. It didn't need to be the heat of battle in Acantha's face – the sun (or what the dome could emulate of it) would do equally well in some situations.
Now that the cold of winter was beginning to press in, Acantha found it increasingly difficult to leave her home without her feathers fluffing up subconsciously against the piercing air. Today, however, the wan sun was just a little stronger, and as it rose it almost seemed to have the energy to stand on its own.
Acantha rolled her shoulders as she crossed the threshold onto the balcony, enjoying the free feeling of movement and strength. It was almost easier knowing that she wasn't going into battle or fulfilling some other mission… but somehow she still got that nervous feeling as the thought stalked into her mind of how valuable her life was, how worth defending.
The sun had just begun to warm her as she squinted briefly toward it, and she ventured to envision for a moment that some loved one was stroking her with a gentle, familiar hand. Then she took off, the thrust of her ever-maturing wings summoning a cold wind that stole away that close feeling. It seemed every part of her body worked in sync as she balanced herself on top of nothing but the air under her. Though she could feel the strength of her shoulders, chest and lower back the most, she couldn't find consciousness of a muscle in her body that did not contribute to that delicate balance. A slight bend of a wingtip could support her or send her tumbling depending on her intention and confidence.
Her heart lurched at the sudden lack of somewhere comfortable to rest, and it was subsequently sent into a frenzy. Acantha grinned at it with a bit of a chuckle in her throat, daring it to get used to the instability. But just as soon, the last flap of her wings brought her to the open roof, and she cautiously tilted the front of her wings back just a little until her toes could faintly feel the surface below her. A couple more cautionary but quick pumps of her wings ensured that her knees wouldn't be slammed during the impact, and she finally shifted her weight to her feet to take a stance closely resembling that of a normal person.
Her heart gradually settled into its normal routine in her ribcage again, and at a soft feeling warmer than the feathers on her back, Acantha turned to face the false sun's welcome once more.
The air was still crisp, but not unpleasantly so, and the sun's protection made it more bearable. Even after what seemed like almost fifteen years of sitting on buildings, Acantha's stance invariably wobbled slightly as she realized the extent of her elevation. She breathed in the sight of the rooftops, even more monstrous buildings than this one, and open sky. It wasn't always the most aesthetically pleasing in comparison to the park and her daydreams of endless forests, but Acantha had been raised alongside the city, and it was comforting in that sense.
As the rising "sun" continued to embrace her and she stared absently at her surroundings, Acantha's mind wandered. The real sun had not been nearly as nice as she had thought it would be in the times she had ventured on assignments outside the dome. It was always relentless, harsh and burning, as if chastising humanity for banishing it from their dome. And it was a fierce red, not the shining gold that Acantha had been taught by ancient stories of nature and the dome's façade. In a sense, it was terribly disheartening – in all her dreams of a more natural world outside the dome, she had hoped that it was more similar to how it was told in writing, especially those wonderfully interesting books from a hundred years ago or more, but in the end it was a hungry and unforgiving entity that only created oppression and thirst.
It was a bit depressing to think about, and she tried to erase the thought from her mind. Every now and then her daydreams would go horribly wrong like that… and while reality was certainly something she could deal with, she preferred not to send herself into a negative mood if it could be avoided. For now, she took a deep breath, expanding her stomach as much as she could and letting the air cleanse her inside, imagining for a fraction of a second that she was in the world of a thousand years ago. Once again she could feel the warmth on her face and body – however fake the source was, she could still feel it, and admittedly it did a remarkable job of imitating what she had imagined the sun would be like.
The gold light continued to bathe the rooftops in warmth and comfort. In spite of her earlier wishful thoughts of the outside, it lulled Acantha into a sort of trance again, and the comforting feeling seemed to permeate her until she could feel its mechanism inside her body. What a wonderful sensation of being alive… Her emotions shuddered briefly and then tossed her earlier negative feelings out. The outside, however disappointing or oppressive, was not the reality with which she had to deal.
A gust of wind lifted off the warm feeling once more, and she blinked, having not realized that her eyes had closed as she lost herself in the light's energy. Her surroundings seemed to have been twisted in to a stark grey expanse, but one that was familiar to her. The anger of it finally settled, and she shook her head, spreading her wings once more to return to that exhilarating feeling of flight. In some odd transformation it seemed as if her mind had extended. For a moment her future had flashed before her mind, but disappeared before she could grasp it, and in the end the only afterimage was the realization that it was there.