My name is Askanda. I live in a place that has no name to any who live there except home. People who come from other places call my people's home Paradise of the Bird People, Bird Utopia, Birdtopia, and Birdland to name a few. There is a reason for this, and it comes from an old custom we have.
On the island I call home, our people bond with rare birds that live only on our island. They touch the egg of a bird, and if it opens then they are bonded. The bird is called an winged soul, or an aerosoul, while we humans are called the grounded soul, or terrasoul. The aerosoul is the terrasoul's perfect match. Some terrasouls don't get an areosoul and are looked down, pitied by those who do have an aerosoul. Some aerosouls don't get a terrasoul, but this is much more common. The aerosouls that don't get a terrasoul mate with other lone aerosouls. That's where the eggs the terrasouls touch to find their aerosoul come from. Once touched by the destined terrasouls, the aerosoul egg breaks open to show a baby aerosoul.
Aerosouls mature quickly at first, taking only days to reach the maturity of their terrasoul. They then age at the same rate as the terrasoul. At a certain special point in time, the aerosoul will turn into a human but only if the right conditions are met. First, the terrasoul must have treated their aerosoul the right way so that the aerosoul truly loves the terrasoul. The other condition is that the aerosoul wishes to be with the terrasoul as more than just a pet or companion. The aerosoul must choose to become human so that it can be with the terrasoul it loves forever. There is a drawback, however. The aerosoul will never be able to become a bird ever again. It will stay a human until the day it dies.
You may be wondering how a bird could make decisions like that. The aerosoul is no ordinary bird. To help explain things, you may think of an aerosoul as a bird with a human soul. The aerosoul has a very human personality, and very human feelings as well. The aerosoul can also talk to it's terrasoul through a mind link made when the egg first breaks. It takes a long time for the aerosoul to learn how to use the mind link. It comes in handy, though, when the transformation to human happens. The mind link stays while the aerosoul learns to talk.
I don't really like the transformation. I don't like the idea of a bird trapped in the body of a human, having to learn to use a body that they've never used before. That didn't keep me from getting my own aerosoul, though. That's a story in itself. I'll tell you the story, but it won't make sense unless I start at the very beginning...
I walked through the doors in my school, more excited for today than any other day. Why? Today was my twelfth birthday. What's so important about that? Plenty! When a student turns twelve, the school pays for a trip to the Grand Aerosoul Egg Bay for a week. The Grand Aerosoul Egg Bay is where terrasouls like myself go when they turn twelve so that they can get paired with their aerosoul. This was my chance to get an aerosoul! I only had a week to try. After the week was over, I would be unable to bond with an aerosoul, ever. I would never get my soul mate, and people would just pity me. I didn't want to be pitied, I just wanted a real friend.
As I walked through the empty halls, empty because I was early as usual, I searched for my 'friend', although he wasn't really my friend. I just got along better with him than anyone else. He didn't annoy me like anyone else did, and I didn't annoy him as much as other people. His name was Seto Kaiba, the duke of Kaiba Castle. He was a little younger than me, but not by much. The only reason he was duke was because his step-father 'accidentally' fell off the top of the castle wall, straight into the poisonous moat. Kaiba was forced to take over as duke, but he didn't complain. Personally, I think his step-father was pushed. Probably by Kaiba himself, since his step-father was especially mean to Kaiba. Kaiba's step-father was actually meaner to Kaiba than he would have been if Kaiba didn't have a younger brother. Kaiba refused to let his step-father to harm his younger brother Mokuba, so he took Mokuba's punishment as well.
I walked into my home room classroom, searching for the teacher. I found Kaiba sitting at his desk, reading his book. "Hey, Kaiba. Do you know where the teacher is?"
He looked up from his book and gave me the smallest of smiles, which is amazing in itself. He was notoriously cold-hearted, but only to people who annoyed him. "She went to the office, but she'll be back soon."
I smiled back. "Thanks, Kaiba." I went over to my desk and sat down, pulling out my notebook to draw until the teacher showed up. I continued my earlier drawing of what I thought my aerosoul would look like. I used my imagination and gut feelings, and my drawing turned out looking like the Yugislaviakan Songfalcon. I was surprised, but I didn't think that it was really what I thought it was. I must have let my preferences through because the Yugislaviakan Songfalcon was the rarest aerosoul there was, and the only Yugislaviakan Songfalcon egg in the world was the prince, and there was no way that I could ever hope to touch it.
Just then the teacher came back in. "Oh, hello Askanda. Are you ready to go?"
I nodded vigorously. "Of course!"
She laughed a bit. "Okay. Here's your ticket. You know what to do, but I have to go over it again. Get on the train, show them the ticket, and get off at the capital city. They'll give you the rest of your instructions there."
I took the ticket she held out. "Thank you. Well, I'm off! See you later Ms. Trea. See you later, Kaiba!" With that, I walked out the door and raced for the station. I made it just in time for the very first train. Breathing a bit heavily, I got on and showed the ticket to the man I was supposed to. He took one look at it then ushered me to a seat in first class, where I found myself sitting alone. I liked the first class, but it was a bit lonely. I got free food from the dining car, and people waited on me, but I really didn't like it. I wasn't important or anything, and it just felt wrong. I stayed in my seat for most of the ride and fell asleep.
I woke up to someone shouting. "THE CAPITAL! THE CAPITAL! LAST CALL FOR THE CAPITAL!"
I jumped up and ran for the exit. "Coming! Coming! I'm coming!" I almost jumped out of the train, but composed myself before anyone could see me. I walked down as nicely as I could, but I wasn't raised for good manners or habits, making it a failed attempt. At least I tried.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the capital. It was gorgeous. The beautiful pale marble buildings barely peeked over the top of the amazing jungle that grew everywhere. Someone chuckled. Twirling around, I saw a man in glasses holding a sign that said: ASKANDA.
"You are Askanda, I presume?" the man asked.
"Yes. I'm here..."
"I know. Follow me." The man turned around and started walking towards a small, well-worn path leading slightly away from the capital. Even though it was small, it was paved well with beautiful pink sand. It led under beautiful tropical trees, most of them found only on our little island. They were a deep green, and the sunlight filtering through their branches dappled the path with green light. I had never been anywhere so beautiful.
When I finally looked away from the scenery, I saw a giant building made of blue marble rising in front of me. The man had left me a while ago, but I hadn't noticed until I was facing the huge building alone. I gulped and walked up to the magnificent doors. I knocked on the door before I could talk myself out of it and the door opened almost immediately. A man stood in the middle, a huge smile on his face.
"Welcome to the Grand Aerosoul Egg Bay. Let me escort you to your first room of eggs." I knew exactly what he was talking about. We had went over this in class many, many times. When you first go in, you will be shown to a room of eggs fitting your social (and financial) abilities. I was relatively poor and had few friends, so I wasn't surprised when I was lead to a room full of extremely common eggs. There were two rows of eggs,the top row labeled male and the bottom row labeled female. I started at the beginning and worked my way towards the end, touching every egg there.
Finally reaching the end of the row at sunset, none of the eggs had responded to my touch. I sighed, but brightened at the prospect of the next room holding even rarer aerosouls. I remembered learning in class that there were six rooms, well seven if you count the Royal Chamber at the top that contained the eggs of the king and queen aerosouls. I would never get into that room anyway. How wrong I was.
The days went by and I touched egg after increasingly rarer egg. I was getting worried. If I didn't get an aerosoul soon, I never would!
The sun set on my sixth day there, another day gone past that saw me without an aerosoul. The next day, I would go through and touch any new eggs, just in case. Going to the room I was provided with, I came across a hushed conversation between birds. My curiosity getting the better of me, I crept closer to eavesdrop. I had been able to understand birds since I was very little, but I had no idea why. I couldn't remember ever having parents, so I thought it must have had something to do with that.
"Do you really think that's necessary? He could always just hatch you know," said a female bird.
"You don't know what it's like to be a prince that doesn't get an aerosoul. It's horrible. The girl could be our son's last chance!" I recognized this voice as the king's. They must be talking about letting someone touch the prince's egg!
"But she's a peasant!" exclaimed the female bird, who must have been the queen.
"A peasant that deserves a chance! She hasn't been able to get an aerosoul. It won't hurt to try. I'd rather our son bond with a peasant than become a lone aerosoul. We don't have to do it publicly, either. We could just go to her room, wake her up, get her to come with us, and touch the egg. If it doesn't work, then she could just go back to her room and sleep like nothing happened," explained the king.
"But what if it does work?" asked the queen.
"We'll deal with it when the time comes. I'm going." I heard the sound of a bird taking off. I hurried to my room before anyone could catch me eavesdropping and dove under my covers. I tried to pretend to be asleep, but I heard the sound of wings beating over my bed. I felt a light peck on my cheek from a bird beak. I shot up, scaring myself and the bird that pecked me. I blinked a few times until I could distinguish the king hovering over my bed. He motioned for me to follow him, looking slightly ridiculous because he was a bird making that motion. I got out of bed and followed him out the door.
I was lead through an intricate maze of hallways, passages, staircases, and tunnels. When the king finally stopped, I could see that we were in a tower at the top of the building. There was a tall, intricately carved pedestal in the middle of the room with a tiny silver bed filled with baby blue and black satin sitting upon it. Nestled snugly in the satin was a tiny golden egg. The light from the moon shone on it in such a way that it created a perfect circle of light around the pedestal.
The king gestured toward the egg, apparently giving me permission to touch it. I was scared and excited, for this was the prince's egg! I really didn't want to touch it for fear of breaking it, but I was excited because it's not every day that you get the chance to perhaps bond with a prince aerosoul. Trembling, I reached out a finger carefully to touch the delicate golden egg. My finger came into contact with it, and it broke open immediately to show a tiny baby bird. The prince.