BLACK AND WHITE
Chapter One: Free
The urge to interrupt her grandfather before he finished was overwhelming. Mikan was bouncing up and down as her grandfather spoke to her.
"Remember," he said slowly. "Any sign of trouble, you must come home immediately."
"Grandpa. I know," she pleaded, "Please can I go now?"
"Stop bouncing, child. Do you have everything?"
Mikan looked down to her sack. "Money, check."
"Yes, but what about something to protect yourself with?"
"Graaaaaaandpa," she drawled, "I'll be fine. There hasn't been an attack in months. Here I'll show you how confident I am."
Mikan inwardly smiled. She knew this would work on her Grandpa. She walked over to where he was sitting in the kitchen and waited for him to materialize his wings. She placed one hand on his feathers and smiled as her Grandpa felt what she felt.
"Not an ounce of doubt," he stated simply. "Alright, my Mikan. You can go."
Mikan practically jumped out the door. Her Grandpa was always a sucker whenever Mikan expressed her feelings onto him. When angels touch the wings of another angel their feelings are projected onto the receiver. This ritual is hardly ever performed though as it is said to be very intimate and only ever done when angels wholeheartedly trust one another, after all wings are a sacred thing to angels. Even Mikan's friends wouldn't let her touch their wings. Her Grandpa most likely just indulged her.
Mikan was a little different. She had no wings. She was the first angel born in the last 500 years without wings. Her Grandpa had scoured over the vast collection of books in their temple looking for answers but found nothing. There were no records of angels born without wings just a butchered story of one 500 years ago that was born with broken wings. That angel perished two weeks after its birth so there was no useful information.
Mikan didn't feel special like her Grandpa constantly told her. She felt different. She was missing out on so much of the world without wings. When she was little she was always the center of attention, constantly being pointed at, the sole reason for the whispers. But that was her life. That was how she was born, wingless, and shortly after parentless.
Mikan reached the doors of the temple and took a deep breath. She hadn't been out of the temple in almost four months. It was mid-summer now and she could not contain her excitement. She pushed the doors open and stepped outside.
The warm summer air engulfed her and a slight breeze rustled her long blonde hair. The inhabitants of Cloud Alice were bustling about. Some angels were flying in the sky and others walked to their destinations. Mikan took in everything. It had been so long since she'd been outside the temple walls.
Her Grandpa had insisted for months for her to stay inside where it was safe. Cloud Alice had been under attack from some sort of shadow creatures. The ground would split open and shadow creatures would come out and angels would mysteriously disappear. No one knew what the shadows wanted or why they were there. They would just appear. Sometimes day after day, but this was the longest that they had remained dormant. The longest time since someone disappeared. It's probably why her Grandpa finally cracked and let Mikan fetch some strawberries from the market.
Mikan followed the tree laden path to the market, she was pretty sure she was one of the only angels that ever used it, after all flying was always faster and more direct. She let her eyes wander, not wanting to miss anything. She gawked at the angels that flew high above and silently prayed to be like them someday. She admired all the shades of white their wings were and tried to imagine herself with wings, flying alongside them.
Noise started to pick up and she could tell she was reaching the market. She made her way into the bustling marketplace and fit right in with the other angels walking about on the ground. She took in the various scents of food around her. Bread, flowers, meats, onions, sweet sweet smells, and strawberries.
She smiled as she made her way to the fruit booth, she finally felt free.