Flight. A freedom which not many could ever hope to attain. But how much more painful must it be to have such a gift taken away from you? Hane endured this very thing in the most brutal of ways.
The winged blond leaned out of his bedroom window, gazing longingly at the birds that flew off into the sunset. His singular wing ruffled a bit behind him as it readjusted itself into a more comfortable position. The breeze blowing in through his window only made the longing worse, as it reminded him of the days so many years ago when he could soar through the wind. The knight let out a sigh before stepping back and closing his window. No point in daydreaming about the past when there's work to be done, he thought to himself as he cleared some items off of his dresser. Haven't been able to fly for about a decade now, and I'm not ever going to be able to again. It's still just hard to believe that he turned out to be my father.
Sure, Hane understood why he had to do it, but that didn't really make the whole thing any less painful. Fortunately, the blond had had no idea at the time who Kaze really was. In a way, this made things a lot easier on him, even if he was but a bit confused. The truth had been devastating, but for more reasons than just his wing.
The winged boy made his way down stair, figuring that the priests probably had some sort of work for him to do before calling it a night. Things had been rather boring around the temple since the war had ended, as the knight no longer had a real job. The only thing that ever really stirred things up now was the occasional visits from his friend, Shinichi. Those always proved to be… interesting.
Hmm, speaking of Shinichi... His shape-shifting friend was going through a rather rough time at the moment as well. Although their individual situations were pretty different from each other, there was a common element that tied the two together. Not in a way Shinichi would have hoped for most likely. Who would have imagined that Mariposa would turn out to be Shinichi's mom, he mused to himself. Rather ironic considering how much he's always hated her.
Once Hane made it down the stairs, it wasn't long before he ran into one of the priests. Sure enough, he had a job for him and a few minutes later the knight found himself sweeping up the indoor training area. This room was hardly ever even used, for most of the wind elementalists preferred to go outside to do their training. Nevertheless, it remained here in the temple should anyone ever decide to use it. While the blond cleaned, his mind began to wander back to the day when he lost his right wing.
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Hane was about seven at the time. It was a clear and windy day in the wind region, and naturally the winged boy wanted to go outside and play. Earlier in the day, the head priest had explicitly warned Hane not to go outside, but had refused to tell him exactly why. The blond held out for as long as he could, but about half-way through the day he couldn't take it any longer and snuck out. While playing around, the young boy soon found himself a little bit further from the temple than he normally traveled. This spelled trouble for the knight-to-be.
Without warning, a group of Dark Knights ambushed the boy. "Well well, what have we got here?" sneered one of the knights, grabbing Hane by the wing so that he couldn't fly away. The smell of alcohol was strong on their breath. "Looks like we caught ourselves a little birdie."
"Whad'ya think we should do whid him? Take 'im back to da captin?" inquired one knight who appeared to be more drunk than the rest.
"Nah, let's just have our fun with him. It's not like this little shrimp would know anything about Luna's whereabouts anyway." Apparently this was the agreed upon decision, for one of the company immediately drew out a club-like weapon and smashed it down upon Hane's captured wing. The boy let out a loud cry of pain, helpless to defend himself from their attacks.
"Hey, let's see how many pieces we can break this kid's wing into!" And thus the torture began.
It was several minutes before the drunken group's captain came upon the scene. "Oi, what have you drunken fools gotten into this time?" Kaze inquired as he approached. "I could hear the commotion all the way from the encampment." When they heard their captain approach, the Dark Knights stopped what they were doing and immediately got into formation, fear-stricken. They had been under orders not to attack any civilians unless told otherwise. When Kaze saw the injured boy that lay behind them, helplessly clutching his wing, his fury rose to unimaginable levels. In an instant, he had drawn his blade and cut down all of his men dead.
By this point Hane's wing was broken beyond repair. The bones inside of it were completely shattered, and the wing was bent into several odd angles while at the same time bleeding profusely. The youth was sitting in a puddle of his own blood and was shivering from a mixture of pain, fright, and blood loss.
Though Kaze had never before met Hane, as soon as he had laid eyes on him he knew him to be his son. After all, the boy looked so much like his mother that there was no mistaking it. After he assessed the situation and the damage done, Kaze saw that he had no choice but to remove the wing. If he didn't, the boy would die.
With a heavy sigh, Kaze stretched out is hand and used the wind to pin Hane down against the ground. "Sorry, boy. There's no other choice." Hane let out another cry of anguish as the Dark Knight Captain slowly and carefully began to carve the mutilated appendage out of his back. Kaze's own wings twitched with pain as he did so.
Between the pain and the lack of blood, Hane soon blacked out. When he came back to, his wound had been sewn up and bandaged, and he also noticed that he was now very close to the temple. The Dark Knights were no where in sight. With the little bit of strength that he had left, Hane dragged himself just inside the temple doors, where he was soon found and taken to the infirmary.
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By this point Hane had finished sweeping the training room. Having been inspired by the room he just cleaned, the winged boy decided to go outside and practice some new wind techniques he had recently learned. Once he was outside, the blond stood at a distance facing a line of trees. Raising one gloved hand, he sent a blade of wind at the aforementioned plants and managed to cut down about five of them in one shot.
"You're getting better," remarked a familiar voice through the wind.
"So, you were watching, eh?" Hane replied, looking over his shoulder with a smirk, even though he knew that no one was there.
"But of course. It's good to see that our training is actually sticking with you."
The winged boy laughed a little bit at this. "Well what else did you expect from your son, Kaze?" After he said this, a small tornado formed behind him. When the wind cleared, a brown haired man with large white wings stood in its place. "Alright, you've got to teach me that move next," Hane remarked, turning around to face him.
Kaze chuckled and shook his head. "Iie. You're good, but your skills aren't at a high enough level yet to learn that move. Let's master the wind slice first, ne?"
Hane simply rolled his eyes at this. "So, what brings you here? I didn't think you would be inclined to visit that often after having killed the head priest here twenty years ago."
"Ah, found out about that little incident did ya? Yes, believe me, I was both quite surprised and grateful when they actually allowed me in the infirmary here after that last battle," the former Dark Knight captain replied, scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, your mom sent me here to come check up on you. We haven't seen or heard from you in over a week, and she was getting worried. What's up?"
The winged blond sighed and turned his gaze away to the side. "Nothing really. Just been thinking about a lot of things lately."
"I see," Kaze replied, looking up into the night sky. "Would you like to talk about it? In the mean time I could also help you with the wood. No sense in letting it go to waste." Sure, Kaze knew he was about seventeen years too late to try coming into the parent scene now, but with the war over he hoped to eventually make up for lost time.
Hane shook his head. "No, not really. I accept your offer with the wood however." The two winged males made their way over to where the fallen trees were. As Hane reached to grab one of his katana to slice them up with, Kaze put a hand atop of his son's and shook his head. "Oh fine…" Hane replied with another roll of his eyes. He stretched out his hand over the tree's trunk and cut it in half with a downward wind slice.
"Excellent. But can you do multiple slices at the same time yet?" To demonstrate, Kaze pointed his hand at one of the other fallen trees. In one attack, the tree was instantly sliced up into about eighteen pieces.
Hane stared blankly at the cut up tree for a few seconds before looking back up at his dad and remarking, "You had too much free time during the war, didn't you."
With the two of them working together, the job of cutting up and moving the wood didn't take that much time at all. As an additional perk, the Wind Temple now also had a large and fresh supply of wood. The father and son said their farewells, and Kaze flew back to town while Hane walked up to his room. Once there, the teen collapsed onto his bed, his wing unfolding and spreading out to the floor after he did so. Using the wind to cut up and move the trees required a lot more concentration and energy than just using his katana did. Another day come and gone, Hane thought drawly to himself, his tired gaze focusing on a bird flying by outside. And thus we go on…