Disclaimers of a Mad Goth Chick- Sadly yes, I am a mad goth child. No matter how you put it.. Standard disclaimers apply and I am dissregarding the fact that Arrows Fall ever happened. This is a revamped version of the previous crapy fic that I was trippin on some funky shit when I wrote.... This one goes slower and is more thought through. Thanx for bearing with a demented goth chick and her problems for a moment there... Yeah.. Pronunciations... Xelin (Zeh-lihn), Zalia (Zah-lee-ah)

````````````````````````````````
Winged Flight
Chapter 1~ Coming of a Child
By: Oblivious Silence
`````````````````````````````````

'Twas a quiet morn in the small village of Halobound which lay on the far southern part of the Terilee River in Valdemar. A young girl of thirteen sat on the riverbank with her shoeless feet submerged in the cool waters. Her over long black dress was gathered underneath her rear showing her pale,skinny legs. Long, straight, raven hair pooled behind her. Her eyes were the color of a Companions and she had a small peice of charcoal in her hand with which she drew in a sketch book she stole from a merchant in Cordor.
She hummed a tune in a sweet voice that Jadus would have loved to hear. Her mind wandered to the beautiful white horse with the man stop it in solid white that she had seen on the road earlier that morn. She had never seen anybody like him riding such a magestic creature. The picture she drew was of him atop his horse. It was not as grand as it would have been had she a little training for her skill, but it was fairly good for a child her age.
As her hands worked on the picture she started to sing. The words were ones she had made up to go along with the soft tune she had been humming. As she continued she did not notice that she was being watched by a horse and his rider. When she stopped singing the white clad man nudged his stalion forewards.
"That was pretty. Why'd you stop?" he asked when he was at her side.
She pulled her feet from the water and scooted away from the man. "Ho.. How long have you been there?"
"Oh just long enough to hear your song. My name is Talon. Your's is?" he asked looking like a hero from a fariy tale.
"Xelin. What's your horse's name?" she asked timidly.
"Stephan, and he's not a horse. He's a Companion."
"I belive you are telling a lie! He looks like a horse, acts like a horse, and probably eats like a horse! How can you say he is not?" she responded standing up and brushing her bum off with the hand that did not contain her drawing supplies.
"Companions are less like horses that cattle are. They may bear the same resembleance but they have a sort of magic."
"Like I belive you! Who are you anyways?"
"I'm a Herald. Haven't you heard of Heralds and their Companions? Are you a holderkin or do you have any family at all?"
"NO! I'm not holderkin and I dont even know who my mother is. Nor my father. I live on what I can take. What I can steal."
Talon thought for a moment. 'This Xelin hasn't had food in some time. She probably needs a place to sleep, eat, and rest. Maybe I can take her back to Haven with me. I'm shure Queen Selenay can find some sort of work for her.'
Xelin took a closter look at the man as he thought. He had short dark brown hair, deep grey eyes, and the startings of a beard that showed he did not shave and at most he was only twenty-two.
"I've got it!" he suddenly pronounced happily.
"Got what mister?"
"You can come back to Haven with me. It would take ten days tops and I could find you some work in the palace. They might even take you in as a bard. You do sing quite well. Anyways, I think that you need to get out of this horrid place. Will you come?"
"Will I get payed in money? Enough so that I can buy more paper and charcoal?" she asked him her eyes wide.
"Yes, yes, if they find you suitible to work. But if you go to Bardic you won't get any but I'm pretty shure they have enough paper."
She was happy enough that she felt like sprouting wings and flying. In fact, she did. Large raven black wings srpouted from her shoulder blades going through two slits in the back of her dress that were covered by her long hair. Talon had a look of suprise on his face.
"Oh come on, tell me you haven't seen somebody with wings before?" she asked jokingly.
"You knew you had those?" he barely squeked out.
"Yup, I've been using these beauties to get around quickly."
"Wow! I've got to tell this to everybody!"
"Please don't let my secret out! Don't tell everybody!" she enounced scared.
"Oh, well I didn't mean everybody. I just ment Queen Selenay and people like her."
Xelin shrugged and with one flap of her wings she was ten feet in the air. "Race you to the road!" she enounced then flew off, Talon and Stephan right on her tail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author's Note~ This be what I was intending to do when I got.... um... yeah... that way... But it came out wrong. It's much better, ne? Well anyways.. Bye...