I heard his laugh as we spiraled through them. I missed the wind flowing through my hair while flying. It was stress free and care free. I angled myself to fly around Mark and he caught on to it and flew with me. It was like a choreographed dance through the puffs of water vapor. I let my hand run through the clouds below me and then I felt two hands around my waist. He turned me over and carried us both through the atmosphere. I kept my wings out but I wasn't in control of where we were going.
He straightened out his wings to line up with mine as he found a jet stream.
I knew it would take us out farther than he anticipated but I didn't say anything. Flying over the ocean on a nice day like this was always thrilling.
He looked below me and ducked out of the jet stream. He held onto my hand and let me go. I spiraled away from him and looked down at the beach I figured he was aiming for.
I pulled my hand from his, tucked my wings in and dove to the sand. I aimed myself to land feet first into an empty area of the beach. At impact I let my body move with it so I couldn't hurt myself. I stood back up and stepped out of the eight inch divot of sand I created. I looked at the ripples of sand I left then walked away from it.
I looked up for Mark knowing he might need help with his landing. He had watched me land and was hovering in the sky above me. "Just gently lower yourself close to the ground. Then you're going to want to tuck in your wings. You'll land hard but sand is harder to get out of feathers than you think." I called up to him.
A few people came over to me and look up too. One grabbed at my feathers and I looked down at the toddler holding my feathers in a small fist. I picked him up and rested him on my hip.
I looked up and watched Mark do as I said. He landed roughly on the beach and tried to get over to me. I smiled and shrugged as people gathered around him. They were looking at his wings and asked him several questions that he didn't know how to answer. Many took pictures with him, mostly his wings.
I stayed where I was and waited for this child's mother to come get him. I gently pried open his hand to let my wing go. A few seconds later a woman in her mid thirties came up to me and smiled in relief.
"Oh, thank you so much, Hawk!" she half shouted in happy tears. She took her child from me and looked at Mark. "Is he famous or something?"
"Something like that," I answered. "Some stuff happened and… yeah. Now he's with us."
"That's cool," She replied. "They must be fan girls."
I laughed, "Yes, they must be. I think he likes being the center of attention though," I paused, "He's always loved his fans."
"And you do too, don't you?" She asked as she pulled out her phone.
"Yeah, I do. But I'm not attached to this planet any more. I protect it from the outside and that doesn't let me visit too often." I replied. Many adults know of me, but not many remember what I do. She did, which was a relief. "I'm more of a super hero who saves lives by battling those outside forces. He's needed here to help those and support those who need it."
She was quiet for a while then stood close to me and lifted her phone. I looked into the camera, raised my wings and smiled. She took the picture and squealed. "Thank you! And thanks for not letting my son get trampled! He wandered off when I wasn't looking…"
She walked away and I waved at her son who smiled at me then nuzzled into his mother's shoulder.
I turned to Mark and watched him try to get out of the swamp of fan girls. What made them all go to the beach today of all days? "Alright, that should be good," I shouted as I walked over. I raised my wings up to the sky. "We are actually busy and I am in the middle of training him." They started to disband, a few lingered to hug him then left.
He looked at me with the most befuddled look on his face. "I've never been mobbed like that before."
"Get used to it. It gets worse." I replied and lowered my wings to my sides. "Just wait for the paparazzi and news crews to stalk you." I looked across the expanse of ocean in front of me.
"I didn't want to fly over it right away." He commented as he fixed his hair and stood next to me.
I know you saw it…
I turned to him and moved him to face me. "You really need to pay attention…" I looked at him as I fixed his pants and belt. "And guard yourself."
His cheeks turned pink and looked away from me.
I looked back to the ocean, "Are you okay with flying over the ocean?"
"You mean besides my fear of possibly crashing into the ocean, not seeing the bottom and being eaten alive?" He turned to me, "Yeah, I'm fine."
"It's a nice day today, the ocean should be calm." I tried to reassure him. "If I wasn't comfortable with flying over the ocean, I wouldn't take you with me." I knelt down to take off my combat boots and let my feet sink into the sand a bit. "This beach is nice though,"
"Yeah it is," he said softly and walked into the shallow ocean water.
"Don't get your wings wet," I said as I moved to put my hand on the base of his wings. "Just hold them up and don't go out too far and they should be fine."
He looked back at me and held them to his back. He wrapped his arm around me and looked out at the ocean. "Promise I'll be safe?"
I smiled and answered, "I promise to keep you safe as much as I can." I hooked my boots together and put them on my empty sword hilt on my hip. I wrapped my arm around his waist and put my other hand into a fist and slowly pushed it towards the ground then punched down really hard. We were shoved up into the air; I opened my wings and brought him up with me.
