Wings of Memory

After the second dragon campaign in which Dart Field and the other dragoon fought Melbu Frahma the world was at peace. The peace between wingly and human lasted for almost fifty years before disaster struck. A human killed a high ranking wingly official, it is unknown as to whether this was a member of a larger group or an individual who opposed the peace treaty between the two races, but either way their goal was accomplished. The winglies saw this as an act of war and launched an attack on the humans. The humans tried to fight back but were stopped by King Albert. He attempted to calm the winglies but he ultimately failed, for this he was driven from the throne and he and his family were exiled. All the other dragoons were exiled or killed out right as well. The war that followed dragged on for years until the population of the winglies got too low to continue and human losses mounted too high. An uneasy truce was reached between the two races and things began to settle down. Now two hundred and fifty years after the end of the war wingly numbers are almost equal to that of the humans. Technology hasn't improved any and neither has the relationships between the races. An outright war has never occurred but it is only a matter of time until something happens and history is repeated.

- Document penned by an unknown author

"What is it?" The noble snapped as he walked into his main audience chamber. He recoiled in disgust for a moment when he saw that a pair of dirty and uncivil peasants stood next to his steward. He noted that two of his guard stood back from the trio, a red-haired girl between them a guard holding each of her arms. The lord couldn't help but be curious as to why a guard had one hand clamped over her mouth, the girl's head was bowed her flaming locks hiding most of her face. "Why did you bring these people to me?' He demanded of his steward. "If this is some simple villager problem then I will have you killed in the most unpleasant matter I can come up with."

"It's not yer lordshi…." The younger of the two villagers started to speak but his father him upside the head.

"Pardon 'im Lord Draco, he's just a young un'." Lord Draco sniffed at their crude language and behavior.

"Why are they here?" He said speaking directly to his steward's face.

"The girl." The steward stammered out.

"The girl?" He asked as he strode past the villagers to where the guards held her. "What has she done?"

"She tried to seduce my son!" The father said a little too loudly, his tone suggesting he was trying to prove something to himself. The lord simply chuckled at him.

"As do all women. Only a weak willed fool would succumb to such foolish tricks." The son blushed and began muttering under his breath.

"Lookit her eyes me lord and you'll what I mean." The villager urged him. Curious the lord turned to the girl.

"Show me your eyes." He commanded her. The young girl stubbornly tucked her chin in as trying to keep him from seeing them on purpose. "I said show me your eyes!" He shouted. The girl turned her head to the side. With a growl the lord nodded to one of the guards. The guard punched her lightly in the back and she jerked her head up in surprise and pain. The lord gave a smirk of satisfaction and meet the girls eyes. Then with a startled gasp he took a step back wards his own eyes fastened on the girl who now glared at him defiantly. Her..her eyes are blood red! The panicked lord knew of only one race that possessed such eyes….. "You dare to bring a wingly spy in here!" He screamed out at the steward.

"She's not a wingly Lord Draco." The older of the two farmers remarked. The lord turned so that he could keep one eye on the hostage.

"What do you mean?" He demanded.

"Her mother was human mi' lord. My wife was friends with her since there childhood. She helped birth this whelp fifteen years ago." Seeing the lords unconvinced expression the farmer gave a knowing smirk. "Know one knows who her father is. He just flew off afore she was born if ye get me meaning."

"HALF-wingly?" The lord said in disgust as he looked at her. A full wingly he could have dealt with, he knew what to expect with them. But a half and half? Half human and Half wingly? He couldn't remember there ever being one, even in times when winglies and humans got along. Somehow the mere thought was sickening to him. "You may go." He snapped at the farmers. "You did your work. Now I'll deal with this…half-breed."

"But mi' lord…."

"GO!" He yelled. "Or I shall have you removed from here!" With a growl the farmer grabbed his son and dragged him out the door muttering angrily under his breath. With a sigh he turned back to were his steward stood. "Finally, those barbarians were beginning to annoy me."

"Quite so my lord." The steward agreed.

"Now what shall we do with this..girl?" He said as he walked over to her. Once he was sure she would not be able to break out of the hold he examined her more closely. If he ignored her eyes she was really quite pretty, beautiful even, although he had heard some were that winglies were an almost unearthly beautiful people.

"It's rude to stare at people." She snapped at him, speaking up for a first time.

"People yes, half-breed monsters no. And it's also unwise to insult the person who hold your life in his hands."

"Then kill me now and get it over with."

"Now, Now…" Lord Draco said chuckling. "There are certain…ways that can convince me to let you live." He said as he laid a hand on her check seductively. His guards chuckled lewdly as they realized the lord's intent. With a snarl the girl jerked violently away and almost pulled herself form the guard's grasps. "Careful fools!" Lord Draco shouted frightened of what she might do if she got lose.

"I would rather die now then have to suffer anymore." She said her slow words dripping venom.

"Foolish girl! I think I shall grant your wish." A sudden glimmer at her neck drew the lord attention to a silver chain that disappeared into the front of her shirt. "And what is this?" He said as he reached for the chain.

"Leave it alone!" The girl said panicking for the first time. Some inner feeling told her that she must not let him get a hold of what was at the end of the chain.

"A gift I suppose?" He asked as he gently pulled on the chain. "A magic amulet from your filthy wingly father ….." His words trailed off when he saw the round emerald at the end of it, it was at least as big as his palm. He had only seen one other like it. "I shall take this and add it to my collection. After all what good is jewelry to a corpse?"

"NO!" She screamed as hard as she could. Suddenly the astonishment of everyone in the room the emerald gave off a flash of green light and powerful wind whirled around the girl, throwing the everyone in the room against the walls and hurling open all the windows.

"What?" The lord said then gasped when he realized that the girl was running toward the door. "Catch her you fools!"

When she saw the guards dive toward the door in an attempt to stop her escape she reversed direction and rushed toward the windows. With a thought she jumped over the edge as the lord gave a gasp. Lord Draco rushed to the window and got there just in time to see wings of glittering silver light erupt from her back. She darted up and stopped for a moment and stared at him before she darted out over the castle wall.

"Should I send someone out after her my lord?" The steward asked. Lord Draco threw a contemptuous look at him.

"No. They would never catch her. And besides…." He said smirking. "She will probably be dead soon. "

"My Lord…..?" The steward asked confused by the lost comment.

"You see no human will accept her because she is half wingly." HE said grinning "And no wingly will be accept her because she is half human. In short she is doomed."

Away from the castle Luna flew her tears tracing tears down her cheeks. It wasn't that much about being driven from her home, she knew she would have to leave at some point, but the betrayal her friend had shown to her. She knew she shouldn't have told him about her heritage but with her mother for over a year and she had needed to tell someone. She had thought that she could trust him, a friend since her childhood but she had been wrong, dead wrong. He had gone running to his father and not only betrayed her secret but told some out ridiculous lie as well. Tried to seduce him indeed.

With the castle out of sight the young women stopped to catch her breath. The emerald around the neck banged against her chest with her sudden stop and she wondered what had happened, it had never reacted like that before. When her mother had held it the emerald had glowed a bright green, but it had never done anything for her. With a sigh she dropped it back into her shirt and considered her options. She couldn't go back home that was for certain and she couldn't go north, that was wingly territory. It wasn't official but everyone knew that if you went north you would go into the rock terrain that belonged to the winglies. With a sigh she decided to head south toward one of the human towns. Maybe if she was careful she could hide her eyes and live among them for a short time.

It was a ruin really, a building that showed the wear of time above all else. An open place at the top was no different. Piles of stone lay about it, the only other visible remains a set of shaky stairs that lead down to the rest of the building, holes were scattered at random around the floors. But the figure at the top didn't' seem to care. He completed his uncounted circuit of the floor. He knew each pitfall and stone pile very well, he didn't know how many times he had paced this floor. With a sigh he sat down on a pile of stone out of boredom, since he really didn't need to rest because he couldn't feel fatigue. With a sigh the spirit that had been known as Lavitz Slambet ran one hand through his hair. The one fact that any of the scary stories he had ever been told left out was that being a ghost was boring! With his spirit tied to the place he had died he had only been able to grasp snatches of what had been happening in the world outside, mostly gossip carried by the jailers or other servants. When Hellena had been abandoned his sources of information had dried up. Now he would give anything to know what was happening in the outside world. With a sigh the ghost stood up once again and began to walk around the parameter of the floor again. He lost count long ago and even if he started again he would grow bored and abandon that as well. With a resigned sigh he gave in to his eternal boredom.

Plantress: I was watching Inuyasha when I came up with this idea. Probably were the half-breed thing came from. Anyway please R & R and tell me if I should contiue this or not. And I'm not sure if I spelled Lavitz's last name right so tell if I didn't. Any way R &R Thanks!