Written for Lady Shadowcat. The request was to write about Kuramori's hatching.
Ficlet, just over 600 words.
Darkness
She awoke to a tearing sound and the feel of rushing water. She could see distorted light ahead of her. There was pain, and she was shoved bluntly from the wetness into open air. She fell, blinking.
She knew that she had been dreaming and that now she was awake, but she couldn't remember anything else. She didn't know where she was, but she also didn't know where she had ever been, or whether she was supposed to be somewhere else now.
She looked around. It was a small room, with nothing in it but the huge broken shell that had just expelled her. The floor was cold and her back hurt, and that was all that her mind could comprehend right now. There was a door, and she could remember what doors meant, but she was too weak and unsure to do anything but close her eyes again.
After a time she heard the sound of the door opening and a gasp. She looked up to see a figure in the doorway. It was a young woman with long yellow hair. The woman had a shining halo over her head.
"I saw the water..." said the woman. "I didn't think that you would be born so soon. There's no one else here."
She pushed herself up on her hands and looked more carefully at the woman in the doorway, trying to understand what it meant that there was another person here and more somewhere else.
"I am Setsu ," said the blonde woman.
She nodded in reply to that, knowing that she herself had no name.
"I don't know what to do," Setsu continued sadly. "I can't leave you alone now. It's getting cold here, and your wings will be sprouting soon. You'd best get somewhere more comfortable."
"I don't think I can walk..."
The blonde woman looked afraid. "Well then, wait here... "
Setsu left through the door. When she turned her back, her dark feathery wings were visible. She came back quickly with blankets.
"You don't have a name yet," said Setsu as she wrapped the blankets around and underneath her. "They might not like it if I named you, but it's only a matter of what you dreamed of."
"How did you know I had a dream?"
"We all had dreams," said the other woman, closing her eyes for a moment. "That's all we know, really."
"I dreamed I was walking in a forest, with pine needles poking into my feet," she told Setsu. "There were so many trees I could hardly find my way, and it was very dark."
Setsu nodded. "Kuramori then, for the dark forest."
Kuramori nodded back. Something had been made from her now. She felt a sudden stab of pain in her back, and winced.
"It's your wings. I told you. I wish the others were here."
Kuramori looked up. "You said that before. I'll have wings?"
Setsu nodded. "You're a haibane."
Kuramori reached out and touched Setsu's wings gently.
"Will mine be black like yours?"
Setsu turned her face away. "No. Yours will be beautiful and grey. You will never have to have black wings."
Kuramori could tell that she was crying.
There was a sound in another part of the house, and Setsu got up to leave.
"The others are here, and they can take care of you better than I. It's time for me to go."
"I thought this was your place," said Kuramori.
"It was," said Setsu, "But it's been past time for me to leave."
She walked out of the door, black feathers falling, and Kuramori could only watch her go.