Flight

© 1999 Deb Atwood

"Where’s Talis?"

I could hear Dorman’s question from my hiding place in the hall. I melted into the alcove, my skin thickening, darkening as I took on a form that was becoming almost second nature. Just another statue along the hallway.

Not like they ever really noticed me anyway.

Ayltha was answering him, her tone derisive. My cousin, and elder by a year, adopted her parents’ attitude towards me. Best to forget I even existed.

So Dorman stopped asking, and began the day’s lessons. He was new, still. He’d learn soon.

I attended sometimes, listening quietly from the back of the room. And somedays I would hide, either here in my alcove, or even in the room, just to see if anyone noticed. And no one really did.

And on the other days I would slip away. The veils of shadow were loose near our Ways, and I could easily slide between them into another reality. I’d started doing it half my life ago, when I was only six.

I went by the kitchens on my way out, sneaking lunch and a treat, and then I was on my way.

The skies changed abruptly, to a gleaming purple. A moon hung large and low in the sky, with a smaller one near it, like a child hovering near its mother.

This place was new to me. It always was, as if the shadows outside our ways danced to someone’s whims. I didn’t care how it worked, only that it did. And I had a trump of a back room that I’d… borrowed… from Uncle Devlin’s deck a long time ago. I wasn’t worried about getting lost. And it was far better lessons that I’d get in the classroom.

And most importantly, I was away from all of them. Especially Ayltha and Kamrin. My cousins were cruel at times, making certain that even while being ignored, I knew just where my place was in this family. Which was no place at all.

There was a rustling in the foliage off to my right, and suddenly a creature leapt from the brush. It was larger than me, and a deep purply black in color, with heavy spikes all over its skin. I caught myself before I screamed, but it noticed me anyway. I ducked as it charged, my skin shifting to full stone, thick and hard as I hoped it would protect me. Then just as I thought it would trample me, it leapt up, sprouting wings, and taking off into the air over my head.

I stood up again, watching it as it fading into the darkness. And I felt an itching at my back. I smiled, knowing what it meant, and gave in to the desire. My skin grew mottled and hard, darkening to a slate grey as it roughened into full stone. And I could feel the ridges down my back, from my head down to the short tail that grew longer. My fingers thickened, nails growing long and sharp. And for the first time, I felt a strange sensation at my shoulders as my body shifted, elongating, until full wings sprang from my shoulder blades.

Instinct made me leap up, the wings beating hard, and I realized I stood at the edge of a cliff. The single stroke took me over the edge, riding the air currents down. I was elated. I’d never experienced anything like it before… never taken to the air under my own power. I’d never realized that this strange statue shape I’d adopted had the ability to feel so free.

I always knew I learned more on my own than in Dorman’s classroom. That day I learned that I had everything inside of me that I ever needed to be free.