Feathers

I paced around my platform once again. The tips of my wings trailed on the ground behind me leaving streaks in the dust. At least I think they are called wings. I had only heard the word used once, when one of the men that Michel had taken to see me pointed at them and gasped "he has wings!" Michel had swiftly ushered him away but that was what I called the long brown-grey cloak that had sprouted from my back when I was ten ever since. I reached back to stroke the soft, airy material. As I did my chain shifted and clanged gently. The chain had been attached to my ankle even before my wings had started to grow. I still don't know why Michel gave me the chain. The only ways off the tower top were the trapdoor that he always kept locked and jumping into two hundred feet of thin air. Michel had never taken it off though, not even when he was in one of his best moods and my leg was red and swollen from the chafing.

I had just reached the edge of the balcony when I heard the trapdoor slam open behind me. I turned with a jump because Michel normally opens the door very softly and carefully.

A fat man I had never seen before struggled his way through the opening and hurried over towards me panting "Don't worry, I am here to rescue you." He bent over my leg and did something and with a click my chain fell away from leg. We stared at each other for a few seconds. I lifted my leg up reveling at being free from the noise and the weight of the metal cuff.

"Go on," he huffed, "get out of here."

I didn't understand. Where was I supposed to go?

The fat man glared at me. "Go on, fly you stupid boy." He waved his arms up and down looking ridiculous. "Use your wings. Get out of here."

There was another thump and Michel leaped out of the trap door and froze upon seeing us.

"Robert," he said softly, "come here."

Excitement was starting to race through me, but I could not figure out what to do next. Use my wings? How? For what? The fat man was looking at me with an imploring expression on his face. Behind him Michel's face was frozen and stern. A soft cry from above my head interrupted my train of thought. Puzzled, I glanced upwards to see a strange creature with a small body and long flat arms hovering above us. I had never seen anything like it. It was far from the ground yet it was not falling. The strange creature moved as if by magic around the tower and then back up into sky waving its arms up and down in the air. Except those were not arms, it dawned on me, those were wings. It had wings just like I did.

"Robert," Michel cried sounding alarmed. I turned my back to him and jumped. My stomach dropped as I fell but I stretched out my wings into the air rushing by me. For a heart sickening moment I kept plummeting down but then something caught and I was propelled upwards towards the open air. I flapped hard and soared up past my tower where Michel was looking stunned and the fat man was smirking in delight. I swooped around to face away from the setting sun, my heart filling with elation. I was leaving. I was going to follow the strange flying creature away from here and never, ever return.