Part three: The Golden One

Nemesis' eyes widened in shock and rage.

This was something he did not expect. He was so sure that this time he would be able to defeat the Tree and take his coveted immortality. He howled in rage when he realized that he'd been cheated from his prize.

"You!" The last of the Tree's golden leaves rose from the ground to circle once around the creature it encased before it flew to the morning sky. The winged-creature-he realized it was an aenial - turned its liquid gaze at him. It was nothing like any aenial he encountered before. This one had burnished golden wings that easily outsized any he have seen before and talons that shone like obsidian in the early light.

His mind raced. The Tree gave his power to this creature. There is only one thing for him to regain the Tree's coveted power.

He needed to kill this aenial.

He studied his opponent. Her fragile features: wide purple eyes shot with golden flecks, tiny nose, high cheekbones, and a delicate mouth. Her alabaster skin made a stark contrast from her lustrous dark hair. She looked just like a newborn hatchling.

He grinned. How terribly easy for him to crush her then.

She moved as all newly born creatures did-a halting manner that spoke of fragility. He saw her unfurl her new wings-bright, burnished gold feathers that shone from the sun's first rays. She turned her eyes at him and he saw there the unmistakable look of anguish.

And rage.

She opened her mouth and a sound, no a cry-ripped through the early morning air like a knife. He reached for his left ear when he felt something wet and warm drip down the side of his face and he staggered back as the viscous liquid shone dark red on his fingertips.

The currents reacted from her cry and a hot wind began brewing from the slow, steady beats of her wings. Nemesis realized he needed to react, and fast. He gathered skeins of power. From the deep, dark recesses of the earth still covered in shadow he drew all the hate, the envy, the anger-all the malicious forces that he could muster that have brewed over time. The earth was rich with them and he tapped on those areas, the energy swirling cold and slick in his hands. He smiled.

He cast the first strike. A ball of dense, inky darkness that swallowed the aenial whole. It looked like a void suddenly materialized in the middle of the forest and it started to swallow everything in its path. Trees, vines, bushes were uprooted as the darkness started to spread like a malignant tumor. Animals and other creatures of the forest started to run for their lives. Nemesis laughed.

"And here I thought you would give me a fight." He flicked a stray golden leaf that landed on his robes. "So easy." Another leaf replaced the one he had just removed. He brushed it off but it remained. Another leaf flew and stuck to him, and another and another until a small whirlwind seemed to follow him.

Nemesis gave an annoyed shake of his head and made the air freeze with his power. The leaves froze in midair before they broke off and shattered into a thousand glittering pieces but they did not fall to the ground but instead hovered in the air like golden dust.

He felt heat emanate from the glittering dust and they started to swirl. Round and round they swirled, rising up in a column, getting in his eyes, his ears, his mouth. He tried to run away from the white hot heat that felt like tiny little flames that singed each point they touched.

"No!" He cried out as he rolled on the ground. Each little point of light shone like a miniature star and burned just as bright. It felt like the whole universe burned as his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his skin was covered and he was a mass of flames from the inside out.

The dark void stopped spreading and seemed to choke, contract, before it started to recede slowly. Nemesis thrashed in the magical, golden dust swirling around him.

In the center of the dark void, a shaft of golden light began to grow. Little by little the light grew and in its center a creature slowly moved, casting heat and light to kill the cold, dark energies that Nemesis wrought.

"You will not win. I will not let you." The aenial's voice rang in the clearing. Her violet eyes opened and she took in the writhing warlock in the clearing.

"Wretch! I will get what I want!" He clawed on his skin, his eyes, his face, leaving bloody welts. The wind died down and the darkness slowly dissipated like smoke. He tried to reach for the power once more, weaving his essence on the remaining wisps of darkness but his magic refused to hold shape and he cried out in rage.

He felt cheated. This... this weak creature-an aenial managed to beat him?

He searched his person for anything, anything that would give him the upper hand. In the burning inferno inside of him he groped for all the knowledge he had stolen through the centuries, from all of the wizards, and creatures he had drained of power. His hands touched something, a relic from one of his strongest foes. He smiled a bitter smile as he felt the reassurance of its smooth surface.

"Wither, crumble, disintegrate, die,

I call upon the forces, rise from the darkness,

I offer you this life,

I offer you this soul!

Quench the thirst for blood,

Let them perish from this world!

I bind you to me!

Release you from your prison!"

Nemesis raised his arms to the sky. His right hand held a wand from darkest ebony. Wisps of dark material emanated from its tip and coiled around him. The swirling dust fought the dark matter and they roiled around in a tangle of dark and light around the warlock. Boiling clouds formed in the distance, lighting streaked across the sky. The early morning light was replaced by gathering gloom. The broken patches of the earth rose and started forming a creature of blood, and death, and pain and suffering. Nemesis crowed in delight as the first patches of rain started to fall and the world became awash in cold, wet muck.

The thing of darkness and earth began to move towards Eumelia. The golden aenial in the middle of the dissipating vortex beat its wings and bright, blessed heat made the rain drops evaporate and dispel in the air. The creature borne from Nemesis' hate began to take shape and it was filled with all things unsavory and wholly disgusting. The trees in the clearing shriveled as their life force was forcibly taken in. A rotten stink filled the air as maggots and yellow-green pus flowed in a face that was not a face but a series of dark maws and blackened teeth.

Eumelia rose several inches above the ground. Her talons made a swishing sound in the air as she swooped down and took a chunk out of her foe. The creature seemed unaffected and bright green pus filled the space that she tore off.

"You will not win aenial, my creature is immortal!" He crowed in glee with eyes that was no more than a bloodied mess.

Eumelia did not seem to hear him. She was intent on destroying the filth that was intent of draining the life blood of the forest. She reached inside for the gift of the Tree and pulled forth the power borne from the essence of Creation itself. Her talons grew longer and she hacked at the thing that tried to grasp at her.

"No, not immortal. It does not have a soul." The places Eumelia hacked glowed in bright blue flames. Nemesis shrieked as he felt a piece of himself burn in agonizing pain.

"No...no... NOOOO!" He flailed wildly, raising his wand and calling forth more power, "you cannot do this! I have paid the blood-price!"

"There is sacrifice, and then there is self-sacrifice." Eumelia continued to advance and she used the advantage of her wings to dodge away from the grasping appendages that sprouted from her enemy. "You do not have the power of Creation. You only know Death and Decay."

Eumelia wove circles in the air, descending here and there, and claws slicing piece by piece, little by little. The dark thing howled into the morning sky as it weakened until it could no longer hold itself up and fell into an avalanche of rock and bone and rot.

Nemesis cried out as his creature slowly burned. He could feel each lick of flame on his own flesh. The skies parted and bright healing sunlight filtered through the clouds. The warlock's screams of anger was drowned out by the sound of the fire consuming him until he was no more than a glowing ball of light.

Eumelia breathed harshly as she made her slow descent to the ground. She staggered from the effort-she felt a terrible pain inside her heart. Suddenly the dam that held back her emotions burst forth and she sobbed as she grasped at the still, damp earth on her feet.

The Tree had given her his life. She could feel the energies coursing through her veins. She wept at losing someone whom she only met briefly, but has taught her so much about life in what little time that they had.

I will never forget you, Tree...

Her talons receded and she felt the power held at bay inside her. It will rise to her call anytime. She let a tiny bit of it trickle out into the earth and all around her, plants started to sprout. The thing that was Nemesis crumbled to dust and was carried by the wind to oblivion.

All around her she heard the flapping of wings. Aenialle-hundreds of them. They flew in flocks of multi-colored plumage that darkened the sky. They landed in a circle around her, each one with their head bowed in reverence.

"Golden One," the Chief Elder approached her with his head cast downward in utmost respect. "You have come to rid our land from the filth from the West."

She rose from her position on the ground and gazed at the sea of bowed heads. Her whole clan is here, bowing to her. She felt faint.

"It's me, Eumelia." She murmured to the still, morning air. Several murmurs passed around the clearing. She swore a lot of faces bowed much, much lower to the ground.

"Forgive us Golden One." The chief elder held himself prostrate on the ground.

"There is nothing to forgive," she put her hand on his shoulder. "He is gone. Nemesis is no more."

The old man's head rose slowly and there were tears of gratefulness in his eyes. "Thank you." Those two words, spoken in such reverence tugged at her heart.

"It is not me you should thank but the Tree. Rise everyone," she beckoned to them. "Let us celebrate the coming-of-age."

All around smiles broke around and laughter soon followed. Everyone cried in joy and celebration. Everywhere she looked, everyone thanked and congratulated her. She sought only one face in the crowd and when she found her.

"Mother!" She sobbed.

"How beautiful you are, my child," her mother stroked her hair. "Didn't I tell you, there is a time for all?"

"Yes mother and you are right." She smiled her first genuine smile. "And it took so much for me to learn that." She smiled fondly at the memory of the Tree. He is now inside her and he would never be truly gone. That much, she has learned.

"There is more to learn Eumelia, and many, many more days to know them, but with courage and hope inside you, I know you will succeed."

"Now, let us go on our first flight."

And they did just that.

~FIN~

W/N:

The Flight Series is one short story divided into three parts. The story started out as a contest entry for Wattpad's Writing Battle of the Year 2015 second round. 

Our first idea (with my partner Yuchiyoo) was a re-telling of the "Narcissus Myth", with the Tree as Narcissus who was cursed by the Goddess Nemesis (Goddess of Revenge) because of his vanity. The first title was Vanity's Plight. Eumelia was supposed to be the reincarnation of the nymph, Echo who committed suicide after being spurned by Narcissus. During the course of writing and revising draft two and three, we decided to drop the idea and create an alternate universe where aenials (bird-like people) exist. 

We hope you enjoyed this story!