Author's notes: Once again, I amaze myself with the cliché story ideas that always find a way to stroke the imagination of the plot bunnies. But alas, here I stand with one of those angel stories. However, I've never read an angel story, so if I steal someone's idea I totally did not mean to! This is based roughly on a story I read in my block class two semesters ago. It's been stuck in my head ever since.

Paper Wings
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Chapter One
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Thunder rolled across the sky, the ominous black clouds colliding into each other as bolts of electricity charged towards Earth, connecting with the harsh waters of the ocean. Large waves shot up, foam collecting at their peaks before they came crashing down on one another, the green waters taking on a treacherous murky black color.

The thunder screamed loudly into the night and the beautifully round moon was hidden beneath the cloud's heavy depths. Anyone caught out in the storm would not survive; their ships would crash and fall victim to the dastardly waves, which many fisherman had already fallen victim to.

But despite all this, a loud scream filled the air, proving that there was one living inhabitant out on the perils of the water.

From the sky a figure flew through the air, gaining velocity, his eyes shut in absolute pain as the drops of rain slammed into him like large pebbles. His silver hair flew soundly above him, his back pointed towards the ocean, which rolled and crashed beneath him. In a fruitless attempt, he flapped his silvery wings, the lightning flashing around him reflecting off the glimpses of gold in the feathers. His white robe flapped around him, the thin linen barely staying on his body as the wind and water whipped against him.

He glanced over his shoulder and felt a small amount of dread fill him as he saw the approaching waters. His skin flushed to a deathly shade of white and he closed his golden eyes again, his jaw clenching. He braced himself for the crash he was about to endure.

As he hit the water, he released a loud, agonizing scream, his wings ripping as if made of paper. The sickening crack of bones filled his canine ears as he threw his head back and screamed again. He thrashed against the waves that came crashing down on him, but soon he was swept under the water, his vision blurred by the darkness of the ocean. Through his blurry gaze, however, he was able to make out the rivers of blood that seemed to surround him. He whimpered in pain, closed his eyes, and remembered nothing else.

===

Kagome gazed sadly out the window, her blue eyes taking in the damage her village had endured due to the storm they had to encounter not more than two days ago. Her own hut was placed on the Eastern most part of the village, closet to the ocean, yet her home hadn't witnessed the most damage. Instead, she was cursed with flooded floors and thousands of crabs hiding in various areas of her three roomed home.

"Kagome?" he mother's weak voice sounded from the other room. Kagome stirred from her dreamlike state and stood, retreating into the depths of her home to see her mother gently rocking her brother, Souta, the six month old child.

"Yes?"

"There are crabs everywhere, and many other disgusting creatures. Fish them out, will you?" She cooed her little brother when he began to whine and patted his back.  "Kagome?" The older woman gave her daughter a pointed glare.

"Yes…" she murmured and went back to the front of the house to grab the net she used to shoo away the crabs and other shellfish.

She grabbed the creatures quickly before throwing them into the large fishing net her father had used before the storm of two months ago had whisked him away. The death of her father was still an open wound, and she rarely spoke of him, for fear of bursting into tears. He, like many of the other men in her small village, had been a fisherman. However, he'd been fishing along with a few other choice men when an unexpected storm had hit, sending them down to their watery graves.

Kagome shook herself of these thoughts and began to step out of her hut. Like the other homes in her fishing village, hers was surrounded by a simple brick wall. The wall served as a barrier for a courtyard, which many of the people needed in order to protect their homes from small waves. Her village was situated on top of a rocky cliff with a worn path the men had worked on in order to go down to the docks and the beach below. Kagome sighed as she dragged the net out of her courtyard, deciding that she'd collected all the sea life that had taken residence in her home. 

Her feet left soft footprints in the sand as she approached the tide pools on the Northern end of the beach. She glanced at the sky, loving how the sun beat down on her back and not a cloud could be seen. She found it hard to believe that only two days ago the skies had been plagued with a dark shadow. She dragged the net towards one of the larger pools and dumped the shellfish into the warm water. They scurried away to hide under rocks or dug themselves into a hole. Kagome was happy to see that none of them had died on her trek here.

She rolled the net into a bundle and placed it under her arm delicately. The girl turned to return home, picking her way through the rocks when an odd sound caused her to stop her retreat home. She paused and stood still, trying to concentrate on only her hearing. It sounded like a bird flapping, and it was close. Kagome frowned as she tried to locate the injured bird. Perhaps Kagome had strayed too close to the bird's nest? But that made no sense; no bird would make their nest amid the tide pools, where the tide was due to come up near mid-afternoon. Then she saw it. It was nothing more than a flash of silver and gold out of the corner of her eye, but it caught Kagome's attention.

Her eyebrows slanted downward and her frown deepened as she approached the large, barnacle covered rocks, slick with seaweed and algae. She reeled back in shock when a pair of large wings emerged from behind the rock. She swallowed her gasp as she caught sight of the wings. They were enormous, larger than any bird's wing she'd ever seen. The feathers were ruffled, coming in colors of silver, gold and white, all flashing slightly in the morning sun. Then she noticed the injuries of the wings.

The bird's right wing was bent upward, the bone appearing to be snapped in half and was bleeding, rivers of blood running down the silken feathers, and staining them. She was also aware of punctures in the golden feathers. The left wing wasn't much better, part of the wing seemed to be sliced right down the middle, and it too was dripping with blood. It was accompanied by puncture marks as well.

"Gods…" she murmured at the obvious distress of the bird. It kept pumping its wings in hopes of flying away, yet it seemed that it might be permanently grounded unless it was healed. It made Kagome smile to know that she was the daughter of the village healer. If she could heal small children of coughing diseases, surely she could heal a bird. Granted, it was a large bird, but it was still a bird. One in need of assistance.

She unraveled the net, preparing to toss it over the rock in order to trap the bird and prevent it from trying to escape and causing more damage to itself. 'It must have been caught in the storm,' she realized, 'Swept up against these rocks; it's a wonder it isn't dead.'

She crept towards the large wings and threw the net with all her might over the rocks. The wings thrashed as best they could against the netted web, but could not break free. After only a few moments of thrashing, the wings fell down and the creature was still. Kagome sighed sympathetically and crept over the rock. Only to receive the shock of her life.

There was no bird behind the rocks of the tide pools.

A boy stared up at her, his face one of pure terror. She was positive that her face reflected the same expression as well. She looked down at him, lying almost lifelessly in a pool, surrounded by what she would assume was his own blood. Large clumps of silvery hair fell over half his face, allowing her to only see one of his beautiful golden eyes. From the small stream of blood running down his face, she could assume that his other eye was somehow damaged. In fact, his whole body didn't look good. His right arm hung lifelessly beside him, covered in his blood. His left shoulder was bleeding, as well as his elbow. But what frightened her most were the wounds on his belly and his chest. There was a significant hole in his stomach, where his hand was feebly trying to stop the blood flow. His golden eye looked at her, his terror evident but accompanied by a pleading need as well as small amount of anger.

Then she focused on the twitching dog ears on top of his head. She stared at them in surprise. That was certainly odd. But then again, so was finding a winged man on her beach. One of his ears was bleeding, she noticed, and she wondered idly if there was anything that wasn't broken. His brown linen, which at one point might have been white, swirled around him in the pool, so she couldn't see his legs and the damage they had endured.

"What are you…?" she said more to her self then to him. He stared up at her, unsure how to respond and Kagome became faintly aware that perhaps he could not speak.

She pointed to him, "Hurt?" He stared at her for a long moment before giving the barest of nods. Kagome smiled slightly; at least he could understand her. "I can heal you," she said quietly and he gazed up at her, his golden gaze never wavering. "Heal?" she said slowly to him. He continued to stare. She pointed to him, "Hurt." Then she pointed to herself, "Heal."

Slowly he raised his hand, covered with red, and pointed at her. She could tell this caused him great pain because the hand flopped back down at his side. "…heal…" His voice was beautiful, she remarked quietly as she stared at him. True, it was slightly raspy, but despite that, he was a beautiful being with a heavenly voice.

===

"We're almost there," Kagome said reassuringly as she limped her way up the beach, the winged man draped over her shoulder as he struggled to walk. His left leg was bloody and his ankle looked swollen, but his right leg was well enough to walk on. Kagome smiled her support as they approached her home. "I'll be able to help you once we get there, don't worry," Kagome said kindly and the man nodded faintly.

His eyes closed for a long moment and his step faltered. Behind her, Kagome felt his wings beating.

"You're injured," she said softly and he reopened his eyes slowly, looking crestfallen. "You'll have to be healed before you can fly again," she looked over at him and saw he was watching some birds. She felt sympathy for this man, this man with wings. Had he come from heaven? The preacher in her village, who for some time had been trying to convert her village to Christianity , often spoke of heaven, but she had never thought it existed. Surely he had come from there, but what if he hadn't? It was confusing, how could something come from somewhere she didn't even believe in?

Kagome almost cried out happily when they approached her home. "We're here," she said unnecessarily. The man turned his face to look at her and she saw the world of gratitude in his eyes.