....I'd like to say this will be one of my shorter ones, but I'm not quite sure it will be...-_-' I started this story a while ago, and I was going

to put it off until I finished another story...but I have five chapters done already, so I figured that was enough of a head start so it

wouldn't be a pain. That and...well, I really like this story, is all....

Colette: Goody! Does that mean I can be your muse again?

Me: What makes you think everytime I have a new story you get to be my muse?!

Colette: Because everytime you end the one I'm in, you always put up another one...

Me:...Fine, you can stay.

Colette: SKLEE! :D Freakyanimegal owns nothing.

Me: But you may NOT, however, use my word. Bad Colette, no cookie.

Colette: Cookie?

Me: Okay, I know Raine and Genis don't come until Lloyd's twelve, but I'm tweaky-tweaking it a bit. I hope that's all right, it shouldn't

affect it that much.

Lloyd Irving was never what you would call normal.

Sure, he looked like a normal ten year old human boy(aside from the dwarven clothes), he acted like a normal child, he laughed like a normal

child, played and grew like a normal child. Everything physically and behaviorly about him was that of a normal human boy.

....Except for one little thing, one little thing that eventually became a lot more...

"Lloyd! Are you paying attention!?"

The boy flinched and instantly directed his gaze to his teacher, a silver-haired teenager of about fifteen years who looked quite odd as the

'authority' in the classroom. True, the priestess Phaidra and her son Frank often took turns overseeing to help the young woman keep order

and watch her themselves, but as the 'teacher' Raine Sage alone was up to the job.

"Y- Yes, Professor!" he stammered.

"Okay then..." her eyes narrowed, "Lloyd, what's nine times two?"

There was a long, long silence.

"...Um...five?"

Raine crushed the chalk she held in one hand, her left eye twitching somewhat.

"I- I mean-!"

"Eighteen!" a five year old chimed from the desk closest to his sister.

"Great job, Genis!" she smiled. "See, Lloyd? It's pretty sad you're getting upstaged by a five year old..."

"It's not fair! Genis is smart!" Lloyd whined.

The toddler smirked smugly, crossing his arms over his little chest. He was smart, the problem was that he knew it.

"I'm sure you can do it too, if you just try your best!" the blond girl, Colette, smiled.

Lloyd sighed as Raine began to teach again, allowing Lloyd to go back to his 'one little thing'.

"..."

He looked out the window, out towards the sky. The big, blue, glorious amount of...nothing, nothing that meant something so dear to him. He

didn't know why, but every time he saw even a glimpse of the sky he found himself looking out toward it, losing himself in the expanse of the

heavens that just seemed to demand his attention. Something in him always wanted to...wanted to reach it, somehow, wanted to jump up into

it and immerse himself in it, to feather his fingers through the clouds. Feather. Feathers....feathers were...nice. A brief flap of movement caught

his attention and he glanced down at the window sill where a small bird had landed and was stretching its wings. The boy felt his mouth fall

agape somewhat as it preened its feathers, each delicate, soft little thing on a glorious appendage that was wing. Wings. Wings always made

him hear his heart. He'd just look at a bird's flapping and imagine the soft 'thump thump thump' of the muscles pumping the feathers over the

air, the thumping sound that matched that of his heart, that almost seemed to make his heart beat to their rhythm.

He began to feel an itch on his back, in between his shoulder blades. Well, it wasn't an itch so much as it was a...prickling. Like a bunch of dull

needles were being poked into his skin just enough to irritate it, but not enough to hurt. Subconsciously he brought his hand down the back of

his shirt and kneaded the spot between his shoulders with his fingers. He never scratched it, that just made it feel funny. After all, this

happened every time he looked at the sky, even moreso whenever he saw a bird, or more specifically, wings.... He grimaced and began to rub

his hand softly against the skin where it had prickled, it was starting to feel tender for some reason. With a brief huff he began to roll his

shoulders back, as if trying to work the feeling out for the spot it between the shoulder blades. It was an awkward motion as he tried to move

his shoulders and rub the spot at the same time, a look of discomfort on his face all too evident. It felt like...like something was pressing

against his back, like a pillow was being pushed against it that he couldn't quite get rid of, making him squirm, like something in him wanted to

force it back...

"Lloyd?"

"H- Huh?" he blinked, looking to the side.

The blond girl, the Chosen, stood beside his desk and looked at him softly.

"Are you okay? The Professor said we could have recess now," she said.

Instantly forgetting the awkwardness he had just experienced, Lloyd grinned and ran out with the girl and the little silver haired boy into the

schoolyard, thanking the goddess for letting him break free from the prison that was school. Once outside he instantly felt relief by the scent of

fresh air, the sun warming his face and the wondrous feeling of an open sky above him-

The sky...

"Lloyd? Are you all right?" the younger boy asked.

"H- Huh? Y- Yeah," he nodded, smiling, "sorry. Let's go play!"

They had not taken two steps when Lloyd stopped suddenly, his eyes going blank as he began to sway on his feet. His two companions

stopped when they noticed, getting a bit scared now.

"Lloyd?"

"...Huh? What? I'm fine, sorry," he shook his head, "I just felt a little tired for a minute."

He felt perfectly fine now. Strange...for a minute he had just-

"Ugh-!" he yelped, jolting his head up as he closed his eyes.

"Lloyd-?!" Genis cried.

Warmth, an insufferable, smothering warmth pressed against his face like a hot blanket, stifling him. The warmth seemed to trickle down from

his head to the tips of his fingers, filling his body with the strange sensation. He opened his eyes and his heart almost stopped beating.

He couldn't see.

He gasped and rubbed his eyes violently, staring in front of him, then blinking and wiping them again. He couldn't see, why couldn't he see?!

His eyes were open, he could feel it, but all he saw was a blur best described as an orange mosiac of some kind.

He heard voices of panic and shouts for the Professor and Phaidra, but he disregarded them. He couldn't see! In his panic his thoughts

scattered, leaving him only repeating the new fact he couldn't see. A deep fear settled into him, like the roots of some vile plant curling into his

body and taking hold of his heart. Fear and panic dominated his existence for a minute before suddenly it simply stopped. Just...stopped. His

eyes were fine. He could see again! ...See better, as a matter of fact. His vision seemed...clearer, cleaner, more defined. He stood there gaping

like and idiot at nothing in particular, stunned at what just happened...though he wasn't quite sure what HAD just happened. He could see...

Slowly he brought his hand up and placed it on his forehead, shaking his head. What had that all been about-?

"Gah-!"

Then in a wave of heat, the warm, smothering sensation took hold of him again. He fell onto his knees and eventually laid on the ground on his

stomach, clinging to the grass tightly for dear life. He couldn't stand, he just had no ability to refuse gravity, he simply let himself drop onto the

ground. The voices around him were getting louder now, but he paid attention only to his own mind. His thoughts were racing now in panic,

what was going on? Why was he feeling like this? Was he sick? What was happening to him? He laid there on the ground and began panting,

his head beginning to pound as a ringing filled his ears. He felt like he had lost all control of his body, that his nerves had all been cut and he

was doomed to lay there like a dropped ragdoll. He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, he felt completely and totally helpless, at the mercy of

the world and everything in it. After what felt like hours of an unrelenting hell he found himself able to move and lifted himself onto his hands

and knees....

"Lloyd, you shouldn't move! Lay down on your back, I'll do something about your fever-" Raine shouted.

"Pr-" he started weakly.

Once again all feeling left him. No pain, no warmth, no anything...it felt like he himself WAS nothing for a moment...then suddenly the entire

world came back into focus. All the sounds seemed too loud, all the colors seemed too bright, the air itself felt strange and then from his back

came pure PAIN.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHH!!" he shouted in agony, clutching his back by his shoulder.

It felt like he was being cut open. Like knives were poking out from inside his body, jutting out into the air and then slowly, much too slowly,

tearing his skin down in one long strip down the left side of his body. He smelled something, something he later identified as blood. His blood.

What's happening to me?! What's happening to me?! He shouted in his head.

He dimly became aware of something sticking out of the stripped area, something he could FEEL but couldn't quite place the sensation of.

Like...like an arm, just on your back...IN your back... The pain having dulled momentarily, he tried to turn his head to look before the process

started again, this time on his right side. He began to scream at the top of his lungs again, wet hot tears streaming down his cheeks and saliva

sputtering from his lips in a strange half-scream half-choking motion. The pain continued before he hit his limit. Unable to take anymore the boy

fell face forward onto the ground, unconscious and breathing heavily, his body twitching. The small blood-splattered silver wings gave a

tentative flap along with the motion of the rest of his body.

"Oh dear goddess..." Raine whispered in awe.

...Wing obsession? What wing obsession? I have no wing ob-

Colette: Dwarven vow number elven, lying is the first step on the path of thievery! n.n

Me:...You're mean. n.n Anyway, I had a load of fun with this chapter. :D I hope you enjoyed it. n.n