When fiction becomes reality
Flying. Soaring. Feeling the rush of wind in your face. It’s something I think of everyday. When I’m at school, tired of my overstressed life, I look to the clouds and think of jumping off the second story railing and flying away on the wings of an eagle. But of course, I don’t, because that’s impossible. In the eyes of most people at least.
I always like to ask my mom “Hey mom, if I came to you one day and told you I have unhuman abilities, what would you do? Would you turn me in, have me experimented on to find a cure?” And she would always smile and say “of course not, if these unique abilities were something you wanted to keep, I’d only try to protect you from those who would take them away by force.” It always made me glad to know that possibly one day ,my mom would accept me if I ever became something unhuman.
But it turns out, that day would come sooner than expected. This is the story of how my life changed forever. It all started the day I rescued a family of condors.
But before we get to that, let’s quickly review my anti-social closed off life. I’m tormented at school because of the fact that I remain so closed off from others, my dad past away four years ago from a car crash, it wasn’t his fault the police told us, but they never got the guy that caused it. My mom does the best she can and she’s a great mom but I still catch her getting that hollow look in her eyes, the look she had on her face the day we got the news about my dad. I spend most of my days in the forest near our house, climbing trees, sleeping, practicing archery and just thinking about my life and what it was like before my dad left this world.
Back to the “life changing day”. It was an early release day from school, so after I dropped my school work off at home, I ran to the forest to practice some archery.  A couple of weeks ago I had started practicing how to shoot targets from up in a tree. I had been practicing for about twenty minutes that afternoon and had managed to hit six out of eight bottles when I heard what sounded like muffled gun shots. Pausing to listen more intently, I also heard laughing. I quickly and silently slide down the tree and crept in the direction of the noise. About thirty yards in front of me I could make out three figures. When I was twenty five yards away I realized I recognized that cold laughter.  Marcus Palic, Drew wahill, and Damien Andrews. The center of all my torment at school. Marcus was the ringleader, Drew the faithful sidekick, and Damien one of their many lapdogs always following them around trying to be tough and cool. When I realized why Marcus was aiming a bebe gun up in a tree, and why they were laughing so manically, I almost lost it right there.
About twenty feet up the tree, in a crumbling nest were three condor chicks and an adult condor desperately shielding the babies from an onslaught of bebe pellets. The condor is the largest species of bird in North America. Their also protected by federal law. Those three skunk bags were in direct violation of a federal law and they knew it. I had to do something, but if they found out it was me, an avalanche of torment would come down on me at school. Thinking fast, I smothered a bit of mud on my face, and then pulled my jacket hood up to conceal my facial features as best as possible. I knew it was wrong to physically hurt them, so I took aim a couple inches in front of Marcus’s face so it would hit the tree next to him. He was in midlaugh when the arrow struck the tree close enough to rub his nose. Shocked and very surprised they all stopped laughing and began looking around for the source of the arrow. At that moment, I stood up straight, notched an arrow, and yelled in a deep voice “Drop the gun and move away from the tree! All of you!” I slowly began walking towards them making sure my hood covered my face enough. For a second, they just stood there, shocked. Then when I bellowed in a deep voice “DO AS I TELL YOU!” and pointed my arrow at them, Marcus dropped the gun, and began backing up. Drew and Damien followed his lead.  Thinking as fast as I could I remembered an old movie I watched when I was ten and said in a low, menacing, voice “I am Saragi guardian of the forest” and wouldn’t you believe it? Clouds concealed the sunlight at that moment and thunder rumbled overhead. All three boys turned white in the face. “You will leave this place and never return or you shall receive the wrath of GUARDIAN SARAGI!” thunder boomed and lightening flashed across the sky. The boys turn tailed it and ran screaming across the forest.
When I was sure I could no longer hear their screams of fear, I turned to check on the condor nest.  I forgot Marcus’s gun was right behind me before I knew it , I tripped backwards over it and fell. I remember hearing the sickening sound of my head connecting with something hard. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the stormy sky overhead and three large black shapes slowly descending from the sky. Was it just my imagination, or did those shapes have auras of gold?
I never did find out what events took place in those two hours I was unconscious, but the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the highest branch of my favorite oak tree. The first thing I felt was searing pain on my back, like I had been whipped a dozen times in the same two spots. When I reached back to feel the spots, the first thing I felt was something warm and wet, the second thing was soft yet stiff. Pulling my hand back I found it was covered in blood as well as what looked like grey bird down. I managed not to puke at the site of all the blood, but as I went to readjust my position on the branch, something big and heavy seem to move on my back. I froze, wondering what the heck was on my back. Slowly craning my neck to find out I saw black and silver feathers like condor wings. But I couldn’t see the condor’s head or talons. Then, a long awaited thought in the back of my mind suddenly surfaced. No way, I thought, no way could it possibly be true! The blood, feathers, something heavy shifting on my back when I moved? Concentrating as hard as I could on the muscles in my back, the things suddenly seemed to grow, or more like expand, first two feet on each side of my body, then six, finally, almost eight feet on each side! Oh my god, this can’t be happening! But it had happened. Almost sixteen feet in length, on my back, was a pair of black and silver condor… Wings!
At that moment, I almost jumped right out of the tree. Wait! A voice in my head warned, what if this is a trick? Something to make me look like a deranged idiot jumping out of a forty foot tree and kill myself? Slowly concentrating once again, I managed to pull the wings onto my back so they looked like a feathery, bulky, black backpack. Then I descended the tree. I can’t believe this, the one thing I had always wished to come true had, but how? And why? I finally reached the base of the tree. Once again, I opened the wings gazing at them in awe. Huge and black with silver primaries, they definitely seemed big enough to get me up in the air. Just the thought of flying made me squeal and jump with joy. The moment my feet left the ground, the wings gave a great big powerful flap and I was five feet off the ground! Caught off guard, I yelped, this time my wings stopped flapping, I fell. I managed to bend my knees before landing on my feet. Standing up, I wondered how I was supposed to work them. Maybe, I thought, I should just think about flapping them. Looking at my wings, I imagined them giving a tiny little flap. They responded and flapped just enough to fan my face. Now the real test, I envisioned them flapping but this time, they keep flapping. They responded, closing my eyes they kept going, It felt good, the powerful muscles moving up in down. I suddenly felt something scrape my face, opening my eyes I saw a tree branch in my face that was when I realized I was twenty feet off the ground! I lost my train of thought and began falling, screaming, I imagined soaring upwards among the trees. It worked; I stopped falling and began moving up I again, I managed to weave between trees. It was exhilarating! Breathing in the fresh air at the tops of the trees, being above everything else, I shot between a gap in the canopy of oaks and I was suddenly above even the trees! I kept climbing higher and higher in the sky until I was in the clouds. The air became thin but not yet unbreathable. I remembered something I told myself I would try if I ever got the chance.  I rolled over in the air, stopped flying, and began to free fall. Scary yet amazing! I was falling so fast my eyes starting tearing up. Rolled over, so I was facing the ground three hundred feet below, and opened my wings back up. The sudden stop of falling knocked the air out of me but I was gliding on the warm air drafts. Unbelievable! I was actually flying on the wings of bird! What would happen if somebody else found out about this? Could I tell my mom about my wings? Who could I trust with such a life altering secret? All those questions could be answered later, for now, I am queen of the sky, and I plan on discovering all the abilities of my wings.