Ten

  Ask And Ye Shall Receive … A Headache

  The boys’ faces were filled with awe as they let out breathless laughs of wonder.

  I lifted my lightly shimmering hands, and their bodies floated a few inches higher into the air, giggling as this elicited more exclamations of excitement. After a moment, I lowered my arms and the trio gently descended back to the carpet. One of them then reached over and grabbed his folding tablet, tapping in something before turning the screen to me. I watched an animated figure hold out their arms and a transparent, blue sheet appeared in front of them, protecting them from the debris of an overdramatic explosion.

  A shield! Ooh, yeah, I can try that! I grinned. Ok, ok, calm down. Focus. Shield.

  Closing my eyes and concentrating, I felt inside the warm well of energy pulsing in my chest and drew out a surge. I looked up and raised my arms, moving my hands in an arc. A glassy, golden film appeared in the air and solidified into a slightly convex square panel hovering in front of me. Another teen dragged over a pillow and swung it at my new barrier. The plush cushion made impact and with a bright ripple, bounced away, emitting a low, vibrating *FWPONNGGGG!*. The boy flopped back, all three laughing.

  Ever since yesterday’s initial spark, my powers had continued to grow, as had my control over them. With the guys showing me clips of these odd images called “ah-nee-may”, I’d managed to figure out now two different ways I could direct the flows of energy pouring from my body. The girls, on the other hand, seemed more interested in figuring out what I was rather than what I could do. As I dispersed and reabsorbed my new shield, they came over and shooed the boys off to the side, laying out their research. I squinted at the lines of little shapes on the pages, but no matter how long I stared at them, they still didn’t make any sense. My girlfriends pointed instead at the pictures printed beside the text and made gestures to try and help me get an idea of what they were saying. There was one word they kept repeating, like they thought it might be what I was.

  …“ayn-jel”…

  I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. “Na, na, noct “ayn-jel”. Av’rahn’ey … AV’ – RAHN’ – EY.”

  The girls looked just as frustrated as I felt and pointed to the pictures in the books again. They were of light skinned women wearing flowing white robes with red or blue sashes. Most were depicted with long, blonde hair and sorrowful faces as they hovered over or around wingless people on their oddly disproportionate ivory wings. I did find it interesting that there was some sort of history of winged beings on this world where it seemed they no longer existed. Surely there were other winged races besides the Av’rahn’ey? Maybe these “ayn-jel”s and the wingless used to live together and then they left the planet for some reason? Who knew? I certainly didn’t, and I wasn’t about to get wrapped up in other people’s problems before I figured out my own.

  My friends and I sprawled out on the carpet, unsure what to do next. I scratched at the tiny feathers on the back of my neck, my fingers brushing over the little metal inlay sunk in my skin. At the same time, I absently watched one of the boys get up and walk over to the counter, picking up a small, handheld device and unplugging it from a thin cord. A cord whose opposite end very closely resembled the end of my old bio-pod tether.

  All the feathers along my spine stood on end.

  My pod! How had I completely forgotten?! I had to get it back so I could figure out where Agoka’ta’jai and momma Ma’hy were! But before that, could I use that cable to just … download whatever language the wingless spoke? Or any information about where I was? Knowing only a tiny bit more would be worlds better than the vague assumptions I’d been running with this whole time. I leapt up and unplugged the cord, intently studying each tip of the thin cable.

  This end is way too small, but this one looks like it would be a perfect fit. I mused.

  Pulling my still braided hair aside, I raised the end of the cord to the back of my neck. I heard the click of metal on metal and gently pressed, shivering as I could feel the connector slide into the slot imbedded in my skin. Then I looked around for something to plug the other end into.

  The folding tablet the boys had been showing me “ah-nee-may” on was still sitting where they’d left it. I went and snatched it up, examining its sides for any inlet that would fit the bill. This caught the others’ attention, and they came over to see what I was doing. They once again looked utterly befuddled at the fact that I now had one of their cords plugged in my neck, but somehow seemed to understand what I was trying to do. One of them made motions for me to wait before he ran off down the hallway. He returned a second later with an even smaller bit of cable. Taking the other end of the first cord from my fingers, he fit the shorter piece onto it, then clicked that end into the folding tablet.

  I inhaled sharply as I felt a cold rush of adrenalin shoot down my spine. The tablet’s screen lit up blue with rows of gibberish flashing and scrolling across the left side. Then a long, white bar appeared in the center with a thin, black line blinking expectantly in its middle. I assumed I was supposed to type something there, but I couldn’t make any words out of the characters on the keys. Pursing my lips, I tried focusing on the cord in my neck and the ambient flow of energy I could feel trickling just at the edges.

  Show me … everything.

  The screen flickered again. Images began flashing up and overlaying, faster and faster until they blended into one another, and I could see nothing else. A tidal wave of data crashed into my mind. I was paralyzed. I had a nanosecond to regret jumping straight into the deep end before I was totally overwhelmed. It felt like my head was a balloon floating away into the churning storm of information raging through my brain until …

  … everything …

  … went …

  … black …

  …

  But then …

  Then I felt warm.

  There was sunlight on my back. A light breeze ruffled my feathers, blowing my hair down by my face. I opened my eyes and blinked, at first seeing nothing but a blur of green and blue and white. With surprising ease, I moved my arms and pushed myself up, shaking my head to clear the fog. The green around me came into focus as grass. The blue and white became sky and clouds.

  Getting up, I found myself in a huge field, the ankle deep, soft emerald expanse extending to the edge of a forest several hundred yards away. Closer off to my right was a lone tree with long wavy branches drooping down to lazily drag through the placid water of a large pond. Beside the tree and in front of the pond was a stone bench. The whole scene was so entirely pure, clean, and untouched, so overwhelmingly beautiful it almost hurt my eyes too look around. As I breathed, my chest ached with the crispness of the air. Then I heard a sound behind me.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  The sound of wingbeats.

  I whipped around and froze in awe as a man with large bronze-and-turquoise-banded wings alighted in the grass. A woman landed beside him, her white wings marbled with peridot and rose. She wore a long dusky rose gown and he was dressed in tan linen pants and a simple white shirt, but for me, it was impossible not to recognize them.

  My hearts pounded.

  “D...daddy? …. Momma?” I whimpered.

  The man’s smile seemed brighter than the sun as he stretched out his arms to me. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I did both as I ran and flung myself into my father’s arms. He held me tight as I bawled against his chest, gentler hands and fingers stroking my hair as I was enveloped in my parents’ wings. I wasn’t even aware we were moving until they guided me to sit on the stone bench by the pond beside the tree.

  “It’s alright now, sweetheart. It’s ok. We’re here. We’ve got you,” Agoka’ta’jai murmured, wiping my cheeks with the corner of his shirt.

  “Daddy, I’m so confused! What’s going on?! What’s happening to me?!” I sobbed.

  Momma Ma’hy took my hand with a reassuring squeeze. “Genesis, calm down, baby. It’s ok. You’re just dreaming.”

  “This … this is all a dream?” I looked around and then looked at them. “You’re … just a dream?”

  “We’re part of it, yes,” Agoka’ta’jai nodded.

  “But … why does this all feel so real? I thought you were with me again,” my voice cracked a little as I stared at my mother’s hand wrapped around mine.

  “Oh, my precious girl … I will always be with you. No matter how far apart we are, your mother and I will never leave your side. Never forget that,” my father lifted my face, tracing my cheek with his thumb.

  I smiled and held his hand there. His blue eyes sparkled, and he chuckled as I moved to curl against his side. After what felt like a moment, momma Ma’hy playfully tugged at my hand.

  "C’mon, Geni, let’s go fly together! We did promise we would, didn’t we?” she grinned.

  She got up and I laughed as she started dancing and pulling on my arm, my dad helping and pushing me up. I held their hands and we ran together into the field. My parents then stopped before together picking me up and tossing me into the air as I spread my wings. I was boosted higher on a gust of wind, giggling in delight when I looked down to see them spiraling up after me. We wheeled and swooped and soared, turning the sky into our playground. I was filled with joy. I didn’t want it to end. My father swept his wings over me as he dove and I gave chase, skimming over the field as it rippled and glistened like silk under the wind we kicked up. Gliding over my dad’s back, I playfully tackled him into the grass where we rolled and sprawled there, giggling, dizzy, and out of breath. Momma Ma'hy soon joined us and we all lay on our backs with our wings spread, making shapes out of the clouds that went by. I wasn’t sure how long we lay there like that. The dream place had no concept of time. There was only the grass and the droopy tree. The sky, the pond, and us.

  Then, Agoka’ta’jai reached over and stroked my head. “Genesis, you have to go soon, you know.”

  “Go? Go where? Why? I just got you back! I … I don’t want to … I can’t just leave!” I protested, sitting up and looking back at him, my eyes again filling with tears that threatened to spill.

  He sat up too. “Sweetheart, this is only a dream. You can’t stay here.”

  “Will I ever see you again?” I quavered.

  Smiling, my father stood, and helped me to my feet. Suddenly, the pond, tree, bench, and forest were just gone. The world seemed to have shrunk to our immediate vicinity and nothing else. Everything beyond was empty white haze. My parents held me close and kissed my forehead.

  “One day, Genesis, we will all be together. You, me, your mother, and all of Ey’os,” Agoka’ta’jai said.

  “For now, don’t worry about what you’ve left behind,” momma Ma’hy smiled. “Keep on flying, and we’ll meet you at the horizon.”

  “Stay strong, and follow the voice of Ni’hila’aba.”

  The white haze started creeping in.

  My father and mother began drifting away.

  “Wait! Wait, dad! What do you mean?! The horizon? Who’s Ni’hila’aba? … dad! Daddy! Momma!”

  I screamed and cried but everything was quickly fading. My parents became distant, indistinct shapes. The warm whiteness turned blotchy grey…

  … then black …

  … then cold …

  …

  “Wake up! … Wake up! Please! Just … WAKE UP!!”

  The ear-piercing scream shattered the darkness, and I opened my eyes with a jolt.

  I sucked in air like my lungs had never had it before and coughed, a weird, burnt metallic taste lingering in my mouth. Sitting up, I clutched my head, my skull pounding as if I’d gone ten rounds with a sledgehammer and lost. I could feel my body shaking. I felt hot, cold, and numb at the same time and my face was soaked with tears. Reaching back, I found the charger cable still plugged in my neck and yanked it out, seeing its end was scorched black. Off to one side, the laptop I’d been attached to was in worse condition. Its screen was warped, keyboard misshapen and buckled at the seams.

  Charger cable.

  Laptop.

  I knew these words now.

  Looking up, it suddenly dawned on me that, that whole time I’d been able to understand what my friends were shouting.

  “Oh my God, she’s alive!”

  “What the hell just happened?!”

  “Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know, I can’t tell!”

  “Go toss your computer somewhere before it explodes!”

  Still panting for breath, I watched the teens scramble around, yelling at each other. The girls sat close, trying to calm me down, one cleaning my face while the other tightly held my trembling hands. One of the boys paced while the other two looked fidgety and jittery, wanting to help but not knowing how. But their stress was stressing me out. Shaking my head, I took a few deep breaths and gently pushed my friend’s hands away.

  “Okay, okay, stop, please. I’m okay,” I said.

  They all froze and stared at me, faces going slack in surprise. Their reactions were so sudden and in sync it was comical.

  “Ooooh, my gosh, you’re talking in English now,” the girl beside me stared.

  “Yeah, I, uh … I guess I am. That’s new, huh,” I blinked, trying to process.

  One of the boys leaned in excitedly. “That’s awesome! Now you can tell us what your name is! Who are you? Where’re you from?”

  The other girl smacked his arm. “Dude, shut up! Can’t you see she’s still in shock? Let her breathe for a sec.”

  She helped me to my feet and led me to a stool at the kitchen island, pouring me a glass of orange juice. I had slightly less of a headache now, but my mind was still reeling. Everything I looked at just sparked a new line of thought as I identified what things were and their function and history, the tangent bunny trails spiraling out of control. I knew so much and so little at the same time it was dizzying. I felt like I was losing my grip on reality. The only thing keeping me anchored were my friends and the emotions I could feel radiating from them. I took a deep breath, hands trembling as I lifted my glass and took a few sips.

  “Are you okay?” the girl beside me asked.

  “Yeah, I … think so. What … what’s your name?” I looked at her.

  “I’m Brynn. That’s my sister, Brooke, and the others are Conor, Matt, and Lucas,” she answered, pointing out who was who.

  “Brynn, Brooke, Conor, Matt, Lucas …… thank you, for saving me. I know you must be just as confused as I am. I’m sorry I’ve caused you so much trouble,” I winced. “And to answer your question from before I’m… my name is , uh … I guess the closest translation is … Genesis.”

  “Trouble? Are you kidding? This town is literally the most boring place on earth. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to us!” Conor grinned.

  “It’s like we get to be in our own real life sci-fi movie, rescuing a totally badass alien with epic otherworldly powers!” Lucas added, making sound effects and karate moves like he was fighting off invisible enemies.

  I managed a grateful smile, then glanced back down at my glass. “Hey, um … what happened after I tapped into your computer? How long was I out?”

  “After you plugged into the laptop, your eyes rolled back, and you went down. You were like that for almost twenty minutes,” Matt answered.

  “You started crying a lot and we couldn’t wake you up!” Brooke looked like she’d been crying herself. “Then you just … it looked like you stopped breathing, and we were panicking! Please don’t ever, ever do that again!”

  I managed a weak chuckle. “I won’t, I promise.”

  “When you were crying, it sounded like you were trying to say someone’s name. Do you remember?” Brynn asked.

  “Yeah, I remember,” I looked out a nearby window, up at the clear, blue sky. “I was having a really … really good … dream.”

  “So, what planet are you from?” Lucas asked, then laughed. “Holy shit, I can’t believe I asked that as a serious question!”

  I laughed too, tracing shapes in the beads of condensation on my glass. “I’m from a planet called Ey’os.”

  “How did you get to Earth?” Matt leaned in.

  “Did you have a spaceship?” Lucas then gasped. “Did the Men-In-Black steal your spaceship and you ran and that’s why you were in the alley where we found you?!”

  My wings flickered and relaxed a little more as I giggled. “Well, they did take something from me, but it isn’t a ship.”

  I pursed my lips with a frown.

  “Weird thing is though …”

  “… I don’t know exactly how I got to Earth …”