On Black Wings I Rise, On Black Wings I Fall

Published 6/27/2012 by Ryan Christopher Adams

Darkness. Nothing more, nothing less. Just an endless expanse of a void that I knew; wait! What the heck am I saying? I’m asleep! Trying to come back into consciousness, my head was pounding like my father when he continually smacks my door just to annoy me. He always had a strange knack for annoying me to no end. Anyway, my eyes slowly opened to where they were like a cracked door; not all the way opened, and not all the way closed.

“Oooh… what was in that Coke?” I groggily muttered, bringing on of my hands up to my head and rubbing my temples. If this is what a hangover feels like, I am NEVER drinking alcohol.

Sweet sunlight began to enter through the cracks in my eyes. It radiance began to bathe my body in its everlasting warmth, and without the blinding relapse that it typically gives you after coming out of a movie. I can’t even remember a time when sunlight felt this… welcoming. It was usually the painstakingly irritating heat that everyone escaped in the summer, but here it felt… nice, for lack of a better word.

Opening my eyes to their fullest extent, I found myself… in a tree… hanging upside down… by my ankles. How the heck did this happen?! Looking up to my ankles, I noticed that my bag had gotten twisted around my leg, snagging itself on a branch which kept me suspended up here. I also noticed that my pants were gone, and that my legs were considerably hairier. Like, Sasquatch hairy. Okay, maybe not that hairy, but you know what I mean.

‘Oh well. I never really liked wearing pants anyway.’ I thought to myself with a snicker. Man, is it going to be fun from here.

Or, at least that what I thought it would be.

Taking control of my arms again, I swung the upper half of my body up to where it could reach my bag, taking note that my hands had transformed into… paws? Well, I guess that means I’m a Diamond Dog.

‘But what happened to my claws?’ I wondered while unclipping the hold that kept the shoulder strap of my bag together. And, cue gravity.

A millisecond after the *click* of my bag came undone, I began to plummet from the branch I was dangling from, body, bag and all. Going full instinct, I flipped myself around and tried to grab whatever hanging branch would support me. I ended up with pine needles in my face, and they do NOT feel nice! The ground was coming up fast, and I was not about to spend the first day of wherever the heck I am now as a pancake. Reach one last time, my hand caught onto a free hanging branch about twenty feet from the ground. Though, something else had caught onto the branch as well.

Looking up from my new suspended position, I noticed that protruding from my digits were four, curved, transparent and very sharp claws. Well, I guess that solves the question about my species; I’m a cat. Wait a minute… that teenager ripped my off! That teenag-

My mouth fell open with disbelief as the memories began to pile back into my head once more. The shots ringing out in the hallways; my mad sprint for the exit as the timer on my life was about to hit zero; my chest burning like it had been scorched from the inside as I fell into my new body. I… was dead. My family… my friends… I would never see them again. I was probably a bleeding corpse in the middle of that firefight that used to be a mall now, spread among tens of others. Life had been a cruel mistress to me that day; it was completely unfair. I didn’t want to forget everyone else, but right now, I needed to stay alive. Tossing aside the hurtful memories, I latched my claws onto the bark of the tree, sliding down its side and jumping onto the floor of the forest I found myself in.

Standing on my legs felt very… weird. It felt incredibly off balanced considering how oddly shaped they were, making bending over to pick up my bag hard as crap. I almost fell on my face in that attempt. Strapping my sling around my back, I began to make my way through the forest, using trees to support myself as I began to adjust to my new legs. Pale strips of sunlight were breaching the pine trees overhead, letting in at least some light into this forest. Like it would’ve mattered. I’m half-freaking cat now; night vision!

A light gale wavered the branches of the trees and swirled its way around my fur, having my… clothing?! Wait a second! Turning my eyes down to my arms, I finally noticed that I was still wearing my favorite grey jacket, albeit with the sleeves ripped off from my now-muscular arms.
However, under the ashen fabrics was also my favorite speckle-pattern, ocean blue shirt.

With a bullet hole right over my heart.

I clutched the torn fabric, fresh tears falling from my hazel eyes and dampening the dirt below me. Life was cruel, and this was a whole new level for the world. I certainly had gotten my wish, and the contract had made certain of it. There was no one to blame for me getting killed but me; I had agreed to what the paper had entailed, and look where it got me: in the middle of fucking nowhere without an inkling on where to go. But I couldn’t let what I had left behind keeping me from moving forward.

Re-hardening my resolve, I pressed on, walking towards a clearing in the trees that was obscured by the bright radiance of the sun. No other animals had made their presence known to me. They were probably too scared to come out; I mean, I was seven feet tall with two inch claws. What’cha gonna do? Pushing the final branches out of the way, the sunlight gave way to what I believe was to be the most beautiful sight that my eyes had ever laid eyes on.

A beautiful canyon, gleaming with the color of freshly polished wood, roughly three-thousand feet deep. But who am I kidding? I’m terrible at that kind of stuff. The skies above me were laden with a multitude of scattered clouds, the plains stretching off unto forever without any other vegetation in sight. It was what most would classify as a wasteland, but to me, it was art. The wind was much stronger here, and finally, I could feel something poking out of my back. My head snapped around to find my wish. Granted.

Wings. I have wings. Eat your hearts out, Blue Angels.

I began to ponder just what I should do next. Should I practice trying to fly? Should I…

Before I could even finish that sentence, I was sprinting towards the edge of the nearest cliff I could find with my wings tucked in as tightly as possible. Screw the smart thing! I’ve wanted to fly for too freaking long, and I was not about to wait another second! Tightening the strap around my bag, I began to full on sprint towards the edge of the crag. My paws clapped against the stone with each step I took, the edge of the crag getting closer, and closer, and…

Weightlessness. I went full-on dive-bomb on the canyon, watching as stone after stone flew past me, a river running through the center of the cavern growing just as close as the ground. Contrails began to form at the tips of my folded wings and trailed behind, though my new limbs begged to be outstretched so my flight could begin. Terminal velocity approached as the winds grew even more powerful, nearly ripping my hoodie off of my body. Three hundred feet, two hundred, one-hundred.

My wings sprung open like a bear trap as I rapidly ascended out of the canyon and into the skies.

“WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. Now I know what Jim Hawkins felt like on his solar surfer. No wonder he did this! IT FELT AWESOME!

The wind enveloping every inch of your body. The endless expanse of sky as your own world. The freedom to go wherever you please. I began to go into things a little more elaborate. About fifty feet above the canyon, I went into a loop, cork-screwing before diving just inside the canyon once more. Descending down to the river, I began to catch glimpses of my new physical form. My hair, or fur in this case, was auburn in its shade, black streaks running down my eyes and curving outward at my lips, creating something of a scimitar pattern. My arms were at least a full three inches thicker with my new stature, although my legs stayed the same. My ears were topped with two tips of black, much like a mountain lion. My wings, outstretched, were, at best guess, a full fifteen feet at full expanse, stained an onyx black with my feathers that contrasted against my brown body.

‘Better start calling me the angel of death. I’ll slice your neck open with one swing of my-‘

And out of nowhere, and arrow whizzed past me, just barely missing my back and snapping against the Cliffside from the impact. Holy crap! I could’ve been shot again! My ranting thoughts, as entertaining as they may be, were instantly cut short by another arrow whizzing just under my head. Without another second to waste, I began to flap my jet black wings to accelerate, watching as the canyon walls began to fly past me in a haze of white light and stone. As my speed began to increase, so did the arrows. Out of the frying pan and onto the sidewalk.

Where it’s raining steel-tipped death.

The arrows were starting to become more accurate; already three had nearly pierced my stomach, and they were still increasing in their rate of fire. Well, when surrounded by projectiles with no way out, there’s only one thing to do.

“I guess it’s time to DO A BARREL ROLL!” I said in the words of the famous and hilarious hare.

Closing my wings to avoid any more damage, I began to spin like a Beyblade on steroids, snapping every arrow that dared try to pierce my being. It’s like my body had become solid steel. Heh; say hello to the new Juggernaut, bitches!

Instinctively, I rose back into the skies, dodging more oncoming arrows while I began to maneuver my best around them.

*RIIIP!*

And that was the sound of an arrow piercing my bag. Just great. Knowing that I was better off in the canyon, I began to dive back into the cavern. However, one lucky shot ended that endeavor as my jet black wings became stained with blood. If I kept falling at my angle of descent, I’d end up as the guy in 127 Hours, just not alive! Using my uninjured wing, I used whatever strength I had left to pull myself the right of the cliff, just outside the forest. I hit the stone with a dusty crash, skidding and tumbling across it before coming to a stop at the feet of one of the archers.

Looking up at him with tired eyes, I noticed that he too was pant-less. Well, I guess I won’t have to worry about modesty. He was wearing some kind of half-toga, tied by a sash and clipped with a pure ruby clasp. Over his head was a black hood obscuring his face in shadow. Looking down at me with what I knew was a sneer of disgust, he lifted his bow, and sent it across my face with a *snap!*. My entire world was black once more.

The archer’s colleagues soon regrouped with their leader, each with the same look of disgust and scorn across their face.

“You” he said, pointing to another with a pristine, pale hood. “Take him back to the village. Make sure that wound stays closed. We have orders to capture him; not to kill him.”

The feline nodded to his leader, picking up the unconscious body before flying off into the distance, taking their prisoner to his punishment.

Alright, that’s it for this chapter. I know it’s still going slow, but it’s going to pick up. Just give it time. Also, I’d like to know how I’m doing, since I’ve been out of this writing dealy for a while. I just feel like I’m not performing to the best of my ability, and I’d like your opinion on these things. Well, until next chapter, hasta!