1 Hurricane

Talons crunched on the soaked gravel of the sea cliff as the hurricane carried on, it's route irreparably changed. The wind howled with fury, and rain still fell in heavy drops, joining the ocean roiling at the bottom of the cliff. Tempest was equally as furious. She had nurtured the storm from infancy to strike this beach, and carve a path of destruction inwards. And now, when she should be dancing among the clouds with her siblings, they were each howling their anger into empty wind. "The wind smells a betrayer," she grumbled, her words spoken for someone else.

The serpent coiled around her shoulders tightened its grip. Tempest felt a spike of irritation as her muscles tensed, but said nothing. She turned to her left, leaning against her javelin, not a foot away from the cliff edge as the wind whipped around them. The serpent's eyes finally fell upon the figure a hundred feet away, and he let out a hiss of rage. "She is your kind," he snapped, his scales bubbling and contorting as he fought transformation.

"My sister," Tempest corrected hotly. Her sister, kneeling in the wet gravel, soaked to the bone, her wings drooping in the rocks. Distasteful. By turning away this storm, she had gone against their deity, their kind, and their family. And for that…

"Will you kill her?" The serpent was built only for violence, for bloodshed and the ruthlessness of the sea. Tempest knew her friend couldn't quite understand. She knew his eyesight was poor, and he couldn't see the humans creeping from the city. She knew his mastery was of water, so he couldn't feel the guns they carried, or the bullets they shot as they cut through the air.

"She will get what she deserves." Tempest stated, hearing the dull thud of a dart sinking into her sister's flesh, then another. Tempest spread her wings and took flight before the humans could turn on her too. She soared over the waves, her talons skimming the water's angry surface. The serpent dropped into the ocean, a dark shape growing under the sea. Tempest flew higher, looking back towards her sibling just once.

The betrayer fell face first into the gravel, and did not get up.

~~~

"No, no, no!" Summer's voice was a ghost now, her yelling unheard. Her siblings had forsaken her. "Don't you understand?" Her kneeling body shook as her family walked past her, one by one, each looking at her with disgust. "There were families, just like us!" They didn't say a word to her. Summer clawed at the gravel below her, tears streaming down her face. "Please, please, please." On and on it went, until all of her siblings were gone, and no matter how much she begged and pleaded, they did not come back.

Summer woke with a shock, not even realizing her eyes had been shut. She sat up and whipped her head around, using her eyes where her other senses should have filled in. She was alone in a metal room. A tear dropped from her face onto her hands, and her gaze followed it. Her claws were pristine, and below them, the floor was concrete, not gravel. She lifted her hand, then a wing. It all felt so... heavy. She lowered them immediately, resting them back on the floor. This was her punishment. For saving the innocent, she had been damned, her powers ripped from her like the wind takes leaves in fall.

She lay her head back on the concrete. Hunger gnawed a hole in her belly, but it was a welcome pain. Her siblings would bring her reckoning soon enough. Time passed, alone in her thoughts. She didn't even move when someone opened the door, a creak splitting through the silence. She stared at the far wall as cautious footsteps moved towards her.

When the boot touched her wing though, she sat right up, pulling her wings away, offended. The human screeched and dropped the metal platter he was carrying, crudely cooked meat and vegetables scattering on the floor. Summer covered her ears, even more annoyed now. By the time she had opened her mouth, the door had already swung shut. Hope died on her lips.

She was being punished by the very kind she had saved. Her hands dropped back to her sides as the silence returned once more. She stabbed a chunk of meat that had landed near her thigh with a claw, and warily brought it up towards her face. Personally, she preferred fresh meat, but the burnt food still made her mouth water. Before she knew what she was doing, she had eaten the piece, and any others that were in her reach. Some were cut into cubes, others still small steaks. Her strength grew as she tasted pork, beef, and chicken.

She gathered up the rest of the meat in a small pile on the platter, then pushed around the strange plants with a claw. Were they supposed to be edible? She picked one up and took a bite of it before she could lose her will, and immediately spit it back onto the floor. Definitely not edible. She continued to spit to try and get the taste out of her mouth, laughter echoing in her head. That was a dumb idea, her older brother Gale would say. She could hear his smile even though he was on the other side of the world. Little Whirlwind would jump in the conversation, chanting, Let me try some, let me try! Her youngest sister had a habit of flying into trouble headfirst. Her siblings would crack into laughter as Whirlwind tried to convince them that the strange plants were delicious. Summer would probably laugh too. If she could hear them.

Since she could remember, she had her family always in reach. Children of the wind, her kind would never stay in one place too long. With their gifts, they could talk to each other, no matter how far they were, so Summer always had her brothers and sisters close. Sometimes they would meet among the clouds and race to the ends of the earth. She stretched her wings with the fond memory, and her feathers touched the metal wall.

The meat grew heavy in her stomach. She looked down at the dull metal platter, staring at her blurry reflection. Tear tracks cut through the dirt marring her tanned face, and her jet black hair tangled in a matted mess. Curved obsidian horns peeked out from her hair, only barely visible. They were a sign of age and power of her kind; she was one of the younger children of her family. She reached up to touch the tip of the right horn, where a piece had chipped off. Her lips pressed together hard enough it hurt. She deserved the dishonor.

The claws that tipped her fingers were the same obsidian, and as long as her eyebrow. She squinted her eyes, then brought her claws in front of her face. There was a chip missing off her right little talon too, even though she had just sharpened them the day before. A sudden thought stole across her mind. What day is it? She looked up at the light, her flight eye sliding shut. The membrane was clear but thick, and protected her eyes from the wind and light during flight. It darkened, shielding her eyes from the brightness as she looked up at the artificial sun. Human handiwork, for sure. It told her absolutely nothing about the real sun, or how long she had been asleep.

Sleep was not something her kind did. Her wings still felt leaden from whatever it was. Flight was not an option, not that she could in this tiny room. Summer gathered her feet under her, pressing a hand against the metal wall to support her quivering legs. She reached up, stretching with her opposite hand and wing. Her touch grazed the ceiling. She took a deep breath, shaking out her silver feathers. Her breathing faltered when she caught the faint scent of copper. She stepped away from the wall, scouring her body up and down. Her lower feathers on one side were coated in something a dull reddish-brown. Blood. She scraped some of it off with her talons, a harsh scraping sound filling the air. Summer placed the flakes onto her tongue. Human blood.

Her feathers were the color of metal, and as sharp as knives. Her wings were strong enough to snap stubborn tree branches out of her flight path. And it looks like some careless human got themselves pretty good while I was out of it, she thought, not sure whether to be annoyed or smug.

Though her senses were slowly returning to her, she found herself settled back down, examining the talons on her feet to see if they had mysteriously chipped while she was dreaming. She hissed in annoyance as she found not one but two of their tips broken away. The talons on the back of her heels even looked like it had been filed down. She grumbled as she flexed her feet, bending them to make sure she would still be able to grip her hunts with her talons in flight. This was no accident, someone had dishonored her this way.

And she had a feeling she knew exactly who.