Chapter 5: The Start of Something

Along the way I found a familiar face.

"Dtiedro!" A voice called. I turned around to see stark white wings heading toward me. One of those wings smacked my forehead.

"Woah, watch out!" I cried out. After the suddenness of the attack, I realized it was Cuuswin. She was in the same clothes as the night before, but this time with a jacket to help cover her midriff. Her hair was messy like she just woke up, but she must've been awake for a while since she sent that cleaning person.

She responded with, "That's what you get for just disappearing on us last night." She then proceeded to give me a pouty face.

"I'm not gonna just spend the entire time in a girl's room," I shot back. "Besides, there was something I wanted to do back in my room."

Her expression brightened. "If that was the case you should've said something. Don't act like we were holding you hostage."

I couldn't help but to laugh. "I knew that, but I was having too much fun to leave until then."

Cuuswin turned her head to look away from me. She then asked, "Hey, I was wondering. Would you like to spend some time with me tonight?"

I was confused, "You mean like last night?" She then shook her head hard. That was when I noticed how red her face was turning.

"No, not like last night." Her voice came out barely louder than a whisper. "I was hoping it would be just the two of us." My mind froze.

'Just the two of us.' I didn't know what to think. After her teasing all night I couldn't tell if she was being serious, but I took the chance. Though that didn't stop me from stuttering.

"Uh, ye-yeah. I'd l-love to hang out with you." 'Real smooth.' All I could do is hope my awkwardness didn't push her away. But one look at her reaction was all I needed to know. Her face housed a smile so bright it made the sun look dull. Her eyes almost seemed to sparkle in excitement. The sight made my heart flutter. I've never had a feeling like this back in my village.

After a moment of looking at each other, Cuuswin finally spoke. "Okay, first things first, call me Cuu. I don't want you saying my full name as often anymore."

"I can do that.. Cuu. You can just call me Dtie if you'd like." I could feel my face getting red as well. Again, not just because of my scales. I haven't had anyone call me Dtie since my brother. Though he usually said it when he asked me to leave him alone.

"Dtie… if I'm not mistaken, that's a draconic word, right?" She asked.

"It is, I'm surprised you knew that," I respond.

"Oo what does it mean? And is there a meaning to the second part of your name, dro?" She continued to question me.

Not where I wanted the conversation to go, but here we are. "Hey, how about we go to my room so we can sit and discuss instead of standing in the middle of a hall?"

"Okay!" She exclaimed. It seems she is a bit eager. "But you have to promise to tell me, or no date."

Now it was my turn to tease her, "What's this about a date? You really care that much about me?"

Her face went beet red. "Yes you idiot, I asked you on a date. Now let's start walking before I change my mind."

And so we walked the length back to my room. After checking the map again, of course. All the while we chatted about different things. Her home life and parents were discussed.

'Man she really is spoiled. The experiences she shared practically had her dad raining money down on her for whatever she wanted. She is really nice, though, so at least she isn't pretentious.'

Finally we reached my room. I opened it and let her enter. I'm so glad she sent a cleaning person ahead of time or this place would've been a mess. I offered her the bed to sit on, but she said she'd prefer to stand and look around.

Cuu turned to me with an eyebrow raised. It seemed it was finally time for my draconic language teaching session.

"Okay, so first of all," I led off with, "dtie means wing in the common tongue. Dro means four."

Cuu listened and tilted her head a bit before asking, "Why are you named wing four if you only have two wings?" This is where I didn't want to get to.

Instead of responding, I turned around and took off the shirt I was wearing that kept Nichdtie's wings strapped down. They opened up and I heard a small gasp coming from behind me.

I heard Cuu's voice behind me, "They are beautiful. Why do you keep them hidden?"

I closed my eyes as I said, "Because they aren't mine."

"What do you mean they aren't yours? They are quite clearly attached to you."

"I was born a thief. These are my brother's wings," I answered. "These are the wings my brother wasn't born with."

Hands grabbed my shoulder and slowly guided me to look in her direction. Those same hands reached up to open my eyes. Forced me to look at the beautiful lady in front of me. She asked, "What do you mean?" And I told her.

'Back in my village, everything is peaceful. My parents grew up in the village and worked as herders to supply food. Eventually they made enough money that they thought about having a child. That child was my older brother, Nichdtie. Like my name, he has dtie for wing, but instead of four like me, he had nich. Or zero. That wasn't his original name, but it's the only name that matters now. He was born a newt, or a Dragonborn with no wings. That isn't rare. It's something that happens. Nichdtie, at the time was named Grest, never let his flightlessness get the better of him.

'My parents told me of how he always talked about finding his freedom on the ground than in the air. He practiced running. He ran, and ran, and ran, until he knew no terrain could limit him. He would run circles around the village several times a day and still be able to handle the herds and raise them.

'He was the pride of the village for being able to find his freedom and place to roam without his wings. He was even a model student. He often got to lead his classes in the study of the common tongue and the arithmetic they were learning. He was doing amazing with his life.

'That is, until I was born. I was born with four wings. Completely unheard of for my species. At first everyone thought it was a blessing to have been born with four. Our neighbors apparently thought I'd be just like my brother and find a higher freedom in the air than everyone else. But that changed when my scale colors came in.

'When a Dragonborn is born, they have black scales until they are three years old. Then the color of their scales come in. My father had red scales and my mother had blue scales. Everyone found it adorable that Nichdtie had purple scales. A true mix of our parents.

'For me, I was given red scales like my father. Except for the second pair of wings. They didn't change to red, they changed to purple. The same exact shade as my brother's.

'Since I was still so young, my parents had Nichdtie watch me as they tended the herds. And it was when my scales changed colors that he did too. He saw his purple wings on my back. He felt the missing space on his own. He couldn't accept that he was a newt anymore.

'As soon as I was old enough to understand our language, I understood that I was a thief. My parents never said it, I'm not even sure they realized it. But my brother knew it. He knew that I stole his wings.

'Whenever our parents were around he called me Dtie as a nickname so he wouldn't have to acknowledge that I had four wings. He called me Sureno when they left. He called me 'thieving scum'.

'So I knew I was a thief. I know it and I can't change it. Not then and certainly not anymore. Eventually Nichdtie gave up. He couldn't stand the sight of me wearing the wings he was supposed to have. The vigor and determination he had to run disappeared. He spent the next few years just sitting inside staring blankly at the open sky. A place he could never go to.

'Because of me.

'I tried being there for him, I did. I tried being a good brother to him, but I knew nothing I said or did, besides discovering a way to do a wing transplant, would ever make things better. And I was right.

'One month ago, on my common time 18th birthday, my parents insisted on having me fly with some of the others. I obliged because they were good parents, and like every other day Nichdtie was watching the sky. He watched, and he saw that while I was flying, his wings didn't move. That was because I refused to use the stolen wings. He, however, only saw that his wings wouldn't respond to the thief that stole them.

'He wrote a note to our parents in his excitement. He wrote that he realized the wings really were his and that they wouldn't listen to a thief like me. So he knew that his wings would respond to his call, as long as he asked them to help him fly. The bite ended with how he was going to the top of the mountain and that he'll be back after he got his wings to fly from my back to his and allow him to fly.

'I was the one to find the note, and I was the one to go searching for Gina's fast as I could. But as soon as I exited my house, I saw a figure falling from the sky in the distance. Right near the peak. It fell. And fell. And fell. And didn't come back up.

'For the first time ever, I used Nichdtie's wings to go faster than I've ever gone before. I raced to the area I was the figure fall fearing for the worst. Unfortunately, I was right. Nichdtie landed on the ground, or what was left of him.

'I led to his death. I am the reason he suffered. I am the reason he fell. I'm the reason. I'm-'

"Dtie!"

At the sound of the voice calling me I snapped out of it. 'Ah, I spiraled again.'

Cuu continued, "Hey, you're back. I kept saying your name but you kept mumbling about it being your fault. Are you okay?" She gazed at me with those piercing eyes. It's so easy to just stare into them.

'Snap out of it.' I thought. I took a moment before responding.

Sounding unconvincing, "Yeah, I'm alright. I just get like that sometimes." I leaned back in my bed as I felt really sluggish.

Sounding more upbeat than usual, Cuu suggested that she could go to her room and change so we could go have some fun and get my mind off of it. I took her up on her offer and I told her I'd come by in about an hour to pick her up. Having decided on a course of action, I guided her to the door, we said our see you laters, and I closed the door.

'For the first time ever, I blamed you for something, Nichdtie. That whole situation happened because of you, and I haven't been able to forgive you yet.'

End of Chapter 5

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