The Winged One - Chapter 1: First Day Out
#1 of The Winged One
Ok so I want to give you some background to this story. This is a world where there are two types of animals, type one is the animals that you see every day but type two are those animals in let's say furry form. There is only a select group of these and they live in clans with everyone else of their species: HumanClan, DogClan, CatClan, etc. Now there is also a mutant gene that some are born with that causes them to develop wings later in life (around the age of 12). Although members of the other clans have accepted this and don't think much of it the HumanClan view it as a position and think that anyone like this is evil and must me killed (I know surprise, surprise the humans want to destroy the thing that they don't understand. So the main character in this story is Helka of the CatClan. He is a black cat with gold eyes, very long whiskers and tail and he has huge black feathered wings.
This is my first story ever posting anywhere so I hope you all enjoy it.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Helka stretched his wings and flew on top of the wall bordering his clan. Behind him was the CatClan and everything he had ever known. Now 16 years old and able to leave he looked out into the unfamiliar forest. The forest seemed like a dream and a nightmare, both exciting and frightening. As his gaze met that of the unforgiving world he started to realize why they had made young cats wait till they were 16 to explore the world. A silver tabby jumped up on the wall beside him and looked at him questioningly. Her name was Soyna and she had been his friend sense they were kittens. He had wanted her with him when he went outside the borders but she was a month younger than him so she couldn't yet make that journey.
"Your littermates left early this morning, what is holding you back?" Soyna had always gotten to the point of what was on her mind. He was ashamed of not being able to as quick to adapt as his littermates had been, all young cats were always going out come sunrise on their 16thbirthday but he was scared of what awaited him. He was different, he was a winged one. He was the first of the CatClan to have the mutation so no other in the clan was able to relate to him. He hunched over, his whiskers and tail drooping and his wings and ears pressed hard against his body. Soyna glanced sidelong at him before gazing longingly into the forest ahead of them. "If it was my 16thbirthday I wouldn't wait more than a second after sunrise to leave these borders. Hunting inside the borders gets so old, every tree starts to look familiar after a while."
Helka repositioned himself so that his hindpaws were hanging off the edge of the wall and his forpaws were gripping at the edge, kneading the structure anxiously. He wanted to keep his fears to himself but there was always something about Soyna that made him unable to keep things from her, he both adored that quality in her and hated it. "I am scared of what I will have to do if I meet a member of the HumanClan. They have always hunted the winged ones, I know that I could win in a battle with them but if I hurt or kill them then they will blame it on the CatClan and that could start a war that we don't need." Soyna leaned over and licked his cheek comfortingly. She knew him well enough to know that he didn't care if he killed another but never wanted to bring trouble to the CatClan because this was his home and his family.
Behind the wall the two cats sat on Branz, an older cat with light grey fur, approached the wall and looked up at the two youngsters. "Helka what are you doing still up there wasting daylight?" He didn't waste time jumping up and joining the two on the wall. Helka's wings were still pressed firmly against his body. Branz looked at him sternly and took a deep breath. Helka stared into his grey eyes that seemed to hold so much knowledge as he spoke in a raspy voice, "Now youngster don't you be scared about them trees. Only the HumanClan hunts the winged ones and they are as slow as snails! Any member of the CatClan could take out ten of those wimps and you are no exception." Helka realized that he was being as dumb as the humans by being scared of something that he had never saw. He had never been outside the boundary but Branz had and he had met those of the HumanClan in battle more than once in battle. Gaining his confidence back he spread his wings and flew down from the wall into a nearby tree.
He heard Soyna's voice from behind him, "I'll find you in a month!" He looked back and waved goodbye to his friend and the grumpy doctor and jumped back to the ground. The smells were different outside the walls and weariness soon gave way to curiousness as he started to explore the new world.
All his senses were alive and soon he smelt the sweet tang of rabbit. He crouched low to the ground, his wings close to body, and his ears perked. He leaped the bush easily without the use of his wings and pinned the rabbet with his claws fully extended. He was about to kill his prey when something yowled so loud that it made Helka jump backwards letting go of his prey. The things that had made the noise came out of the bushes very clumsily and noisily swinging a long knife. From the descriptions he had heard in his teachings he figured that this was a member of the HumanClan, noisy, clumsy, and covered in a skin that was not their own. Helka jumped into a high branch of the tree that was right above him and watched as the human swung his knife spitting curses. He was repulsing and the awful odor told Helka that he didn't groom himself in the near past. Repulsed Helka few away from the human and dodged the knife that was badly thrown at him. He realized that Branz had been right, he had nothing to worry about from the HumanClan.
Finding a clearing he landed and started to groom himself. He ran his rough tongue along his shiny fur trying to forget that awful creature he had just encountered. He was in the middle of cleaning his wing when he heard the bushes crash once again, he sighed knowing that it was another human. He simply leaned back against the trunk of a tree and waited. The human that did stumble into the clearing caught Helka by surprise, he was younger than the previous man, a little older than Helka, and he appeared pretty well groomed. He was rather sexy in his own right, he didn't have fur on his pale skin but there was something about him that made Helka want to purr. He had choppy, shoulder length red hair and freckles over his face. His eyes were bright baby blue and he didn't have a very muscular build but looked as though he could hold his own. Helka got up from where he sat and approached the boy, "is there anything I can help you with? You seem rather lost."
The boy turned around quickly at the sound of his voice and say Helka for the first time. A look of fear flashed over his eyes and he crouched down holding himself in a ball and started to sob. Helka was taken aback, confused and unsure of what to do he dropped to his knees and took the boy in his arms. His skin felt cold from the lack of covering and his tears were starting to clump the fur on Helka's shoulder. For a while the boy tried to struggle free from his grip but the attempts were weak and soon stopped and he wimpered in defeat, "Please don't kill me. I was just looking for food, my family is poor and hungry. My mom has to stay home with my sick sister, they need me now." As the boy kept talking the tears came harder and his speech was blured. Helka siged, did this bay think that he actually would want to kill him for no reason?
Without saying a word Helka set the boy against a tree, spread his wings and flew over the trees. Soon he caught the sent he was looking for and dove down onto an old rotted out tree stump. Right in front of his was a deer too intent on grazing to notice that he was there. Helka readied himself and launched himself into the air to land right on top of the deer and killing it before it could even react. He stared down at his prey proud to have caught it; there weren't any deer inside the CatClan borders so this was the first one he had ever caught. It took a while to carry the load back up to where he had left the boy but when he got there he was sitting against the tree looking at the ground as if he were in shock. Helka purred to himself and pulled the deer the final way to lay it in front of him.
The boy's eye grew wide with surprise and seemed to have lost all trace of the former fear when he looked up at him. "Are you giving this to me? Why are you helping me? I was always taught that winged ones were evil and bloodthirsty." He looked down at the dear admiring its size. Helka's chest fur fluffed out in pride as he watched the boys excitement over his kill.
He smirked as the boy looked up at him again. "Who knows, perhaps it is because you just look so pathetic sobbing on the ground. You said that your family was going hungry right? Well I figured that should feed you for a while. And besides I'm not dangerous unless you try to hurt me, you are no threat to me therefore I am no threat to you." He walked over to the boy and looked him up and down; checking out what he only had a glimpse of before. "By the way, my name is Helka. What should I call you by?"
The boy looked up at him, all traces of fear gone from his eyes and his smile lit up his face. He looked much less pathetic and lost and that had seemed to be replaced with confidence and strength. Helka never new such a transformation could take place but this young man had his attention now, he would not soon forget him. He looked Helka straight in the eyes and extended his hand, "My name is Griffon, and you Helka have my greatest gratitude." Helka purred and licked the extended hand. Griffin started laughing and then laughed harder at Helka's confused expression. He didn't know what is was about this human but he knew that he liked him a lot. He purred and closed his eyes as Griffin's laughter came to an end.
"Griffin!" Helka tensed as he heard the high pitched yowl and the same noisy clumsiness that the HumanClan seemed to teach their offspring.
Griffin sighed and turned to face Helka, "I have to go now, thank you so much for your help." He went to the deer and starting dragging it toward the voice. He paused and turned to face Helka, "You surprised me today, I didn't expect someone like you to come in that form. I would like to meet with you again, would you be able to meet me here when the sun is at its highest tomorrow?"
Helka purred in sheer delight from hearing this. He jumped forward to whisper into Griffin's ear, "You can count on seeing me then." He gave Griffin's cheek a gentle lick before spreading his wings and taking off into the darkening sky.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
I own this story and all the charictors in it.