A Rude Awakening

Splitting pain on her back was what dragged her out of deep sleep, and yet was too intense for her to be anything more but delirious. Nothing was coming to her mind. Her motionless body was engulfed in pain. She could barely twitch her wings, which, despite her empty memory, felt lighter than she could recall. 

“Mmmh...” she could only let out a whimper. Where was she? What happened?
Once her mind slowly cleared, the light squeeze of bandages around her body became apparent. 

“Hello?” A muffled voice stirred the room, one that she didn’t recognise, from a figure hovering over her. She fought with her paralysis to turn towards the voice, until a large blur came into view. The blur approached with careful steps. She followed it, blinking to sharpen the image, until the blur resembled a person crouching down to her level. 

“Hey, are you alright?” The voice was clearer this time; she could tell it came from an anxious young man. His face was also becoming clearer. The man’s pale skin was only matched by the white feathers on his cheeks. From under his long, dirty blond hair, deep blue eyes peeked through to meet whatever was visible through her hair. He was cloaked in a large blue cape, and when he shifted, the large feathered wings on his back flapped a gust through the room. An angel, like her. 

“Well...” she propped herself up on her forearms, her black hair falling in front of her face. “My head still really hurts.”
The man’s fingers fiddled amongst themselves. “Do you need anything?” His eyes squinted in uncertainty, attempting to spot anything through her hair. 

The nameless angel tried to sit up, but her swaying head sent her falling forwards; she would have hit the floor, were it not for the man’s quick reflexes catching her by the shoulders.
“Y-you should stay in bed.” He propped her back onto the mattress, still holding her arms to not let her fall  again.
She mumbled from under her messy hair. As soon as her hands gripped the edge of the bed, the man let go. 

“What... happened?” She lifted her head to face him.
The man got his first good look at the angel. Her skin was light bronze in complexion, riddled with feathers in odd places - her cheeks had fewer feathers than he had, but her neck was completely covered in them. They were an ever-so-slight tinge of blue, and a stripe of even lighter, almost perfectly white feathers formed a streak down the mane of feathers on her neck. His eyes darted back up to meet hers, dark navy in colour. He could tell they were supposed to be sharp, though in her current state, they were sunken in from fear, surrounded by eyebags and darkness - her right eye even more-so, as it was still hiding under her long, black hair. 

“Oh, that was my question.” He let out a nervous giggle and grinned, yet when her glimpse caught his teeth, he closed them and grew silent. She could have sworn something strange flashed within them. When he next spoke, he kept his mouth small. “You don’t remember what happened to you last night?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose as her mind drew nothing but blanks. “No.”
The man crossed his arms. His white gloves caught her attention.

“Well... I found you unconscious in an alley, with a massive gash on your back.” His face scrunched up as his pupils shrank, staring into the memory of last night. “Most likely... you were assaulted.”
Her face paled in response as she drew the picture in her head. A picture she did not remember, but was forcing herself to.
“There wasn’t anyone else around. I-I don’t know who could have done it.” He stuttered, still trembling at the image of the nameless girl’s bloody body. She was starting to tremble too, eyes pointed to the floor. 

The man’s face tinted itself green while he mentally prepared to say the next, disturbing point. “You know what... what the weirdest thing is?”
Her gaze met his, both their eyes quivering in anticipation.
“Your wound... it didn’t look like it was from a... a knife or-or anything like that.”
Beads of sweat ran down his forehead. He swallowed. 

“It was more like... claws.”

All of her feathers stood on end and her wings stretched out. She grabbed her body tight, and tried to reach her back, as if to claw at it herself, to reclaim it from whatever monster sunk its fingers down her spine. The blood behind her wings started to boil, searing her from the inside. At this point she was curled up into a stiff white ball, her face - protecting itself under her hair again - riddled with green and red.
The man could only watch and curse himself, “I-I’m so sorry!” He reached out to her, but stopped before he could touch her. Not that he really could, because her wings engulfed her entire body. “That was... too much information.” He sighed. “I should have at least waited before telling you that.” 

Her wings gave way as her body unclenched, and her face unveiled itself from underneath. She looked back up to the man, who was now taking his turn on curling himself into a ball.
“Yeah. Maybe you should have.” She tucked her hair behind her ear to see him better. 

A quiet sorry emerged from under the man’s wings, which were now shedding gentle flakes of white. She shrugged. “I mean, I asked what happened, and you told me. Wasn’t your fault that the truth was so...” A wave passed through her spine, leaving feathers turned up in its wake. “Gorey.”
“I know...” the bundle of feathers continued. “B-but I could have skipped that last part.”
She blinked, before a gentle smile grew on her face. “Hey, you’re fine...” She squinted, attempting to spot the man from under the white bush. “Who are you, exactly?”
 
The man finally came out. “Oh-“ His entire body danced like a dog shaking off water, only that he shook off a generous coat of white fluff. He ran his hand through his hair and parted it to reveal a shy smile. “Silly me, I should have at least told you that before...” he formed bunny ears with his fingers. “interrogating you.”  
His smile grew wide. “My name’s Valentine.” The feathers on his cheeks fluffed up. “Or just Val.” 

Her gaze snapped to his teeth again, trying to spot what she spotted last time. Valentine’s brow furrowed as he retracted his smile. She looked up at his sunken-in eyes, then down to the ground. 

“Valentine...” she muttered to herself. “Nice name.”
Val readjusted himself and brushed some loose feathers off of his arms. “Ah, thanks...” His hand slid to the back of his neck to scratch it.
“What’s yours?” His shoulders perked up. 

The nameless angel opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her face sank as her eyes darted back and forth across the floor. “I... can’t remember that either.”
 
“What?” Val pulled his body in. His eyes turned vacant, and drifted around before his eyelids fell. When they rose, they were fixed on her.
His mouth put on a crooked grin, trying to hide his worry. “You... do you have amnesia?”
Her face became blank, save for her furious brows. She closed her eyes, released her head, and nodded  with solemnity.  

Valentine fiddled with the glove on his left hand, pulling it halfway off, as to loosen it off but not reveal his fingers, then sliding his hand back in. He then repeated it on his other hand.
Her mind, empty of memory, began to fill with something new - questions. There’s something up with those gloves, her thoughts bounced around the empty walls in her brain. Does Valentine have some nervous tic, and messing with them helps him calm down? Does he just hate getting his hands dirty? But the gloves are made from cloth, which would seep in dirt anyway. If this was a cleanliness problem, his gloves would be of a different material.
She raised her head ever-so slightly, and eyed his hands. He’s hiding something.
When Val’s fingertips met with the ends of the glove, she noticed. A sharp bump stretching through the cloth, then receding. 

“S-Surely you remember *something*, right?”
Her head raised back up in response. She gave a quick glance at his hands again, then to his worried eyes. She formulated what to say, with eyes closed and hands clasped together.

“I mean... I know I live on a set of floating islands inhabited by angels and devils.” Her wings readjusted. “But who those angels and devils were... I don’t remember.” She opened her eyes, now mourning the people she forgot.
“I don’t know which of the islands I might have lived on either.”
A fuzzy map drew itself out in her mind. At the centre of it was a large island, surrounded by smaller ones at varying elevations. One was for aristocrats. One was a prison.
“Probably not the one inhabited by all those gang devils.” She shrugged, and crossed that island out on the map.
Val’s eyes grew while his pupils shrank, diverting them away with impressive speed. The blood rushed from his face, now getting coated in cold sweat.
Her eyes were locked onto him, as the map zoomed in on the lowest-lying island in the archipelago... Ostree Island? No, Oztras, that’s what it was called. The one where all the ‘rejects’ are left, those someone decided that they didn’t fit into this world. Rejects such as 1-wings, and...

“But from what I recall - and feel free to correct me, since my memory’s a little hazy,” she raised an eyebrow.  “Angels don’t have such sharp teeth.” 

Valentine looked back up. He blinked twice. His head dropped down, his hair falling in front of his eyes, only his frown visible. The fingertips of his gloves were stretching thin from Val's nervous pulling, and the edges were soaked in sweat and sticking to his wrists. Even while hidden, she could tell his face was twisting into a  sour one. But it suddenly released.
His smile slowly reappeared, accompanied with quiet hums trying to resemble a chuckle. Then his lips parted, revealing razor teeth and a louder laugh; His shoulders and wings bounced with each beat. His head rose, hair uncovering the sparkle in his eyes, shining through the shadow now formed on his face. 

"You got me." His left hand grabbed the edge of his right glove, unsticking it from the sweat. "I'm not a true angel like you."
The glove slid off his hand with ease. She sucked in a breath when she spotted what his fingers were tipped with - claws.
His ungloved hand rose up to meet his face and brush his hair to the side. Valentine gazed straight through her. "I'm a hybrid." 

She shot up off of the bed. “I knew it! There was something-“ Gravity started to pull her down to save her from the now wobbling room.
Valentine’s grin cracked. His eyes squinted and shimmered through the shadow. “...Wrong with me?” The glove was still clutched in his hand.
“No-“ The bed caught her fall. “Just... different.” The world stopped spinning. 

Val twiddled his clawed thumbs. “You don’t see me as lesser now, do you?” He whimpered, gaze fixed down at his hands, one still gloved, one exposed.
Her eyes scanned all his devil features. They locked with his, and stayed fixed on them as she shook her head. 

His eyes softened, but were still full of sadness. “I know the authorities here would. If they found me or my daughter out, we could end up on Oztras Island.” His hand disappeared under the glove.
 
“You have a daughter?” Her head tilted.
“Yep!” Valentine’s ears perked up along with the feathers on his cheeks, and his eyes squinted with joy. “Adopted.”
“I was gonna say,” She brushed her hair out of her face. “You look a bit too young to have kids. To me, at least.”
Val readjusted in his seat. “Nah, I am, I’m just eighteen - almost nineteen.” He hunched down and crossed his arms. “But poor Furuna was on her own, she wouldn’t have made it by herself here. I don’t even know what she was doing here on Mequa Isle.” 

Her arms placed themselves behind her and propped her up from behind. “Can I see her?”
Valentine looked up to her, then turned behind himself to face the door. “Y’know what, she was curious about you too when I brought you in.”
He stood up. “I’m sure she’d like to meet you, she’s just a little bit shy.” He made his way out the door. “I’ll bring her in.” 

- - - 

Valentine reappeared a few minutes later with a dark ball of hair, feathers and scales in his arms. The dark mass shuffled with every step Val took.
The nameless angel had enough energy to stand up off of the bed. Standing fully upright, she almost reached Val’s height.
He murmured something to whoever he was carrying, which the angel presumed was the Furuna he mentioned earlier. She looked down and didn’t have to guess twice that what she was looking at was indeed a hybrid. A tiny hybrid baby.
Valentine’s voice was gentle when he spoke. “This is Furuna.” 

Furuna still had her head, covered in fluffy black hair, tucked under her tiny wings. They were a deep green with grey feathers lining their edges, getting darker as they made their way up to meet the spike at the top of her wing. Furuna was also wrapped up in a long, feathery tail. Unlike her father, it was very obvious that she was a mix of an angel and a devil. Very hard to hide her hybridity.
Val placed his ungloved hand on Furuna’s head and gently ruffled her hair. “Don’t worry, she’s friendly.” His thumb tried to clear her hair out of the way to make her face visible. She let out a tiny noise that sounded like a cat’s meow. 

After much subtle convincing from Valentine, the baby turned her head to face the angel. Furuna’s striking green eyes, shining through her dark skin and hair, were like a cat’s, and with a quick shrink turned into slits directed straight at the angel. But as her face softened into a welcoming smile, Furuna’s eyes grew again.
“Mrrp?” Her tail swung from side to side. 

The angel held out her hand, just in Furuna’s reach. The feathers on Furuna’s tail raised in response, thickening her tail to twice its original size. The angel’s hand twitched back.
“Furuna, she won’t hurt you.” Valentine’s reassuring voice returned. “You can trust her.” Furuna turned her head up to meet Val’s eyes and let out a questioning meow. Her father nodded. 

Furuna slowly turned to face the angel again. Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened to speak. “Pace!” Her short arm extended to point at what she was seeing.
The person on the other end of the finger raised an eyebrow.
Furuna’s tiny wings flapped vigorously, shedding feathers all over the floor. Valentine was struggling to hold her still. “From space!” 

The angel blinked as her wrist turned back to point at herself. “Me?... From space?“ Furuna swished her tail everywhere it could reach, even brushing against her dad’s nose; his face crumpled into itself as if to hold back a sneeze.
“Is she saying I come from outer space?” Her head rose to meet Val’s face, who was still trying his best not to sneeze.
Furuna looked back and forth between her dad and the angel. “Ouder pace...” 

The angel pulled her hands in close. Her eyes glistened as she squinted. “That is... so cute...”
Valentine finally freed himself from the onset of a potential sneeze. “I can’t help but agree.” His hand ran through Furuna’s hair. 

“You look quite cosmic.” 

Cosmic.
That word. Something almost clicked in her mind. So close. So close to what? What was this word evoking within her? It was familiar... she liked this word...but why to this degree? Why was that word making her feel this way? 

Valentine’s own face released into a look of concern when he saw the angel’s face drop into a trance. Furuna was mumbling the last word he said to herself over and over, trying to get it just right. “Ozmie? Osmic? Cosmie?”
“Are you alright?” He asked.
“Cosmic?” Furuna looked to the angel for reassurance. 

She blinked out of her dreamlike state. When her eyes met Valentine’s, her face grew a satisfied grin.

“I feel great. Call me Cosmic.”