Angelic Warrior

Eyes opening to a late afternoon sun, laid young Shoufan Hale, herself being one of the rare species of the Fathered Angels. She rested upon the meadow floor, the green grass over towering her figure. The massive breeze over took Shoufan, making her breath in the crisp airs of heaven.

She could feel her off-white colored feathers bristle along her wings and the little creatures that managed their way through them. Tickling her, she managed to push out a small, sweet, hardy laugh that most of the feminine angels would find unladylike. Shoufan craned her neck to her right wing and picked up a baby creature that had very brown, bushy fur. When she sat up, it was like a waterfall, all the little varmints tumbling out of her humongous wings. Petting the creature with just two delicate fingers, Shoufan whispered to it. "It's okay little one, I'll protect you. I promise." She kissed the creature and then let it run.

Pouncing up off of the ground, Shoufan braced herself for flight. She bent her knees and jumped up, whooshing the air around her with the sudden release of her wings. Shoufan gained altitude in the never ending sea of clouds. The sun, which nestled itself between two great, big clouds, shone its last bit of rays in a guiding way for Shoufan. Pushing through a cloud and sacrificing her dry, white gown, Shoufan found herself dampened with water. Laughing her way to a sudden halt, she noticed a bright red hue descending from the clouds, the color flickering in different places like a flame. Shoufan flew down and through the clouds only to find green land burning black.

Everywhere she turned she found no patches of green. Only land burned of its color and villages burned to the ground. A few tears and a heavily gasp managed to make its way out of Shoufan. She flew closer to the trees and saw angels being harassed by the Dragon Angels, the next door tyrants. Their ways of living was similar to those who vacation in Hell. Their wings were much different from theirs. They were either black, gray, or brown, and very leathery. Much close to those of bats. And their faces were distorted, ugly curves and chiseled skin that made any other angel want to stick a knife in their heart.

Shoufan flew to her village as fast as she could. Hearing the wind whistle in her ear told her that she wasn't going fast enough. When she landed in the forest that separated the village next to hers, all Shoufan saw was fire and it consumed everything that she ever knew. Far off into the corner, Shoufan heard cries and screams. She ran around the last house of the little semi-circle and found five angels dead on the ground, having been slashed in their backs and ripped of their wings. One of them, she recognized as her only brother. Covering her mouth, she began to cry out in pain.

Looking further down, Shoufan found a group of angels being hassled by the ugly beings. Getting closer by hiding behind the third house from the captors, Shoufan was able to make out her two parents and little sister, Mafina. Their hands were bind by rope and they were each in line for their wings to be stripped from there backs and then put in a carriage floating above them.

With none of the Dragon Angels looking her way, Shoufan moved behind the central stone fountain. The first person she locked eyes with and who locked eyes with her was her mother, Ajil. She had bruises all over her face and chest, blood was leaking from her slashed cheek, and her eyes were red. The Dragon Angels began to speak in a language only adult angels were allowed to speak in. Shoufan would know. Her parents spoke it all the time.

"Moc ak do tib eh bata lok oob suh!" The Dragon Angels screamed this over and over, as if it were an order. Her father, Enav, screamed the same language, but different words, at them. "Lis kon tad gij pi ko kaf!" One Dragon Angel walked up to her father and punched him in his face and before Enav could return from the blow, the same angel barreled him in his stomach, making him cough out blood. "You will never rule this land. I have faith in my gods," said Enav. The winged beast drew his sword and plunged it through him. "Mock my words, Angel, but I will be the one to kill your gods." Enav used what strength he had to lift his head and spat the blood in his mouth in his captors face. The Dragon Angel withdrew his sword from his body and let Enav fall to the ground.

Shoufan turned around and cried her father out of her soul. She knew that if she stayed hidden, her mother and little sister would be slaughtered. With tears making their way into the crevices of her mouth, Shoufan turned around and looked at her mother once again. Ajil was screaming and crying and Mafina stared at her with red, teary eyes. Shoufan had to do something.

She looked around at the sea of dead bodies, but eyed a shiny object in the hands of one of the corpses. She shuffled quietly on her knees, careful as to not draw attention to herself by her wings, and grabbed the object. When she held it up to her face, a picture of a muddied soul, stared back at her. A girl of loss and destruction blinked simultaneously as she stared at the dagger's reflection. When she went back to the fountain, Shoufan found her mother crying on her knees. "Get up, you winged Whore! We don't have time for this! Ba ka di, ba ka di!" Ajil looked up and at Shoufan again. Shoufan raised her weapon, showing her mother that she was at least going to free Mafina, but she needed a distraction.

Ajil looked back and forward from Shoufan and the Dragon Angel that towered her. She looked at Shoufan again and mouthed, I love you. She got up as fast as she could and took off in flight. All of the Dragon Angels took off after her. When Shoufan could hear no more distant flapping she ran to her sister. "It's okay Mafina. I'm here to free you", said Shoufan under choked tears. She cut the rope that tied Mafina's hands. Then she took her sister's arm and made a break for it.

"Wait! What about Mother,'' screamed Mafina. "She's not coming back. Now come on!" Shoufan ran behind the last house of the semi-circle and stopped to make sure no one was following her. As she turned around completely, a figure fell from the sky and hit the ground with a drastic thud. Then the Dragon Angels all flew and landed in a circle around Ajil, who laid bloody and stabbed on the ground. Soon they took notice of Mafina's absence. "Where's the girl? She escaped! Find her!" A few of the beasts were about to break out in search until one interrupted with, "Leave her. She's just a brainless bird who can't tell left stroke from right. It doesn't matter any way. She would have just ended up like her stupid parents and outraged brother. Let's go! Ki gij lan!" The angel who said this was the same angel who killed Shoufan and Mafina's father and who had called their mother a whore. When he turned around, Shoufan noticed that he had a scar across both crevices of his mouth. It seemed almost as if someone had purposely extended his smile, if he even had one.

As all of the angels flew out and in Shoufan and Mafina's direction, the two girls each laid on their backs as to camouflage thereselves and their wings. When they were completely sure that no beast was near them, they both sat up and cradled themselves in each others arms.

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10 years later...

"Shoufan, Shoufan wake up! We're going to be late." Mafina tried all her might to get Shoufan out of her bed. The two orphaned sisters lived in a king-sized cottage, where they resided in the Angel Kingdom for the past 5 years.

Mafina pulled, tugged, dragged, and even screamed at Shoufan to get out of bed. Nothing worked. "Get up Shoufan or I will have no choice but to inflict you with my wrath of pain."

Shoufan moaned. "Christ, Mafina. I'm a 25 year-old angel, and if I want to be late to the assembly, then let me be. By the way, I'm immune to pain. OW!" Mafina held two feathers in the tips of her fingers. Shoufan turned on her side and rubbed her left wing. "Jeez, Shoufan. I'm a 23 year-old angel, and if I want to be early to this assembly, then you're coming with me. By the way, I've inflicted my wrath upon you." Shoufan growled at Mafina. "Fine. You win. But don't you expect me to- OW! Will you stop that?" Mafina smiled. "You talk too much. Get ready."

At the assembly, Father Angel addressed the townsfolk that the Dragon Angels are increasing their land by 65% and we're losing our land by 75%, having the extra 10% being people who have evacuated their homes and freely gave the Dragon Angels "their" land. Although violent actions have decreased recently, the Dragon King still wants this land for his own. He plans to make the Fathered Angels extinct and to thrive his species by sucking all agriculture and life from the very lives who are fighting to their deaths to make sure that he does not succeed.

But Father Angel had a plan. A plan of destruction and sacrifice. He needs an army, at least a sufficient one. Anyone who was willing to take their anger and revenge out on the beasts could sign up for it. "Do you think we should do it," asked Mafina. "We? The only we that's going to sign up is me, myself, and I. Your staying here."

Before Mafina could say anything, Father Angel dismissed the assembly. "You? Your not going alone. I'm coming with you...we're in this together." Mafina grabbed Shoufan's arm and pulled her to look at her. "If you go in to battle and I lose you, I will become the most miserable soul on this poor earth. You're my last drop of blood. I need you to keep surging through me. Got it?"

"But what if I lose you? Then what? Huh? My sole purpose is to protect you and-"

"Yeah, well it damn nowhere means that you have to die for me! For us!" Shoufan shook her arm out of Mafina's grip. She turned around and left Mafina standing in shock. She huffed a ball of air and turned back around. "Who said anything about dying?" Mafina sped up to Shoufan. "The war did. The soldiers, the weapons, the blood, the gore, OUR PARENTS! Everything said something about dying. Everything. And if you want, we're dying on each other. You're not alone, Shoufan. I miss them too. Mom, Dad, Malikk. I should have been with them and you know it. YOU wre supposed to live this life, not me. We go to war together, or we move on. Your choice." Mafina walked past Shoufan half teary-eyed.

Back at the cottage, Mafina laid on the her bed brushing the tips of her wings with a chipped, wooden brush. When she heard Shoufan enter the household, she immediately got up and went into the spare room across from hers. As she was passing, Shoufan called her out. "Don't you dare close that door on me--Mafina! Look. I'm sorry about earlier. You were right. You couldn't be more right. Please open the door."

On the other side, Mafina slid down onto the floor and wept. And kept weeping. Shoufan walked up to the door. "Mafina, get off of the door. I want to talk to you. Please, you're not making this any easier. I want to apologize, but I can't do that if I can't even see your face. Please...Let's just talk."

Mafina lifted up off of the ground and yanked open the door. She stepped out and raised her hand and struck Shoufan across the face, sending her pummeling into the wall behind her. "See my face now? It's not happy nor forgiving. Check back in the morning to see the status of my rage and I might just be able to stand to see you eat breakfast, but until then, I don't even want to feel your eyes staring at me." Shoufan looked up at her with a burning red-hot face and stinging tears breaching the ends of her bottom eyelids. When she blinked, the tears ran cold down her steamed cheeks.

Mafina had locked herself in her room for the rest of the night, having not come out except for a drink of water. Shoufan stayed in her room practicing her fighting skills on her post dummy. She threw knives at where the imaginary enemy's chest should be, she captured her prisoner and dismembered it by thought, and she had comeback conversation's with it, even though she knew it was a ridiculous thing to practice. Shoufan stopped at nothing with the distinct memory of the angel who killed her father and mother and probably no doubt her brother while fighting her dummy. She wouldn't rest until her knuckles bled with planned victory. Her heart raced with years and years of rage. And her brained clouded with the strategies and different ways to kill another fellow angel. She has forever planned for the moment when she would find the very angel who caused her and her sister this cursed life of being orphaned. She would bring that angel, who she took upon the trouble of calling him Grin, to pain and justice, but for now Shoufan needed to rest and to think of an apology for her dear sweet baby sister.