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Name: Aves Christi (translation: Birds of the Christ)
For "Alluca's Special Writing Contest"
Prompt: http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb83/eukaria/Couples/EukariaKeir2.jpg
Word count: 1182 words
The cool air of the sanctuary gave them goose flesh. Merle’s elbow-length gloves hardly seemed to lock out the chill. Humans were stupid, always needing cloth and other things because they didn’t have enough fat. Without a body that wasn’t constantly hungry, she had worried about whether or not she was sick. It was just this big, heavy, cumbersome form. Stupid form. Looking at her skin, it looked the same way it would if someone had pulled the feathers out of a chicken.
“I can hear your teeth chattering,” said Jonah, vaguely rubbing the old bandages around his eyes. He felt just fine, although he would have silently agreed with her. He bones felt so weighty. No matter what he wore, he knew that he couldn’t walk with the same noiseless levity which he had always known. He felt chained to the earth. “You should take my jacket.” He pulled off his obtrusively long jacket as an offer. They stood in the aisle that separated the pews, both facing the giant suspended cross and the
“No thanks,” she murmured, folding her arms tightly against her body because she had seen other humans do it. “I still don’t understand why we need to be in this place.” She glanced around. “Nice place, though.”
“I damn near ran into the glass here once.” He pointed in a direction nowhere close to what he had meant. The imitation light of the moon made the stained-glass scene glow. Larger than life, it depicted the Christ clad in white ascending into heaven accompanied by a chorus of angels. Haloed and clad in a rich golden robe, he wore a mild look as he gestured for others to join him. “I was just a fledgling then. The blue around that floating guy looked like more sky.”
“Can we just do this already?” Merle cringed at her long dark hair and her pixie skirt. “Tell me again why we have these clothes. I don’t like them.”
“It helps us fit in, Merle.” Together and horribly confused, they had wandered naked into the nearest store which had been open near the church. The shop sold clothes of the gothic vein, the clerk happy to dress the poor customers in what was stylish. The pair liked her; she had given them the stuff for free, assuming that they had been mugged. “And it’s too cold to wear nothing.”
“I want feathers. They were warm. And I want berries too. When this is over, I want a warm roost and you’re gonna find it for me. I’m bigger than you.” She stood only as high as his chest.
He smiled, wagging his finger in her direction. “You aren’t yet. You can’t fool me again like you did the first time.” When they had first been transformed, he still couldn’t see. It was hours before he realized that she was much smaller than him.
“Whatever. I just want to be myself again.” Taking his hand, she led him down the soft red carpet of the aisle toward the altar. “We still have some time.” The shadow of the giant cross still wasn’t lined up with the face of the Christ yet.
“What is the significance of this day?” he asked, scratching an itch on the scalp from which silken hair sprouted. With the itch dealt with, he went back to touching the varnished pews one by one as he passed them.
“Something about Saint Lucy, whoever she is.” Soon she’d be free from this fleshy prison. She helped him step up, keeping a firm hold onto his hand. “I still don’t get how this happened.”
“You had chased me in here.” He smirked, turning toward her. “I know the rustle of your wings. Remember what you promised. And it’s something about a man named God.”
“Well, I don’t like what he did. He’d better change us back.” She looked up at the stained-glass Christ. “You hear that, Mr. God? Change us back or I’ll break your face.”
“Be nice to him,” he warned quietly, squeezing her hand.
“I’m still smarter than you.”
“You don’t get old by being stupid.” In a strange way, he wished for that familiar weariness in his body. It assured him that he didn’t have to work so hard after fighting everyday when he was younger.
“I can still see. There’s nothing Mr. God can do to me.”
“He can turn you into something worse.”
“Just shut up.” She let go of his hand, folding her arms as she had before. “It doesn’t matter. The point is that we’re here at the time that the old guy in black with the white collar told us to come.” The old man had been nice enough to leave the sanctuary door open for them. They had wanted this to happen without him around because they didn’t feel safe with someone watching. For all they knew, he’d try to kill them afterwards.
The shadow of the great cross lined up with the face of the Christ. The halo on the glass began to glow, shining warm light down on them. It created a circle which they stood just inside of. The glow intensified, growing hotter.
“I….” Jonah swayed, holding his head. Big bumps formed on his back, the skin underneath his clothes splitting over the big bumps. He felt something poking out of the gashes over those mounds.
“You’re so needy.” Merle felt the same large bumps forming on her own back. “The old man never said that we had to stand up.” Gently, she pulled him down with Jonah’s back resting against her. She felt her breasts shrinking away as she wrapped one arm around his chest and firmly clasped his other hand.
Black and white feathers fell all around them. More grew out of the little bumps that had formed on their skin from the cold. Jonah felt his feet splitting into the familiar four parts. He felt his nose growing bigger and longer.
Great feathery wings sprouted out from under their clothes, growing still. For a moment, the wings flexed and soaked up the celestial light. Then, they folded around to fuse with their arms. Jonah’s fingers slipped away, and Merle’s gloves fell off to drop onto the floor. The clothes which had impeded them began feeling looser, soon feeling as though the cloth would swallow them.
Nothing but a big pile of shirt and boots and pants. Underneath all of that, two little mounds moved around. A black crow emerged first, squawking and shaking off the last lingering sensation of the change. She flapped her wings and hopped out of the pile, looking around for her companion.
The smaller mound moved about, emerging as a white dove with milky eyes. It gingerly stepped around the soft pile before finding the hard ground.
The crow clucked to tell the dove where she was.
The dove moved close enough, cooing in reply. He flapped his wings to stretch the muscles.
Together, they flew off to roost in rafters and seek each other for warmth on such a bitterly cold night.
 Persephone13 · Thu Dec 27, 2007 @ 03:14am · 0 Comments |
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