THE MOMENT
Dani's face was stuck in a permanent grin as she stretched her wings. It surprised her how sensitive they were; she could feel individual corn stalks as she got used to moving her wings. They felt substantial; but, light. She folded them up on to her back and closed her eyes. After a moment she decided that despite the light weight, they were too large to hide efficiently. Dani shook her head and stretched her wings out again. This time she brought them forward to study her wingtips.
"Where did you come from?" she asked. She was 35 years old and woke up with wings after she went to sleep with no wings in sight. She'd dreamt about having wings and other powers at various points since her childhood. The wings on her back were exactly like the set she dreamt about often; and, it made her curious about the other abilities she had in her dreams.
As soon as she realized it wasn't going to be a normal day she called into work and drove out of the city to test her wings out in peace. She found the dead, abandoned corn field where she now stretched her wings. She looked down at the palms of her hand and tried to focus. In her dreams, she was able to fire a beam of fire from her palms and she was curious if she had that ability now too, along with the wings.
"C'mon...," Dani imagined her palm to be burning hot. She focused on her own pale palm and willed it to shoot forth; but, nothing happened. "Oh," She giggled after a moment. Dani realized if the beam had gone off, it would have hit her square in the face. She turned her hand around and aimed her palm forward, then willed whatever ability she had to come forth.
A blazing, orange beam shot out of her palm and ignited the dead cornstalks around her. In moments, she was surrounded by blaze.
"Uh oh," Dani tried to keep calm. She turned to get away from the fire, but it surrounded her on all sides. With nowhere to go, she decided that 'up' was her best option. She extended her wings to try and push off into the air, but the heat was too much for her; she immediately pulled her wings back onto her back. "HELP!" she yelled.
Dani knew yelling was pointless; she was out there specifically to be alone. But, yelling helped keep her distracted from panicking.
"HELP!" Dani cried again while she looked down at her hands. She was about to see if she could overpower the fire somehow when she heard a deep, loud voice.
"HELLO!" a man yelled.
"OVER HERE!" Dani replied. She yelled in the direction she heard the voice; then, she thought she saw movement in the dark smoke. "HELP!" she tried again to get their attention. Then, the flaming stalks vanished before Dani's eyes. She did not know how to explain it; but, the ruined stalks disintegrated, fire and all, into nothing. In moments, a clear, open path lay in front of Dani. She did not hesitate to escape; Dani bolted out of the flaming field and found herself on a dusty dirt road in front of three people. Two men and a teenage girl.
"You okay?" the tallest man asked. He was a pale mountain of a man wearing a dark leather duster and a porkpie hat. Dani recognized his voice as the man that yelled 'Hello'. She nodded at him.
"Yes, thank you," Dani said.
"I'll put the rest out," he said. Dani watched the remaining cornfield disintegrate; the fire burned itself out with nothing left to burn. Dani quickly realized that at least he had powers like her. Then, she remembered her wings were out in the open. Before she could panic, the teenager stepped forward and smiled.
"I'm Astra," she said. "That's Ruin," Astra gestured at the tall man that put out the fire. "And, that's Oz," she gestured at the other, shorter, leaner man. He nodded at Dani.
"It's short for Ozwyn," he added.
"I'm Dani," Dani said. She shrugged. "Short for Eridani." She regretted the shrug when she realized it would probably draw extra attention to her wings. Her fears were realized when Oz's eyes settled on her shoulders.
"Are you an angel?" he asked. Dani almost laughed; but, Astra beat her to it. The teenage girl burst into loud giggles, and even Ruin chuckled at the question.
"What? Angels aren't real?" Oz asked Astra.
"Sorry!" Astra replied. "You couldn't have known, and I didn't think to mention it," she said. Astra tilted her head toward Dani, then turned to face the woman.
"What's your favorite number?" she asked.
"35," Dani said. "That's a super random question." Astra nodded and smiled. Oz tilted his head.
"She's an Estrella?" he asked. Astra nodded. "Do... all Estrellas....?" He asked part of another question. Dani was wondering what was going on; and, more importantly, when the appropriate time to leave would be. She was grateful that Ruin apparently saved her life, but having her wings out in the open left her feeling exposed. And somehow, it was weirder that no one was addressing them. Astra shook her head to answer Oz's question.
"Not all Estrellas have wings....," she said. Astra stood up straighter and suddenly, a pair of large, white feathered wings stretched out from behind her back. ".... but, most of us do."