Wingless

Far below the Great Hill where the Angel of the North sat on their thrones was Razec, humiliated and powerless as he looked up the palace and saw from the window of the throne room, the glaring of gold which lined every inch of the floor and made full mountains. No rightful king should ever stand looking at his throne from the angle in which Razec did. 

Razec’s father was of the first humans to ever discover the beauty of our lands which lie within what the people of Earth 1 call “The Bermuda Triangle ”'. When the fleet of American soldiers found our land, Dalawan, they did what they knew best. They tried to milk us for what we were worth. They stripped our forests and dried our lakes, keeping the water in cartridges to study when the new fleets of their people were to arrive and send platoons of soldiers to conquer our kingdoms and thus harm the nations of innocent people. And that, The Angels of The North couldn’t take.

. On Earth 1, America has the most funded army in the World but they stood nothing to   the Brute strength of The Angels nor their bronze bows and shimmering steel blades which became vanquishers of dark souls with the godly skill and tactic the Angels possessed. But nonetheless, the humans fired upon and dropped Angels like they were nothing but mindless pigeons. At the climax of the battle, the humans even had our lord, King Lathhius, cornered with an automatic steel spray against his cheek. Our very king was helpless until Razec’s father betrayed his people to save Lord Lathius, having recognized the unfairness of his people’s ambition and imperialism. 

 Razec’s father was young in those days and reminded King Lathius of the strength and compassion of his own children who, of the 19 he bore, each died in combat protecting the Dalawanian people. Much like a child, Razec’s father found himself lost being in a strange new world he had no idea about until his arrival. But King Lathius was not only a fair king but a fair man. He adopted Razec’s father and taught him everything that could be known of Dalawan. From the strange and morbid animals which crawled, glided, and swam in the outer forests and woods to the sophisticated agriculture only our soil was capable of. He made Razec aware of the Dalwanian troubles and how he planned to fix them until the struggles were no more and Dalawan was as close to the Garden of Eden as possible. He himself knew it could never be a perfect utopia as nothing ever truly is perfect. Where righteousness is, darkness will try to corrupt as it is the nature of this world.

 With all King Lathius taught to his adopted son, it was as if they were real kin and even when Razec’s father had fallen in love and had Razec born into the world, King Lathius acted like a grandfather Razec and his younger brother who unlike Razec was born with grand, snow white wings like his mother. No longer was Razec’s father a man lost in a lonely world but prince of a great people.

 When he was 13, Razec, his parents, and grandfather were camping in the woods, researching how to conduct a medicine to cure the bite of the poisonous leviathans that roamed the woods of Banshee. There’s a saying on Earth 1 that one’s past always catches up to them. I suppose this might be the reason the surviving comrades of Razec’s father found him and used their human weapons to massacre him, his wife, and father, the king. Razec was the only one who survived but ran at the sight of his family’s scattered bodies and became lost in the woods for years trying to find his way back to his palace where his younger brother was awaiting news on the whereabouts of his missing family.

Before his death King lathius wished for Razec’s father to be his successor on the throne but since he was gone the only true heirs were to be either Razec or his younger brother, Michelo. Though, being the older brother, the throne was Razec’s birthright. However, he was not present to take the throne and thus  Michelo was enthroned which rang throughout the kingdom so fervently, even Razec was able to get word from the woods. It would still be years before Razec found his way back to The Angels of The North but, once he did, he was turned away by the guards surrounding the kingdom. It was only with his skill of climbing he’d learned in his young survival training that he was able to scale the kingdom and reach the throne room to speak with his brother.

After being dumbfounded to see his brother alive, Michelo embraced Razec and promised him the grandest room in the palace, even beyond his own.

“You had no right to take my birthright”, Razec argued, ignoring Michelo.

“We thought you were dead, brother”, Michelo tried to calm his brother. “ I sent stampedes of men searching for you with no luck. But the people have elected me king and I cannot let them down”.

“Why can’t I be king?” Michelo was silenced and even the guards were left discombobulated at the question. “You never did see me as one of you, even being your kin”.

“Brother what madness do you speak of?”

“IT’S BECAUSE I HAVE NO WINGS!!!” Razecs scream echoed throughout every chamber and corredor in the place and alerted Michelo’s royal advisor, Fyzin, to join them in the throne room. After more bickering, Razec saw no point in arguing further and left the palace.

Months later, Razec found himself just like every other civilian, looking up to the hill where The Angels of The North’s palace stood high enough to graze heaven’s tile and where his birthright was judged as nothing. He decided to move into the woods which he’d learned well to escape the painful memories just the thought of the palace brought. At least the woods of Banshee had the woods of his grandparents and parents which he could visit and seek advice from. And so beside their graves, he built a house and lived off of whatever he could hunt and grow. It took no time before Razec learned to truly love those woods. The chirping of the birds to humble him every morning, the warm breezes which lightly caressed his golden skin, and above all else, he enjoyed the peace which was constant. Even when he hunted animals, not a sound derived from them since he made a point to kill them before they could feel the slightest pain or make the lightest shriek. 

One day on a hunt, Razec tracked a ferocious species of lion which only Dalawan bred and just as his hurling spear was about to supply his dinner, it was caught by Fyzin’s hand. Razec recognized Fyzin as his brother’s royal advisor which sent a throbbing ache to his heart, thinking something happened to Michelo.

 “Your brother’s fine”, Fyzin assured Razec. “In fact, he lives like a king. As for you, you’re a sixteen year old earthling hunting your own chow”.

“Some people don’t need servants”.

“And some servants don’t need people. They need a king. They need you, Razec”.

“Dalawan has its king. And one just how they like it, with wings”.

“He doesn’t have to have wings”. Fyzin’s remark resulted in silence as Razec stood stunned.

“What are you talking about?”

“What I mean, Master Razec, is that your brother wishes to complete your family’s research on Leviathan medicine in these very woods”.

“How did you know I was here?”

“I’m this earth’s royal advisor. I have eyes and ears in every corner and crevice of Dalwan. So how could I miss, with my great senses, a true king hiding out in Banshee. Michelo will be here in three days. Enough time to contemplate your decision and take what’s yours”.

“Say what you came here to say?”

“The thing is, Master Razec, I needn’t to. You know exactly what I’m saying just as you know exactly where to meet me when you have done it”. 

Three days later, just as Fyzin had said, Michelo arrived but with fleets of Angels. Being a scared and lonely boy in the woods, Razec’s house and the land surrounding it for miles was armed with thousands of traps. When Razec decided what he needed to do, he threw a spear at the first angel he saw. What you must realize though is that the ears of an angel are slick and his speed is swift so the angel caught the spear only to lightly tap his arm on the tree he stood on. This of course set off the first trap which sent the axe that beheaded him. The first trap set them all off but before they could get Michelo, Razec rushed to him and pushed him into a cave that sent them both tumbling deeply beneath the ground. . 

When Michelo stood up, his initial reaction was to hug his brother for saving him but was instead met with a baton clubbed to his head, knocking him out. When he awoke, he did so in a puddle of his own blood and yet there was not a single wound to be found on him. All he noticed was that next to him was a shattered glass bottle which their people use to store medicine and that when he stood, his weight felt lighter than it’d ever had before. Michelo was wingless.

By the time Michelo had awoken, Razec already found himself approaching the Palace gates of Dalawan and soon after climbing the great palace, he reached the hundredth and fourth floor where, on a golden, balcony Fyzin stood with a chilling grin.

“What is it you have strapped to your back boy?” Without saying a word, Razec cut the straps from his back and his brother’s wings collapsed to the ground like a ton’s worth of bricks, making Fyzin laugh to himself.

“Very well Prince Razec”, Fyzin chuckled. “You may go now”.

“Go?!”, Razec questioned. “I’m the rightful heir to the throne. I go nowhere”.

“Heir to the throne. Please, you're just like your brother, a wingless mutt”. As he finished speaking, two bulky and towering angels came marching to Razec with their blades already drawn from their sheaths.

    “This wasn’t our agreement”.

“You really know how to state the obvious. I’m sure those woodland folk really need you”.

“There’s nothing but trees in the woods”.

“Exactly. See, Razec, nobody needs you. Nobody needs a wingless boy for a king”.

“So they need a traitorous zealot?”

“Precisely”. It was then the two angels guarding Fyzin began swinging their blades at Razec but didn’t make a single graze upon him though the Axe of Razec caught the neck of the taller angel as his handcrafted sword did the same for the chest of the shorter angel. Once he’d killed the two, only Fyzin stood, defenseless and yet more powerful then he’d ever been.

“My guards are coming, boy. Scatter while you can. Or you’ll be charged for an attempt on the king’s life”. 

Razec truly contemplated jumping from the balcony and ending it all there but in the end decided he’d like to see his brother at least once more so he climbed back down the castle just in time to escape back to the woods of Banshee where Michelo was waiting in his house.

“It was kind of you to heal my wounds, brother”, Michelo said, lying on Razec’s floor belly down and with a book at his eyes.

“I tried to take your throne”, Razec sighed. 

“I know you did. Help me out here, will you?” Razec helped his brother up and walked him to the table where he soon after laid two pints of ale he’d made. “Brother, how could I not understand your ambitions. And if you don’t believe that I do, know that’s untrue. However, what we will not do is turn on our own kin. That’s when we lose as you’ve just witnessed”.

“Fyzin manipulated us. He understood I could never be an angel”.

“And how’s that brother?”

“I don’t suppose you see wings on me, do you?”

“Don’t tell me you actually doubt you’re place as one of us”.

“Razec I never have been one of you! Even when we were boys, none of the other children would do anything but soar circles over me and throw rocks. Me, a prince, and yet not even that was enough for them to take me as their own”.

“Tell me Razec, have you ever fought an angel?”.

“I just killed two”.

“Two?! Well, how many humans do you think can combat the strength, sense, and tactic of an angel”.

“You weren’t there, Michelo, but they took mom and grandfather like they were chickens”.

“I wasn’t there, brother, but I'll bet it took an army of men to take out the two angels they killed that day. But they ended up letting the strongest angel escape.. My point, Razec, is that no human can take on an angel unless he were one himself. You are not just the son of an angel but a son of Dalawan. One of the sons that will take the throne from Fyzin and restore greatness”.

“How are we gonna do that?’

“It’s nothing that couldn’t be undone. It’s the nature of these things. Where righteousness was, evil corrupted. So let’s go corrupt the evil. Tonight, we will no longer be victims of ill fortune. We will become a Revolution”.