Radical

I ran down the street, my breathing heavy.

“Hey wait up!” I hear my best friend, Daniel, call. 

“This is as slow as I can run!” I yell back with a laugh, my dirty blonde hair whipping behind me. 

“Well slow down then!” I hear his accent call. I slow to a walk and see something shiny float past me. I decided to head in the direction it came from. 

“Alex, seriously wait up!” 

“Sorry!” I yell back, coming to a halt.

“It's... okay.” He says as he gets closer, a gasp in between his words. Another particle of light floats past us. 

“I wonder… what that is.” He says with another dramatic gasp. 

“Yeah me too. I think we should see where it came from.” 

“That- no.” 

“Please?” 

“I-”

“Please” I ask, dragging out the word. Dan sighs fine, and we take off walking in the direction the particles came from. 

After a couple of minutes of walking we find a bright purple portal with the particles floating around it. I look over to Dan and his bright green eyes are lit up with fear. 

“Hey, you okay man?” 

“Y-yeah, yeah, I-I’m fine.” I give him a look and he says, 

“Maybe we should just go, I mean, this is cool, but you’re gonna want to go in the portal and I’m gonna have to follow you then everything turns into a big mess.” 

“Very true. Which is exactly why I think we should go in.”

“Thanks for agreeing with- wait what?” 

“We should go in!” I say excitedly, already knowing my hazel eyes are filled with excitement. 

“I- uh- I don’t think we should-” 

“Please, come on man, you need some excitement in your life.” 

“Ugh, okay, but I have excitement in my life, remember when I put paprika in my soup?” I don’t answer as I step into the purple abyss. I close my eyes as the world starts spinning around me. After a couple of seconds I feel my feet hit solid ground again and I open my eyes. I hear a sound hit the ground behind me and I turn to see Dan laying on the ground. I laugh a little and realize how cute he can be. His knee high socks he wears all the time, the birthmark on his neck visible because of how short he cuts his black hair. 

“You good man?” He just groans in response. I take a look around us and see boiling lava just over a cliff edge. 

“Woah baby, Dan get up, like now.” 

“I’m up, what is-” After a couple of minutes I turn around to see Dan watching a giant monster. His face looks like half a pig, the other a skeleton. His clothes are engraved with gold, and a sword is at his waist. His eyes are a burning red, and he looks mad. 

“What is that?” I ask, dumbfounded. 

“I’m not- I don’t know.” Dan answers, equally as confused. The monster turns and sees us and starts toward us, growling something in a different language. We start to back up as the half pig half human man walks toward us. My foot falls over the edge of the cliff and I quickly bring it up and regain my balance. I look over to Dan and remember something. I yell over to the scared boy, 

“Jump!”

“What? Are you insane?!” 

“Just do it!” I yell before falling backwards over the cliff. I feel the wings I’ve kept hidden on my back open and I soar upwards. I fly past the cliff and see the pigman with a sword raised over his head, ready to strike Dan. I quickly grab him and feel the monster's sword fly past my feet as I fly away. 

“What's going on!” Dan asks, fear and excitement mixing in his voice. I find a ledge and land on it, putting him down gently. I tuck my large black wings behind me and they melt back into my skin, making me look normal again. 

I sit Daniel down on a large mushroom and explain everything, about how my wings are a part of my heritage. 

“My dad came from here, I think. He had wings just like me, but he kept it a secret from my mom, but one day when she came home from the store, she saw me and my dad. I was just learning how to use them, and my mom was furious. She didn’t understand why he didn’t tell her, they worked past it, but I promised my dad I would never use my wings in the human world again.” 

“Radical.” Is all Daniel can say. 

“I think it’s best if we head home.” 

“Yeah.” I unfold my wings from my back and lift myself up in the air. I grab Dan and pick him up lightly. I fly us back over to where the portal is, the pigman left, thankfully, and I set us down. After folding my wings back, I walk into the portal and close my eyes until I feel my feet on earth's ground again. When I hear Dan behind me I turn and look at him, 

“You can’t tell anyone about my wings, okay?” I whisper to him. 

“What, why not?” 

“Because people found out about my dad’s wings and they killed him.” 

“Oh, oh wow.” 

“Do you understand?” 

“Y-yeah.” 

"Good, now lets go home." I say as I start walking back towards where we came from. I stand at the edge of where we jumped from and open my wings again, feeling how sore they are from lack of use. I stretch them out as far as they’ll go and and breathe deeply through my nose. I turn around, 

“Are you coming?” 

“Oh, sorry, I found this thing.” Dan says, he says, holding up a large crystal. I walk over and touch it, and it feels like the ground comes out from under me and I try to yell. I feel my feet touch solid ground and I look, Dan’s stands across from me and we look around, I touch the wall in front of me and I see that we’re back home. 

“Oh man, that was cool!” We exclaim at the same time.