Levana

Weapon in hand, Levana pressed her back against the tree and silently sunk down into a crouch. Using the shadows to her advantage, this time she was not only able to stealthily approach her quarry, but did so before the other competitors. Levana never did like these war games, but she wasn't going to let herself be defeated and humiliated by her peers. She already caught enough trouble for being noted as a genius but even more so for being different from the other angels.

Her black wings were seen as a mark of the damned by heaven's society. On her first day at the academy, she had stones thrown at her by the students and was looked down upon by the instructors. The teachers did not come to her rescue, they never did. Why would they save the weed that grew in their garden of perfection? So Levana had worked hard to do her best and earn recognition from her oppressors. She struggled to make them take notice of her, and finally was gaining a place as an equal amongst her peers.

She was a quick learner and was gifted when it came to recalling the information from years past; because of this she was recognized as a genius which served to only to anger her peers. This plus the fact that she had been selected to become one of the angels of death, made them very jealous.

Her peers made the mistake of thinking that she got that position because of her adopted father, but in reality she had been made an angel of death because of her wings. Heaven's society had recognized her as a genius and instead of giving her a position near the Seraphim Council, they had tried to place her as far away from them as possible. Because of this misunderstanding they would attack her out of jealousy, but this motivated Levana to learn self defense. So she started participating in some training in the art of war for the angels of death with her superior, Azazel.

-------------

The leaves swayed above nearly masking the sound of the crunching of foliage underfoot. Her target was close. She shifted her weight over to her left to peer around the trunk. Not but fifteen feet did he stand, Azazel, her senior and the target for today's lesson. His slender yet muscular frame was a marvel to behold, his long black hair and silver eyes were more than enough to captivate women of all types, but even dazzled some men. However, this wasn't the time to be drooling over Azazel's masculine beauty Levana knew this better than anyone. She could sense the intense aura that engulfed him; his warrior's spirit was overwhelming, he was like a trap that was about to spring. She would have to approach carefully or else she would suffer the penalty of his additional strict practice session.

Levana slipped lower to the ground and slinked her way behind some shrubbery to get a little bit closer for the attack. Azazel shifted causing Levana to freeze in place. He scanned over the surrounding forest. A twig snapped and he swirled around to face the direction of the noise. This was her chance.

She sprang out and whipped her bo staff around. Azazel twirled about in a blur to catch the staff with his left hand just before it caught him in his right shoulder.

She released the staff and fell back towards the ground to catch him in a roundhouse kick. Azazel blocked and dropped the staff, which Levana caught on her way up and began delivering blows.

He did his best to guard himself from the assault, but she had the advantage of being smaller in size and lightning fast.

She managed to knock him off balance when she noticed a shadow on her left. Levana just barely evaded the spear hurled by one of her peers from the darkness of the forest, and sprang back giving Azazel space to counter the newly arrived opponents.

The two angels seemingly materialized out of thin air between Azazel and Levana sending leaves into the air as they began their attack. Levana defended herself from the onslaught waiting for an opening in her opponent. Azazel with his centuries of experience easily defeated his opponent and started with the offense against the second who was preoccupied with Levana.

Azazel threw the angel a distance away. Levana spotted her opening and caught Azazel. She flipped him and pinned him against the ground. Exhausted from the game, Levana sat back to catch her breath. Azazel let out an exasperated sigh.

"Good job," he murmured. Azazel then picked himself up from the ground and yelled out to the other, "that's it for today!" With that the war game was brought to an end.

-------------

Azazel was the most knowledgeable when it came to fighting amongst the angels of death. He often accompanied Lucifer to the field to wage war against the demon beasts. Levana had admired him for his strength throughout her childhood, but she dared not to hope for the chance to enter his circle of companions: Belial, Samael, Sariel, Asmodeus, Astaroth and the glorified Morning Star, Lucifer. As a group, they were some of the most radiant angels among heaven, and a lowly black-winged angel of death had no place around them.

Levana picked her way through the garden corridor wandering more than decisively making her way towards Uriel's study. The garden way was a longer route than that through the academy, but this way was less populated which reduced her chances of having an unpleasant run in with her classmates.

She reached the old wooden door, knocked and pushed her way into her adoptive father's sanctuary. As usual he was reading, but with her entrance he glanced up and motioned for her to sit and wait. She took her place and scanned over the spines of the books on one of the shelves.

She was thankful that Uriel had taken her in twenty years ago, but she couldn't help but to feel that her presence was unwanted most of the time. Levana had seldom seen the softer, gentle side of her father, but instead usually bore his strict authoritarian parenting and struggled to gain some acceptance or love in his eyes. It was a tiresome task, but she knew that he cared on some level and just wished to see some kind of token of his love for her.

Uriel set aside the document he had been reading and looked up to meet Levana's eyes. He then turned to pick up a set of scrolls and handed it to her.

"I need you to deliver these for me. This one is for Raphael, and the other needs to be taken to Sariel. Please take care of it."

"Yes sir," Levana replied. It was always like this. Uriel rarely talked to her unless he had some chore for her to do. She gathered the two scrolls from his hand and excused herself.

Sariel and Raphael, she thought. She didn't want to see either one really. Raphael was probably conducting some inappropriate physical exam on one of his female clients. She really didn't want to walk in on something like that. While Sariel was just intimidating; she might as well be bashfully approaching Lucifer himself than to draw near the quiet and shining Sariel. She could never tell what he was thinking behind his pleasant words and gentle smiles. Sariel never showed any displeasure or anger for anyone, which made him seem all the more inhuman.