I Have Wings!

Sera's third life began much as the second had, with the feel of her chest expanding as she drew in a first breath. Once again, her ears rang with the echo of a multitude of voices that gradually faded until all she heard was the rustle of leaves stirred by a gentle breeze. The air smelled clean and fresh. The world beyond her closed eyes felt pleasantly warm. She lifted her head towards the sky, enjoying the feel of the day.

And her body jerked to it's feet of it's own accord and let out a high-pitched squeal of delight, bouncing on its toes. The eyes opened to a bright day and a blur of colors that resolved quickly into the canopy of a tree. Or many trees. The bright flash of an enormous bird swooping downward sent Sera backpedaling in alarm. That thing was easily big enough to pick her up and eat her.

"No wait!" someone shouted with Sera's mouth, but the warning came too late. Sera pitched over the edge of the platform she hadn't realized she was standing on fell. She screamed, even as her body contorted jerkily until she was facing the ground.

'Great, now I can see my death coming,' she thought sourly, even as she noted that the ground was a very, very long way away. Far enough away that she would probably hit terminal velocity long before she hit the ground. Not that it would make any difference to how much it would hurt when she came to the abrupt halt at the end of the fall.

But the body twitched again--and why was it doing that, acting on it's own? The last body hadn't done that--and the muscles of her back burned as alien parts spread and caught the air, slowing her descent from a plummet to a plunge and then a rapid glide. Sera turned her head to look back over her shoulder and her mouth fell open in surprise.

"I have wings!" she blurted out.

"WE have wings," someone corrected, and Sera's jaw dropped even further. The wings shifted again and Sera's fall slowed even further, then they shifted and she curved to the left, towards another platform in the trees. Realizing she was about to land, Sera tried to brace for the impact, but discovered too late she was working against her body. Instead of a semi-graceful landing, she crashed awkwardly onto the platform and skidded a few yards.

A severe-looking woman with deep blue skin and knee-length burgundy dreadlocks eyed Sera with distaste from where she sat on a wide swing. There were two large baskets at her feet, a smaller one on the swing at her side, and a swath of snowy white fabric in her lap. As Sera lurched awkwardly back to her feet, the woman raised an elegant eyebrow and dropped her attention back to her sewing.

"Is there a problem, Sister?" the severe-looking woman asked as her needle flashed through the fabric. Sera sighed inwardly.

'Names,' she reminded herself. 'Learn names this time.'

Which was easier said than done. How exactly was she supposed to--

'That's Sister Peach,' supplied the voice she'd heard earlier. From inside Sera's head. And then it said out loud, "No, Sister Peach, there's something wonderful!"

Wait. Was this body's original inhabitant still here?

Sister Peach's eyebrows rose even further, but she didn't look up.

"Falling off your meditation perch is wonderful, is it?" she asked. Sera's head nodded itself up and down as someone else's delight pinged around inside her head like a pinball.

"Yes!" the other person said, and Sera felt her face beam. "I have a Traveler!"

Sister Peach snorted in disbelief. "Ridiculous."

"But it's true!" and then the voice thought fiercely, 'Say something!'

'Like what?' Sera thought back.

'I don't know. Anything,' it said. Then with more enthusiasm, 'Anything you say will be brilliant! You're a Traveler, after all!'

But Sera couldn't think of anything to say, particularly when Sister Peach snorted again and instructed, "Well, you and your imaginary Traveler have caused enough disturbance today. I am sure you have duties to attend to, now that you've finished with your meditations."

"But Sister Peach--" began the owner of Sera's body. She . . . wait.

"I--we--aren't a boy are we?" Sera asked, looking down at her new body in alarm. But no, this newest body appeared to have the usual female parts. That was a relief. The wings were more than enough to adjust to. She examined her hands, noting they were a pleasant shade of pale lilac, with short, ragged fingernails and numerous calluses. The body was wearing a sleeveless white linen tunic that fit close to the body, matching white linen trousers, flat sandals that laced up to the knee, and a rainbow-colored woven belt. Her hair was dusty pink and worn in dozens of narrow, shoulder-length braids tipped with bright multi-colored beads.

Curious, Sera twisted to look over her shoulders and get a better look at the wings, but they were folded up. After several minutes of awkward movements, she finally managed to stretch them out for inspection.

Fully extended, the wings were a good thirty feet across and twelve feet from top to bottom. They were fleshy, like a bat's wings, pale lilac at the base and along the spines and shifting to shimmering silver at the outside edges, with delicate streaks of dusty pink

'I know, they're ugly,' thought the woman this body belonged to unhappily.

"They're beautiful," Sera disagreed. She felt the body blush, and a rush of pleasure. 'Err, what's your name?'

"Sister Forty-Six, stop preening--" Sister Peach scolded, only to cut herself off as she frowned at Sera. Letting the fabric she was working with fall into one of the large baskets, she slid off the swing and walked over to Sera, brow furrowing. Sera awkwardly folded the wings back down, slightly embarrassed at being caught admiring herself. Sister Peach circled her slowly. "Pull your wings in. You aren't a slattern."

Sera tried, but a glance back over her shoulders told her the wings still weren't folded in properly. She felt like a toddler who was still trying to figure out how her own hands worked. Sister Peach finished her circuit around Sera, still frowning.

"Sister Forty-Six, I said pull your wings in," she said harshly, the warning in her voice unmistakable.

Sister Forty-Six snapped the wings out and back with quick efficiency.

"Hmm," said Sister Peach.

Cringing slightly, Sister Forty-Six sidled towards the edge of the platform, saying, "We'll just go do our chores--"

But she froze and fell silent when Sister Peach held up a finger. The other woman peered intently into Sera and Sister-Peach's shared eyes for several long moments. And then said slowly. "You may go."

"Thank you, Sister Peach," said Sister Forty-Six with relief. She flashed a brilliant smile, darted to the edge of the platform, and leapt fearlessly off into the empty air beyond. Sera shrieked in fear, but Sister Forty-Six snapped out their joint wings and they descended in a leisurely glide towards the ground.

"Do you not like flying?" Sister Forty-Six asked. And while Sera was considering her answer, she asked, "Oh, what's your name, Noble Traveler? What is your home like? Have you visited many people? You're not disappointed with me, are you? I'm not a very good novitiate yet. Why did you pick me? Do you really think our wings are pretty? Are you hungry? I'm hungry. Should we get lunch?"

"Yes, lunch would be good," Sera interjected, and she felt the glow of Sister Forty-Six's delight. Sera smiled to herself, glad the other woman was happy and apparently unbothered by a random stranger riding along in her body. A heartbeat later a gust of wind caught their wings and knocked them aside. It was then that Sera discovered Sister Forty-Six was no longer in charge of the flying as they began to tumble through the air. "Help!"

Sister Forty-Six tried to take control again, but Sera's panic was overwhelming and they continued to fall, crashing through leaves and small branches until they slammed into a branch large enough to bring them to a halt. Sera clutched at it even as she struggled to drag breath back into their shared lungs. Peals of deep laughter rang out from below. With a scowl, Sera turned her head towards the sound.

There was a man standing a little below them, on another branch. His branch was wide enough to drive a car along. Maybe two. As Sera looked down at him he grinned back up at them.

'Oh, Goddess,' Sister Forty-Six whimpered in their head, her soul curling into a humiliated ball. 'Why did Three have to see us?'

Mixed up with the humiliation was a messy tangle of admiration, lust, excitement and panic. Someone clearly had a crush, Sera concluded, amused. She eyed Three thoughtfully. Though she'd never seen him before, there was something familiar about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

He was tall and lean, with broad shoulders and well-developed arms. His skin was forest green and his shoulder-length braids were peacock blue. His face was long, the nose pronounced, and his mouth was thin and wide. His cheekbones were high and sharp, his narrow eyes were bright gold. Like Sister Forty-six, he wore white linen trousers and a tunic, but his belt was a pale leather instead of woven cloth and supported a pair of long knives, one on each hip. Instead of sandals, he wore soft leather boots.

"Nice landing, Six," he said, smirking. Sera decided he might have been handsome, if not for that smirk. "Are you stuck up there?"

"You could help us down," Sera said waspishly, as she wriggled back far enough to slid off the back edge of the branch. A glance downward confirmed the branch below was wide enough that she could land safely on it, so she let go.

Three caught them, holding Sera and Sister Forty-Six with their feet dangling above the ground. Solely to demonstrate his physical superiority, she was sure.

"Put us down," Sera demanded.

"What will you give me?" Three asked.

"Put us down, or I will kick you in the balls," Sera said flatly, and Three burst out laughing again and let go. Sera landed with a thump on the branch and stumbled backwards. She would have fallen off the branch if Three hadn't hastily grabbed the front of her tunic and dragged her back to safety. Inside their shared head, Sister Forty-Six whimpered in fresh humiliation.

"You are such a clutz, Six," Three said, shaking his head. "You shouldn't be let outside without a leash."

He sounded just like Sera's ex-husband, when he got started on all the ways Sera was inferior, and she fought the urge to curl up into a mental ball right next to Sister Forty-Six's mental huddle. Or smack him. Both seemed like equally good ideas.

"A pre-pubescent tweenager is a better flyer than you are—"

That was the last straw.

"Oh really? Let's see you do better," Sera said icily, and shoved Three off the branch. Three screamed shrilly as he fell, limbs flailing. Sister Forty-Six stared in frozen horror.

"Why isn't he flying?" Sera asked in alarm a second or two later.

'He's a boy,' came the answer.

"So?"

'Boys don't have wings.'

Well, sh*t.

"Let's go get him, then," Sera said with a sigh, and dove off the branch after the man she'd pushed.