Zosk POV

It's been a few weeks now since I first grew out the wings upon my back. They are getting pretty big by now and are getting much harder to hide and flub off. I’ve been asked a few questions on why my shirts were so epically huge or why I couldn’t really settle in my seat. I didn’t like the idea of lying to everyone but I did anyway as I wanted to keep my wings a secret for as long as I could.

Somehow I managed, even with my parents. Not sure if it was how I was able to flub my way around them or if cause they didn’t want to see them, as they would be something different. Either way, I was happy. I got to keep my little secret hidden.

Heck, I’m only a nine year old kid at the time, so how the heck was I able to keep my wings hidden for as long as I did? Maybe it was just part of the whole adult thing that many people do, which is to mostly ignore your children and let them lead their lives their own way. Only times really being there for them when they really need.

One thing I did do, while in those last few weeks of school, keeping my wings hidden and everything else going on such as plans for the summer break, was to start researching more into my wings. I started to collect feathers from them whenever I could. Which in this growing phase, I lost and regrew feathers quite regularly.

Yeah, I know it sounds kind of ish, but I pretty well much went through my first ‘molt’ maybe only two weeks after growing my wings. Pretty well woke one morning, thankfully on a weekend, with my bed just covered in feathers and my wings already sporting new down.

I didn’t even know what molting was till I came across some references to it in my research. All I knew at the time was I had to collect all the lost feathers and place them somewhere before anyone could suspect. I did keep a few bigger feathers to use in my research but the rest, I just quickly as I could, before being seen hopefully, was to just simply throw them away in the trash. Kind of wasteful I know but didn’t want questions being raised. Like if dad got mom a new feather duster and was already losing feathers, kind of thing.

I didn’t hide the research I did that much. Mostly just trying to flub that off on a new interest I had in birds. If it was learning something, my parents and school teachers were all for it. So long as it didn’t interrupt my other work.

Nearly gave my wings away once when I brought one of the feathers I had collected to school. My teacher mentioned that it had to have been one of the biggest eagle feathers she ever seen. But then eagle feathers were not that common to collect so she asked me where I got it. I flubbed it off on finding it in a park. Pretty well much shrugged off but oh well.

Which made me want to know more of which bird, if any, my wings resembled. I learned quite quickly, that they were more like a hawk’s or eagle’s than any other more smaller birds. Tended to lean more towards eagles than hawks given the coloring of the feather itself. It had this ‘golden’ brown look and ‘feel’ to it. So maybe a kin to a golden eagle? Possibly. They were one of the larger birds around with other eagles being close to them. Bald eagle or sea eagles being close in nature to the size but not the right color. At least, size in what I could see in a mirror. Yeah, getting a good look of my wings when I could was a real problem when I wanted to keep them hidden. I even shocked myself a few times in the mirror whenever I glanced at them.

And don’t even get me started on how I showered with them. I learned quickly that cleaning my back, even with the back scrubber, was difficult at best and worst, impossible. A wing or the other would get in the way. And they flopped around like crazy in the shower stall which made for more of a hassle. Fun stuff for sure…. I wasn’t even sure how to clean them or even if I should use soap. So I added that to the research as well, flubbing that off as maybe being interested in getting a pet bird one day.

I learned there that I should just use the spray from the shower water and it should be good enough. Yeah, no real angels or other winged people to ask that I know about. If there is another winged person out there, somewhere, they haven’t made themselves known.

Another topic of my research was learning how birds fly. I made my focus on eagles more than the other birds to learn from them. I learned quickly, from watching videos of people on the ground, in gliders or slower moving aircraft, that the eagles flew more not using their wings but more using the air currents themselves to glide upon them. They flapped their wings only on occasion and that mostly for take off and getting into the air or landing. Other times it was mostly to maintain height when an air current couldn’t be found.

So I hoped I could fly like that once I learned how to fly…. that is if I could fly anyway.

I took every opportunity I could, in the biggest rooms I could, while staying hidden from everyone else as much as I could, I extended my wings and flapped them. Not hard or anything, mostly just to get motions down and to give my wings exercise. One advantage I had over birds was the human mind. Even as young as I am, I’m able to make some complex understanding and reasoning. Limited maybe but not overly so. I was hoping to use the knowledge I learned and exercising I did to help me when it came to trying out the real deal.

One thing I did do though in all of this was to wait till school was out. Even if I was to try flying on a weekend, I wouldn’t have much time to really fly. Plus, with everyone going off on vacation over the summer break, I was also much less likely to be discovered with my wings while trying to fly if I wasn’t flying already. So I just waited.

In the time, my wings grew even more so and was almost next to impossible to keep them hidden under my shirts. I also ended up with a hole in one of my new shirts. And I was dreading clothes shopping with mom as I could pretty well much guarantee at that point, my secret would be revealed. I would have to face the music sooner or later though…

I guess it was also here where I started to think that I needed to get away from everyone. You know, irrational thoughts and all of children. I just had to get away before I could be discovered.

But first, I needed to learn to fly.

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A couple of weeks have passed. My wings grew out quite quickly, almost doubling in size over night it felt like in that time. School had ending for the summer so at least I didn’t have to worry about that. At least, not till later.

My primary feathers when I sat at my desk had taken to starting to peek out from under my over grown shirt. No one ever really asked cause desks were too close together in most classes anyway. Music class, we usually stood in…. Or I sat near the back if we did sit. I didn’t really care much for music but well, it was required. Physical education was the hardest part of keeping the wings hidden. But somehow I managed to go unnoticed. Either way, I’m glad school was now over.

My mom still kept her job and was tempted to get a sitter for me. Dad still worked full time. But it was decided I was old enough that I could fend for myself for the few short hours my mom was away at work.

I took this time though to well, start testing my wings. So I started taking to just running around our short back yard with my wings extended. I ran a huge risk doing this with the neighbors though both were gone for the time being. Early summer plans and all that. Getting caught by my mom or dad was another risk I took but well…. I made sure I had quick ways to hide my wings in case of such emergencies.

One thing I did do in these wing extension exercises was to take my shirt off, less it be ripped when I opened my wings. It took me a bit to get use to not having it on. But my running around and slow wing flaps helped to keep me from noticing I had no shirt on too much.

I also took to wearing shorts. That mostly just due to the warm weather than anything else.

So I ran, flapped, ran some more, flapped some more. Rinse, repete, think you get the idea by now.

In one of the many ‘laps’ I did in the yard, I thought I felt my body lift from the ground for maybe a second before I was off running again. I wasn’t too sure if this was the case, but I kept at it.

I decided to do something daring a few days later. I decided to climb the tree of the neighbor’s, with my shirt off, and try leaping off a branch or something. Kind of like how birds would do it. Or at least, fall from the tree. If I landed hard on the ground, well, that was a thing that happened to birds too.

So I climbed the tree to a good distance. I then climbed out onto the branch then extended my wings. I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to manage getting far enough away from all the limbs of the tree. But I just decided to take my chances. I leaped off and started the fall.

I flapped my wings, kind of wildly at first, hitting other branches with them a few times. But I thought I felt something happen. I closed my eyes, expecting to hit the ground while trying to keep myself calm… to slow the pace down.

I opened my eyes back up again. I saw that I was for the most part, gliding. I had somehow gotten away from the tree enough to glide in the air on my wings. I did flap them some to gain height, or at least I hoped to before I crashed into another tree or a house as things were kind of coming up pretty quickly.

After a few attempts and a little bit of a drop in height, I was able to figure out the flow of being able to fly, quickly.

I was ecstatic that I was flying. I flew and flew…. and flew some more. The joy I had, the wonder, the amazement. Really not sure what else could top this.

Though what came quickly, also ended pretty quickly. I landed, none too cleanly, back in our backyard. I had somehow had a very uncanny sense of direction, I just simply could not get lost.

I put my shirt back on, went inside, showered and cleaned up before pretty well much facing the rest of the day and evening once my parents got home.

I did this everyday as much as I could for the next month. I learned what I could to better myself, to get better lift off as well as lifting off from the ground rather than at height. I still had a ways to go but at least now, I could fly. I was happy.

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Author notes:

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