Reality Island

       I was walking along the rocky shore of this foul island. The waves smell of my dreams. The waves scatter them around my feet and then take them away, constantly tormenting me. Even the winds, my last comfort, have been warded off. They refuse to give me reassurance anymore. I look up at the sky and stare. A blackened tear rolls down the side of my cheek. I wipe it before the demons hidden in the leaves come to tease me. "I hate this place," I said aloud to myself, "I just want it all to disappear!" I run off into the forest as I could hear the demons catching up to me. I look up to see cranes flying up overhead. I hear the beat of the wings and my memories sweep me up into their domain.
I look down and see the island far below me and realize I have wings. The winds are weaving between my feathers and the moon was painting my white feathers a blessed, ghostly white. The ocean spray feeds my wanderlust. I laugh in glee, a strange cackle coming from my beak. I want to continue to fly, but my wings were tired, and the island seemed so green and inviting.
I flew down to the strange island, feeling that familiar rush of air as I drifted down to the ground. The ground was clear now, I could see the green grass. But… It was dimming. The world was turning grey. I look up, stretching my long neck, expecting the bright, full moon. All I could see was a black void. I drowned my world. I panicked, struggling to flap my wings, unsure of what was next. I couldn't see, I couldn't understand what was happening. I flew with every single ounce of strength I could gather, every fiber of my being working on beating my wings, to keep going. My head suddenly parted through the dark cloud. For those few vital seconds, I saw the moon. It was grey, but I could still see the glow around where she touched. I noticed my friends flying onward, not even throwing me a glance. In that instant, right before the tentacles of the darkness came to drag me back into their void, I realized what had happened.
The moon had forsaken me.
I fell through that wretched void for hours. Only one feeling I felt through that time. It flooded me, overwhelmingly so. It was the worst mixture of pain and confusion, coursing through my veins. I finally fell through void, appearing at least 60 feet above the ground, color returning to the world. I kept falling. All energy was gone. Not just from despair, but from the fatigue left from trying to fly out of the blackness. I could not raise my wings. I hit the ground with the most sickening THUNK you could think of. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I didn't want to let go of them. They were all the company I had left. At last, I could no longer hold them. Like my sanity, they started to slip. As soon as one of them left, a barrage of creatures brought themselves forth from the trees. They were black, raven-like creatures, each with four thin silver arms. Their claws gleamed with the same hunger for blood that swamped their eight beady eyes. They were as tall as a five year old child and laughed like one too. I laid there, wanting to run but without the strength to do so. All I could do was watch as they came to me and tore off my wings, scratching into my thin flesh, cutting through it like a knife through butter. Blood flooded the grass. I looked at the grass. Red and green. Like Christmas. That was the last thought before the world once again turned to black.
My mind returned to the present with a jolt. I looked down at my hands, remembering how I woke up after that with the skin of a human being, the ultimate reality cage. Heard the snap of a twig behind be and jumped. Before I could dart away as a deer runs from the presence of the predator, a humanoid creature appeared in front of me in an oily ball of smoke. He came forth from his smokey sphere, bat wings materializing on his back. He was tall and handsome. His eyes were pure black and gleamed in a way that dulls everything else. His black hair hung down to his shoulders, earrings adding splashes of color to his black-as-night strands. He had markings of a Demon Prince on his face. He walked up to me and caressed my face with his taloned hands. The gleam in his eyes pierced my teary ones and I felt my breathes get shallower.
"You are here by a cruel mixture of yours and someone else's fault. Ignorance holds your soul in place. The Pale Mistress's rays cannot reach you because a shadow darker than she can bear has covered your heart." He leaned in closer and my heart beat accelerated. I found him enchanting, such a wondrous, dark, forbidden beauty. Like a black rose with a vow to kill the Beauty for her Beast. "Find that secret that's holding you back. What you can't see is blinding you to everything else. If you can find it, I will return to you your wings, allow you to fly with your friends, and set you free from your human cage." Then he smiled, flashing his brilliant, white teeth. All of which were pointy, ready to tear apart his next victim. A gale whipped through the air, wisping him away in his liquid smoke.
My breathing returned to normal and my heart slowly returned to its normal state. What could I not see? What was shrouding my heart in such a way? What in my heart had the power to hurt me like this?
I knew the answer to the last one. My friends. Only my friends could put such a stake in my heart, but why? Could this be the ignorance that he spoke of? I thought of my friends and was surprised by pain that I had been too busy to remember. A pain shared by The Forgotten. I remembered my loneliness. Grief gripped my soul. A giggle traveled through the air and settled in my skin, only to crawl within it.
I turned around and would have screamed if the demon in front of me hadn't of put its hand over my mouth. In a wispy, dry voice, it spoke to me, "Why do you invite us into your home? We only invade a willing host. We make nest in the dark corners of your heart. Let go your past, set free your pains, let not this fault rest on your shoulders. Our Prince we serve, and he sees promise in you. Set yourself free so that we may serve him. We cannot leave you house unless you open the door." With that he backed away and disappeared. For now.
I decided to walk to the back to the rocky beach. As I crossed across the rocks, I looked down to guide my feet so that I might not hurt myself or trip.
"How will you ever see anything with your head down?"
I looked up and saw the Prince standing there with a look of concern written across his face. "I do not want to trip and hurt myself."
He sighed, "Faith is your guide. Trust yourself. Release yourself." He walked over to me, seized my hand, and led me across the rocks, catching me every I tripped. When balance and trust established itself within me, I noticed the waves seemed to have shrunken to little more than ripples.
"You know," The Prince whispered softly like a breeze into my ear, "You will never find peace if you compare everything to when you first saw it." I looked up to meet his eyes and both loved it and regretted it at the same time. His eyes were deeper, pouring it's oily darkness into my soul, seeping itself into my very being. My breath practically stopped. He chuckled to himself and pressed his black lips against my forehead. "Look at the water again."
I turned and gasped at the sight before me. That wretched beach had now turned into a lake with a waterfall pouring from a towering cliff, its roar just then greeted my ears. I took a step forward and was surprised to have my foot greeted by soft, lush grass rather than dusty stone. In the air I saw three other cranes, two of which were diving together through a waterfall, both glancing me a most meaningful glance… It was all in that instant revealed to me. My agony, caused by what I didn't know was now put to light, and with it peace that I had not felt in ages. A childish voice drifted through my ear, "Thank you for letting us serve our Prince."
In such a euphoria, I called to my friends. I was shocked when I heard instead a bird-like cackle. I looked down to see white feathers and pencil-thin legs. I took to the sky and stretched my wonderful, blessed wings. I turned to see the Prince to give him a thank you but instead saw only the area where he once stood. A minute moment of sadness crossed my heart, but was quickly put to rest as my friends were coming to greet me. I joined them and we continued to fly across the vast sky. Moon came out and embraced me with her silver light. The winds rushed to me, greeting me for the first time since I was stuck at that wretched, cursed, terrible island.
Or was it wretched? The island in itself was quite peaceful. Should I let my memories ruin a perfectly beautiful place? No, most definitely not.
"That's the spirit!"
I looked up and saw a black swan flying above me, disappearing in a ball of smoke. I smiled and flew on, ready to greet whatever else Reality threw at me.