Angel Dust by Aurora Morgenstern (summer beach reads .TXT) 📕

We stand at the far edge of the mountains plateau, right next to the staircase. My stomach is in anxious knots, maybe I shoud have told Michael I am afraid of heights before he dragged me out here. Supposedly this is my first flying lesson.

"Tell me again why we can´t do this from the safe ground?", I ask my voice shaking nervously. 

"Have you ever seen birds learning to fly? The mother pushes them out of the nest. i promise you it´s way easier this way. Trying to lift yourself of the ground is way harder than what I plan to teach you now. Gliding.", he has a cheerful smile on his face, he is really enjoying this. In the four days that ahve passed I have gotten to know him better and I think I have warmed to him a little. I certainly respect him more but that does not mean I trust him when it comes to jumping off a mountain plateau.

"But what if I do something wrong? What happens if I fall...wait can i die? i mean am I not technically dead already?", I focus on these questions rather than the looming edge.

"Since you are a very young angel, yes you coud die. Your soul would then pass on to the garden where you would spend all eternity. See so even if you fall, which you won´t it would all be fine. Now trust me and jump!", he urges with a dazzling grin in my direction.

"Say I did jump, what do i do once I´m you know falling?", I inquire carefully, not making any promises about the actual jumping part.

"You open your wings, I´ll explain the rest once we het to that stage. It´s really easy, your instincts will kick in"

"My insistincts are screaming at me to back the hell away from thet edge I´ll have you know, Michael", I have to almost shout due to a sudden strong surge of wind.

"Jump already or I´ll push you!", he threatens and I am unsure wether he is serious or not so I decide I might as well just get on with it. The blood pumps in my veins as I take yet another step closer to the edge and look down.

"It´s easier if you jump from a running position, takes you farther away from the rock and lessens the danger for you to crush yourself on it", he advises. Not helping , I think and clench my teeth together as I take a couple of steps back and break into a charge and jump. After jumping there is the strange sensation of falling, not half as unpleasant as one would think until you realise that the ground is coming closer and closer every second you waste admiring the view.

"Now! Open those wings!", I instantly obey his command and feel myself ripped out of the free fall and I grit my teeth from the sharp pain. The pain lessens as I discover how to adjust the angel of my wings so that the air flows under them instead of through them. I see Michael taking a leap from teh plateau, diving face first downards with folded wings. my heart skips a beat thinking he´s done for but at  the last possible second he opens his wings and surges upwards. Higher and higher until he reaches me and drifts along side me.

"Show off", I accuse him and it earns me a sharp look from Michael.

"Now that wasn´t too hard now was it? You just need to forget abotu falling and you´ll stop being afraid. No try flapping those wings a bit because otherwise you´ll be face first on the ground first that or the wind will drift you off god knows where!", I do as he says and after a few bad failures I succeed in changing my direction the tiniest bit. We glide along side each other for what seems like a small eternity to me. Like every child I used to dream of flying, of just growing wings and leaving. I dreamt fo the freedom wings offered and of beautiful views of the world from above. now that i am living that dream it seems all the more marvelous and exciting than i could have ever hoped to imagine. I glance over at Michael and find that he is flying with his eyes closed, almost as if he is letting himself drift in the breeze. He seems different here, he seems detached and at ease with himself. All too soon my wings begin to ache and I have to rip michael from his daze.

"I don´t think I can keep this up much longer, Michael"

"Fold your wings", he commands and I stare at him questioningly.

"But I´ll fall!", I argue.

"Isn´t that what you said earlier? Trust me, Felice", it bothers me to say he has a point. So I take a deep breath and fold my wings. Unlike I expected I don´t fall, instead I can feel a pair of strong arms wrap around my stomach, holding me tight against him. Now that he is no lounger concerned ith having to look after me, he picks up speed and ebgins to really fly. Faster and higher than I thought possible. I fell transcended from time and space, like a dream everything passes in a blur and I barely notice the cold sharpness of the wind around me. All too soon I feel solid ground beneath my feet again and when I do I feel like weeping. 

"Now what did you learn today?", Michael asks me with a wink.

"Not to be afraid of falling", I reply with a big smile on my face. 

"That´s more like it, we´ll pick up from there tomorro if you muscles will allow it", he promises.

"If my muscles will allow it?", I ask dumbfounded.

"Your wings are new, the muscles aren´t fully developed. You´re in for quite the muscle aches", he explains and what he says clears my confusion. 

"Please tell me there is some sort of magical way to cure muscle aches?"

"Not really, but you´re lucky as an archangel I am able to use my healing abilities on others than myself without having had to work on that skill as long as other angels would"

"You will have to tell me about those special skills again, what exactly are they and does every angel ahve a special skill? Can you ahve more than one?"

"Whoah, easy there. You need to give me time to answer all your questions. But to make it short, yes all angels have skills. You´ll be working with my brother Gabriel on that. We have collectively decided that it might be the best if more than one of us oversees your training. Especially since Gabriel has a lot more patience than I do", I didn´t think that I would meet one of the other archangels this soon. I wonder if he is anything like his brother Michael at all or if maybe they are complete opposites. 

"So what´s he like?", I inquire matter of factly.

"Gabriel is the most empathic one of us I would say, you will like him I think. He is the one that has spend the most time with humans out of all of us since he is the messenger"

"So he´s a people person, when will I meet him to do all this training?"

"Tomorrow afternoon right after your flying lesson with me", he explains whilst walking back in the direction of the house. I am starteled by a flash of black in teh corner of my eye and turn to get a better look but whatever the flash was is already gone. I look at Micchael questioningly, wondering wether I imagined the blur or not. 

"Did you see that?", I ask y voice sounding more than a little panicked. At this point surprises aren´t really something I´m up for. I´m tired after flying and my muscles are already beginning to give me a glimpse of what´s in store for me later. 

"Nathaniel, she saw you. You might as well introduce yourself now instead of sneaking around like a stray dog", Michaels voice sounds a little harsh. I sense he isn´t Nathaniel´s greatest fan. A tall, dark winged figure emerges from behind a rockface I hadn´t even noticed before. Whoever Nathaniel is he has the walk of someone who is sure of himself and I have to admit he has every right to seeing that he is quite attractive.  Is there any angel that isn´t beautiful here or am I damned to be the only one?, I think a little annoyed. Nathaniel is tall and where Michael is all white radiance he projects a darker gloom, like midnight air. His hair is dark brown and a little shaggy, his eyes are so dark they´re almost black like his wings. They are a deep black, the colour of a moonless night and must have been the dark blur I saw. 

"Nathaniel, pleased to meet you", he extends his hand in a friendly manner and I gladly shake it, he seems somehow less graceful and careful with his wording than Michael.

"Kather....I mean Felice", I correct myself hastily. You´re making a great first impression already, I mentally roll my eyes at myself and cover it with a smile. "Nice to meet you too", I add after some consideration. I am possible the most awkward conversation partner ever. 

"Pretty spectecular set of wings you got there", he says and gives me a wink that is surely meant to be charming and it does work in his favour.

"Eh thanks, ditto", well this is awkward. 

" I don´t mean to pry Nathaniel, but aren´t you meant to be running an errand for Uriel?", Michael interrupts.

"Oh yeah you´re right, better get back to it. It was nice meeting you Felice, I´ll see you around", he winks again before taking into flight right from where he is standing. I stare at Michael accusingly.

"You made me jump off that mountain...I could have just done that!", I cast him a glare.

"That takes a lot of training and your wings aren´t strong enough for a start like that yet", Michael replies calmly but I can tell he is annoyed. 

I sit in my room, staring out from my window seat into Michaels backgarden. The sketch pad rests on my knees and I find that no matter how much I try I can´t really get the flowers right. My mind drifts off to images of flying and I soon see that what started as a garden scene has turned into a picture of a kneeling angel with open wings, hair covering the face as he is bowing to something unknown. There is a strange vibe coming from the picture and the longer I stare at it the more distant my mind becomes. There is a tingeling sensation on the deges of my mind and I am unsure wether to give in to the pull or not. The longer I wait the more the pulling sensation fades until it is completely gone. I try to grasp the feeling again but it is definetly gone and i