#1-15

Growth

As he blinked away the sparkles in his eyes, he noticed a tiny creature in the soil, only a few hundred meters away. He shouldn't have sensed the minor difference, since the leaves barely made it to the surface, yet.

As he leaped from the tree he called his home, he felt a subtle inner pulse coming from the so far purple plant. His curiosity led him forward, crouching down next to the new neighbour, removing a twig from over it to give it more space to grow.

Is anyone listening?

"Hello, little creature" he whispered, barely recognising his own voice. It's been months since he felt like talking, and out here alone, nobody would care anyways.

The boy gently caressed the little plant, and as his ears picked up a new noise coming from the west, he gracefully jumped back onto the tree, hiding between the branches.

Eartlhy pleasures

He liked watching the fragile ones arriving in his forest thinking they know where they are. It was an adorable sight; expression of expertiese on their faces while looking for treasures they believed to be hidden. He could barely contain his chuckle when the old man and his dog dug out a mushroom from the soft ground, congratulating themselves on the achivement, while nature gave them the treat willingly.

He remembered the time he fought dragons and drank wine to have fun and shook his head, with nostalgia caressing his skin with a warm tingle.

The view from up here

A few minutes passed, and he turned his eyes the other way, looking at the mountains as the morning sun gently discovered them again.

Sometimes if bored, he would rearrange the clouds, write ancient stories with their shadows on the top of houses and fields of grass. His language was so old, that noone would recognise the signs, not even seeing them from their fancy airplanes and helicopters.

He only stopped when the flowers below started crying for more light, or not even then. The boy knew they were strong and could take his cruelty, as he took part in their pain and multiplied it for himself. It was only fair.

Obsession

He has always been drawn to the concept of pain, himself being incapable of feeling it, only when he stole it from others. It was a curse he had to fight when he moved to the realm of the humans as they called themselves.

Many have died who tried to help him understand what they were feeling, and many more who did not have such desires. The boy had to learn how to balance on the thin line separating as much as possible from too much.

It took him decades to silence the urge and take control of himself, but he still had to keep it in his mind every day, it being the most important part of his endless existence.

Chemical reaction

His thoughts were interrupted by a creature flying in his field of vision, softly caressing his face with tiny waves of air as it flapped it's tireless wings. The colours once hurt his eyes, but by now he got used to the vibrant presence visiting him every morning.

He held out his hand and let the butterfly take a rest on his skin, reading his very being with its sensitive receptors. He was amazed by how swiftly their conversations went compared to using actual words with beings of speech. This was a more defined way of communication, putting a faint smile on his face.

Hometown

The friendly insect reminded him of his own people. Sometimes he dared to wonder where they might be, since he was torn from them at a young age, not knowing the way back home. It might have been for the best, as sometimes he was too much for himself alone. One more like him around would turn his world upside down.

As he felt the butterfly say its goodbye, he sent one nod to the creature, and he spent a few minutes staring after it. The boy couldn't explain how they got along so well; maybe it was the forest connecting them, maybe the lack of words spoken, or even as something silly as the fact that they both had wings.

Natural light

As another human walked by, he stepped behind a bigger branch to hide himself. It was hard to live a low life when you have shiny wings attached to your back, but he didn't mind it at night. The Moon was his friend, showing him the way to his prays, presenting a clearer path than the Sun ever could.

In his new position, his attention was drawn to the purple flower that appeared close to his tree. The glowing coming from inside it has quited down, but he could feel the pulsing energy coming from it becoming stronger. Something was not right.

Parasitic

As he flew closer to the living thing about to bloom, he tried to remember where he felt this power before. It sparked long forgotten memories, but it was all just a blur, a smudge on the edge of his mind.

As his feet touched the ground, the energy ran through his bones shaking his core, so he flew back up, his wings desperately trying to take him further from danger.

As the purple flower opened up and the petals reached out to wrap around his body, he ralised his mistake. It was too late.

Heaven/Hell

The boy tried to push on the walls around him, and as someone who once fought with the most fearsome monsters this world is a home to and won, they should have at least budged. Never before felt panic reached his throat, as he screamed for help - to whom, he had no idea.

The flower's petals covered him in a liquid that glued his wings to his back, and as he struggled for freedom, his lungs hurting from the toxic air around him, his skin started to burn as his screams slowly died on his lips.

Submerged in water

As suddenly as it started, the choking hold on him started to ease, and he slipped down from the petals. He had no control over his body anymore, had no strength to fight.

As he fell into the pool of liquid underneath, he waited for his body to rise to the surface. He knew the parasite wouldn't kill him. It needed his life energy to stay alive, just as he needed to hunt every night.

The boy took a gasp of air that immediately got stuck in his throat as new thoughts started to flood his mind, none of them his own. He was connected to the flower, and with it, to all living things.

It was overwhelming.

The city

How long it took him to finally breathe, the boy didn't know. He felt all emotions of the world at once, and it took all his remaining sanity to not let himself go mad because of them.

He was floating on the surface of the water, his wings completely destroyed by his struggle and the toxins, and all he could do was to rebuild his mind from the ashes.

He envisioned a mountain of dust that swirled around like a hurricane, as it felt closest to what was going on in his head at the moment. He carefully reached into the hurricane, grabbing one tiny dust particle at a time, and got to work.

Pink, like your brain

As the last grains of dust found it's place in his creation, he admitted to himself in his agony that he should have seen it coming.

Ignoring signs and taking rush actions has never been his luckiest move, but somehow the parasite got the best of him. Maybe he was finally getting old.

Otherwise how could he have missed the colour of the bud, vibrant blue energy from the planet itself staining the clear innocence of the pink flower growing all around his home. He tried to shake his head.

Euphoria

The boy realized what was making him so disoriented. Even tho his wings still felt usual, a distant part of himself while crumpled and sticking to his back, the rest of his body was in pain. Actual pain that was not stolen from an outside source; it was coming from within, making his nerves shiver with anticipation.

Tho it was still nowhere near to his usual preference, the agony that itself is capable of pushing one out of existence, it was still elevating his mind to unknown heights, opening up new possibilities.

Maybe almost being squished to death wasn't so bad afterall, he thought.