Bad luck

[Jade Margery]

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the air was warm, and the people of the capital city were hustling and bustling like only happy city people can. Jade strolled through streets, floating like a petal on the current of human emotions around her. It was market day, or maybe every day was a market here. Wooden tables bent with the weight of their merchant's wares and men and women shouted over the throng from beneath colorful canopies. Jade was shoved around a lot, but she didn't mind in the least. She was a rather average-sized person, with dark curly hair and skin just dusky enough that in her simple clothes she was easily mistaken for a peasant from one of the outlying farms. As long as she kept her light-green eyes to the ground, she was barely noticeable, and that was how she liked it.

The call of a bird drew her gaze, however, and she quickly located a crow perched on a rooftop across the street. Something was glittering in between its talons. Jade's face split into a grin almost too wide for her cheeks and she hurriedly made her way through the crow to a thin passage between that house and another--the sort of tiny alley that no cart or horse could get through and thus was only used by local residents. Once there, she whistled softly. The crow obediently dove off the roof and landed near her on top of a storage crate.

"Craven! Craven, ye good lad. What 'ave ye got for dear Jade now, eh? Somethin' shiny, have ye?"

The crow cawed proudly and relinquished his hold on the object, which she picked up and examined hopefully. Alas! Though it gleamed like a gem, it was just a cheap metal button, lovingly polished but utterly worthless. Jade sighed and scooped a few kernels of corn out of her pocket to feed the eager crow. "You did good, lad, but ye've got to stop bringin' me junk. Can't you get it through your little skull what's worth stealing and what ain't?" Craven didn't seem to be paying attention to her. He tilted his head comically and then burst into the air, flapping wildly to get away. Jade, startled, took a step back into something that was very large, very alive, and very much grabbing her neck.

"Where's th' coin, you little rat?" The person behind her threw Jade forward into the alley. She hit the ground and rolled slightly to face her assailants.

"Ah! Tuh-Torent! And Gabel! How g-good to see you!" she choked, massaging the back of her neck with one hand.

"Shut up." snarled the one named Gabel. They were both tough, thuggish men, the sort who aren't very bright but can lift heavy things. Jade had made their acquaintance, as well as that of their wealthy employer, the night before.

"If this is about the Zirnden debt, I told yer boss I'd have his coin today. And I will! Just not right now, today. But I'll pay him back as soon as I get it, I promise! There ain't no call for, uh, arm twisting or, or anything rash, you know?"

Torent was cracking his impressive knuckles and grinning. "Boss says you owe four thousand golden beauties, rat. Looks to me like you don't have 'em, 'less yer keepin' 'em down that blouse of yours. Maybe we oughta... check."

[ZeroWrath]

Surrounded by the very essence of white, Xander stood all alone in a field covered in white lilies. Flowers had always calmed him but now made him uneasy; everywhere he looked he could see them turning red. The blood of the others he had killed was quickly becoming a floor, engulfing the flowers, sucking under any petals that dared to float up, the smell of death wrapped around him as the thick crimson fluid rose to his knees. Looking around in such horror, the sky turned pure black and bodies rose from the still rising blood. Walking towards the winged angel, their hands stretching out and grabbing him, pulling him under the liquid now an endless ocean, he didn't choke but he couldn’t see, he could still feel all sorts of hand and claws pulling at his clothes, deeper and deeper.

Xander opened his eyes felt the grip on his body release and the feeling of falling down war replaced by a rapid movement upwards. Twisting his body in a blind panic, eight lights morphing around him. Finally regaining his focus he looked upwards seeing a green blow in a mass of blues. Falling head first towards an island, Xander twisted some more, trying with all his might to flap his wings at least once but failing miserably.

'Is this still a dream?' He though on his long but rapid decent, tears forming then evaporating into the heat surrounding him, the longer he looked and watched the green blob become bigger the faster it seemed to get closer. Twisting in the air, spiralling towards the island, accompanied by a mass of feathers He fell, the golden light still surrounding him, he made another attempt to use his 6 powerful wings but nothing happened, there was too much wind, this never happened in heaven so why now, where was he.

His short un-neat hair blew in his face, going in his bright orange eyes that stared, fixed on their final target. His black and white baggy clothes shifted violently in the wind, his 6 pure white wings stayed behind him, unable to spread out. Using what little physical strength he had he brought his head up, moving in the air, levelling out, he had actually slowed down a bit, but the real challenge was his wings. moving his legs in front of his body, gave him a little bust of slowness, Just enough to spread his wings but it was too late, without noticing it he was a few meters from his target, he had fallen into a mass of grey brown and white, falling between two buildings with his wings stretched out he slammed them hard, Breaking one of the smaller wings that kept balance he spun into the wall of a building that knocked him into the opposite wall, breaking another wing before using the remaining wings to slow himself as much as he could with a single powerful thrust, scraping them along the walls before crashing into one in the corner. The impact forced a circle of the bricks inward but a few had fallen out onto the angel in agony.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" the fallen angel cried out after so long of not being able to talk because of the wind, The stone around him burned and cracks branched out around him, he still had a golden light around him but it was quickly fading along with the glow of the scorching rock, only barely visible through the raised dust from the collision.

((I hope this is ok. PM me if I should change it.))

[Jade Margery]

"Let go of me!" Jade half-screamed, fumbling for the dagger she kept inside the hem of her skirt. Torent was twisting her other arm painfully, lifting her into the air with one gorilla-like hand. Both he and Gabel were grinning nastily. They were getting some sick pleasure out of her pain, evidently.

At first none of them heard the whistling sound, too preoccupied in their own scuffle to look up into the sun for whatever was hurtling down towards them until it was almost there. Jade saw it first, her upturned face shadowed by the plunging body. For a moment her immediate situation was forgotten. What was that??

The thing--person?--hit the side of one of the buildings with a sickening crunch, knocking shingles and dust and small bits of bricks onto the three of them as it careened off the sides of the narrow walls and landed in a cascade of gold and flame, screaming in fear or agony, she couldn't tell. Jade could hear people crying out inside the buildings as great dents were left in the structures. Windows were opened and curious eyes found them. She was suddenly aware that her arm was free, and that Gabel and Torent were escaping to the crowded street. Her own shouts would never have roused the locals, but as this falling feathered person had, they wanted no witness to whatever they were about to do. They would be back though. She looked down at the already bruising flesh of her arm and shivered.

Luck. Maybe it hadn't been with her at the fights last night, but it was back this morning, thank the stars. One deus ex machina, please and thank you. So what was this new form of salvation?

She stepped carefully over the rubble and knelt beside the body, one the likes of which she'd never seen before. Six beautiful white wings--some bent at impossible angles--splayed over a body clothed in white and black. He was... glowing? But it was growing fainter. Did that mean he was dying? She got on her hands and knees and lowered her head to peer into his face, searching for some sign of life. "Pray sir, are ye yet living? T'was a dreadful fall you had, though I'd be damned to know from where. Do ye need help? Can ye stand? Or speak?" What are you? she wanted to ask, but felt it wouldn't be polite to cross-examine someone who might be dying.

[ZeroWrath]

Pushing his weak body up off the floor, struggling every inch of the way, he raised his limp head after a few false starts, he could hear something right in front of him but just like his vision it was blurry and made no sense, the more he looked the more he got a headache.

The ground around him was still warm as he sat up, occasionally stopping and scowling at nothing, trying to ignore the sights, smells and sounds around him; it was completely overwhelming, there was too much of all of it. There seemed to be a blur moving in front of him getting closer, but he couldn’t make it out, his eyes couldn’t handle so much colour closing them to rest he tried to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. Kneeling on one leg and resting his arm on the other, he tried to open his wings but feeling a huge shock down them all ended up breathing heavily, growling tucking his head down.

Opening his bright orange eyes he looked around, the falling dust the person in front of him a few a small congregation coming too see what the falling golden ball was, all filled his vision and his eyes narrowed, he had gone breathless from the shock, it was rare that he saw more than 5 people at once, never mind at least a dozen all brightly coloured in his opinion. The next sense to come back was hearing that was completely flooded by distant sounds, so many alien things going on. The immediate shock had passed and he was able to take another breath. His eyes met the woman’s beside him, he scanned her slowly but didn’t know what to make of her, Throwing his body the furthest distance he could from her, grabbing at the wall to keep him steady he raised a hand and 8 beautiful, sparkling golden orbs appeared in front of him.

“What are you!?” He demanded, not hearing the woman’s previous questions. The orbs formed a circle and began to spin, as if waiting, there was something menacing about their beauty. The fallen angel began to push himself up the wall, keeping one arm stretched out but occasionally dipping, how could he live, never mind stand. Where was he, what were these wingless creatures and why is it so dark? He had many questions to ask but he didn’t even know if he was under stood.

[Jade Margery]

"Whoa there! In't no cause fer hostility, see? How 'bout you lose those dancin' divine death balls so we can converse like civilized people, eh friend?" Jade had backed a pace away to avoid the spinning orbs. She held her outstretched hands in front of her, showing she posed no threat to the strange being before her. Her pale green eyes caught his orange ones for a moment, and she was surprised at the confusion and strangeness in them. They weren't human. Not at all.

"I'm a person, since you asked. What you are, I've got no clue. But you're hurt--any fool could see that. Though from as bad a tumble as ye've had, I'm right surprised you're still breathing. Did ye fall from an airship or somat?"

Whereas most alley-way incidents excited a passing curiosity and nothing more, the angel's otherworldly appearance and battered state was beginning to draw quite a crowd of onlookers. People were pointing, shouting, laughing, gossiping, jeering, watching. They had never seen anything like him before, and weren't likely to again. It seemed that Jade alone realized the danger he might pose. Privately, she thought he might have hit his head more than he was letting on, and was perhaps suffering from a concussion or amnesia. Although his wings were undoubtedly crippled, he seemed otherwise unhurt, though by all rights he ought to have been a bleeding mass of pulp after such a fall. This bespoke a great strength, one that could be accidentally directed at anyone in his confusion.

"My name is Jade. I know not what ye are, or where ye fell from, but you are injured. There be a temple not far up the road where yer... uh... wings could be splinted." As his timely descent had saved her lucky behind, Jade felt some interest in his well-being. How she might get a six-winged celestial through a crowded market street was not yet clear.

[ZeroWrath]

With great reluctance, Xander began to move the orb’s away from the similar yet wingless creature. He was once again able to think straight, he had calmed down; he would have been fine if he hadn’t of open his wings, but as the woman mentioned it, he felt a sharp pain dance around on his nerves.

“I fell from a field, the lord blessed me with his protection for the decent, but he will not be so kind in the future, I......I....”

Xander fumbled into silence, he couldn’t even bring himself to say what he had done, to take another’s life is the greatest sin, and he had several counts of it. He didn’t know why he had been spared; only that his own lord must follow the same rules he expects others too.

When hearing of a temple, a realisation came to Xander, he knew where he was, he had been banished to the mortal plain, because he knew temples were created to worship the lord in all his forms.

“Take me!” he interrupted as he heard the word. Before he even gave her much time to finish he had already formed the orbs into blades and sent them rushing towards the exit. He had already committed the greatest sin multiple times, he didn’t like others to begin with and his mind was currently not working how it should be, he wouldn’t really mind slaughtering anything that got in his way. He had a penetrating stare that needed him to say no words, it spoke for itself. ‘Do as I command or I will kill you worthless being.’

The blades had stopped near the entrance, not impaling anyone yet, but that would be changed if the crowd dared to fill in again.

[Jade Margery]

"OI! STOP THAT!" Jade shouted above the sudden screaming stampede of people, all bent on getting out of the way of the floating blades. She stepped between the angel and his magic orbs, putting her fists on her hips in the most obstinate feminine manner possible. Normally Jade would be with the crowd, getting the hell away from the crazy guy with all the wings, but she wasn't afraid of him. He was going to need her.

"I said there ain't no need fer hostilities! 'Ave ye got feathers stuck in your ears or something? Quit throwin' a tantrum and threatenin' innocent people, or you can find the temple on your bloody own! An' good luck with that in this town! I d'know where you come from, but here in Scara Brae we don't try to impale people fer curiosity!" She stomped her foot and glared at him, almost daring him to try to stab her with the blades.

"And as fer your 'lord', well, I'll have ye know the temple I'd had in mind belongs to some goddess o' fertility and health. If that's gonna be a problem, we could drag yer molting butt another seven blocks over to the Temple of Zid, God of Poncy Twits with Homicidal Tendencies. Ye'd feel righ' at home. Now are ye gonna behave or what?"

[ZeroWrath]

Xander looked at the domineering woman in front of him with some perplexity; no-one ever spoke to him like that, ever. All were equal in the lords realm, but that was why he was banished, if he was not in that realm, he could be killed by others, even the divine's themselves, but if all people on this plain were as...as...Interesting as her, he didn't see himself lasting long.

"Forgive me, my lady, I am...frightened." Xander said with the look of a child, blushing slightly in embarrassment and breaking eye contact, he had always gotten his way but he wasn't about too loose his temper, there was no point.

"Uhh....any temple will be fine, they all worship the lord in the end." he hesitated to say, he knew he had wronged her and felt that asking for a favour was stupid but he tried anyway.

The orbs of pure golden light flew to Xanders side and began to rotate and dance around his body, compared to before; the orbs seemed innocent and playful.