Walking through the crowds, barely pushing her way through the busy bodies that occupied the street, Aceltia was making her first visit to a human city. Adela? It looked nothing like the villages of her people. Cobblestone was everywhere, stalls and vendors lined the streets, salesmen kept pushing their products into her face saying, "Here try this!" Each time this was done, she'd turn and migrate elsewhere, only to meet another. There was so much noise, so many voices that flooded her ears. All she could do is snuggle more beneath the hood of her cloak and wrap it tighter about her. If only she had enough room to unfold her feathered wings and fly above these people, these mobs and herds of people! Her eyes darted to and fro. It was all too strange to her. The crowd thickened, pushing her into a guard. She peered up at him in fright before being shoved away by the people. She was not of the city folk and that was most obvious.
Finally she edged out of the stampede and found a quiet place to sit and rest. Was it a courtyard or garden? She did not know, but it sheilded her ears from the shouting and allowed her a moment to rest after being nearly mauled by pedestrians. Her wings had been crammed against her back and she could feel the light bones in these feathered apendages were strained. With a whisp of what sounded like wind, they were unfolded, lifted high above her in a white array. A relieving sensation formed in Aceltia's wings.
Fleeing from her homelands had not been an easy thing to do. After the humans rampaged in, they had burnt everything. As if that weren't enough, they beat away the lives of the elders, children, and other villagers. The village itself was completely ramsacked and it wasn't possible for her to stay there any longer. Secretly, Aceltia wished that there had been a bloody red sky that day. Something to harmonize with her anguish. Living with the humans was going to be hard enough.
The brown cotton cloak had fallen off of her shoulders so that she could stretch, and now was revealed a young woman with braids in her hair and wings at her back. Blonde fingers of hair fell all around her shoulders. Clothed in traveler's linens, all shaded brown, she wore no skirt nor dress. Her feet were in boots and at her neck hung her keepsake necklace. What would an Adelian think of her out-of-place appearance? Yet sharp blue eyes scanned her surroundings, keener than those of man. In them were many memories and stories that were waiting to be told.
The differences between her eyes and those of men were many. A whole tale could be written on the mystical influence in the eyes of the winged people, but let us not go there now. Yet they were piercing and strong, as if staring into them could mean the exploration of all your secrets and truths.
Aceltia had one desire, and that was to live. To live life fully and to be free. No vengance, no bloodshed. The past was sealed with the present and the future. She clung to her left wrist and stared off into space, thinking as she did often. Just daydreaming, wondering, and questioning. In her mind spun a many questions at this point. Where would she stay? How would she carve out a life here? Would the humans pursue her for her wings as they had done before? Her only self-made conclusion was to avoid attracting attention to herself, to stay secret and hidden, and to hide her wings.
