The Visitor

Watching a maple leaf descend from its branch, Chibi too felt as if he was in mid air, floating among the autumn leaves. Chibi is a kid from the Arken tribe, famous for its aiming capabilities of the hunters and the fillies (females) of the tribe have a unique flight ability with bewitching feathers that come to life in the spring season and when the dry and cold season arrives, they transform into warm and shiny scales.

Last spring, Chibi went to the unfolding of the flying season with his mother, Asa and grandmother, Tori, he was old enough then to be a spectator of such an event.
His mother made him sit in a cabin up in the woods and went to perform along with Tori. From that standpoint, he could clearly see the centre of the field where all the females of the tribe were gathering, from sleek to fat, from tall to short and from teen to the elderly. All of them with their wings slowly expanding in their magnificent adornment and the show began by them flying high in the air, one after the other in circles and waves.

Chibi felt elevated by the sight of it, and a desire blossomed in his heart, the desire to fly, and dance in the clouds just like them, he imagined how grand it would feel to be able to go so high in the sky, he smiles and came back to reality and as he looked around himself, every other spectator was awestruck. Amidst the crowd he noticed a man, dressed in a coat made out of feathers, distinctive, just like the fillies but without the glow in them, as if those feathers were dead but still bleeding color. 

Chibi, even after clear instructions from his mother to not move out of the cabin, he, like any other kid, paying no heed to what is said, left the cabin and walked up to the man.
He walked past a batch of other children he plays with in the evening, all of them praising the talents of his mother and grandmother. He smiled and rushed towards the man, only to realise that the man had vanished. He looked and looked and looked all around but failed to find the feather man. 

As he started to walk back to the cabin before his mother returned to look for him, he saw a fallen spike from the man’s coat, he picked it up and kept it in his jacket’s inner pocket and ran back to the rendezvous point as pre decided with his mother.

As both Asa and Tori returned to the cabin space to pick up the boy, they were getting all the appreciation of the world in their way. Watching this Chibi leaped into his mother’s arms and questioned up straight, Can i too fly someday?

Time passed, Chibi is little grown now, and the next spring is about to start. Tori is quite sick though, she knows her time has come. He comes to visit her, she has always been a confederate for him. He sits beside her and reminisces the days of his childhood. She tells him alot about his father and grandfather, “how brave archers they were, and how they fought in the ‘Battle of Rust’, against the delinquents who wanted to burn all the vegetation in our world, murder the innocent and rip apart each and every feather from each of our wings.

Many seasons ago, in their first attack, they managed to capture two sisters just before the spring was about to begin. They held them hostage in return for food, for a long time and then when spring arrived and the sister’s wings started to expand, they saw the beauty and were blinded by it, it is said that they were not able to withstand such magical instance, they murdered the girls and snatched all their feathers from their skin and then covered themselves with those feathers and danced like maniacs. The villagers got the news and a search party left at once to look in the forest for the maniacs or the bodies of the girls but none of them found anything. A few days later a visitor came to the village drenched in blood, when questioned about the blood, he said he had killed the maniacs, nobody believed him but then he took out the feather veils those maniacs were wearing and then people started to wonder if it was true. The village gave him food and shelter, of course a good bath first. He sooner was accommodated in a small hut at one end of the village, where he stayed until he was healed completely. All this while, the villagers had started their journey as warriors to make sure that no one can attack them again. Women started to make the boundaries strong and develop new fighting skills while men started surveilling the surroundings for any potential threats and introducing the arching skills to the young.

The visitor made himself familiar to a lot of houses, he started collecting the feathers and the scales. He said he wanted to decorate his hut, but we never saw anything. Sooner his appearances at the village gathering decreased. Around that time the attackers visited us once again, but this time we were prepared. Your grandfather led the frontline to defend the village and your father was a young archer. They fought and fought hader, Me and my companions were keeping all the expecting ladies safe, including your mother. When the battle was over, we lost a lot of men but won the war. We were never attacked again.
The villagers gathered to celebrate the win and mourn the dead,  and that’s when everyone noticed that the visitor had vanished, leaving the hut as a barren piece of land. It was discussed that his hut will be emptied and cleaned so that anyone else can be accommodated in it in times of needs. One couple took the job of cleaning it and went straight inside, a lot of people were sitting outside of it and waiting but they never came back, some time after another set of brave hearts tried to enter the log house but they too, never came out of it. Since then that area is locked and forbidden to even go around.

Last spring, after the unfolding event, when the oldies sat together, someone told me that some feathers of the first victims, the two sisters, were scattered in the forest. People are afraid something bad might happen. So hear my son, and hear very carefully, you need to be your mother’s armour, as she has a unique set of wings that can fly higher than any normal filly and shines like gold in the light of spring.”

Upon hearing this, Chibi asks, “Mother, i promise to stay by ma’s side forever, but there is something troubling me, last spring, i saw a man dressed in a feather coat, a dead feathers coat and he vanished as i wanted to reach him, but i found this in the ground, a feather from his coat.”
Tori looks at the feather and instantly recognises it, she asks him to tell his mother that she wants to talk to her and that he might have seen the visitor and if what he is saying is true then it is a matter of concern. Chibi tells her mother how urgent it is for her to see tori and she rushes back. Tori in the last moment of her life looks to Asa to make sure she knows the truth, that she understands that it was not the visitor who killed the maniacs but he was the one who killed the girls, and wore their wings. He was the maniac who danced in their blood and he came back to the village to schedule his next attack, to snatch feathers from his next victim. And Asa was in danger as she has a distinctive pair of wings and not only that but also Chibi has been in his sight. Tori asked Chibi to give the feather he has kept for so long to Asa, so that she can keep it in the right place. 

Educating everyone of the truth, Tori herself passed away just at the beginning of the spring, she was the most beautiful deceased of the village, with her wings in all her glory.
For the unfolding event, it was suggested to give a tribute to Tori, her carcass was kept in the middle of the field and all the fillies started their ritual.
That’s when it happened, Chibi started to mimic the flight dance of the troup and a man started talking to him from the shadows, “Don’t you want to fly like them my boy, don’t you? Is it not that difficult, come let me show you.”

Chibi went with the voice and there he saw he was alone in a hut at the corner of the village with dead wings and glowless scales lying all around him. The skeletons of different men and women were hung on the walls as if they were a piece of art. The floor is dark due to the dry blood that was spilled a long time ago. And then he met him, the maniac, a man double his height standing in front of him with a wide smile and wrinkles all over his face, talking to him in a low tone, “Boy, oh boy, I wonder just as you do, if i can fly like these impure dames do. I killed my own men and stole all the feathers But my wings don’t shine and my scales don’t glow. I tried everything, the sacrifice of love, the devotion of blood but nothing worked. Now it’s time to spill some innocent blood. For making this set bling like it should.”

Chibi begged him to spare his life, his mother waiting for his return. Maybe she might help him in his problem without anymore bloodshed as she has the most vivid set of feathers.

The visitor has seen how magnificent those wings were, and instantly agreed to the offer. He planned to visit his house and murder both, the child and the mother.
They walked back to the ground, where the show was still at its apex, unable to control his desires he rushed to the centre of the field and started dancing and tapping his feet.
But as he was struck in the formation of the fillies, he realised that this is some ritual. A ritual of the dead. He turned and looked around when Asa came and placed the dead feather of the sisters on his chest. Before he could comprehend more, he was lying on the ground. And the dead were rising. He was stabbed a million times by feathers and scales, tori rose from the dead and casted a spell. The hut he haunted, burned to ashes and he was dusted with gold and sparkles all around the field.
Asa came to the ground and hugged Chibi, telling him how brave he was and now the village is rid of any fears. Tori’s death was not ordinary, it inspired people to do more, more than just living. The village is now decorated, back in its sunrise and protected by the dead.  

Chibi finally had the experience to fly high, when all the fillies decided to appraise him by lifting him up in the sky. And is now a trained archer who can aim from high above.