Dragged out of heaven

It had been at least three thousand years since I had last quit the premises of the casern. I was singing with the rest of the garrison as usual, when I felt something strange inside of me. I did not have a word for it, but after all this time, I grew... tired of this. Unsettling. I did not have more time to ponder over it, because something awful grabbed me tight. I was swiftly pulled back, going through the marble white walls, the verdant plains, the crystalline lake.

Plunged in the water, I fell inexorably, incapable of getting out of the iron clutch or reach neither my sword nor my shield on my right hip. Suddenly, I crossed the portal that was closed three thousand years ago, into the inter-dimension. As I left paradise, I felt violently ill, for I wasn't used to having a physical form anymore.

I kept falling, unable of evaluating time or distances. Then, I got pushed against the dimensional wall made of pure scorching energy that burned me intolerably. I wanted to scream, but having no control over my body yet, I could only feel the pain as the wall distorted, stretched, didn't want to let me through, breaking my back and burning my wings.

At last, the barrier yielded in, and I fell once again. Surrounding me, a vast blue space seemingly infinite. Wrapping me whole, the wind was screaming in my ears, whipping my painful skin, and I finally took my first breath in thousands of years ;

I was on earth.

I passed through clouds and exited them completely drenched, still falling without being able to move or turn around ; but I controlled this body now. The temperature rose as I lost altitude. I passed through a flock of birds, scattered and scared by my intrusion, and I witnessed as they reformed ranks, incredulous, while I kept falling.

Finally, the grip that held me tight let go of me. Turning around as quickly as I could, I realised a huge stone-like building raced towards me. I clumsily spread my bruised wings, but had no time to really slow my fall down. So I folded them back, grabbed my shield and rolled in a ball behind it, hoping to attenuate the shock. In a loud crash, I blasted through the roof and crash landed on hard floor. The deceleration was dizzying, but I was free at last.

I stayed prostrate for a bit, before trying to get up. Arduously, painfully, I finally stood. Around me, a dust cloud dispersed nonchalantly. Cries of panic were muffling the blaring of a distant alarm. When the dust finally settled, I could see hominids running around trying to flee, others glaring at me, motionless, and I could sense their terror and disbelief.

I didn't know much outside of the battlefield, but I knew that nothing could go through the dimensions since the gates had been closed. Being so suddenly and violently out of paradise was inconceivable to me. I didn't know what I was supposed to do ; it was not my role to think, it was the role of my superiors.

The commotion died down progressively, the alarm stopped, and I could feel dozens of stares on me. The sudden silence was deafening to my ears, used to the never ending paradise choral.

My attention set on a mortal with wide opened blue eyes and an aura bouncing inward from terror, standing a few meters away between two taller humans. I felt their terror transform into surprise, their aura changing ever so slightly.

In a split second, I placed my shield between my face and my assailant on my right. A loud clang resonated through the vast building as something impacted on the surface of my rondache, propelling me several meters backwards. I kept my balance with a flap of my wings and took advantage of those few seconds to draw my sword. As I lowered my shield, I finally saw the creature that pulled me from paradise ; A huge pile of formless and suppurating flesh, with on its front a gargantuan pit garnished of razor sharp yellow-y teeth. On the top of the thing, two enormous orange eyes oozing a repugnant liquid seemed to look at me, and multiple crooked horns covered its back.

A ridiculous amount of clawed legs and arms carried its body with difficulty, one of them pointed at me, probably what nearly decapitated me. Fear and panic filled the air once more and I could see from the corner of my eyes humans running around, flailing their arms in an attempt to escape faster.

The monstrosity let out a gruesome and guttural growl, and started to bulge as it engulfed metric squares of air. Suddenly, appeared on my chest a luminous filament, delicate psychic thread linking me to the blue-eyed human from earlier, who still stood in the same place, having also noticed it.

While the human started to lose his composure, I admired this fragile wavelength for a few seconds, before noticing that the deformity wasn't in fact sucking the air, but the energy fiber. When the mouth closed on it, I felt my psyche being stabbed by the cruel teeth. Facing the pain, I plunged towards the enemy, while the human fell to his knees, howling in terror and suffering.

Sword and shield forward, I avoided a first attack thrown on my left, deviated with a stroke of my shield a second limb on my right, slashing it with my blade. Either from the pain or the surprise, the creature dropped the link, leaving my psyche free again, and with a swift movement, I stabbed the eye closest to me.

The disgusting sound of suction was followed by a horrendous howling, hurting my eardrums. A clawed hand abruptly clenched my waist with strength, making me let go of my sword, still planted in the eye. I was then crushed against a wall behind me, which shattered on impact. The choc emptied my lungs, and I heard a crack from my right wing.

For an instant I only felt a slight sensation of tingling, but when I finally breathed in, the pain exploded in my head, radiating in my whole body, before I once again got flung across the room, finishing my course inside the foul mouth, simultaneously dropping darkness and teeth onto my painful body. I was barely saved by my wedged roundel, preventing the putrid mass of flesh to crush me completely.

The grasp released when the jaw lowered, and shredded my injured wing when it got up again, as I was unable to fold it to safety. I needed three mastications before regaining enough composure to make my move. When the mouth expanded for the fifth time, I placed myself between two rows of teeth and readied my right arm. Without my sword, I only had one chance. As the mouth came down again, I used the last of my strength to hurl my shield where the brain should have been, as far as I could, until I could no longer move.

Crushed under the lifeless carcass of the beast, I wished I could just go back to paradise. I needed several minutes before deciding to move. Being completely numb, I could ignore the pain, but I needed some time before being able to lift the deadweight, pull out my shield, and wriggle my way out. I let myself fall headfirst to the ground.

The light blinded me at first, but then I saw a crowd of hominids slowly getting closer, their fear fading into excitement and interrogation. I closed my eyes for an instant and tried to heal my wounds, unsuccessfully, though it didn't worry me in the state I was in ; It had never been my specialty. From the corner of my eyes, I observed my surroundings ; the ceiling of the vast building seemed ridiculously high, and a long alley stretched to a wall at least twenty meters away. Next to me, the wooden walls supported by wedges did not reach the roof.

The first humans finally started to approach. Leading the procession, the blue-eyed one with whom I seemed to share a link for some reason, which might be the same reason for my presence here. I should probably get up, but I neither had the strength nor the will to do so, and settled for slightly rolling to the side. The radiating pain in my wing immediately made me regret having done so, and the humans stopped when they saw me move.

Blue-eyes started to talk and seemed to address me. The language seemed fairly simple, but having no base knowledge of it, I didn't understand it. I however registered every word, each intonation, in order to decipher it later.

"Are you going to die ?” There was concern in his voice. I would like to reassure him, but as I tried to move, pain nailed me to the ground. him and two other humans approached with hesitation, and finally knelt beside me.

“Has someone seen the med-pack ?” Asked the one with short light hair. his eyes were grey and his face covered in freckles. From the crowd gathering closer and closer, a voice drew his attention with a "Damien !" -maybe his name- and gave him a small satchel. He took out some kind of phial and started to empty its content, an aqueous ointment, on the open wound of my wing. The liquid fire made me regret the worst moments of the last holy war, and for an instant, I almost thought I'd lose consciousness. I'd like to scream, but I held on, not wanting to scare the terrans away.

“When is rescue coming ?” Asked the third human, kneeling near my head. He had long brown hair hiding his eyes, and I felt his fingers brush my halo, making me shiver. I reflexively tried to catch his arm to stop it, but only succeed to hurt myself and scare the humans.

“Woah, okay, I won't do that again !” He exclaimed as he stepped back, hands in the air. Another human stepped out of the crowd, skin almost as dark as mine, smaller in frame than the others, and knelt too. His long dark hair were tied in a ponytail, and when he spoke, his voice was soft and high-pitched.

“They won't come, Denis called them and the police, but they thought it was a prank call.”

“You told them the truth ?” Exclaimed my alter-ego addressing the crowd, from which a powerful but flustered voice answered “I panicked !”. Damien kept pouring the scorching medicine on my cuts, so I tried to divert my attention from the pain ; I didn't know why I was connected to a human being.

I was solely educated to the art of war, but I did know that simple soldiers such as myself should not be linked to anything. Although worthy of every torture of hell, Damien's ointment had the merit of being incredibly effective : I felt my wounds slowly healing one by one, though it might only be my own recovery ability, because I could feel my healer's perplexity as he searched for the lacerations. Soon the only sequel left of my fight was the broken humerus of my wing.

“Well,” I suppose it's for the best. I don't even know how we could have explained the situation. And there is only a bone to set, it can't be too difficult, right ?” After a brief debate, the crowd seemed to accept whatever Damien proposed, and another human came to kneel by my side. The bottom half of his face was covered in hair the same shade of ginger as his head hair.

“I've healed birds before, I can make a splint.”

“And I have a first-aid certificate, I think we can make it work”, said the soft-voiced hominid. Here is what we're gonna do : Damien, you hold this wing, while you, Salama,” -another name, I thought-, it instructed the human who touched my halo, “you hold his feet. And you Cal,” -finally, the name of blue-eyes-, “you'll hold the head.” The three mentioned started to move ; Salama took hold of my calfs and grounded them to the floor, tousling the feathers of my ailerons. Before I could protest, Damien blocked my left wing in a tight grip, The ginger one planted a knee in the middle of my back, and Cal took my head between his hands, and I could see him struggle to avoid touching my halo. I was pretty sure of what was going to happen next.

“Ready ?” Asked the brown human. I felt everyone's hold tightening, and I tried to divert my attention on Cal ; There must be a reason why we were connected. An audible crack cut my breath away, making my heart skip a beat in my chest and a chill spread through my body, covering me in cold sweat. Mobilising all my will not to dismount my passengers, I couldn't suppress my scream, and I didn't stop until the pain died down a little and my throat burned.

“It's over,” I faintly heard Cal say through a haze. I couldn't feel my body anymore, and I guess it was for the best. Sounds seemed to get farther and farther away until unconsciousness won me over.