Those Without Wings

    The sun rose over the coast of a beach where a man laid in the sand. As the dawn cusped the land, it awakened a weary man. Blood ran down his face from the top of his skull glistening with crimson and sand. He shielded his eyes from the sun, looking side to side only to notice broken wings laid out onto the ground. White and feathery, they glowed in the light of the dawn as they eroded away. "What the..." he said grasping at the dust as it blew past him almost magically dancing and moving off out of sight.      "What was that?" A woman came walking up on the beach. Something was odd about her but he couldn't put his finger on it. She was pale and her eyes were bloodshot like she was dead or ill but she spoke perfectly normal. He looked up "Where am I?", "You're in Zereth, Where else would you be?" she spoke facetiously. "I'm sorry do I know you?" he sounded confused by the way she was speaking to him so comfortably and judgmental out of the gate. "Nope" she smiled and continued, "just happened to be strolling by and thought I'd fancy myself by gawking at a corpse." The man raised an eyebrow in confusion "I'm not dead but it seems you have a knack for f*****g with people." He looked up to see her smiling playfully. "What's your name?" he asked. "The name's Reah. What's yours Mr. dead angel man?" She hopped forward in the sand and put her hand out for a formal handshake. The man got up with a grunt taking her hand "good question"      "Well that's odd. Did someone hit their head falling from heaven?" she let out a chuckle. If he didn't know any better he would say that this pale awkward woman was flirting with him. Placing his hands on his head, he felt a painful wave pulsating through his skull and he flinched a little to the touch. "What makes you think I'm an angel?" he asked. A sudden rush of a memory came to his head as the word angel left his lips. He saw a man looking down upon him and speaking with authority "I hereby strip you of your wings and cast you to the earth.". He snapped back to hear Reah talking "I'd call that an angel". As the thought came to mind he frantically reached around to feel at his back. His wings were the ones that faded to dust. that memory was the only thing he had left and the rest was a blur. The big question here was: Why? His eyes went back to the woman and at this point, she was pretty much his only hope for getting any help around this place called Zeref. "I don't mean to come off as rude but what are you? you don't really look human." He blurted out. "Well no s**t sherlock. I'm a zombie. You know, classic tale of crazy father trying to use magic to save his terminally ill daughter. Yeah, that old wives tale. Story of my life. Now, what shall I name my sand covered boy toy?" She put a finger to her chin emphatically as if she was actually brainstorming names. "Boy toy?" he asked brushing sand off of his body self consciously. "Easy tiger I gotta call you something" she gave a deceptively innocent smile. " I'll just call you Terran. It's a rather ironic name. As far as we're concerned, you're just a human now. Terran is just a word for human. I think it's kinda funny." She let out an awkward laugh. "Haha very funny. Now what's the plan?" Terran grunted in pain. "you're the one with issues. I'm just along for the ride" she smiled. "Are you trying to waste that life your father gave you?" Terran retorted. "I'm immortal you dip shit." she burst into laughter.      Reah continued by laying out some options of directions that they could go " Let's see... To the east of here is a college of mages which is mostly bureaucrats and stuck up rich kids who flaunt a power that a good chunk of the population can do anyways even without schooling. But a little monster like me walking through those doors wouldn't likely bode well for anyone. To the west is the holy kingdom which is just a full kingdom of people that dip their bibles in lubricant and shove them up their asses to feel closer to a god that just tells them to go around acting like they're better than everyone. To the south there's the dragon territories which takes balls even for an immortal to go for a casual stroll through there. Up north not too far from here is a hole in the wall shithole village run by a tattooed douchebag. North from there is actually outside of the Zeref territory". "Well s**t. I must've stumbled upon quite a gem of a place haven't I?" Terran said sarcastically. "Well you did fall from the sky. I'm pretty sure you're immortal too." Reah added as Terran looked at the landscape. "Yeah I don't really wanna test that theory so let's go north." Terran suggested. "Thieves, elves, and assassins here we come!" Reah shouted in a seemingly sarcastic but festive tone. Terran shook his head thinking of how long this journey would feel.      Turns out the town wasn't very far away. Just a hill and a bit of forest and they were there. On the way Terran asked Reah "It really doesn't seem like there's anything but water in the east. Is the mages college an island or something?". "Nope. you gotta just follow the coast and it eventually puts you east. The college is pretty far east from here so it would be a few days to get there. It seems like we'd be going north to get there but eventually it turns off and becomes a straight shot to the college." Reah explained.      When they reached the town Terran was surprised to see that it looked less run down than Reah had made it out to be. It looked like a bit of a shithole but it wasn't at the low that he expected it to be. There were lots of people and a market that was thriving with business. Trees surrounding the town and the worst part to the eye were just the homeless people around town and how run down they looked just trying to get by. As they walked through the market, Reah tugged at Terran's Shoulder "so what now?". Terran didn't respond as he just stared around at all the diversity of races living in such harmony just in this place. "don't gawk newcomer. It's unbecoming for a human." Terran heard the voice of a woman behind him. "He's not human he's a..." Reah was cut off by Terran nudging her. "Don't worry. You're not the only one with secrets in this town" the woman still whispered from behind Terran. He turned to see a light complexioned woman with brown hair shrouded under a hood. "What brings you to Delenoth?" she asked. Reah tugged at her cloak "excuse me Ms. witch lady.". Terran braced for a fight because of Reah's presumptuous outburst. The woman simply pulled off her hood to reveal vibrant, piercing green eyes that shimmered in the sunlight as she turned to look Reah in the eye in response, "What's your name" Reah smiled. "My name is Julia" she responded calmly to Terran's relief. "the name's Reah" she reached her hand out to shake Julia's. "She's can be a bit of a psychopath sometimes" Terran joked. "Hey Mr." Reah Scowled. This caused Julia to chuckle a bit. "I'm not sure where I am. I just woke up on the beach and I figured the closest town would be my best bet to figuring out what's going on with my memory" Terran found himself being strangely honest with this stranger. "Well the coven deals in such spells to help with such issues but they aren't fond of humans. If you want their help you'll have to show them you're not. Relatively simple seeing that humans are feeble creatures without anything special about them. Dwarves have ingenuity, elves have magic, orcs have strength, and the list goes on. They've even been know to help the demon race." Julia rewarded Terran's honesty. "Thing about that is" Terran paused, "I don't know what I am or how to prove it. Let alone who I am." Terran's voice got lower. "Come with me. There's a tavern not far from here." Julia signaled. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cut things short but I had a feeling that the wrong ears my be trying to pry in on our little conversation. I thought it safe to not take it any further unless in a private place." She took Terran's hand as she led them through the crowd to the tavern. "Hey he's mine! What are you doing?" Reah said as she tried to keep up. "we'll get a room and talk there." Julia said ignoring Reah. When they got there, Terran checked his pockets optimistically to no avail and Julia pulled out a coin purse to pay for the room. Before either of them could do anything, Reah put some gold coins on the tavern's front desk "your best room please." Reah looked over to Julia with a devilish grin.      A drunk man came up behind Reah and slapped her ass "nice ass bitch." he said with a chuckle in his mouth. Reah turned around to look at the man with a look of disgust "holy s**t guys, she's a zombie" he burst into laughter and Reah sent her fist through his face and sent his faceless corpse flying across the room. "Don't f**k with me. I have no feeling and that includes empathy for little piss-ants like yourselves. Do any of you wanna take your shot or are we done. She looked to the man's group of friends and they just quivered in fear. She threw a couple more gold coins at the tavern owner "for your troubles" and she took the key from him and started walking towards the room. Terran and Julia just followed her without a word.