When Life Gives You Wings

Initiation

The next morning was one of both exhaustion and bliss. For one, Henri had not fallen asleep because it was only 6:30PM when Meda had left. Second; the bed she had slept in made her sink into it and she felt like she was floating on fluffy clouds of happiness.

She hopped out of the bed to greet Meda who had woken her at exactly five in the morning.

Meda curtsied politely. “It’s time to bathe and dress, miss. The ceremony starts at six and you need to be there at 5:45 at most.”

Hanri yawned. “Why so early?” 

“It’s just how it is.” Meda shrugged off. 

Henri nodded. It wasn’t worth her time to say what didn’t really need to be said. She had to be quick anyway since initiation was coming so quickly. There was a near-silent clock hanging up on the wall right above the entrance door to the room. It read 5:07.

Henri rushed by Meda and to the bathroom where she took a quick shower. She truly wanted to try the bath, but feared she wouldn’t have the time. The shower lasted about fifteen minutes plus five for finding deodorant, a hair brush, and a toothbrush and then three more for getting dressed. Meda had chosen an outfit for her. It was a black, skin-tight suit. It stretched like spandex but it was much smoother and it was very form fitting, hugging her very intimately on her hips, middle, breasts, and arse.

Henri glanced at herself in the long mirror beside the dresser nervously. “Um, Meda, why am I wearing this outfit? It’s very uh… revealing to say the least.”

In a matter-of-fact tone, Meda replied, “All maids and servants were told to dress their masters or, in my case, mistress, in this body suit. And here,” Meda attached a blue butterfly to the top left of Henri’s navel. “This is your class. He’ll explain those when you get there. The butterfly is very rare.” Meda looked as though she couldn’t decide whether to be happy for her or to pity her. “Anyway, we only have five more minutes until we have to be there.”

“But what about shoes? Don’t I need those?” 

Meda shook her head “no,” she said. “Shoes are not a requirement. The suit covers your feet enough. Also, leave your hair down. We don’t have time to do anything about it. Now c’mon, we have wasted enough time already.”

They walked out the door and down the corridor. It didn’t take long to turn right and then head down the longer, main hallway. They still had three minutes to spare before everyone would have to be in the main hall. There were signs up in front of lined up benches when they finally arrived into the commotion of the now initiation room. Henri counted six signs in front of six groups of bleachers. 

Everyone else was wearing the same outfit Henri was and nobody paid any attention to the lady and her servant that had just joined everyone. The pictures pinned to the boys were on the left part of their chest, nothing like the girls on the upper part of their navel.

Henri noticed Sam in the crowd and visibly frowned at the sight. He had a snake pin attached to his chest. Fitting for a snake to have a snake. He’s such a worm. 

He was talking confidently to a pair of twins and another girl who was exceptionally pretty. She was bleach blonde and stood there a bit awkwardly. She noticed a green pin on her navel and thought it must be a snake. The other girls had something orange. Maybe a cat or a fox. These two were darker skinned. They looked like refugees from the Kingdom over, but they were very attractive. Sam had good taste.

Looking around, Henri didn’t see any sign of blue on the navel of any of the girls or on the chests of any of the boys. She knew she was definitely going to stand out if she was the only one who would sit behind the bench. On her way behind the sign of the Butterfly, Henri caught sight of many more of the pictures. She saw a lot of the color orange, and came to the conclusion that they were indeed foxes. There were two green pictures in total and the very blonde girl who was with Sam was noticeably a Turtle. Sam was still a Snake. Henri saw people with a white Flower and only a bare minimum of Suns. That counted six in total: Butterfly, Fox, Snake, Turtle, Flower, and Sun. She wondered what the groups meant. 

Henri took a seat in the back of her group bench. It really wasn’t much of a group considering she was the only one in it. Henri noticed a boy sitting behind the sign with a flower on it. She wondered again what the symbols meant. It wasn’t long before everyone had seated and a man walked in. He carried a cane with him though it didn’t look like he needed it. He walked confidently towards a pedestal that Henri hadn't noticed before. It stood only about a foot and a half above the floor and he stepped up on it with ease. 

Looking around, there were a lot of people behind the snake sign and Henri noticed after spotting Sam that he looked far from pleased. 

The man didn’t even clear his throat before he began to speak with no hesitation. “Hello children, my name is Davis, but you may call me Dave.” Dave had a Snake pinned to his chest. It looked to be the most common class so far.

“As you can see, each of you has been given a class. This does not determine your rank, but simply how you will manage to rank up. In a way, you could call your class your base image or what impression people will have on you at first glance. You will wear this rank as often as possible, but you are permitted to take it off in your quarters. Now, allow me to move on to what these ranks mean and their rarity, et cetera, et cetera.

“There are 6 classes total. They are Fox, Turtle, Snake, Sun, and Flower. Each of these classes has a different semblance. A semblance is an ability a person has. These come naturally with a large amount of stress and work. We have already distinguished your class based on a system. This system scanned you the moment you walked through that door. I’ll give you a moment to let this information sink in. You have three minutes to talk about it with your classmates.”

Suddenly, everyone was speaking to each other. Henri was dying to know how everyone knew each other after such a short time. Dang it, or maybe they just knew each other before all of this happened. It was definitely a possibility. Henri waited three minutes in her own personal silence. There was no one for her to talk to in her group anyway. She was alone. 

Just as quickly as they came, the three minutes were up and Dave was calling for everyone to be silent. “Your class does not make up how much power you have. How you use your semblance means everything. For example, I need a volunteer. Anyone?”

A few people raised their hands and Dave chose a small girl with dark brown skin and long locks of hair. She was very basic looking, square in shape. She reminded Henri of a walking chocolate bar and her mouth watered. 

Everyone went completely silent once more when the girl reached Dave. He had to bend down a little because she was just that small. “What is your name, child?” Henri had a feeling he was going to be a very nice teacher. 

The girl spoke softly. “Ariel.” 

“Well, Ariel, lend me your hand please.” Ariel held her hand out in front of her. Dave took it and something seemed to sizzle the air. The hairs on Henri’s arms rose up to greet the sky. She felt a sudden small attraction to Dave, and felt as if magnets were pulling her toward him though she was sitting still, unmoving. It was making her very uncomfortable and she shifted herself a little. A few other people were doing the exact same thing. 

Ariel, however, was smiling. She looked like she was up high in the clouds. Dave rubbed her wrist with his thumb and Ariel made a sound. Then Dave released her and it all suddenly stopped. No more attraction, and no more sizzling and Ariel looked dumbfounded. Henri shivered. 

“What you just witnessed is the power of a Snake, the most common of semblances and the same of the king himself. Snakes have the ability to seduce someone with a single touch. I’ll explain them by how common they are. The Second most common, after the snake, is the Fox. A Fox has the semblance of manipulation. That is self explanatory. Next is the Turtle. They have the power of healing. Healing isn’t about strength, it’s about practice. The more you practice, the better you’ll be and the more valuable you are. Next up is the Flower. You can see into the future, though it is quite intense, so it’s definitely more useful indoors and away from any battlefield. Last is Sun. You can control light. It’s very rare to have this ability and that is why only seven of you have it. There is also another class that’s ability is a mystery, but because we have one today, I am explaining it. I didn’t put it in the list simply because not much is known about it. That is the Butterfly. We believe that the Butterfly can do all five, but are not 100% positive.”

Everyone looked to the Butterfly section where only one person was seated: Henri. She saw Sam looking at her with both interest and surprise from the Snake benches. Someone from the Fox section raised their hand. Dave nodded for her to ask away.

“Excuse me, sir, but how is a Butterfly going to learn with the rest of us? Won’t we all be separated by class to train our… what was it called… Semblance?”

Dave replied. “For the first few months, you will all train together to unlock your semblance. Sometimes the system is wrong and people have no semblance at all or a completely different semblance. The Butterfly will train like anyone else, but there is a chance she may not have the ability to do anything at all. The intense training will begin after initiation and I promise you it will be intense, mark my words. You will feel like you’re dying and some of you will, indeed, die. Initiation is not a single day process. You are not a student until you have unlocked your semblance.”

The person who had asked the question nodded. “And will we be separated into different classes later on?”

Dave looked at the person speaking. “We will get there when we get there. You need to unlock your semblance before I reveal anything more.” Dave snapped his fingers and a bunch of soldiers came rushing in. “Initiation starts now. Good luck students.” He continued to walk out the door. Everyone in the room, excluding the soldiers, turned toward the newest guests. The soldiers held whips, sticks, rocks and bats of all shapes and sizes and Henri felt a sudden lash of fear, the burn spotting her skin, and she felt the bat across her face before it even got ten feet of her. Henri ducked before she was lashed by a whip. The soldiers were beyond fast. 

A rock hit her ankle and she almost fell over and tripped but she righted herself quickly. She stood up and another rock thwacked across her face. She couldn’t see anything and pain was blocking her vision. At this rate, everyone was going to end up dead. It was a very good thing they had worn this suit because it made it much easier to move. She guessed this would be the training outfit for the next few months. If she would even live that long. 

She felt a hard stab to her stomach and felt the remnants of her sandwich from last night tumble filthily outside of her body. She couldn’t see anyone else around her, but she heard screaming.

It wasn’t much longer until she felt a sharp sting on her head and saw complete darkness. 

A feeling of something warm being placed on her head woke her. “Tun… gs…” Henri tried speaking but couldn’t do it. Her throat felt clogged with mucus and blood. From what, she didn’t know.

“Miss, don’t speak, there’s a healer here who is trying to help you.” The voice sounded very familiar, Henri noticed, but she couldn’t point out where exactly she heard it before she passed out once more.

She was in the clouds. It was raging clouds, furious pits in the clouds. She was running, no, flying, she had to get away from them, these monsters, no, this light, yes, that’s what it was: light. Not just any light, but blue and glowing and desperate. It was a proud blue and she ran and ran and ran. There was no sand encasing her toes this time. She could run forever and forever and forevermore, but all she could see were endless clouds,  but she couldn’t give up, no, giving up is the worst thing she could do.

The light monsters were gaining but what could she do, keep running? Yes, she had to, everything was at stake. No.

NO, NO, NO.

The light crept up to her, feet away, no inches, no--! The blue flames engulfed her and it was a mixture of fear, pleasure, pain, sorrow, happiness, and most of all; freedom. No, that wasn’t right. She felt everything and nothing and then she just felt pain on her right hand, the same pain as that time, in that dream. No, she was wrong, so wrong. 

No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!

She glanced down and there it was: that burn, that butterfly burn and it was then that Henri knew that she was trapped and she could never go back to that girl who was running away from monsters of light again. 

NO, I don’t want this! NO!

  “Miss.” The monsters yelled at her. 

No, don’t talk to me, don’t, stop!

“Miss!” They yelled louder, screaming, yelling, insisting that she answer their call, but she wouldn’t, no, she wouldn’t, she would never!

“Henrietta!” A sharp sting followed and the monsters and light and burning all faded away. 

“Miss, are you alright?” Henri recognized Meda’s voice immediately. It was a desperate voice, slightly fearful yet with an added bit of calm. It was an ointment on Henri’s wounded spirit. 

Henri opened her mouth and cleared her throat. She remembered pain down in her throat but it was gone now, replaced by the slight burning of her cheek, nothing compared to before. She remembered it all too clearly. 

“Miss, a healer came in. The Pope also came in and made sure to bless you after you were well enough. Do you feel alright?” 

“Bless me? How--?” Henri coughed before she could continue. “Thank you for helping me, Meda.”

Meda only nodded. “Tomorrow is the next day of initiation. Be prepared.” Meda stood up. “Every day is a different type of initiation, so you’ll never know what to expect. I only wish you luck. I can serve you information no longer today.” Henri nodded, too upset to really attempt to ask any more questions. Meda left through the door.

Henri sat up in the bed, exhausted, but knowing she needed to get up and move around some. Looking at the clock, she saw it had only been a few hours since the first initiation. It’s going to be such a long few months.