The Cliff

Looking out at the darkened world beyond the cliff, she thought, I don't want to go back. I never want to go back. I never want to see him again. I'm tired of being afraid.

Then she jumped.

As the rocks grew closer and closer, she sighed, then gasped, thinking of a great idea. What if I went home now, packed a few things, and just left? Then he'll never be able to hurt me again, and I'll also be free of the townspeople's prejudice.

With this thought in mind, she spread her large, white wings and caught the air, gliding over the boulders and the swift river running from the cliff's nearby waterfall.

Little did she know that a young man had been seen her flying from the waterfall’s top, and he was amazed by her beauty and grace. He had been backpacking in the mountains from a city on the other side of the mountain and had heard the waterfall nearby his camp and decided to search for it. Not only did he find it, but he was sure he found the love of his life, and he was determined to find her again.

He just needed to figure out a way down this mountain.

~~~¥~~~

Flying back to her rural town, using the light from a nearly full moon to see, she descended slowly as she got closer to the village and landed lightly by her house, as quietly as possible. She began walking towards her door, looking around furtively. Someone spoke from behind her, stopping her in her tracks.

“Been out flying again, Aurora?” the voice said. Her feathers flattened in fear as she recognized the voice, making her wings look smaller. “You know you’re forbidden.” She heard footsteps walking towards her, then the man's voice directly behind her. “You’re going to have to be… punished!” With the last word, a hand shot out of the darkness and seized her arm with a fierce, vice-like grip.

“No! Please!” she screamed as she was dragged away from her home. “I'm sorry I went flying tonight, Kevin, I won't do it again, just please let me go! Please don't do it to me again, I'm sorry, I'm s—” Her words were cut off by a hand over her mouth and she began to sob uncontrollably as Kevin forced her up against a tree, pressing his large body up against hers.

“Now, now, Aurora, everything will be alright as long as you do exactly what I tell you, okay?” Kevin said in a sickly sweet tone, overpowering her with his strong blacksmith’s hands and grinding his hips against hers until she stopped struggling. Her tears flowed freely over his hand, her heartbeat fast in her chest with fear and adrenaline. “That’s better. Now, you're gonna come with me, and you will not make a sound, alright?”

Too afraid to verbally speak, she nodded, her adrenaline-pumped brain searching for escape and finding none, until an inkling of an idea popped in her mind, and, seeing no other options, she took action. As soon as Kevin let go of her mouth, she leaned her head back and slammed it forward into his nose, breaking it and surprising him into letting her go. She ran immediately, searching for a clearing in the woods with enough space for her to take off.

Within seconds, she heard Kevin behind her, in hot pursuit, and her panicked sobs came back as she ran for her life. He was gaining on her, a few strides behind when she noticed the trees thinning around her, and she readied her wings for takeoff.

Bursting through the trees into the clearing, Aurora spread her wings and took off, then screamed as Kevin grabbed hold of her ankle! She flapped her wings even harder, trying to escape his grip, generating heavy gusts of wind that blew against him.  Aurora looked down and behind her, underneath her right wing to see Kevin’s back turned and pulling on her foot with one hand while trying to anchor himself to the ground with his other arm around a tree. She aimed her other foot at Kevin's head, then skipped a beat in flapping her wings, causing him to pull her towards him, only to get a foot to the face. He staggered and let go and she quickly gained height and fled.

He growled in anger as she flew speedily towards the cliff she had just left, holding a hand against his head where her shoe had cut a gash. “You won't get away with this, Aurora! You're going to pay!”

I already did, she thought, remembering the past three years as her wings beat a fast tempo to get to the calm of the clifftop faster.

~~~¥~~~

Watching the forest where the beautiful girl with wings had disappeared, the young hiker back at the cliff didn't quite know what to do with himself. He could wait till morning to climb down the mountain, or he could do it now and risk falling, or he could just resign himself to the likely fact that he'll never see the girl again.

Until the very girl he was thinking about burst through the canopy, flapping her beautiful wings hard and speeding towards him.

He watched her for several moments, then realized something. She's running from something. She wasn't that frantic when she flew off the cliff earlier. He felt a sudden surge of protectiveness, even though he didn't even know the girl’s name yet. If anyone has hurt her, I'm going to kill them.

~~~¥~~~

Landing near the waterfall, she spread her wings, letting them cool off from the workout they'd just been through in the mist that was generated by the falling water. She sat down by the cliff’s edge and sighed, her heart rate finally slowing down after the terrifying  encounter with Kevin.

“Are you alright?” a male voice said, making her jump up, wings flattening in fear again.

“Get away from me, Kevin!” Aurora screamed, her traumatic experiences and her fear making her think that the poor hiker was the man who had tormented her ever since her parents died three years before. “How- how did you get here?! You were in the- in the forest!” she continued, looking frantically for an escape, her fear causing her wings to lock and her voice to stutter slightly. “Get away! Get away! GET AWAY FROM ME!”

The hiker crouched down, trying to  make himself seem as unthreatening as possible. Hate grew in his heart for the faceless Kevin who had traumatized the poor girl. “Relax,” he said to her soothingly. “It's alright; I'm not Kevin. My name is Aaron and I'm not going to hurt you, I promise.”

Aurora calmed down enough from his  soothing tone to study the hiker's features. This man had short dark hair, rather than Kevin's long blond locks. He was also an inch shorter than Kevin, who was two inches taller than her at 5’ 10”. He wasn’t any smaller in build, even though Kevin was an experienced blacksmith and had large muscles and wide shoulders. She could see the worry and concern in Aaron’s eyes in the bright moonlight and that was when she decided to tentatively put her trust in him.

“How did you get up here?” she asked, ruffling her feathers and relaxing her stance.

“I climbed,” Aaron responded, sitting down on the ground a little ways away from the river. “There's an easier slope to navigate on the other side of the mountain.”

“Where did you come from?”

“Deresu. It's at the base of the mountain on the other side.”

“Why are you on the cliff then?”

“I'm a hiker at heart,” he replied, smiling. “When I was setting up my camp for the night, I heard the waterfall nearby and after I was settled, I came to find it, and saw you flying away. I watched you for a few minutes because I've never seen a girl with wings before and you were -and still are- very beautiful.” Aurora smiled warily at that. He continued. “I wanted to get to know you more, so I stayed several minutes after you were out of sight trying to decide whether I wanted to wait till morning to try and climb down the mountain or to do it right then and chance falling, when you burst through the canopy and sped back. I asked you if you were alright because I could tell something had been chasing you by the way you had flown back—it was very frantic and completely opposite the calm way you had left earlier. I deeply apologize for scaring you… er .. what was your name again?”

“Oh, sorry,” she said, sitting down a few feet away from him. “I'm Aurora. And I'm sorry for freaking out on you; you'd startled me cause I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be up here.”

“Yeah..” he trailed off, thinking about what she had said when he’d accidentally scared her. She watched him in silence, letting him gather his thoughts. He looked up somewhat abruptly.

“Who's Kevin?”

Aurora immediately tensed. “Why do you want to know?” she asked warily.

“I'm going to kill him,” Aaron replied coldly, surprising her. “Whatever he did to you to make you so scared of him should not go unpunished.”

“He…” she shuddered, remembering all the terrible things that had happened between her and Kevin. Her reaction kindled Aaron's flame of hate even higher. “I can't… I can't talk about it right now.”

“I respect that,” Aaron said. “I'm still gonna kill him though. Where does he live?”

“But, you- you can't,” Aurora said, hoping he would keep his word despite what she was saying. “There are laws.”

“Whatever sorry excuse for a man who would do such a thing to a girl, no matter if she was different than him or not, doesn't live by the laws and so doesn't deserve to live,” Aaron said intensely. “I'm going to make it so that he can never hurt you or anyone else ever again.”

She sighed in relief, but had one more question. “Why would you do such a thing for an abomination like me?”

His eyes went cold. “Who told you that you were an abomination?”

“You’re the first person to tell me otherwise in a long time.”

“Well, you're not,” he said, sighing and lying down on the ground, his hands underneath his head. “You’re the most beautiful person I've ever seen, and you shouldn't let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Aurora looked down at the ground in front of her feet, tears of surprise and happiness beginning to fall. She wiped them away, not wanting him to see the effect his words had on her. She sniffed, giving it away. He looked a bit startled when he turned to look at her, then concerned as he realized she was crying and sat up.

“Oh no!” he said, flustered. “I didn't mean to make you cry, I'm sorry!” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I'm not very good at talking to girls, am I? I'm so sorry.”

She laughed and sniffed again. “It's alright, Aaron. It's just that no one other than my parents have ever said such kind words to me before. They've always just seen my differences and ridiculed me. I've always thought I was a horrible monster nobody would ever want because everyone hated me. They forbade me from flying after my parents died, so I would sneak away on nights like this to go flying,” Aurora grew quiet for a moment, then continued so softly Aaron had to lean forward to hear her. “One night, about three years ago, Kevin saw me flying. He told me he wouldn't tell anyone what I had been doing as long as I did what he told me to do. Not wanting to know what the townspeople would do to me if they found out, I agreed to his demands.” She went silent again, vaguely wondering why she was telling this complete stranger her life story. He let her gather her thoughts in silence, understanding how hard it was for her to talk about.

She looked back at him, meeting his eyes in the growing light of predawn, then looked away again before speaking. “He—he took me to his house, clipped my wings, and locked me up in a closet for two days straight and… and… had his way with me during that time. Since then, he did it again every few months. Long enough inbetween for my wings to regrow the feathers he had clipped for me to go flying again, only for him to catch me and do it all over again.”

She looked at the ground, trembling at the dark memories. Aaron seethed with loathing at the man who had done this to her.  He spoke, quiet and intense. “I promise, on my life, I will never do that to you,” he said  softly. “I swear it. I want you to tell me if anything I'm doing makes you uncomfortable. Anything. I promise I will stop whatever it is immediately. That also includes my presence. If you don't want me to stay with you then I will leave you be, I promise.”

Aurora grabbed his hand and looked worriedly into his blue-green eyes. “No, please stay. Don't leave me. I feel completely safe with you and I've never felt that way before with anyone- at least, not since my parents died. Please stay with me.”

“I will, don't worry, Aurora,” Aaron said reassuringly, anger growing in his heart for the prejudiced people in her town. “Why don't we get some rest before going after Kevin? My camp isn't too far away and there's blankets and sleeping bags and a tent there.”

At his words, Aurora suddenly realized how exhausted she was, and so she nodded in response. He stood and held out his hand to help her up. She took it and genuinely smiled at him, her eyes glittering in the moonlight.

Aaron led her to his campsite, and upon arriving, he told her she could take the tent while he slept on the ground outside in a sleeping bag. She was too exhausted to argue and entered the tent, shaking out her feathers once inside and lying down, using her wings for a blanket. She was asleep within minutes, and Aaron took his sleeping bag and stretched out in front of the tent flap, guarding the entrance with his body in case someone came across the camp while he was sleeping.

~~~¥~~~

When Aurora woke up, she had a moment of panic trying to figure out where she was before remembering the night’s events. Then she smelled bacon cooking and crawled out of the tent in search of it, her stomach growling.

“Good afternoon, m'lady,” Aaron said jokingly as she emerged from the tent. “I've got bacon and eggs for us.”

“It smells amazing, Aaron, thank you,” she said, standing up and stretching.

This was the first time Aaron got a real look at her in full sunlight. She had long, wavy brown hair and dark hazel eyes that looked brown unless in the right light. Her wings were pure white, and they were large and strong, able to keep her slim body aloft for long periods of time.

“You're so beautiful,” Aaron said, in awe. She smiled and sat down across the fire from him, grabbing a few pieces of hot bacon from the frying pan and putting them on a nearby plate for herself. She held out her plate for Aaron to put a couple eggs on when prompted, and began to eat.

“This is really good, Aaron!” Aurora exclaimed. “Thank you so much!”

Aaron grinned at her and decided to try out a nickname for her. “It's my pleasure, Aura.”

“Aura?” she asked, smiling. “I like it.. A-A-Ron.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “That frickin' skit! I'll never be able to meet a new person without them saying A-A-Ron!”

She laughed and finished eating, savoring the bacon. He looked off into the distance, thinking of what he wanted to ask her next.

“Aura, you said the town forbade you from flying when your parents died, right?” he said. She nodded. “When was that?”

She looked off into space, thinking. “My parents were killed in a house fire two months before the first night Kevin saw me flying, and the town forbade me from flying at their funeral a week later.”

“At their funeral?” Aaron exclaimed. “Really?”

Aura slowly nodded. “You must be thinking why I didn't just leave then and there,” she said, looking into the dying flames. “It's because I couldn't leave them. My parents. They were buried there. Two items survived the fire; my mother's silver necklace and my father's old fashioned cavalry sword. They're in my house right now. When we go back there, those are a few of the things I want from my home.”

“I'm okay with that,” Aaron replied. He stood and stomped out the fire. “Let's break camp and then we'll go kill that asshole Kevin.”

~~~¥~~~

They left the large camping equipment hidden on the cliff in case someone chanced upon their campsite, and Aaron took only his gun. They walked back to the cliff's edge, and Aura took flight, flew around behind Aaron and scooped him up to carry him to her town.

Stopping by her house first, she swooped down low over the ground to drop Aaron off and then land. She walked over to Aaron, who was a little winded, and they walked to the door together.

Aura tensed. “Something's wrong.”

Aaron went on guard as well, drawing his gun. “What?”

“The door is ajar,” she replied, frowning. “I always lock it whenever I leave.”

As they walked closer to the door, they realized that not only was it ajar, but that the lock itself was broken, and there was a boot print next to the handle.

Someone had broken in while Aura was absent.

“Stay behind me,” Aaron said softly, walking forward, his gun at the ready. “Whoever broke in could still be inside.”

Slowly opening the door, Aaron entered first, checking around every corner and in every room to make sure that the house was empty. Aura stayed in the front room to wait for him.

Soon enough, he reentered the foyer, putting his gun back in his belt. “There’s no one here but us, Aura,” he said. “Why don’t you look around and see if anything’s been stolen?”

Aura began to walk through her home, Aaron  following behind her. As soon as she walked into the living room, she immediately noticed her father's sword was missing from the wall.

“No!” she called out, running to the stand where it had been. “They took my father's sword.” A cold hand covered her heart and she ran to her room to find her mother's necklace missing as well. “And my mother's necklace,” she said, her voice breaking.

Aaron put his hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find them, Aura. I have a feeling I know who did it.”

“Who?” she asked, looking back at him. Aaron gave her a meaningful look. “Kevin?”

“You said he was super pissed off when you escaped last night, right?” he asked. Aura nodded. “I wouldn't put it past him to take out that anger on you by stealing things from your house. Is anything else missing?”

She began to look through her house more thoroughly, and after a good search, she determined that nothing else was missing.

They left the house, and she closed and tried to lock the door behind her, but then remembered that the lock had been broken by Kevin's forced entry.

They began flying toward Kevin's blacksmith shop, and Aaron started asking questions about Kevin, trying to get a feel for his abilities. He found out that Kevin was very strong from working with metal and heavy tools, was an inch taller than himself, and was a complete people’s person as long as he wasn’t alone with Aura, which was when his dark side came out.

They soon arrived at the smithy. Aaron walked in first to see if there was any other people inside besides Kevin. There weren't, and Kevin's back was turned since he was putting something into the forge. Aaron waved Aura inside, and she slipped in and stayed back in the corner. Kevin turned around right as Aaron was walking back towards him.

Kevin frowned, not recognizing Aaron. “Hello, are you new here? Can I help you?”

“Yes, actually,” Aaron replied, before punching Kevin hard in the face, forgetting his gun, and sending the man reeling in pain and surprise.

Kevin stumbled away from the forge and steadied himself against one of his large anvils. He shook his head to clear it, and with the action saw Aura in the corner of the shop. He began to laugh. “Who is this, Aurora? Your hired help? Your boyfr—“

His words were cut off by Aaron punching him again. “Don’t you dare speak to her again, you asshole,” he said ferociously. “You're never touching her again, ever.”

Kevin laughed again, his broken, bloody nose making him look as evil on the outside as he was on the inside. “Or what? You'll sue me?”

Aaron snarled and grabbed the front of Kevin's work apron, forcing him up against the wall. “No,” he said coldly. “I'll kill you.” Aaron could see the fear in Kevin's eyes even as the man tried to call his bluff.

“You can't kill me!” Kevin said, looking around desperately for an escape from Aaron's grip. “There are- there are laws.”

“Well, luckily for me,” Aaron said,  fumbling at his belt and pulling out a SWAT badge. “I am the law.”

Kevin's eyes widened. Aaron didn't give him time to think and headbutted him, much like Aura had the night before, causing Kevin to go into a daze.

Aura, looking around the smithy while this was going on, saw the hilt of her father's sword sticking out of the forge. Her heart filled with rage and she went over and picked up the sword, the blade, which had been in the coals, glowing red hot. She walked over to Kevin and Aaron, and brandished the sword in Kevin's face.

“Why did you take this from me?” she shouted. “This is the only thing I have to remember my father by. Why did you take it? What were you doing to it?”

“Aura, please calm down and let me handle this,” Aaron said intensely. Kevin laughed evilly again.

“Aura? You’re on nickname terms? When did you meet this guy, Aura? Where did you meet him? He’s funny. Acts all high and mighty cause he's supposedly SWAT. Ha!” Kevin said, cackling like a maniac.

Aaron looked at him, hating his guts even more than he already did. “On second thoughts, Aura, why don't you stab him with that?”

“Gladly,” she said viciously, coming forward and thrusting the point of the sword into Kevin's left shoulder. Aaron covered Kevin's screams with his hand, not wanting the townspeople to come running. Aura leaned down to get in Kevin's face. “Now you know how I felt every. Single. Night.”

Kevin's eyes betrayed the fear and pain he felt as dark red blood slowly trickled from his wound, the hot blade having cauterized it as soon as it stabbed him.

“Aura,” Aaron said. She straightened up and looked at him. “Why don’t you look around for your mother's necklace while I deal with this prick?”

Aura nodded and began to look around the shop for her necklace, sword in hand still.

Aaron turned back to Kevin. “I’m going to tell you this once and once only,” he said quietly, but no less intensely. “You're going to die today, so there's no use fighting it. However, if you choose to do so, I will give you one chance and one chance only to fight me and only me, and if you somehow manage to win against the odds, then you'll have to kill me in order to escape death. Cause I'm killing you either way.”

“Let me go and I'll gladly fight you to the death, coward,” Kevin snarled.

Without breaking eye contact, Aaron called to Aura. “Aura, have you found the necklace yet?”

“No, Aaron, I don't see it anywhere,” she replied.

“What did you do with it, you asshole?” Aaron said viciously, shaking the man against the wall.

“I smelted it and made a nice silver ingot out of it, which I’m going to use at a later date once I kill both of you,” Kevin smugly replied, knowing he had taken something important from Aura besides her innocence.

Aaron growled and threw Kevin to the ground. “Not unless I kill you first!”

He let Kevin stand and square up to him before falling upon him with kicks and punches, aiming especially for Kevin's wounded shoulder and arm, again forgetting his gun in favor of the satisfaction of feeling his fist against Kevin's face.

Kevin was fighting for survival, but he wasn’t trained for fighting like Aaron was. Aaron repeatedly landed punch after punch after kick after punch, and Kevin couldn't keep up. He was soon knocked to the floor again, but before Aaron could do anything, Kevin grabbed a handful of dirt from off the floor and threw it into Aaron’s eyes, blinding him. Aaron backed quickly away, trying to get the dirt out of his eyes, but Kevin just as quickly stood and went after him. Before either could do any damage, however, as Aaron had finally remembered his gun and had drawn it, Aura blocked Kevin with her hot sword, cutting him across his chest. Kevin yelled in pain and Aura came at him again, thrusting and slicing with her sword. He didn't have any weapon to defend himself with, so he went down quickly with her sword through his heart, killing him instantly.

Aura lowered her sword, breathing heavily. Aaron put his gun away and quickly checked for a pulse to make sure Kevin was dead, and when he was satisfied he went back to Aurora and put his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. She leaned into him, staring at the dead body of her long-time tormentor.

After a few moments, Aaron spoke. “Come on. Let's burn the place and get out of here before someone comes in.”

Aura nodded and Aaron let go of her to put kindling around the forge, making it look like an accident. He dragged Kevin over to the forge as well, so that it would seem to an onlooker that he fell and jostled the furnace to make the hot coals fall out and start the fire. He then cleaned up the blood where Kevin had fallen when Aura killed him so that the townspeople wouldn't see the bloodstain after the fire.

While he was doing this, Aura remained where she had stood after killing Kevin, staring blankly into space at the ground.

I’m free, she thought. Free from Kevin's advances. Free from the townspeople's prejudice. Free to leave with Aaron, and to never come back. I'm free.

She looked up when Aaron spoke. “Aura? Are you okay?”

She smiled. “I’m free.”

Aaron smiled back at her. “It's time we made ourselves scarce, my beautiful desert flower. I'll set the fire and let's run out the back.”

She walked to the back exit, carefully stepping over piles of wood while still carrying the sword. Aaron followed her quickly after spilling a few coals over the kindling by the forge and around Kevin’s body, setting the smithy ablaze.

They walked around town back to her house so she could grab some of her belongings. She didn't take much, just her sword and her sketchbook and some art supplies.

Handing her things to Aaron, she took off and picked him up, and they flew back to the cliff where they met, leaving behind the town of Montresor forever.

~~~¥~~~

Hey y'all! Thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked this short story, and if you did, don't forget to vote and comment what you think!

The picture at the top is how I picture Aurora, and I've casted Jeremy Renner as Aaron and Kevin Bacon as Kevin.