Spring 1983
Northern Finland
A thin stream of broken clouds stream quickly across an otherwise clear, cold night sky.
The cloudy swath of the Milky Way glows softly among the stars that shine above a remote tundra, veins of shallow water weaving together into the distance toward the shallow mountains at the horizon.
The spring night is chilly with a strong wind whispering through the fresh greenery and wildflowers that have pushed up through the long dead grass of the hillocks.
Out of the evergreens of a forest that grows down the near mountainside to the edge of the flat plain run two figures. One bundled in a warm jacket, blue-jeans and boots, hat held tightly in one fist as his blonde hair flutters in the stiff wind; the other wears only a t-shirt and trousers, bare armed and foot with dark hair bouncing about her shoulders as she runs easily ahead of the blonde boy toward a high hill before the moor, a perfectly domed mound with a single sparse tree growing from the centre of it's summit.
The boy slows, panting billows of breath into the crisp air, bending to take his last few steps staggering with his hands on his knees.
"W...w...wait! Eli, ho...hold on! "
Eli stops and turns to see Oskar out of breath and quickly jogs back to him, smiling through a tumble of black hair.
"I'm sorry, Oskar. Are you OK?"
Oskar holds up a hand.
"Really? Good. Sometimes I, you know, I forget."
Oskar nods OK.
"I know. I'll be, alright. Just...give me a few minutes. What is that sin when you want something,..." he takes a deep, heavy breath, "...something someone else has?"
Eli frowns, raising an eyebrow.
"Envy?"
Oskar nods yes again then points at Eli's legs.
"That's the one. I want your legs...or your lungs. Whatever one helps me keep up to you."
He is blessed again with a smile and returns it happily.
"You are getting better, Oskar! That was about six kilometres. Even though the last two were downhill."
Oskar raises up, puffs out his chest a bit, then quickly bends over again to resume panting.
Eli raises an arm, bending it awkwardly behind her to point at the lone tree at the top of the domed hill.
"Let's go. You..." she smiles slightly, "...WE can rest up there!"
Slowly and close together they climbed the hill, Eli's hand sliding between them on the way, taking Oskar's arm by the elbow as they walk.
As they top the crown of the dome the vista is fully revealed to Oskar and he blows out a breath in wonder.
He steps forward past the tree and Eli let's go of his arm, dropping her pack from her shoulders to thump to the ground, she leans against the shadowed side of the tree-trunk and her hand begins to move repeatedly against the bark.
Oskar watches as the moon moves noticably heavenward, clearing the distant mountain range on the horizon while a mirror image falls away from the other reflecting in the patterns of water and land stretching away before him.
Stars pulse, shine and twinkle above and below the horizon, the band of the Milky Way easily seen in the sky and on the water.
Distracted by a scratching sound behind him, Oskar turns his head slightly but is unable to take his eyes completely off the natural beauty set out before him.
"What are you doing?"
"Nooothing! Just keep enjoying the view!"
His smiled widens a bit, knowing Eli is up to something, but he keeps his gaze on the view remaining silent as the moon works wonders on his eyes.
"Have you been here before?" he asked.
The scratching sounds continued.
"Have..you..been..here..before?"
"Yes...I...have,...a...few...times...before."
A smug smile deepened the corner of Eli's mouth for an instant.
"It's a crossroads, almost a crossroads. Well there was one near here, once."
The more the moon rises as Oskar watches, the more it's brightness obliterates the other beauty from the mirrored images on the water.
"What is it with you and the full moons?" Oskar murmurs.
"What did you say?" Eli pretended she hadn't heard.
"It's...it's like you knew exactly when to be here."
Eli's face was serious a moment as she concentrated on her work.
"I know a few places you would like to see, and when to be there."
"I bet you do."
"Hmmm?" Eli brushed a hand over her finished work, scattering woodchips as her claw reshaped itself into a tiny pink fingertip.
"I believe you, I mean." Oskar steps backward moving toward her and the tree, then turns and tries to peek at what Eli has been doing, but both of Eli's hands quickly move to cover the bark she has been scratching at.
"Alright, alright! I won't look." Oskar sighs turning back to the moon, leaning against the opposite side of the tree from Eli while the scratching continues.
A moment later the sounds stop and he looks across the front of the tree at Eli as she moves to lean against the opposite side of the trunk, smiling shyly as her eyes catch his momentarily.
Both their eyes turn to follow the moon as it rises, silently enjoying the beautiful night.
Oskar eventually begins to fidget, first pulling his woolen hat onto his cooling head then looking around himself, finally repeatedly kicking his toe into the dirt.
Eli smiles to herself as her eyes look across the sea of blue wildflowers only she can see, knowing that the patience to enjoy such beauty for any length of time will be something that Oskar will grow into, and she is slightly saddened at the thought.
She knows she won't have to wait long for Oskar's next inevitable question.
Watching Oskar, she smiles as his nose wrinkles, head tilting backward so he can see the moonlight reflected off the white fuzz of the buds on the tree above them.
"Ummmm...?"
"Yes, Oskar?"
"Can I, see your wings? Up close I mean."
Eli isn't expecting that question and drops her eyes to where her bare toes grasp at the grass.
Oskar looks at her across the tree and is touched again by the innocence he can often see in her face.
"What?! What's wrong?" he asks.
"Why...why do you want to see them?"
"Well, why not?"
"I don't know, Oskar. I...don't like them, I think they're ugly. "
"What?! How can having wings and being able to fly ever be a bad thing?! You've flown me around before and it's like nothing I've ever done before. But then you always turn away, hide them, put your wings away before I can look at them or...or touch them."
It looks for a moment like he had physically hurt Eli, it is the pain in her expression and he feels bad for asking.
"Oskar, they take something...make me. I...I can't just make the wings, you know! Everything else comes with them at the same time. The eyes, the teeth, claws! Everything I don't want you to see!"
"But, I've SEEN those things before Eli! I've seen you, and I am probably going to see that part of you lots more in the future."
Oskar watches the expressions on her face speak volumes, he was getting better at that, though it wasn't hard to read such an expressive face.
She still didn't trust herself around him when she was...like that.
"I know you wont hurt me, Eli." he whispers.
He read the message of her next sentence from her eyes before her mouth could finish it.
"It's not just that, Oskar. Of course flying would be a good thing, if you didn't have to kill someone every few days to keep doing it."
"Oh,...yeah. I'm sorry, Eli. I...I wasn't thinking about that...again."
"It's OK, Oskar. There's nothing for you to apologize for, really. It is just natural, things without wings, are just envious of things WITH wings."
"Hey! You are not a THING!"
Oskar looks away then, his glistening eyes turning up at the moon, embarrassed by the emotion in his cracking voice.
He keeps silent, creeping a hand up the smooth bark of the shadowed side of the tree, fingers searching. He quickly finds a deep groove and spreads his hand out over Eli's rough work.
"Oskar, I'm sorry. It's just that, of all the changes, the wings are the most different and they make me feel so strange and not human. I've never let anyone see them, but since we're going steady now, it feels like I am keeping a secret from you now."
Oskar looks down at the ground at his face, chewing the cold air like he does. He then looks across the treetrunk to catch the moment Eli's eyes go from oblong cat's-eyes to thin vertical slits.
He feels her hand close over his on the back of the treetrunk, but he has already deciphered her message by feel.
'Eli loves Oskar' is scratched permanently into the trees bark, it will one day become part of a legend.
"Oskar loves Eli more." he said to her, focusing on her huge blue-grey eyes as her face narrows and darkens.
"Doesn't." her voice, deeper and darker, replies softly.
Oskar hears the gentle purring in her breath.
He knows what is coming and is smiling brightly at her when darkness folds around him, the cold wind suddenly gone.
A dark-furred limb folds around his back and over his shoulder wrapping him in leather, Eli's other wing comes around the front of the tree crossing with the other as she folds themselves, and the tree trunk, into a fluttering, leathery cocoon.
"Does too." he teases.
Oskar gazes into her eyes a moment longer, one is reflecting moonlight, the other a glint in the shadows of her wing, then looks up at the moon above the crossed limbs.
Bringing his free hand up the inside of Eli's wing he brushes his fingertips along the thin, leathery flesh and sees the tracery of veins through it illuminated by the moonlight. His hand moves higher until his finger brush along the soft fur growing from the limb.
A shiver flutters through the wings and he feels Eli tighten her grip on Oskar's other hand.
Hearing her purr intensify, Oskar quickly looks at her face again seeing her covering her mouth with her own free hand. He sees the laughter glinting in her eyes and laughs aloud himself.
"Ticklish are they?"
She nods her head .
He moves quickly to try to tickle her again but the grip of her wings tightens around him, squeezing him tight to the tree and wrapping them both in darkness.
He laughs again, struggling weakly as her hand works it's way behind his neck and grabs hold hard, her face moves forward to plant a quick hard kiss on his lips and he can feel the sharp teeth behind her lips.
She doesn't move away after the kiss but pulls his forehead hard against her own, noses touching as she softly purrs.
They stay that way, cocooned together against the tree for a long time before Oskar's next inevitable question.
"Eli, what can you dislike about having wings?!"
"Well,...nothing I guess. Nothing I can think of anymore."
