Lara's Wanderings

“What’s wrong with my Zephyr, doctor?” asked the Dryad woman with anxiety. She pulled a handkerchief from her corseted gown and began to sob. Her husband reflected the same anxious expression on his weather-beaten face as he wrung his hands.

The white-haired doctor held the infant boy and examined the protruding dragonfly wings growing from his back. The doctor had never seen such a thing.

“It’s a strange deformity,” said the doctor. “Do you know if they’re functional.”

“Yes,” said the man. His voice cracked. “He’s lifted off the ground a couple of times.”

The doctor scowled at the couple.

“That’s highly dangerous,” he said. “If he learns to fly, he might go into the sun or outer space. He could fall and kill himself. This is a grave matter. I can remove them right now. Hold the child.”

The woman began to sob some more, but the man grimaced with a despairing determination. He took his son in his shaky hands to hold him still. The doctor stood, swishing his robes as he removed various knives and sterilizing liquids from a cabinet in his office.

“Will this hurt him,” asked the man.

“I shouldn’t think so,” said the doctor without looking back. “Dragonfly wings are an unnatural part of our anatomy. He should be as good as new once I’m done.”

Both parents sighed with relief.

The doctor finished his preparations and approached the baby with a rag of sterilizing liquid and a scalpel. Suddenly, the wings vanished into thin air.

“What happened?” asked the doctor.

“They do that,” said the man. “Our families, at first, thought we were crazy when we told them about the wings because Zephyr kept them invisible. They finally saw them at my nephew’s birthday and were horrified.”

The doctor sighed and lowered his hands.

“I can’t remove them if I can’t see them,” he replied. “I suggest you tie a weight around his leg to keep him from learning to fly. He needs to learn how to put down roots like any proper Dryad boy. Once he gets older, you can train him to keep the wings hidden. Perhaps no one will know. He might seem like a normal child to the casual observer.”

****Twenty years later***

The young man shuffled through the wooden village with his head down, and his back slumped, carrying a cotton bag filled with fruits and vegetables. Around his leg was a metal brace leading to a chain and an iron ball.

“Look, there’s the freak,” shouted some kids across the street in from of the tailor’s shop. They threw stones at him.

Zephyr scowled but just kept shuffling past.

“Leave him alone,” said a young woman her blue eyes sparkled in rage.

“It’s nothing, Audra,” said a boy.

“You stay away from him miss,” said the tailor standing near the children. “You’re new here. He’s strange and has a temper. He has these dragonfly wings that appear and disappear randomly. They call it terraphobia. It happens when he has these fits where he wants to leave the ground. The one time I saw it, it scared the life out of me.”

The iron ball and chain caught on a rock, and Zephyr tripped. He fell dropping his bag of things on the dirt road. It wasn’t the first time he fell because of his chain. It happened all the time. Zephyr growled and cursed as he pushed himself back up and began to pick up the vegetables. Audra ran to help him as onlookers either laughed or shook their heads in pity.

“I don’t need your help,” said Zephyr to Audra.

“Maybe not,” she said as she continued to pick up apples.

She went up to his bag and dropped the apples into it. Then she leaned close to him.

“I have moth wings,” she whispered.

Zephyr jerked his head up to stare at her as though she had appeared from thin air. She seemed like a normal Dryad with brown hair, tan skin, and a brown wool dress, but then she had those unusual blue eyes, kind of like his clear green ones. All the other Dryads were just brown all over, like walking pieces of wood.

“Don’t tease me,” he said with a scowl. “You don’t have a ball and chain to keep you from flying into the sun or space.”

“Why would I tease you?” she said with a smile. “Why would I fly into the sun or space when I can fly over meadows and mountains instead?”

Zephyr stared at her and swallowed.

“You really fly?” he asked.

“I can’t show you here,” said Audra glancing at those watching them. “They wouldn’t understand.”

Zephyr nodded as Audra helped him up to his feet. They went to Zephyr’s house to drop off the groceries before heading to an empty field. Audra revealed her massive moth wings and took off with laughter. Zephyr had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. She glided in the air like something from his dreams.

“My mother has the keys to my ball and chain,” he said when she returned. “She would never let me take it off.”

“No problem,” said Audra as she knelt at his feet. “I can pick locks. I picked my own years ago.”

She freed Zephyr and immediately his dragonfly wings appeared on his back. The wings stretched out to their full length as Audra touched them with admiration. She laughed, and, this time, Zephyr laughed too. She took his hand, and, as naturally as breathing, they both began to fly. Zephyr wept as he soared through the air.

“You never had a disability,” said Audra. “You had a gift others couldn’t understand. You weren’t a Dryad; you’re a Sprite, like me.”

And from that day on, Zephyr could do anything. He was free.

The End

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