Occhiolism

“So why don’t you want the earthborn lawman to know about me?” came a rusty voice from the doorway leading to my bedroom.

The angel was standing, one wing pinned to their side like a great feathery cape, and the other resting on the top joint of the doorframe. Eyes as dark as the deep of the ocean stared at me, curiously.

Bird man! Saya shouted through our link and nudged my palm with her furry head. Friend?

Maybe. I told Saya through the link, glancing down at the dog and then back up at the angel. Who was still raising his eyebrows at me, waiting for an answer to my question. The shock of seeing him up so soon slowly wore off and I let out a small sigh, “Because, Sheriff Wattson and his family are not particularly kind to skyborn. What are you doing so far out from—“

“I don’t know.” The angel said, frowning at me. He lifted the hand not pinned under his wing to touch the healing cut across his forehead. The wound was a fresh, shiny scar now. Earlier it had been a horrible looking gash. He grumbled, “I appear to have lost some of my memories. How did I come to be … here? And where is here?”

“Ah. Kentucky.” I said, frowning, “And you fell into my strawberry patch approximately twelve hours ago. Were you perhaps meant to be flying toward one of the coasts? Not much out here for a skyborn. I can’t imagine my strawberry patch was your destination.”

“Mmn.” The angel made a non committal noise, turned and made his way into my bedroom. He sat down on my bed, his non broken wing draping across the expanse of it.

I followed like a magnet drawn toward iron. I crossed my arms and leaned against the door jam, watching him for a moment. He sat on the bed and turned his head toward his broken wing. The bandages stretched and the feathers on the wing shivered, but he winced in pain and tucked the wing back against himself.

His dark blue eyes turned back onto me and he asked, “How does an earthborn woman living in rural Kentucky know how to triage an angel’s wing?”

“Mmn.” I made my own non committal noise and stepped into the bedroom. “I don’t know. What is a skyborn angel doing flying over rural Kentucky and what makes him fall out of the sky?”

He tipped his head upward, glanced toward the ceiling fan that ran infinitely. The blades slashed silently through the air, though the entire thing would wobble and creak if I put it on its higher speeds. He turned his attention back to me and said, “I remember hearing … a sound. Something high pitched and then falling.”

“A high pitched sound?” I wondered, giving a small shake of my head. “I’ve never heard of a sound being able to knock a skyborn out the air. Heavy artillery fire, maybe. But not a sound.”

He shrugged the shoulder not strapped to his broken wing and said, “I don’t know but I’m going to assume that Sheriff of yours is going to be a more pressing problem. Why hide me from him? I appreciate the care to my wing but you’re under no obligation to hide me if it will cause trouble for you.”

I ran my tongue along my upper teeth, pressing the tip to the point of my incisor as I considered this skyborn man sitting on my bed. Why had I hid him?

Friend. Saya informed me, nudging me with her wide body as she padded into the bedroom. She walked toward the angel’s outreached hand and sniffed, then allowed him to pet her, before dropping down on the floor between us and shooting me a look with her big brown eyes.

“Oh.” The angel said, looking down at my dog and then back up to me, “I see. You are-“

“A doctor.” I cut in, interrupting whatever line of thought he was about to explore. “We take an oath. I take mine seriously, angel.”

“Of course, human.” He put an emphasis on the word, smiling at me. Like he had me all figured out already. Like all he needed to do was look at my dog to know all my secrets. Annoyance bubbled in my blood stream.

I pushed off of the door jam and said, “I made summer squash stew with roasted vegetables along with a bean and corn salad. If you’re hungry I’ll feed you, then I will clear off the cot in my basement for you.”

I didn’t wait for his answer before heading to get my own dinner.

---

I slept restlessly that night. I was unsettled by having a man, a skyborn man, sleeping under my roof. Under the floor of my bedroom to be exact. I felt almost acutely aware of him below me, and fancied a magnetic tether between us, telling me where he was. If he moved below I thought I could sense it. I dreamt of feathers against my skin, the sensation of falling, and being enveloped in darkness.

The next morning I woke late, Saya’s cold nose nudged at my hand, startling me awake. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and studied my curtains. Judging by the light filtering through them it was at least an hour past sunrise.

I pushed myself up out of bed and slipped into the bathroom for my morning rituals. Afterward I dressed in jean overalls and a thin long sleeved t-shirt. I rolled the legs of my overalls up so that I could slide on my calf high, brown boots. Boots that were well worn and made from ethically sourced leather. I brushed out my hair, braided it loosely, then coiled it into a bun. Later, when I was done in the house I would tuck a wide brimmed hat on to keep the sun out of my eyes. For now, however, I didn’t need it.

I padded into the kitchen and slipped my smartphone from my pocket. I scrolled through my music applications and found something to listen to. I needed to prep my meals for the day, make bread, and do some cleaning.

I hit play on my phone and made my way to the pantry to grab the things I needed.

“Welcome my curious audience!” A woman’s lovely, raspy voice filtered out from the speakers of my phone. “I’m Anita Valita and… This is Answerseekers! Today we have not one but two famous guests! First we have First Talon Andreas Draigo, lorekeeper of the Azure Cities and renown geneticist Mallory Nearie. Today we are tackling the very requested topic of intermingling of Skyborn and Earthborn bloodlines.”

A string of guitar music flowed out with a back drop of questions voiced by Anita. I imagined the questions she asked were meant to be deep and profound, to me they came off naive. Perhaps a touch uneducated, but I forced that from my mind. At least she was asking questions. But questions like: Where did skyborn come from? Where did earthborn come from? Why skyborn and earthborn? I could only roll my eyes eyes at them. Life was better spent looking to the future, not the past.

However, people had been asking these questions for thousand of years. If the skyborn knew the answers they hadn’t shared them. I doubted the thousand years of information blackout would be ended by Anita Valita. Or the Answerseekers, a podcast put on by an earthborn woman who asked simplistic questions. Still, it was amusing to listen to a geneticist and a lorekeeper discuss things. So I left the podcast on as I went about my house chores.

Most of it was backdrop, white noise, that faded out as I worked. I specifically left the front door open so that I could feel the warm breeze. Saya sat at the doorway, her head on her paws. She looked like she was being lazy but in truth she was well aware of everything going on, on my little farm.

In the distance I could hear my cows mooing. I had two cows for dairy products. A small flock of chickens for their eggs. A horse. And a couple of sheep. I had one point thought about getting goats, but they were temperamental. I preferred my sheep.

The sounds of the farm along with the white noises of voices discussing history and genetics lulled me into an almost fugue state. I had dough to roll out that would become yeast rolls. I stretched, rolled, slapped, and kneaded at the dough before cutting it up into eight smaller portions, using my palm to roll them on the cutting board and get them as round as possible. Time passed in a blur.

Then I put them in a cheesecloth lined basket and draped a towel over the top of them. I walked past my phone on my way to put them up and paused. The timestamp on the podcast said it was half way through a four hour episode. Damn. I thought. How many inane questions could this woman ask?

Still her current words caused a little hitch in my step, making me pause in the middle of my kitchen. I canted my head to the side and listened to the host and her guests for several minutes.

“Now on the subject of children from a skyborn and earthborn, union. Rare, right?” Anita’s voice asked, the question striking right at my heart. My fingers squeezed on the basket I was carrying. “So unbelievably rare, right? But we know it happens. French nobility claimed that the Capets were originally founded by an angel. Where as in China they debate whether the Shang dynasty was the first one, the Xia dynasty, or perhaps one called the Xa dynasty that was said to have been established by Dragons.”

“We prefer Drakekin.” Andreas interrupted her, his voice gentle, “Especially if we are talking in reference to cultures like China’s. I am by not a divine being.”

“My apologies.” Anita said, though the apology rang hollow to my ears. Especially since she pushed right past it, “But we also have influencer Ever Anne Knight, and everyone knows about the relationship of her parents. It was quite shocking at the time, wasn’t it, Andreas?”

There was an uncomfortable silence and then Andreas spoke once more, while I remained frozen in place, held captive by the conversation. Sweat started to trickle down the back of my neck, and it had nothing to do with the heat wafting in from outside.

“It was untraditional, yes.” Andreas finally said, attempting to be diplomatic, “But we are in a more modern time-“

“-thanks to Colton Knight and Archangel Samantha.” Anita cut in.

“…and a free time.” Andreas continued with a gentle, patient voice. “Miss Knight is a rarity, her parents even more so. To have an featherkin and a human not only have a romantic affair but to be officially married… Well that might have been a first in all of our histories. So I suppose, yes, to answer your question it was a shock at the time, but not all shocks are bad ones.”

I swear I felt electricity building around me as Andreas spoke. The hairs on my arms standing on edge despite how sweaty I was getting. I shivered as I listened.

“She is not just rare because of the sociopolitical implications of her parents marriage but because she probably the first truly verifiable child between a skyborn and an earthborn. We don’t have many— if any other than her, running around because usually skyborn and earthborn don’t manage to have offspring.” This was Mallory Nearie speaking. She continued on, “Take the animal king for you; among big cats you have the Liger, the office spring of a male lion and a female tiger. The flip of that being a Tigon, male tiger and female lion. A male liger or tigon will be sterile but there have been females of these hybrid species who have successfully mated with males of one of the parental races. First Talon, does your lore address this issue at all? And what do you call someone who is a hybrid of a skyborn and an earthborn?”

Once more there was an audible silence. The air hung quiet for several long moments. I held my breath, my fingers curled so tight around the wicker basket it started to squeak.

“Our lore does not address the fertility of hybrids. They are rare enough that they come up little in the lore. Only that it is occasionally possible.” Andreas finally said. His voice taking on a bland tone, and I knew that he was lying. That they had asked a question he was not allowed to answer. But he continued speaking so I didn’t have time to puzzle over the lie, “As for what we call them in our lore? Skyblood or Earthblood.”

I closed my eyes the words hitting me in my chest. I shuddered and finally stepped forward and put the bread basket down. The room was warm enough to proof without me having to put them in the proofing cabinet.

“What’s the difference between skyblood or earthblood?” Anita jumped into the conversation, “I mean, it gives me the ick to know there are two different names. Aren’t they both a child of their parents? I mean like the ligers and tigons, do we need to call them different things?“

“Yes.” Mallory answered, her voice growing more excited. In my mind’s eye I could see her gesturing with her hands, and getting animated in her seat. “Lions have a genetic code that makes their offspring larger. Where as female lions have a genetic code that makes their offspring smaller. When two lion’s mate this genetic code effectively cancels out. But when a male lion and a female tiger breed, the resulting cub does not have the genetic code to not be big. So cub is larger than its father and mother breeds. The opposite is true for tigons. They get the smaller cub genetic code without the father’s be big code, so end up being smaller than their parents.”

“As for why we call them Skyblood or Earthblood…” Andreas started to answer, paused and then continued one, “Some of our hybrid children are born with wings and some are not. If they do not have wings they are earthblooded. If they have wings they are skyblooded.”

I closed my eyes and winced. It was like they were peeling my skin from my body. Like they were slowly removing layer after layer of protective shields. My secrets were all being spoken about right there. It was as if they were discussing me directly. I reached out and tapped the pause button, quickly turning off of the podcast before they could spill anymore of my secrets.

Not that they knew what they were doing. Not that anyone did.

“So the question is, Miss Sarah.” Came the angel’s— Camael’s —voice from the hallway behind me. I whirled toward him, startled by his sudden voice. He moved silently and whatever had me so aware of him last night… Must have been my imagination. He leaned on the door jam with his unbound shoulder, again. When he had gotten there I had no idea. His dark eyes staring into my own, seeing through every shield, straight to my core. “Are you earthblooded or skyblooded?”

The way he seemed to stare right through me made my want to do violent things. The urge to grab a knife and stab him. I pushed it down. I didn’t hurt people, no matter how angry I got. Instead, I gave him a blithe smile and said, “See any wings, Camael? Clearly I am earthblooded.”

“Unless someone cut off your wings.” He said, plainly.

I stared at him for a long moment in breathless silence. I lifted my arms to cross them over my chest. Anything to put a barrier between myself and this angel who could read my secrets just by looking at me.

“Why would anyone cut off a person’s wings?” I asked, raising both eyebrows. I smiled with teeth this time and turned away from him, headed to clean up the flour from my work station.

“Mmm.” Said the Angel and I felt him follow behind me. Felt the heat of his body permeating against my spine. I wanted to stretch out, wanted to arch back, or lean toward him. I want to be wrapped in that heat. Despite how irritating he was. It had been so long since I felt another’s heat.

His mind was clearly on the conversation and not aligned with my own needy, inappropriate ones. For he rephrased my question with his own voice, “Why would someone cut off a child’s wings?”

“Doesn’t sound like something someone would do their child. So, clearly earthbluh-“ My words were cut off by the shrill screaming of my cellphone. It was the emergency line. Once more I whirled, snatching my phone from the counter and answered, “Dr. Early, what’s your emergency?”

“Sarah!” Wyatt’s voice came over the line, “You’ve got to get over here, girl! My daddy’s been in an accident with the tractor. There’s blood everywhere. We’re keeping as much pressure on as we can but we’ll never make it to you or to the hospital.”

“Fuck, ok. Keep that pressure on his wounds and I’ll be there shortly.” I said, moving around the angel to get things ready. My emergency medicine kit was by the front door. I grabbed it and double checked that I had everything I needed. The angel stepped out of my way as I rushed to my medical fridge. I grabbed a cooler that had biohazard signs on it and stuffed ice packs into it to keep the blood cold.

“You need to go down into the basement. I’ll lock the hatch. I’m quite certain Wyatt will send Stan or Will over here to look for you. Do not, for any reason, come out until I get back. I will leave Saya here to help protect you.” I said, as I rushed to the basement hatch.

The angel raised his eyebrows at me but nodded. He turned and made his way back to the end of the hallway. Situated between my bedroom door and bathroom door there was a trapdoor that lead into my basement, hidden by a rug.

The rug was rolled up at the moment because both myself and Camael had been going in and out of the basement. Camael opened the trapdoor and descended down into the basement. I let out a sigh of relief that he wasn’t arguing with him. I rolled the rug back into its original place. I didn’t have time to explain how opportunistic that Wyatt could be. I knew the sheriff well enough to know that the emergency was real, but that he would also take advantage of getting me out of my house. Lucky for him that he had two brothers that did everything he said, no matter what.

Saya, protect house. No one allowed in until I get back. I mentally linked with my dog as I ran through the door. She paced alongside me only to stop just inside of the door. She watched me long suffering patience in her dark eyes as I shut the door and locked it.

I ran to my car and I didn’t bother to buckle up as I pulled out of my driveway.