TIME WARP:It's a bird, it's a...coming right for me! (Zach)

[Caelum Mitchellson]

((March 11th 1999))

"Okay, you can do this..." Caelum said out loud to himself as he flapped his wings and paced on flat part of Hammel's roof. He'd been there for almost four years, but had been flying a lot less. At first he was afraid to and he still was, but he needed to learn. He need to know that he could do this. For about the tenth time in past 3 hours, Caelum walked back up to edge of the roof and peered down at the courtyard below and then backed away quickly. It wasn't so much that he was afraid of heights. Hell, the thought of falling and hitting the ground really didn't even bothering him. 

Only one thing was. One solitary word that buzzed around in his skull to the sound of his father's voice. Failure. That word and how his father would react if he did was the most terrifying thing in the world to him. Once again he began to pace. All the while hearing his father yelling at him in his head. Something snapped insider him, it was one of those "Ah HA" moments. With a bright smirk on his face, the young moth boy took a running leap off the roof with no hesitation at all. In his mind he saw himself flying away from his father. Turned out his father really was motivating him after all.

Flying, this was feeling Caelum could get used to. Oh sure he had flown a little bit of the course of the years, but not this high. This was actual flying, not just flapping your wings and lifting your legs. This, was freedom. Suddenly, the wind that he was riding on died. A little panic when through the boy as he started to descend and a very fast rate. He tried to flap his wings, but the fear had got the best of him. The only thing he could do was try his best to make a soft landing. Which meant aiming for the grass. 

He managed, but someone walked right in his path and he barely had time to think, let alone say or do anything. "Look out!" He managed to yell as he crashed into the other person a little rougher than he would have liked.

[Deleted]

Zachary was just crossing the courtyard, minding his own business, when all this happened. He’d just gotten out of his last class for the day. His arms were full of textbooks that he couldn’t wait to drop off at home…actually, no, he had no intention of going home. Zach had homework to do and if he went home then there went any chance of actually getting it done.

Oliver’s dorm room. That was the place for him. Besides, he thought, If I go home, Claudia’s going to yell at me for ruining another pair of her pants.

The skinny jeans he’d stolen from his sister already had holes in them from a previous incident, but Zachary had managed to keep her from finding out….up until this afternoon. And she’d made promises to him for when he got home.

Suffice to say, Zach was not looking forward to going home to see what Claudia had in store for him.

Anyway, so back to what happened! Zach was just walking through the courtyard, minding his own business, when out of nowhere he heard someone yell “look out!” and he turned towards the voice just in time to see a person flying through the air…straight towards him.

Instinct said he should probably duck. But like a deer staring into headlights, Zach so couldn’t remove his gaze away from the flying person falling straight for him, right up until the moment that the other person collided with the Bishop. Zachary fell backward, his books flying everywhere, and landed hard on his bum with the other person exactly on top of him. “Ughh…” he moaned. He might have hit his head a little too. Either way, Zach was pretty dazed and was seeing stars. Wow…and Zach thought that was just an expression.

[Caelum Mitchellson]

For a brief moment, everything went a little fuzzy. Caelum could feel the ground beneath him and a tangled mess of two things, one of which was himself. Finally managing to pull himself out of the daze he felt, he realized the other lump of legs and arms was the older boy he had been heading towards when he fell. In a blur of bright green and shaggy brown hair, Caelum had managed to sit up and his face was already contorted into a deep frown. He felt absolutely horrible and whimpered a little as he grabbed the scattered books the best he could.

"I'm so sorry." His young voice cracked a little, almost in a slight panic, but a definite learned state of being. Of course it was, with his father you had to apologize if you smiled the wrong way. Like this, the moth winged boy didn't even stop to think about actually checking on the other male, at least until he had all the books picked up. Finally, it seemed to dawn on him and he quickly knelt down beside the other. "Crap! Dude, are...are you alight...please don't be dead or something."

Once again Caelum made a little whimper as he attempted to help the other up. His helping wasn't exactly...well the most helpful, but he certainly was trying. "Please be okay."

[Deleted]

Zach seemed to have a knack for running into other people. Or for them running into him. Maybe it was just bad luck, but he’d gotten used to it a little. This Bishop, so far, had just chalked it up to the superfluous number of growing and clumsy teenagers riddling the school. Zach was one of them, though he was almost certain he’d done most of his growing already…which sucked because he was still so short, especially in comparison to…well all of his brothers, even his younger brother Gordon, who had shot up like a giant over the past year. Though it was Devlin who really had the height advantage over everyone, as he should being the eldest.

Actually, it was amazing that the moth-boy actually hit Zach, considering how short he was. It was a one in a million shot. And one that had Zach groaning as the other boy rolled around on top of him. And then off of him. Zach blinked to adjust his eyes to the daze. Then he blinked again. Maybe a couple more times. Or a couple million.

“…I’m not dead…at least I don’t think so?” Zach did a quick check to make sure he had and could feel all his limbs. Then he sat up…only to fall back down again, dizzy. “Ugh….that’s not gonna work.” His hand flew up to his forehead, simultaneously blocking out the light and providing pressure on his now throbbing head. “Quiet. My head hurts and you’ve already done enough damage…” Zach was irritated. Wonder why?