aldersprig | Some Say Life, a story of Adderogoole Yr8, for the Giraffe Call

For stryck's prompt.

This is in the Fae Apoc Setting, which has a landing page here (and on LJ).

Luke is a character from Addergoole, as is Doug; Arundel is a Year Nine character who shows up in Changed. He was born from a sketch of @Inventrix's - here.

Luke's first son is mentioned here.

Addergoole, early Year 8

Luke had never had a child of his own with wings.

Theron had barely Changed at all, and his Change hadn’t been one that could fly. Doug – well, Doug didn’t have functional wings, and the less said about that the better. That was two sons out of three, and the third, well, Ké couldn’t keep Aleron from him forever, not with Addergoole to contend with, too, but the boy wasn’t grown yet, and only time would tell there.

He contented himself with Students. He’d taught Ib how to fly – and never mind his personal opinions there, how much it stung to see Ké’s son by another man with the wings his sons didn’t have – and Alisha how to maneuver her tiny, semi-useless pixie wings. He’d taught seven years of cy’Lucas how to fight, how to stand up for themselves, and how to be good, honorable men.

When Arundel showed up in Caitrin's office with wings exploding out of his back, however, he had to bite back a cheer. The boy wasn’t really, the way they sorted things, cy’Luca material, but that was beside the point. Wings! Real wings, albeit feathery ones instead of the bat-wings that would indicate a full-blooded Mara, but wings that looked functional.

The rest was a foregone conclusion, although both Mike and Laurel put in their bids for the boy, and a week later, when Caitrin judged the wings had come in properly, the two of them were out on the ledge behind the school, tasting the wind.

“Easy,” Luke counseled. “The first few times, just glide, let the air carry you. Don’t worry about falling; it’s not far enough to hurt much and, anyway, Caitrin can patch up anything you do to yourself. Side effect of being nearly-immortal,” he grinned. And the benefit of teaching Ellehemaei kids, since all teenagers thought they were nearly immortal anyway.

“Easy for you to say,” the boy muttered, but he was spreading his wings anyway. The wide wings seemed to owe more to eagles than angels or demons, but Luke was confident the actual flying would work out much the same. “Just… Jump and glide?”

“You have a little skill with kaana, right? Feel the wind, let it tell you where it’s going… and then jump.” Luke demonstrated, and then turned in mid-air to watch his new Student.

“Jump,” the boy muttered, but he did it, feathers at the tips curling to catch the wind. And just like that, he was gliding.

And, just like that, he panicked, flapping hard, flailing. Luke hid a smirk and banked to catch the boy before he hit the ground. “Easy, easy. Everyone does that the first time.”

“Everyone?” he muttered, cautiously finding his feet.

“Even me, kiddo.” Luke patted the boy’s back. It was good to have a kid to take care of again.