To Fly Beyond the Sun
By StormDrake

"Close your eyes. Now tell me, what do you see? Exactly. You see absolutely nothing. Does it bother you? Does vertigo begin to set in? Does such a feeling of utter helplessness unsettle you? Now, try keeping your eyes closed for the next hour. How would that make you feel? Try going for a whole day without sight. Now try for a week. Impossible, you say? Now you are beginning to feel as I do. I have had my eyes closed for fourteen years. Not by choice, but by fate. I was born blind. I have never seen the sun. I have never seen my mother's smiling face. My eyes cannot see - but otherwise I am perfectly healthy. It's been very difficult, but I guess I'm lucky that my family and friends have been willing to work to help me. Without their love and compassion for so many years, I would never have gotten as far as I have. As it is, I'm familiar enough with most of the village that I can walk from place to place without too much help. I can make the walk from school to my home pretty much by myself. But I rarely have to go anywhere alone. My best friend Simon follows me all over the place. He helps me in areas I'm not too familiar with, and warns me if something unexpected happens to cross my path. We get along really well. He treats me as if I could see perfectly, like there's nothing wrong with me. Most of the villagers do the same. They are surprisingly tolerant of my condition, but it makes me feel proud to be a part of the village. It's only newcomers who give me a hard time, but that's okay. People tend to fear things that are different from themselves. They dislike things they do not understand. But then again, with monsters and blood mutants running around outside the village walls, I can understand such fears.

"This morning, I was walking to school with Simon, talking about my mother's lamb stew. It's my favorite dish, and on days she makes it I can smell it all way home from school. I can smell things much better than Simon can. He doesn't like lamb, but I love it. My mom was going to make lamb stew that night, and I could hardly wait until the evening came. We were walking, and were probably halfway to school when we heard something that sounded like a fight. I had no idea what was happening, but it sounded like the fight was coming closer. Simon seemed scared, but wouldn't tell me why.

"All of a sudden, Simon ran off. I stood there confused, having no idea what to do.

"Without warning, something large and heavy landed uncomfortably close to me. I heard an inhuman roar. It was like the cry of a wounded animal, but this was no animal I had ever heard. I never did find out what it was. But that roar convinced me to follow after Simon. I took off. But before my legs had a chance to carry me away, I felt something splatter against my arm. It was liquid, warm and slick. Instinct still in control, I wiped it off as I ran, hardly giving it a second thought.

"I didn't stop until the sounds of battle were far behind, running with my arms out in front of me until I came to something solid, most likely the side of someone's house. I realized at that point that a monster of some sort had penetrated the village defenses in search of food or something else. I guess it was killed, possibly costing the lives of a few guards. At the very least, I was far enough from the commotion that I couldn't hear it anymore. My heart beat furiously. But at least I was safe. I figured that I might as well head to school… a few moment's listening, and I recognized the sound of the blacksmith's hammer. I knew where I was, and with just a little effort I could make my way to school. Simon would be there, and he could tell me what happened.

"After taking a moment to orient myself I was able to make my way in the direction of the school. But when I got there, the doors were closed. That was odd; I knew I couldn't be that late. I knocked for a while, but no one answered. I was very confused, but not scared yet. There had to be a reason why. Maybe school was cancelled on account of the monster attack. Maybe it was a holiday, and we had forgotten. At the very least my mom would know what was going on. So I turned around and began the walk home.

"On the way I noticed that the village was unusually quiet. I could hear people, but they seemed hushed. No one said hello to me like they usually did. Even as I passed the blacksmith's house, he didn't call out greetings. I could hear him pounding away, making some metal object of some sort. But he did so silently, without even his characteristic whistling. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. It was not like the blacksmith not to say hello.

"I kept walking.

"Eventually I made it home. I went up to the front door, and found it closed as well. I tried to open it, but it was locked. That was very unusual. I knocked, and there was no answer. I knew my mother had to be home. I kept pounding. I called for my mother. I started crying. And it was only when I stopped pounding that I heard sniffling from the other side of the door. I heard my mother sobbing.

"Crying to myself, I walked away at last. I had no idea what to do. I had no idea what was going on. I went to my favorite place, a cliff overlooking the sea. My mother always warned me not to go there, in case I might take a wrong step and fall to the rocks below. Supposedly, it was a drop of more than a hundred feet, and every once in a while a stray ram or pig would get too close and tumble over the edge. But I was familiar enough with the area that I wouldn't make such a mistake. I had been told that it was the best place to watch the sun set, as it faced due west. I had never seen the sun, of course, but sometimes I would go there in the evenings and pretend to watch the orange sun plunge into the sea. I often went there to sit and think, and now I was there to figure out why even my own parents were shunning me. I could feel the breeze blowing in my face, and I could smell the salt of the sea. The ground grew rocky, and I could hear the angry sea crashing against the cliff face. The wind chilled the tears upon my face, and I reached up to wipe them. It was then that I felt something wrong with the side of my face. It felt rough and bumpy...

"...like scales...

"Only then did I understand. The monster, the shunning... now I remembered the warm liquid that fell on my arm. It must have been blood from the monster. I had been blooded. Blooded!

"I started crying again. But this time it was not just a trickle of tears. I sobbed full-heartedly. I bawled. I had been blooded, and I knew what that meant - death. I was lucky people had only ignored me. They were just being kind. I was a danger to them all. One drop of my blood would change them as I had been changed. I had no idea what I looked like. I had no clue what monster had stolen my life. But that didn't matter. Being unable to see, I was more prone than most to accidents. I could get a cut or scratch too easily. The slightest of mistakes could end the life of someone close to me. I could accidentally bleed on Simon. Or my own mother… No... I couldn't stay here. I was a danger to the village. But I couldn't leave the town either, as I was blind. I would never survive alone in the wilderness.

"What could I do? I was a blood mutant, cursed to wear the form of the creature whose blood had touched my skin. I could pass on the curse the same way. I was a danger to everyone around me. Anyone with common sense would stay as far from me as possible, or else kill me. My life was over.

"I had never been much to my family. They had loved me dearly, but I knew that my blindness saddened them. I was a drain on my family, and even my friends had their patience tested by my handicap. I knew that I was loved and pitied by many people, but blood mutation would not be tolerated. No one would stand up to my defense. No one would help me. No one would even talk to me. I was alone in my blindness, and now I was even more alone. To live would mean being a further drain on my family and friends. I had only one recourse.

"I stood up, feeling the sea breeze blow in my face. It felt good.

"I would miss my mother. I would miss my village. I would miss the breeze. But there was nothing else I could do. I had to help everyone.

"I took a step forward, followed by another. My foot failed to find ground to step upon, and kept going. I felt myself falling, past the edge of the cliff. I felt the wind blowing past me. I felt such an exhilarating rush. As I fell, I realized that someone with sight would have been scared unconscious from the fall. As for me, all I knew was the sound of the wind and the smell of the salt. I imagined myself flying upward into the sky, away from my blindness and my blooding. I felt free, better than I had ever felt.

"I thought one last time about my family and friends. They would mourn - they were mourning now. Being blooded, I was as good as dead. They would miss me. I missed them already. But this was the best thing to do. No longer would I be the shame of my family. No longer would I have to rely on others. Simon would be free to live his own life. And that made me happy. I was not dying in vain. I had lived my life, however short. It was time to let the others live theirs.

"And as I fell, a bright point of light appeared in the middle of the blackness. It slowly grew. The light scared me more than the monster had, more than falling to my death. I had never seen light before; all I had known my entire life was the cold blackness. The light grew in size and brightness, encompassing my senses. It grew to take over all my senses, until all I could see and feel was the light. It was not harsh, but rather cool and pleasant. Before it filled my mind, before it dominated my thoughts, I knew without a doubt what it was. I smiled. And then, I laughed.

"The sun! I could see the sun!"