HALF: Dead nor Alive

“You can do better than that, don’t forget to create bones like ribs on them as your wing’s fingers. You need to make them big and long,” Eve said as she sat on the rock and stared at Archie.

“I’m trying…” Archie said and then a loud cracking sound came from his back. Both of his scapulas were expanding and then he had to grow bones from his scapulas all the way down to his waist.

Archie tried his best and it was painful because he tore his skin and flesh, and while he was doing that, his tissue wrapped his newly created bones. Eve instructed him how to make wings not using his flesh, skin, or hair, she instructed him to use the parasite inside his body to wrap the bones and tissues on his back.

“Good, you’re doing great,” Eve said as she looked at the black parasites that wrapped around Archie’s wing bones. “Now, all you need to do is to make them flexible like feathers but at the same time you have to be able to control every part of it,” Eve touched Archie’s wing bones.

“This is really hard, but I will try,” Archie said as he looked at the bones on his back.

“You will get used to it, but right now, all you have to do is to make proper and functioning wings,” Eve said as she walked to the front and stared at Archie. “We have all the time we need, so just do your best,”

It took Archie an hour to finally created wings behind his back, and it didn’t look as good as what Eve had because he looked ugly and odd. Eve didn’t bother about it because as long as it served its purpose, it was good enough and she wanted Archie to get used to it first before he could modify it into a better-looking one.

“Alright, now since we are up on the cliff, why don’t you try to jump down and flap those wings?” Eve said as she grabbed Archie’s shoulders from behind and stared at the ground a hundred feet away from where they at. “Like a baby bird, you learn to fly by falling,” Eve pushed Archie down before he could answer her question._.

Archie was falling down and immediately spread his wings open. It slowed down his fall but it wasn’t enough to make him glide or fly. Archie decided to spread them as wide as he could and flapped them, he slowly gained altitude and started to glide.

Archie couldn’t believe that he glided and so he kept flapping his wings as hard as he could like what Eve instructed. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do much and ended up landing on the ground safely without taking any falling damage.

“I think I need a higher ground to learn to fly,” Archie said as he looked up at Eve.

Eve smiled and jumped off of the cliff then she spread created her wings in a second. She spread it open and started to glide so easily that Archie looked at her in awe because she made it look so easy.

“Well, the bones are hollow and the wings are big enough, it’s just that you didn’t use enough strength to maintain the wings because of your body weight,” Eve explained as she walked toward Archie. “How about I give you a lift and then drop you from the sky?” Eve asked with her eyebrows raised.

“Uhh, yeah sure,” Archie nodded his head.

“Let’s do this,” Eve said with a grin on her face then she grabbed Archie’s arm and flew up to the sky.

Archie looked down and saw the city slowly getting smaller and smaller. He looked up and Eve was smiling at him until she suddenly removed her hand from Archie’s arm.

Archie was free falling and he spread his wings open as soon as he gained the balance of his body. He started to glide and flew freely while Eve watched him from above as she chuckled softly. Eve then decided to follow Archie and flew right next to him.

“Having fun?” Eve asked as she spun her body.

“This is awesome,” Archie answered with a big smile on his face. “Thank you, Eve,” Archie said as he stared at Eve.

Eve giggled and nodded her head then she flew away as she spread her wings wider then started to maneuver in the air.

Archie tried to do some maneuver as Eve did, but he immediately lost his balance and spun around randomly. Thankfully, Eve came back and helped him regain his balance.

“Don’t force it, Archie. Feel the wind and be one with it,” Eve said as she flew with her back at the bottom. “Let it flow and let the wind guides you,”

Archie closed his eyes and could feel the wind hitting his face, and flew where the wind blow. It made things easier as Eve said when he followed the wind and then he tried to do a maneuver again.

“You’re a fast learner,” Eve said as she watched Archie fly and spun as the wind carried him up high in the sky.

“I can do this all day,” Archie said and looked at Eve who was floating and staying still in the air. “Wait, how do you do that?”

“Go against the wind, resist it and let the wind blow past your wings. Make sure you point your wings forward,” Eve explained as she looked at her wings.

Archie flew toward Eve and pointed his wings forward at her, it was hard at first because the wind tried to blow him away. He put more strength in his wings and he slowly stopped getting blown by the wind and started to float in the air.

“Remember this feeling, once you get used to this, you will be able to fly on your own without having me bring you up here,” Eve said and looked at the sun slowly setting. “We should go back,”

Archie looked at the sun and nodded with understanding. “Yeah, I think everyone is looking for us right now,” Archie replied and looked down.

“Do you think you can land safely?” Eve asked as she flew around Archie.

“There’s no reason for me not to try it out, and even if I failed, it shouldn’t kill me, right?” Archie asked as he looked at Eve but Eve chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. “Alright, it’s now or never,” Archie said and then dove down.

Eve followed Archie from behind as she stared at Archie’s wings slowly bent to the back to fasten his speed. She smirked and scoffed as she did the same thing to catch up on him.

When they were close to the ground, Archie spread his wings open and he was jolted by the sudden change of speed. He felt like his heart was about to explode because of it but he landed safely while Eve laughed because she knew exactly what happened since she experienced it all the time.

Archie put back his wings into his body and it felt weird because he felt like something was missing. His body felt lighter because he didn’t have any weight on his back anymore but at the same time, he felt stings on his back.

“I think I lost my shirt,” Archie said as he looked around since he didn’t remember where he left his shirt at. “I guess, I can just go back to the barrack like this,” Archie continued as he looked at his body.

“You look good, there’s no need to be shy,” Eve said.

They both went back to the city after two hours of walking, and the moment they entered the barrack, they saw everyone look busy. Whatever was happening, it had something to do with the parasite and they both could tell by their panicked expressions.

Archie entered the barrack and saw Ruby, Vincent, and Nova sitting at the table with guns on the table.

“Archie, Eve, where have you guys been? We were looking for you for hours and couldn’t find you guys anywhere,” Nova asked as she stood up and looked at them.

“We went out for fresh air while we are doing some training outside the city,” Archie answered as he walked to his wardrobe to grab a shirt. “What’s wrong? You guys look so tense,”

“The scout team has confirmed that the King-type parasite that we fought is still alive. The problem is that the dragon one is gone missing,” Ruby answered as she looked at Archie’s body.

“Missing? What’s that mean? Aren’t they supposed to be fighting?” Archie asked.

“They did, but the problem is that the dragon couldn’t kill the parasite after three days of clashing. The whole island is now dried up and everything is burned to the ground, then the dragon parasite went missing,” Ruby explained as she looked at Eve.

“So, what are we going to do?” Archie asked and approached them.

“Faye wants us to fight the parasite since we believe the parasite should be dying now after the hard battle,” Ruby answered. “We are going to kill it this time,”