Sudden Chill

(Please see author's comment(s).)

Kazu deployed his wings...he didn't have much of a choice, it was either that or freeze to death. He had noticed that the weather had a bizarre tendency to conspire with the secrets of the world around them to reveal things he might never find out otherwise. He found himself pounding on a basement suite door, as it turns out, on a basement suite that had nobody in it at that moment. The building was not well tended, but he could tell from the plume flowing off the roof that it must have had a furnace running. Featherwings have an innate sense of the weather, and so this sudden north wind came as a big surprise to him...not just to him, but to the rest of the city. The thin film of slow on the roads would soon be followed by blowing drifts, causing all sorts of traffic problems. This train of thought occupied a rather detached and objective part of his brain that somehow kept going as the survival-oriented part of his mind worked his increasingly distressed body to break down the door in front of him...

...it was the three rusty hinges that parted rather than the solid lock, the result being that the door rotated about the lock until the latch came out of its hole and it fell over. It fell over far faster than gravity would have commanded it as a gust of wind propelled both it, and the feathered being ramming it with all his weight into the room. Kazu cussed at his misfortune and now worked feverishly to get the door back in its frame before too much snow followed him into the place he had just illegally broken into. That complete, and the door held in place by a sturdy nightstand he found in the neighbouring living room, he was rather surprised to find that the living room was well endowed with an electronic entertainment suite and a rather large selection of movies and games. It had both of the major gaming consoles, sitting there happily beside each other, totally oblivious to the marketing war that rages between them outside their quaint home. He thought it should be polite to just sit down and wait for the inhabitant to return, he guessed a male bachelor, and briefly prayed for his survival in the sudden snap of cold weather. But he was tempted to put a disk in the drive and watch a movie, so much so that he actually found himself browsing the shelf of movie and game disks.

The featherwing part of Kazu's mind suddenly kicked in, realizing that he still had his secret wings out. He furls them nervously, than realizes how much dust had collected on the tops of the disk cases. It was a collection that was never watched. Featherwings keep a lot of secrets, and he suddenly recognized this classic technique...one he even uses in his own home. The living room and its expensive entertainment centre is all a distraction. If a thief were to break in, they would immediately ransack this valuable collection, failing to recognize that there might be something more valuable. He also realized that the inhabitant had sent a spirit to tempt him towards the entertainment suite. He looks for it, but it had fled. Kazu soon finds a door to what appears to be a bedroom or home office, surprised to find it unlocked, he opens it.

As the door swings open, his arms drop and his mouth opens...he is quite stunned at what he sees. Shelves line the walls of the small room, and on them are rows of the most anodyne black hardbound diaries...hundreds of them, maybe even thousands of them. There is no other type of book in the room. He sees a neat stack of them on the desk, and around the corner of one of the bookcases is a map on the wall, one of the neighbourhood. On it are hundreds of pins with strings connecting pairs of them together. There are four colors of pin, but only one color of string, but each string has a sticky flag taped to it.

He sits down and opens one of the notebooks and starts reading. He reads probably about ten of the notebooks and browses over about a hundred more when he hears the door being disturbed. Kazu has been aware of the passage of time, his exploration of this man's secret collection interrupted by a call to his cell phone from his employer saying not to bother coming in because of the weather, and by his girlfriend wondering how he's doing. The featherwing has been in this lair for almost 24 hours, patiently waiting for the return of its owner, a person he was sure at this point would probably not appreciate Kazu simply walking away.

He senses the spirit that had tempted him to the entertainment suite again. It felt sad, almost as though it was about to do something quite regretable. Realizing that its partner was probably not far behind, he gets up and moves the nightstand away from the door, holding it in place with his hand. He didn't have to wait long...the sound of snow-scrunching footsteps on the stairs descending to it just outside, the slowing as the person notices the damage to his door. Kazu decides to lift the door out of the frame.

"Hello, I'm Kazu. Sorry about the damage. I'm willing to pay for it. I got a couple hundred in cash on me. I can get more if you need it."

The first thing the unwitting host notices is that the door to his office is open. This seems to alarm him, greatly.

Kazu responds, "You have a very interesting job. I would be fascinated to know what the title of it is, and your name, if it's not too much trouble." Kazu regards him respectfully as he walks past him, glancing into the almost untouched living room, its nearly untouched appearance only adding to his unease.

"My name is Azuku," he finally says, "and I'm a Deliverer. I'm responsible for managing a limited and precious supply of love in the community of Rockystone. I work for an extensive network of Deliverers all over the world to make sure that love does not go extinct." Azuku turns to his unsurprised guest and says, "needless to say, you weren't supposed to find out about any of this." He holds his hands out flat, palms up, in front of his face, and says, "I have something to show you."

He closes his eyes, and a sphere appears and expands. A small white creature emerges from within it and jumps on Kazu's shoulder, regarding him curiously.

"You again," Kazu greets the creature almost cheerfully. "Sasha, is it?" Kazu stares at her for about twenty seconds, maybe thirty. Azuku stands by with his arms raised slightly, as though to be ready to catch Kazu should he suddenly faint. "No, no trouble at all," Kazu answers to words the spirit has communicated without sound, "and don't bother, I'll show him myself. It's more fun that way." After a pause, Kazu says, "He deserves to know, and I trust him. I know I can trust him from his writing and how he looks after the place." Kazu looks back at Azuku as Sasha jumps to the floor and onto Azuku's arm.

Azuku's jaw hangs open and his eyes gawk in stunned amazement. Finally, he says, "that did not go as I expected at all. Humans are not supposed to find out about these things...and Hold Spirits are supposed to cleanse their memories when they do." Sasha seems almost excited waiting for Kazu's response.

"I'm not human," he says like an ordinary piece of trivia. Then he deploys his wings. The gentle poof-whoosh sound gently fills the room, and the breeze blows over Azuku as he watches Kazu stretch them slowly into the room. "I'm a featherwing being."

Kazu explains many things to Azuku about featherwing beings and how the wings work.

Azuku suddenly breathes in a sigh, "Oh, so that's why Sasha's been so weird around you."

Kazu responds, "yeah, I read about that," indicating the notebooks, "I was actually surprised that you never observed the wings, given how complete your other knowledge about me is."

Azuku looks at his Hold Spirit. "Sasha, how long have you known?"

She tilts her head slightly.

"Yeah, I suppose you should keep his secrets too," Azuku says. "So that's where these extra flames of love come from?" he asks.

Kazu holds up his hands, "I didn't know before, honest. Sasha only told me just today that when Featherwings share their wings, a new flame of love is created between them, and that is the real reason why you shouldn't give me one."

Azuku then scratches his head and asks, "So, you read about yourself, and that means that you know that Haruhi, your girlfriend, is a neverfind? Doesn't that scare you?"

Kazu says, "Absolutely. It doesn't say we won't work out, but that it won't last long. But it is reassuring in a way. It tells me that she'll never lose the wings. That is what I don't want to go through." Kazu sighs, "it also means that we should hurry to marry and raise a family."

Azuku gasps, "a family?"

Kazu responds, "Now that you know all this, doesn't it make sense to you? The world needs more love, not just to preserve the love that it has, but more needs to be created. If you need featherwings to create love, then you need more featherwings, right?" He adopts an even more endearing look and says, "And also knowing, that she won't lose the wings...you realize don't you, that if the wings are lost, the new flame in the featherwing couple is also lost, and there's no way, even you as a Deliverer, can save it. Believe me, today is a happy day for me."

Azuku sighs, "What I find sad, is that this is the only conversation we can ever have about this. Deliverers must keep their secrets, and Featherwings theirs."

Kazu answers, "Have Sasha stop by every now and then. You'll have to for cover purposes anyway, so let's keep in touch that way."

The two part ways, Azuku with more than enough cash to fix his door, and Kazu with the knowledge that his worst fears about him and Haruhi can never come to pass. Both having discovered amazing new aspects of love and the world they live in (which obvously isn't the real world, but hey...)