The market is filled with people, and they are all looking at me.

I try to ignore them, but it is way too hard so I pull my hood lower.

I grab some vegetables from the stand and grab some coins from my pocket and hand them to the shopkeeper, as he narrows his eyes at me.

“You look familiar, kid,” the man says.

“I feel like everyone says that to me,” I say. “Good day.”

He is still looking at me when I turn around to leave.

I head off to the butcher to get some turkey for dinner.

He looks like a mean guy but he is a real nice guy until you get on his bad side, he is also an old man.

꧁𓆰꧂

“Here you go,” I say.

“Good day,” The butcher says.

I turn around and go to the alley I go down to get home.

As I go down the alley I pick up my pace, and I start to run, then I run into someone.

“Grian is that you?” the person asks me.

“How do you know my name?” I ask the person.

“I am Jimmy and this is Scott,” the person tells me as I notice a person behind him. “If you are Grian, then I am your cousin.”

“I’m Grian,” I say.

“Grian!” Jimmy says in excitement and jumps on me.

“Hi,” a voice says as I look up.

The Scott guy had said it “Hi,” I say back.

“I need to get back to my home so good day to you two,” I say as I stand up.

“Good day to you too,” Jimmy and Scott say to me.

꧁𓆰꧂

“Come in.” I say.

Joel walks in with a tray of pancakes, a cup of tea, a fork, and some syrup.

“Here, I can take it,” I say, grabbing the tray.

Joel hands the tray to me.

He turns around and walks out of the door, I follow.

We enter the living room.

꧁𓆰꧂

“What are you doing back here so early?” Joel asks me.

“. . . Um I just saw some thunder storm clouds,” I lie.

“Oh.” he says.

“When do you think they are going to stop?” He asks me.

“I don’t know,” I respond.

“Grian, are you lying?” Joel asks me.

“Uh why do you think I’m lying?” I ask.

“You sound so unconvincing,” Joel says.

“I do?” I ask.

“Yes!” Joel yells in an annoyed tone.

“Theres no way I do sound unconvincing,” I say.

“Go to your room, I need to think of something,” He tells me.

“Okay,” I reply.

Well when I get done talking to Joel I go to my room.

Why does he not believe me?

Well I guess it's because I’m so unconvincing.

꧁𓆰꧂

When I wake up the next day I smell pancakes.

When I’m fully awake, Joel brings them to me, so I don’t want him to think he has to bring them to me all the time.

I get up, dress and make my bed.

Knock knock.

“Come in,” I say.

“Dinner is done,” Joel tells me.

“Okay, I’ll be out in a sec,” I tell him .

I walk out after Joel goes out.

And sit in a chair at the circle dinner table in the kitchen.

The kitchen has pastel pink walls, pastel green wooden counters, drawers, and cabinets.

The table is just made out of wood without paint.

꧁𓆰꧂

The next day I wake up due to a nightmare so I get up, dress and make my bed.

I go out and see Joel so I check my watch and it says that it’s 7:00am.

“I’m heading out to visit a friend,” I tell him.

Joel says, “Ok.”

I walk out the door and I clip my cloak and pull my hood up.

I walk to Tango’s Tek shop.

I push the door open.

The place is full of metal screws, over in the corner is a stand with watches.

“I’ll be with you in a minute!” Tango yells from the back room.

So I sit on the bench at the door.

Tango comes from the back and wipes his hands on a rag, staining it even more with grease. Then he looks to me and says, “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” I reply.

“Ok, just let me get out of my work clothes,” Tango says.

“Alright I’ll wait outside,” I tell him.

I head out the door and lean against the wall.

A few seconds later Tango comes out and he says “Alright I’m done.”

We go to the cliff and sit on the edge.

Under the cliff is a desert called the Deadly Desert maybe ‘cause it is really hot.

꧁𓆰꧂

After a few hours of hanging out we go to places we need to.

I head into town and see if there is anything I need to grab for Joel.

I go to a stand and think of someone that Joel talks about all the time.

I grab a pair of earrings off the stand, and since nobody was there I stuff them into my pocket.

I start to go home when I see Ren and Martyn aka the King and his right hand man.

They notice me, and I run straight for the cliff, I jump off the cliff and fly.

I feel a sharp pain in my wings and then I fall and I pass out.

꧁𓆰꧂

I wake up and I feel what feels like a cat's face next to mine.

I hear footsteps coming towards me.

“You're awake now,” a voice says, I turn my head and scream in pain.

“Don’t try to move, I know this might sound weird but when I found you, there was a trident in the wing that was not torn,” the young man says to me.

He has scars, a hat, a desert cloak, brown hair, green eyes, tanish skin, and elf ears.

He walks over and takes the cat and sets it on his shoulder.

The cat is gray and white.

“Meow.”

“Here I’ll help you try to sit up,” he tells me, and he sits me up. “I’ll change your bandages, they’re bloodsoaked.”

I feel a little sad ‘cause I’ve got a stranger saving my life.

The cat jumps off the man’s shoulder onto the bed, it sits on my lap, the name tag reads: Jellie.

I pet Jellie.

“She's the best cat ever,” the man says.

“May I ask your name?” I ask.

“Scar!” He tells me happily. “Whats yours?”

“Grian,” I tell Scar. “I hate having wings.”

“Why? You can fly, doesn’t that make you like having wings?” He asks me.

“NO!” I yell and my ribs start hurting and I groan in pain.

“Don’t strain yourself,” Scar tells me.

I look around the place, it has a table with a few candles, a book with a quill, a vase of flowers, a window that is covered, then there’s a door to my left.

What tore my wing?

A week has passed now.

Your leg has healed a little, but you can walk with crutches,” Scar tells me.

“Okay, but I don’t think I’ve ever used crutches in my life,” I tell scar.

“That's okay, I can help you,” he tells me.

꧁𓆰꧂

After Scar teaches me how to use crutches I go outside.

I go to the cliff and climb up the rocks, and look down, the desert looks the same as I remember.

I can’t see Scar’s hut from here, but that’s good since Scar’s taking care of me, and Ren and Martyn are after me.

I walk to the mound of rocks and climb down them.

“Eeee,” I look to my right seeing that there’s a pen with a llama.

“Hey there I didn’t know you lived here,” I say to the llama.

I go inside and sit on a chair, to let my right leg have a rest from it being the only leg that I can use.

I see a set of stairs.

I walk over to them “Grian can you come up here?”

“Yes, it just will take me a minute,” I tell Scar.

“Ok,” he calls. “I’ll wait, I know that it is hard walking with crutches.”

I use the crutches like legs.

As I step on the last stair, I feel blood coming out of my side, and fall to my knees.

Scar runs to me as I put my hand to my side.

“Grian, stay with me,” he says, picking me up bridal style to the room he gave me.

“Scar,” I say lightly as more and more blood soaks the bandages.

“Don’t worry Grian I can help just let . . . me get my . . . dad,” Scar says just as everything goes dark pitch black. (maybe remove ‘dark’ or ‘pitch black’ bc it’s redundant)

꧁𓆰꧂

I hear muffled voices and open my eyes.

I see people one is Scar the other one is the guy who runs the clinic.

The person next to Scar has light gray hair, a red eye, a black eye, pale skin, and weird clothes.

“Grian!” Scar yells.

“Shh, he just woke up,” the guy says.

“Scar?” I say.

“Your’re awake,” he says, lightly slinging his arms around me.

“Be careful Scar,” the guy says to Scar.

“Dad,” Scar says. “He wants to know your name.”

“Etho,” the man says.

I give Scar a glance.

I try to sit up and see that my bandages were bloodsoaked again.

Scar takes my bandages off and changes them.

I know he’s sad, I mean I can read his mind.

Right now he’s thinking about Jellie and . . . me dying.

Tears start falling down Scars face.

I pull Scar into a hug.

He starts sobbing into my shoulder.

꧁𓆰꧂

After I take a nap I wake up, roll on to my side and almost roll off the bed.

Scar and Etho come in and Scar sets the crutches on the table,

He checks my bandages and also checks my forehead.

“It’s gotten worse,” Scar says, and his face changes from sad to angry.

“What got worse?” I ask them.

“When you passed out I checked your forehead and noticed you’ve got a fever,” Etho tells me. “But a human can only do what a human can do, Scar.”

I sigh, nothing could get worse than having broken bones, I thought.

So I guess I will not leave here for a longer time than I had before.

I sit up, and grab the crutches.

I get a balance on the crutches and stand there at the side of the bed, like I would do at home at the end of my bed.

Someone knocks on the front door and I go answer it.

I see Joel and he says “Grian, what are you doing here?”

“I w- I fell and broke a few bones,” I lie to him.

“And you let the desert freak take care of you instead of Etho?” he asks me.

“Yes, but I didn’t have a choice at first,” I tell him.

He asks “Why?”

“I had an unhealed leg,” I tell him, looking down at my broken leg.

“You’er coming back home,” he tells me.

“Joel, he can stay with my son, and he is not a desert freak,” Etho tells Joel.

“Then I’m staying,” Joel insists.

“No, you can’t!” Scar yells from the room. “I’ll send you texts on these watches.”

Now I wonder what Scar is up to?

I go to Scar.

꧁𓆰꧂

Two weeks have passed now and my leg has gotten better.

My arm I can bend, my wings I can stretch out, I only need one crutch to lean on, my eight ribs have stopped stabbing my side, in total that’s 28 bones that broke.

I think in a little bit I will be out of the desert.

I walk over to Scar and see him using his watch.

I give Scar a hug.

He wraps his arms around me.

꧁𓆰꧂

A long time has passed and I am fully healed for the most part, my arm is in a sling.

And I’m ready to leave.

I wave at Scar with a smile. Something has changed between us and I’m not quite sure I want to be apart from it. The grin he returns makes my head spin a little.

A strange impulse tugs deep in my gut. I haven’t yet figured it out before my legs make the decision for me and I am back in front of Scar.

The way he looks at me, curious and confused, sparks a shyness I have never felt. I stare into his eyes. Those deep pools of emerald hold me in place. A small smirk quirks his lips and butterflies soar through my stomach.

Those. . .‘beautiful’ is the only word I can find for them, lips. Gentle and red. I imagine they are soft too, like his hickory-colored hair.

I fist my hand in his collar and close my eyes, drifting closer.

Scar leans in and our lips meet in a tender kiss.

This moment of bliss is interrupted when I press further and our foreheads bang together.

I pull away swiftly, as does Scar, putting a hand to my forehead. “Ouch. . .”

We look at each other for a long second and then crack up, laughing until our sides ache.

Scar slumps against me as our giggles dwindle and I shift so that our bodies fit together more comfortably. “I love you.”

Three simple words I have been terrified to admit. Even to realize that they were true has scared me. But here I am, in the post-glee of my first kiss with a man I feel I will love and adore my entire life.

“I love you, too,” Scar whispers into my hair.

The sun has begun to set, so I look up at Scar. “I have to go.”

He gives me the most adorable pout. “But I was enjoying your company.”

I roll my eyes with a smile. “I’ll write to you. Every day.”

He lights up instantly. “Promise?”

“Promise.” I hold my pinky out and he wraps his own around it.

Then I wiggle out of his grip. “Now I really have to go.”

I hesitate, but in the end I press one last small kiss to his mouth and mount the Teleporter. With a wave, I depart, a new lightness that only love could induce in my heart.

꧁𓆰꧂

I Teleport to the edge of the cliff.

I walk to Tango’s Tek shop.

I open the door which sounds like it’s been oiled.

I see Ren and Martyn over in the corner . . . making out.

I put my hand to my mouth.

I hear footsteps coming towards me.

“Grian?” I hear Tango ask.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“It’s been a month and a half since I saw you last!” he yells at me.

Martyn looks over at me and pulls away from Ren.

I hide behind Tango.

I grab Tango’s vest and get on my knees.

“What is going on?” Tango asks, looking back down at me.

“Long story short I’m a thief,” I tell him.

“Okay, let's take this outside,” Tango says.

We walk outside.

We figure things out.

꧁𓆰꧂

After we talk it out I go to find Scott and Jimmy.

I walk into a shop that I think they would go to and I see them.

There they are I’ve found.