Aire wandered around outside his home in the little village where he had grown up, smiling and waving to his grandmother, who was sat on her rocking chair in the back garden. His mother was out at the shop, and his grandmother was looking after him, keeping the other children that threw rocks at him over the wooden picket fence at bay. The garden was quite large, and as he ran up to her from the bottom of it, he flapped his huge wings a little to keep them from dragging on the ground, and actually took flight once or twice, albeit for only a few seconds.

Coming to a stop in front of her, he smiled up at her lovingly, but something seemed... wrong. She wasn't smiling back, and her gaze was fixed onto the distance, past the back fence and up to the hill that was some distance away. Shading his eyes with his hand from the glare of the setting sun, he squinted and saw a small pillar of smoke. What was unusual about that? Campers were common in these parts. ''What's the matter, Grandmah?'' He asked her, looking at her big-eyed.

She swallowed, looking down at Aire with a worried ex
pression, before glancing back to the horizon and the rising cloud of smoke. ''Child, do you remember what your mother told you yesterday? That there were some bad people in this world; people who choose to hurt children like you?'' He nodded, but his face held a confused and bewildered ex
pression. Her eyes were glistening, now, serving only to baffle him even more. ''Well, my little chicken, that's one of them.'' Looking back to the cloud of smoke, he shook his head and mumbled something, before speaking properly.

''But, Grandmah, how do you know?'' He asked. Many times had there been a pillar of smoke there before, and she had never been this upset then.

''Child... I know. You'll have to leave, but don't worry, you'll be-'' She couldn't finish, though, as she was cut off by the teary-eyed little boy.

''Grandmah! No! I can't leave! Mommah's not here to come with me! Can't I go when she comes back?'' He was pleading with her now.

''I'm sorry, child. You must go alone.''

''But... I... How long will I have to go for?'' His grandmother had a single tear slip out of her eye, and roll down her old, tired skin, and her voice was pained when she spoke.

''Until I send for you.'' She knew, though, what he did not. That she would never- could never- send for him. When he left, he left for good.

''O-ok, Grandmah.'' The truth was even more terrible than the grandmother cared to admit. That the smoke could easily have been from a fire, and that the only reason she was using it as an excuse was because she had a lucky break. The villagers were threatening to burn down her home, her daughters home, and claimed they had already called the Hunters. Aire had to leave. Much as it broke her heart, he had to leave. His mother was not out by coincidence; she had done this while she was out so she couldn't protest or threaten to go with the boy.

Aire had tears flowing freely down his face, now, as he leaned in and kissed his grandmothers cheek goodbye, before running to the end of the garden, and flapping his great wings once, twice, and he was up. He circled round, flying awkwardly, dipping low every few seconds out of ill-practice, but, finally, was out of sight of his little old grandmother, who was now rocking on her chair, singing her grandsons lullaby to the ghosts of her memories.

[[Feel free to make the smoke cloud one of yours, gais. It's just liek. A random thing I did. xD If it ain't one of yours, I'll end up making it be his daddeh.]]