oh baby, I have not been kind
He tried to hide the grin when little Baddie recognized him, his little face all huffy and irritated and catching his breath from his latest attempt at flying. He was okay though, Badden nodded in answer before looking away. Poor little guy might be embarrassed. Kharon had definitely been embarrassed being far old enough to fly and not knowing how to. Nobody else in the family had had wings. There was no one to teach him until he'd met Umbra.
"Hey, Kharon. Yeeeah, I'm okay. Just can't seem to get the hang of this flying thing."
Kharon helped dust him off, brushing his wing over him as he offered to help Baddie try again. They could run together this time. "Just promise you won't tell anyone how bad I am?" Badden asked him first.
He shook his head. "You're not bad at all, Badden. You're just new at it." He ducked his head and glanced around, sharing his secret. "You know.. I hadn't even learned to fly until I was much older than you are now. Older than all the other kids with wings, probably." He straightened and looked down at him with another soft smile. "You are much braver than I was. I was too embarrassed to try to fly in case someone might see me fail so bad." But they were here to learn, not chat, and he stepped away and lifted his wings off his sides a little.
"You ready?" And of course he was. His little brother took off so fast Kharon had to stretch his stride to catch up, his head low and laughing. It felt good. It'd been so long since he had been so carefree. He could still feel the weight of everything on him, but in this moment it was at least a little lighter. He reached out and tapped Badden's shoulder, nudged his wing higher as he raised his own white wings. "Now flap some," he laughed, demonstrating with slow arches of his wings until they moved quicker in rhythm with their gallop.
"When it feels right, push harder, even faster, and then jump for it!"
I wish I could scrape away the dirt that's on my mind