Flightless
Ezran puffed his chest out proudly as he flapped his wings, they were small right now but they would likely grow to be as large as Cyrus’ one day.
“You are quite the late bloomer, most avians get their wings when they turn 10” Cyrus remarked as he watched his son proudly to which Ezran just waved his hand dismissively.
“Obviously my wings were too badass for my ten-year-old self, I had to become a big man first!” He said smugly earning him chuckles from everyone else.
“There very pretty, Ez” Theo remarked brightly and Ezran puffed his chest out even further in pride, his blue and white feathered wings flapping slightly at the praise.
“Careful Theo or you’ll inflate his ego even further” Ezekiel chided teasingly earning him laughter from the others while Ezran sputtered in offence.
“Ddddaaaaaddddd” He whined childishly but the man just continued to laugh so he pouted and glanced at Dawn who was also laughing but in a much more subdued manner.
“So Dawn how did you know what to do about my wings?” He asked curiously which piqued the others attention while Dawn stiffened up slightly.
“I did promise an explantation” She mumbled to herself as she fiddled with the sleeve of her sweater and Cyrus gave her a worried look.
“Are you sure?” He asked worriedly and Dawn took in a deep as she nodded which lead to the four teens to share concerned looks.
“The reason I know about the process of wings growing in is because I’ve witnessed it before… and because I’ve experienced it myself” She admitted softly and the fours teens eyes widened in shock while a sorrowful expression appeared on Cyrus’ face.
“What?!” Vesper exclaimed in surprise and Dawn nodded a little bit as she turned so her back was facing them before reaching down and lifting her sweater and shirt up slightly, Theo racked his brain for any memory of seeing Dawn’s back but nothing came to mind.
With her shirt lifted they were able to see the black design that started at her shoulder blades and went about halfway down her back. Ezran immediately recognized it as he had seen the same thing on Cyrus’ back, it’s where an avian can tuck their wings out of view, but these were a lot more elaborate looking than Cyrus’.
Slowly a pair of wings emerged from the blondes back and the four teens let out choked off screams of alarm when they saw their condition. They were different from Cyrus and Ezran’s in the fact that they weren’t feathered, in fact, they kinda looked like bat wings almost, but that wasn’t what caught their attention what they were focused on was the fact that they looked like someone had shredded them apart.
“Y-you have wings?” Theo choked out in shock and Dawn nodded as she slipped them away once more and pulled her shirt and sweater back on before turning to face them once again.
“I don’t like showing them because of there condition so very few people know I even have them” She said softly as she shrugged her shoulders slightly.
“What… what happened to them?” Ezekiel asked worriedly and Dawn gave them a soft/sad smile.
“The foster father I had before Eliza adopted me was an avian and he had a daughter, a little spitfire of energy you guys would have gotten along great” She remarked with a slight chuckle and the four smiled lightly but the unease over where this story was going made their stomachs turn.
“Rodrick was at first such a kind man, he loved his daughter and I thought he loved me too. He treated me like family and always talked about adopting me and I believed him, I’ve had horrible experiences in the past with trusting others but I trusted him, and Serena was such a sweetheart so I genuinely thought I had found my forever home. But things changed after the accident” She continued to explain softly and the unease growing in the four teens grew while a slightly grim expression appeared on Cyrus’ face.
“It had been two months after Serena had gotten her wings, some people at her school had been pressuring her into testing if she could actually fly and she agreed to try but her wings were too new they didn’t have the strength to fly so when she jumped off that building there was nothing to stop her from plummeting to her death” She explained as tears welled up in her eyes and Theo let out a horrified noise, Vesper looked like he might be sick and Ezran and Ezekiel had gone deathly pale.
“Rodrick changed after that, he started drinking and he became short-tempered but for a while, he just ignored me until my wings came in. I never knew my birth parents so I had no idea I would get wings especially since I was a late bloomer. Rodrick helped me out when they came in and I thought for a brief moment that we could grow close once again… I was so wrong” She explained as more tears slipped down her face while she trembled slightly and the four teens shuffled closer to try and provided the blonde with some kind of comfort while Cyrus place his hand on her shoulder to provide comfort as well.
“His daughter never got to experience the joy of having wings so why should I?” She muttered brokenly and Theo’s head shot up as he stared at his cousin in horror.
“He did that to your wings?!” He questioned in alarm and Dawn simply nodded as touched her back gingerly.
“He used a knife and a broken beer bottle, the same one that did this” She muttered as she tapped the scar over her eye.
“And the others to?” Vesper asked softly in reference to the multiple scars he had seen on the blonde back and Dawn simply nodded.
“He would constantly make promises of never doing it again but obviously those were lies” She muttered to herself as she reached up and touched the scar on her shoulder which was one of the bigger one. This was too much for the teens as they quickly pulled Dawn into a tight hug while tears streamed down their faces.
“Vesper your burning yourself” Dawn scolded gently as she tried to wipe the endermen hybrids tears but he just shook his head and buried it into the blonde's shoulder who just sighed softly and pulled all four of them into a comforting hug.
Cyrus watched on with a sombre expression as he rubbed Dawn’s shoulder comfortingly, when he had first met Dawn the girl had been incredibly skittish around him and absolutely refused to be near him alone. When he heard about what happened and had seen the damage he had never been so horrified and outraged in his entire life, though Elowen had taken it even worse and he is still surprised that she never hunted the man down and murdered him. Though now that he thinks about it she had been gone on her trip for a while, maybe she had just put it off till no one could stop her.
“Is there no way to fix the damage?” Ezekiel asked softly and Dawn grimaced a little bit.
“There is a surgery that could potentially fix them but it’s experimental and far too expensive for me to ever get” She admitted and in unison, the four teens came up with the exact same plan without even knowing it, they would get Dawn that surgery no matter what it took.
“Why do they look so different to mine?” Ezran asked softly and a small smile appeared on Dawn’s face.
“That’s because I’m not an avian, in fact, Vesper and I have something in common” She remarked fondly and Vesper tilted his head in confusion.
“What do you mean?” He asked curiously and Dawn’s smile grew slightly.
“I am an ender dragon hybrid, but unlike most hybrids, I don’t have the horns or the scales all I have are… were my wings” She explained her smile faltering slightly but she was quick to fix it but the four teens still noticed it.
“That’s so cool Dawn!” Ezran gushed trying to distract Dawn which worked as she and the others all laughed.
Cyrus smiled at the scene, he was glad that Dawn was finally opening up to more people about what happened to her. Before this the only people who knew about her wings were himself, Elowen, Eliza, Gabriel, Caspian, Soren and Techno. He was so proud of Dawn for reaching another milestone in the path to recovery, it was a long one but she’d get there one day Cyrus was positive.