"Mia" by Sara Dungavell

It's always my eyes that gave me away. I'd almost learnt to keep them out of that angle of light so that the animal gleam didn't show, but I always ended up chased out of town by and angry mob. Just like what happened this time. It gets annoying after a while. I build myself a nice life and then I make a small mistake and someone sees my eyes shine and guesses what I am. Some damn hybrid of ybryda and human. The wings have only given me away once, it's always the eyes.

"Damn, this is getting annoying you know." That was Lizzy, she came running after me three or four towns ago, we think alike.

"I thinks it's safe to come out now," I said that to her, we'd been hiding under a bush until the villagers finished their rampage.

"No, I don't just mean it's bugging me, I mean I'm fed up, I can't do this anymore, running away just as I get settled in, I can't do it!"

"Well how do you think I feel?! I've dealt with this all my life!" I was a little angry, I'd told Lizzy not to follow me, but she'd said she could handle it, and now she was proving my point, after I'd gotten attached.

"Yah, but you can't leave, I can." There was a bit of a pause after that. "Sorry Mia, but I'm leaving." And then she just left. I couldn't blame her really, as I said, we think alike, and in her skirt I would have done the same thing. But I wasn't then, and I was abandoned again. I felt like a part of my soul had been ripped out, it left me hollow. I didn't want to stay there anymore, I wanted to get away. With the eyes that always betrayed me filling with tears, I spread my golden wings and flew off. I spent a solid day flying south, trying to put as much distance between me and Lizzy the abandoner as possible. I had no other goal. But the next day I found myself circling above the first village I'd ever been driven out of, before I lost faith in human acceptance, the village I had loved Him in. The storm that had been massing in the east decided to break then and I couldn't fly anymore. I was exhausted anyway, I needed to rest, and the village seemed the only place. In the winds any attempt to direct where I'd land proved futile and I plummeted down to the middle of the town square. I was shivering, wet and heart broken, and I think I would have lain there until I died of exposure if he hadn't seen me first. I don't know what he was doing out in the rain, he'd always been a weird one though. He took me to his house.

"Why were you lying out in the rain like that? You nearly froze to death." Henry said, walking into the room as I was rubbing my hair dry. He'd lent me some of his clothes to change into, it felt nice to be dry, it felt nice to have him take care of me again.

"Why do you care?" I was still cautious though, the last time I'd seen him he'd wanted to kill me.

"That was a long time ago." He said, as if reading my thoughts, just like he always had. I got a vision of us, ten years ago, on a picnic.

"It was better then." I said, I guess I forgot the pain he'd caused, the fear that he'd discover who I really was, and then that heart tearing moment when he did find out, and he did fear me.

"I wish I'd never driven you out, I loved you, I just didn't understand, " he said, with that little half-smile, that I remembered so well. I saw the face from the picnic again.

"I loved you," I said, staring into those still blue eyes, they were like anchors, they centred me in all that pain Lizzy had caused.

"I want to make up for it now, I want you to stay, I've been thinking about it a lot. I really didn't understand you until that plague ripped through here, when I was coming up with the antidote I realised how wrong I'd been to drive you out of town." All that I really cared about in those words was that he'd said he wanted me to stay. Someone wanted me.

"I'll stay then." I said, and he swung me up into his arms.

"Before I thought you were a monster, I've realise it's more like a disease, you can't do anything about it," he said softly, his face buried in my hair, he'd always loved my hair.

"I was stuck with it," I said agreeing, just happy to be warm and loved, I felt like purring, but that always scarred people. I'd felt like purring that day at the picnic, I'd felt like letting my wings out, I was so happy then too just be with someone who loved me.

"Well now you aren't, I discovered a way to change your DNA," he said, and it was just like I was out in the rain again, a flash of cold water swept through me. He didn't love me, he loved the person he thought I was. I remembered the end of that picnic then too, when I had spread my wings, and then that look on his face.

"What!" I said, pulling away, he smiled at me, taking my exclamation as one of joy.

"I invented a machine to nullify your Ybryda DNA, you'll be human again, and you can stay here," he said enthusiastically. He always had been inventive.

"I don't want my DNA changed," I said. I liked my wings, I even liked my eyes, I didn't want to be just another human.

"But this is your cure, you won't have to keep running anymore, we can be happy, I love you." He tried to pull me back into his arms but I ripped away.

"You don't understand, I don't want to change." I think that's about the time I realised that myself. That I was happy with who I was. I guess Lizzy and I weren't exactly alike after all. I was given the chance to walk away, and I wasn't taking it. Needless to say I left after that, Henry didn't want me there anymore and I didn't want to stay. But I feel better now, I think I had to revisit that bit of my past to accept Lizzy's departure. It was that she'd left when I couldn't that had upset me, but now I could, and it turned out I just didn't want to leave. I'm happy with who I am. I'm Mia. And that's good.