Upside down she hung still in silence; her body wrapped in shimmering silk reflected against rays of the sun. She has been hanging for almost a month in silence and soon—very soon she would slide out reborn.
Inside her body is curled up, her knees pressed against her chest with her head between her legs. Lilyade is safe and warm as her mind is filled with meaningless dreams as the new form of her body finishes its final stage of growth. Soon enough the chrysalis shell begins to soften allowing her body to push outward. Her body is coated in slime to slide out and leave her a homely shell. The air around her is moist and warm to prevent temperature shock so her wings don't shrivel after leaving their warm nest. As all this happens, her eyes stay shut and falls into a giant leaf that braces her fall. She doesn't cry like a newborn, Lilyade's reentrance into the world is silent. Her body slides down to the end of the leaf, falls off and lands on another leaf. This process of tossing in slime off one leaf onto another repeats until she is gently rolled off the last leaf into a shallow pool of water.
Her body is splayed out naked, her nipples react to the air and the new feathers on her temples splay out stretching and taking up as much room as they can; like a flower blooming. The slime coating her body rolls down into the water. She doesn't move for a couple moments before she jolts awake.
Lilyade gasps for air as if not enough air could get into lungs. She coughs choking on the cocoon fluid she had breathed in while growing. It becomes a wad in her mouth, and she spits it out and wipes the side of her mouth with the back of her wrist. At this point she focuses on breathing—just breathing. The air coats her lungs and she sits back on the heels of her palms letting her chest rise and fall and stares up at the chrysalis chamber. From the silence, she collected that she was the last to hatch. The cocoons above her are all empty; some began to fall off onto the ground. The whole chamber is lit only by the blue pool she is sitting in.
Her eyes travel down the cylinder chamber to her legs, she sits up straight and puts a hand in front of her. Small green feather sprouted from the outside edge of her wrist. There is a patch on each ankle, and both sides of her collar bone and between her breasts. She looks down and hesitates to touch the newborn downy feathers that would soon become slick and smooth and iridescent. Patches of feathers were also a bit lower, and she rolls her eyes at her discovery of this.
"Skies above why down there." Lilyade hisses and closes her legs looking around to see if anyone was watching. The room stayed silent, and she took that as her cue that no one would be coming to help her.
Trembling, she leans forward to stand. Starting by crossing her legs and then sitting on top of them. She juts one leg out and places a hand on her knee to stand. Her other leg follows, and they shake in hesitation. That's when the tug of the new wings on her back knocks her off balance and back in the water she splats on her naked butt.
"Ugh," She splashes and tries again this time faster and aware of the new presence on her back. The wings had a mind of there own at this point and jut out stretching to feel their surroundings. One comes into the corner of her vision, and she turns her head studying the wing. Lifting her hand, she slowly touches the wing, it moves startled then realizes its her. These wings are hers now and would be with her until she died.
She turns around looking for a way out and her clothes, neither of which seemed to be an option. But a mirror leaning against a wall behind her was visible from the pool. These were spread out surrounding the whole chamber for others to see their new wings. She turned around and slowly slushed through the water digging her toes into the sand for balance. Coming into view, she could see her whole body. She was no longer the skinny shrimp of her friend group at school. Her body had muscle tone everywhere, her chest feathers glimmered. A small spot of pink flickered in the middle when hit right. She reached out to touch the mirror looking at her wings through the reflection.
Iridescent feathers, small wings that stopped at the back of her butt, and proportions that were relatively short to each other. Her mind goes through a few species of bird she could now be a part of, but her final conclusion was met when she tried to fly and rammed her forehead into the mirror caught off by the speed of her wings.
"Hummingbird," She rubbed her forehead squinting, "Definitely a hummingbird."
"Miss Tirse!" A voice called to the side. Instinctively she jumped and her wings dove to cover the front of her body. It Was Dr. Romple, the man that helped everyone become induced into the metamophisis transformation, "Thank goodness you're out. I was beginning to worry you wouldn't make it." He waddled covering his eyes with one hand and carrying her clothing with another. He was a short man with owl wings and circle glasses.
"Wouldn't make it?" Lilyade took the clothing and changed as quickly as she could while the doctor's back was to her, "Am I ok?" Her voice was light and trembled. There is a squeaky undertone to it, and she could feel it in her throat and immediately hated it, "You can turn around now." After several attempt of fitting the wings into the slits, they cooperated and slid through.
"Oh, yes don't worry. You are fine my dear. But you were in your cocoon quite a bit longer than the rest of the group. A week and a half longer to be precise." He leaned to see her wings, "Would you mind letting me?" He motioned to her back nodding towards her wings.
"Oh, yes." She turned around.
The doctor lifted one wing and it immediately reacted flapping at him.
"My, my sensitive are we?" He chuckled.
"They kind of have a mind of their own, sorry." Lilyade mumbled as she stood with one ankle crossed around the other.
Dr. Romple continued examining her wings by the pool light, "For hatching late, everything looks healthy. Your wings are fully developed and just need to start figuring out how to fly. Do you know your species?"
"Hummingbird," A small but mighty bird she would be.
Dr. Romple burst into a chuckle. Lilyade frowned, "What's so funny?"
He wiped a tear from his eye, "Oh dearie. Ms. Tirse, I do enjoy a good joke every now and then. But it's not possible to have hummingbird wings. Their species died over five-hundred years ago from the Chiroptera Poachers. They hunted them to extinction, everyone knows that."
Lilyade shook her head, "Um what? No, I wasn't aware of this."
"How? It's required to be taught at all the schools in Plumeria. There's even a memorial day for them."
Lily's jaw tightened, she knew now, "My mother homeschooled me. She's paranoid about pretty much everything."
"That lines up with her I will agree. But again it's not possible for you to have them. Why don't we take them for a spin?" He smiled, the blue light reflected off his glasses from the pool.
"Um, sure, you might want to stand back." She warned him. No more running into objects for her.
Fly up, she thought. Her wings responded quickly, and she rose into the air too fast, "Slow down, slow down, shit! HOVER!" She yelled before hitting the ceiling. The wings listened. She hovered a foot away from the top of the chamber.
"Down, slowly please," She whispered.
The wings let her down and her feet were planted on the ground back where she started.
The doctor stood gaping. He took off his glasses and cleaned the lens on his coat and put them back on expecting to see something different. Lilyade had no clue what.
"How is this possible...they went..."
"Extinct, I know." Lilyade spat, "So what do I do?"
He blinked out of the trance on her back, "Um, I can't believe I even know this, perks of learning every species, I guess. But your diet consists of sugar. You'll need it constantly since your heart beats much faster than other Avians. Just sugar water will do, but sugar filled food will also do the same, fruit of any kind, cookies, juice, it'll all work. And erm, every month you will lay eggs. They will be infertile unless you engage in sexual activity with a male. Your mother will inform you all about it. If she doesn't, I encourage you to ask her. I had the nurse open the door out." He pointed behind him.
Lilyade was at a loss for words at the sudden dump of information, "Um, thanks. Will do." She shook her head as she left through the tunnel to the exit where sunlight was shining through. Walking home wouldn't be an option since she was about fifty feet above solid ground. That was the slight difficulty to living in a bird hybrid world, everyone lived in trees.
She took a deep breath, and wrapped her toes around the edge of the exit branch. Don't kill me, got it? Her wings fluttered in response and was lifted off her feet away from the chrysalis chamber.
Plumeria was a tree kingdom, everyone lived in the sky and got around by flying. Children who had not gone through metamorphosis yet would climb from branch to branch like squirrels barefoot. What didn't make sense to Lilyade was how they would hardly ever fall. Thinking about it, Lilyade couldn't remember falling as a kid either.
She flew down what was main street. It was where the trees were all lined up in rows beside each other. From them shops and markets were built from wood, straw, rope and looked like what people would call bird houses, except instead of a tiny hole they had doors and windows. There were porches for landing and selling products outside. Lilyade lived in the tropics of Plumeria. The country had different regions for different Avian species. So Lilyade grew up with Macaws, Parrots, toucans, owls, cranes, small song birds and various Eagles and falcons that lived on the edges of the region and stuck to themselves. What was odd, was she was the only hummingbird she knew off.
Lilyade's balance was surprisingly steady. She could stop when someone flew in front of her and back up out of someone's way. Another odd thing, no one recognized her.
She continued to fly through traffic and up a level to her home in a shady spot of a fruit tree. Managing to land safely on her first flight, she opened the door to her parent's house.
Once she finally had a time to stop and breathe a pang hit her stomach. She needed food. Worse than she ever needed food in her life. It was like her stomach was shrinking and expanding begging for food and not finding any. Lilyade scurried over to the kitchen and pulled up the water well and started rummaging the cabinets for the jar of sugar. She grunts not being able to find it.
"Lilyade!" Her mom exclaimed, and ran over to grab her daughter, "Oh you don't know how worried we've been." Her mother turns her shoulders to look at her, "Are you ok? Are you sick? I just couldn't ask Dr. Romple enough—"
"Actually Mom, I won't be okay until I eat."
"Good grief all you teenagers think about is food and sleep," She rolls her eyes, letting go of Lilyade.
"Um, I'm not kidding. I'm a Hummingbird Avian. I need to eat or else I'll start shutting down. So, where is the sugar?" Lilyade asked as she kept searching cabinets.
"You're...a what?"
"Hummingbird. Avian. Something I shouldn't be but apparently am. Something I was supposed to learn but didn't. I'm starting to realize why." Lilyade snapped glaring at her mother.
Her mom grabs the sugar from the corner of the back counter and slides it to her. She crosses her arms and starts chewing on a nail while drawing in her small blue wings. Lilyade scoops a spoonful into a cup and pours water into it and stirs with a spoon. She raises the glass and gulps it down in four swallows. One glass isn't enough, and she finishes off with three more.
Lilyade exhales, "Now, an explanation. Please." Her voice softened.
"Alright...Come sit down with me." Her mother takes her hand and walks her into the cozy living room and sits her down on the cotton couch.
"What's wrong, Mom?" Lilyade's eyes scan her face, and she can't tell if her mother is about to break down or have a panic attack...or both...
"Lily...Hummingbird Avians are extinct..."
"I know, that's what Dr. Romple told me."
"The species were poached out."
"I know."
Her mother sighed when Lilyade's expression waited for more, "A group called the Chiropteras would invade into the tropics of Plumeria and find Hummers and drug them and cut off their wings. When that wasn't enough, they'd do it to any Avian in sight and bring back the wings to their bat queen for a profit." Her mother bit her lip as tears built up in her eyes as she explained the horrors this group conducted. Sometimes they wouldn't even drug the victim and cut off the wings while also torturing them. Lilyade's wings pressed against her back in protection of herself. "The reason I didn't tell you was because our family was one of the surviving ancestors of the genocide. The hummingbird Avians in our family didn't make it but all other family members that didn't have their wings did...Do you see now why I didn't tell you?"
Lilyade glanced at the floor and then back at her mother, "How would you have even known what I was going to become?"
"You hatched from a hummingbird egg and were born with their feathers. That's why I painted yours for years. To hide you so the Chiroptera wouldn't find you. It was all to protect you, I promise."
Lilyade nods and hugs her mom. She grabs her mother a tissue and sits while she blows her nose.
"Where's Dad?"
"At work, he should be home soon."
Lilyade nodded, "I'm gonna go to my room for a bit."
"Ok sweetie. I'll buy some more sugar and start stocking juice. Did the doctor tell you everything about eggs? Be safe if you decide to—"
"I'm fully aware, Mom." She put up a hand, "But I don't have a boyfriend. So, it's not possible." Who would want to date her now even? She was a danger to herself and others. But the poaching stops years ago, so she was safe...right?
"Just making sure." Her mother replied still biting a nail as she shuffled to the kitchen.
Lilyade sighed as she reached her room. No longer being able to lay on her back, she lay down on her side on her bed and stared out the large window with a view of the castle.
She was one of a kind. Special even.
She scoffed, hating to think of herself that way.
Was this a blessing? A curse? A sign?
Her thoughts were interrupted by her stomach.
"Mom! I'm hungry...again..." Lilyade sat up, and made her way downstairs to pee and drink another gallon of sugar water.