When Haneul, a Winged one, falls to the Earth after an intentionally malicious injury to one of his wings, he is nursed back to health and consciousness by Inanna, a Wingless woman of Earth. He reluctantly accepts her continuing help after regaining consciousness because he is unable to fly back home until his wing is healed.
After Haneul is well enough to fly back to his aerie kingdom, he is met with disdain from his fellow people. He has been tainted by Earth and its inhabitants, and no longer has a place in Sky -- much less as its future ruler. That is, not until he is Cleansed.
Haneul is banished to the Outerlands to complete his Cleansing and is surprised to see that Inanna has been banished from her people as well. They each try to preform their repentant duties on their own so that they might be accepted back into their respective communities, but soon find themselves aiding each other in their tasks.
I still have a lot to flesh out in regards to back-story, social and cultural aspects, etc. But here is a scene that I know I want to keep.
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"The Angel" by heise @ Deviantart.com
FLY by: Esther Kim Cotton
"My people take the oil from these fruits and use it in our salves. Put it in our soaps and creams. We eat them too, these fruits. You and I should gather them for our dinner tonight, and I will make a soap from them as well, so that we might bathe." "You eat them?" Haneul asked with a skeptical look on his face. "These fruits? And they are good?" "Yes," she said and smiled. "Would you like to try one?" After some hesitation he nodded and she worked at one of the more greener colored ovoid fruits, pulling out the hard brown pit in the center. She held the green flesh out to him and he reached for it slowly, still hesitant. She gestured for him to take it and nodded her head at him, reassuring him that it was edible. Warily, he took the fruit and brought it to his lips. Inanna's smile widened as she watched his face contort with the first chew, then laughed as he chewed again, contorted his face more, and spit the fruit out onto the forest floor. "Fruit?” He exclaimed. “It's as bitter as a vegetable!" "They are fruits," she laughed. "But they are not sweet. Fresh, extremely bitter. But I will wash them and ferment them, and they will taste better after time.” “Time.” He set his lips in a straight line, suddenly grim. “We have plenty of time, now, don't we? In this wretched place.” Inanna started but did not stop gathering the fruits. In their brief tour around the forest and the cave, she had forgotten why she and Haneul were there in the first place. She had forgotten completely of their mutual exile. She had forgotten completely of his anger towards her. Struggling a faltering smile to her face she said sadly, “Yes” and straightened from her stooped position where she was gathering the fallen fruit from the ground underneath their mother tree. She picked up her makeshift sack, made from her outer garments, and nodded to him. “I'll take these back to the cave.”
