Sun 28 Jun, 2009
It was a cold morning. Little puffs of vapor drifted around the head of a young man as he made his way up the stairs of the church. The young man’s name was Nathanael, and even though the early morning light hid it his dark blue eyes burned with eagerness. Inside the church numerous paintings and statues filled the hallways, most with scenes depicting the fall of man and the host of heaven reaching down but never quite reaching man. “perhaps its time for man to reclaim his wings” whisper Nathanael to himself as he adjusted the bag on his back.
Nathanael made his way to the back of the building being sure to avoid any attention, not that there where that many people present at this time. Just the Fathers absorbed in their early morning prayers. Nathanael made it to a small door witch he knew would lead him to the steeple without incident.
As he climbed the stairs Nathanael thought back to a story Mother Kathryn had once told him. It was about a man that had been imprisoned on a small island. The man devised a way to escape using a pair of wings he crafted out of feathers and wax. While he was successful at crafting the wings, he flew to high and fell to his death when the wings melted in the sun. Nathanael disliked the story. He got the imprison the lesson Mother Kathryn was trying to teach is that humans had there place and they shouldn’t reach for more than that.
Nathanael disagreed, if God didn’t want him to try and be more than what he was, then God shouldn’t have giving him a mind to make up for what he lacked.
The sky was already starting to glow with the first rays of sunrise as Nathanael reached the last step to the steeple tower. along one of the walls was a large lump of cloth. Walking over to the pile, Nathanael pulled back the cloth to reveal his latest creation. A flying machine. The suit was designed to strap to a persons back. The controls where a simple pair of handles that assisted in increasing or decreasing incline and the degree of banking while in the air. On the back of the machine where two mid size tanks of highly pressurized steam, when a switch was hit on one of the control sticks a burst of steam would shoot out giving the suit a boost. Well that was Nathanael’s theory anyway. It hadn’t been tested yet.
Nathanael set down his sack and started digging through it. The sack contained a pair of leather chaps, a jacket, gloves, and finally a pair of goggles. Nathanael suited up in his gear and then strapped the flying machine to his back and walked to the western window. The west side window had a small balcony on it witch Nathanael planed to use as his launch pad.
Far below him the sounds of the city waking up and coming to life could be heard. The newspaper boys shouting out the teasers for the new’s, shop keepers opening doors and greeting the early customers.
Nathanael took a breath, looked out over the city and then hit the switch for the first boost of steam.
*note* I know that the story of Icarus was actually a father and son story and that it was the son that fell because he didn’t heed his fathers warning. This was just meant to be what Nathanael had taken from that story and his reaction to it now that its him about to take the leap. part two of this story will be posted next Sunday so stay tuned 
