The first memory that she had was of the song. It filled her head as it pulled her from the air and gave her shape. It was a song of great power, sung with great passion and even greater strength. She sensed that it was aged, perhaps even older than He who sang it. It ran through her like a memory of what was yet to be and she felt herself filled with the knowledge of those who had passed before her.

She shimmered in the evening sky, a bright light that became a solid form. Her wings unfurled behind her and held her tiny body effortlessly in the air before she was even aware that her wings existed. She took the form of a female, soft gentle curves and beautiful tiny features. She stretched out her legs and arms, slowly and languorously, taking her time to understand the feelings of these new muscles and joints working together. Rejoicing in the sensations that ran through her with each new movement, nerve endings connecting and stimulating her mind.

A cool breeze tickled her skin, bubbling across her body and playing with her wings. Her eyes opened to see what was touching her and she gasped as she drank in the world around her. The night was still new and everything had taken on an ethereal glow. Water tumbled over itself beneath her, making silver peaks that quickly disappeared so that another could form. Trees reached up around her, their many arms disappearing into a multitude of leaves that formed walls along the sides of the river.

She looked for the source of the song that continued to fill her head with enlightenment about who she was and why she had been created. The voice seemed to have no centre, floating to her from everywhere. She turned herself around and for a moment she was stunned at the ease with which she used her wings to move through the air. Fear filled her, an emotion that she understood from all that He had sung to her. She dropped slightly and her stomach lurched and she flapped her wings in a desperate attempt to stay in the air.

The song grew louder and she listened and felt herself calm. The movement of her wings slowed to a steady beat and her confidence increased. She knew how to use her wings, the knowledge had been given to her, and all she had to do was believe in herself. Tentatively she flew back and forth along the river, holding herself at a steady height until she knew she was safe.

She stopped and hung in the air once more, still searching for the One that sang and still she could not tell from where the song was coming. She felt a shift in the night above her and she stretched her wings and flew upwards. She flew high and then higher, leaving the tops of the ancient trees behind her. Suddenly the song stopped and so did she, hanging high above the ground, a tiny dot in the night sky.

She looked at the world that was spread beneath her and her heart felt like it had stopped. She understood that this was only a small part of the vastness of the earth, her part of it, and she marvelled at the beauty that it contained. She clamped a hand across her mouth and tears rolled down her cheeks as she giggled with happiness at all she had been given.

She hung there for a moment, laughing and crying and filling the world around her with a soft light she was unaware of. From not far away a pair of blue eyes watched her delight and He felt a fondness for her He had not expected and a satisfaction that He enjoyed.

'Perfect' He whispered to the sky and He turned and was gone.

She heard the word and the giggles stopped. She turned to where she thought Him to be and immediately felt His absence. She hung in the air a moment more, smiling softly to herself, aware that somehow she had pleased Him. She tested her wing's strength once more and suddenly dove from the sky down towards the water. She felt it was time to get to know her river and see what she could do to help it start to grow.