Cutting Wings

Liam told me about the evolution of the Wing Cutters. "We used to be a noble profession" -he said to me. I asked him what hat changed, howcome Cutting Wings wasn't noble anymore. It will be impossible for me to describe Liam's explanation as detailed and accurate as he did. It takes a Wing Cutter to do that, but here is what I remember from the tale Liam told me:

"Well, Wing Cutters have existed since Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. God had no intention of cutting wings for mankind, he left mankind (and has not returned as far as I know). But you asked my why the profession isn't noble anymore, so let me not bore you with the full history of Wing Cutting, but provide you with an answer to your question.

People used to call upon Wing Cutters when they felt happy or succesfull but were scared of flying too high, lose their wings and fall in the deepest of holes. Some creatures are born without wings, what most human's don't know is that they can be grown by a Wing Cutter. Altough it's a different kind of expertise than cutting. Just as planting a tree is different from cutting branches. The beautiful thing about Cutting Wings is that we exactly know how much of a wing has to be cut to gain a certain state of happiness accompanied by a sence of security. People don't want to have their wings cut too short, since that won't allow them to fly anymore. A Wing is a 'living' thing. So you cut it, but as it's being fed by human happiness it can grow quickly. Some people have the extaordinary gift to grow and shrink their wings to always be in the perfect state of mind. In the perfect world Wing Cutters wouldn't be necessary. Anyways, as you can see it's hard for me to stick to the point when it concerns my profession. There is just so much beauty to it, well was.

People nowadays don't think of visiting Wing Cutters, which has left many of us without purpose what led some of us into losing touch with true wing cutting. In fact this has lead to the development of two categories of Wing Cutters. The Traditional Cutters and the New School Cutters. The first works as I told you: a man/woman needs a Cutter, the Cutter helps the person in cutting or growing the wings. Then he leaves the person free to fly a little higher or lower, just as is wanted. He remains a distant contact, and is always able to be called upon or to warn a person when the wings grow too much.

The Cutters from the New School pick out certain humans and stay with them. They make them grow wings that are just too big, they fly with the person as high is the latter is able to go. And once high enough, the Wing Cutter cuts the wings, without warning. And the person who was flying so high starts to fall. The Cutter does not leave the man/woman to crash totaly, but accompanies him/her along the way down. Not out of compassion, but out of own necessity. He needs to be needed. He doesn't see himself as bad, he doesn't know what he does is plain wrong. The Wing Cutter  looks at himself as helping the fallen man/woman recover. He sees this as noble. He starts growing the person's wings again, he is very trained in this. He sees the person's happiness growing, and where a Traditional Cutter would keep sight on the wings, cutting them into perfection, the New School Cutter just let's the wings grow again, and cuts it only when they are so high that the Cutter can't follow the flight of the person anymore. At that point, he cuts them off and the same cycle is followed."