• Daedalus stood on the cliff. His son, Icarus, stood next to him. The boy's long brown hair hung in his face and covered his eyes.
    "Are you ready, my son?" Daedalus asked him.
    The boy smiled. His two front teeth had fallen out, leaving a gap in his toothy smile.
    "Yes, father," Icarus replied.
    Daedalus crouched and slide the makeshift wings over the boy's shoulders. As he did so, he thought. We'll finally be free. The boy's wings were secured and Daedalus but his own on.
    "Now remember," he told Icarus, "Do not fly to low, the sea will dampen your wings. Do not fly to high, the sun will melt the wax."
    "I know, father," Icarus replied, "You have told me before."
    "I know, but you're all I have left in this life, and I will not lose you."
    Daedalus leaped from the cliff. Instantly, the wind picked him up and he was off. He looked back for Icarus. The boy leapt, and just as it had Daedalus, the wind scooped him up and flew just yards from his father.
    They soared in the air for what seemed like hours. The salty breeze never faltered, not once. While Daedalus flew straight and true, Icarus flew high and low, doing extravagent stunts.
    "Icarus," Daedalus called, "Be careful, you are getting awfully high."
    Icarus refused to listen to reason.
    "I feel no heat father, the sun must be miles away! I could even touch the heavens!"
    With that, Icarus climbed upward. Reaching for the heavens above. Daedalus cried out to him, but the boy would not listen. He climbed. Higher and higher. He stopped abruptly.
    Icarus fell from the sky like a rock. Daedalus, hoping to catch his doomed son, swooped beneath hoping to catch him. He missed by inches.
    Icarus crashed into the sea. Daedalus circled above, hoping to find his son, but the sea foam washed over him, and he was gone. Daedalus landed on a nearby island, later named Icaria, and stripped off his acursed wings. Tears rolled down his face. He collapsed on the sand and pushed his hands into his eyes.
    "Icarus!" He cried. "Icarus!"
    He would sit there for hours, weeping over all he had in the world, and cursing the makeshift wings that could not protect it.