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THE SECOND they left the terrace, Silena cornered her. "Anya, are you sure about this?" she murmured. "I know you're not. . . Not enthusiastic about heights. And the only way we can get to camp fast enough to bring reinforcements is by pegasi."
Anya swallowed, almost rethinking this whole quest thing. And then she shook her head. "It's— it's okay, Silena. I'm not going to leave you to do this alone, you know." She nudged Silena's shoulder playfully, and the girl laughed. "Anyways, you'd miss me too much, being gone for how many hours without me?" She paused to think and then bit her lip, deciding not to calculate that because she hated maths.
Silena grinned. "True. I would. Having you by my side would make this quest a lot better."
"Aww, thanks," Anya replied, smiling softly. Then her facade changed to a determined one and she linked her arm with Silena's. "Now let's go. The whole camp's depending on us."
—•—
The pegasi glided through the grey sky. The darkness enveloping them seemed a pretty fitting mood considering how there was a war and everything.
Silena Beauregard and Anya Kimora were flying side by side, heading towards camp to convince Clarisse to let the Ares cabin help them.
In the sky. Hundreds of miles over the sea, and even more above ground level! Anya clung onto the pegasus's mane like her life depended on it, and she continuously tried to remember exactly— why did she agree to this, again?
Because— Reinforcements. Camp. StubbornClarisse.
Silena didn't seem to have a fear of heights, which Anya envied her for, though she wasn't that relaxed, either. She kept fiddling with this thing on her wrist. A watch? A bracelet? Anya couldn't tell because of the distance in the middle of them; the pegasi couldn't fly too closely together or otherwise they might bump into each other.
The whole time she was distracting herself by either, one— talking to herself or Silena, whichever one was possible, and two— thinking about how she would soon be on solid ground again. Really, really soon.
"You okay?" Silena called worriedly. She liked to check in every couple minutes or so, knowing Anya's horrible fear of falling from heights was getting worse the further they flew.
She laughed, squeezing her grip on the pegasus's mane even more tightly. It whinnied in protest, ears cringing in visible pain, so Anya loosened it, only a little, but in doing so it triggered a load of skyrocketing nausea. "Yeah. Everything's fine!"
"We'll be there, really soon. I promise!" she yelled.
Anya just nodded, chewing on the inside of her cheek. It was bleeding now, the tang of sharp iron filling her mouth.
After a few minutes of just flying and Anya's heartbeat not slowing down, Silena told her, "Listen to the wind around us." Weird thing to say, but Anya complied. "It's like a soft whoosh. Hurried, and fearing." Anya didn't know how a gust of wind could have emotions, but she let Silena continue, not sure where she was going with this. "It'd be trying to get to its destination faster— that is, if it had one. It doesn't, because winds don't have focal points. They only go where they are needed. That's why they're so rushed."
