Reign of Embers

Chapter 29- Flying high

Lysandra
The wind howls around me, snow and ice sticking to my thick fur as I take in my surroundings. It's taken well over our week long plan to get to this stage - I've been away from my family for 11 days now, and it's starting to get to me. But finally, as the sun begins to set, we are nearly ready for battle.

Around me warriors of all tribes, shape, and size, are finishing setting up the trap that will hopefully entice the strange shadow demons to us tomorrow. Golden sunlight reflects off our armour hanging by the mountain side, causing the clearing to glistening like it's filled with fireflies.

Originally, we were going to just have groups of leopards from the same tribes at certain stations, but after watching them train, I managed to convince them to let me mix up the groups.

Inside Icatha, healers from Sadaron are preparing the main chamber to become a sickbay, along with others who would prefer not to fight. Meridan are forging last minute armour and weapons. Soldiers from all tribes are either training or hauling materials around. Most of the Firdorns went out earlier into the surrounding area to warn all the other creatures of what may happen in the next couple of hours or days, they asked for any help and support nearer the beginning of our preparation, resulting in support from the forest foxes and polar bears, however they will not be here until tomorrow morning. Some of the elderly from all the tribes, as well of the cubs and those not able to fight, were taken to Sadaron 5 days ago by a group of soldiers and a few healers. We chose Sadaron because it's one of the most protected and well hidden territories in the Staghorns.

I take a deep breath, letting the comforting scent of Terrasen - pine needles and snow, mixed with the unfamiliar smell of freshly forged steel, sweat, and big cats. Only a few more days, then I can go home back to my family. I breathe out, breath clouding the air in front of me. Placing my paws parallel to my shoulders, I begin my training drill.

I begin by running between the markers placed in the snow, gradually building my speed and intensity. Others begin to join in but I block them out, focusing on transferring my skills and knowledge that I possess in human form about battle training into my run.

I then start my stretches, arching my back and flexing my paws not unlike a domestic cat. Once stretching is complete I practice retracting and presenting my claws, then shifting between forms and performing training rituals with them. As I shift into a giant eagle, I launch myself up into the colour washed sky.

Currents of air filter through my wings, and I begin to ride one, soaring higher and higher into the sky. The world feels invisible and insignificant, leopards pinpricks in the vast expanse of mountains . I burst through a layer of cloud and life stops for a moment. The sky becomes an artist's canvas, brushstrokes of pink, purple and orange overlapping blues, yellows, and reds. I halt my beating wings, allowing my self just a fraction of a second to appreciate what might be my last sunset, before I begin plummeting back down to earth. Back to our plans, our trap, our reality.

My second family comes hurtling closer and closer, faster and faster. I keep my wings tucked in tight until I reach another current. My wings snap open and I begin spiralling, soaring back down to where Azula, one of my closest friends, is waiting for me.

It's at that moment that a harsh scent hits my nostrils, carried by the icey wind. My senses go crazy, overwhelmed with trying to figure out what's going on. Beneath me I can see leopards turning their heads in confusion, noses flared at the sky.

I snap my wings shut and try and pick up speed to help the others to figure out what it is, the ground is closing in. I'm around 5000 feet from the ground...4750....4500....4250....4000, out of the corner of my eye a line of darkness paints the horizon, rapidly increasing in size, getting closer.

I see it rolling over the mountain tops, seeping into the earth and tainting the world in a haze of ever darkening grey. I screech down to my friends to hide, to take cover, to get ready to fight, to do anything to stop this, but I'm so high up that I doubt they can hear me.

I'm plummeting so fast now that I can feel the air around me begin to heat up, but that's quickly diminished as the darkness rolls closer, water droplets freezing and exploding around me. Layers of glittering ice dust my feathers, freezing so quickly there's no chance of getting them off unless I open my wings and fly. But I can't do that, not yet, I have to get back down, down to at least 300 feet.

I curse in my head as the darkness speeds up, expanding faster by the second. I refuse to take not making it as an option. I have to get back down to the ground. My feathers freeze up more and more, there's no chance I can keep this up for much longer, wings tucked tightly to my sides. I need to open them, stop my fall, but I'm still way over 1000 feet. I know I've only been falling for a few seconds but the distance won't go quick enough.

I try not to whimper as my body starts to freeze up, pain lacing every movement. I keep falling for another 100 feet when my body finally obeys its needs, and against my will, my wings snap open and I'm thrown suddenly to a stop. I swear I hear a bone crack, but before I can process it, the darkness finally catches me up.

It hits me with full force. I only have a moment to process that I'm being thrown through the air, when my body forced me to shift, and my mind is silenced into unconscious.