Airborne Wings

Chapter seven- Ember

Terrarian was a small flaming planet about 4x the size of earth. Ember stood there, gaping at it. "What did you expect it to be? A tiny village?" Hera smirked.

"Y-yes," Ember nodded.

"Wait-really?" Hera paused mid-step.

Ember nodded again, looking at his talons.

"Okay then..." Hera shook her head. "Anyway, are you ready to dive?"

Ember looked up from his talons, eyes wide with shock and fear. "Your fine, there's a small cushion that stops us from breaking any more than a bone if we don't land properly, and even if you did fall, all you would probably get a few claws to fall out, maybe a tooth, or, the most common, lose a lot of feathers and break a leg, not that bad." Hera saw Ember's face and added hurriedly, "And besides, it's rare to get just that! I'm just saying that that's the worst that could happen!!! The, uh, claws and teeth falling out, I mean, not the feathers or breaking a leg, those actually might happen,"

Ember stared at Hera, "that's even worse!" He shook his head, "no, I'm not going down there..." He looked down at the planet below the road.

"What a flickering-flame," Hera shook her head. He felt something soft rub up against his neck feathers. He looked up at his mother with a smile. Except, then, she scowled and shoved him off the road. He shrieked and clawed at the air; eyes clamped tightly shut until he remembered he had wings. He stretched out his wings as far as they could go and flapped three times frantically until he stopped falling and stayed where he was, flapping as calm as he could manage. "Atta boy, using your head," Hera said with a smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ember looked at her skeptically.

"Exactly what it sounds like." Hera said, lifting her eyebrows.

"No, I meant I WAS using my head, I have been. THE WHOLE TIME."

"Whatever you say, boss!" Hera burst out laughing. Why is she laughing? Did I say something funny? Or was it her own joke? Because if she did, it wasn't funny.

Hera dove down to a ledge and a huge black cushion in the distance. Ember followed close behind.

As the two of them landed, an oak brown phoenix greeted them with a small smile, "welcome to Terrarian, The Home of Fire, Glory, and Life. Who might you two be?" He asked.

"I'm Ember and this is—" Ember started.

"We won't tell you who we are until you tell us who you are," Hera snarled.

"O-oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to do that, didn't I?" He cleared his throat, "I am Alder, the Keeper!"

Hera glared at him, "don't make yourself sound so high and mighty, you pest. You do know who you're talking to don't you?!"

Alder looked at Ember and then back to Hera, "that's what I was asking, and then you interrupted the phen, ma'am," he looked down at his talons.

"Oh whatever." Hera tossed her head, like Grace would do often when trying to show off to Ace, her crush. He didn't really understand crushes; love was mushy and gross. He shook the thought of Grace away quickly; he didn't want to be thinking of her when he was about to join his superior race. "We all know Keepers are boring anyway." Hera snorted. "It's time for you to know who I am," She said dramatically, "my name is Hera. The queen's daughter, THE PRINCESS, so I'd move out of the way unless you want your beautiful brown feathers scorched, low-life." Hera looked down her beak at him. Alder scuffled out of the way. No, that's not right; he leaped to the side and nearly fell off the platform and scuttled back closer to them. Ember tried not to giggle, "thank you, Alder, it was nice talking to you. I'm sorry about my mother, she's a little fierce sometimes."