Wingbeats

13: Free Falling

Hello readers! So from about this point on, most of this is not edited... It's a little off the top of my head, so if you notice any oddities, feel free to tell me! And please let me know what you think! ;)

...

So, turned out that the window I had been putting all of my bets on was indeed NOT on the first floor... or the second... or even the third.

I'd just leaped out of a tree building about two hundred freaking feet up in the air with my wings tied to my sides. Yes, stupid, I know. And ironically better than the other option- getting all quote on quote "cozy" with Mr. CreepyPants.

I thrashed wildly as I plummeted to the earth, smacking into leaves and branches and feeling the wind whistled through my ears in what was probably going to be my last flight ever. Briefly I contemplated what I would look like as splatter art, but overwhelmingly, all I could hear was a distinct mental screaming as the world blurred in shades of green, brown, gold and the occasional blip of blue. My stomach dropped out of my innards in the familiar freefall feeling, yells from above and below me chimed in and surprisingly, I felt entirely clearheaded in the chaos of falling through the air.

Being born for the sky does that to one apparently. A scream didn't even rise to my throat, but the mental yelling got louder... Sort of like it wasn't inside of my head. And then it hit me- literally.

THWACK! A hurtling, sleek black shape unfurled underneath me, cutting off its scream and smashing into my body to effectively break my fall.

"NOX!" I yelled. Little brother to the rescue!

He didn't respond at first, but spiraled gracefully to the forest floor a little way off and landed with a huff. I rolled off of him and scrambled upright (which is hard when one set of limbs is firmly clamped into one's ribs, but I digress...).

Huffing from exertion, Nox looked me over. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to jump out of trees with your wings tied up?"

"Speaking of wings," I finally caught sight of the massive leathery dragon wings now arching powerfully off of his shoulders, "what the poop happened to yours?!"

"I could ask the same about what you've apparently endured..." The whites of his eyes rolled a little and I remembered my "beauty" treatment with a shudder.

"Later, we need to get out of here first. News flash! Everybody's nuts!" I flailed my neck in another futile attempt to free my flight arms. No luck. I looked at my little brother. "Help."

"Right," his nose scrunched up, "hold still, I'm fairly certain these things are meant for eviscerating..." Nox locked an obsidian talon under my wing-band and wrenched with enough force that I stumbled.But the band was ripped apart, and my wings were free. Free to beat the life out of Whyle...

"Hey, what's going on?" "Aren't they the..." Horse and curious unicorns were beginning to zero in on our little reunion.

Nox and I shuffled closer together.

"Kiss the sky little brother, time to soar." I murmured.

"My princess!" My head whirled back towards the tree I had nearly been fondled in to find Whyle charging at us. "You. Are. Mine." He growled.

"Not today!"The air seemed to bend under my feathers in slow motion when I leaped into the sky. Beside me, I saw Nox launch himself skywards. We were leaving, never coming back. I had had enough with being captured, enough with the power hungry idiots of life and enough with being grounded. So help me, if it was the last thing I did, I was going to find a freaking peaceful mountain and subsist off of mushrooms if that was what it took to stop getting kidnapped by people with nefarious plots!

And then, naturally, it wasn't just Nox next to me, it was Whyle, leaping up and dragging me back down to earth. He crashed into my right wing and we plummeted into the dirt.

"Mine," he growled triumphantly. Unicorn guards swarmed the scene, as if I were some prize to be held and possessed through force of will. My eyeline lost sight of Nox in the cloudy haze that was the forest floor of hooves and having the wind knocked out of one's lungs. I choked, searching and thrashing weakly to get out.

The same hurtling black shape that had saved my hide not five minutes ago slammed into Whyle at such speed that I felt the outrush of Whyle's air as he was ripped off of me.

Nox flipped over midflight and landed five feet from me. He had placed his long black legs precisely between us.

"She doesn't belong to anyone, buttlick, least of all you," came Nox's growl, "We're leaving. And if you try and stop us, I will personally be the reason you never have any foals." He flared out his massive clawed wings for emphasis.

Whyle gasped sharply, "Demon," he hissed, "DEVIL HORSE! The spawn of demons, I knew it! I knew it! Take him down!"

Well, that went brilliantly...

My hooves scrambled violently as things went to hell in a hand-basket and Nox, whom I had never in my life seen so angry, quite literally burst into flames.