Redemption - Fourth Wing

52. Flight

Chex's Pov
I still remembered my first flight.
The moon had fallen past the horizon, and Darna dragged me to the top of my Den; the wind was ruffling our feathered tails, and sunlight was reflecting off our golden scales.
My voice was tiny, -Must we do it today? Right now?-
-Of course, you lazy lizard!- scoffed my sister.
I thought of her to be fearlessly mad, and I peered below, only to scramble back, -It's too high!-
-No, it's not!-
-Yes, it is!-
-If you don't fly, you'll be wyvern food!-
-I'll be a what?-
A shadow fell on us, and we looked up and saw Sgaeyl with her eyes fixed on the sky, -Your sister's right, Chex. A dragon who can't fly is nothing but prey.-
Even that young, I knew that a prey animal was constantly hunted down until it'd ultimately be killed; Tairn's maw was constantly dripping with the bright blood of its kills.
Darna stomped her foot, and I shivered, -We can't fly, Sgaeyl. I don't want to be preyed at.-
-None of us does. That's why you'll learn how to fly today: the sky's clear, and the wind is favouring.-
She spread her wings, whose membrane was soft and pristine, and she rose to the skies with mighty wingbeats. Darna was the first to follow her, and I needed to gather two handedly all of my courage before attempting to catch up on them. Both my sister and I got tangled in our wings and fell, and Sgaeyl caught us every time, and once she deemed it enough my shoulders were aching and my lungs were burning.
Three years later, I was just as breathless, and I had none to catch me should I fall. My back was too light and empty, and I had to hold myself back from constantly looking around, searching for familiar brown scales and brown skin.
But they were far away.
The wind current shifted, and I followed it, and wondered for how long I'd go on flying: last time I'd flown that sky, my mind was solely focused on Aifos' troubled breathing, and paid no mind to the surroundings.
My stomach rumbled, so I lowered my altitude and sharpened my gaze on the skittering banks of fish. Then, I flanked my wings and dove, and cold water fell on me, and I tried to ignore the memories of my swim with Aifos, back in Hedonis.
How the ocean had seemed livelier, back then.
But the banks of fish kept skittering away, so I set my teeth and swam deeper. The water was pressure against my lungs, and just when I decided the hunt was worthless the currents rippled around me once, and then got quiet.
Too late did I realise that the stillness of the ocean was too similar as the falling of the wind before a storm.
Something moved in the corner of my eyes, and seemed to brush my scales, and I spun around and shrieked.
Bubbles blinded me, and I lost oxygen, and saw a creature as big as Tairn propelling itself towards me.
I kicked myself upwards, but my wings were heavy with water and tiredness; the monster's scales were as grey as a wyvern's, and its teeth twice sharper, and its head was triangular.
It snapped at my back leg, and I slammed my wings against its head and its narrow eyes atop it. My blood dirtied the ocean, and I whipped my sword-tail, but the creature barely felt it.
Anger almost overpowered my terror: Aifos was waiting for me, and they were my mate, and I couldn't die like this.
Not when I'd flown all these miles just for them.
I sank my claws, but the creature only tightened its hold, and pain flared with it. My erratic heartbeat burned away the remaining oxygen, my lungs trembled, and the surface was out of my reach.
I tried kicking it away, but I couldn't fly; Sgaeyl had told my sister and I that every dragon who couldn't fly was doomed to be preyed upon.
I closed my eyes, and pushed my mind forward, up to the breeze and clouds, -I'm sorry, my love.-
I hoped they'd forgive me.
Perhaps they'd sing for me.
I felt other ripples around me, and suddenly, the pressure of the teeth vanished. I lowered my head, and claws gripped my chest and belly.
I cracked my eyes open, and saw white claws and black nails, and lost consciousness at last.

The sun warmed my scales, and the grass was soft. The cool breeze of spring whisked past my horns, and I reached out to Aifos, soft and sleepy and-
I met only a dense void where our bond was supposed to be, and gasped myself awake. My heart was loud, and my lungs seemingly forgot how to work properly.
For a couple of brief, mind-splitting heartbeats, I didn't know where I was, if I was alive. Because my mate was my life, and without them, what remained of me but a golden shell?
Tairn had always suffered Sgaeyl's departure, and either of them had yet to stretch such a struggle through the seas.
Why should I be the first at doing something my guardians would always dread?
A high, almost squeaky voice raised up from my right, "Eka ai fricai un Shur'tugal"
(I am a rider, and a friend)
Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the light, and I flexed my black claws, and forced my lungs to breathe.
One, two, three.
I turned my gaze and saw Elsie kneeling a couple of feet away from me, her hands on her tights. She opened her eye, and said, "Nirwhals are such little bitches, aren't they?"
I shivered at the memory of the beast's narrow eyes, and realised that her mind was opened to mine, so I could talk with her-Why do they hunt us? Sgaeyl says we're the apex predators, that only wyverns are worthy enough to be a challenge.-
She grinned, "That's where the fun lies."
-Fun?- I exclaimed, -There's nothing fun about it!-
"That's what Aifos always said, too."
-They're my mate,- I said, as if that statement was enough on its own; but then I felt their absence again, and wondered what they were doing, if their brown eyes would study the colours of the horizon and compare them with mine.
During the flight, I'd found their song in the whisps of wind under my wings.
Elsie tilted her head, the dramatically flopped down. She was a tiny girl, but she was oddly long all stretched out, "Tina just ate sheep! You don't know how nauseous her breathing will be for hours! Ew!"
I snorted amused, -Never ate sheep. Is it good?-
"No! Not you too."
She got up, groaned, then rubbed her eye, "Come on, golden boy, time to scrub off patches of slimy fur among Tina's teeth."
I wrinkled my nose, -No, I won't! She's not my mate.-
"Nop, but we're your saviours."
"So what?"
"Come on! Come on up!"
She snapped her fingers, and with a sigh I forced myself up and stretched myself. A soft whine let my muzzle at the soreness of my muscles, and then followed Elsie. Her steps had a peculiar skip, and we walked past the soft slope of the hill I'd slept on. 
At our passing, Elves dropped their matters and bowed to us with a string of murmured "Kuldruskul."
Their hair was long and smooth, and I asked Elsie, -Why do they keep calling me that? I forgot to ask Saphira, last time we were here.-
When Aifos had been struggling to breathe, and I slept alone in that occasion, too.
"Your scales," she said, "They're golden. Most of the time. Hasn't Aifos taught you that word?"
At my mate's name, I fell quiet, and Elsie ducked past a branch while I pushed past it with my chest until it snapped again and smacked on my face.
I yelped in pain, and Elsie laughed, and a couple of dwarves stepped back. I shot a growl to the girl, -This ain't funny!-
"It is!"
I rolled my eyes, and we went on strolling around until we stopped by a silver waterfall, in front of which Tina was laying, curled up. My scales glimmered silver when the drops of water tickled us, and I tilted my head in confusion when Tina choked out an odd, high-pitched sound.
At it, a stench curled up towards us so strongly that every lingering hunger vanished from my stomach.
Elsie barked a laugh again, and the white dragon snapped at her, -Shut the fuck up, girl!- only to break in that throaty sound again which had her head tick forward.
-Are you...- I hesitated, -Are you alright?-
Tina growled, and Elsie swatted her scales, "Told you that sheep give you the hiccup! You never listen!"
-I got tired of mountain goats, and I was hungry! You don't get bossy around a hungry female dragon!-
Elsie crossed her arms, "I do it if she's mine and knocked in the head."
-How dare y/- but Tina got interrupted by her hiccup again.
I frowned, and remained a couple of careful steps away from the pair, -It's undignifying this way of... hiccuping for a dragon past its Sleep.-
-Whatever,- grumbled Tina, -Just a quick reminder, you would've been chomped by a Nirwhal hadn't it been for Elsie and I. Mostly me, tho._-
Elsie got up on her tiptoes, "Can you please open your fucking mouth, hot head of a dragon? I can't be your dentist if you keep moving around."
While the two of them went on quarreling, I looked around, and realised that Vaeta had seen my mate and their dragon grow up, and bleed, and laugh.
I wondered if it had ever been their home much like the Black Den had been mine; it was most definitely easier to admire the sky and stars here in Vaeta than in the caves of my Den.
-How did you meet them?- I asked the pair, -Aifos and Ronny, I mean.-
Tina angled her head, and Elsie cursed loudly at the work she had to do, then shook the saliva off her fingers, "Do something and answer him, girl, I'm a bit busy here."
Tina chuffed, then fixed her black eyes on me, -As both of them are outcasts, their friendship was easy to happen.-
-Outcasts?- I asked softly, and Elsie shrugged, "Yeah. I'm fragile in my body, they're fragile in their mind. Made up my mind with that long ago, but..."
-Where I come from, the strongest rider of our generation has the weakest ligaments. And yet, she commands the sky,- I said, and Elsie gave me a quick, gentle smile, "Now I see why Aifos chose you, too."
I snorted plumes of smoke, -They didn't choose me! The stars showed me the path to them. There's a very clear, very obvious difference.-
"Sure..."
I stomped my foot and flicked my sword-tail, -There is!-
Tina barked a laugh and choked in her hiccups, and Elsie jumped away and waved her hands in front of her hands, and I laughed. Instinctively, I reached out for Aifos, and perked my ears trying to catch their soft, sweet laugh, only to remember too late that I was a whole ocean away, where different currents of winds shaped the sky.
So, my voice dimmed and my wings skipped the ground, and Tina raised her head and walked up to me. She was smaller than me, but similar to Ronny in width of legs and shoulders, and said, -Y'know, the Ebrithils forced Ronny and Aifos to be separated for a couple of weeks, too. Ronny went nearly ballistic, refused to show up. The birds told us he was burning down forests and such.-
I lowered my eyes, and remained quiet. Elsie came up next to her dragon's leg, and started washing the dirt off her hand with a spell.
-So,- asked Tina, -Why are you here, golden boy?-
My answer was as breezy as springtime, and yet as heavy as the ocean, and as bottomless.
-For love.-
I looked up, and saw sapphire scales gleaming in the sky, and for a brief moment felt a mind way older than mine skipping mine. But the contact was so brief I blinked it away, and Saphira's voice curled in my mind, -Kuldruskul. One does not face a whole ocean on a whim, and as Ebrithils, it's our duty to know why. Meet us where we can touch the sky.-
I followed the arch of her wings with my eyes, and Tina rolled her own, then elbowed me in my ribs,-Ah, later. Come, eat with us. You must be hungry.-
Elsie groaned, "Not sheep, please! Anything but not that."
-I was thinking mountain goats,- Tina said, -They're soft, and juicy. Come on! The Ebrithils can wait a little while longer. I mean, you slept for a day! What's a couple of more hours gonna do?-
I unfurled my wings and ignored their soreness, -You dare defy your Elders' request?-
Tina got off airborne, and soon enough I was at her tail. She flipped around, then screamed, -Who catches the goat last is a blind Nirwhal!-
So, she went down in a dive, and I mimicked her, and for a moment I could make believe that Aifos was on my back and they were sharing my hollers of joy, and that the wind was whipping their hair free.

A/N
Hey lovelies!
What do you think of Chex's flight? Did he do the right thing, or do you think he should've stayed in Navarre? Let me know if you don't mind!