The Fairy On Fire

Chapter 20 - To The City Of Glass

Suddenly the wind takes off and we fall into the grass in a huge pile. “Ouch!” “Ow!” “You are lying on my arm!” “Your sword is poking me in the side!” “Get off me!” “Stop that! That’s my foot!” Finally we are all on our feet and looking around. We stand in a valley with green hills all around us with dark-green trees on. The sky is bright blue. “By the Angel, where are we?” Alec asks.

“Welcome to another world.” I say. “Anyone who knows where the city is?” Annabeth asks. “I’ll just fly up and see.” I say and spread my wings. They burn hole in the gear on my back. Dammit! When I’m about twenty feet over the others, I can see the city in another valley. I drop down again. “It lies about three hours walk in that direction.” I say and point. “We need to cross a huge river and five big hills.” I hurry to take a little energy from the diamond at my wrist. The teleportation took a lot of my energy.

“Can’t you make a sort of transportation to it?” Jace asks. “I don’t want to walk all the way.” And as if someone has called them, three horses come out from the trees. But they aren’t normal horses. These have a horn just between their eyes. Unicorns. “Oh, how beautiful!” I say and nearer one of them. It walks towards me and pushes to my hand with its nose. “Yes! My horse call still works here!” Percy says. Annabeth grins.

The shadowhunters looks puzzled at him. “Do you mean that you can talk with horses?” Jace asks him. “Yes. My father, Poseidon, created the horse, so because I’m his son, I can talk with all kind of horses.” “Wait. Does that mean we’re gonna ride on these things?!” Isabelle asks frightened. Thalia answers before Percy. “Can’t you ride a horse, Izzy?” She asks challenging. “No, and I’m not gonna sit on the back of that beas–“ She gets interrupted by one of the unicorns who has pushed her down in the grass and now stands over her with its horn pointing directly at her heart.

“Stop!” Percy says to the unicorn. “Don’t. She just isn’t a country girl.” The unicorn looks mad at Isabelle, but moves so she can get up. “Don’t mess with unicorns.” Percy says helping her up. Jace claps one of the other unicorns. “Izzy, why don’t you like them? They are so strong and braves creatures.” He says. “Can they have us all on their back?” Alec asks. “I can fly.” I say. “Then two on each unicorn.” “We’re nine, there’s only three unicorns.” “Yes, but Thalia and Caleb can fly too.” They both look confused at me.

“Aren’t you children of the sky god?” I ask them. They nod slowly. “Then you must be able to fly. Caleb has tried it before.” He looks puzzled at me. “When we flew home to me. The air lightened you when we flew. Come on, I’ll show you!” I reach out for them to grab my hands. Thalia hesitates, but ends up grabbing it. Then I spread my wings and fly up. In the start I can barely lift them both from the ground, but as soon as they are off the ground they get lighter.

“See? I said it!” Both Thalia and Caleb looks down in disbelieve. Thalia is pretty pale. We hoover five feet over the others, who look up at us in wonder. They don’t hang under me anymore but floats beside me. “Try to stretch out your arms to stabilize. Make the wind hold you up!” They do as I say, and I feel the wind push them further up. “I’ll let go of your hands now.” I say and let go.

They both keep hovering in the air over me. I fly up so I can see their faces. “Try to lay down so you look down in the ground and make the wind push you forward, but still make it holds you up.” They both do what I say and soon they are flying against the glass city. “Hold on! We shall have the others on the ground with!” I say. “Do you think you can land again?” “I’ll try.” Caleb says and begins to drop lower. “Try to circle down! And feet first!” I call after him. Thalia follows him.

They both land on their feet, but end up falling. I land beside them. “Nice job. Of newbies.” I grin. Caleb stands up and brushes grass out of his black hair. “It takes a lot of practice, but it’s even harder with wings.” I tell them. Then I look at the rest. Jace is already on the back of one of the unicorns.