The Memoirs of Light

Chapter 9- Speed

Chapter 9- Speed

               

                Before she even realized that she had finally fallen asleep, the sun was shining in her eyes, and Red was licking her face.

                It was dawn on the plain, and Jaylin realized with dismay that, due to the utter flatness, dawn probably came at least three hours earlier here than it had in the mountains.  This fact combined with her uneasy sleep the night before meant that she was not at all happy to hear Avir’s aloof voice floating down to her or to smell fox-breath whuffing in her face. Her body was absolutely refusing to rise from the grass. ‘At least,’ she told herself as she wrestled it into submission, ‘I lost the coffee dependence days ago. If I hadn’t, I would have a splitting headache on top of being exhausted.” Her body was not appeased.

                Avir began moving before she had even risen. Jaylin didn’t bother to run to catch up. She didn’t have the energy, and it wasn’t as if she could lose sight of him no matter how far behind she fell.

                Instead, Jaylin strolled lazily along, listening to the cooing of doves and grouse and watching the waving grass. Spring was stronger here than in the mountains. The snow must have melted and sunk into the ground weeks ago. She somehow felt at home here, despite the wind. Everything was so open, and the only shadows were those of hawks soaring overhead. It was refreshing after so many days crawling through forests. Red loped through the grass, thoroughly enjoying himself and occasionally stalking a gopher or biting at a dragonfly.

When she finally did overtake Avir, Jaylin asked him how much farther it was.

“To the meeting place, you mean?” he replied, turning only slightly back toward her.

“Yes,” Jaylin confirmed, choking back the “where else?” which she would have liked to spit out.

“It is in the woods on the other side of the plain.”

“And how long will it take us to get there?” She was desperately hoping he wouldn’t say anything about “days”. She didn’t know if she could take another night like the last one.

Avir thought a moment, and then answered, “Four days, walking as we are.”

Jaylin’s heart and shoulders slumped. Four days?! Four days of walking in silence and sleeping in fear?! Four days of this blasted wind?!

Not to mention how hungry she was becoming. There was nothing to eat on the plain, not unless her strange new abilities included sprouting wings and claws to hunt rabbits.

For a few seconds she was utterly dejected, but then she remembered the last thing that Avir had said, “Wait a minute. What do you mean by, ‘walking as we are’?”

“I meant that this is a comparatively slow way of travelling.”

“Compared to what, exactly.”

“Flying.”

Jaylin stopped dead in her tracks. Avir turned back to look quizzically at her.

“What’s wrong.”

“You can fly?” she choked.

“Of course. And so could you, probably, if you remembered your skills correctly.”

“Then why,” Jaylin said through clenched teeth, “have we been walking for a full day?!”

Avir made a face like a dog caught in the pantry, “Well, you looked like you were enjoying the scenery. We don’t have to keep walking.”