Downfall

Chapter Three

Flying. Cassidy could think of nothing better. Spreading her wings and flying was amazing. She had complete freedom to soar through the skies, escaping from the cold isolation of her house into the infinite skies. The past few months had been rough, training a young dragon, who had begun a rebellious streak, teaching her to fly, despite her lack of willingness. If it hadn't been for the fact that she could fly herself, it would have been practically impossible. But having wings was amazing, even if it meant that she had no friends, being one of the only Pixies in the whole of Clifftop was difficult enough, and adding the fact that she had Gryffinheart blood made it more difficult, since few were born with the gift of flight, and it had a great impact on the families that were. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father left when she was a child, as her brother and father never got along. Being an orphan didn't add to making friends. The number of times that she had stood on the edge of the clifftop and told herself to jump, and fly as far away as possible, never to return, was so high that she couldn't remember. But she had never jumped.

Soaring through the skies, faster than any bird, the feathers on her eagle-like wings shook as the air rushed through them. She didn't care if the Elven or Fay saw her flying. She didn't care what they thought. She had finally accepted that it was who she was, and she found that she liked flying when she gave it a try. She flew with Ember a lot, once Ember finally decided to fly. Cassidy was sure that Dragons should be able to fly even shortly after birth, but Ember was stubborn, and had refused to fly.

She soared through the sky, drawing attention to herself by flying at extreme speeds, the wind willing her on, and twisting and turning, leaving harmless little tornados in her wake, but she knew that people wouldn't be able to catch her, and they didn't care enough about her to try.

Flying over evergreen forests, she could see and hear everything a lot better than she would have expected. She could see a small family of rabbits hopping around, looking happy in their search for food, she saw a pack of wolves, their greedy eyes glistening as they spotted a small, defenceless animal that they could attack. She could see a nest with two baby bluebirds, looking out in anticipation as they prepare to leave the nest for the first time.

She loved flying, because it allowed her to see the world from a whole new perspective, and being the arty person that she was, it was great to see images that she could put onto paper. She dived down to get a closer look at all the adorable little animals, wanting to see better detail, but they always sprinted off in fear, either expecting an eagle or a dragon, but the previous night, when she flew with Ember, the wolves sprinted off in fear, as though they had already met a dragon like her, and it wasn't a good experience. Before they sprinted off, she noticed a scratch across one of the wolves' head, that resembled the scratches caused by Ember, but much larger. Flying back into the distance, she sighed.

As she soared past Clifftop, a piece of paper came flying towards her, and she grabbed it. It had the word 'missing' scrawled on it, and a half-hearted drawing of a girl with white hair and green eyes, that was no-where near detailed enough to tell who the girl was. She rested in a tree, folding up the sheet of paper, and tucking it into a small bag attached to her belt.

Snapped out of her thoughts by a large rustling of leaves in the distance, Cassidy stealthily flew up toward the tops of the trees to see what caused the noise. She had heard eagles, birds and all sorts of animals flying around, but this sounder too large to any of them – It must be another type of creature. She watched something emerge from the concealment of the trees a few acres away, and was surprised to see a dragon. She had only seen a few Dragons, but not as close as the one before her.

The dragon was like Ember, but more masculine, and much older in appearance. While Ember had obsidian black scales which glowed orange, like burning embers in the sunlight, he had dark blue scales that rippled like water. The dragon also looked much less agile than Ember, and seemed to be more peaceful. Ember had constant mood swings, and liked causing trouble, like Cassidy.