An Airan's Quest

Chapter 21: Reunited

Avery's POV

Arriving back at the throne room minutes later we bade our goodbyes to Lucas and he bid us farewell and a safe trip. Then we were on our way to the kingdom of Batidalle aboard Evanity's seclaire Fallon.

We soared thousands of feet in the air overlooking the entire fjords below us. We headed southwest this time, with Evanity up in the front and reining her peregrine falcon-seclaire in while I sat behind her with Fallon's wings beating uncomfortable at either side of me. The glaring heat of the midday sun bore down its wrath upon us, making both Evanity and I shield our eyes from its blistering rays of light.

After a moment of silence Evanity asked me, "How long do you think it'll take us to reach the dam?"

"Maybe a couple of hours or more?" I said shrugging my shoulders my mind still wrapped around the events that happened earlier. Before I haven't doubted not even once Lucas' loyalty to us, but now - especially after Evanity asked me about him - there's a nagging feeling in me that says that she might be right with her assumptions all along. But a small part of me which still believes in him hopes that she is wrong.

We lapsed into another moment of silence, both of us engrossed in our own thoughts. After flying for an hour, there was a sudden queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and I started to feel a little bit nauseous. I suddenly become aware of my heart rate speeding up and having cold and clammy hands and I glanced down at my feet to find myself drifting over the fjords a thousand of feet on the air with nothing but the clear blue waters of the fjords surrounding me from below.

I shook my head to get rid of the dizziness that I was suddenly feeling then reached out to pat Evanity's shoulder lightly. She turned around and her eyes widened when she took one look at me. "Are you alright, Ave? You're turning green!"

I shook my head in answer then bit my lip to stifle my urge to barf in front of her. I inhaled deeply the scent of the freshwater fjords then placed a hand on the stomach and healed myself. A moment later the nausea that I've felt was gone and I heaved a sigh of relief.

"I'm fine now," I told her smiling a little. "Just a little bit of motion sickness that's all." She stared worriedly at me for a moment longer before turning back on her seat.

But then a few minutes passed and it returned with a much greater intensity this time. It took great effort in my part to prevent myself from throwing up and I healed myself again for the second time around.

It went on like that for much of the duration of our trip to the dam. An interval of having motion sickness and healing it and so on and so forth.

Fortunately in the early afternoon we finally reached Batidalle then Evanity lowered Fallon closer to the ground to get a better view of the dam. We saw the cavern hidden mostly by the jungle of trees in the dam. The dam itself was in a huge mess. Its once beautiful structure now reduced to ruins because of Evanity's doing. I stole a look at her and saw that she had gone red at the sight of it which probably reminded her of what she had done the previous days before then turned away so that I couldn't see her face anymore.

"The cavern's right over there," she pointed then veered Fallon towards the direction where she was pointing.

As we drew nearer to the cavern, excitement settled on me at the prospect of seeing Tarah again and apprehension at the same time for fear of something bad had happened to her.

Evanity pulled Fallon's reins to a halt as soon as we reached the mouth of the cavern. She and I dismounted from Fallon's back then I staggered as I took a few steps towards the inside of the cavern.

"Are you okay Ave?" Evanity turned to face me looking anxious.

"I'm fine," I reassured her forcing a small smile from my lips. I placed a hand on my forehead and heaved a deep breath as my unsettled feeling in my stomach began to subside. "C'mon." We both rushed deeper inside the cavern then stopped in our tracks when we found Tarah's body sprawled on the ground, her auburn brown hair covering her face entirely and both of her hands stained with blood as she vainly tried to seal the wound in her hips.