Steel Flight [Completed]

Chapter 14: Night's Very Wing

-Jack

"Do all creatures have to eat people to survive?" Skai asked.

I opened my mouth, then shut it again. What kind of a question was that?!

Marrianna made a gruff noise from within her chest that might have been laughter. "You're funny!"

I shook my head. That would just have to be her answer.

We continued, and Marrianna soon began singing:

"Oh, if you are

Natural-

A plant, animal, or

Gust of wind

Or if you are

Industrial-

A metal, machine, or

Creation of reason,

Oh, you may hate

Each other

But that's okay!

I love you both!

I'll squash your

Frail form

Within my jaws

And your juices will slide

And your bones will crunch

And your magic will fuel

My tummy!"

"Um," I said when she'd finished her morbid song. "Sorry to bust up your roof-raising, but we're not magical."

She made the sound again. It really had to have been a chuckle. "Silly, of course you have magic! Every living thing has magic."

Skai snorted.

I was going on the assumption that we were the first "ground folk" she'd met. "Actually, we're not from here. We're from a place where almost nothing has magic."

"Oh, but I can smell it inside of you, interwoven with the very fibers of your skin, pulsing within your blood." She took a deep breath and seemed to pull me closer to her face. Assuming she had a face. My skin crawled.

"If we have so much magic," Skai asked with forced loudness. "Why haven't we escaped yet?"

"You think to trick Marrianna, but Marrianna knows what she has smelled."

But. . . but she couldn't be right. Right? I didn't have magic.

Skai seemed equally stunned. She'd gone from not even believing in magic to being told it was an inseparable part of her in less than a day.

I shook my head. It was ridiculous. If I had magic, I would know it. This I was sure of.

Though maybe it was best that Marrianna think otherwise. That way I wouldn't be dropped to my death.

I felt a prickle on my neck, like I was being watched, but I didn't see anything. At least, not until I looked up. Then I saw what I would once have mistaken for lightning, only now I doubted anything here could be so normal. No, this lightning streaked across the sky, zigzagging closer.

"Um," I said. "What's that?"

There was a brief pause, then, "Ajaia."

I was jerked back as Marrianna burst forward, no longer loop-the-looping or doubling back. Now, it seemed, every second counted.

"What's going on?" Skai yelled.

Marrianna's voice was no longer cheerful, but determined.

"Shadow of darkness

Night's very wing,

The Ajaia

Slithers through the skies

And devours every living thing."

Though she hadn't exactly answered Skai's question, the cryptic poem was enough. One way or another, it seemed, we would be eaten. Unless we could somehow get away. If the Ajaia caught up to us, I figured it would be chaos. Maybe then we could make our escape.

Over bare ground? On foot? There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. All we could do was hope Marrianna was the faster of the two. Then we could worry about finding a way out.

We passed the black sludge, and now all I could see as we raced past was a world of sky and glass.

"Is that the Ajaia? The thing kind of jerking?" Skai asked.

"Yep. That's definitely my- the Ajaia."

Wait. Something was off. I found myself remembering my days of school and farm work. "What exactly is the Ajaia?" I asked, no longer afraid. More was happening than I could see.

"The Ajaia

Is as she is,

Dark,

Without light."

"You called her just Ajaia before." Some sort of leader? A personal enemy?

"Of course I did. Calling her the Ajaia is a sign of respect!"

Teacher? How old was Marrianna? It couldn't be. . . a babysitter?

"Marrianna!" I looked back. Wow, the Ajaia had gained a lot of ground. Sky. However that expression went in sky dialect. Though she flickered like a bolt of lightning, I could make out legs and a head. I had never seen a picture or heard of a dragon like this one, but I was certain that's what she was.

"Marrianna, stop it this instant!"

But Marrianna only flew faster.

"If you don't let those ground creatures go right now, I'll-"

Marrianna spun around to face the dragon. "You'll what? Tell Zi?"

"Marrianna, you know you're not supposed to scare slow-thinking creatures! Their weak hearts probably can't handle it."

I bristled. Skai started an angry protest, but was over-ridden by Marrianna,

"They're not slow-thinking! And I was only trying out some poems on them!"

Red started somewhere near Ajaia's center and blossomed outward, replacing the blue. "You better not have recited that stupid one you made up about me!"

"What? The one you banned me from ever speaking of? Why would I do that?"

I grinned. Somehow, here, in a world above my own, in the clutches of an angry dragon, I felt at home again. "Do you have more?" I asked quietly.

Skai made an irritated sound.

"Later," Marrianna said in an undertone, though I could tell that now she too was smiling.

Ajaia passed us angrily, flying straight, barely flickering. I guess it was her version of stomping away straight-backed and hands clenched.

Marrianna turned and followed her somewhat smugly.

"You know, we could still pop over to the Jaws of Terror," she said in an undertone.

I chuckled. "Tempting, but there's somewhere we need to be."

A/N: Thanks for reading! Comment below: what did you like? Dislike? I'd love to hear from you!