Feather Light

Chapter 3

   Leigh and I were cruising. We didn't usually fly so far from home, but we were bored, and my little brother always had boundless amounts of energy. He would talk entirely too much and test the limits of my sanity most days, but he was an excellent flight partner. I didn't care how far we went. I always slept better when I was so tired I couldn't move.

We were gliding along on an updraft, our wings tented loosely above us. Below us, the clouds undulated in dark shapes, stretching away as far as we could see. It was calm and for a moment, I felt as though life could have small periods of peacefulness.

Then, with a soft snap, a shape shot up in front of us. Instinctively, Leigh and I both braked hard, pulling up.

The figure rose into the moonlight. Pale hair, pale eyes, pale wings. Everything seemed to stop for a second. She took us in. We stared. The three of us hung on the air, still and quiet.

Then, as quickly as she had burst into our world, she spun and fled.

"Hey!" I yelled, not even knowing why, just wanting her back, wanting answers. "Hey!" She was fast, but so was I. I gave chase without even thinking about it, streaking after her into the night.

"Noah!" I heard Leigh call from behind. I could tell he was following, but he wasn't my concern. All my energy was focused on the small figure moving rapidly in front of me.

She fluttered lower, dropping into the clouds again. She was smart, but I love to hunt. I used to track owls and bats in the night sky when I was a kid. I knew all the moves.

I shot above her position in the cloud bank, then ducked through. As I knew I would, I broke through the clouds, directly in front of her. She immediately pushed back up through the clouds and I followed. Topside again, she burst through and almost collided with Leigh. She was trapped and I began to move in. She looked at both of us. Then she did something I didn't expect: she flew up.

"No." I pushed up with my wings. She wasn't getting away that easy. I heard Leigh flapping behind me as I tracked her higher into the sky.

For a while the three of us flew in silence. Every now and then, I could hear a panicked gasp floating back on the wind from her and I knew she was wearying. I would catch her.

Then it got harder to breathe for all of us. The air was thinning. After a certain height, it's just not safe to push on. Leigh and I used to dare each other to see who could fly higher. When our grandfather found out he grounded us, literally, for two months.

I heard Leigh pull up behind me, yelling my name. "Noah! Noah! Stop, you're too high! Noah!"

But it was her being stubborn, not me. I pushed on.

She climbed even higher. I could hear her gasping for every breath now, her wings erratic. She would have to stop and I would have her.

My own breath raked in and out of my lungs as I paced her. It was higher than I'd ever flown. The cloud bank below us was so far away it looked like smooth, white water and the stars above us seemed brighter and closer. We couldn't go on much longer.

Finally, she stopped. I saw her wings tent open to hold her aloft and she turned her face to me. She was so beautiful and so frightened. I went to fly to her side, but I didn't get the chance.

As I watched, her eyes rolled up and she fainted, her wings collapsing as she began to fall. I tried to move, to catch her, but my own eyes were suddenly full of stars and the world turned white before me. I heard her fall, reached out my arms to her, but I missed, feeling only the softness of her wings as they fluttered past me.