The Kingdom of Dawn

Chapter 5: Gift of the Winds

"Tarvill, what's happening to me? I have feathers in my back and my shirt won't fit." Estrella winced as another attempt to put on her shirt brushed even more feathers off the mysterious growths on her back. "Tarvill, Mildred, can one of you tell me what's going on?" Mildred quickly rushed into the room just as Estrella, with a determined yank, pulled her shirt over the growths in her back.

After a quick anaylsis of Estrella's back, and a short consultation with her, Mildred called Tarvill into the room. "Tarvill, come in here you have to see this." When Tarvill entered the room a few minutes later, he was utterly amazed at what he saw. Estrella was wearing her shirt by now, but there were now two slits I'm the back of it. Sticking through the slits, and filling them completely, was a pair of grey wings, each 5 feet long, and completely identical in shape to those of a falcon.

Tarvill had seen many suprising things before, but this was by far the most shocking. He froze dumbstruck in the doorway, his mouth agape. Regaining his compusure a few seconds later, he managed to stammer out the words, "Do they work?" In response to this question Estrella stood motionless, all her concentration focused on controlling her newfound appendages.

"They won't flap." Sure enough, the wings were doing nothing other than sitting there folded against her back.

Tarvill's laugh rang through the chamber. "I believe that you may need to unfold them first. They won't do much folded up against your back like that."

"I'll try." Her brow furrowed in concentration, and the wings slowly began to unfold. Once they got about halfway, they fell back into a folded position. "I can't do it. They're too heavy."

Tarvill frowned. "You may not get it today or this week, or even this month, but you'll get it one day. Just keep practicing and excersizing your back muscles, and it will happen someday. Now come on and let's eat breakfast."

He and Mildred walked away, but Estrella slipped down a side corridor instead of going to the mess hall.

A few minutes later, a doctor arrives in the mess hall and whispers something to Tarvill and Mildred. They get up and follow him.

"This girl of yours wanted me to cut off her wings. When I failed to do it, she pulled her dagger and ordered me to."

"Estrella, what were you thinking?" Tarvill rushed over and slapped the knife out of her hand. "We have no clue what kind of injuries that could have caused." He picks her up and sets her on her feet. "Don't ever do that again, my little princess."

"But Tarvill, they're too big and bulky. I can't use them."

"Maybe not right away, but one day I'm sure they will fare quite useful for you."

"But I still don't want them! I order you to make them go away right this minute!" She picked up her dagger and slid it back into her weapons belt.

"I will not and that is final!" The cold steel in Tarvill's voice served to cut down any arguments Estrella may have had before she even spoke them.

Estrella sighed. She knew this was a war she couldn't win. besides, Tarvill technically was her commanding officer. Disobeying him would be a bad idea in general. "Yes sir."

Her salute definitely conveyed her understanding of this situation. She did not have to like her wings, but she did have to put up with them.

"Good. Now come with me to the training room."

Estrella ran after him, tripping over her wings every few steps. She finally gave up after scraping her arm on the rough stone wall for the third time and decided to walk instead. It seemed to be a much better idea, as she did not trip again until she entered the now familiar combat chamber.

Dagger in hand, she thrust at Tarvill, only to end up landing flat on her face. The wings messed up everything from parrying to dodging to lunging. even her throwing barely clipped the side of he target. Three months of practice and she was back to looking like an absoulte beginner.
"Aaaaargh." She threw down her weapons and stomped out of the training room as Tarvill pretended to 'kill' her for the fifteenth time that day. "These stupid wings are ruining everything I do!"

Tarvill let out a long sigh as he followed her out.

'How do I convince her that her wings will one day be useful? How do I help reconcile her with the fact that they exist?

Should I tell her about the old stories, about the legends of a 'Gift of the Winds'? If I don't make her realize now, then she's bound to try to deal with them on her own later.'

He wandered through the halls as he thought, eventually coming out into the hidden passageway leading to the homes of his friends. A roar filled the hall, bringing him back to reality.

'Perfect. I will introduce her to them.'

Exiting the passage, he raced through the halls, heading for Estrella's favorite place. He burst out onto the high ledge where, as expected, she was sitting and watching the birds.

"Come with me my princess. I have someone you might want to meet."

As they walked down the passages, Estrella couldn't help but wonder where they were going. This was another  part of the cave that she had never been in before. Actually, come to think of it, she had rarely seen anoyone but Tarvill go this way. She couldn't help but wonder.

'Who could Tarvill want me to meet? Who would want to hide out underground by themselves? Could it be a dwarf? Or maybe it's an Elf. But why would an elf be hiding under here unless it's a Rahpilim, one of the fallen ones. I ddon't think Tarvill would want me to visit one of-- DRAGONS!'

The tunnel abruptly ended in sunlight as they strode onto a wide flat ledge where seven or eight dragons were split up into groups of two or three circling around and trying to bite chunks out of each other.

"Combat training." Tarvill strode confindently around the circles of dragons and adresed the dragon in the center in a language which Estrella did not know. They both came over to greet Estrella. "This is Zephyr."

"Hello Zephyr. I am Estrella."

The dragon responded with an uninteligible musical noise.

"He says it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well, Zephyr."

Before Tarvill could translate Zephyr's reply, he heard a scream from Estrella as a dragon spun around. The dragon's tail caught Estrella in the chest, sweeping her off the edge of the ledge three thousand feet up in the air.