One Word Prompts

Flowing - An Exceptional Talent

A blond woman stepped into the air, the wind whirling around her ankles and blowing through her long hair. It caught the silk of her trailing sleeves and pulled at her shawl's tasseled ends. But it held her high as her other foot left the ground. She leaped, a graceful acrobat through the noon sky.

On the ground, her friend shook her head. It hardly seemed fair that one could be so loved by the air as to defy the laws of gravity, yet that was exactly what it meant to be Slyphborn. It was a beautiful kind of magic, unfettered by reason or held back by law.

"Well, come on, then," the slyphborn called down to her grounded friend, holding out a hand.

She shook her head emphatically. Jealous though she unquestioningly was, she was not a slyphborn for a reason. "No, no way."

Her friend smiled at her protest, grabbing her hand anyway. Magic poured through her arm and into her body. She could feel her weight dropping as her body rose to the level of her hovering friend.

"No, no, no. Please, put me down."

"I've got you," the slyphborn said, her hand holding her magicless friend's tightly.

She bit her lip and nodded, although the feeling of having nothing under her feet was deeply concerning.

"Shall we go?" The wind seemed to surge at the mere suggestion, playing through their hair and pulling at their clothes.

She nodded. "Y-yeah. You've got me here. Let's just do thi—"

The two shot off before she had even finished agreeing, her last word stretching into almost a scream.

Her friend pulled them through the sky, her free arm out stretched like a bird's wing, her long legs leaping through the air. She trailed along behind her, like a wind sock in a limp breeze. She knew she looked like a fool in the air. Unlike her friend, who was long and lithe, the picture of grace and elegance, she was stout, square even. With her feet planted, she could claim she was sturdy, although her friend would say stubborn. Her feet ungrounded like this, her entire body flapping in the wind, she could only be called out of place.

Her friend looked over her shoulder, a pitiful smile on her lips. "Your still not having a good time?"

She shook her head. She very much wanted to stand on her own two feet again. Her friend had always made this look easy, fun even. Instead, the height alone made her dizzy and the weightlessness left her stomach unsettled.

"Should we go back?" They bobbed down, her friend's shoulders slumping.

"Please?"

Her friend nodded. "Okay."

The two descended slowly, like feathers falling through still air. Her friend took both her hands, clasping them tight.

"I'm sorry," she said. After all the fuss she'd made. She'd wanted to see the world from the air. She really had wanted to stand beside the slyphborn. Had wanted to dance beside her friend, with the wind and the slyphs. She had wanted that effortless freedom.

"No, I understand." Her friend kept her gaze to the ground below them. She shook her head. "I'm the one who is sorry. I shouldn't have forced you."

"I asked you to though." She bit her lip. "I'm just a coward." Too afraid to fly. Too afraid of falling.

"No. It's a reasonable fear."

But you aren't. She bit back that outburst though. It would only hurt.

Their feet alighted on the ground, solid and stable, an instant relief. Her friend squeezed her hands, a half-hearted smile on her lips. "But we're back safe now."

She nodded, forcing the same smile to her own face. "Thank you."

"If you decide to give it another go," the slyphborn started to say.

"I'll let you know." But she didn't think she would.

She turned to leave, her eyes on the path before her, her hands jammed deep in her pockets. Maybe if she went home fast enough she could pretend it hadn't happened. Could pretend she hadn't discovered the air was such an inhospitable place. Maybe she could keep dreaming it was a place just waiting for her, keep dreaming she'd wake up one morning slyphborn too.

"Um..." her friend called after her.

She stopped, turning to look over one shoulder.

"Hey, you'll still show me how you do your signature glass beads tomorrow, right? You promised, in exchange for flying?"

She raised an eyebrow. She'd been serious? She had assumed her friend had been joking when they'd made that deal. She hadn't thought her friend really wanted to learn, just as she had thought her friend wasn't really going to take her into the sky.

"Please?"

"It's just glasswork. You really want to see how I do it?"

The slyphborn nodded, her fingers fiddling with the string of amber colored glass around her neck.

She shook her head. She didn't understand, but she held out her hand to her friend all the same. "Well, come on, then."