Changeling

Chapter 16

I saw everything the bird saw, but it was more than that. I could also feel everything the bird felt. The wind beneath my wings... not just an old song I remember my mom singing along with on the radio anymore. I felt the cushion of air under each wing holding me aloft. I felt the breath of the heavens stream over the aerodynamic head of the raven, my aerodynamic head, and speed over my back as I shot through the sky.

I was in control of the body I now inhabited. I didn't expect to be in charge, only to be a passenger. Controlling the bird was as instinctual as walking. No wait, it wasn't like walking at all. I had to learn to walk- I didn't have to learn to fly. It was more like breathing. An involuntary action that just happens. I could stop flying just like I could choose to hold my breath and stop breathing. But why would I want to do either? Flying was freeing. Flying was freedom.

I flew as high as I could fly above the tree line until the air was cold and too thin to breath, then I dove straight down towards Eden like a Kamikaze pilot on her last mission. The forest canopy came into focus as I raced closer and closer. At the last minute I pulled out of the dive, made a ninety-degree turn, and let my wing tips skim the tops of the fluffy pines.

"Girl..." Whose voice was that? "Girl, you need to find the Hellion camp. Do you hear me." Like an echo in the back of my mind, the sound of Cason's voice, as if he were trapped in tin can, rang in my head. Why he called me Girl instead of using my name, or Princess which he seemed to favor previously, I didn't know.   I'm not sure he has ever called me by my given name. Girl or Princess that was it. It didn't bother me. In fact, I think I preferred it. My name coming off the lips of a creature in the likes that killed my parents wasn't something I thought I could tolerate. Even though I was beginning to appreciate his presence, I wouldn't go as far as to say I enjoyed it.  He was certainly useful and knowledgeable I had to admit. I wouldn't be flying now if it wasn't for him.

"Don't forget who you are and what your mission is. You need to locate the Hellion camp."

Don't forget who I am? Did I forget who I was? Maybe I did momentarily. I was a girl. I had a human... wait no not human, a fey body... well that's not even quite right is it. My body was standing back in the cave. I had taken to flight, taken to being the bird with such reckless abandon.

"Cason, are you there?" I thought the words, uncertain how communication with Cason would work as I was a bird and miles away. I could hear him, so I must still be connected somehow to my other form, but could he hear me?  I envisioned him standing in the cave next to my empty shell talking to her and her talking back.  That must be what was happening. 

"Yes, I'm here. Right beside you."

"No, you're not. I'm high above the trees. I can't even see the cave anymore." I said as I swirled and dove and rode the waves of air.

"You are right here with me don't forget that. This is who you are. The person standing right beside me." There was an unmistakable emphasis on not forgetting my true form. I had much to learn about my new found ability and became suddenly aware there may be adverse reactions associated with the seductive freedom I felt as the raven. It scared me that for an instant I had forgotten who I was. What would happen to me if this raven was injured while I was inside? Or what would happen if my true body was injured while it stood as an empty shell in the cave?

"You need to find the Hellion camp."

That's right. That was my mission. I needed to find the Hellion camp, so that I could save Ariton. How much time had I wasted selfishly flying about while he was dying back in the cave? I was overwhelmed by a sudden urgency.