The Last Alive

Chapter 9: Nickie

Nickie's POV

 

It was slow at first but as the day wore on it came down faster. Cold rain poounded down on me and Fralinn, drenching us and our wings. We had been flying in the pouring rain for about 5 hours now and I was starting to get slow. My wings were heavy and my soaked clothes were weighing me down. I looked over at Fralinn. He wasn't doing very well either. We couldn't stay out here much longer.

I scanned the ground below for a good place to land. We were at the foot of the mountain which meant we were ahead of schedule. But that didn't comfort me. The mountain itself was covered in huge pine trees but all along it's base it was grasslands with a few scattered trees. We could land but there would be nowhere to get warm and protect us from the rain.

I turned to Fralinn,"We need to land soon but I don't see anywhere to get out of the rain."

He scanned the ground,"I agree that we have to land but it would be best if we landed closer to the mountain."

I nodded,"I know but if we stay in the air for much longer our wings won't be able to hold us up anymore. Our feathers are soaking it up like a sponge."

Fralinn was silent. He looked down at the ground and seemed to be working through something.

After a few minutes he turned back to me,"I have a plan. We're going to land."

"We can't land. Where will we go?"

"Nickie, you trust me don't you."

I sighed,"Yes."

"Then lets land."

He started to circle down. Not slowly but not too fast. I followed him. I would've rather done a dive but that was dangerous in this weather.

Fralinn landed and waited for me. By the time I got to the ground he had turned into his normal self. No wings.

I folded my wings in, pressing them as tightly as I could to my back, trying to get them warm.

"Okay so what's the plan," I tried to hide how cold I was but it was hard not to shiver.

"You probably want to turn around," he said.

"What? Why?"

"I'm going to have to take off my clothes so," he made a circle with his fingers,"turn around."

I felt my face get warm. I turned around and waited. It felt like forever with the rain pounding down on me. But finally I got the sign I was waiting for. Well, sort of.

There was a snort and then a whinny. What in the world, I thought as I turned around. Standing there in the rain with a pile of clothes beside it was a brown horse. I went over and picked up the clothes and put them in my bag. Then I turned and climbed up onto the horse's, Fralinn's, back. As soon as I was on he took off towards the mountain.

It took about an hour for us to get to the mountain. When we were finally under the cover of the trees he slowed down but didn't stop. I had a feeling he was looking for a cave that we could stay in until the rain stopped and we had enough rest.

I was cold and tired. I couldn't stop shivering and all my muscles were exhausted. The trees stopped some of the rain but not all of it so I couldn't totally dry off.

After another hour or so Fralinn finally found a large cave that would be perfect for us to stay in. I climbed off of him, dropped his clothes onto the ground, and turned around and went into the cave.

We would need to start a fire so that we could dry ourselves and our clothes and cook our meat. Luckily there was some wood that was dry in the cave along with dead leaves. I gathered the leaves for kindling and piled the sticks around it. Then, I took out my knife, which I always kept in my belt, and a rock and struck them until finally a spark caught and flames licked at the branches.