You Owe Me Two

Chapter 4 - Wyvern's Wings

××Zypher××

The sound of creaking floorboards had me snapping awake. I twisted around quickly and pulled the knife from underneath my pillow. Without bothering to check what the noise was, I tossed the knife in the direction of the sound. A shriek met my ears and my eyes found their way to a terrified Wild. She was pinned to the wall by the knife lodged in her shirt.

"That could have been a cleaner throw," I mumbled, noticing how high the knife had landed.

"You almost hit me," Wild accused, eyes flickering in panic from me to the knife.

"I could have killed you. You got lucky," I said while standing up. I stretched, letting my bones crack before casually walking up to the still flustered fairy and ripping the knife from the wall.

Wild scampered away from me and the wall as I smirked slightly. I sauntered into the bathroom and used the mirror on the wall to right my hair and clean up. As I exited to retrieve my bag and coat, I found Wild tying her hair into a tight braid.

"Do you have anything I can tie this with?" Wild questioned quietly. Her eyes followed me as I reached into my bag and rummaged until I found a black ribbon. I couldn't remember how the thing ended up in my bag but this would give it a good use.

I walked up to her, ignoring her outstretched hand and tied the end off myself. I tried to make the bow look decent before pushing the hair off her shoulder to let it hang behind her back. Our eyes met and we both stared for a moment.

Then it was gone with a shrill scream from outside the door, followed by incoherent yelling. I took that as our sign to leave. We wouldn't be using the door, I was not going to walk into that mess.

With a little help from my magic, I managed to yank the window open. Dust flew as I did and Wild flapped her hands around to try and get it away from her face.

"Let's go," I said, slipping out the window and pausing to steady myself on the small ledge.

"Why do we have to leave through the window?"

"You heard the scream. I don't think either of us want to deal with that." As if on cue, a new round of yells and the sound of broken glass appeared.

Wild agreed and climbed out to window the stand next to me. I scanned the street below and found it to be deserted, not a single shopkeep or citizen was out.

I dropped to the ground, dust billowing around my feet. After brushing off my pants, I looked up at the fairy still standing on the ledge. Wild was holding onto the windowsill so tight her knuckles were turning white.

"Jump," I ordered. Wild shook her head slightly and squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'm scared." Wild's voice wavered.

"You have wings idiot." I sighed exhasperated when she shook her head again.

"I can't have people knowing what I am, especially not here," Wild whisper-yelled. Makes sense, fairies were a wanted commodity due to the gems created when they died. Many wizards would go after one if they knew one was so close to Sepaera.

"Fine, I'll catch you. Now jump," I said, holding out my arms. I tensed my knees and changed my stance to a more sturdy one.

Wild looked down unsure.

"I promise." I rolled my eyes.

Wild shut her eyes tight and let go of the window, allowing herself to fall backwards. I could almost see the magic swirling around her as her instincts told her to use her wings to halt her descent.