The Rise of Light (Book 3: Together Forever)

Cherries

Osmund's POV

"Wakey, wakey!" Gale said in my ear.

"For the love of the stars!" I groaned.

"C'mon! We gotta keep moving!" she stated frustratedly. 

"Whhhy?" I complained.

"Cause you're dyiiiiing!" she replied.

"Can't forget that for a minute, can I?" I demanded.

"Please!" she scoffed. "If I let you forget, then you would die!"

"Fiiiiiine!" I said.

"You don't even have to fly! Just tell me where we're going," she muttered. I laughed. 

"We should go," I said. She rolled her eyes before lifting both of us into the air.

I sighed in contentment as the tugging continued to ease off. 

After several hours, Nightengale landed at the edge of a beautiful forest. The pine trees growing from the ground touched the sky. I turned towards the grove of fruit trees. The small bright red fruits hanging from the branches were new to me. 

I walked forward and pulled one off a branch. 

"Do you think it's edible?" I asked Nightengale. 

She shrugged. "Who cares? I'm going to find some meat," she replied before walking away.

I continued to walk through the grove when someone shouted at me from behind. I turned around to face them. A young woman stood in front of me. Her wavy brown hair was braided over her shoulder. 

She spoke sharply to me again.

I tilted my head. "I don't understand you," I said slowly. 

"You Viking?" she asked with a thick accent. I nodded. "What are you doing here?" 

"My cousin and I were flying by," I told her. Her jaw dropped.

"Flying?" she asked in amazement. I mentally slapped myself. "Like in de sky?" she asked as she pointed at the sky. I nodded. "How?"

"Magic," I replied sarcastically and rolled my eyes. She smiled slightly at that. "With wings. How else?" I asked rhetorically.

"You remind me of someone," she said slowly.

I laughed. "I don't even look like my father," I told her. "I doubt I could remind you of someone else." She smiled at me. "I should probably go, shouldn't I?" I told her.

"No, no! I swear! I see someone who looks like you six years ago!" she said. "He had grey..." she trailed off. She peered into my face. "I-is it you?" she asked me. "Osmund?" 

"How did you-" she cut me off with a hug. Her scent was familiar, a mix of the small red fruits and lavender.

"It is me!" she replied. "Maylis!" she stated. I pulled back and stared into her face.

"You're kidding!" I told her. She shook her head. "It's so good to see you again!" I told her. I thought about it for a second. "Even if we didn't know each other very well." She laughed.

"We ded not," she agreed with a solemn look. Her face suddenly lit up. "You must stay so we can know each of us," she stated. 

I smiled at her. "I would have to ask my cousin. She is very insistent that we keep travelling," I told her. As if my words had summoned her, Gale showed up.

She shifted immediately. "Who's this?" she hissed at me.

"Oh! Gale, Maylis. Maylis, my cousin, Nightengale. Nightengale is also Vera's older sister," I told them.

"Hello, Maylis, it is nice to meeting you," Gale said. "How do you two know each other?" she asked curiously. 

"We met six years ago. We danced-" I started.

"That was fun even if you did no like tha danse," Maylis interrupted. I nodded my agreement.

"We met a second time the next day. The day that I found out that Viggo is my father," I told Gale. "You know, that very stressful near-death day," I told Maylis. They both nodded.

She stared at the two of us for a while before glancing up at the setting sun.

"I hope you don't mind us staying for the night..." Gale said slowly. I looked at her in shock.

"No, no! You stay as long as you like!" Maylis stated quickly. 

Gale beamed at her. "Really?" she asked. 

Maylis nodded. "Of courz! Sizter of Vera's is all tha time welcome here! Same withe you, Osmund." I stared at the two, dumbfounded. 

"What just happened?" I asked Gale quietly as we were walking towards Maylis's house.

She smiled at me brightly, the biggest smile I had seen on her since we found Vera to be alive. "You're welcome," she whispered back.

"You're joking," I whisper-shouted at her as I gaped. She just smiled while shaking her head.

"Hey, Maylis? What are these little fruits?" Gale asked her.

"Cerises. Or as the English say, cherries," she replied. I just continued to gape at the two women in front of me.

When we were inside the small cottage, the sun had dropped below the horizon. I looked around the small space. Small pictures were hanging from the walls. There was also a bookshelf that was brimming with books along another wall beside a chair. There was a small wooden table with a single chair beside the window.

"It's beautiful," I whispered, my first words since I had spoken with Gale. 

She smiled brightly. "Thank you. Ma grandpapa left tha house to me, and I made tha chairs," she stated proudly. "Grandpapa taught me how to make big things," she told me. She frowned. "I have only one bed," she revealed. I nodded in understanding.

"I'll sleep on the floor," Gale said with a yawn. Maylis started to protest as Gale shifted, stretched and curled up on the floor.

"Trust me, she's fine," I told Maylis. "You take the bed, and I'll sleep beside Gale. We've slept on worse during the past months."

She nodded as she climbed up the stairs to her bed, muttering something in french.

"Good night," I murmured to them as I curled up beside Gale. Seconds later, she lifted her wing and pulled me closer to her, cocooning me in darkness.

As I lay in the darkness, my mind kept wandering back to Maylis. How I always got a warm feeling when I was near her. How it felt to dance with her. I smiled as I remembered her hugging me. 

I was still thinking about her when sleep finally claimed me.

A/N

Dreamchaser and Arvid are 26.

Falcon and Trygve are 23.

Delta's children are 22.

Osmund is 21.

Zephyr and Twilight are 19.

Nuffink is 17.

Aurora is 3.

Blackmoon and Cloudscale are dead.