by Sariah Skye
"Well what?" I demanded.
She bit her lip. "Your wings. Your wings are completely different."
"My wings?" I repeated uncertainly. "But…they’re just wings. Wings that don’t work."
"Precisely. I don’t believe there has ever been another dragon period with wings quite like yours," Kiarra said. I tightened my face and Kiarra quickly said, "I know you don’t like talking about it. But it’s true. To my knowledge—or anyone else’s knowledge—there has never been another set of wings quite like them."
"But, what does that mean?" Gabriel interjected.
Kiarra shrugged. "I don’t know, really. I don’t even know how. They are iridescent, like a fairy’s or perhaps— "
"—so you’re saying I’m part fairy?" I retorted, incredulous.
"No, just that they look like it. But, they’re strong. Stronger than they look," she said, with a chuckle at her own unintended joke.
I rolled my eyes and groaned.
"Sorry, sorry," she said, laughing. "But…we do know that a fairy’s wings are meant to help amplify magic, as well as fly. We are guessing that’s what yours are for, as well."
Gabriel considered this. "It’s an interesting theory."
"But," I began protesting, "if they are like a fairy’s wings, and fairies can fly then why can’t I fly."
Kiarra’s eyes glinted with a hint of mischievousness. "Who said you can’t? I think that you can."
I narrowed my eyes. "Come on."
"No, really. In fact, that’s one of the things that we’re going to work on. Right now." Kiarra grabbed for my arm and I allowed her, tentatively. She looked at Gabriel. "Coming?"
Gabriel nodded. "This I have to see."
We followed Kiarra through the town square. Several human-appearing people and one orange dragon in actual dragon form were seated at the tables, laughing and talking. One of them—a demure, spritely thing with pointy ears and long, long golden blonde hair caught sight of us and nudged her companions and pointed. A male gasped (he looked entirely human), and the other male (another with pointy ears and similar golden blonde hair) stood up and cheered. "All right, pink!" he shouted. Even the orange dragon bowed his head in a sign of respect.
My cheeks flushed and I hung my head. Gabriel gave a small wave for me and pulled my arm through his and guided me through the remainder of town, through a chunk of pine forest and into a clearing. "They don’t even know that it was their own leader who caused it," Gabriel muttered under his breath.
"Where’s Maxxus? And Daniel?" I asked, standing in the center of the clearing and looking around my scenery.
"Last I saw they were still whooping it up at the tavern," Kiarra replied. "Finnian wanted to come, but I assured him that for the time being, it was probably a good idea for him to remain elsewhere."
I snorted. "You think?"
Kiarra smiled. She had a floral printed crossbody-bag hanging at her side, that she pulled off and tossed on the ground. She rubbed her hands together in anticipation. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes again. "Okay…Finnian and I were talking about you, and we developed a theory."
"Theory?" I retorted.
"Yes," she replied with a nod. "Now, your wings look like a fairy’s. But, if you look at a fairy and their wings, it doesn’t even look like it should be possible for them to fly. Small, light wings on a body that’s not aerodynamic or anything. A fairy flies because she wills it."
I cocked a brow. "Wills it?"
"Yes. She flies because it’s the magic that allows her to fly, not because her wings were necessarily built for flying," Kiarra explained.
Gabriel tittered this time. "Does she have to think a happy thought?"
I chortled. "Pixie dust!"
Kiarra stopped talking and allowed us to giggle and laugh like a couple of school kids in the back of the classroom during sex education when they thought no one could hear them. She lifted her brow at us after a moment. "Are you finished, yet?" she asked, rather sternly, crossing her arms in front of her. Gabriel and I composed ourselves and tried to appear solemn.
"Yeah. Yes. Keep going," choking back peals of laughter. Gabriel poked me in the ribs and tried to look admonishing which nearly set me back off again.
Kiarra sighed audibly. "Anyways…we think it’s a similar concept with you. Since your magic is rooted in spirit, it could be the same concept. You were always told you couldn’t fly, or practice magic, so you just…didn’t."
Gabriel snapped his fingers. "Actually…that does make a bit of sense. Like the healing—she didn’t know she could, but she thought she might and was desperate. We thought there was a possibility she might be able to heal and we were right."
"Could your grandfather heal?" I questioned, finally serious.
She nodded. "My grandfather was extremely powerful. Not all pink dragons are as—or were as—powerful as each other. Some had better control of their powers. Others just didn’t have the abilities. But they all had spirit magic, probably the most powerful of all the elements because there is a bit of spirit in just about everything so, in that case— "
"—a spirit user could potentially have control over anything," Gabriel finished.
She nodded. "To a degree, at least. But your best bet is still to enhance say, like an air user’s magic. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you could at least when we’re done, light a candle or something like that. Maybe," she said with a wink.
"Is that what your Grandfather could do?" I asked.
"He says he could in his journal," Kiarra replied.
"Hmm," I said, with an approving nod to Gabriel. "So…you really think I can fly?"
"Yes," Kiarra said. "And, since flying is key for a dragon, I think it should be lesson number one. Because sometimes magic isn’t enough; sometimes you just have to haul ass."
I let out a raucous laugh. For some reason, it was really strange hearing Kiarra—who’d been akin to a bouncy cheerleader when I first met her—swear like a sailor. I grinned. Nothing like curse-words to make me feel more at home.
"So, Sensei, what do you want me to do?" I questioned.
"It’s simple really. First, you need to believe you can. You need to believe you can fly," Kiarra said seriously, but it still sent Gabriel into fits of laughter.
"I belieeeeeeeeeeeeve I can fly…" he sang, off-key.
I snorted and continued, "I believe I can touch the sky!"
Kiarra narrowed her eyes at us, but the corners of her mouth were upturned into a smile. "Yeah, yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "Shall we? Oh, first…Leo, it would be helpful if you could shift. Obviously."
I groaned out loud. "Fine…" I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at them pointedly.
"Well?" Kiarra prompted.
Gabriel snickered, and turned around. "She’s modest."
"Oh geez…" Kiarra muttered, but complied.
Glad for the robes, again, I closed my eye and willed the change. The more a dragon shifted back and forth, the more it became old hat, like blinking your eyes and sneezing. Actually, it was more like sneezing: uncomfortable and uncontrollable at first, but when it was over, it was such a relief.
I felt the tell-tale pull as my human limbs turned into dragon legs and the rest followed, with my "fairy" wings shooting out of my back. I turned my head to look at them momentarily, and gave them a couple of flaps, causing a breeze nearby that rustled Gabriel and Kiarra’s hair.
"Safe now?" Kiarra asked, not waiting for me to answer. She yanked a pair of robes out of her shoulder bag, tossed them around her neck and shifted herself while Gabriel just stood in awe (her private areas shifted underneath her clothes so nothing was exposed—for that I was grateful, Kiarra’s human form was ridiculously gorgeous, that of a runway model), shaking his head.
"I don’t think I will ever get used to that," he said.
I started to comment, but Kiarra cut me off. "Okay, like I said. You need to believe that you can fly. Do you believe you can fly?"
I began to
snort a laugh but took a deep breath and staved it off. I lifted my head proudly. "I can fly," I said, rather meekly.
"No! No, you have to truly, truly believe it," Kiarra instructed.
"Leo…maybe it’s just like healing, or conjuring wind…or wanting to kill Finnian," Gabriel joked, but his expression turned serious. He came up to me and I lowered my head, to better look into his eyes. "You believe you can, you will it. You exhale your magic dust and…picture yourself flying."
"Well, let’s try floating a little off the ground, first. Don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, here," Kiarra interjected.
I nodded, with a short growl. I glanced once more into Gabriel’s earnest eyes and took a deep breath. I shut my eyes.
I can fly. I can do this. Dragons were meant to fly. I can too. Just a little. Just float a little off the ground. I imagined myself feeling weightless, hovering off the ground a couple inches and I exhaled, blowing the dust towards the wings outstretched on my back. I flapped them gently to catch the dust, and exhaled once more, catching more sparkles between my wings, and flapped them ever so slightly harder.
I heard a gasp. "Leo…look." It was Gabriel’s voice.
I opened my eyes and looked down. My feet were hovering about a foot off the ground.
I gasped myself, shocked. Suddenly nervous I allowed my wings to stop flapping and in a moment of fear, fell to the ground with a small thud. I let out an ooph and a growl as I fell to my knees.
Kiarra stood beside me, smiling like the Cheshire cat. Gabriel threw himself at me and attempted to wrap his arms around my neck. "You did it!"
I blinked a little, feeling my heart beat rapidly. I glanced back at my wings again and looked back at him with a nervous smile. "Well, sort of."
Kiarra gave a growl of approval. "Good start, good start, Leorah. Seriously, that was awesome!" she praised. "Now…try again and see if you can’t go a bit higher."
I nodded. I can do this. I can fly too. I repeated the process with a bit more determination, exhaling a bit more and beating my wings slightly faster. Just get off the ground. Off the ground, Leorah.
"Should this really be so easy?" Gabriel asked Kiarra in a hushed tone. I heard her shush him, reminding that I could easily hear him.
"Dragons were meant to fly, Gabriel," was all she said. "The rest of the magic probably won’t be so easy."
Still shutting my eyes, afraid to look, I imagined myself floating a bit higher, flapping my wings a bit more furiously and exhaling. I opened my eyes, then, to see both Gabriel and Kiarra craning their necks to see me as I hovered about twenty feet in the air. Gabriel looked positively elated, and was nearly jumping up and down in his shoes.
"Oh my…" was all I could say, looking around me. I was about leaf-level with a handful of nearby young birch trees. I grinned. "Cool…" I exhaled again, much larger with a bit of a roar and beat my wings much harder. I easily floated to the tops of the birch trees and was now rivaling some tall pines that stood behind them.
"Don’t get too cocky, Leo!" Kiarra shouted back up at me, but it was hard to hear her over the repetitive sound of my flapping wings.
I scoffed. "I got this!" I shouted back, as a gust of wind came out of the sky, pushing me forward. I struggled against the current as it wanted to push me forward, and blew my dust away and I started losing altitude. "Shit!" I growled, breathing out furiously, flapping my wings.
Gabriel shot a gale of wind underneath me, keeping me aloft with a wide gesture of both his hands. I exhaled more furiously as the two currents fought each other and felt my wings go slack as I began falling. Gabriel pulled more air seemingly out of nowhere and made a swirling motion with his hand, causing the wind to swirl under me. Kiarra added to it by inhaling and shooting out a mist of water from her mouth, and it mixed with Gabriel’s wind to form a cloud. Gabriel pushed it under me as I tumbled, and I let out a relieved gasp as the cloud "reached" up beside me on all sides and cradled me before I slammed into the Earth.
Gabriel’s eyes were intent and narrow, as he gestured with his hands, slowly, bringing the wind and me back down to the Earth, pushing it down. When all four of my feet touched, he spread his hands wide and with a final push at the palms, dispersed the wind around us, and it calmed.
I grinned sheepishly at him and Kiarra who just shook his head. Gabriel wiped a bead of sweat that had formed on his forehead with the sleeve of his robe and let out a low whistle. I hadn’t realized that he had been working so hard to keep me afloat.
"Sorry," I said to him, pulling a Sona and gently bumping my forehead against his side, being cautious not to knock him flat on his ass.
He stumbled slightly, but recovered quickly. He patted the top of my nose. "That’s what I’m here for, eh?"
I sighed out of frustration. "Where did that come from? Was it conjured?" I asked, a tone of anger in my voice.
Kiarra chuckled. "No, silly. There’s always wind. You will have to learn to fly against it."
"Uggggh…" I grumbled. I tried to facepalm myself but I couldn’t get my dragon foot up that high so I settled for an f-bomb under the breath, in dragon.
Gabriel rubbed the side of my face with both his hands and leaned his head in. "You’ll get it. This was only your first time! You did great."
I looked at Kiarra, who nodded. "Try again?"
"What do I do with the wind?" I questioned. This really should be common sense for me, but I seriously had no idea. The laws of physics and what not didn’t have a place in dragon lessons growing up, and I tried to picture how an airplane would fly. Of course, those have huge engines. I just have…dragon power. I groaned at the thought and hung my head.
"It’s okay…" Gabriel said, another comforting pat.
"You have to adjust your body for the wind. If it’s coming in back of you, you make yourself bigger to the wind, to block it. That is, you start flying upwards slightly, and let your feet fall a bit. If it’s coming forward, crane your head down and let it fly against your back. All while flapping your wings harder until it passes. Like this." I watched as Kiarra effortlessly flapped her solid wings and lifted off into the air, high above the pine trees now. A gust of wind blew from the sky again, and her wings beat harder as she craned her long neck up, kicking her front feet slightly like she was pumping a swing. "Or, like this," she said, spinning around in the air so the wind was blowing against her back. She lowered her neck oh so slightly, beat her wings a little harder to compensate, but she stayed aloft. The wind passed, and she hovered level again. "See?"
I sighed.
"I got you, if you fall," Gabriel said, forming an invisible ball of air between his hands for emphasis. He winked at me.
With a slight nod, he stepped backwards. I closed my eyes again, summoning up my confidence. Be one with the wind, Leo. I involuntarily whimpered, thinking of the falling sensation again.
"I got you." Gabriel said with conviction in front of me. "You can do this."
I nodded slightly. Okay. I can do it.
I squinted my eyes shut, and stretched out my wings as far as they could go. Another gust of wind came from up high and I pulled my wings in tighter, feeling it blow across them. No! You’re a dragon! You can do it! "Screw you, wind," I mumbled under my breath. I forced my wings out through the wind, fighting the recoil, I beat them harder. Faster. I inhaled deeply and exhaled and bent my knees slightly to gain some height.
I tried not to yelp as I felt a current of wind underneath me. I opened my eyes, startled, but relaxed when I saw it was Gabriel pushing the wind under my legs. He nodded. "Do it!"
Feeling a burst of confidence, I flapped harder and exhaled again. Once. Twice, catching the sparkles in my wings and craning my neck, pushing myself up higher, and higher. I dared a quick glance around me, as the ground grew further away until I was level in the air with Kiarra. I exhaled and allowed my wings to catch the dust and slowed the flapping slightly, to hover with her in the air.
"Good!" Kiarra praised, with a toothy, dragon grin (whi
ch to anyone else it would probably look like a snarl—all our expressions really looked like snarls, really…if you get used to us you do find a difference between them, though).
I beamed, feeling confidence as I felt Gabriel push another gentle gust of wind underneath me.
She caught on to what was happening, and she looked down at him. "Stop the conjuring, now. See if she can float on her own."
"Okay!" he shouted back, but it was lost in the gale of wind that came from in front of us. He pulled back his wind just as the other wind blew. I yelped, trying to exhale quickly and pull the dust back to my wings, but the wind pushed it away from me. I beat my wings harder and hung my head low to make myself a bigger blockade to the wind, but it just blew stronger and I felt my wings just give out, no matter how much I flapped, they just couldn’t hold me up, and suddenly I was very aware of the ground beneath me and just how far it was. I knew I wouldn’t die, but it would hurt. I wondered if I could heal myself…?
My musing was cut short by another gust of wind from the other direction that sent me tumbling forward, head down, tail overhead.
I heard Kiarra curse as she tried to fly under me but wasn’t fast enough, the wind was strong for her too and she was having trouble staying up.
I looked pleadingly at Gabriel who was getting closer, rapidly. He held his arms out wide and narrowing his eyes in concentration, pulled all the air he could from nearby and pushed it underneath me, just in time to catch me before I slammed against the ground, headfirst.
I cussed, feeling him gently lower me the two or three feet to the ground, and I landed on my side as he dispelled the wind around us.
Vexed, I kicked the ground under me with one of my front legs and let out an angry, low growl.
Kiarra landed with grace next to me and knelt down on all fours. I hung my head, feeling ashamed. It looked so easy! Why couldn’t I do it? If it wasn’t for that pesky wind, I’d have it! I chuckled with contempt, shaking my head. Silly dragon…you can’t do anything about that. I squinted my eyes shut, as Gabriel sat down cross legged in front of me. I buried my nose under the bend in my leg and sighed, feeling pity for myself.
