Ch. 14
“Thrill”
I had to promise, pinkie promise, and even shifter promise that I would tell Devlyn everything later once we are out of the forest and have some kind of privacy between us.
Gaelira spends about an hour patching me up, wrapping and bandaging me around the top of my right shoulder and neck. Devlyn manages to find some extra clothes for me as well, and requested from a scout to bring more buckets, so I can officially get all the dry blood off my body. I can’t wait until I can have a nice warm bath.
As someone who has a much smaller frame compared to many of the scouts, even Devlyn, the gray shirt she gave me, is baggy, like a lot, like almost to my knees a lot. Curse this small powerful, hateful body. She also found a spare strap vest, which can be tightened like a corset which helps me not look like a child, more so than I already do sometimes. The strap vest has empty spaces following the curve of my ribs for weapons, which Devlyn also found. A dagger on each side of me. Slightly too large pants that need to be tied as tight as they can and rolled. Lastly boots that fit, thank Nyx. No need to increase my chance of falling, in front of all these people. That is the last thing I need after the last few days I have had. My body may just quit if I fall on my face.
The boys had the scouts and guards rounded up just as quickly. Scouts and guards are just finishing loading up supplies back into wagons attaching horses to them, and their horses saddle bags snapping shut in unison.
Each of my companions have a horse that has been trained with them for as long as I can remember. I usually do not need a mount, but Halfy is gracious enough if I ever get tired.
Devlyn has a black stallion with a long mane and long hair flowing on the bottom of its hooves. Very fitting for her cold demeanor.
Sadar has a tri-colored mare with striking sapphire eyes, who whinnies and bucks constantly. Her attitude is only mastered by Sadar. I like to think the complexity of the horse’s markings match the depth of Sadar many do not get to see.
Iamys has a golden stock mare who matches him, shining bright against the sunlight. Just not in the size department.
My companions, my friends, are already saddled and ready to start the journey through the valley between the Zis mountain ranges.
I almost miss him at first, but Zanir stands on the edge of the camp helping some scouts rounding up horses to attach to wagons. There, but out of sight.
I walk over to him and say, “You can ride Halfy if you want.” Halfy who has been hot on my tail since I left the tent. Which is probably being packed and taken down as soon as my feet left it. Piece by piece going into the back of a wagon. I hear Halfy grumble behind me. “Well, if Halfy does not mind that is.”
Zanir, without raising his head toward me but his eyes move in my direction. He hands the reins of a beautiful gray mare with white snowflake like markings along its back to a scout who finishes by tying the mare to a nearby wagon.
“Says the person wrapped up like a sacrifice to the gods, Princess…” There it was again. It is like he knew I did not like being called that as if that is all I am and saying it to just get under my skin. Just as much as I could order the guards to slowly cut all his fingers off his calloused hands, I could simply rip his throat out. As I have already proven plenty of times. Just add it to my ever-growing throat count numbers.
“One who is like a god… Not a sacrifice to the gods…” I cut him a glance. “And who still has her powers…all of them….” Is all I say before I close my eyes.
Searching through my mind. Looking for something. Running through the files that fill my brain. A Marsh Glider. A creature that looks like moss clinging to a tree. Blending seamlessly into nature. Cat like features, large round eyes, and pointed small ears. Green moss like skin on the outside and a soft velvet under belly. Four legs on each side of its long body. Able to glide from tree to tree. Built much like the flying squirrels that live within and at the edges of human villages. Cute enough that I begged Mother as a child to let us get one. Which never happened.
I feel my body change, shift. Bones cracking and reforming. I spread my body and take a deep breath. I more comfortable here shifting in the open, during daylight, surrounded by hundreds of scouts and guards sworn to protect me, my friends, Halfy…Although none of them can protect me truly, not from myself. My wind starts to fill my new form up toward the trees. “Or you could walk...”
Zanir’s face finally moves up to meet my eyes as my bones pop. I know the sound is gory, but his face only shows one of curiosity. Analyzing. Those flames blazing in his eyes once more. That is so odd. The way his eyes seem to change. With different emotions maybe? I’ll have to track that…later that is.
I move quickly. I can’t stand that look he gives me. How it makes me feel. A shiver moves across me. Gliding from tree to tree with my wind powering me through the sky.
The wagons are taking a bit to pass through the river channels before the valley. I take this time as an opportunity to put this form to the test while using my wind to glide through trees, through branches, twisting this form in all directions. I’m careful not to pull on my shoulder too much or Devlyn will have my head. I continue to soar, flying through nature’s obstacle course. Feeling the faint touches of leaves as I pass by trees and little drops of water transferring to my moss-covered form.
Eventually the wagons, the scouts, the guards, my friends, and Zanir who took up riding on Halfy rather than walking through the muddy lands of the river channels that connected to the lake. Halfy’s ears point backwards and down, which I assumed he is not amused.
Once in the valley between the Zis mountain ranges, the sun is beaming down. I glide myself down toward Halfy and land on his giant skull. I could feel Zanir’s eyes following me, and many others. I am used to being watched, as a shifter that can shift into anything, anything I have studied, I have seen, other’s eyes tend to follow. That does not mean I enjoy it. I hate being the center of attention, in the spotlight. I just want to blend into the crowd, to observe, to watch, to be. But I am not very good at staying hidden. My curiosity and sense of wander tend to get in the way and scream me out into the skies for all to see.
Devlyn and the others ride behind Halfy, which I assume is to keep an eye on the new stranger. I glance back at them and wave a small stumpy moss-covered leg. Devlyn and Sadar remain fierce and unfazed as always. Lame. Iamys gives me a stupid little wave back with a grin on his face. This is why Iamys, and I get along so well. He is one of the only ones in the clan who treats me like more than just their princess…
I glance back to Zanir who has a bored look on his face. The flame in his eyes gone without a trace. I know he is probably trained to act nonchalant in certain situations, especially when he have little control over them.
“Question, for question?” I ask while shifting into a form that I am more comfortable in and that will fit more comfortably while on Halfy’s head. After gliding and pushing myself I realize how sore and wounded I really am. I need to rest even though I do not really know what that means. My bandages do not show on my forms, but the wounds do. Wings start forming on my back, and something drips down them. I did too much. I wince slightly as my form finishes taking shape.
Zanir lazily moves his gaze to me from the tree line that starts to disappear as we reach the entrance of the valley. Mountains shooting up from either side of us. Sun is shining bright, warm across the membrane covering my wings. Even with the autumn breeze, the sun is warming the area.
“You never rest, do you?” His eyes flick orange slightly. Was it that obvious? He continues, “Relax even? But please indulge me, little bat.”
I grimace. As much as I do not like little bat even though that is exactly what I am at this moment, it is better than Princess.
“How does the sun feel?” I wonder how long it has been since he could be out fully in the sun, feeling the warmth, the power. Or could he have been in the sunlight all along?
Even though the books I have read say otherwise, those same books said nothing about them being able to control shadows. I am guessing my thoughts are on my face even as a bat because Zanir is watching me again with that observational stare he likes to use. The flames in his cerulean eyes start to ignite. I feel my nose wrinkle.
“You have a very expressive face, even in different forms…” I grimace. Zanir’s mouth edges turn slightly before fading, “I could be in the sun within shadows, but it has been centuries since I been out fully… able to embrace it…” He pauses and looks up to the sky. “It is a warmth I have not felt in a long time. Much like the campfire. A feeling I have long forgotten.” Zanir’s eyes start to close, absorbing the sun’s rays. “What does shifting feel like?”
My eyes widen. I am slightly shocked that he did not ask about something to do with being a princess or about the group that is stalking behind us, or the scouts, or the guards. No, he asked me, about me, about my powers…
“If you are curious about the sounds, the bones…it does not hurt. It is an odd feeling, but it is not a feeling of pain, more like a force or movement.” I feel myself fall back into Halfy’s ear, which are facing towards us. Listening like he always does. “The act of shifting releases endorphins and adrenaline starts pumping. It is absolutely thrilling…” I move to closer to Zanir with a mere whisper, nearly falling off Halfy’s head. “Do you control shadows…Well, I mean, did you control them?” Even though the pounding of horse hooves and rattling of wagons drowns most of the noises, one can never be too careful.
Zanir looks down at me briefly and then looks back to the rising mountains next to our right side, hundreds of feet above us. A terrible place to be trapped in during the night or to be chased into. Just slate shelves of rocks on either side. Caves fills some of empty not death drop spots. About fifty feet between each of the ranges. A river also flows through the valley leaving only roughly thirty feet for us to walk through. The wagons having to file into a line and lingering riders placed between them.
His gaze falls back to me before he says, “They are…were a part of me. An extension of who I am.” I began to think about the night we first met. How the shadows climbed up the tree, closer, and closer to me. How they engulfed anything they passed over. How they grazed my wings, and the warmth that ran through me. I am soon snapped out of my memories from the sound of Devlyn’s stallion’s hooves pounding on the ground beneath them. Closing the distance behind us.
“I’m owed a question, saved for later…” Zanir whispers next to me, he must have leaned in when I was distracted. I scoff slightly, trying not to shutter as his breath leaves a small cloud next to me.
Devlyn is next to Halfy now. Her stallion is much larger than most of the horses in the clan, a special breed built for power and its cunning nature, but compared to Halfy, as most things not quite a big as him. Halfy is a formidable beast to be compared to.
“Make sure it is a good one.” Devlyn says glancing to Zanir and then me before motioning her head toward the end of the valley where a faint road starts to form.
My eyes widen and I take flight, even though my shoulder screams through my skin. I push my winds against Halfy and use my wind to propel myself about ten feet above them. I hear Halfy grumble and see Zanir’s dark hickory hair flow in the breeze I left behind. I make to bank to the left, floating down the river that flows next to us.
I increase the speed of my wind, and the tips of my wings glide across the water surface. The water is cold even with the sun reaching the middle of the sky now. I push against the water and waves ripple past me. I rise and twist my body backwards moving from the river and back to solid ground. My back twisting more to where it is now facing the hard earth below. I release my wind. I feel myself drop, falling. My body changes, my form taking ahold of this once, little bat.
Before my body reaches the solid earth below me a final twist, my boots hit the ground with a thud. My shoulder screams as my hands touch the ground on either side of me balancing my force and I can feel a warm liquid drip down my side. My knees are kneeled and bent. My hair, the purple hue shining bright in the sun, laying all around my face. Gladly blocking any stares that may make my delight falter. Again, I have trouble blending in. I am power, energy, force. A single claw down my mental walls. No. You will not ruin this for me.
I whip my head and my hair falls across my back trying to ignore my body as chills run through me. I see Devlyn first. Her face is unreadable to most, but the look in her eyes is awe. I was not always blessed with this much comfort with my powers, but she is one of the few people who helped me get to this point. I will never to able to repay her for that. Being trapped in castle some days lead to very dark nights, Devlyn made sure I had something else to distract my mind, and body. Long days of training, over and over to the point of exhaustion.
Even though I have recently been feeling like my powers are shifting, yet again. Her eyes flick to what I assume is Zanir. I dare not look over. I can’t. I can feel it. That exposed and open feeling. I will not squirm in front of all these people.
“Show off.” Iamys says while riding up to where I landed and jumping off his mare. His bow and quiver full of arrows, click once his feet hit the ground.
Ch. 14
“Thrill”
I had to promise, pinkie promise, and even shifter promise that I would tell Devlyn everything later once we are out of the forest and have some kind of privacy between us.
Gaelira spends about an hour patching me up, wrapping and bandaging me around the top of my right shoulder and neck. Devlyn manages to find some extra clothes for me as well, and requested from a scout to bring more buckets, so I can officially get all the dry blood off my body. I can’t wait until I can have a nice warm bath.
As someone who has a much smaller frame compared to many of the scouts, even Devlyn, the gray shirt she gave me, is baggy, like a lot, like almost to my knees a lot. Curse this small powerful, hateful body. She also found a spare strap vest, which can be tightened like a corset which helps me not look like a child, more so than I already do sometimes. The strap vest has empty spaces following the curve of my ribs for weapons, which Devlyn also found. A dagger on each side of me. Slightly too large pants that need to be tied as tight as they can and rolled. Lastly boots that fit, thank Nyx. No need to increase my chance of falling, in front of all these people. That is the last thing I need after the last few days I have had. My body may just quit if I fall on my face.
The boys had the scouts and guards rounded up just as quickly. Scouts and guards are just finishing loading up supplies back into wagons attaching horses to them, and their horses saddle bags snapping shut in unison.
Each of my companions have a horse that has been trained with them for as long as I can remember. I usually do not need a mount, but Halfy is gracious enough if I ever get tired.
Devlyn has a black stallion with a long mane and long hair flowing on the bottom of its hooves. Very fitting for her cold demeanor.
Sadar has a tri-colored mare with striking sapphire eyes, who whinnies and bucks constantly. Her attitude is only mastered by Sadar. I like to think the complexity of the horse’s markings match the depth of Sadar many do not get to see.
Iamys has a golden stock mare who matches him, shining bright against the sunlight. Just not in the size department.
My companions, my friends, are already saddled and ready to start the journey through the valley between the Zis mountain ranges.
I almost miss him at first, but Zanir stands on the edge of the camp helping some scouts rounding up horses to attach to wagons. There, but out of sight.
I walk over to him and say, “You can ride Halfy if you want.” Halfy who has been hot on my tail since I left the tent. Which is probably being packed and taken down as soon as my feet left it. Piece by piece going into the back of a wagon. I hear Halfy grumble behind me. “Well, if Halfy does not mind that is.”
Zanir, without raising his head toward me but his eyes move in my direction. He hands the reins of a beautiful gray mare with white snowflake like markings along its back to a scout who finishes by tying the mare to a nearby wagon.
“Says the person wrapped up like a sacrifice to the gods, Princess…” There it was again. It is like he knew I did not like being called that as if that is all I am and saying it to just get under my skin. Just as much as I could order the guards to slowly cut all his fingers off his calloused hands, I could simply rip his throat out. As I have already proven plenty of times. Just add it to my ever-growing throat count numbers.
“One who is like a god… Not a sacrifice to the gods…” I cut him a glance. “And who still has her powers…all of them….” Is all I say before I close my eyes.
Searching through my mind. Looking for something. Running through the files that fill my brain. A Marsh Glider. A creature that looks like moss clinging to a tree. Blending seamlessly into nature. Cat like features, large round eyes, and pointed small ears. Green moss like skin on the outside and a soft velvet under belly. Four legs on each side of its long body. Able to glide from tree to tree. Built much like the flying squirrels that live within and at the edges of human villages. Cute enough that I begged Mother as a child to let us get one. Which never happened.
I feel my body change, shift. Bones cracking and reforming. I spread my body and take a deep breath. I more comfortable here shifting in the open, during daylight, surrounded by hundreds of scouts and guards sworn to protect me, my friends, Halfy…Although none of them can protect me truly, not from myself. My wind starts to fill my new form up toward the trees. “Or you could walk...”
Zanir’s face finally moves up to meet my eyes as my bones pop. I know the sound is gory, but his face only shows one of curiosity. Analyzing. Those flames blazing in his eyes once more. That is so odd. The way his eyes seem to change. With different emotions maybe? I’ll have to track that…later that is.
I move quickly. I can’t stand that look he gives me. How it makes me feel. A shiver moves across me. Gliding from tree to tree with my wind powering me through the sky.
The wagons are taking a bit to pass through the river channels before the valley. I take this time as an opportunity to put this form to the test while using my wind to glide through trees, through branches, twisting this form in all directions. I’m careful not to pull on my shoulder too much or Devlyn will have my head. I continue to soar, flying through nature’s obstacle course. Feeling the faint touches of leaves as I pass by trees and little drops of water transferring to my moss-covered form.
Eventually the wagons, the scouts, the guards, my friends, and Zanir who took up riding on Halfy rather than walking through the muddy lands of the river channels that connected to the lake. Halfy’s ears point backwards and down, which I assumed he is not amused.
Once in the valley between the Zis mountain ranges, the sun is beaming down. I glide myself down toward Halfy and land on his giant skull. I could feel Zanir’s eyes following me, and many others. I am used to being watched, as a shifter that can shift into anything, anything I have studied, I have seen, other’s eyes tend to follow. That does not mean I enjoy it. I hate being the center of attention, in the spotlight. I just want to blend into the crowd, to observe, to watch, to be. But I am not very good at staying hidden. My curiosity and sense of wander tend to get in the way and scream me out into the skies for all to see.
Devlyn and the others ride behind Halfy, which I assume is to keep an eye on the new stranger. I glance back at them and wave a small stumpy moss-covered leg. Devlyn and Sadar remain fierce and unfazed as always. Lame. Iamys gives me a stupid little wave back with a grin on his face. This is why Iamys, and I get along so well. He is one of the only ones in the clan who treats me like more than just their princess…
I glance back to Zanir who has a bored look on his face. The flame in his eyes gone without a trace. I know he is probably trained to act nonchalant in certain situations, especially when he have little control over them.
“Question, for question?” I ask while shifting into a form that I am more comfortable in and that will fit more comfortably while on Halfy’s head. After gliding and pushing myself I realize how sore and wounded I really am. I need to rest even though I do not really know what that means. My bandages do not show on my forms, but the wounds do. Wings start forming on my back, and something drips down them. I did too much. I wince slightly as my form finishes taking shape.
Zanir lazily moves his gaze to me from the tree line that starts to disappear as we reach the entrance of the valley. Mountains shooting up from either side of us. Sun is shining bright, warm across the membrane covering my wings. Even with the autumn breeze, the sun is warming the area.
“You never rest, do you?” His eyes flick orange slightly. Was it that obvious? He continues, “Relax even? But please indulge me, little bat.”
I grimace. As much as I do not like little bat even though that is exactly what I am at this moment, it is better than Princess.
“How does the sun feel?” I wonder how long it has been since he could be out fully in the sun, feeling the warmth, the power. Or could he have been in the sunlight all along?
Even though the books I have read say otherwise, those same books said nothing about them being able to control shadows. I am guessing my thoughts are on my face even as a bat because Zanir is watching me again with that observational stare he likes to use. The flames in his cerulean eyes start to ignite. I feel my nose wrinkle.
“You have a very expressive face, even in different forms…” I grimace. Zanir’s mouth edges turn slightly before fading, “I could be in the sun within shadows, but it has been centuries since I been out fully… able to embrace it…” He pauses and looks up to the sky. “It is a warmth I have not felt in a long time. Much like the campfire. A feeling I have long forgotten.” Zanir’s eyes start to close, absorbing the sun’s rays. “What does shifting feel like?”
My eyes widen. I am slightly shocked that he did not ask about something to do with being a princess or about the group that is stalking behind us, or the scouts, or the guards. No, he asked me, about me, about my powers…
“If you are curious about the sounds, the bones…it does not hurt. It is an odd feeling, but it is not a feeling of pain, more like a force or movement.” I feel myself fall back into Halfy’s ear, which are facing towards us. Listening like he always does. “The act of shifting releases endorphins and adrenaline starts pumping. It is absolutely thrilling…” I move to closer to Zanir with a mere whisper, nearly falling off Halfy’s head. “Do you control shadows…Well, I mean, did you control them?” Even though the pounding of horse hooves and rattling of wagons drowns most of the noises, one can never be too careful.
Zanir looks down at me briefly and then looks back to the rising mountains next to our right side, hundreds of feet above us. A terrible place to be trapped in during the night or to be chased into. Just slate shelves of rocks on either side. Caves fills some of empty not death drop spots. About fifty feet between each of the ranges. A river also flows through the valley leaving only roughly thirty feet for us to walk through. The wagons having to file into a line and lingering riders placed between them.
His gaze falls back to me before he says, “They are…were a part of me. An extension of who I am.” I began to think about the night we first met. How the shadows climbed up the tree, closer, and closer to me. How they engulfed anything they passed over. How they grazed my wings, and the warmth that ran through me. I am soon snapped out of my memories from the sound of Devlyn’s stallion’s hooves pounding on the ground beneath them. Closing the distance behind us.
“I’m owed a question, saved for later…” Zanir whispers next to me, he must have leaned in when I was distracted. I scoff slightly, trying not to shutter as his breath leaves a small cloud next to me.
Devlyn is next to Halfy now. Her stallion is much larger than most of the horses in the clan, a special breed built for power and its cunning nature, but compared to Halfy, as most things not quite a big as him. Halfy is a formidable beast to be compared to.
“Make sure it is a good one.” Devlyn says glancing to Zanir and then me before motioning her head toward the end of the valley where a faint road starts to form.
My eyes widen and I take flight, even though my shoulder screams through my skin. I push my winds against Halfy and use my wind to propel myself about ten feet above them. I hear Halfy grumble and see Zanir’s dark hickory hair flow in the breeze I left behind. I make to bank to the left, floating down the river that flows next to us.
I increase the speed of my wind, and the tips of my wings glide across the water surface. The water is cold even with the sun reaching the middle of the sky now. I push against the water and waves ripple past me. I rise and twist my body backwards moving from the river and back to solid ground. My back twisting more to where it is now facing the hard earth below. I release my wind. I feel myself drop, falling. My body changes, my form taking ahold of this once, little bat.
Before my body reaches the solid earth below me a final twist, my boots hit the ground with a thud. My shoulder screams as my hands touch the ground on either side of me balancing my force and I can feel a warm liquid drip down my side. My knees are kneeled and bent. My hair, the purple hue shining bright in the sun, laying all around my face. Gladly blocking any stares that may make my delight falter. Again, I have trouble blending in. I am power, energy, force. A single claw down my mental walls. No. You will not ruin this for me.
I whip my head and my hair falls across my back trying to ignore my body as chills run through me. I see Devlyn first. Her face is unreadable to most, but the look in her eyes is awe. I was not always blessed with this much comfort with my powers, but she is one of the few people who helped me get to this point. I will never to able to repay her for that. Being trapped in castle some days lead to very dark nights, Devlyn made sure I had something else to distract my mind, and body. Long days of training, over and over to the point of exhaustion.
Even though I have recently been feeling like my powers are shifting, yet again. Her eyes flick to what I assume is Zanir. I dare not look over. I can’t. I can feel it. That exposed and open feeling. I will not squirm in front of all these people.
“Show off.” Iamys says while riding up to where I landed and jumping off his mare. His bow and quiver full of arrows, click once his feet hit the ground.
