Early Summer, 512 AV
Off of the Southeast Talderan Coast
It was nice to be above the sea once more, after having been confined to the deck for the past two days. Xiani was beating her wings against the wind, savoring the ache in her muscles as much as she normally would savor the crisp air being forced into her lungs. The events of the past day frightened as much as they thrilled her, causing her to alternate between nose dives towards the water in which she broke off at the last moment with only her toes scraping the water, or sometimes her fingers if she was feeling wistful, and sharp, wingtucked rolls through the air that left her mind dizzy and frazzled as much as her senses. Tucking her arms close, she began to strain against a sharp downdraft, fighting to regain the altitude lost by her last dive. Just when her muscles began to tremble and a sweat broke out across her body, she found a break in the current and began climbing powerfully, bringing her wings so far forward that they nearly touch tips above her head and thrusting them back with such power that she shot through the air for an instant like a loosed arrow with her wings nearly straight back. Within a matter of flaps, she had reclaimed her cruising altitude.
For several delayed, gliding wingbeats, she hung there, in the stream where the tides of the earth and those of the heavens met, caressing only those brave enough to plunge into their warm, steady winds. Some instinct within her knew that if she were to ride this wind current until she met the land, and then directly West, she would reenter her home territory. But that side of Xiani was all but silenced by the destination of her current homing instinct. Right then, her home was about a mile away, and due South. With a quiet sigh, she leaned back just enough for the wind to catch her and turn her about. She was able to find a reversed wind stream by diving a hundred or more feet in an exhilarating free fall, snapping open her massive wings - Ow! Shoulders are still sore... - to catch this new current the instant she felt it in her raised fur.
The sun was finally setting, and she was flying into it, closing her eyes against the glare and letting other senses take over. Her ears perked to the sound of a pod of dolphins leaping and playing below, of gulls not so far off, sharing her sky. True, her thoughts should not have been so cocky, but nothing she had come across or seen in these endless skies had made a decent challenge to her yet. She might as well have called the sky hers at that moment. The sea below was no home for her, she knew not of its secretive ways, nor of the beasts that inhabited it. It roils and she could not tell why, creatures disappear and resurface without a trace that she could track. But there, in the sky, she could predict which current a bird would navigate, or how fast they could fly in their attempt to escape her. This was her element, her realm. The quiet creaking of wood signaled that her destination was not far away and -with a quick blink of her eyes- she spotted the white sails of the casinor, painted with fire by the setting sun to the point that they are no longer white, but bright pink rimmed in gold. Her nose was able to catch his scent even from this far off, a sensitivity garnered by long hours in close quarters and contact.
Smilling, she stilled her wings completely, letting her heavier than air body begin to sink on the current, causing her to drift in a wide arc around the ship until her back was to the sun. Finally, she could approach with open eyes. A smile lit her face as she saw him sitting on the edge, a smile to match hers as she flared her wings and alights upon the railing, trying to ignore her own majesty in the setting sun - the way that it showed through the thin skin of her strong, beautiful wings, the way it caused the red of her hair and fur to show a coppery gold, like hot metal, and the way that she struck against the background, like charcoal on a cavepainting, ominous, potent, unmistakable, and utterly impressive - to focus on how he looked in this light. Blue eyes dancing with untold excitement and mischief, golden hair set ablaze. If Laviku were real, this would surely have been one of his angels, his saints, his souls sent to earth to walk among mortals and spread his word. Where had such thoughts come? Before meeting him, she had noticed the beauty only in taking a life, watching it flow from the carcass into herself and then the earth as it decomposes. But then, she could see so much more. With a quiet sigh, his name left her lips as a gentle greeting: "
Kirvan..." |
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by Xiani on March 15th, 2013, 5:09 am 