I Will Ride the Wind [1/4 Bond Quest Moments]

[Sairque]

20 Spring, 503 AV

Sairque clung to the gritty stone of the Edge of the World as she plotted her route upward. The weak mid-spring sun had slowly worn away at the snow topping the cliff, and the resulting moisture descended in wide trickling streaks. On a hot day, it would have been refreshing, causing no mischief as the skin-slickening moisture would have been limited to only the darkest of crevices. Today, the sun could no more evaporate the thin coat than save her fingers from its numbing chill. Making up for the lack of sensitivity by crimping down tight, the youth grinned at the ache starting in her shoulders and pervading all the muscles of her arms. Nothing between herself and several broken bones except the strength in her hands and the grip of her sausage toes.

After wedging her foot into the crack, knee turned inward to increase the pressure, she jerked her other foot out and stood up. The movement weakened the strength of her pinky hold, the crack barely wider than the depth of her hand and preventing adjusting the hold at the new angle her wrist was at. Wobbling as expected, she reached out with her free foot and ‘smeared’ against the rock face, steadying herself to stretch up to a wider area of the crack and insert her flattened hand. Fingertips pressing into one side and knuckles into the other, she put weight on the jam and felt the hand crimp up satisfactorily. Technically, she could climb this crack all the way up, but there was another about three feet over that she had yet to try.

[Sairque]

Sairque disengaged the useless pinky hold and surveyed the situation. The new crack was on her right, her left arm was the free one. A good solid foot hold was available, and if she switched her hands around she could probably stretch over for a few explorative gropings for hidden possibilities. Retracting the foot smearing against the flat rock face, she looked down and inserted it into the crack a few inches above her left foot. Careful now, slow sure moves… Pulling most of her weight up on to her hand and as much into the temporary hold of her right foot, her left foot disengaged and wedged firmly again a few inches higher. Releasing the pregnant breath, her right foot slid from the stone. Now she could reach the foot hold between cracks. All that was left was switching hands around and reaching over now.

A scuffle sound preceded pebbles and bits of dead vegetation raining down. “They don’t know what they’re talking about. They ain’t even given you a chance yet! You can fly! You can fly!” The puerile muttering was more disturbing than being pinged in the ear and nose by random material. Sai squinted over to the wide catwalk that extended into the canyon around her. The figure had the clunky gait of a determined child. A clunky gait that carried it right up to the edge of the overhang and its bundle right over the edge of the overhang. The bundle dropped like a flapping rock and Sai gaped at it as it came level with her and then shot past. Apparently the figure helping it submit to the whims of gravity was equally surprised and stepped forward to peek directly into the canyon beneath. The figure dropped like a flailing rock and Sai gaped at it as it came level with her and then shot past.

[Sairque]

Without thinking, she acted. Arms swinging out to her sides, Sai fell backwards, legs curling up as her upper body rotated down the face. Finally, she could see the falling figures and shoved off, wrenching the foot wedged into the crack something awful in the process. The screams registered (one the icy screech of a fledgling eagle, the other a sobbing child), as did the feeling of her feet rolling over her head. Windmilling and flailing, the yasi gritted her teeth and refused passage to her own vocalizations. What the petch were you thinking?! She was getting no closer to the kids. How did the birds catch things? The image of a diving raptor came to mind. Streamline. Hair whipping painfully about, Sai scowled and sucked her limbs about herself. Stupid stupid stupid! The wind stung her eyes and vacuumed the air from her esophagus, though none would have got down anyway for the fear choking the girl. Safely having eked by several rock formations, their path was clear all the way to the very lowest point of the canyon.

The boy was suddenly looming in her way, thrashing end over end. A knee got her in the gut, and a foot whipped into her eye. Grunting in pain and frustration at the stupid little mongrel, arms and legs wrapped around the boy and collected all his appendages into something manageable. One look up into her snarling visage and, to her dismay, his eyes rolled back into his head. Petching great. Aiming now for the eagle, the boy clutched to her chest, the ground was significantly closer and her bladder almost released. Terrifyingly mesmerizing, the trees just kept growing, and the rocks seemed to multiply into millions of boulders and blood thirsty spires.

[Sairque]

The tunnel vision receded. Wings, claws, and fuzz thrashed next to her head. If it still screamed, she knew not. Even the rush of air was silent. Calmly, like it was someone else’s, she watched her arm extend and be torn to ribbons by the baby bird. Apparently since flight was the current source of fear, it was a fighter. The flesh was rent, the blood released, and still Sai stared at the hand trying to get a firm grip on the little thing. It grabbed her forearm like a tree branch and sunk its beak through the fleshy layer of her palm to the cords and bones beneath. Its wings unfurled uselessly until she cradled it to herself and the child. She wondered if it had damaged its wings in the attempt to fly. The sky came into view, the trio rolled over by the wind, and Sai fought to stay that way. The fledgling settled down against herself and the boy, no longer panicked with fear. The boy…well, he wouldn’t know what was coming anyway. It was a good last sight, she scowled, the great depths of blue beckoning her to come fluffarize the clouds and enjoy their company. Try as she might to make peace and accept death, a large part of her was pissed off at her ineffective efforts.

A flash of black tore her away and she screamed in protest, hating the feel of death. Bands of steel crushed the boy against her chest, and her body no longer felt like she was laying on the ground, finding shapes in the clouds. Her legs swung to the side at the same angle as her head and then she was wrenched another way. What in the petch was Dira doing?!

[Sairque]

Before she had any more time to continue cursing the Gods, she found herself tumbling head over feet across a generously stocked rock field. The sky returned. And the sun was surrounded by a big black shadow. And bisected by a big black gorph. And it talked to her.

Explain yourself! It was angry. And had a deep rugged ‘voice’. In what account would three deaths hold a higher benefit than two?

“Dira’s. I would guess. Just a guess. Since I don’t do the Goddess’ accounting.” Her voice was raspy and sassy even to her own ears, and the words came out with little guidance from her frazzled brain.

The sun retreated and turned into a big black Wind Eagle. Sai swallowed dryly as the situation clarified. “I mean…I mean,” she pushed up onto her elbows, kicking her leg until the unconscious boy became disentangled and rolled off. The Eagle fixated one of its eyes on her, staring through her, opening her mind to his methodical appraisal. Cradling her mangled hand to her chest, it looked more like she was thumping her heart than fruitlessly trying to make it hurt less.

Bruised and battered, she stood defiantly tall in front of the huge Eagle. Her yellow eyes stared fiercely back. Through the connection he opened she delved bravely. She understood that he had spotted the child throw the fledgling off and had already been on his way to pluck them from Dira’s grasp. She saw the black tendrils, cast off in the excitement, already attaching themselves once more to his soul. She didn’t recognize them, but she didn’t need to. She understood that he needed more than a great hunter, something that she was as yet not. He needed someone to stand up and shout. He needed to listen to war being raged. “I am Inarta. I am Endal. If I fear the sky beneath my feet, who here will not? If I value my own life above that of my people, who here will not?” she asked savagely, refusing to back down from her decision to try and help the two kids. Sairque, no more than a child, stared at the fully grown Wind Eagle, her gaze demanding the right to ride the winds. In his astonishment, he could no more release himself from her mental grasp than deny her what they both knew was already hers.

[Phoenix]

Character: Sairque Experience: Climbing- 4, Observation- 3, Rhetoric- 3 Lores: Knowing how to properly climb, Feeling the muscle strain of hard work, Trying to be the hero, Throwing caution to the wind, Risking ones life to save that of another, Bonding with Catabasis Additional Comments: I love this bonding story. Enough said.