Prologue
The Queen sat in her throne carefully reading the document that would turn her proud kingdom into a province of the newly forming empire. Her heart-felt agony was plain as she read the document that she knew would consign her kingdom to the Emperor and would put her name in the history as the monarch that would betray her people.
The Emperor’s General sat in the chair across the table watching her read the document again. “I promise not a word of the contract has changed since the last time you read it two hours ago. Sign it so I can deliver it to the Emperor and get back to my people.”
The Queen looked up from her reading. “I want to be perfectly clear so that you will know exactly what you will be getting when I sign this paper. I may be the monarch, but it is only at the sufferance of the people I rule. There is a very good chance that before the ink dries on this page I will be dead and my head on the way to a pike as a symbol of what will happen to the next monarch who betrays her people. If I am lucky they won't put preservation spells on it. If I am very lucky they will let my name be forgotten. I think I am entitled to a few extra moments of existence.”
“I have already told you that once you sign you will have the Emperor’s protection. No weapon in the kingdom will be able to touch you. Of course, if you don’t sign I will take you head and put it on the same pike you fear as an example to your people. It really is up to you.”
The Queen sat the paper down and reached for her quill. She picked it up and was interrupted by the twelve-foot tall, two-foot thick, six-foot wide door being reduced to splinters by a blast of energy. A single leather-winged man walked into the throne room. Blood was splattered on his face and ran freely from his left shoulder down his bare chest. His bloodstained pants were shredded on the right side and more blood ran down his leg.
As he walked forward he drew twin short scimitars. He twisted them so that they pointed behind him. With a flick of both wrists, dagger length blades slid out of the hilt of both blades and locked into place. As he got closer visible power radiated around him and death danced in his eyes. The Emperor’s General stood as the Queen began to sign her name.
The winged man pleaded, “Your Majesty, don’t do this. It is not too late.”
The General smiled and looked at the Queen. “You know the cost of refusal. Decide who you are going to listen to. It does not matter to me. If I die the Emperor will just send another. That contract is bonded to a similar one sitting in front of the Emperor. All it requires is your signature on this one to seal the contract. Choose now.”
The Queen looked at the winged man. “I am truly sorry Le` Than. This is for the best.”
The Queen finished her signature and the document flashed with power. The General rolled the document up and walked by the winged man. “You lose Le` Than. Your Queen has betrayed your people.” The General laughed and started walking toward the doorway.
There was a dangerous edge to Le` Than’s voice when he said, “She is no longer my Queen, General Khoman. My people are no longer bound to hers.”
Le` Than struck faster than the General could react. With barely any movement he spun his blades and was past the General. His blades were in their sheathes before the General’s head stopped rolling. He slowly walked up the Queen. His voice still had that edge when he said, “Return it or I will take it back.”
“Please Le` Than, listen to the reason. I am begging you.”
“You could have called on our people in stead of betraying them. Return it. This is your last chance.”
“Please listen.”
“No, Valora. You had your chance. You betrayed us to them. I will not have my people bound to you any longer.”
Le` Than placed a claw on the front of the Queen’s dress and slowly sliced down. He slipped his finger inside of the dress and lifted a black pendant out and over her head.
She sank to her knees in front of him and whispered, “Please…” Le` Than turned away from her and left the room. The Queen sat on her knees with tears rolling down her cheeks. “Le` Than I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered as her hands settled on her stomach. “He was going to kill our child. I had to protect our child Le` Than. Please forgive me.”
The Queen sat on the floor for a while. She wasn’t sure how long it was, but she looked up when the court wizard walked into the throne room.
“Why are you still here your Majesty? You know they are going to kill you if they find you.”
“Does it matter any more?”
Her vision went white and it took a few moments for her to realize the wizard had slapped her.
“What…”
“Do I think I am doing? I getting you off your rear and out of here before you get yourself killed. I can stage your death to satisfy the mob, but you can’t be here or it won’t work.”
The Queen stood up and wiped her eyes. She was almost at the doorway when she stopped. She turned back toward the wizard, “My memory stones…”
“I will get them to you. There is a bag and a dress in the next room. Change and go. Now.”
The Queen changed into a plain dress, grabbed the bag, and was on the road when the mob was going into the castle. One of them stopped and walked up to her.
“Miss? It isn’t safe here anymore. You need to leave.”
The Queen looked up with tears still threatening to fall.
“Oh sir, it’s awful. The Queen, she’s dead. Killed with that general right there in the throne room.”
“It’s ok miss. You get out of here now. Ok?”
“Ok. Thank you, sir.”
The Queen walked the rest of that day and well into the night before she finally stopped and looked in the bag. She found another dress, a large bag of gold, silver, and copper pieces, and another smaller bag. She opened the smaller bag and found her crown, seal, and scepter. She took a few pieces of silver out and put the rest back in the larger bag.
She made sure no one was looking then focused her energy and opened a hole in the ground about six feet deep. She crystallized the bottom and lowered the small bag into the hole. She recovered it and traced a symbol over the hole.
When she was done she placed her hand over her stomach and said quietly, “We’re going to be ok now. I promise.”
Chapter 1
I sat on my bed looking at the small box my grandma had given me last night for my sixteenth birthday. According to her this box had stones in it that used magic to record someone’s life. She said that everything I would see in the stones would be true. Of course I didn’t believe her. How could a box of rocks hold memories of dead people?
I opened the box and saw a bunch of what looked like quartz crystals sitting in slots. About half of them had a name in front of them. There was metal tube strapped to the inside of the lid. I pulled it off and felt a tingle go through my hands. I dropped the tube and rubbed my hands. The tingle stopped and I heard a small hiss from the tube.
I looked at it and one end was opened. I hesitantly picked it back up and saw that a piece of thin leather was in it. I pulled it out and found writing covering the entire roll. I know that I have never even seen the language it was written in, but for some reason I was able to read it.
It was instructions on how see what was in the memory stones and how to make one of my own. I still had some time before I had to start getting ready for school, so I picked up the next blank one and followed the instructions on the piece of leather. Holding the crystal, I read the words out loud three times then waited. I thought I had done something wrong so I looked back down at the piece of leather and accidentally cut my finger on the edge on the crystal.
I looked down at the crystal and saw my blood running down it, but not dripping off of it. The stone was soaking it in. I felt a slight tug as the crystal pulled the blood out faster. When it was completely red I saw my name appear on the label that was in front of the crystal I was holding. The crystal went clear again then turned cloudy.
I didn’t really know what to think but according to what I read everything went exactly as it was supposed to. As I was reading the words on the page started to move. I set the piece of leather down and watched the words shift to give the instructions on how to view the memory stones. I picked one that was labeled Valora and started watching.
I put the memory stone down and picked up a different one. After several stones I decided that if the Emperor ever found out this box existed it would be very bad for my family. According to the official history Le` Than’s people had been hunted to extinction for the assassination of the General and the Queen. The brave Queen knew she was going to die so she quickly signed the contract to surrender her kingdom to the Empire before she could be killed. In the history that signature freed her people from the slavery Le` Than’s people had forced them into.
This box of memory stones tells a completely different story of the birth of the Empire. Le` Than’s people were not killed, they just went into hiding. Queen Valora was not assassinated in the throne room that day. She disappeared after giving birth in a barn two provinces away from her home.
Her daughter, my great-great-great-grandmother, was given this wooden box by a man claiming to be a wizard. The wizard told her to pass the stones down to her daughter and to her daughter after until Le` Than’s people returned. The wizard wrote the instructions for making and viewing the memory stones then told her she was to only reveal the information to her own daughter and giver her the same instructions.
I decided to try an experiment to see if Le` Than’s blood still flows strong in my family. I took off my jacket and looked in the mirror at the open-back shirt my mother had always insisted I wear before she died. With a little effort and a bit of focus I watched as leathery wings emerged from my back. The shock of the wings caused me to lose focus and they disappeared again.
I put the box in my stash spot behind a loose panel in the wall and whispered to myself, “Gods, what am I going to do now? I’m a freak.”
Grandma started shouting at me to get moving so I grabbed my bag and headed down stairs. I stopped to check my reflection in the mirror before I went down stairs. 5’4” tall and skinny. Not anorexic skinny, there is no way I could starve myself like that, it’s just weird. I’m not involved in sports at school, but I like to keep in shape. The track coach keeps trying to get me to try out for the team, but I always tell him I wouldn’t want to embarrass the rest of his team.
The real reason is that I’m just not all that interested in the sports they have to offer. I don’t know what sport I would like, I’ll figure it out when I see it. My black hair comes to the middle of my back when I let it hang loose. Most of the time, like today, I keep it in a braid. My emerald-green eyes tilt slightly up at the corners. Up until this morning I had wondered where I had gotten the tilt to my eyes, but now I know they came from Le` Than’s people. I guess I should start calling them my people since I do have their blood running through my veins.
“Yarianna Nicole if you don’t get down here this instant I am going to drag you by your hair all the way to school! Now get moving!”
“I’ll be down in a moment Grandma!” I smiled, revealing slightly pointed teeth, and kissed my fingers then touched them to a picture of my mom I keep over my mirror. “Bye, mom. I’ll see you after school.”
I ran down stairs and smiled at grandma as she was tapping her foot. “Sorry grandma. I was looking at the birthday present you gave me. I guess I lost track of time.”
The foot stopped tapping and her jaw opened slightly. She quickly closed her mouth and pretended like nothing had happened. “Were you able to see anything?”
“Yeah.”
“My dear child, I am sorry. I had hoped, but I wasn’t sure. How do you feel?”
I gave her a puzzled look. “I feel fine. Why? Should I feel different?”
“No back pain? Eyes don’t hurt? No body aches?”
“No. What’s going on grandma? Your starting to scare me.”
“Maybe the blood is weak enough for the curse to skip you. Did you try to call the wings yet?”
“Yeah. They were beautiful, even if they do make me a freak now. Grandma, what is going on?”
“They didn’t hurt?”
“No. Can we go to school now? Your starting to freak me out.”
“Child, you are not going to go to school today. You and I are going to take a drive and I am going to tell you about who you are. How far did you get with the memory stones?”
“I was watching Valora cry in her throne room just after Le` Than left. Other then that, just bits and pieces. I did see what really happened to Le` Than’s people.”
“Did you see any of the other’s call their wings?”
“Yeah. That’s what made me think to try it myself. I was watching a bit of her daughter’s life.”
“Did you get to see what happened afterward?”
“No, you kind of sounded like you were going to start coming upstairs any moment.”
“Then you didn’t get to see the curse. Yari, from now on you are going to have to be very careful with your temper until you learn how to master it. Go change into some cloths to hike in. There are some things I need to teach you. Gods, I wish your mother was here. She should be the one to teach you. I am getting too old for this. Go on now, I am going to call your school.”
I gave her another look and went upstairs to change. I grabbed the box of memory stones on my way down. I have no idea why I did, it just seemed like the thing to do. It turned out that if I wouldn’t have grabbed it then grandma would have sent me back upstairs to get it, so it was a good thing I thought ahead.
I got in the car and looked at grandma. “So, what did you tell Mr. Stensen? He usually won't excuse anybody unless they have the plague.”
“I told him that it was a family emergency and that if he didn’t like it I could go down there and explain it to him in person.”
I laughed. The last time grandma went to the school to ‘explain’ things to Mr. Stensen she had threatened to gut him with her fingernails if he ever questioned her again. “So I take it he wants you to visit?”
“Ha! That twit started stuttering so bad I could barely understand him when he said it was ok and I didn’t need to go there. I want you to remember how to get to the place we are going. It is one of the only place you can go to learn how to use that other side. I was really hoping the curse would pass you by Yari.”
“Why do you keep calling it a curse? It doesn’t feel wrong or bad or anything. If anything it feels more natural then anything else I have ever felt.”
“It has caused our family nothing but heartache. Every generation has had to go through no end of trouble to hide what we are and the contents of that box you carry. I do not believe Le` Than’s people are ever going to come out of hiding. Sometimes I wonder if the Empire actually managed to kill them all. I have never seen any other outside of our family, not even in passing. It is also the reason your mother died. That is why I call it a curse.”
“How did she die? I know you must have told me when I was younger, but I don’t remember the reason.”
“Actually, I never did give you a reason. Your mother was stubborn. I told her that she should never tell anyone about that other side. You were asleep when your mother and father went for a drive. She had decided to tell him about what we are. They were up on the bluffs when she told him. He demanded proof and she showed him her wings. He reached up like he was going to touch them and broke them broke them instead. He didn’t count on her grip and they both fell over the edge. It was ruled an accident. Two people who got too close to the edge in the dark. If she would have just listened to me she would still be here.” Grandma wiped the tears out of her eyes and turned off on a dirt road that led past the bluffs. “I hate this place, but it is, unfortunately, the only place no one will be able to see you.”
We drove for a few minutes in silence and took another road that looked like it wasn’t driven on very much. I saw several ‘private property’ and ‘keep out’ signs along the road. We drove up to a gate that grandma gave me a key to open it. I locked it behind us and we drove for another ten minutes.
When we got there I could see why no one would be able to see us. She parked on the side of a ravine and we climbed down some hand holds carved into the rock. We walked up the ravine for a while. I was just about to ask her how much further it was when we turned a sharp corner and I saw it. In front of me was the mouth of a cave completely hidden unless you happened to be traveling the direction we had been. Somehow I knew that it opened up into a cavern large enough that several people could fly without running into each other.
“When you learn how to use your wings better it won't take as long to get here, but until then we have to take the long way. Go on in. I need to catch my breath.”
I knew she wasn’t telling me the truth, but I went in anyway. The floor gradually sloped down to form the cavern. The ground was covered in sand and at the back there was a smaller cave that had a bed, food, and water. I wasn’t very good at judging how long food should last, but it looked like someone could live down here for at least six months before they had to worry about food or water.
There was a pool that had water continuously running into it from the wall of the cave. Grandma walked in behind me. “Amazing isn’t it?” She took a cup, dipped it into the pool and took a drink. “I forgot how good the water from this spring tasted. Help yourself, after we eat I am going to teach you the basics of what you are.”
“What is this place Grandma?”
“This is what is left of an underground city. Your great-great-grandma found the entrance when she was a young girl. She used to come here to get away from everybody. An earthquake closed off the rest of the city some time back and she bought the land. I try to keep it stocked just in case something happens. Before you ask what I think might happen, don’t. I don’t plan on anything actually happening, but I have lived through some hard times and want to be prepared.”
“There is a fine line between prepared and paranoid, Grandma. I think you might be dancing on it.”
She raised her eyebrow at me with a smile on her face. “Live a few more years Yari, you will see. The first thing I want you to get used to is the added weight of the wings. Just standing with them is one thing. Walking with them is something else altogether. While you are in this cavern I want you to have your wings out all the time. Expect the first few weeks to be hard to get used to. You will most likely find it difficult to judge exactly where your wings are at, but as you move around it does get easier.”
“Ok…how long are we going to be down here? It is getting close to lunch time.”
“You are going to be here at least through the end of the week. I wish there was another way, but I want you to spend the time getting used to your wings and studying those memory stones. When the curse first awakens it is hard to control. There are times that your wings will emerge on their own if you do not have proper control over them. They are just like every other muscle on you body. You have to properly develop them for them to be any use to you. One thing I am going to ask you is that you do not try to fly on your own until I say it is ok. I know that you will want to, but it can be dangerous for you if there is no one there to catch you if you fall.”
“You mean you aren’t going to be down here with me?”
“No, I am going to go back to the house. You will be fine here. I can almost guarantee you will be better then you think you will be. Le` Than’s people are tied to the elements. That is one of the reasons they are hated so much by the Empire. You will be ok here. As for school, you won't get too far behind. I will make sure to bring your homework to you when I come back.”
“But grandma…”
“No buts. Keep your own schedule, study when you want to. Get used to your wings. The next few days you will experience mood swings that, frankly, I don’t want to be here see. There are some clothes here for you to change into. I am going to leave now and see you tomorrow. Ok?”
“Ok grandma. I love you.”
“I love you too Yari. Stay safe.”
“I will. You too.”
Chapter 2
I watched grandma walk across the cavern and leave. Grandma had told me to get used to the weight of my wings so I took my jacket off and focused on them. They emerged and folded on my back. Sitting down took a bit to figure out and when I stopped focusing on the wings they vanished.
I didn’t realize that I was angry until I heard a soup can hit the far wall. My arm was a bit sore from throwing it and, to my surprise my fingernails had changed shape and very closely resembled three inch claws. I knew without looking that my pointed teeth were longer and sharper.
Suddenly I understood what grandma meant by mood swings and why she called it a curse. I thought about what would have happened if I had been at school and lost control of my temper like that. I shuddered at the image of my claws buried in one of my friend’s neck. Some lady at a fair once said that meditation was the key to happiness so I sat down to give it a try.
After several hours of sitting quietly trying to clear my mind, it was probably closer to seconds but time drug on, I gave up. Who could possibly clear their mind with all the sound echoing around the empty cavern? I got up to walk off my frustration and look around at the place I was going to be staying in for the foreseeable future.
On one wall of the cavern were several sets of weapons that caught my eye. I walked over to them and saw that they were all arranged by type of weapon and weight. I chuckled when I thought about how the modern world had rendered most of these weapons useless unless you were staring in a martial arts movie. Neglect was starting to show so I looked around and found several tables that looked like they were used for that purpose.
I had never spent much time around any kind of weapon because Grandma didn’t allow them in the house, but I had always been a quick study. It also helped that I was fascinated with martial arts movies and picked up a couple of things on how to care for a blade. I focused on my wings to bring them out and started with the quarter weight daggers. For some reason I didn’t get as frustrated when I lost focus while cleaning and sharpening the blades. The rasp of the sharpening stone actually felt quite soothing and helped me maintain focus.
When it got too dark to see what I was doing I lit a fire and warmed up a can of soup. While I was eating I pulled out the memory stones again. Since Grandma had mentioned the curse I decided to watch the life of Valora’s daughter. I saw how hard it was for her to learn on her own. Somehow I even felt the pain of breaking a wing because it wasn’t strong enough to support her weight. When I got tired I put the stones away and went to the closet.
There were several open-backed shirts and sweats so I let my wings go just long enough to change and get ready for bed. As soon as I was ready I called them again and laid down to sleep. I thought I was going to have a hard time falling asleep, but with the sound of the water running into the spring I was asleep soon after my head hit the pillow.
I woke up with a strange feeling on my back. It took me a few moments to realize the feeling was my wings. As soon as I realized it they vanished. I suppressed the flash of rage and got up. As soon as I was dressed I called my wings in again and ate breakfast then went back to the weapons on the wall.
I was done with the daggers and half way through the short swords when I realized that I was being watched. I turned toward the entrance of the cavern and saw my grandma sitting on one of the other benches.
She smiled at me. “Hard at work I see. Your mother used to work with that same focus. I have already made lunch. Come and sit with me for a bit.”
I smiled back and followed her into the kitchen. She must have been there for a while before I noticed her because lunch turned out to be more then just a can of soup. I sat down to a full meal with grandma. It took me most of the meal to realize my wings were still out and, thankfully, this time they didn’t vanish as soon as I realized it.
Grandma grinned at me. “Fast learner. How many cans of soup did you go through before you could keep focused?”
“Just one. It would have been more if it weren’t for the work that needs to be done on those weapons. They have a calming effect that surprised me.”
“It doesn’t surprise me. When you start training with them you will find that you will learn them as if you were just remembering how to use them.”
“What makes you think I will want to learn how to use them? What if I just try to forget about all of this as soon as you tell me I can control myself?”
Grandma gave me a sad smile. “I know you will because you are your mother’s daughter and you, unfortunately, did inherit the family curse. Those two reasons are why I know that you won’t want to stop yourself from learning. I know that once you taste the air with your wings spread it will take all I have to get back on the ground. I know this because your mother was the same way and you have always been so much like her. You should be ok on your own for a bit so I probably won’t be back until next week. As soon as we finish lunch I am going to leave. I left some of your clothes and your school work in the room.”
“I understand. I would hate myself if I lost control with you here and I hurt you. I think I will be ok by next week, but my temper is still too close to the edge. I can feel it just below the surface even now. Part of me is getting mad that you are here now. I don’t know why.”
“That is actually quite normal. The other side of you has claimed this place as hers and right now I am invading your territory. I could stop her, but then you would have to find another place to learn. When your wings are fully developed we will both be able to be in the same area without having to control our tempers, but until then I will let you get more control.”
“How will I know when they are fully developed?”
“You will know.”
For some reason being near Grandma was starting to piss me off so I said, “I think you should go now grandma.”
She heard the change in my voice and stood up. “I think you are right. I will see you next week.”
I watched her back out the door and walk to the opening of the cavern. My anger didn’t start to cool down until I was finished eating and back working on the short swords. The rest of the week was a blur of weapons, memory stones, and anger. Every time I thought about missing grandma I also thought about her being near me. When I thought about being near her I would get really mad. It didn’t make any sense to be me because I really liked her. After some careful thought I decided that it wasn’t me that was getting mad, it was the other side of me that the wings belonged to. I couldn’t really think of anything else to do so I forced my other side to deal with thoughts of my grandma.
After a couple of days I learned to separate my other side’s emotions from my own. As her rage would flare I would silence it with my own. I started to think I was going crazy because I would yell at myself a lot, but her rage slowly died down to a quiet rumble by the time grandma showed back up.
I knew she arrived when I felt my other side grumble. I quickly silenced her and turned around. Grandma smiled, “Since I am looking at you without fangs and claws I am going to assume you have managed to control your other side.”
I smiled back, “Yeah, it took a bit, but all she does now is grumble. I know I’m going to have to sit down with her and work out who is more dominate before I even try to fly, but I think we have made excellent progress. I was just about to stop for something to eat. Care to join me?”
“I would love to.”
Grandma and I walked back into the living area and I started getting cans out to make supper. “I think I will be ready to go back to school at the start of the next school week. I still need a bit of work quieting her when thinking about other people. Are you going to be staying the night or are you leaving after we eat?”
“I can stay for a little while, but I do need to go home tonight. I will be staying all next week though. We will be working on flying and we will need all the time we can get to make sure you will be able to at least work on your own.”
“Do you really think I am ready?”
“I do. You are learning at an incredible rate. I can see in your eyes that you are starting to yearn for the feel of the wind. You are more then ready to get a taste of the air. I was thinking we could start tonight, if you want to.”
“I would love it. Can we start after we eat?”
“Yes. I will tell you now it is best if you don’t eat a lot just before and just after you fly a long distance. It is better if you eat a light snack.”
“I will keep that in mind. Food is ready, lets eat.”
We ate quickly and walked back out to the cavern. Grandma’s wings unfolded like giant kites. Light tan leather stretched out to full span and I swear I could pick out veins of golden scales. The look completely transformed the way I perceived her. Before I had seen her as a slightly stern but loving grandmother who had raised me, but now I could see the predator behind her eyes. Looking in her eyes I could almost see Queen Valora but I wrote it off as her being a descendant.
Grandma had me stretch my wings to full span a few times to make sure they wouldn’t cramp before she let me try to get off the ground with them. Hours later she was still yelling at me to use them to cup the air for lift and not just fan the air in the cavern. Controlling my temper became problematic at best and by the time we stopped I couldn’t even maintain enough control to keep my wings out.
That night after grandma left I sat down with a sharpening stone and let the quiet rasp fill my ears. I didn’t realize I was meditating until I found myself in a clearing of an old forest. The trees reached up for hundreds of feet and were far enough apart that you could easily fly between them. I stood at one end of the clearing and invited my other side to join me.
I felt her as she walked up. She looked like a feral version of me. Her eyes were wild and her skin was covered in small scales. Her hands were slightly longer and ended in claws instead of fingernails. She moved with the grace of a wild animal, both beautiful and dangerous.
I walked to the center of the clearing and met her there. I knew her to be all of my instinct and raw emotion. We studied each other without speaking for a long time. Our eyes met and I felt the raw power that was always just below the surface. Her anger rose at the challenge, so I let mine go. She quickly rose to the killing edge so I let go of all restraint. I knew that if I wasn’t able to match her step for step she would destroy that part of me that made me who I was.
My body started changing on its own so I let it. I was more aware of my wings and small scales grew out of my skin. My hands lengthened and my fingernails grew into claws. I felt my eyes shift to vertical slits and my teeth lengthened to fangs. I stepped forward with the intention to attack and she broke eye contact.
My rage lessened on it’s own and I changed back until I looked like myself again. She didn’t look up until I was completely back to being me. Without meeting my eyes directly she stepped toward me until we touched and blended into one being. I felt all of who she was settle in me and fill the holes in me that I didn’t know existed. It was just like my wings. I didn’t know I was missing them until they were there and I finally felt whole in a way I never knew possible.
I opened my eyes and looked at the world with heightened scenes. I notices the small crystals in the stone and noticed how they caught the fire light and reflected it out in a rainbow. Suddenly the entire cavern was bathed in a wonderland of light and color. I was too tired to enjoy it fully, and was asleep before I made it to the bed.
I woke up feeling better then I had ever felt in my life and had breakfast ready by the time grandma showed up. We ate quickly then worked on flying. Yesterday I struggled to lift myself off the ground and I could see why the other side had gotten so frustrated. Up until last night I still hadn’t thought of the wings as a part of my body. They were there, but I didn’t really know what to do with them. They were part of the other me.
I flexed the small muscles throughout my wings and was surprised by how many there actually were. Each one of them attached in a different way to make small adjustments that would allow me to fly without going broken umbrella status and falling out of the sky. I cupped my wings like Grandma had been trying to explain and launched myself into the air in a cloud of sand.
In jerks and stalls I managed to lift myself nearly to the top of the cavern. Each time it got a little smoother as I worked out the timing needed to balance out when to thrust down and when to fold them to get over the air to thrust again.
I had just about worked it out when Grandma said, “Slow down Yari. You don’t want to hurt yourself.”
“I know, grandma. It’s just so hard to when I feel this good.”
“You had that little talk with yourself last night didn’t you?”
“I did. All the memory stones that I have looked through and none of them told me about this. Why is that?”
“Can you describe how it feels? Can you put in to words the pure joy of being whole? I couldn’t the first time I flew. It was all my mother could do to get my feet back on the ground. I know you want to push yourself, but lets build your wing strength first, ok?”
“Ok, grandma.”
We spent the rest of the morning doing what I like to call wing sprints. Grandma had me launch as high as I could with one beat then glide to the ground. Then I would immediately launch back up and continue the process until I reached one end of the cavern. Going back up hill was harder because I couldn’t glide as far and when we broke for lunch I was sore in places I didn’t know I could be sore in. After lunch was more wing sprints until supper then it was work on the weapons. The rest of the week was the same thing and by the end of it I was pretty exhausted.
The night we left grandma told me that I had to go back home, but that I could come back out here after school to continue working on wing strength. I helped pack up all of my stuff and restock the food that I had eaten while I was there. Grandma had to remind me at least three times that my wings were out on the way back to the car before I made a conscious effort to keep them in.
We drove most of the way home in silence and when we got there I saw another car sitting in the driveway. I looked at grandma, “Were you expecting company?”
“No.”
“Then who is here?”
“Just you and me.”
“Then who’s car is that?”
“Yours.”
“Mine?”
“Yep.”
“Your joking. Right?”
“No. Think of it as incentive.”
“For what?”
“For passing your Driver’s Ed class. I signed you up for the class. They are going to call sometime this week to let me know when the classes are.”
“You have got to be the coolest grandma in the world.”
“I know. Now get inside. You have school in the morning and I am not going to accept any excuse for you missing even more class. I don’t care if you sprout horns. You are going to be there.”
“Can that happen?”
Grandma looked at me with a strait face. “Yes it can. Don’t worry about it though. I bought a new grinder just in case.”
I stared at her in shock for a few minutes.
Grandma put the car in park and started laughing. “You should see the look on your face.”
It took me a bit to realize she was joking. “Grandma!”
She laughed harder.
“Not nice. I thought old people didn’t have a sense of humor.”
“I may be old, but I still love a good prank. Come on. Get a shower and I’ll get supper ready. You are going to bed early so you will wake up on time.”
I got out of the car and grabbed my stuff. Grandma was still chuckling when we walked through the door. I dropped my stuff in my room and got in the shower. After I washed all the dirt off I filled up the tub and fell asleep in the bath. Grandma woke me up so I could eat. I laid down on my bed and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t get comfortable. It wasn’t until I let my wings out that I finally got comfortable.
Grandma must have come in during the night because I had a blanket tossed over me when I woke up. I got up and looked at the clock. I still had another hour before I needed to wake up, but I got up anyway. Grandma was already up and in the kitchen. I sat down at the table and she sat a plate of pancakes, sausage, and eggs in front of me. “Why is it that no matter what time I wake up, you are already up and have breakfast ready?”
“Because I am a grandma.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s your excuse for everything.”
“That’s because it works. Eat then go into the basement. I went to the cavern last night and picked up a few things for you.”
I gave her a curious look and started eating.
She just smiled. “You’ll see.”
I finished eating and went down stairs to the basement. I stopped when I got to the bottom step and looked around. One set of each weapon that was in the cavern were on the walls of the basement and a work bench was set up in the back corner. I slowly walked around the room and brushed my hand on each weapon.
“So, you like?”
I turned and looked at grandma. “I love it. Thank you.”
“I left room in the middle so that when you get up to training with them you won’t have to rearrange anything. Driver’s Ed is going to be early mornings. They just called to let me know. Come on. It’s time to go to school.”
“But I got up an hour early. How can it already be time to go?”
“You’ve been down here for an hour. Now get dressed unless you are going to go to school in your pajamas.”
I ran upstairs and changed into my normal open-back shirt and jeans then ran back down stairs and pulled my shoes on. I grabbed my backpack and met grandma in her car. We drove to the high school and I looked at grandma. “It’s not too late to detour to the cavern.”
“Yes it is. Go on, it will be fine.”
“But what if I lose control because some stupid person decided to piss me off?”
“Then you will have to learn how to hide the body. Go.”
I got out of the car, grabbed my bag, and walked into the campus to face high school again. I was almost immediately assaulted by a pack of girls more commonly referred to as my friends.
Over the din of questions about where I had been and if I was ok I heard the voice of my best friend Skyler. “Back off devil spawn or I will cut you faces off and sew them into the lining of my duster.”
They cleared a path and Skyler walked forward. He is five feet seven inches tall with black hair pulled into a ponytail that hangs down to the bottom of his shoulder blades. Pale complexion, ice blue eyes, and a toned build make girls drool over him. The black t-shirt, black pants, black boots, and black duster made those same girls avoid him.
I smiled and took his offered arm, telling my friends I would catch up with them later. “Thanks for the rescue Sky.”
“Anytime Yari. You’ve changed. Want to talk about it?”
“Not right now. I will later, but right now I just need some quiet time. A lot has happened since the last time I was here. What are you doing after school?”
“Catching up with you. Your place or mine?”
“Mine. I have some things I need to show you.”
He nodded and we walked to our tree and sat down. I call it our tree, but we don’t really own it. It used to be his tree, not that he owned it, of course, until I refused to be ignored by him. The first day of school I saw him sitting under the tree avoiding people, so I sat next to him and ignored him. Everyday for the first week this went on until he asked me, “Why are you here?” To which I replied, “Why are you?” We’ve been best friends ever since.
We tried the whole dating thing for a little bit, but it didn’t work out. We both agreed to be friends with benefits. The friends part was his idea and the benefits was mine. Now whenever we need a place to just sit we go to our tree.
Someone tried to take it once. Skyler looked at the poor kid and said, “Move.” The kid tripped over himself trying to get away.
I laid my head on his shoulder and held his arm until the bell rang. He kissed the top of my head and we got up. “See you after school. Is your grandma going to pick you up?” “Yeah. You want a ride?”
“If she doesn’t mind.”
“I’m sure she won’t. She never has before. See you later.”
“Bye.”
I felt a lot better as I walked to first hour. I sat through History, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing, as the teacher droned on about the glories of the early days of the empire. History passed without any outbursts and I went to Geometry. Luckily I was ahead in my math before I left, so I was still up to date with the rest of the class. P.E. was kind of boring. We had a sub, so all we did was play dodge ball.
At lunch I was assaulted by my pack of friends again, so I told them I was out of town visiting a cousin on my dad’s side that was in the military. They asked what had happened and I told them that I would have to kill them if I told them. They all laughed at the joke, but I kept a strait face. Granted I just barley kept it, but it did stop the questions. The rest of the day was a blur of Language Study, High Imperialism, and Study Hall. I used Study Hall to get caught up on the classes I had gotten behind in. I met Skyler outside of Study Hall and took his arm.
Grandma was waiting in the parking lot and took us both to her house. “So, what is this mystery that you won’t tell me at school.”
I smiled at him. “You’ll see.”
“I hope your not planning on telling him anything you learned while you were visiting your cousin Yarianna.”
“Why can’t I?”
“You know the reasons.”
“I trust Skyler. If I can’t trust him then I can’t trust anyone.”
“That is the point Yari. You can’t trust anyone. Your mother trusted and look where it got her.”
Skyler looker at me then back at Grandma and asked, “I’m intruding aren’t I?”
Grandma wouldn‘t take her eyes off me, “Yes! You are.”
“No! Grandma. I am going to show him. It will either be here or the other place. You get to choose.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t I? Ask yourself that question. One way or another I am going to show him.” I could feel my anger starting to build along with grandma’s. We locked eyes and I could feel both of us rising to the killing edge.
Skyler must have felt it too because he suddenly slammed his fist down on the table. “Both of you stop! Why are you fighting like this? By the Gods the both of you are blood! You would dare to shame your ancestors by spilling the blood of your own?”
“And what would you know of shame, boy? What would you know of anything?” Grandma took a step toward him and I lost what was left of my control and changed. My wings snapped out then folded half way back to my body. My scales slid out as my teeth elongated. I stepped in front of Skyler and let my claws lengthen. My eyes went to slits and narrowed all in the space of a single heartbeat. I felt a growl rumble deep in my throat and grandma took a step back.
Skyler stepped around and stood next to me. “Yari, She did not mean the threat. Fold your wings back and breathe. She is blood.”
My eyes refused to look anywhere else but at grandma’s. I went to take another step forward and Skyler stepped in front of me.
In the blink of an eye I felt his power unfold and watched the change ripple across his flesh. His wings extended enough to block out my view of Grandma then slowly wrapped around me. “Peace, Yari. No harm was done. Breathe, it will pass.”
My anger drained out of me almost as soon as eye contact was broken with grandma. I changed back into my usual appearance and felt very weak. I collapsed against Skyler as his wings folded around me.
“What did I almost do?”
“It’s over now. It was a misunderstanding. Are you ok now? Can you control yourself?” “Yes. Thank you.”
His wings folded and vanished and I saw grandma sitting at the table. “I’m sorry grandma. I should have asked you first.”
“No Yari, I’m the one who should apologize. I knew better then to look you in the eye so soon after your change. Can you forgive an old woman for her mistakes?”
“There is nothing to forgive grandma. I knew better then to try show him in your house. You were just protecting your lair. Can you forgive a foolish young girl?”
“There is nothing to forgive. You, however, have some explaining to do. Who are you?”
I sat down and looked at him.
He closed his eyes for a moment the looked at both of us with silted eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to let you know what I am. I blew my cover, but it was all I could think of that wouldn’t end in bloodshed. I am Sk` Yler De` Cain, one of Le` Than’s people. One of your people. I was sent by Le` Than himself to watch over you both, but more specifically you, Yari. He told me that I was not to ever make contact with you beyond a passing acquaintance, never reveal to you what I am, and never reveal to you the reason I was sent. That being said, I am going to go three for three. Yari, Le` Than wants to talk to you before he dies. He wants to name you his heir.”
Chapter 3
It was a good thing I was already sitting down, otherwise I would have fallen. Grandma’s mouth was flapping like a fish and I know I had a deer-in-the-headlights look. Grandma finally found words. “He wants what? After centuries of not even knowing if any of his people were even still alive and now all of the sudden he wants Yari to be his heir? What’s wrong with his own people that he can’t pick one of them? Why now, after all this time?”
Skyler sighed, “There are some not so good reasons as to why he has waited until now. I’m sure he will tell Yari what they are when he talks to her. As far as why he chose her as opposed to one of his own people, as you so eloquently put it, you and Yari are his only living blood descendants. I am supposed to quietly guide you to some sources where you can learn more about your other side, but since I have already broken every rule I was given, I am willing to teach you myself.”
“What makes you think there is anything you can teach either Yarianna or I that we cannot learn on our own?”
“If you had already learned it on your own this house wouldn’t be standing right now with the amount of energy you both were putting off.”
“What if she doesn’t want to be his heir? He sure hasn’t done anything to deserve her. He has never shown any trace of caring about our family before. In fact he even abandoned us. Why should we…”
I couldn‘t take it anymore so I looked at Grandma and said, “Grandma, shut up.” Grandma’s mouth did the fish thing again and I looked at Skyler. “Grandma does raise a good point, but if you are willing to teach me what I need to know I will learn. It will take me a bit to process what has happened today and when I do I am sure I am going to be pissed at you. In the mean time, Grandma, can I take him to the cavern now? It’s not like we have anything else to hide.”
Grandma looked from him to me and back. I looked at her, waiting for her to answer. She finally sighed, “I guess, but it is too late tonight to drive out there and you are going to have to get up early tomorrow for Driver’s Ed. I will take you out there after school tomorrow. You still need to work on your wing strength and maybe he will know a better way then what I was taught. As for the other part, Sk` Yler De` Cain, are you willing to teach Yarianna about fighting? If she has to go see Le` Than then I would rather she know how to defend herself.”
Skyler nodded, “I will be happy to. I didn’t bring any of my training weapons with me though so I will have to find some.”
She nodded toward the basement door, “There are several down in the basement. Whatever is lacking down there can be found in the cavern. I have no taste for the violence so I will not be joining you for that part.”
Skyler gave her a slight bow, “Thank you. I do apologize for the trouble I caused you both tonight. I really didn’t expect this to happen so soon. I can make my own way home so you don’t have to worry about giving me a ride. See you tomorrow.”
I smiled and said, “See you tomorrow Sky.”
I didn’t sleep very good and really didn’t want to go to Drivers Ed the next morning, but Grandma wouldn’t let me out of it. I know I should have been excited about getting my license and being able to drive myself around, but after the bomb Skyler dropped on me last night it just seemed so petty. What was the point of learning how to drive a car when the single biggest enemy the Empire has ever faced was not only alive, but wanted you to be his heir?
I met Skyler after school and Grandma drove us out to the cavern. Skyler actually approved of Grandmas strength training so he used it as an opportunity to teach me about the true history or our people. It turned out that the Empire actually didn’t know anything about it’s greatest enemy.
When our kind, were born we were always given two names. One for ourselves and the other for our feral side. Traditionally we were only referred to by our Clan name until we completed our Coming of Age Ritual where the men had their two names shortened into one by taking the first two letters of the first name and the last four of the middle name. This was done to signify the joining of the Self with the Feral Self. Women, however didn’t shorten their name. They just chose which one the would like to be called and went with it. I asked him why and the only answer he gave was because women were already feral and they didn’t need a name to prove it.
He told us that originally there were thirteen clans of our race, named for the thirteen elders who settled this planet, but there were only seven that they knew where they were because of a civil war that erupted between the Clans. At first Sa` Tain refused to fight, but when he saw that the war would eventually destroy all of his people he put the full force of his clan in the middle of the two armies. Since his clan was the biggest clan descended from the Kier Sona, the warrior race of the Kier, a truce was reached between the two armies. The two groups were so opposed to each other that the only way for them to keep the peace was for one to leave. The other army agreed that Sa` Tain and his Clan would be the ruling Clan of the remaining six.
He also said that there were three other races of the Kier. The Kier Lan, the Dancers, the Kier Tan, the Walkers, and the Kier San, the Adepts. The Dancers were known for their grace and beauty, but were unable to retract their wings. The Walkers were known for ability to become part of their element and were able to retract their wings. The Adepts were known for their ability to fit in with any environment, but were born without any wings.
Evening was spent in the basement learning how to fight. He explained that to properly learn how to fight you have to start as close to your opponent as you could then work your way back. In an actual battle you can always draw you enemy in closer, but if you don’t know how to grapple you are dead if he closes the distance. The last thing we did every night before we left the basement was meditate. It didn’t make sense to me and more then once I caught myself nodding off, but Skyler insisted that I spend at least an hour every night in actual meditation.
Each night I would find myself in the same clearing and struggle to stay there. I kept losing focus because I was worried about if it had been an hour yet, if I had gotten all of my homework done, if I remembered the right form we had been working on, and why it was so important to him that I do this in the first place. I didn’t see the point in it, but I didn’t want to tell him that I thought it was a complete waste of time.
A couple of weeks into it I was pacing around the clearing and was just about to stop the meditation and tell Skyler that it was a waste of time when my other side stepped into the clearing. She still moved with the grace of a predator and I was momentarily jealous that at least she knew what she was. I didn’t even know that much.
She stopped a few feet in front of me and said, “You are letting your mind think about this too much Yarianna. You are who you are, just let yourself be that.”
I sighed, “How? I’m trying to play catch-up to a race that was born know exactly what they are while still trying to fit into the human world that I thought I belonged to my entire life. How do I become both Kier and myself?”
She shook her head, “You are asking the wrong question. What you should be asking yourself is how to let yourself be what you were born to be. Are you Kier or human? The answer is yes. You have taken me into yourself, but you still haven’t accepted me. You already know that you are a Kier born to the world of the humans. Let yourself be that and you will find what Sk` Yler sends you here to find.”
I gave her a questioning look and asked, “What am I supposed to find here?”
She smiled and pointed at the center of the clearing. “You will see it when you accept yourself for who you are. You worry far too much about what will happen when you meet Le` Than. Stop. What happens then is a worry for then, not now. Now all you have to worry about is meditating.”
She started to walk away but I had another question, “Nicole, wait. What would have happened if you had been more dominate?”
She looked back and smiled, “We wouldn’t be having this conversation. I know what I am and I do not fear it just as I know what you are. There may come a time when I will be the dominate one and then you will see what we would have been. For now I am content to see what we will become in your world. I will do you one more favor. Please use it wisely.”
As she passed by the middle of the clearing a fountain appeared. I know it wasn’t an actual fountain, but that is the best translation my mind could come up with for the pool of energy that suddenly appeared. Before I could get closer to it I felt a hand on my shoulder and my focus was broken. I came back to myself with Skyler standing in front of me asking if I was alright.
I waved him off and asked, “Why did you interrupt? You said I was supposed to go for at least an hour.”
He laughed and said, “Its been two. I take it you finally started getting somewhere?’
I sighed, “Yes. Nicole showed me this fountain, or pool, or whatever it was of energy. I was just about to go to it when you pulled me out.”
Skyler raised an eyebrow, “First, you call her Nicole? Second, why is something that is supposed to be a part of you showing you things about yourself that should be as natural as breathing?”
I looked up at him and said, “I call her by her name. It’s like you said, one name for me and another for the other side. Also, for you it may be as natural as breathing, but I am new to this world. Up until two weeks ago I didn’t even know my other side existed so please forgive me for being a bit slower then you would like in learning about all of this. Imaging what your life would be like if tomorrow you woke up in a mental hospital only to discover the life you thought you had lived since birth was all just a pretty dream and you never had wings. All you had was a vivid imagination and a bad temper. How would you react?”
For a moment Skyler was speechless. After a couple of false starts he finally said, “I can’t even imagine life like that. I think it would drive me insane, but if I already was insane it would just drive me deeper.”
I nodded, “Now you know how I feel right now. Every day I have to ask myself if I’m going to wake up in a hospital somewhere with a nurse reminding me that I need to take my meds.”
Skyler knelt next to me and wrapped his arms around me. I didn’t even realize I had started crying and for some reason I couldn’t make myself stop. Everything that I had been pushing to the back of my mind since my birthday came pouring out in a flood and all I could do was hold onto my best friend until it stopped. I was exhausted all the way to my soul by the time he helped me up to my bedroom. Somehow I managed to change into pajamas and crawl into bed. It wasn’t until after I was drifting into sleep that I even wondered if Skyler was still in the room when I changed but I was too far gone to keep the thought past that.
Am I human or Kier? The answer is yes. I opened my eyes to a new day and folded my wing back so I could see what the world had in store for me. As I made my way through my morning routine I paid attention to how much had changed since my birthday. The wings were the biggest visible change. Even those came and went as I showered and got dressed for the day.
I took a critical analysis of everything I did. Had I always preferred the open back shirts or did I start wearing them in a subconscious way of preparing for my other side? Did I always sit at the table with the chair backwards so that it wouldn’t get in the way or was that recent? Did I actually like to keep in shape or did I know that I would need all the help I could get? That one I actually had to think about. It was exhausting building wing strength. I would hate to think of how I would feel if I hadn’t already been in shape. Which begs the question, are there any overweight Kier?
School was no different. I met Skyler under our tree and had to ask, what was it about him that I had been drawn to the first day we met? Was it me that wanted to go talk to him or was it Nicole recognizing one of our own and pushing me to seek him out? Did I always find our High Imperialism teacher so boring and brainwashed or was that recent? Looking around the class at the other students nodding off made that question easy to answer. The biggest question I had I still couldn’t answer. Can I still trust Skyler as my friend or is he just my teacher now?
I tabled my questions for another time as we made our way into the cavern. The slight tension that I carried with me through the day melted away as soon as I was underground. I think the only reason I noticed it at all was because I had spent the day taking a second look at everything. Ever since I had come down here to learn about my other side I carried the slightest bit of tension out in the rest of the world because I was afraid I would lose control and hurt someone.
I stopped so suddenly that Skyler had to sidestep to avoid running into me. I looked at him and asked, “Why am I so worried about losing control when I am out there but not when I am here?”
Skyler looked really confused and asked, “Where is this coming from?”
I shrugged and asked, “Are you afraid of losing your temper and hurting someone?”
He shook his head, “No. I had to learn how to deal with my temper a while ago and there really isn’t anyone here that can get me mad enough to make me loose it. You might feel more comfortable here then you do out there so you can actually relax and that could be why you don’t worry about it here, but that’s just my guess. Did that answer your question good enough to get to work or do you need to ponder it a bit more?”
It probably wouldn’t have happened if we were anywhere else, but his tone reeked of condescension and really pissed me off. How dare he take that tone with me while we were in my place! My mind quickly flashed to the fountain Nicole had shown me and I reached for it without a second thought. Pleasure and pain, sorrow and joy, good, bad, happiness, sadness, death, and life flooded me with euphoric power. I pulled the energy to my as if I were putting on a warm coat and met Skyler’s eyes.
Every word was laced with a knife edge of power, “You will never take that tone with me again, do you understand me?”
Every thing inside of him wanted to fight and I was ready for it. He may have been a better swordsman, but I was on my own ground. I took a step forward and slammed my hand into his chest, raising him into the air and holding him by force of will. His anger turned to surprise then with a slight tint of fear settled into resignation. I knew that he was fully prepared to give his life just because I had decided to take it and that scared me.
All of the energy that was flooding through me just a moment ago vanished and I dropped him then whispered, “Sky, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean.”
He cut me off, “Never apologize for doing what you feel must be done. You are descended from the closest thing our kind has to a king, and since he wants to name you his heir that makes you the closest thing we have to a princess. The standards you hold yourself to should be much higher then the standards the rest of us hold ourselves to. If you see fit to reprimand or punish someone then stick to it but make damn sure you have a reason to do so.
“I was in the wrong for taking a mocking tone when I knew you were already on edge from last night. For that I apologize, but you are severely behind where you should be for one of our people. It is my job to make sure you are ready when Le` Than calls you to his side. I think you can be there by the end of summer and I will do everything in my power to see it done. I know you haven’t decided or even had a chance to decide if you even want this, but I have too much respect for Le` Than and too much care for you to let you be anything but your best when you stand before our people. What do you say Yarianna Nicole Sorenson De Sa` Tain? Will you do all that’s in your power to shut the mouths of a proud race when they say that no outsider will rule over them?”
His intensity scared me a little bit. In all of the time I had known him he had never shown this much passion for anything and it made me look at him in a new light. Before he had been the easy-going-I’m-a-good-friend that was never really rattled but this Skyler was, quite frankly, hot. Everything about himself that he had suppressed to blend in with my world roared to the surface and I kind of felt my knees go weak.
I nearly forgot the question, but after reminding myself that he was just Skyler I was able to respond, “Sk` Yler De` Cain, Sky, will you help me bring pride to the Sa` Tain name?”
I thought he was pushing me before, but after that things really got intense. He started waking me up an hour before I had to be at Driver’s Ed to work on fighting forms then after school we would go to the cavern until it got dark. He changed up my flight training as well. Rather then just doing wing sprints he would hade me start toward the front of the cavern and launch straight up as smoothly as I could until I reached the roof. After that I glided to the lower end and did wing sprints back to the front. When we got back to my house it was more fighting then an hour of meditation. He wouldn’t even let me skip out on homework. He told me that it was just as important that I maintain my grades as it was for me to learn about my other side.
The meditation became the part that I looked forward to the most. Ever since I had used the energy to lift Skyler off the ground it seemed like it was always there, just waiting for me to learn how to use it. Every night I would find myself in the clearing reaching for the energy that came from the fountain. The more I reached for it the quicker it responded to my call until it would begin to fill me as I sank into meditation. Peace would always come with it. It eased sore muscles and cleared the fog that had settled over my mind through the day. I found that I actually felt more rested with less sleep when I would let the energy flow through me. I even started going into a waking meditation during the school day so that I could keep from falling asleep in my classes.
The waking meditation helped with everything. I was able to remember the forms Skyler taught me easier rather then thinking of them as a jumbled mess of moves that didn’t make sense. Each form seemed like a specific fight that happened a long time ago and was used to teach how the moves flowed together. The weapons felt different in my hands. Before they were just tools to be used, but with my new perspective they became more alive. Using the energy I could feel each blemish and flaw in the metal as if it were part of my skin.
One day flowed into the next with the only break in the routine being the weekends. The first day of the weekend was spent in the cavern for the first half of the day and in the basement sparing the second half. It was his way of testing to see if I had been paying attention to the forms that he had taught that week. The second day was spent on language study. He said that knowing the language was just as important as knowing how to fight.
As the end of school came closer I started counting down the days. I knew that as soon as summer started we could just stay in the cavern to train and wouldn’t have to worry about driving back and forth. My friends at school assumed that Skyler and I had started dating from all the time we spent together and we didn’t see any reason to correct them because it kept them from wondering what else we could be doing with the time. I kind of felt bad for pretty much ignoring them but at the same time I didn’t really have a lot of spare time to hang out with them. Even getting my license didn’t excite me like it should have. All it meant to me was that Grandma no longer had to drive us around. On the last day of school I packed a bag of necessities and drove out to the cavern to meet Skyler.
The Queen sat in her throne carefully reading the document that would turn her proud kingdom into a province of the newly forming empire. Her heart-felt agony was plain as she read the document that she knew would consign her kingdom to the Emperor and would put her name in the history as the monarch that would betray her people.
The Emperor’s General sat in the chair across the table watching her read the document again. “I promise not a word of the contract has changed since the last time you read it two hours ago. Sign it so I can deliver it to the Emperor and get back to my people.”
The Queen looked up from her reading. “I want to be perfectly clear so that you will know exactly what you will be getting when I sign this paper. I may be the monarch, but it is only at the sufferance of the people I rule. There is a very good chance that before the ink dries on this page I will be dead and my head on the way to a pike as a symbol of what will happen to the next monarch who betrays her people. If I am lucky they won't put preservation spells on it. If I am very lucky they will let my name be forgotten. I think I am entitled to a few extra moments of existence.”
“I have already told you that once you sign you will have the Emperor’s protection. No weapon in the kingdom will be able to touch you. Of course, if you don’t sign I will take you head and put it on the same pike you fear as an example to your people. It really is up to you.”
The Queen sat the paper down and reached for her quill. She picked it up and was interrupted by the twelve-foot tall, two-foot thick, six-foot wide door being reduced to splinters by a blast of energy. A single leather-winged man walked into the throne room. Blood was splattered on his face and ran freely from his left shoulder down his bare chest. His bloodstained pants were shredded on the right side and more blood ran down his leg.
As he walked forward he drew twin short scimitars. He twisted them so that they pointed behind him. With a flick of both wrists, dagger length blades slid out of the hilt of both blades and locked into place. As he got closer visible power radiated around him and death danced in his eyes. The Emperor’s General stood as the Queen began to sign her name.
The winged man pleaded, “Your Majesty, don’t do this. It is not too late.”
The General smiled and looked at the Queen. “You know the cost of refusal. Decide who you are going to listen to. It does not matter to me. If I die the Emperor will just send another. That contract is bonded to a similar one sitting in front of the Emperor. All it requires is your signature on this one to seal the contract. Choose now.”
The Queen looked at the winged man. “I am truly sorry Le` Than. This is for the best.”
The Queen finished her signature and the document flashed with power. The General rolled the document up and walked by the winged man. “You lose Le` Than. Your Queen has betrayed your people.” The General laughed and started walking toward the doorway.
There was a dangerous edge to Le` Than’s voice when he said, “She is no longer my Queen, General Khoman. My people are no longer bound to hers.”
Le` Than struck faster than the General could react. With barely any movement he spun his blades and was past the General. His blades were in their sheathes before the General’s head stopped rolling. He slowly walked up the Queen. His voice still had that edge when he said, “Return it or I will take it back.”
“Please Le` Than, listen to the reason. I am begging you.”
“You could have called on our people in stead of betraying them. Return it. This is your last chance.”
“Please listen.”
“No, Valora. You had your chance. You betrayed us to them. I will not have my people bound to you any longer.”
Le` Than placed a claw on the front of the Queen’s dress and slowly sliced down. He slipped his finger inside of the dress and lifted a black pendant out and over her head.
She sank to her knees in front of him and whispered, “Please…” Le` Than turned away from her and left the room. The Queen sat on her knees with tears rolling down her cheeks. “Le` Than I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered as her hands settled on her stomach. “He was going to kill our child. I had to protect our child Le` Than. Please forgive me.”
The Queen sat on the floor for a while. She wasn’t sure how long it was, but she looked up when the court wizard walked into the throne room.
“Why are you still here your Majesty? You know they are going to kill you if they find you.”
“Does it matter any more?”
Her vision went white and it took a few moments for her to realize the wizard had slapped her.
“What…”
“Do I think I am doing? I getting you off your rear and out of here before you get yourself killed. I can stage your death to satisfy the mob, but you can’t be here or it won’t work.”
The Queen stood up and wiped her eyes. She was almost at the doorway when she stopped. She turned back toward the wizard, “My memory stones…”
“I will get them to you. There is a bag and a dress in the next room. Change and go. Now.”
The Queen changed into a plain dress, grabbed the bag, and was on the road when the mob was going into the castle. One of them stopped and walked up to her.
“Miss? It isn’t safe here anymore. You need to leave.”
The Queen looked up with tears still threatening to fall.
“Oh sir, it’s awful. The Queen, she’s dead. Killed with that general right there in the throne room.”
“It’s ok miss. You get out of here now. Ok?”
“Ok. Thank you, sir.”
The Queen walked the rest of that day and well into the night before she finally stopped and looked in the bag. She found another dress, a large bag of gold, silver, and copper pieces, and another smaller bag. She opened the smaller bag and found her crown, seal, and scepter. She took a few pieces of silver out and put the rest back in the larger bag.
She made sure no one was looking then focused her energy and opened a hole in the ground about six feet deep. She crystallized the bottom and lowered the small bag into the hole. She recovered it and traced a symbol over the hole.
When she was done she placed her hand over her stomach and said quietly, “We’re going to be ok now. I promise.”
Chapter 1
I sat on my bed looking at the small box my grandma had given me last night for my sixteenth birthday. According to her this box had stones in it that used magic to record someone’s life. She said that everything I would see in the stones would be true. Of course I didn’t believe her. How could a box of rocks hold memories of dead people?
I opened the box and saw a bunch of what looked like quartz crystals sitting in slots. About half of them had a name in front of them. There was metal tube strapped to the inside of the lid. I pulled it off and felt a tingle go through my hands. I dropped the tube and rubbed my hands. The tingle stopped and I heard a small hiss from the tube.
I looked at it and one end was opened. I hesitantly picked it back up and saw that a piece of thin leather was in it. I pulled it out and found writing covering the entire roll. I know that I have never even seen the language it was written in, but for some reason I was able to read it.
It was instructions on how see what was in the memory stones and how to make one of my own. I still had some time before I had to start getting ready for school, so I picked up the next blank one and followed the instructions on the piece of leather. Holding the crystal, I read the words out loud three times then waited. I thought I had done something wrong so I looked back down at the piece of leather and accidentally cut my finger on the edge on the crystal.
I looked down at the crystal and saw my blood running down it, but not dripping off of it. The stone was soaking it in. I felt a slight tug as the crystal pulled the blood out faster. When it was completely red I saw my name appear on the label that was in front of the crystal I was holding. The crystal went clear again then turned cloudy.
I didn’t really know what to think but according to what I read everything went exactly as it was supposed to. As I was reading the words on the page started to move. I set the piece of leather down and watched the words shift to give the instructions on how to view the memory stones. I picked one that was labeled Valora and started watching.
I put the memory stone down and picked up a different one. After several stones I decided that if the Emperor ever found out this box existed it would be very bad for my family. According to the official history Le` Than’s people had been hunted to extinction for the assassination of the General and the Queen. The brave Queen knew she was going to die so she quickly signed the contract to surrender her kingdom to the Empire before she could be killed. In the history that signature freed her people from the slavery Le` Than’s people had forced them into.
This box of memory stones tells a completely different story of the birth of the Empire. Le` Than’s people were not killed, they just went into hiding. Queen Valora was not assassinated in the throne room that day. She disappeared after giving birth in a barn two provinces away from her home.
Her daughter, my great-great-great-grandmother, was given this wooden box by a man claiming to be a wizard. The wizard told her to pass the stones down to her daughter and to her daughter after until Le` Than’s people returned. The wizard wrote the instructions for making and viewing the memory stones then told her she was to only reveal the information to her own daughter and giver her the same instructions.
I decided to try an experiment to see if Le` Than’s blood still flows strong in my family. I took off my jacket and looked in the mirror at the open-back shirt my mother had always insisted I wear before she died. With a little effort and a bit of focus I watched as leathery wings emerged from my back. The shock of the wings caused me to lose focus and they disappeared again.
I put the box in my stash spot behind a loose panel in the wall and whispered to myself, “Gods, what am I going to do now? I’m a freak.”
Grandma started shouting at me to get moving so I grabbed my bag and headed down stairs. I stopped to check my reflection in the mirror before I went down stairs. 5’4” tall and skinny. Not anorexic skinny, there is no way I could starve myself like that, it’s just weird. I’m not involved in sports at school, but I like to keep in shape. The track coach keeps trying to get me to try out for the team, but I always tell him I wouldn’t want to embarrass the rest of his team.
The real reason is that I’m just not all that interested in the sports they have to offer. I don’t know what sport I would like, I’ll figure it out when I see it. My black hair comes to the middle of my back when I let it hang loose. Most of the time, like today, I keep it in a braid. My emerald-green eyes tilt slightly up at the corners. Up until this morning I had wondered where I had gotten the tilt to my eyes, but now I know they came from Le` Than’s people. I guess I should start calling them my people since I do have their blood running through my veins.
“Yarianna Nicole if you don’t get down here this instant I am going to drag you by your hair all the way to school! Now get moving!”
“I’ll be down in a moment Grandma!” I smiled, revealing slightly pointed teeth, and kissed my fingers then touched them to a picture of my mom I keep over my mirror. “Bye, mom. I’ll see you after school.”
I ran down stairs and smiled at grandma as she was tapping her foot. “Sorry grandma. I was looking at the birthday present you gave me. I guess I lost track of time.”
The foot stopped tapping and her jaw opened slightly. She quickly closed her mouth and pretended like nothing had happened. “Were you able to see anything?”
“Yeah.”
“My dear child, I am sorry. I had hoped, but I wasn’t sure. How do you feel?”
I gave her a puzzled look. “I feel fine. Why? Should I feel different?”
“No back pain? Eyes don’t hurt? No body aches?”
“No. What’s going on grandma? Your starting to scare me.”
“Maybe the blood is weak enough for the curse to skip you. Did you try to call the wings yet?”
“Yeah. They were beautiful, even if they do make me a freak now. Grandma, what is going on?”
“They didn’t hurt?”
“No. Can we go to school now? Your starting to freak me out.”
“Child, you are not going to go to school today. You and I are going to take a drive and I am going to tell you about who you are. How far did you get with the memory stones?”
“I was watching Valora cry in her throne room just after Le` Than left. Other then that, just bits and pieces. I did see what really happened to Le` Than’s people.”
“Did you see any of the other’s call their wings?”
“Yeah. That’s what made me think to try it myself. I was watching a bit of her daughter’s life.”
“Did you get to see what happened afterward?”
“No, you kind of sounded like you were going to start coming upstairs any moment.”
“Then you didn’t get to see the curse. Yari, from now on you are going to have to be very careful with your temper until you learn how to master it. Go change into some cloths to hike in. There are some things I need to teach you. Gods, I wish your mother was here. She should be the one to teach you. I am getting too old for this. Go on now, I am going to call your school.”
I gave her another look and went upstairs to change. I grabbed the box of memory stones on my way down. I have no idea why I did, it just seemed like the thing to do. It turned out that if I wouldn’t have grabbed it then grandma would have sent me back upstairs to get it, so it was a good thing I thought ahead.
I got in the car and looked at grandma. “So, what did you tell Mr. Stensen? He usually won't excuse anybody unless they have the plague.”
“I told him that it was a family emergency and that if he didn’t like it I could go down there and explain it to him in person.”
I laughed. The last time grandma went to the school to ‘explain’ things to Mr. Stensen she had threatened to gut him with her fingernails if he ever questioned her again. “So I take it he wants you to visit?”
“Ha! That twit started stuttering so bad I could barely understand him when he said it was ok and I didn’t need to go there. I want you to remember how to get to the place we are going. It is one of the only place you can go to learn how to use that other side. I was really hoping the curse would pass you by Yari.”
“Why do you keep calling it a curse? It doesn’t feel wrong or bad or anything. If anything it feels more natural then anything else I have ever felt.”
“It has caused our family nothing but heartache. Every generation has had to go through no end of trouble to hide what we are and the contents of that box you carry. I do not believe Le` Than’s people are ever going to come out of hiding. Sometimes I wonder if the Empire actually managed to kill them all. I have never seen any other outside of our family, not even in passing. It is also the reason your mother died. That is why I call it a curse.”
“How did she die? I know you must have told me when I was younger, but I don’t remember the reason.”
“Actually, I never did give you a reason. Your mother was stubborn. I told her that she should never tell anyone about that other side. You were asleep when your mother and father went for a drive. She had decided to tell him about what we are. They were up on the bluffs when she told him. He demanded proof and she showed him her wings. He reached up like he was going to touch them and broke them broke them instead. He didn’t count on her grip and they both fell over the edge. It was ruled an accident. Two people who got too close to the edge in the dark. If she would have just listened to me she would still be here.” Grandma wiped the tears out of her eyes and turned off on a dirt road that led past the bluffs. “I hate this place, but it is, unfortunately, the only place no one will be able to see you.”
We drove for a few minutes in silence and took another road that looked like it wasn’t driven on very much. I saw several ‘private property’ and ‘keep out’ signs along the road. We drove up to a gate that grandma gave me a key to open it. I locked it behind us and we drove for another ten minutes.
When we got there I could see why no one would be able to see us. She parked on the side of a ravine and we climbed down some hand holds carved into the rock. We walked up the ravine for a while. I was just about to ask her how much further it was when we turned a sharp corner and I saw it. In front of me was the mouth of a cave completely hidden unless you happened to be traveling the direction we had been. Somehow I knew that it opened up into a cavern large enough that several people could fly without running into each other.
“When you learn how to use your wings better it won't take as long to get here, but until then we have to take the long way. Go on in. I need to catch my breath.”
I knew she wasn’t telling me the truth, but I went in anyway. The floor gradually sloped down to form the cavern. The ground was covered in sand and at the back there was a smaller cave that had a bed, food, and water. I wasn’t very good at judging how long food should last, but it looked like someone could live down here for at least six months before they had to worry about food or water.
There was a pool that had water continuously running into it from the wall of the cave. Grandma walked in behind me. “Amazing isn’t it?” She took a cup, dipped it into the pool and took a drink. “I forgot how good the water from this spring tasted. Help yourself, after we eat I am going to teach you the basics of what you are.”
“What is this place Grandma?”
“This is what is left of an underground city. Your great-great-grandma found the entrance when she was a young girl. She used to come here to get away from everybody. An earthquake closed off the rest of the city some time back and she bought the land. I try to keep it stocked just in case something happens. Before you ask what I think might happen, don’t. I don’t plan on anything actually happening, but I have lived through some hard times and want to be prepared.”
“There is a fine line between prepared and paranoid, Grandma. I think you might be dancing on it.”
She raised her eyebrow at me with a smile on her face. “Live a few more years Yari, you will see. The first thing I want you to get used to is the added weight of the wings. Just standing with them is one thing. Walking with them is something else altogether. While you are in this cavern I want you to have your wings out all the time. Expect the first few weeks to be hard to get used to. You will most likely find it difficult to judge exactly where your wings are at, but as you move around it does get easier.”
“Ok…how long are we going to be down here? It is getting close to lunch time.”
“You are going to be here at least through the end of the week. I wish there was another way, but I want you to spend the time getting used to your wings and studying those memory stones. When the curse first awakens it is hard to control. There are times that your wings will emerge on their own if you do not have proper control over them. They are just like every other muscle on you body. You have to properly develop them for them to be any use to you. One thing I am going to ask you is that you do not try to fly on your own until I say it is ok. I know that you will want to, but it can be dangerous for you if there is no one there to catch you if you fall.”
“You mean you aren’t going to be down here with me?”
“No, I am going to go back to the house. You will be fine here. I can almost guarantee you will be better then you think you will be. Le` Than’s people are tied to the elements. That is one of the reasons they are hated so much by the Empire. You will be ok here. As for school, you won't get too far behind. I will make sure to bring your homework to you when I come back.”
“But grandma…”
“No buts. Keep your own schedule, study when you want to. Get used to your wings. The next few days you will experience mood swings that, frankly, I don’t want to be here see. There are some clothes here for you to change into. I am going to leave now and see you tomorrow. Ok?”
“Ok grandma. I love you.”
“I love you too Yari. Stay safe.”
“I will. You too.”
Chapter 2
I watched grandma walk across the cavern and leave. Grandma had told me to get used to the weight of my wings so I took my jacket off and focused on them. They emerged and folded on my back. Sitting down took a bit to figure out and when I stopped focusing on the wings they vanished.
I didn’t realize that I was angry until I heard a soup can hit the far wall. My arm was a bit sore from throwing it and, to my surprise my fingernails had changed shape and very closely resembled three inch claws. I knew without looking that my pointed teeth were longer and sharper.
Suddenly I understood what grandma meant by mood swings and why she called it a curse. I thought about what would have happened if I had been at school and lost control of my temper like that. I shuddered at the image of my claws buried in one of my friend’s neck. Some lady at a fair once said that meditation was the key to happiness so I sat down to give it a try.
After several hours of sitting quietly trying to clear my mind, it was probably closer to seconds but time drug on, I gave up. Who could possibly clear their mind with all the sound echoing around the empty cavern? I got up to walk off my frustration and look around at the place I was going to be staying in for the foreseeable future.
On one wall of the cavern were several sets of weapons that caught my eye. I walked over to them and saw that they were all arranged by type of weapon and weight. I chuckled when I thought about how the modern world had rendered most of these weapons useless unless you were staring in a martial arts movie. Neglect was starting to show so I looked around and found several tables that looked like they were used for that purpose.
I had never spent much time around any kind of weapon because Grandma didn’t allow them in the house, but I had always been a quick study. It also helped that I was fascinated with martial arts movies and picked up a couple of things on how to care for a blade. I focused on my wings to bring them out and started with the quarter weight daggers. For some reason I didn’t get as frustrated when I lost focus while cleaning and sharpening the blades. The rasp of the sharpening stone actually felt quite soothing and helped me maintain focus.
When it got too dark to see what I was doing I lit a fire and warmed up a can of soup. While I was eating I pulled out the memory stones again. Since Grandma had mentioned the curse I decided to watch the life of Valora’s daughter. I saw how hard it was for her to learn on her own. Somehow I even felt the pain of breaking a wing because it wasn’t strong enough to support her weight. When I got tired I put the stones away and went to the closet.
There were several open-backed shirts and sweats so I let my wings go just long enough to change and get ready for bed. As soon as I was ready I called them again and laid down to sleep. I thought I was going to have a hard time falling asleep, but with the sound of the water running into the spring I was asleep soon after my head hit the pillow.
I woke up with a strange feeling on my back. It took me a few moments to realize the feeling was my wings. As soon as I realized it they vanished. I suppressed the flash of rage and got up. As soon as I was dressed I called my wings in again and ate breakfast then went back to the weapons on the wall.
I was done with the daggers and half way through the short swords when I realized that I was being watched. I turned toward the entrance of the cavern and saw my grandma sitting on one of the other benches.
She smiled at me. “Hard at work I see. Your mother used to work with that same focus. I have already made lunch. Come and sit with me for a bit.”
I smiled back and followed her into the kitchen. She must have been there for a while before I noticed her because lunch turned out to be more then just a can of soup. I sat down to a full meal with grandma. It took me most of the meal to realize my wings were still out and, thankfully, this time they didn’t vanish as soon as I realized it.
Grandma grinned at me. “Fast learner. How many cans of soup did you go through before you could keep focused?”
“Just one. It would have been more if it weren’t for the work that needs to be done on those weapons. They have a calming effect that surprised me.”
“It doesn’t surprise me. When you start training with them you will find that you will learn them as if you were just remembering how to use them.”
“What makes you think I will want to learn how to use them? What if I just try to forget about all of this as soon as you tell me I can control myself?”
Grandma gave me a sad smile. “I know you will because you are your mother’s daughter and you, unfortunately, did inherit the family curse. Those two reasons are why I know that you won’t want to stop yourself from learning. I know that once you taste the air with your wings spread it will take all I have to get back on the ground. I know this because your mother was the same way and you have always been so much like her. You should be ok on your own for a bit so I probably won’t be back until next week. As soon as we finish lunch I am going to leave. I left some of your clothes and your school work in the room.”
“I understand. I would hate myself if I lost control with you here and I hurt you. I think I will be ok by next week, but my temper is still too close to the edge. I can feel it just below the surface even now. Part of me is getting mad that you are here now. I don’t know why.”
“That is actually quite normal. The other side of you has claimed this place as hers and right now I am invading your territory. I could stop her, but then you would have to find another place to learn. When your wings are fully developed we will both be able to be in the same area without having to control our tempers, but until then I will let you get more control.”
“How will I know when they are fully developed?”
“You will know.”
For some reason being near Grandma was starting to piss me off so I said, “I think you should go now grandma.”
She heard the change in my voice and stood up. “I think you are right. I will see you next week.”
I watched her back out the door and walk to the opening of the cavern. My anger didn’t start to cool down until I was finished eating and back working on the short swords. The rest of the week was a blur of weapons, memory stones, and anger. Every time I thought about missing grandma I also thought about her being near me. When I thought about being near her I would get really mad. It didn’t make any sense to be me because I really liked her. After some careful thought I decided that it wasn’t me that was getting mad, it was the other side of me that the wings belonged to. I couldn’t really think of anything else to do so I forced my other side to deal with thoughts of my grandma.
After a couple of days I learned to separate my other side’s emotions from my own. As her rage would flare I would silence it with my own. I started to think I was going crazy because I would yell at myself a lot, but her rage slowly died down to a quiet rumble by the time grandma showed back up.
I knew she arrived when I felt my other side grumble. I quickly silenced her and turned around. Grandma smiled, “Since I am looking at you without fangs and claws I am going to assume you have managed to control your other side.”
I smiled back, “Yeah, it took a bit, but all she does now is grumble. I know I’m going to have to sit down with her and work out who is more dominate before I even try to fly, but I think we have made excellent progress. I was just about to stop for something to eat. Care to join me?”
“I would love to.”
Grandma and I walked back into the living area and I started getting cans out to make supper. “I think I will be ready to go back to school at the start of the next school week. I still need a bit of work quieting her when thinking about other people. Are you going to be staying the night or are you leaving after we eat?”
“I can stay for a little while, but I do need to go home tonight. I will be staying all next week though. We will be working on flying and we will need all the time we can get to make sure you will be able to at least work on your own.”
“Do you really think I am ready?”
“I do. You are learning at an incredible rate. I can see in your eyes that you are starting to yearn for the feel of the wind. You are more then ready to get a taste of the air. I was thinking we could start tonight, if you want to.”
“I would love it. Can we start after we eat?”
“Yes. I will tell you now it is best if you don’t eat a lot just before and just after you fly a long distance. It is better if you eat a light snack.”
“I will keep that in mind. Food is ready, lets eat.”
We ate quickly and walked back out to the cavern. Grandma’s wings unfolded like giant kites. Light tan leather stretched out to full span and I swear I could pick out veins of golden scales. The look completely transformed the way I perceived her. Before I had seen her as a slightly stern but loving grandmother who had raised me, but now I could see the predator behind her eyes. Looking in her eyes I could almost see Queen Valora but I wrote it off as her being a descendant.
Grandma had me stretch my wings to full span a few times to make sure they wouldn’t cramp before she let me try to get off the ground with them. Hours later she was still yelling at me to use them to cup the air for lift and not just fan the air in the cavern. Controlling my temper became problematic at best and by the time we stopped I couldn’t even maintain enough control to keep my wings out.
That night after grandma left I sat down with a sharpening stone and let the quiet rasp fill my ears. I didn’t realize I was meditating until I found myself in a clearing of an old forest. The trees reached up for hundreds of feet and were far enough apart that you could easily fly between them. I stood at one end of the clearing and invited my other side to join me.
I felt her as she walked up. She looked like a feral version of me. Her eyes were wild and her skin was covered in small scales. Her hands were slightly longer and ended in claws instead of fingernails. She moved with the grace of a wild animal, both beautiful and dangerous.
I walked to the center of the clearing and met her there. I knew her to be all of my instinct and raw emotion. We studied each other without speaking for a long time. Our eyes met and I felt the raw power that was always just below the surface. Her anger rose at the challenge, so I let mine go. She quickly rose to the killing edge so I let go of all restraint. I knew that if I wasn’t able to match her step for step she would destroy that part of me that made me who I was.
My body started changing on its own so I let it. I was more aware of my wings and small scales grew out of my skin. My hands lengthened and my fingernails grew into claws. I felt my eyes shift to vertical slits and my teeth lengthened to fangs. I stepped forward with the intention to attack and she broke eye contact.
My rage lessened on it’s own and I changed back until I looked like myself again. She didn’t look up until I was completely back to being me. Without meeting my eyes directly she stepped toward me until we touched and blended into one being. I felt all of who she was settle in me and fill the holes in me that I didn’t know existed. It was just like my wings. I didn’t know I was missing them until they were there and I finally felt whole in a way I never knew possible.
I opened my eyes and looked at the world with heightened scenes. I notices the small crystals in the stone and noticed how they caught the fire light and reflected it out in a rainbow. Suddenly the entire cavern was bathed in a wonderland of light and color. I was too tired to enjoy it fully, and was asleep before I made it to the bed.
I woke up feeling better then I had ever felt in my life and had breakfast ready by the time grandma showed up. We ate quickly then worked on flying. Yesterday I struggled to lift myself off the ground and I could see why the other side had gotten so frustrated. Up until last night I still hadn’t thought of the wings as a part of my body. They were there, but I didn’t really know what to do with them. They were part of the other me.
I flexed the small muscles throughout my wings and was surprised by how many there actually were. Each one of them attached in a different way to make small adjustments that would allow me to fly without going broken umbrella status and falling out of the sky. I cupped my wings like Grandma had been trying to explain and launched myself into the air in a cloud of sand.
In jerks and stalls I managed to lift myself nearly to the top of the cavern. Each time it got a little smoother as I worked out the timing needed to balance out when to thrust down and when to fold them to get over the air to thrust again.
I had just about worked it out when Grandma said, “Slow down Yari. You don’t want to hurt yourself.”
“I know, grandma. It’s just so hard to when I feel this good.”
“You had that little talk with yourself last night didn’t you?”
“I did. All the memory stones that I have looked through and none of them told me about this. Why is that?”
“Can you describe how it feels? Can you put in to words the pure joy of being whole? I couldn’t the first time I flew. It was all my mother could do to get my feet back on the ground. I know you want to push yourself, but lets build your wing strength first, ok?”
“Ok, grandma.”
We spent the rest of the morning doing what I like to call wing sprints. Grandma had me launch as high as I could with one beat then glide to the ground. Then I would immediately launch back up and continue the process until I reached one end of the cavern. Going back up hill was harder because I couldn’t glide as far and when we broke for lunch I was sore in places I didn’t know I could be sore in. After lunch was more wing sprints until supper then it was work on the weapons. The rest of the week was the same thing and by the end of it I was pretty exhausted.
The night we left grandma told me that I had to go back home, but that I could come back out here after school to continue working on wing strength. I helped pack up all of my stuff and restock the food that I had eaten while I was there. Grandma had to remind me at least three times that my wings were out on the way back to the car before I made a conscious effort to keep them in.
We drove most of the way home in silence and when we got there I saw another car sitting in the driveway. I looked at grandma, “Were you expecting company?”
“No.”
“Then who is here?”
“Just you and me.”
“Then who’s car is that?”
“Yours.”
“Mine?”
“Yep.”
“Your joking. Right?”
“No. Think of it as incentive.”
“For what?”
“For passing your Driver’s Ed class. I signed you up for the class. They are going to call sometime this week to let me know when the classes are.”
“You have got to be the coolest grandma in the world.”
“I know. Now get inside. You have school in the morning and I am not going to accept any excuse for you missing even more class. I don’t care if you sprout horns. You are going to be there.”
“Can that happen?”
Grandma looked at me with a strait face. “Yes it can. Don’t worry about it though. I bought a new grinder just in case.”
I stared at her in shock for a few minutes.
Grandma put the car in park and started laughing. “You should see the look on your face.”
It took me a bit to realize she was joking. “Grandma!”
She laughed harder.
“Not nice. I thought old people didn’t have a sense of humor.”
“I may be old, but I still love a good prank. Come on. Get a shower and I’ll get supper ready. You are going to bed early so you will wake up on time.”
I got out of the car and grabbed my stuff. Grandma was still chuckling when we walked through the door. I dropped my stuff in my room and got in the shower. After I washed all the dirt off I filled up the tub and fell asleep in the bath. Grandma woke me up so I could eat. I laid down on my bed and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t get comfortable. It wasn’t until I let my wings out that I finally got comfortable.
Grandma must have come in during the night because I had a blanket tossed over me when I woke up. I got up and looked at the clock. I still had another hour before I needed to wake up, but I got up anyway. Grandma was already up and in the kitchen. I sat down at the table and she sat a plate of pancakes, sausage, and eggs in front of me. “Why is it that no matter what time I wake up, you are already up and have breakfast ready?”
“Because I am a grandma.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s your excuse for everything.”
“That’s because it works. Eat then go into the basement. I went to the cavern last night and picked up a few things for you.”
I gave her a curious look and started eating.
She just smiled. “You’ll see.”
I finished eating and went down stairs to the basement. I stopped when I got to the bottom step and looked around. One set of each weapon that was in the cavern were on the walls of the basement and a work bench was set up in the back corner. I slowly walked around the room and brushed my hand on each weapon.
“So, you like?”
I turned and looked at grandma. “I love it. Thank you.”
“I left room in the middle so that when you get up to training with them you won’t have to rearrange anything. Driver’s Ed is going to be early mornings. They just called to let me know. Come on. It’s time to go to school.”
“But I got up an hour early. How can it already be time to go?”
“You’ve been down here for an hour. Now get dressed unless you are going to go to school in your pajamas.”
I ran upstairs and changed into my normal open-back shirt and jeans then ran back down stairs and pulled my shoes on. I grabbed my backpack and met grandma in her car. We drove to the high school and I looked at grandma. “It’s not too late to detour to the cavern.”
“Yes it is. Go on, it will be fine.”
“But what if I lose control because some stupid person decided to piss me off?”
“Then you will have to learn how to hide the body. Go.”
I got out of the car, grabbed my bag, and walked into the campus to face high school again. I was almost immediately assaulted by a pack of girls more commonly referred to as my friends.
Over the din of questions about where I had been and if I was ok I heard the voice of my best friend Skyler. “Back off devil spawn or I will cut you faces off and sew them into the lining of my duster.”
They cleared a path and Skyler walked forward. He is five feet seven inches tall with black hair pulled into a ponytail that hangs down to the bottom of his shoulder blades. Pale complexion, ice blue eyes, and a toned build make girls drool over him. The black t-shirt, black pants, black boots, and black duster made those same girls avoid him.
I smiled and took his offered arm, telling my friends I would catch up with them later. “Thanks for the rescue Sky.”
“Anytime Yari. You’ve changed. Want to talk about it?”
“Not right now. I will later, but right now I just need some quiet time. A lot has happened since the last time I was here. What are you doing after school?”
“Catching up with you. Your place or mine?”
“Mine. I have some things I need to show you.”
He nodded and we walked to our tree and sat down. I call it our tree, but we don’t really own it. It used to be his tree, not that he owned it, of course, until I refused to be ignored by him. The first day of school I saw him sitting under the tree avoiding people, so I sat next to him and ignored him. Everyday for the first week this went on until he asked me, “Why are you here?” To which I replied, “Why are you?” We’ve been best friends ever since.
We tried the whole dating thing for a little bit, but it didn’t work out. We both agreed to be friends with benefits. The friends part was his idea and the benefits was mine. Now whenever we need a place to just sit we go to our tree.
Someone tried to take it once. Skyler looked at the poor kid and said, “Move.” The kid tripped over himself trying to get away.
I laid my head on his shoulder and held his arm until the bell rang. He kissed the top of my head and we got up. “See you after school. Is your grandma going to pick you up?” “Yeah. You want a ride?”
“If she doesn’t mind.”
“I’m sure she won’t. She never has before. See you later.”
“Bye.”
I felt a lot better as I walked to first hour. I sat through History, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing, as the teacher droned on about the glories of the early days of the empire. History passed without any outbursts and I went to Geometry. Luckily I was ahead in my math before I left, so I was still up to date with the rest of the class. P.E. was kind of boring. We had a sub, so all we did was play dodge ball.
At lunch I was assaulted by my pack of friends again, so I told them I was out of town visiting a cousin on my dad’s side that was in the military. They asked what had happened and I told them that I would have to kill them if I told them. They all laughed at the joke, but I kept a strait face. Granted I just barley kept it, but it did stop the questions. The rest of the day was a blur of Language Study, High Imperialism, and Study Hall. I used Study Hall to get caught up on the classes I had gotten behind in. I met Skyler outside of Study Hall and took his arm.
Grandma was waiting in the parking lot and took us both to her house. “So, what is this mystery that you won’t tell me at school.”
I smiled at him. “You’ll see.”
“I hope your not planning on telling him anything you learned while you were visiting your cousin Yarianna.”
“Why can’t I?”
“You know the reasons.”
“I trust Skyler. If I can’t trust him then I can’t trust anyone.”
“That is the point Yari. You can’t trust anyone. Your mother trusted and look where it got her.”
Skyler looker at me then back at Grandma and asked, “I’m intruding aren’t I?”
Grandma wouldn‘t take her eyes off me, “Yes! You are.”
“No! Grandma. I am going to show him. It will either be here or the other place. You get to choose.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t I? Ask yourself that question. One way or another I am going to show him.” I could feel my anger starting to build along with grandma’s. We locked eyes and I could feel both of us rising to the killing edge.
Skyler must have felt it too because he suddenly slammed his fist down on the table. “Both of you stop! Why are you fighting like this? By the Gods the both of you are blood! You would dare to shame your ancestors by spilling the blood of your own?”
“And what would you know of shame, boy? What would you know of anything?” Grandma took a step toward him and I lost what was left of my control and changed. My wings snapped out then folded half way back to my body. My scales slid out as my teeth elongated. I stepped in front of Skyler and let my claws lengthen. My eyes went to slits and narrowed all in the space of a single heartbeat. I felt a growl rumble deep in my throat and grandma took a step back.
Skyler stepped around and stood next to me. “Yari, She did not mean the threat. Fold your wings back and breathe. She is blood.”
My eyes refused to look anywhere else but at grandma’s. I went to take another step forward and Skyler stepped in front of me.
In the blink of an eye I felt his power unfold and watched the change ripple across his flesh. His wings extended enough to block out my view of Grandma then slowly wrapped around me. “Peace, Yari. No harm was done. Breathe, it will pass.”
My anger drained out of me almost as soon as eye contact was broken with grandma. I changed back into my usual appearance and felt very weak. I collapsed against Skyler as his wings folded around me.
“What did I almost do?”
“It’s over now. It was a misunderstanding. Are you ok now? Can you control yourself?” “Yes. Thank you.”
His wings folded and vanished and I saw grandma sitting at the table. “I’m sorry grandma. I should have asked you first.”
“No Yari, I’m the one who should apologize. I knew better then to look you in the eye so soon after your change. Can you forgive an old woman for her mistakes?”
“There is nothing to forgive grandma. I knew better then to try show him in your house. You were just protecting your lair. Can you forgive a foolish young girl?”
“There is nothing to forgive. You, however, have some explaining to do. Who are you?”
I sat down and looked at him.
He closed his eyes for a moment the looked at both of us with silted eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to let you know what I am. I blew my cover, but it was all I could think of that wouldn’t end in bloodshed. I am Sk` Yler De` Cain, one of Le` Than’s people. One of your people. I was sent by Le` Than himself to watch over you both, but more specifically you, Yari. He told me that I was not to ever make contact with you beyond a passing acquaintance, never reveal to you what I am, and never reveal to you the reason I was sent. That being said, I am going to go three for three. Yari, Le` Than wants to talk to you before he dies. He wants to name you his heir.”
Chapter 3
It was a good thing I was already sitting down, otherwise I would have fallen. Grandma’s mouth was flapping like a fish and I know I had a deer-in-the-headlights look. Grandma finally found words. “He wants what? After centuries of not even knowing if any of his people were even still alive and now all of the sudden he wants Yari to be his heir? What’s wrong with his own people that he can’t pick one of them? Why now, after all this time?”
Skyler sighed, “There are some not so good reasons as to why he has waited until now. I’m sure he will tell Yari what they are when he talks to her. As far as why he chose her as opposed to one of his own people, as you so eloquently put it, you and Yari are his only living blood descendants. I am supposed to quietly guide you to some sources where you can learn more about your other side, but since I have already broken every rule I was given, I am willing to teach you myself.”
“What makes you think there is anything you can teach either Yarianna or I that we cannot learn on our own?”
“If you had already learned it on your own this house wouldn’t be standing right now with the amount of energy you both were putting off.”
“What if she doesn’t want to be his heir? He sure hasn’t done anything to deserve her. He has never shown any trace of caring about our family before. In fact he even abandoned us. Why should we…”
I couldn‘t take it anymore so I looked at Grandma and said, “Grandma, shut up.” Grandma’s mouth did the fish thing again and I looked at Skyler. “Grandma does raise a good point, but if you are willing to teach me what I need to know I will learn. It will take me a bit to process what has happened today and when I do I am sure I am going to be pissed at you. In the mean time, Grandma, can I take him to the cavern now? It’s not like we have anything else to hide.”
Grandma looked from him to me and back. I looked at her, waiting for her to answer. She finally sighed, “I guess, but it is too late tonight to drive out there and you are going to have to get up early tomorrow for Driver’s Ed. I will take you out there after school tomorrow. You still need to work on your wing strength and maybe he will know a better way then what I was taught. As for the other part, Sk` Yler De` Cain, are you willing to teach Yarianna about fighting? If she has to go see Le` Than then I would rather she know how to defend herself.”
Skyler nodded, “I will be happy to. I didn’t bring any of my training weapons with me though so I will have to find some.”
She nodded toward the basement door, “There are several down in the basement. Whatever is lacking down there can be found in the cavern. I have no taste for the violence so I will not be joining you for that part.”
Skyler gave her a slight bow, “Thank you. I do apologize for the trouble I caused you both tonight. I really didn’t expect this to happen so soon. I can make my own way home so you don’t have to worry about giving me a ride. See you tomorrow.”
I smiled and said, “See you tomorrow Sky.”
I didn’t sleep very good and really didn’t want to go to Drivers Ed the next morning, but Grandma wouldn’t let me out of it. I know I should have been excited about getting my license and being able to drive myself around, but after the bomb Skyler dropped on me last night it just seemed so petty. What was the point of learning how to drive a car when the single biggest enemy the Empire has ever faced was not only alive, but wanted you to be his heir?
I met Skyler after school and Grandma drove us out to the cavern. Skyler actually approved of Grandmas strength training so he used it as an opportunity to teach me about the true history or our people. It turned out that the Empire actually didn’t know anything about it’s greatest enemy.
When our kind, were born we were always given two names. One for ourselves and the other for our feral side. Traditionally we were only referred to by our Clan name until we completed our Coming of Age Ritual where the men had their two names shortened into one by taking the first two letters of the first name and the last four of the middle name. This was done to signify the joining of the Self with the Feral Self. Women, however didn’t shorten their name. They just chose which one the would like to be called and went with it. I asked him why and the only answer he gave was because women were already feral and they didn’t need a name to prove it.
He told us that originally there were thirteen clans of our race, named for the thirteen elders who settled this planet, but there were only seven that they knew where they were because of a civil war that erupted between the Clans. At first Sa` Tain refused to fight, but when he saw that the war would eventually destroy all of his people he put the full force of his clan in the middle of the two armies. Since his clan was the biggest clan descended from the Kier Sona, the warrior race of the Kier, a truce was reached between the two armies. The two groups were so opposed to each other that the only way for them to keep the peace was for one to leave. The other army agreed that Sa` Tain and his Clan would be the ruling Clan of the remaining six.
He also said that there were three other races of the Kier. The Kier Lan, the Dancers, the Kier Tan, the Walkers, and the Kier San, the Adepts. The Dancers were known for their grace and beauty, but were unable to retract their wings. The Walkers were known for ability to become part of their element and were able to retract their wings. The Adepts were known for their ability to fit in with any environment, but were born without any wings.
Evening was spent in the basement learning how to fight. He explained that to properly learn how to fight you have to start as close to your opponent as you could then work your way back. In an actual battle you can always draw you enemy in closer, but if you don’t know how to grapple you are dead if he closes the distance. The last thing we did every night before we left the basement was meditate. It didn’t make sense to me and more then once I caught myself nodding off, but Skyler insisted that I spend at least an hour every night in actual meditation.
Each night I would find myself in the same clearing and struggle to stay there. I kept losing focus because I was worried about if it had been an hour yet, if I had gotten all of my homework done, if I remembered the right form we had been working on, and why it was so important to him that I do this in the first place. I didn’t see the point in it, but I didn’t want to tell him that I thought it was a complete waste of time.
A couple of weeks into it I was pacing around the clearing and was just about to stop the meditation and tell Skyler that it was a waste of time when my other side stepped into the clearing. She still moved with the grace of a predator and I was momentarily jealous that at least she knew what she was. I didn’t even know that much.
She stopped a few feet in front of me and said, “You are letting your mind think about this too much Yarianna. You are who you are, just let yourself be that.”
I sighed, “How? I’m trying to play catch-up to a race that was born know exactly what they are while still trying to fit into the human world that I thought I belonged to my entire life. How do I become both Kier and myself?”
She shook her head, “You are asking the wrong question. What you should be asking yourself is how to let yourself be what you were born to be. Are you Kier or human? The answer is yes. You have taken me into yourself, but you still haven’t accepted me. You already know that you are a Kier born to the world of the humans. Let yourself be that and you will find what Sk` Yler sends you here to find.”
I gave her a questioning look and asked, “What am I supposed to find here?”
She smiled and pointed at the center of the clearing. “You will see it when you accept yourself for who you are. You worry far too much about what will happen when you meet Le` Than. Stop. What happens then is a worry for then, not now. Now all you have to worry about is meditating.”
She started to walk away but I had another question, “Nicole, wait. What would have happened if you had been more dominate?”
She looked back and smiled, “We wouldn’t be having this conversation. I know what I am and I do not fear it just as I know what you are. There may come a time when I will be the dominate one and then you will see what we would have been. For now I am content to see what we will become in your world. I will do you one more favor. Please use it wisely.”
As she passed by the middle of the clearing a fountain appeared. I know it wasn’t an actual fountain, but that is the best translation my mind could come up with for the pool of energy that suddenly appeared. Before I could get closer to it I felt a hand on my shoulder and my focus was broken. I came back to myself with Skyler standing in front of me asking if I was alright.
I waved him off and asked, “Why did you interrupt? You said I was supposed to go for at least an hour.”
He laughed and said, “Its been two. I take it you finally started getting somewhere?’
I sighed, “Yes. Nicole showed me this fountain, or pool, or whatever it was of energy. I was just about to go to it when you pulled me out.”
Skyler raised an eyebrow, “First, you call her Nicole? Second, why is something that is supposed to be a part of you showing you things about yourself that should be as natural as breathing?”
I looked up at him and said, “I call her by her name. It’s like you said, one name for me and another for the other side. Also, for you it may be as natural as breathing, but I am new to this world. Up until two weeks ago I didn’t even know my other side existed so please forgive me for being a bit slower then you would like in learning about all of this. Imaging what your life would be like if tomorrow you woke up in a mental hospital only to discover the life you thought you had lived since birth was all just a pretty dream and you never had wings. All you had was a vivid imagination and a bad temper. How would you react?”
For a moment Skyler was speechless. After a couple of false starts he finally said, “I can’t even imagine life like that. I think it would drive me insane, but if I already was insane it would just drive me deeper.”
I nodded, “Now you know how I feel right now. Every day I have to ask myself if I’m going to wake up in a hospital somewhere with a nurse reminding me that I need to take my meds.”
Skyler knelt next to me and wrapped his arms around me. I didn’t even realize I had started crying and for some reason I couldn’t make myself stop. Everything that I had been pushing to the back of my mind since my birthday came pouring out in a flood and all I could do was hold onto my best friend until it stopped. I was exhausted all the way to my soul by the time he helped me up to my bedroom. Somehow I managed to change into pajamas and crawl into bed. It wasn’t until after I was drifting into sleep that I even wondered if Skyler was still in the room when I changed but I was too far gone to keep the thought past that.
Am I human or Kier? The answer is yes. I opened my eyes to a new day and folded my wing back so I could see what the world had in store for me. As I made my way through my morning routine I paid attention to how much had changed since my birthday. The wings were the biggest visible change. Even those came and went as I showered and got dressed for the day.
I took a critical analysis of everything I did. Had I always preferred the open back shirts or did I start wearing them in a subconscious way of preparing for my other side? Did I always sit at the table with the chair backwards so that it wouldn’t get in the way or was that recent? Did I actually like to keep in shape or did I know that I would need all the help I could get? That one I actually had to think about. It was exhausting building wing strength. I would hate to think of how I would feel if I hadn’t already been in shape. Which begs the question, are there any overweight Kier?
School was no different. I met Skyler under our tree and had to ask, what was it about him that I had been drawn to the first day we met? Was it me that wanted to go talk to him or was it Nicole recognizing one of our own and pushing me to seek him out? Did I always find our High Imperialism teacher so boring and brainwashed or was that recent? Looking around the class at the other students nodding off made that question easy to answer. The biggest question I had I still couldn’t answer. Can I still trust Skyler as my friend or is he just my teacher now?
I tabled my questions for another time as we made our way into the cavern. The slight tension that I carried with me through the day melted away as soon as I was underground. I think the only reason I noticed it at all was because I had spent the day taking a second look at everything. Ever since I had come down here to learn about my other side I carried the slightest bit of tension out in the rest of the world because I was afraid I would lose control and hurt someone.
I stopped so suddenly that Skyler had to sidestep to avoid running into me. I looked at him and asked, “Why am I so worried about losing control when I am out there but not when I am here?”
Skyler looked really confused and asked, “Where is this coming from?”
I shrugged and asked, “Are you afraid of losing your temper and hurting someone?”
He shook his head, “No. I had to learn how to deal with my temper a while ago and there really isn’t anyone here that can get me mad enough to make me loose it. You might feel more comfortable here then you do out there so you can actually relax and that could be why you don’t worry about it here, but that’s just my guess. Did that answer your question good enough to get to work or do you need to ponder it a bit more?”
It probably wouldn’t have happened if we were anywhere else, but his tone reeked of condescension and really pissed me off. How dare he take that tone with me while we were in my place! My mind quickly flashed to the fountain Nicole had shown me and I reached for it without a second thought. Pleasure and pain, sorrow and joy, good, bad, happiness, sadness, death, and life flooded me with euphoric power. I pulled the energy to my as if I were putting on a warm coat and met Skyler’s eyes.
Every word was laced with a knife edge of power, “You will never take that tone with me again, do you understand me?”
Every thing inside of him wanted to fight and I was ready for it. He may have been a better swordsman, but I was on my own ground. I took a step forward and slammed my hand into his chest, raising him into the air and holding him by force of will. His anger turned to surprise then with a slight tint of fear settled into resignation. I knew that he was fully prepared to give his life just because I had decided to take it and that scared me.
All of the energy that was flooding through me just a moment ago vanished and I dropped him then whispered, “Sky, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean.”
He cut me off, “Never apologize for doing what you feel must be done. You are descended from the closest thing our kind has to a king, and since he wants to name you his heir that makes you the closest thing we have to a princess. The standards you hold yourself to should be much higher then the standards the rest of us hold ourselves to. If you see fit to reprimand or punish someone then stick to it but make damn sure you have a reason to do so.
“I was in the wrong for taking a mocking tone when I knew you were already on edge from last night. For that I apologize, but you are severely behind where you should be for one of our people. It is my job to make sure you are ready when Le` Than calls you to his side. I think you can be there by the end of summer and I will do everything in my power to see it done. I know you haven’t decided or even had a chance to decide if you even want this, but I have too much respect for Le` Than and too much care for you to let you be anything but your best when you stand before our people. What do you say Yarianna Nicole Sorenson De Sa` Tain? Will you do all that’s in your power to shut the mouths of a proud race when they say that no outsider will rule over them?”
His intensity scared me a little bit. In all of the time I had known him he had never shown this much passion for anything and it made me look at him in a new light. Before he had been the easy-going-I’m-a-good-friend that was never really rattled but this Skyler was, quite frankly, hot. Everything about himself that he had suppressed to blend in with my world roared to the surface and I kind of felt my knees go weak.
I nearly forgot the question, but after reminding myself that he was just Skyler I was able to respond, “Sk` Yler De` Cain, Sky, will you help me bring pride to the Sa` Tain name?”
I thought he was pushing me before, but after that things really got intense. He started waking me up an hour before I had to be at Driver’s Ed to work on fighting forms then after school we would go to the cavern until it got dark. He changed up my flight training as well. Rather then just doing wing sprints he would hade me start toward the front of the cavern and launch straight up as smoothly as I could until I reached the roof. After that I glided to the lower end and did wing sprints back to the front. When we got back to my house it was more fighting then an hour of meditation. He wouldn’t even let me skip out on homework. He told me that it was just as important that I maintain my grades as it was for me to learn about my other side.
The meditation became the part that I looked forward to the most. Ever since I had used the energy to lift Skyler off the ground it seemed like it was always there, just waiting for me to learn how to use it. Every night I would find myself in the clearing reaching for the energy that came from the fountain. The more I reached for it the quicker it responded to my call until it would begin to fill me as I sank into meditation. Peace would always come with it. It eased sore muscles and cleared the fog that had settled over my mind through the day. I found that I actually felt more rested with less sleep when I would let the energy flow through me. I even started going into a waking meditation during the school day so that I could keep from falling asleep in my classes.
The waking meditation helped with everything. I was able to remember the forms Skyler taught me easier rather then thinking of them as a jumbled mess of moves that didn’t make sense. Each form seemed like a specific fight that happened a long time ago and was used to teach how the moves flowed together. The weapons felt different in my hands. Before they were just tools to be used, but with my new perspective they became more alive. Using the energy I could feel each blemish and flaw in the metal as if it were part of my skin.
One day flowed into the next with the only break in the routine being the weekends. The first day of the weekend was spent in the cavern for the first half of the day and in the basement sparing the second half. It was his way of testing to see if I had been paying attention to the forms that he had taught that week. The second day was spent on language study. He said that knowing the language was just as important as knowing how to fight.
As the end of school came closer I started counting down the days. I knew that as soon as summer started we could just stay in the cavern to train and wouldn’t have to worry about driving back and forth. My friends at school assumed that Skyler and I had started dating from all the time we spent together and we didn’t see any reason to correct them because it kept them from wondering what else we could be doing with the time. I kind of felt bad for pretty much ignoring them but at the same time I didn’t really have a lot of spare time to hang out with them. Even getting my license didn’t excite me like it should have. All it meant to me was that Grandma no longer had to drive us around. On the last day of school I packed a bag of necessities and drove out to the cavern to meet Skyler.
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