416. Beyond the sky, 6

(Rose)

My strap around Yaelun’s body fell with the shock of the departure.

My legs and arms held so I didn’t fall. I held onto it as you would hold onto a large tree trunk as tornado tries to pull you away. We were gaining altitude.

I might have yelled for a short second. Then I might have laughed. It was confusing and shaky.

Gradually, I could feel the air become colder, and the sky brighter.

~

I learnt to ride a horse in this world.

But not yet a dragon, so for now, my legs held on as strongly as they allowed, while my hands grabbed a handful of feathers to hold onto. Yaelun twitches, but doesn’t mind.

His body is as long as his wings are, and they are strong enough to carry it and me.

Bleue couldn’t quite fly like a bird as she was too heavy for her wings, and they were too small, no matter how big they already were. There must be some graphs that correlate wing span to weight and volume, to find the right proportions to allow flight on Earth. This giant snake or bird has found the right balance. Or Nightmare did for it.

I see the sky clearing out. I see small clouds passing by below us, not that far above the land. We’re heading north west along the coastline.

The wind is stronger than I remember, and then I realise there’s nothing to shelter me against the wind. I get all of it. When I lie down against Yaelun’s back, it’s less present but I still feel it hitting me.

I have a very faint and fuzzy memory of me as a child, very young child, holding onto the leg, or bacl, of one of my parents when they were so big and tall next to me.

That short time when they were so big and tall, I couldn’t quite see them entirely.

I couldn’t see beyond that warm leg. I remember holding onto it with my whole tiny body.

Fort a short while, my parents had been as giants, all powerful giants or gods to me.

Holding onto that real giant thing made me recall that long forgotten memory. It’s a little amusing.

For now, I’m enjoying the flight, without thinking too much about my situation, just trying to hold on.

Thoughts wander. Faces. Memories.

They fade as I look below and around.

The sensations of flying and the sights, they are still as nice and pleasant as they always have been.

The wind in my hair and over my face is cold but feels nice. I enjoy it along with the sun warmth over my skin.

Clouds of sand also fly around there, pushed from the south. They colour the sky differently.

Yaelun glides over the layers of wind, catching warmer flows like rising waves to gain altitude. It does it without flapping its wings, making it a much smoother sailing.

I feel like I’ve hitchhiked a sail over this young being-like-her. I recall Chinese dragons look more like snakes than lizards, but I didn’t have the chance to see many of their depictions. I don’t know their names even.

I wonder how much Yaelun could relate to them.

I wonder what he thinks, since it’s an intelligence without words.

I know it felt uneasy towards its mother or creator. I know it saw me as the opportunity to try going further or break free. And that it eats trees whole, which is impressive.

We both want to know a little more about the ruins hidden far north, that are related to the change of times, if not worlds. I wonder why, for that thing that never knew the world before.

~

We fly over south eastern Europe, over lands greener and greener, now void of human activity.

This dragon is flying in the sky far above empty cities, gliding quietly along the warmest air. It’s heading toward a place that probably, or possibly, holds fragments of an answer to the meaningful question any new civilisation would ask.

Why has the world changed? A biblical flood with invisible water washing the lands, turning or killing all humans unable to drink it. An Earth shattering eruption of this eitr, accumulated quietly over eons, and now released like a fountain.

A new boson, suddenly shifting its field value all over the world from zero to a random value. An expansion of the void reaching critical level.

A world where dreams and nightmares become real. A world of daiûas.

Or even, the fiction hypothesis that everyone dismissed, of a human or extra-terrestrial technology gone wrong.

Civilisations fall over time. I, we, are curious about the reason why the last one fell so very abruptly worldwide.

The clues as to why are numerous, but the leading theory is still unclear.

We will do our best at archaeology over the ruins we find over there. To find more clues.

And maybe enough to make a wiser hypothesis than Deus voluit.

Until we know better, everything and anything can be an act of God.

Maybe...

I smile. The sunset is blinding me with its magnificence.

I sit back as if I was riding a horse for a moment, when the flight is softer and steady.

I stretch my shoulders, still holding myself with my tired legs.

This flight is a magical event in more ways than one. Yaelun is a beautiful mystical beast in its own right as well.

I thank him with a few gentle taps and the word. Yaelun has no outer part of ears, but he has slight openings like fins. They seem to act as ears. I think it can hear me a little.

Its heads rolls upward, twisting his neck as he brings his head upside down to look at me. I guess the flight could deviate if he had looked left or right? Or maybe it’s just Yaelun’s personality.

His mouth opened itself in an upside down smile. A dragon smile is a little unsettling honestly. But I can laugh it off now, and smile back.

R - Do you sleep? Should we rest for the night?

Yaelun nods an undetermined answer. I’m not sure I understood.

Then it rolls its neck ahead again and keeps flying straight.

The night slowly sets itself over the land and above us, still so far above us.

It’s getting colder.

Maybe an hour before it gets really dark, as we fly under the first stars above, Yaelun spots a place to camp.

A night fly under the stars and moon would be an amazing experience. I now want to have that as well. But it will be for a time when I have more suitable clothes to face the cold and some reins to hold in.

A light bump from his back warns me that we’re going to land. I brace myself and hold him tight.

We almost dive, circling around the place he chose to land. A large open field with rectangular patterns and a high single house next to it. Gardens? A castle?

It’s a very shaky landing for me, but Yaelun lands very well over the gardens. These rectangular shapes were ponds, in which we land loudly.

The dragon has landed in front of the castle. The haunted castle.

I can feel it. Yaelun too, as it adopts an aggressive posture as well, rising his head.

I step out of the pond and unsheathe my long sword in doubt. I don’t know what to expect.

A swarm of bats fly out of every dark corner of the façade. They fled.

I guess that was it.

We’ll stay there for the night.

~