Yroka

It was that same day. As much as we wanted to stay in that moment, we did have things to do. I needed to finish altering Alice’s dress, we needed to eat, and we needed to find a way to deal with the debt collectors. First things first, I had to finish sewing the buttons into the back of the sundress. Meanwhile, Alice was looking through my mother’s clothes for anything else I could alter easily enough to accommodate her wings. That made me realize, I still needed to figure out what was causing her wings to look so patchy. I also had recommended her to find a belt that would make the dress fit better. While she was at it, she looked at the small amount of jewelry my mother had still owned. Most of it had been sold, but she did keep a few that were keepsakes. Occasionally while I worked, Alice would bring out a piece of jewelry that caught her attention, I’d tell her what I could remember about it, then she’d try it on.

“That necklace was a gift from my father, if I’m not mistaken. I think it was a birthday gift.”

“Birthday gift?”

“Do angels not celebrate birthdays?”

“Not really. Most angels don’t even know what day they were born on. I think I was born in the spring.”

“Well, I was born on the very last day of the year. If you want to, you can pick a day for us to celebrate your birthday on.”

“No! I want to celebrate my birthday with you!”

“Fine, fine.”

“What’s this ring?”

“That was my mother’s engagement ring. When my parents were engaged, my father gave that ring to her. I never saw her wearing it much because she always said it ‘stood out too much’.”

Alice didn’t respond. At first, I thought she was just grabbing a new piece of jewelry, but I felt a tap on my shoulder while I was working on the dress. I looked up at her. She was holding the jewelry box and looking away, blushing. “Can I wear this ring?”

I hadn’t even thought about that. If we were engaged now, shouldn’t I have gotten her a ring for her engagement? Would it be fine for her to take my mother’s ring? I remembered a story from my mom. She was talking about when my dad proposed to her. She said that my grandmother gave him her engagement ring to give to my mom. I slowly removed the ring from the jewelry box and reached out for Alice’s hand. As I slid the ring onto her finger, my face was probably very red, but I didn’t want to think about how embarrassed I was. Alice slowly closed the door to my parents’ room behind her. As I finished sewing the buttons onto the dress, I could hear Alice squealing in joy from behind the rather thin walls. I knocked on the door and could hear her composing herself before she opened it.

“I finished your dress. If you’ll put it on, I can button it afterwards. The buttons will go in the back and it should allow your wings more room.”

As she took the dress from me, she handed me four other sundresses in various colors. “These all looked pretty, so I’d like to wear these, too. If you don’t mind, that is.” I took the other sundresses from her and explained, “It’ll take me some time to alter these ones, but I’ll put them in my room to work on.”

“Your room? Can I see it?!”

“Once you get changed, I’ll show you the rest of the house.”

It almost seemed like she closed the door for a second before it was open again, and she was now wearing her new dress. She held out a belt to me, seemingly wanting me to help her put it on. The dress didn’t have belt loops, so I simply put it on around her mid-torso. Her body was so slender, but given her complexion, I didn’t think she was a healthy weight. She was so pale and so thin, I could tell she hadn’t been eating right. As she saw me staring intently at her midsection, Alice smacked me in the head, her face red with embarrassment as she looked away.

I turned her around to button up the back of her dress. It seemed like this was the right idea for making her clothes work with her wings. I buttoned three of the five buttons, allowing the top two to stay open, so her wings had a full range of motion. With that, she was fully changed into her new clothes. With the pale blue sundress, the simple, thin belt, and her natural beauty, I couldn’t stop myself from staring. Alice noticed this and started shifting, uncomfortably. I thought it would be best to change the subject. “Let’s get something to eat. I’m feeling a bit hungry now.”

I led Alice downstairs to the kitchen. There wasn’t much in terms of food, given how it had only been feeding myself and my parents up until today, but there were a number of vegetables, some bread, cured meats, and salt, so I thought I’d try and make something from my other world. I saw some tomatoes, lettuce, and cured pork, so I sliced up the tomatoes and pork, tore off some leaves of lettuce, and cut two bread rolls in half to make us each a sandwich. I would’ve liked to add some mayonnaise, but we didn’t have any in this kitchen, so I was limited in options. It didn’t seem to matter, anyways. Alice happily gobbled down the sandwich before I had a chance to start eating mine. She still seemed to be hungrily eyeing mine, so I handed it over to her while I began making more with the last bit of the tomato and pork. As she happily ate the food, her wings began flapping slightly. It seemed like when a dog’s tail wags when they’re happy, so I took it as a sign that she was in a good mood.

Our next stop was the dining room. At one point, I could remember a long banquet table filling the room, big enough to seat more than 20 people. Now, there was a small circular table, barely big enough to fit three. The tables and chairs had been sold to try and pay off the debts, but it was never enough. I remembered the bag of coins that I was still carrying at my side. Was all that money inside this bag? Would it be enough to get the debt collectors off our backs? Alice felt the contemplation and worry I was feeling and put her hand in mine.

“What’s wrong, Simon?”

As she called my name, I felt my worries wash away. I didn’t need money to be happy, but it would make things easier. I knew what we needed to do before anything else: clear my family’s debts.

“Alice, my family is in a lot of debt. I’m sure that debt collectors will come after me at some point. I have some money, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough to pay off the debts. We need to find a way to make some money. Do you have any ideas?”

Alice’s brow furrowed as she thought about what we could do. “Well, those sandwiches you made were really good. You could sell them.”

“I’m glad you liked them, but they’re a bit too simple. Anyone could make them for themselves. If I had more ingredients, I could try and make some of the food from my other world, but we don’t have the money for that.”

“There’s even more tasty food like that?!”

“I’ll be sure and make some for you, but that won’t be able to happen if we don’t solve this problem first.”

“Right. Actually, I did have one other idea, but it would be risky.”

“Risky sounds just about perfect right now.”

“There’s an abandoned angel village in the skies above here. I’m sure there are some fancy angel craftworks that were left there.”

“What’s the risk?”

“I’m not sure I can fly all that way.”

“Because of your wings?”

“No, angels don’t actually use their wings much when flying. They help stabilize us, but angels mostly fly with magic.”

“What’s the problem, then?”

“Well, it’s mostly me. I’m afraid of flying now. I don’t have good memories of being up in the air like that.”

I didn’t want to pry, but given what I knew about how she was exiled from her hometown in the skies, and how she was on the ground now, I could only imagine what happened to her.

“I’ll help you practice flying, then, if you’re still nervous, I’ll go with you.”

“Go with me? But you can’t fly!”

“I’ll find a way. Come on, let’s get practicing!”

We were in the front yard. There were two small vegetable patches and six fruit trees that had yet to fully grow. My family’s house was on the outskirts of a major city, so it was close enough to go anywhere in town for the day, even by walking, but it was still far enough that there was plenty of grass around us. I imagined that it wouldn’t be fun for Alice to fall while flying, but at least it would be on grass and not rocks.

“Alice, can you show me what flying looks like? It doesn’t need to be high off the ground.”

Alice was shaking with anxiety, so I gently squeezed her hand in mine. With that feeling of me being with her, she felt safe enough to try flying. It didn’t matter if she failed. I was here with her. I could feel her rising up next to me, gently floating into the air. It almost felt like she was a balloon, rather than any flying creature. Her wings barely moved as she floated there, less than a meter off the ground. Her eyes weren’t even open.

“Alice, can you look at me? I know it might be scary, but I’m here with you.” As she slowly opened her eyes, I felt her hand slip out of mine. Her breathing became quicker and shallower. She began floating higher and higher, but it seemed like she was being dragged upwards, rather than flying up. She began trying to reach for me, but she was too high up. She was hyperventilating now. If she didn’t calm down soon, she’d pass out in mid-air. Unfortunately, I was too late to stop her. As she was flying, she had a kind of glow on her wings, but it suddenly stopped along with her hyperventilation. She suddenly began falling. I knew that I had to catch her before she hurt herself. I ran out beneath her to catch her as she fell. As she landed on me, I knew that she would be fine. She’d probably feel it in the morning, but she’d be fine. I was feeling the pain right now. She had landed with her knee in my stomach, so I had the wind knocked out of me.

Eventually she woke back up as she was laying on me. Alice quickly scrambled to get off of me, but I had bigger concerns, mostly the pain I was feeling. “Are you okay, Simon?” That feeling of hearing her call my name. Somehow, it could make any pain go away. I stood back up and was ready to keep helping her fly.

“I think I have an idea. Will you hug me?”

Contrary to what you might be thinking, I wasn’t just trying to find an excuse to hug my fiancée. I didn’t mind that part, but I was more focused on my actual plan. Alice clearly didn’t mind hugging me, either, because she quickly wrapped her arms around me. “I thought we were trying to help me fly?” As she stood there, embracing me, I explained, “Well, I do have a plan, but this is just a bonus.”

Here was my plan. Alice clearly had some anxiety surrounding being in the air that caused her to hyperventilate and eventually pass out. My idea was that, if I helped calm her down through that process and guided her, she wouldn’t need to see how high up we were.

“Alice, I want you to close your eyes and just listen to my heartbeat and my voice. You’re going to start flying, but you aren’t going to open your eyes. All you need to do is listen to my voice and think about flying in the direction I tell you. Do you trust me?”

“I trust you.”

“If you ever get scared, just listen to my heartbeat and hold me tight. No matter what, I won’t let go of you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

Alice began to float up slowly. She kept her eyes shut, but this time, she didn’t start hyperventilating. As her breathing started getting quicker, she held me tighter and pressed her ear to my chest, listening to my heartbeat. As her breathing slowed, she continued floating upwards. I could feel my feet leave the ground as we rose. One meter, two meters, three meters high. We were flying.

“You're doing perfect, Alice. Let's keep going upwards.”

The way Alice was able to make us both fly didn't fully make sense to me, but I guessed it was some type of magic innate to angels. I understood that most creatures had some type of innate magic. Humans didn't have any, but we made up for it with greater studies into learning how to use magic. Elves could speak to the elemental spirits, dwarves could imbue objects with magic, and now I guessed that angels must be able to fly somehow. If it was through controlling the wind, I was sure Alice wouldn't have been able to carry me with her. If it was through controlling gravity, it might work, and it would make sense why she started floating upwards when she lost control of her magic. Alice had carried me up far enough for my house beneath us to look small. The city of Katka, the one next to my home, spread out beneath us. I could see all of the tiny buildings, the school I went to in this world, the cathedral at the far end of the city, and the tall magic tower in the center of the town. Even the magic tower, where anyone who wished to learn magic would go, seemed small from this height. Up here, it was just me and Alice.

“It’s beautiful up here. All the clouds seem so big up here. I think I can see that angel town you talked about. Let’s go to your right.”

Alice didn’t move.

“Alice?”

“Will you hold me tight? Don’t let go of me.”

“I’m here. No matter what, I’m not going to let go of you.” I didn’t feel the need to mention that, if I let go, I’d fall over three kilometers.

Alice slowly opened one eye, then the other. I could feel her breathing start to quicken, so gently squeezed her in my arms. She met my eyes, only looking at me, too afraid to look at the world around us. Her eyes were such a brilliant golden color. If I could imagine all the riches in the world, none of them would hold a candle to her eyes right here. I slowly started to loosen my grip, not enough for Alice to worry, but enough for me to turn my torso so I could try and show her the beauty of the clouds.

“I’m not ready yet.”

I went back to holding Alice tightly. I knew she’d need to face this fear someday, but it wasn’t up to me to choose what day that would be.

“Do you know what it’s like to fall from this distance?” Obviously, I didn’t. I’d never even been up this high before. I’d never been on an airplane in my other life and nothing could even come close to reaching this height in this world.

“No. I’m sure it was scary for you.”

Alice pursed her lips. “The scary part wasn’t falling. Angels’ magic can stop us from falling from too-great a height. As long as we’re conscious, our magic will protect us. When I was exiled, it was by my own family. When they exiled me, I didn’t even know why. All of a sudden, I was being thrown off of the clouds by my parents. I couldn’t fly on my own because I was still young back then. All I could do was watch as the clouds passed by me. If I passed out, I wouldn’t have survived, so I was desperately trying to stay awake. The only thing I could think of to do to stay awake was think about everything that had happened to me. I was trying to think of why my parents would throw me out. Even now, I don’t--” She started crying at that point. “I still don’t know why they hated me.”

I couldn’t relate to her problem. I wanted to say something that would make the pain go away. I wanted to say something that would fix her problem. But I had two sets of parents in my two lives and both loved me. I couldn’t empathize with her, but I could still sympathize with her. “I’m here with you. I promised you, I’m never going to leave you. I can’t replace your parents, but I know I can be here for you. I’ll never toss you away.”

“I know. You’ve been so good to me, and I’ve been so happy since I met you. I know you’d never do that to me. But there were so many nights on the streets of Katka where I’d be woken up by nightmares of falling.” Alice’s eyes had closed again. I could feel her heart racing.

“From now on, I’ll be by your side. If you get woken up by nightmares, I’ll be there to help you fall asleep again.”

Alice’s face went red. At that moment, I processed what I had just said. “I’ll be by your side to help you fall asleep.” That certainly sounded like me saying we’d be sleeping in the same bed.

“I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant that I’d be there whenever you needed me. Not that I would’ve minded, but it’s just too soon. I shouldn’t impose on you. You need your space, too, so I shouldn’t try and get too familiar. I’m moving too fast. I-”

Alice laughed at me. Her laugh was clear like the morning bells. I’m sure that it could be heard from any distance. My face was the one that was red now. “Simon, I knew what you meant. I believe you, I trust you, and I love you.”

I love you. It felt different than the words I’d heard from my parents, despite being the same words. At that moment, I knew what to do. “Alice, may I kiss you?”

I saw the emotions flash over Alice’s face. Shock, embarrassment, acceptance, happiness, and finally anticipation. I saw her gently close her eyes. This time, it wasn’t from a fear of falling. I held her tightly and kissed my fiancee. That kiss seemed to last another eternity. As the clouds surrounded us and the sky filled our horizons, nothing else mattered. This was our private world.

We eventually landed on a cloud. I wish you could feel what walking on a cloud feels like. Anyone who tries to sell you clothing, shoes, or beds will say that it “feels like a cloud”, but they don’t know what they’re talking about. A cloud doesn’t feel like anything. Alice and I walked, hand in hand, on the edge of the abandoned cloud town. I know that clouds are typically just water vapor, but a cloud city is made of clouds that were gathered by magic. Alice had told me that the first angels built the first cloud city by gathering every cloud in the world into a single spot, then slowly let it grow bigger and bigger as more and more clouds formed. Eventually, it got so big that chunks began drifting off of it that became smaller cloud towns. This was one of those cloud towns.

The buildings in town, against my predictions, weren’t made of clouds. The buildings were made of a white stone that seemed similar to marble, but was apparently magic stone. Magic stone was the stone that got summoned as part of magic spells. Magic water, just like magic wind and magic fire, was also the stuff that appeared because of a magic spell. Most people from my old world, like me, would have thought that magic stones were probably the gems you’d find inside of monsters. I knew that wasn’t the case. Those were called magic crystals. Big difference, I know.

All of these buildings were empty, like everyone in the town had left in a hurry. As we walked through the empty town, we couldn’t find any of the craftworks that we’d been looking for. We found a basket at one point, but it was badly damaged by something. There was an angelic shirt in one of the houses. The shirt had a deep neckline to accommodate their wings, but I imagined that would show off too much skin for Alice’s tastes. I thought about bringing the shirt back with us when I felt a rumbling coming from somewhere nearby. For a split second, I thought it was an earthquake, but we were on a cloud.

As Alice and I ran out of the house, we felt a smaller rumbling coming from the other side of the cloud. As we approached, it quickly became clear what was causing the rumbling. We could see a large shape that dwarfed the houses around us. Its massive form was covered in white scales and had two massive leathery wings folded over its body. Everything I knew about stories of fantasy and brave heroes told me that this was a dragon.

We slowly approached, trying not to wake the sleeping creature, but we wouldn’t be that fortunate. One of the dragon’s eyes shot open to look at us, but quickly closed after looking at us. The rumbling continued as the dragon’s breathing shook the ground around us. I looked at Alice, trying to figure out what we should do.

“I suppose you must be here to kill this old dragon, aren’t you, humans?” The voice was deep, which made sense for the size of the creature, but it had an undeniably maternal vibe to it.

“I doubt we could kill you, even if we wanted to.” I semi-jokingly said back.

“This old, broken body? I guess you wouldn’t need to. Well, get it on with.”

“Get what on with?” Alice asked, confused by the massive creature.

“You must be here to take my scales, claws, and whatever else catches your fancy.”

I’d heard that dragon parts were incredibly valuable. Scales could make incredible armor, teeth and claws could make blades or arrowheads, bones could be ground into medicine, and blood could make potions. That wasn’t even counting the people who simply bought dragon parts as decorations. Collectors would pay any price for a dragon head. However, my greed wasn’t so strong that I’d risk my life fighting a dragon.

“We don’t plan on taking anything from you. We were here looking for anything left behind in this village we could sell to pay off my family’s debt.”

“But you don’t wish to take my parts? Even a single scale would surely give you more than enough money to pay any debt.”

“It feels wrong to sell dragon parts in the same way it would feel wrong to sell Alice’s blood, hair, or feathers.”

The dragon gave a small, pained chuckle. It shook the ground with each laugh. “You amuse me, human. You want to pay your debts, you see a weakened dragon, and you refuse to take even a single scale?”

“I’m sure you’re still powerful enough to throw me off of this cloud.”

The dragon let out a sigh. “Maybe once I was, but I am too far gone to even raise a claw at you.”

“What happened?” asked Alice, clearly feeling the pain and sadness of the dragon.

“I had come here to lay myself to rest. I fought my last battle, and so I came back to my nest. I fought against a hero who sought to slay me. If I hadn’t been the powerful creature I am, I’m certain that I would not have returned here. It is a shame that I will not survive long enough to raise my hatchling.”

“Hatchling? You’re a mother?” I had thought I felt a maternal vibe in her voice, but I guess I just didn’t actually expect that.

“Yes, I’m a mother. I simply hope I survive long enough for my egg to hatch.” The dragon moved one of her wings to reveal a large white, scaly egg, nearly a meter tall, laying next to the dragon’s blood-covered belly. There was a long gash that was clearly fresh, along with a gleaming sword, protruding from the bottom of the dragon’s neck, where the wound ended.

I looked at Alice, determination in my eyes, and turned to the dragon. “Please let us help you hatch the egg. We want to grant your last request.”

The dragon was silent for a moment, but then laughed a deep, powerful laugh. The wound on her belly bled as she did, but she didn’t seem to care. “Humans don’t seem to understand the fundamentals of dragon childrearing. This egg will not hatch for a month’s time. Even with the greatest magic, I will not survive to see my egg hatch. I must only hope that my body is enough to scare off any who would do my hatchling harm. I must commend your desire to see my wishes granted, but I am no fool who would deny the reality of this wound and of my health.”

Both Alice and I, along with the dragon, were silent. I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t think of what to do. She was right, I knew nothing about dragons. I couldn’t help her, even despite my strong desire to do so. Willpower wasn’t enough to make my wishes come true. I needed to think of a solution. Alice beat me to it.

“What if we protect your egg?” The dragon covered the egg with her wing again. She seemed opposed to the idea. “We may not be dragons, but we both understand what it means to be without a family. We don’t want your child to go through that.”

“That’s right, we can protect the egg, then raise the child to be a big and strong dragon, just like its mother.”

The dragon seemed to consider our words. She was right, we didn’t know anything about dragon childrearing, but that didn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Alice and I were on the same page. We both wanted to help this child who would surely be orphaned and this mother who wouldn’t see her child hatch. If we didn’t try and step up here, this child would be all alone, left to wander on a cloud with the body of its mother as the only other occupant.

“If you intend to raise this child, my child, I must insist you take this sword and my scales. I cannot allow my child to grow up feeling the strains of financial turmoil. Humans cannot hunt the same way dragons can. You must always have plenty of food for my child. Finally, you must know that dragons can take on a humanoid form and a dragon form. Never let my child out of your sight, for my child will not be able to control the power and strength of its dragon form.”

The dragon slowly lifted one of its front arms to move the egg, setting it beside me. “You, angel girl, carry my fallen scales and remove this sword from my chest. This shall be my final request to you.”

Alice went up to the dragon and picked up four scales that were the size of dinner plates. She was about to try and remove the sword from her chest, but I stopped her to ask one final question. “Ms. Dragon? What is your name?”

“Ms. Dragon? No matter. My name is Yroka, the White Cloud. I am the most powerful of all the cloud dragons.”

“My name is Simon Westwind, and this is my fiancee, Alice. I promise that we will raise your child properly.”

“Oh? Now this is a sight that even I have not seen in my long life. A human making a promise to a dragon, not of vengeance, but of familial love. I have truly seen everything now. I shall die at peace, knowing that my child will be happy and loved.”

As Alice removed the sword from Yroka’s chest, she let out one final breath as a tear escaped from her eye.

It wasn’t easy trying to carry the massive egg while flying down. Alice and I could carry the scales and sword down in just under an hour, but it took us most of the rest of the day trying to go back up to bring the egg down. After the first time going down, Alice was mostly fine going back up to the cloud town without me holding her, so we carried the egg down by having Alice carry me by lifting me from underneath my arms, while I held the egg. It was still a very bulky egg, so by the time we got back down to the ground, my arms were tired and Alice was nearly out of magic. It didn’t take much magic to fly, but after flying up and down all day, Alice was exhausted.

“Alice, I can make us some food to eat while you take a bath. It won’t be anything fancy, but I know that anything tastes better after a hard day’s work.”

Alice took me up on that offer. First, I had to bring the egg inside. I knew that all eggs needed warmth to hatch, so that was my first priority. I brought the egg in and thought about setting it inside the kitchen. This was the warmest room in the house, but it would feel in bad taste to put this egg inside the kitchen. Instead, I started gathering any unused blankets in the house. There were a number of blankets that belonged to the now-empty rooms. I gathered all of these in my bedroom and began forming them into a makeshift nest shape. Once I formed this, I carried the egg up to my room and placed it into the nest. By the time I finished this and I came back downstairs to start making food, Alice had finished her bath. She had taken my mother’s nightgown, a large blue dress that almost looked like a very big t-shirt. I thought about trying to make some of the clothes from my other world, but I didn’t have much experience with making clothes, just altering them. Finding clothes that could accommodate the body types of all the unique types of people in this world must not be easy, especially in a mostly-human city like Katka. That would just be another challenge that I’d need to overcome.

“Do you think that dragons destroy their clothes when they transform?”

“I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”

“I was thinking that it would be a pain to fix this child’s clothes any time they transform between human and dragon form.”

“Simon, I know we both said that we’d take care of this child, but do you think we’re ready for this? We’re basically children, ourselves.”

Alice wasn’t wrong. I didn’t know if we were prepared to take on this responsibility, but it wouldn’t change the fact that the child would be born one way or another. “I don’t know. But, if we don’t, who will?”

“Isn’t there an orphanage in town? Surely someone can take care of the child, once the egg hatches, at least.”

“We can go look in town tomorrow. We need to go see the city’s debt collector, as well as buy some living supplies for you. Then, we also need to go buy more food. Then we need to go to the cathedral so I can let someone know about my parents’ deaths. Then, we’ll finally be able to come back home, but we still have household chores to take care of here.”

I turned around after finishing our sandwiches, only to see that Alice had stopped paying attention to what I was saying. Instead, she was more focused on the food I had in my hands. Well, I guess we could just let that wait for tomorrow. For now, it was time to eat.