The air screamed past them, tearing at their skin like a thousand invisible needles. At first, Saoirse's arms flailed, grasping for something—anything—but there was nothing to hold on to. The base of the world was too far to reach. The endless void below the prismatic bridge was swallowing them whole.
The sky above stretched farther and farther away, Below her was there darkness? No. There was nothing. Nothing- just absence. Time unraveled. Seconds became minutes. Minutes became a lifetime.
Her lungs burned, but she couldn't tell if it was from the wind or from the scream that had long since died in their throat. There was no up, no down, only the sensation of falling—of being pulled deeper into a destination she couldn't understand.
The world twisted around them, flashes of color and light flickering at the edges of her vision. Was it real? Or just their mind fracturing under the weight of eternity? It was as if the air itself was made of essence of bifröst, yet untamed.
She would have found it to be beautiful if she had time to enjoy it, but Saoirse was endlessly falling. She had Lachlan in her arms, who didn't seem upset by the fall. He was running his hands through the shimmering colorful light and beaming.
The wind blew past her face and she struggled to breathe. She rotated herself so that she was staring up at the sky she had fallen from, with Lachlan on her stomach.
"I promised to protect you baby, but now we've fallen off of the face of the floating island planet."
The base of the planet crumbled into nothing, and the sky and the horizon bled together. How far will we fall? Endlessly?
Lachlan looked at her with innocent eyes. "Ahooo!!!!" He exclaimed and then suddenly, as if he had seen it coming, a whoosh of air spat out a girl. Lachlan clapped his hands with joy as he greeted his new companion in flight, "yip yip! Ahooo!!!"
"What?" Saoirse exclaimed, astonished. Where had this girl come from?
"I'll save you!" She cried out. "Take my hand!"
Without a thought, Saoirse grabbed ahold of her tiny hand and the air around them gave a whoosh and suddenly, they appeared higher up in the sky.
They disappeared again with a whoosh! Higher still, and once again began falling.
The girl had a huge amount of concentration in her eyes. The chaos of falling was overwhelming her, but she wasn't scared. Not yet. She just needed to teleport them to Sirius, and then he could fly them out.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
"Where is he?" Sroka cried out with anguish. Her energy was faltering.
Whoosh! Whoosh! ….whoosh! The last one a bit delayed. Once again they were falling. It felt to Saoirse that her whole world was spinnng. She wanted to vomit and her head was spinning. Lachlan began crying from the discomfort of the little girl's ability.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
With an immense amount of effort, they had made it 100 feet up, but then began to fall once again.
"I can't go that far!" Sroka cried out. They were doomed to fall back down to where they had been.
Tears streamed down the panicked girl's face. Saoirse embraced her in a hug and tried to calm her down. "Calm. Calm, little girl. Just stay calm. We don't know how far we have fallen, but we have to think of another way."
"I can't do it!" She continued sobbing.
"Shhh. It's alright. Even if we die, we will be reborn. It's not a curse anymore, it's a promise. We may not be like the Gods, regenerating even after death, but we will be eternal nevertheless."
Sroka sobbed, "I know, but what if I end up on king Alastor's side?" She sobbed.
"Maybe." Saoirse soothed, "but why worry about that now? You will be a baby. Your whole world will be vast and you will be free to make the choices that you would like."
"You know that's not true your highness, Alastor forces people."
This girl was too smart for her own good. Saoirse smiled and pushed the girl out of the embrace in order to look her in the eyes."If I ever had a daughter, I would have wanted her to be just like you. If I ever find my husband, I hope I find you again as well. I would make us a family. You, my little orphan girl, perhaps I could give birth to you and protect you from Alastor in our next life, wouldn't that be nice."
What a strange thing for someone to say. Nobody had ever wanted Sroka. She was told her mother had slept with Linus the alpha and nobody knew who her father was. The only paternity test that could be done in this day and age was her powers being revealed.
She always knew she could teleport, but she never let anyone see her do it. Her stealthy way of sneaking up on people was for her to decrease suspicion. If people came to expect that of her, then they wouldn't pay attention much to how she did it. She made sure to sneak up on them rather than teleport if anyone was in the room, so people would assume that her ability meant nothing.
"I always tried to fit into my family, to make sure the Beta thought I was his daughter, to save my parent's marriage. But I'm the only one who looks like mother, and that makes me stand out. Do you think that in my next life, I could be loved?" Sroka asked, with hope in her eyes.
"My sweet child, you are loved."
"No I'm not, I'm the Alpha's daughter, not the Beta's. But my real father would not accept me. He said he never slept with my mom. I've been forsaken."
Saoirse was astonished. "That doesn't sound like my brother!" She exclaimed. "Why would he not take you in?"
"Because the Luna hated me." She said, "he loved his Luna and she said that he couldn't have me for a daughter, that we'd better bury that notion or she would get rid of me somehow."
"That doesn't sound like Sundance either!"
"I don't care what you think! That's the way it is!"
"Shhhh. It's ok, calm down. I'm just surprised, you know? I'll admit I didn't know my brother all that well, but if we survive this, you can be a part of our family ok?"
Sroka looked at Lachlan. Her real brother. Or half brother, just like everybody else. Then her purple eyes met Saoirse's. She assumed a look of determination. "Then I'm going to save us." She said resolutely.
whoosh!
Before Saoirse could say anything, Sroka was gone.