Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Sroka appeared and disappeared in the vast expanse of the sky, looking for Sirius.
" Where is that Vampire!" She cried out in frustration.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
She appeared and was about to reappear again, but then she spotted it. A winged beast below her, that seemed to be in an endless dive.
Whoosh! Her thoughts were interrupted by her body continuing the action she had been doing, and the beast disappeared out of view as she reappeared higher up.
"Nooooo!!!!" She cried out. "Go back! Go back!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
She frantically vanished and reappeared but couldn't get back to the spot that she had been in.
"No! Where is he?!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
She looked all around her. "Alpha!!!!!!!!!" She yelled. "Where are you?!!!!!"
She spun around midair, searching. "Alpha!!!!!!!"
Then suddenly two talones feet descended upon her shoulders from above, and the feeling of falling stopped in an instant.
She looked up at her savior and there was the great beast that her Alpha had become. She hugged him and tears of joy filled her eyes.
"Oh Alpha! I couldn't save your wife! I can't jump that far!" She sobbed.
"Where is she? I will catch her!" Sirius exclaimed, but the little girl didn't understand him.
"Ahhhh..shriii…iii? ahhh…iiii..saaaa….ahhh?" Was all that came out of his mouth.
Sroka looked up at the face of the man who had caught her and began trying to climb up onto his back. She wriggled out of his grasp and nearly slipped. Sending a chill down her spine that she even felt in her fingertips. Fear tried to clench her heart. Instead of climbing, she teleported, something she called a jump.
"I'll try to take you to her, but this is going to be uncomfortable!" She said reassuring him that she had a plan. Even though she didn't.
With a whoosh! They were off. Each time they reappeared, they searched the horizon for his wife and child. It was as before, they were as difficult to find as he had been.
Whoosh! The beast let out a nauseated "ahhhh!!!!" His banshee scream taking on a more whiny tone, but he wasn't telling her to stop. He flapped his wings to regain air and then whoosh! They were gone again.
"I WILL FIND HER!" Sroka cried out. But she was getting exhausted now. She didn't know which way to go, up or down. She had gone up to find Sirius, so down should be his wife right?
It was all so disorienting.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
And then suddenly, there was the ground.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" The beast cried, startled as he flapped his great wings to slow their fall, but there was no time. With seconds away from impact, they were going too fast and he hadn't had time to stop.
Whoosh! He had forgotten about Sroka. Of course! She had teleported them higher up. Giving him time to land easier.
————
The sky had hit a threshold and Saoirse was holding Lachlan in her arms, protecting him. She had fallen for an hour now. Or two? Perhaps a day?
The threshold was from day to night is often referred to as Golden hour. As if some invisible barrier had divided the light and the dark. Now she was falling into nighttime.
The rainbow light that she had seen in the air disappeared into darkness with the flash of a green light as she crossed it.
Below her was endless black. The light in the sky above drifted away and became a pinprick like one of the many stars. Were all of the stars other worlds? Beams of light revealing their location? Other realms perhaps? Did that mean there were other realms? More than just the nine she had learned about?
Now the pinprick was gone. She couldn't see any stars anymore.
Lachlan fell asleep.
She watched him peacefully unaware of the danger they were in and smiled. Then she got a more serious tone. "What will we do if we endlessly fall? Will we starve? What will I do if we die here in the air from starvation?" It would be a horrible, slow way to go that nobody in the history of the realms had probably gone through.
Well, perhaps that isn't true. She thought, I bet that people have fallen here before. Perhaps they jumped, perhaps they were pushed. It wouldn't be below Odin to punish someone like that, and especially Nanna, that evil witch who only concerned herself with being on the winning side would have definitely pushed someone off before.
She cursed that Valkyrie who could do such a thing to an innocent wolf cub like that. She hadn't seen Sirius incinerate her; she assumed that the woman probably survived.
She clenched her fists. I will find her in my next life!
Whoosh! Suddenly out of nowhere, two great talones feet clamped down on her, wrapping her reclined frame up like a blanket.
Time stopped.
Suddenly, the endless plunge came to a sudden, jarring halt—not with the crushing impact of the ground, but with a force that yanked her upward. Air whooshed past her as the fall reversed, her body jerking like a puppet on a string. She gasped, disoriented, her hair whipping around her face as massive, leathery wings beat against the wind.
A figure loomed above her, vast and ancient, its black presence hard to see in the void. She looked up, her breath caught in her chest, and saw crimson red eyes glowing like molten suns. The creature's claws were wrapped around her, sharp enough to tear but impossibly gentle, as if holding something fragile.
For a moment, all was still. The roar of the wind quieted, and the heat of the beast's body enveloped her, its scales glinting like polished obsidian in the light of distant stars. But there were no stars, there was no light. She could barely see him with her vision in the darkness.
Then, with a powerful stroke of its wings, it landed. Bringing an end to the abyss that had threatened to consume her. He set her on the ground. She kissed his face and kissed the ground. "Oh what a glorious thing it is to see the ground and not me crushed by it!"