Scenario Four: Use Those Wings

Rune slipped again. Yori sighed explosively. “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” he said. He tried to stretch his wings. It hurt to move them. Flying up would be impossible. However, if he could angle them correctly…

“Let go,” he said, his tone brisk. He looked up at Rune. “I can’t fly, but I think I can glide.”

Rune shivered. “You’re sure?” he asked.

Yori nodded once. “Let go,” he repeated. “Rune, whatever happens, I love you.”

“I love you too,” Rune said, his voice faint. He hesitated. When Yori nodded, he released his hold.

Instinctively, Yori’s wings stretched as he began to fall through the mist. His injured wing couldn’t open as wide as the other. He was spiralling downward. His descent was faster than he would have liked, but he was slow enough – he thought.

As he neared the bottom, he could hear rushing water. He straightened his body, forcing his glid direction away from the cliff face. Then he saw the ground rushing towards him. He tucked, rolling over and over again before coming to a stop.

For a moment, Yori lay, panting in the grass. He chuckled softly and blinked away tears. He was alive. There was no way to tell Rune, but he didn’t doubt his mate was on his way. Rune would find him. Until then, he would just lie still and wait.

All my life’s sleeplessness has woven

Tobias sat out on the verdana that surrounded the officer quarters. He had a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other. He was writing.

He’d never been interested in writing before he was cursed. Now, though, it was a common pastime. He shook his head. It was probably because of all the sleepless nights. He needed something to occupy his time. He needed something to think about, besides the fact that he should be sleeping and wasn’t.

So, on those sleepless nights, he wrote. He wove stories with complex, intricate plots. He created characters from an imagination he never realized he had. “I guess,” he murmured, “some good came out of that curse after all.”