Chapter Five

The ground beneath them fell away as they climbed higher and higher. Mountains seemed like small ant hills, and the people below were all but invisible. The sun fell upon black and white wings, giving them more of a luster. If one were to look up, they would assume they saw birds.

"Everything seems peaceful today." The white winged woman called as they hovered in the air. "Even in the western wastelands. I don't know if I should be happy or worried."

"Everything will be fine, Elysia." The man looked towards the barren wasteland. It was all but desert, yet if one looked closely, they would see the ruined capital of the once prominent human civilization. "Most of Bredon already seeked refuge within Iryopyn Forest."

Elysia's eyes went to the forest with slight apprehension. "I think you put too much faith in my sister, Tengeshi." Her eyes went to the black winged man. "She has never been a fan of humans. She thinks they are too greedy and manipulative."

"This might be the thing that changes her mind." Tengeshi smiled as he brushed a strand of his black hair from his face. His green eyes reflected the color of the leaves he gazed at. "She hasn't spent any time with humans. How can you judge an entire species you've never met before?"

Elysia sighed as she looked at her husband. This pure hope was what made her fall in love with him all those years ago. His never ending quest to find even the slightest bit of good in someone and bring it out in even the worst of people. Her eyes softened every time he would talk of her sister Miamenor as a normal elf among their kin. He was the only other that gave her a chance. "We should head home." She sighed as she watched the sun on its journey towards the black peaks.

Tengeshi nodded with a smile in his eyes. His wings folded to his sides. He fell towards the earth in a dive. Pure exhilaration and joy coursed through his veins as he knew this to be the ultimate freedom. None but he and his wife would ever experience such joy, only they had survived the soul branding. His last thought picked up with the extension of his wings, sending both of them soaring.

"Elysia!" Tengeshi yelled through the darkening sky. His thoughts turned panicked as his head shifted rapidly, seeing only darkness. "Elysia!" Suddenly the tent flap opened and light green hair fell around him as Elysia, a girl he had only seen once before but knew him his whole life fell to the ground and embraced him.

"I'm here Tengeshi." She said softly as she smoothed his hair. "We got away from the gargoyles, remember?"

"What was that?"

Tengeshi was pale in the face with wide eyes as he sat up, his arms hooked around his knees. "Black wings." He said silently, and then he came fully back to himself. "Ehm, Elysia?" His voice was slightly awkward.

"Yes?" She took her arms away and sat next to him. They both sat in silence for a long awkward moment. Though she had known him his whole life, Elysia realized that they had only truly just met each other.

"I guess just…" He started, then found his words. "Nice to meet you." Reaching out his hand, Tengeshi clasped his in her own. His black winged mark met hers for the first time. He had thought for a long time how nice it would be to finally see that hand through his own eyes, yet now that he did, he could plainly see just how different they were. His life had been filled with the sun, hard work out traveling to and from town to set up wares that his father made, as well as gathering food to last the seasons. He might be eight years old, but he was lean, with muscle definition clear through his clothing. His skin stood darkly tanned in comparison to her pale delicate hand. To see her hand with his own eyes, he could barely make out the white birthmark without shade from the trees above, lending him support.

"This isn't our first meeting." Elysia took back her hand and held it clasped in the other in her lap. "I wasn't the only one to see that vision, was I?" Her eyes studied Tengeshi as he fidgeted with a stick he picked up from the ground.

"That was a dream, wasn't it?" He began to draw the outline of a small wing on the dirt below. "Dad told me all about his dreams once before. He says that dreams are small memories that are perceived by your imagination."

"That may be true, but have you ever had a dream before?"

"I don't think I need to answer that." He almost instantly regretted saying it when he saw the look of hurt in her eyes. "I don't mean it like that!" He raised his hands in defense. "It's just, I think you would know if I did, wouldn't you?"

They sat in silence for a little longer before Tengeshi began to put the tent away. "If I haven't ever experienced a dream, that would mean you haven't either." Elysia cleared her throat awkwardly. She had never been in this kind of situation before. "The vision felt so real though. It was as if I was talking to you through the dream, but you looked different."

"You looked different too." Tengeshi sighed as he packed the stakes away into his travel bag and began rolling up the canvas. "You looked at least ten years older."

"But you were an elf."

"What?"

"You looked much the same as you look now. The same raven black hair, yet from within the long strands, I saw ears resembling mine." She stared at his obviously not pointed ears.

"Well then that settles that." Tengeshi brushed his hair over his ears, letting Elysia take the hint. "It must have been a dream. I am and always have been a human."

Elysia sighed heavily. "I can't argue that point, since I've been with you as long as we both have been alive, but it felt way too real for it to be a dream. The us from the vision mentioned something about a ritual. I wonder what that was about." She stared off at nothing as Tengeshi finished putting everything away.

Well, we have a whole flight back home to think about it." He stretched his arms skyward and looked up at the clear blue sky. When he saw a bird flying above, he grimaced slightly as he remembered their ungraceful flight from the gargoyles. "Where are we, anyway?"

"I'm not sure." Elysia looked around. "We have never been this far away from home before, and I couldn't keep track of how many times I had to change directions to lose them. And, about flying."

"What about flying?" Tengeshi felt a ball of dread settling into the pit of his stomach.

"I've been trying to use my birthmark since we woke up. It feels like a block has been placed on it, and I can't get it off."

"You don't know where we are, and we can't fly?" Tengeshi ran out of the woods and looked around. They had flown for what felt like hours. He had seen a city beneath them which looked to be the size of Y'rale. He remembered the castle which seemed to be placed at the end of a cliff, the city itself was spread the opposite direction, as if it was cutting off the castle from escape. With a city that grand, it had to be Yrale. Though the problem was, he didn't know just how far they had flown past it. "We may have passed Y'rale, and if we have it would mean at least two months travel by foot from Y'rale to my home. So we are even further than that, with no way to make the distance!" He picked up a loose rock from the ground beneath and chucked it into the air, hoping to hit an absentminded bird.

"I wouldn't say we are without fast transportation." Elysia tightened her travel boots, the glyph for agility shown at the heel. "It might take a bit, but we can make it back."

"Those gargoyles broke off and went towards my home." Tengeshi's heart leapt. "If my father was there." He let his spoken thought hang, as if the silence was enough to finish for him.

"We don't know if he really was still in the cottage. What if he went out to get more iron?"

He thought back to before he had left. He remembered a decent amount of iron nuggets within the forge. "He already had a decent amount stored, and he didn't have any sales. There's no reason why he would have left the cottage." He sighed as he thought about that. "If he stayed within the cottage, the gargoyles wouldn't have attacked. They only attack those who enter the forest or who are out of their homes at night." His heart slowed at an almost visible rate.

"Then we should get going." Elysia walked from the clearing. She looked away from Tengeshi to keep him from seeing the worry in her eyes, yet she wasn't very successful.

"Why do you look so doubtful?" He asked in a low tone. "He was in our home, they wouldn't attack him, right?"

Elysia hesitated. She knew there was a chance she was wrong, but her teachings told her otherwise. "It's the gargoyle's job to keep humans from the forest, but they also have another job."

"What other job?" Tengeshi's eyes narrowed.

"I have been told in the past that the gargoyles both guard the forest from humans, and the knowledge of the elves from them as well." She trailed off as she looked at Tengeshi. She knew there was still a possibility that Tymore survived, yet it was unlikely. "By making glyphed weapons and armor, the gargoyles can feel life essence when used. It's likely they were going to attack last night even if you didn't go home."

"I don't care!" His eyes were wide as he looked at Elysia. "Even if there's a small possibility that my father is alive, I owe it to him to see for myself." his eyes stung, and he knew it wasn't from the wind in the valley. "I owe it to him."

"Then we need to figure out where we are, so that we can at least know where we are going." Elysia brushed a green lock of hair from her eye as she thought. "I can't fly, so I can't see an aerial view of this place."

The two sat in silence for a time, Tengeshi cradled his head between his knees, trying to block out the reality he had found himself in. Think, think! As the time trickled by, Tengeshi's head popped up. "That's it!" His excited voice broke Elysia from her reverie.

"You thought of something?"

Tengeshi ignored her as he took a small carving tool from his bag and set to work on two new plates. Elysia watched him carefully, and her eyes widened when she saw what he was doing. "You really think that'll work?"

Tengeshi put the finishing touches on the two plates and replaced the ones in his shoes. When he released the blocks from his mind, the life essence poured in. He instantly felt himself growing lighter. He jumped once to test, and he floated upwards slightly before settling back down on the ground. He felt no resistance from his feet touching the grass once more. After the test, he nodded before flexing his legs. He put every ounce of power into one large jump. He suddenly felt himself shoot up into the sky, the sense of vertigo nearly making him vomit. The tops of the trees came and went in seconds, and soon he felt himself level with the clouds.

Settling his nerves and trying to ignore the tickling feeling within his gut as well as the tingling in his hands, Tengeshi opened his eyes and observed the landscape. His eyes went wide in both amazement and fear. From this height, he could see every inch of the land in front of him. He could see the sun above, and where the light was cast below. He saw every shaded area, as if he were the guardian of the ground below. The wind whipped his hair to and fro as he surveyed the area. He could feel that he was going to start falling any moment. He didn't need to see the ground approaching, he could feel how long he would be able to stay above. It was a strange feeling, knowing just how long you could defy the logic of the world.

Looking as far as his eyes could strain in every direction, just as he began to fall he saw the cliff with a castle almost like a pinprick at the very edge of his vision to the west. If he wasn't in the air, he would think that it was just a tiny grain of sand on the ground.

He kept his eye on the horizon just for a moment, before the memory of the dream hit him. Tengeshi remembered just how amazing it felt to fly. The thoughts were alien, as if they came from someone else's mind, yet he couldn't shake the feeling of being free. Of being one with the wind. A smile crept onto his face as he plunged headfirst back to the ground.

Though it had taken only moments for him to find himself level with the clouds, it took so much longer to make his way down. He twisted in a spiral feeling the wind spin him faster than he believed possible. Pull up. He felt that alien feeling try to tell him. You need to pull up! A sense of urgency crept into his mind, and he stopped his downward spiral as best he could. Instead of diving below, he spread his arms and legs, feeling his limbs catch the air beneath. He looked below and could see the tree tops rapidly approach, as well as a worried green haired young elf staring up at him.

Tengeshi went from delight to dread in record time as his freefall became more perilous. He dropped his feet down towards the awaiting ground and prayed that he had not made the wrong decision. Closing his eyes and clenching his jaw, he waited the seconds he knew he had before he would collide with the earth below. Those seconds turned into a minute, until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He opened one eye and then let out the breath he had been holding. His feet felt the solid earth even though he hadn't felt the impact. Exhaustion outweighed his excitement and he felt himself falling to the ground.

"Put up your blocks!" Elysia caught him under his arm. Her panicked voice jolted him slightly, giving him enough mental fortitude to put the blocks in place to stem the flow of life force before he ran out completely. After he felt the block in the essence, he removed the two plates from his boots and looked at them. The three glyphs stared back at him within the wood. It had been a gamble to put the weightless glyph with the strength and agility glyphs, but it had given him exactly what he needed to find out where they were.

"Thanks." He said in between panting as he gained his footing again. Sweat dripped from his brow as he pointed to the west. "There's a large city in that direction. It should take a few weeks to get there, even with the help of the glyphs." He packed the plates into his bag. "I don't think we should do what I just did again, at least not until we gain more strength. But at least we know where we're going."

"I could have told you it was a bad idea to place them so close together if you would have let me." Elysia's annoyance was almost palpable.

"I had to generate enough power in my feet to make the jump, the weightlessness to keep me in the air for a minute and for the drop down. If I didn't place the agility glyph among the others, it would have been a slow trip up and down." Tengeshi said hurriedly as he began walking towards the distant city he had spotted. "Either way, we know where to go. Maybe when we get there, I might be able to find us some help."