The other side

Silvia guided Lilly onto one more rock and gracefully she spread her wings jumping off, she floated a little way before landing gracefully onto her feet.

The girls smiled at each other. "Come on Lilly, take us home." Silvia said. The bird let out a sweet-sounding squawk and began walking down the trial towards their tree house.

The next morning the girls headed to the mountain side to continue practice flying, Time flew by, they took turns jumping off smaller boulders on Lilly's back.

"She is doing so well on the smaller rocks lets try off the bigger ledge now." Silvia said sliding off Lilly to stand beside Lacey, they started climbing up to the cliff." Hey wait up!" Called Tim as he came out of the trees behind them, they got to the top and waited for Tim.

"Is she going to jump off here?" He asked, looking off the edge of the ledge. "I think she is ready." Lacey said as Silvia bent down and let Lacey step on her hands and lifted her up onto Lilly, she sat down, Silvia scrambled up too.

"Are you coming?" Lacey asked Tim. "I thought you wanted a ride." Silvia said. "Come on, I will give you a hand." Tim took the hand Silvia held out to him and pulled him up. He was too busy looking around at the forest that you could see from the ledge to notice Silvia's strength.

He tried positioning himself on Lilly's back, not sure where to hold on. The three sat on Lilly, Lacey in the middle, Tim on the back and Silvia in front. "Come on Lilly, you can do this, remember to use your wings." Silvia said to Lilly.

Lilly shook her head then slowly spread her wings, and jumped off the ledge, Tim let out a shout as Lilly fell towards the ground, Lacey let out a quick breath.

Silvia had her head close to Lilly's whispering things Lacey could not hear as she held fists full of Lilly's white feathers in her hand to hold on. Tim looked on in horror as Lilly got the hang of her wings.

Right before they crashed into the ground she spread her wings out as far as they would go and flapped hard, pulling the children up and into the sky, Silvia laughed and patted Lilly's neck.

"See I knew you could do it!" Lacey smiled at the forest below them and then looked back at Tim. He was clinging on for dear life, his face as white as a sheet. "you good?" She asked him.

"I... I… I… th… thi... think I'm afraid of heights." He stammered, she giggled. They flew around the forest a couple times and then headed closer to the mountain Tim still struggling to find a good hold and stay on Lilly's back.

Suddenly Lacey spotted a group of black birds far below them. Lilly began to rise higher into the sky headed in the direction of the big birds. "Look!" She said to Silvia pointing at the birds. "Oh dear, I hope they don't see us," said Silvia.

She bent down low to speak to Lilly and Lacey grabbed an even bigger hand full of feathers as Lilly spotted the other birds. Tim let out another shout, as Lilly took a sharp turn and sped up her wings flapping faster.

Lacey grabbed hold of Tim's shirt as he started to tumble off Lilly. Struggling to hang on to the feathers, Lacey struggled to keep hold of his shirt.

Tim's face turned an even whiter shade which Lacey had never seen before. The birds spotted the group above them and began taking off in pursuit. Lilly headed farther over the mountain trying to get away from them.

They could see sharp rocks below them as they headed further over the mountain. Silvia started calling "LILLY. LILLY." But Lilly could not hear her over the wind that was blowing around them and sped up even faster trying to get away from the other birds.

As they got closer to the opposite side of the mountain they were jolted as Lilly suddenly hit something invisible. The air around them quickly became heavy. Lilly let out a wild squawk and tucked her wings in slightly.

With this action they suddenly began heading towards the ground in an extremely fast descent.

Lacey's breath caught as she looked down, instead of the yellow she was expecting, her dress was white and had suddenly become its original shape with its ankle length skirt and sleeves down to her wrists.

Her vision blurred from the quick change in atmosphere as they descended. She could barely see the ground as it continued getting closer, Lilly braced for impact, Tim's yelling was drowned out as fear gripped her.

Her hands clenched on Lilly and Tim's shirt as Lilly hit the ground and everything went black.