Aurora and the Fire by Jessica Hammatt (the ebook reader TXT) 📕

her and nodded. She knew what that meant. The two jet from the ground over the mountains and high into the air, both with wings at full span side by side. Both of them searching the skies for anything that may come and the ground for what was already done and could never be undone.

Aurora soaked in everything on their flight. The air choked of smoke and heat of flames that were still feasting among the trees filled her lungs and made them burn. She summoned on the winds to clear their vision, they obliged and smoke whirled and blew until the air was clear and they could see the chaos that lay below them. Remnants of life, both living and passed, remained where fire did not burn and where the balls of destruction did not reach. Cries of agony and sorrow reaches Aurora’s ears and into her. She could feel the pain, all of it. From the unfortunate souls who were begging for death to rescue them from their torture to the loved ones who watched in great sorrow as their beloved left this world in such a terrible state. Dreka heard and saw but refused to allow himself to feel because the only one who could cause such sounds to come from him was that if it had been his angel of the skies. He stays on watch over her for any sides of eminent danger as she flew from tribe to tribe asking questions, helping tend to the injured and dieing. It brought some peace to Aurora to hear most of the Arian people that inhabited the great mountains staircase to the heavens, flew to safety. Of course she knew where to find them but that wasn’t what she wanted. She had let concern eat her of her appetite and therefore making it impossible to save herself whereas she should have known that the people would find their way to safety just fine without her.

She tended to as many as she could including soothing loved ones of those passed. She had a great talent for that, Dreka noticed. Seems that clearing souls of their moment of darkness and putting light in it’s place was something she had always performed on those who reached to her heart. Aurora’s heart was not hard, just hard to reach. Dreka supposed though that in this situation her heart lay exposed for all the pains of her co inhabitants to be shared, much to his dismay. He hated seeing the storm rage within her. Thoughts of responsibility, duty, regret, and so much more to pound on herself, runs through her as Aurora follows him into the air onward to the mountain staircase.

It still stood but no longer complete. The mountains had not been saved from the bludgeoning of both fire and rock. The staircase now held huge ravines between each other. You could no longer walk the staircase to the top but instead have wings and if you didn’t, then be a great climber and have the brave soul to do it. Aurora floated around the area among the tree homes of her people. No one living or otherwise remained behind. If any had perished, she thought, the people would have taken them for grieving and proper burial. After she was satisfied that everyone was gone except her and her partner, Aurora sped toward the heavens so fiercely Dreka was afraid she was heading toward the thinning air into the space that lay beyond. He knew there was no air past that point and with heart in throat as he raced toward her, she stopped and drifted down to perch at the peak of the staircase. Though more relaxed, the air was so thin, Dreka found it hard to breathe. Aurora noticed this as she watched him descend then rest next to her. “Don’t worry” she sung to him “ your lungs are not yet used to breathing air as I do, but with time you will get used to it” He nodded in response while he fought to catch his breath and slow his hammering heart. She turned from him then and looked out over her lands.

“There is something I’d like to share and I know you’d never ask, but I want you to know so you may understand a little of why I must do something that’s going to sound crazy. Look up” she motioned to the surrounding planets. Dreka looked in astonishment. It hadn’t just been their world that received a curse from the heavens but two out of the four of them had gotten the same fate. Fire and smoke could be seen filling the atmosphere and pieces of the worlds floating in space between the planets. “ I remember my parents faintly. I was just a child when they left us. They were going on expedition to one of the other worlds during a bad time in the life of our people. I have been told throughout my life that they never made it and was lost in the space beyond the heavens and some have said that they made it but were met with hostile forces that ended them. These were the reasons they gave why they had not returned. You see, Dreka, my mother and father descendant from a long line of warriors and leaders. They were betrothed to one another as is the custom for the fairies’ king and queen.” She gave a pause so to let him respond, but when nothing came she continued. “ I have never claimed my right to the position of leadership but those that I watch over see me as such, even as far as the earth dwellers and probably the water bearers as well. The Arian people, however has always treated me like a child even long after I became of age many cycles ago. Luckily I had Heron, my parents closest and most dear friend. He was the one to teach me of things beyond my lands and the history of my people. He is the one who kept me close with my parents, telling me every aspect inside and out of both of them. I grew to know and love them more the more Heron helped me to connect to them. This is also where my core notions come from. From the responsibility of caring over those that share these lands to looking into the distance at other worlds and not being content with just knowing what was in front of me. My parents meant for more and dreamed past the heavens and their own surroundings to what could be. This has been passed from them, and Heron, to me. Most of which I believe I was born with. I have told you all of this to tell you this. I’m going up there” Aurora’s eyes never moved from the battered worlds above her. Luckily, she supposed was that her world had protected the other two worlds from being touched. Dreka had stood at her words and now towered above her, shading her from the sun, and put his hand out for her. She took it and rose to her feet, her resolve final. He kissed her sweetly and embraced her, his energies flowing into her, her feeding hungrily on them so to strengthen herself. After they drank what they could of each other, he let her go, nodded, then looks up to the heavens. “No” she lay a hand on his arm, tight and hard beneath her finger tips, “you can not go. There is not strength enough in your lungs yet. You must learn to breathe and still function in the thin air and it only gets thinner until you reach the atmosphere of the world. At least that’s what Heron always told me” Dreka’s look of sudden mistrust in the idea had Aurora continuing quickly, “ I know you worry but you also know that once I’ve decided something, there’s no going back. Besides, it shouldn’t take you long to get the knack of it. I’m just going to scout ahead and…”
“No” he cut her off with the word, “you go nowhere without me. We are never to part from each other, remember? And I will NOT stay here, flying around and around, while you go to another world far beyond my reach. We’ll just have to figure out a way, you wait till I’m strong enough or something, but if you go, I will die trying to follow you and you know that”

Aurora knew what he said to be true so she began to calm him with her voice. “Alright, now. Don’t get upset, I understand and shouldn’t have expected a more cooperative reaction. I would do the same as you know and I am sorry that I had the gumption to ask you to allow such a thing. Come” They flew back to their sanctuary, and now so much more, after all, it is where they met and fought, then it became the place where their love blossomed and fulfilled it’s promises. It is there they came together once again as one. Through the night, if one listened closely they would hear the sounds of love and the words sung with a most beautiful voice fill and surround the mountains and their waterfalls. As Dreka slipped into sleep, Aurora watched him. She thought of just leaving in the night, but he would follow as soon as he found her gone and without knowing which world she was going to, he would lift off to the nearest one first then surely lose his breathe, then his consciousness, then his life. He would do this fully knowing the consequences but as she knows all too well that death, to both of them, was far greater than a life parted from each other. So she agreed with herself that she would wait until he was ready. There was nothing pressing her to go except every fiber of her being. Oh well, it could wait. He’s worth that and more, she thought. She drifted into slumber with him and his dragon like wings covering her head to toe, while being both heated and rocked with the steady pounding of both their hearts beating as one.
Young One

The next morning started off in good spirits. Dreka was getting stronger in his lungs and able to fly farther longer. He was becoming accustomed to his new body more. The winds listened to his call now and Aurora knew he was ready to begin training in the art of her people’s skills and powers. She, however, could give him knowledge that no one else could. He would receive all her help in guiding him as long as it is within him to do so, that is a choice only he could make. She was going to speak to him of such things later but that thought was before everything became heated between them. It started when, after being with him all morning and noticing the bandages that wrapped around his foot and ankle, she finally spoke of it. It surprises her still how