The Enchanted Path (Book 1 of the Dreamfarers' tales)

Chapter 37 - Black and White

Things did not go as expected.

None of them expected anything specific but they certainly didn't expect to get separated right after stepping into the waterfall. They had no trouble passing through the thundering wall of water, which let them in as if made of thin air, but the real surprise waited just on the other side.

"This can't be good," Cassidy mumbled aloud. She was surrounded by fog...or were those clouds? And she was flying, when she remembered she had been walking through the portal.

"Alright, the others can't be here...oh, I'm talking to myself now! Oh gosh..." An uncomfortable pressure in her chest caused her breathing to quicken, but she forced herself to stop and maintain control. Whatever happens, don't panic! Cassidy gazed feverishly around but to no avail. There was nothing but white as far as the eye could see.

"Should I stay here and wait? What's the use? They cannot fly...aww! What am I gonna do?"

Unable to think of anything better, Cassidy picked a random direction and fluttered forth. She watched worriedly as the clouds ran by at an alarming speed beneath her. She was just arching her wingtips a bit, her feathered tail was flared wide to further slow her down, and yet that white expanse around her shifted swiftly as if she was diving in it headfirst!

This can't be good...I shouldn't stray from...wherever I was! Where am I even going?

Her panicked ramblings were put to a stop as her ears picked up a distant yowl, and she froze at once. She gasped when she realized that she wasn't going to fall even with her wings still like this. That was good. No, this is the furthest thing from good, you idiot! She immediately scolded herself, observing her wings as if they were alien limbs that had been magically attached to her. There wasn't a breath of wind; she should have fallen like a stone. Gingerly, Cassidy folded one wing to her side, but her balance wasn't affected. She did the same with the other wing and she stayed there, suspended in that air as dense as honey.

Sensing her agitation building up again, Cassidy let her wings spring from her sides and resumed flying; the air parted like it was supposed to. She decided that she didn't want to find out however physics worked in that Ouranus forsaken place.

A yowl rang again. Closer.

Cassidy stiffened but didn't freeze this time. The last thing she wanted now was to allow herself to trust this place to catch her. Should she plummet, she didn't have any assurance that she would be able to will her body to comply and regain altitude.

And that lament, that lament sounded neither like Dianthus nor Birch. Cassidy wasn't sure she wanted to investigate, but it didn't look like she had much of a choice. She tried turning around and facing somewhere opposite the direction the lament originated from, but every time she heard it again in front of her, closer still. Something was coming up to her, that much she knew, and there was no escaping it.

I'll just have to kick it as hard as I can! She told herself as a much-needed spark of bravado kindled within her. Cassidy flapped her wings and maneuvered her tail just enough to check her position and waited there, wings raised high, ready to push her away in case of need.

The air trembled all around her. It was something only winged creatures could perceive and it was hard to explain to an earth-bound one. Air felt like a multitude of crested waves rolling under her every feather and hair, and those waves communicated through shifts as quick as thought itself. They spoke to her, those jolts, and warned her of the shallows and sudden jerks in the current. It had to be something close to what Dianthus once told her light and darkness and magic felt like to him, and even he hadn't been able to explain it with words. Flying objects like a leaf swept by the wind or any living being traveling across the ether disturbed these communications, and sensitive creatures such as pegasi perceived these disruptions in time to avoid a possible collision. It was the proverbial electricity in the air before and after a storm, but while to earth-bound creatures it was a on/off kind of sensation, a sudden shiver which came and went, for pegasi those shivers never ended, only subsided or perked. And now the air sizzled with upcoming danger.