The Evanian Escapade: The Arakuur Woods

Chapter 7: Willow's first flight

They flew over the most beautiful fields near the plains before bidding goodbye to the most developed area in Evania, and greeting hello to the wild and colourful parts of Araf-nur. The quickest path would be to cross the Emerald Sea and land near the Lake of Wisdom. From there, they could walk for a while and give the phoenix a rest. El was breath-taken "I can't believe it! This is amazing!"
  "I know right! No matter how many times you experience this, you can never get used to the beauty of this place..."

They were quietly riding for a while, until Aki decided to break the silence-
  "So, you never told me what a Cob was..."
  "Oh, right! Cob is one of my best friends, especially when we were kids. We would always go on adventures as children... but ever since he joined the army, he's been quite overprotective of me..."
  "Why does he protect you so much? Are you always getting in trouble?!" She asked, with a giggle.
   "Well, yes! Both of us were troublemakers! But I think another reason would be that after a while... he learnt that, in reality, I was the prince..."
  "Wait, you're the prince??!!!"
This piece of information came to her as surprise. The wings of the phoenix slightly rattled at her unexpected reaction. She immediately called out "Don't worry, Willow! It's okay, girl..."
  "Her name is Willow? That's nice..."
  "Yes! It is... I call her that because I first met her in her nest, which was in a willow tree..."

There was a quiet and awkward silence for a while. Akira told El that she herself was royalty, in a way. She was the daughter of the chief.
  "I'm just constantly worried about how it will be when I rule the kingdom. It's just scary to know..."
  "That every desicion you make, that everything you do could impact so many people," El said, completing her sentence.
  "Exactly! It's nice to have someone to understand that!" She replied with a smile.

They landed near the Sprouting Well, to refill their arcas and rest Willow's wings for a while. Aki spoke about a story she heard
  "They say, this well is an enchanted wishing well. But, instead of throwing a penny in, we use spix berry seeds."
  "Well, do you believe it?"
  "Not exactly, I think the whole reason they made up this story was to improve the well water. Spix berries seeds can keep water clean and edible, it's much better than chlorine."

After a five minute break, they set off again. This time, El was riding Willow in the front. It took him a few minutes to get used to it though, but he later grew to love the large beast. He tried to direct the bird at first, but it lost balance and fell into a series of wobbles and loops. The creature was a telepath, and could tell what a person was feeling. She could tell that El was flustered, and that affected her flying. This was a fun and yet, terrifying, experience. Aki was quite scared, and so she held on as tight as possible. Her warm embrace reminded him of his mother. His late mother's warm touch, her loving smile...so many memories that he had locked away, came back.

When he calmed down and thought in peace, Willow was finally able to gain stability and fly them to their next destination...