A peaceful sort of rhythm was set up, with him wandering almost aimlessly through the story of his life, and with Mirage listening, mostly quietly, but asking the occasional question. This went on, and around them the storm grew fiercer again, and Lark, became concerned for their safety out in the weather. He feared that they would be hurt, and told Mirage as much. She laughed, a tinkling light sound that seemed to resonate with the surrounding storm, and said she feared nothing from the storm. Still, Lark was apprehensive, and wanted them to seek some sort of shelter. Mirage agreed, so Lark began to lead her, walking towards where he thought he had come from. Sortly, he realized that he was intensely lost. Mirage, though at first facinated with walking, stated that perhaps he would know whwere they were if he were to see it from above.
Mirage reached out to a part of her storm, her strongest winds and fiercest thick clouds, asking them if they were willing to try something a bit unconventional. The two were lifted up into the air, swirling in the winds that left them strangely dry and unwindblown. Higher and higher they went, until they were soaring miles above the earth. "Can you see your place now?" Mirage inquired.
The sensation of suddenly being slung through the air far higher than he had ever been before, with no visible support, while a storm raged around him and wind pushed and yanked at him was a little more than Lark could take. He had a bit of a breakdown. He began muttering to himself, questioning his own sanity and making allusions to popular reality television shows. 'I must be hallucinating, dreaming, SOMETHING. This simply is not possible."
Mirage saw Lark, and his sudden and strange behavior and muttering, and cast some aspirations of her own concerning his sanity. However, she decided to wait for a few moments to see if he would continue to act strangely or if he would become accustomed to it. When his strange behavior showed no signs of letting up, Mirage sighed and asked the winds to take them lower. Lark seemed somewhat calmer when he was nearer to the ground, although it was much harder to keep the rain off of them in that position. Mirage herself thought the rain was a wonderful thing, bringing coolness and reassuring heaviness to all it touched, but Lark seemed to prefer to avoid it. His suggestion that they take shelter from the storm had amused her, since he seemed to have forgotten her very nature-- or perhaps he had never believed her in the first place. Regardless, it seemed rather more likely that he believed her now. Though much of her storm was obstructing her view, she could see clusters of lights on the ground that they were passing over, high above. These clusters of lights seemed to be growing thicker, more numerous, and closer together. Soon, they seemed to form far ahead a single huge mass of shining light through the darkness. As they were getting closer, Mirage sensed a strange quality in the air, she did not have a name for it, but it seemed very forboding.
Lark had not truly believed her. Sure, the idea of meeting a creature of myth and magic on the very worst day of his life had a certain appeal to it, but he had not truly thought that such a thing was possible. Now, riding a part of her storm, embraced in the very winds that pushed the thunderheads of clouds, he had no choice than to believe in either what she said or in certifiable proof of his own madness. And he did not feel mad, in that moment, although perhaps he would not really know if he were going mad. He tried to think for a while, to remember if mad people knew they were mad, but then Mirage looked at him, threw her head back and laughed into the galloping winds that lashed them, and he forgot thoughts of madness and the life he had on the ground. It seemed to him at that moment that nothing would be greater than surfing the clouds for the rest of his life.
Mirage saw a change come over Lark. She saw that his fear had been taken over by something else, something perhaps more dangerous, more subtle and lethal. It was in the look in his eyes, as he ceased to tremble in fear and began to observe the sky about him, enjoying the press of wind and the sweeps of air that caressed him. Mirage knew that he was a creature of earth, but for a moment she dared to think that perhaps creatures of earth were not confined to the arena of their birth. But storms are fickle things, which Mirage knew-- but even she would not have guessed what a turn the storm would take.
The storm suddenly turned far more wild, changing directions suddenly, accelerating and shifting. Mirage, always at one with the storm, adjusted with barely a thought. Lark, who had no experience at all, and who was not the most coordinated at the best of times even on solid earth, fell, and began to the take a huge long deadly plunge towards that suddenly all-too-solid earth.
Mirage screamed, a sound like the monsoon rain beating against the walls of a house at night, a sound like the rushing of a gorged river that overturns all in its path; a sound of anger and sorrow and despair. She threw herself after him, not allowing her strong winds to catch her, nor to slow her fall. They both drew closer and closer to the ground, and Mirage saw that they were now so close to the bright lights that she could see individual lights, like a thousand little tinkles of laughter, lighting up the area all around her. Before they hit the ground, another wind caught them-- not one of Mirage's own, but a strange force to Mirage. She had never felt a wind like this one, which seemed to be at once more ancient and mysterious than anything she had ever encountered before, and yet it was also strangely ...fragile, almost.
Lark was unsure what was happening. He had been falling, and then he was not falling anymore, and he had assumed that Mirage had caught him. The look on her face had him a bit worried though, because far from the serene expressions she had around him so far, she presently looked as though she were terrified. This was not at all comforting to Lark, who was already pretty freaked out. He began shouting as Mirage, but she took no notice of him, seeming to be very focused on something, though he could see nothing through the striking rain.
Mirage heard, through some strangeness, a voice of this other presence; although she did not really hear a voice, it was more of a sudden understanding. "What is thing you do, Child of Storms?" The words seemed to rumble andesonate deeply through Mirage, filling her with a sort of dread that she did not understand. She attempted to explain what was happening to the presence, very conscious of the fact that Lark was staring at her as though she were completely crazy and trying to ignore his stares. "There are consequences for what you have done, Wind-Born." Mirage knew this, but was frightened to ask what the consequences were. The presence informed her anyway. "Your storm may dessert you. You may never be able to ride the winds above the earth or experience the conception of a storm ever again. You might be grounded, trapped upon the earth forever." Mirage, horrified found her curiosity now too much to ignore: "What do you mean "might"? Is there some way to avoid..?" The deepness of the voice caused Mirage to shake ever so slightly. "You will not like it." Mirage nodded. She knew this already, though she was not sure how she knew.
Lark continued to watch Mirage. She seemed to be listening to something, and then she responded with sounds like a harsh breeze whipping across a sharp cliff of rocks. The expression on her face changed from pensive curiosity to anguished indecisiveness. After a few more moments, her features solidified into an expression of slightly mournful determination. "What's going on?" Lark asked, even though he suspected he would not be able to understand, and the expression in Mirage's eyes as she looked back at him was confirmation.
Lark began walking, and Mirage followed him. For a long time, they didn't speak. They walked and walked. Lark didn't realize he was walking anywhere in particular, but eventually he realized he was retracing his steps, back to where he had come from, back to his life that had fallen apart. His steps faltered, stopping for a moment. Then Mirage's gaze met his questioningly, and he forced and smile and continued, his stomach burbling as his feet thudded heavily against the wet packed earth. Eventually, they began to see signs of human habitation, and Mirage began to ask questions. She was facinated by everything, from lights to houses to cars. All of it was new, and all of it prompted many questions.
Mirage had seen a darkness in Lark's face. For a while, she remained silent, but eventually she could not contain the flood of questions she felt rising up inside herself as she began to see pieces and parts of the foriegn world which Lark called home. She began to ask them, growing in boldness as she watch his face begin to brighten as he answer them. They walked on and on, and Mirage's mind was filled and her senses overwhelmed by everything. She pushed down the nagging thought that time was short, and simply decided to enjoy each moment as best she could.
