Of Ashes and Wind

Will you...

Phoenix looked up at Yggdrasil, the beautiful city began to float along its current to some place out to the west. Maybe it'll go to Dolan this time. Or Kal Darom, Orion had a lot of fun there with Belot the last time. Phoenix smiled to herself, she remembered setting eyes on the Great Thaig while it was in it's prime.

She told Belot he was right about it being a glamorous place – they just needed to get the drunkards to shut up while she was sleeping.

"There you are." Eiriell grabbed at Phoenix's shoulder.

"Here I am." Phoenix smiled softly at Eiriell, she held her eyes before dipping her head forward.

Princess Eiriell Elatoris had a ring to it, it always did.

But soon she was to be Queen.

Ailduin deemed that Eiriell was ready to take the throne. Another reason to it was that Ailduin and many other elves as old as he still suffered from the War of the Werenluna, they didn't know how much longer they had left on this world and wanted to pass on their responsibilities to the next generation sooner rather than later. The forest was healing now, but it looked like the healing would be something that future generations of elves would be able bask in.

Ailduin merely shrugged when Phoenix asked him if he thought it was unfair that his life was cut short.

The King simply said that whether he lives for forty years or one hundred and forty years, it's all the same at the end of the day.

That time is inedible.

But he had nothing to worry about, because Eiriell and her generation proudly carried on their hopes and dreams. Eostrun would be more than alright.

"What are you thinking about?" Eiriell asked, the two were simply standing at the great arching window, watching until Yggdrasil drifted away from the great opening in Eostrun's canopy.

Phoenix looked down at Eiriell, "Let's fly."

"Nix, I have a meeting to attend in a bit." Eiriell raised a brow.

Phoenix's face remained impassive at the comment.

And all at once, the two of them were scampering children because they bolted out of the room and ran down a familiar path that would lead them to the Roost. They were no longer a Princess in her twenty-seventh summer and a human adult in her twenty-sixth. They were eleven and twelve again, arguing over who would be taller than the other, whose more responsible, whose more mature.

There was a yell from the servants trying to figure what had gotten into the Crowned Princess and her friend.

Shelara and Tannyl were perplexed when Duke and Liona suddenly left their stalls, the pair of gryphons running out of the Roost.

Eiriell ran up to Liona and jumped on her back, but as soon as she did the sight of Phoenix jumping off of the platform and Duke quickly jumping down after her made her laugh. She urged Liona forward and all at once Phoenix and Duke came into view, the two already making a bid for the wild blue skies above.

Liona easily caught up to the two, Duke had a few more years of growing before he could compare to the Queen of the Skies. But the scrappy gryphon had proved his mettle time and time again.

Phoenix smiled when Eiriell and Liona barreled over the top of her, teasing the two into another eager climb above the clouds. Duke screeched, not wanting to be outdone by the bigger gryphon, he surged on faster trying to overtake Liona.

Eiriell smirked and suddenly Phoenix lost track of her due to the nose dive that Liona went into. Duke spiraled down, but for Phoenix it felt like they were pulling deceptively up higher from the way Duke arched into the dive. Phoenix could feel it, her Mark glowing and the wind currents around them that Duke freely controlled in a bid to catch both Gryphon Monarchs in their steep dive.