Discreet

2

Vis was perched on one of the top parts of the oasis, with a few other flier children not-so-around his size. Fliers usually did this, especially as children, because they were especially weak when they couldn't properly fly. Vis, on the other hand, was the greatest flier out of all of them. He could glide, and knew a few tricks to propel himself into the air. Jotunheim, even as hatchlings could fly well because of their build meant for such purposes, with wings that functioned like normal limbs, so he learned how to move his wings while he walked around. It was also awesome having such fur, and blubber, because of how well it protected me from the cold. I could jump into the water and not feel a thing! Well, only for a few seconds. Then I got a feeling that the others called 'chilly'.

The aggressive, blaring sun was dawning, it's bold orange painting the sky grand red hues. Forboding, much too grand red. It rose so quickly, and everyone was starting to leave. Oh, did I mention? We were hiding out the trials. It was a stupid idea, and we might have to hide for the rest of our lives, but they had recently changed the rules so everyone had to participate. Even the helpless baby Traiboros, or the tiniest Eulopii. Even the creatures of the ocean, for some reason. There was a baby Arachyu who was splashing a lot as it tried to escape. But the annoying old Hygos was watching it with stern cold eyes, with it's hoof in the water (blocking the exit and blurring the place.) I hated that Hygos. Once, I had tried to snag a bit of food from it and it tried to stomp me out of the sky! It didn't even eat meat!

I helped one of my friends, Vapos the Kemoti, pack a little more berries. "Sort of sad, right? Do you think we will be able to come back?" "Nah, they wont know. Think optimistic." "Vis, you are the biggest realist I have seen yet. You don't get a say." "I thought you asked me?" I demanded, not knowing whether to be amused or offended. I was actually feeling a little bit of both. "Well, we need to go stupid! The sun is rising!" Vapos clucked, annoyed, as he took off into a brightly fumed flight, and I followed. Hopefully we would be safe from this thing after all. The others were very far now. Not that I was surprised. The one thing Vapos was right about was that I was a huge realist. Being honest with yourself what was counted to me. Not clinging onto some stupid hope or dragging yourself into a quicksand pit of worries which would all end up being false, wasting half of your day and promptly lifting you as quickly as you sank.

I soared across the skies, my blue underbelly turned purple by the dawn. Vapos was trying to slow himself so I could keep up. He was dull blue and gray, with bright pink smoke constantly radiating from his feathers, and an overly long beak. He wasn't a good flier, but he was small and swift, making him much faster than everyone here. Speaking of that, I didn't go over them yet.

You already heard of Vapos, but we had a lot of other fliers, the 'pack', as we called ourselves. Really though, we were just a bunch of children ganging together to survive the terrors of what we were supposed to call a homeland. Many of us had been born here. I was different, though. I was born in the Tundras, which was the rarest place to be born for some reason. Only Winter creatures, such as I, could survive there. Otherwise, you could consider yourself dead and go crying to a Boreal Warden to protect you from the locals. I remembered them as pretty rough. But then again, even that was better than this community of sly creatures who would kill you at a moment's notice.