Ebony Wings

17

~Ali~

Jack leads us through the day as we trek in a single line, flattening our preceder's footsteps. Jack maintains a steady pace across the frozen land. And so we walk. And walk. And walk a little bit more, not gaining much height on the mountain, simply circling it's many faces.

It isn't until the sun stoops in the sky, blinking behind distant grey clouds that Jack slows his pace. Several steps onward and the ground falls away to another cliff. We sidle up beside it and I am told not-so-subtly to stay away. 

Jack toes the grey rock, kicking off what dusting of snow remains on the ledge. Ethan wades towards him, joining Jack on the small patch of rock where the snow thins. 

"It's bare here." Jack knocks the rock-bed with the toe of his shoe. "This mountain is entirely covered with snow. Except here."

"Wind?" Jaz suggests.

Ethan sidles up to the edge, his shoes pushing a clump of snow out of view. "Or disturbance, like it has been kicked away." He watches the snow fall. 

"Like an entry way," Jack concedes. He turns his back to the edge, facing us, then steps backwards. But there is no mountain to spare and his body slips from view.

Jaz slinks curiously to the edge, Ethan stopping her a few steps from the drop. Even from my idiot-proof distance away, I can hear the heavy beating of wings dancing on the wind. Several heart beats pass when Jack drops himself onto safe ground behind us.

"There's a cave carved into the cliff face," he starts, face alight. "It looks unoccupied, but something tells me we should check it out anyway, while there is still some light." Jack moves his head around the mountain's darkening valleys. "It will get dark quickly, and colder too. Even if it is a dead lead, we can still spend the night." We murmur agreements and hash out a quick plan before we close in on the edge.  

With Jaz in Jack's arms, he spreads his wings at the cliff's edge. The wind catches in his feathers, stretching them further as they float on the up-wind drafts funnelling past the mountain. A gentle turn of his feathers and they glide downwards below our line of sight. 

Ethan tucks me into his front and I lean my head back into the hollow of his throat as he pushes us to the edge, unfurling his glorious wings. My fingers press deeply into his forearms around my waist, turning the skin there white from pressure. 

Ethan prowls to the drop, widening his wings and spinning us around so his heels dangle off the edge. A swift adjustment of his wings and we're floating downwards, riding the currents of the rough winds. I can feel his strain to keep control, the wind sharp and unforgiving as it slices past us. And then the wind is cut and the black, stone walls of the cave arch around us. Ethan retracts his wings and smooths back his tossed hair.

We wander deep into the cave, the light waning with each step. The cave's mouth is a distant spotlight. Jaz's fingers thread through mine, squeezing reassurance. 

I begin to stumble the further we walk, the ground swallowed by darkness. Jaz yelps and a rock echoes across the floor before colliding with a wall in front of us. I reach my hands out like a blind man manoeuvring an unknown environment. Cool, damp rock crumbles beneath my touch. I can sense the others around me, a few wavering pools of darkness where they stand the only indication I am not alone. 

"Jack?" Ethan whispers into the gloom, even though I know he can see perfectly well in the inky cave. 

"I think I know what you're going to say." Jack moves confidently across the cave floor. "And yes, I can smell that too." Imperceptibly I sniff the air around my face, breathing in nothing more than a lungful of earthy moss and wet rock. 

"It's unmistakably feline." Ethan touches the solid rock face we have been stopped by. I can hear the scratch of his fingertips across the corrugated surface. "Feel around, see if you can pick up on anything... unusual."

Immediately we break off in different directions in search of... something. Given, Jaz and I are totally incompetent given the circumstances but we still send out or hands, feelers in the darkness. 

Following the wall's curvature to the right, I focus hard to make out shapes or crevices in the rock. I focus so hard that I forget the path of my feet and falter over a lip of rock on the floor. I careen forwards, landing on another rock below me. My already sore palms glance over the smooth rock. It shifts beneath my grasp, the flattened rock sinking into the floor under my weight. I gasp and scramble to my feet as the slippery stone falls level with the floor.

The belly of the cave seems to groan and crack. Rock on rock begins to slide, the grinding reverberating through the cave, the vibrations running up my legs as the left side of the face splits away from the wall. Warm, yellow light floods our senses from beyond. I squint through the sudden brightness.

Jaz and I are hauled behind the angels, hands at their hips where they each have a small dagger concealed. The cavern wall splits, creating a gap wide enough for a single person to pass.

Through the slit, swimming amongst the buttery light, two slitted eyes widen, diamond pupils constricting. 

"'Gotcha," Jaz whispers into Jack's shoulder.  

Thessaly.