Secrets

Chapter 14

The night was cold and quiet as I snuck towards the landing platform to meet Smoke. We had decided to go at night since Smoke's light gray coloration in her Griffin form would easily be mistaken for a cloud drifting through the sky. I looked behind me warily, hoping I didn't wake Luke up when I snuck away from the room, leaving him to sleep on the bed alone. I needed to get to the human world, and I wasn't going to risk Alex, Lily, and Luke's lives again. I wasn't going to watch Alex die, see Lily killed and hanging up, or kill Luke with a sword again. All of that was just extremely painful.

As I got outside and onto the landing platform, I took a deep breath and looked up at the moon. It was full and shining brightly across the sky. There were a few scattered light gray clouds floating around which would make it easier to escape from the island and get to the human world. It was almost a whole year since we came to this land and found Arilis. I would have liked to celebrate with my people, but I needed to bring back one of our own.

"Are you ready to go?" Smoke asked as she unfolded her wings, the black soot splotches missing from her light gray wings.

"Yeah." I whispered.

I was carrying the bag we brought with to the Griffin capitol, but I had emptied it out. I filled it only with Smoke's and my clothes. Along with some food for the flight. The map was in my left hand as I looked behind us. Smoke had flapped her wings, so she was off the ground and showed off her true Griffin form. She was a land Griffin from how her feathers looked and the shape of her tail. I climbed onto her back and stiffened as I heard my name being called out.

"April! Where are you going? Why aren't you asleep with Luke?" Alex called out as Lily, and he made their way over to Smoke and me.

"I'm heading to the human world. They figured out where Vivien was being held roughly and I'm not risking any lives to retrieve her. I'll stay at Alexander's house, and I'll be back in a few months." I told them as Smoke took off.

I watched as they became as small as an ant. I could feel the cold breeze nip at my skin and shivered. I pulled a jacket out of the backpack and placed it on. The clouds in front of us were dark and the wind seemed to drown out any sound besides the crackling of the thunder ahead.

"April, are you positive this was a good choice? The human world changes quicker than our world does." Smoke said with an air of uncertain in her voice.

"I know it does. I was born and raised there." I muttered.

"Keep a hold on me. We're about to go through this storm." Smoke yelled; her voice barely being heard over the thunder ahead.

I squinted as the rain pelted my face. Smoke looked like she was having difficulty flying through the storm and I considered if this was a bad idea. To go through a storm like this, especially for Smoke, was ludicrous. Lightning could hit us at any second and the rain was just dragging at her feather, pulling us down towards the ocean. We needed somewhere dry and safe to land to weather the storm out.

Looking around, I could only find a large rock formation jutting out of the water slightly. I tried to turn her head towards the rock formation, but she just continued to fly into the storm. I clung on to her feathers, but they were becoming exceedingly slippery and hard to hang onto. I closed my eyes to avoid the rain getting into my eyes anymore. Just as I did, she started to fly upwards a bit to avoid being seen by a ship too far out at sea. As she did, my hands slipped from my hold on her feathers, and I began to fall towards the ship.

My body felt like some giant rock had just been slammed into my back. I opened my eyes only to find a vast dark greenish blue color surrounding me. The sound of waves roaring around me filled my ears as water rushed into my nose. My eyes widened in shock, but my body didn't seem to want to move. It was as if the water had evaporated all sense of mobility in my body, making my body nothing more than a rock being dragged into the ocean.