For the Sky (DISCONTINUED)

14 - An Anticipated Plan

We didn't see Oskar emerge from below deck even when the Blue Camellia noisily docked back at the port of Fiore, its worn birch wood and dirty blue sails standing out against the finer polish of the surrounding vessels. Not wanting to over-stay our welcome, I hopped off board, safely gliding to the ground. Asger tried doing something similar, although his lack of wings meant that he leaped - and down he leapt, having to roll on the ground to soften the blow to his pasterns. Raul and Frin followed close behind, but Aro stayed, his objective still being the pooka below.

"Let's get you a cloak," Asger nudged me in the side with his nose, gesturing to my wings. The thought of having to bind them close to my body again was agonizing, but getting caught before we could even get started would be unfortunate.

We loitered around the port for quite some time - we walked the length of it at least twice, and while I didn't know if I could say the same for Raul and Frin, Asger and I were happy to feel solid ground beneath our feet that wasn't swaying this way and that.

The destrier seemed on edge - he would occasionally pick his head up and nervously scan the crowd, his ears so intensely perked that I could see them shivering.

"What if we don't get a pooka?" Raul asked once we had walked one length.

"Well, then the plan's going to have to be altered..." Asger's jaw tensed at the question. He looked at me, brows furrowed, gently gesturing to Raul with his eyes. I let out a small sigh, cast my eyes away from him in irritation. He loudly stomped one of his back legs as he walked.

Raul watched the silent exchange with mild curiosity. Frin lagged somewhere behind, casting nervous glances at the ocean, as if the hippocampi that had transported us would appear at any second to request additional payment.

We walked another length of the port. We had arrived back in the afternoon and now it was beginning to darken. Shop windows lit up with oil lamps that hung from ceilings - citizens mingled about, talking in hushed, familiar tones without a care in the world.

But we - we were waiting.

Just when we thought our patience was worn thinner than ever before, the sound of a cannon going off startled us - I ducked down in panic, Asger reared, and Raul ran in the opposite direction for a short distance before his legs finally caught up with his settled mind. Only Frin, un-phased, watched with rehearsed patience as a set of sails went up in flames somewhere in the distance.

I watched in a furrowed awe as a light gray specter rose from the flames of where the birch ship once stood untouched, as countless figures jumped onto the ground in the port and into the water behind. Somewhere faintly I heard shouting, and finally, after another cannon-like sound, an amorphous whirlwind of flame shot up from the ship, followed by an other-worldly howl. It rose and rose and rose, before catapulting to the ground, too close to us for comfort.

Blinking back hot tears from the gust of scorching wind, for a moment I saw a figure something like Aro - tall, slender, with blank eyes, but black and charred in nature, a faint orange glow. It then coughed, began to cool, and soon enough, there was Vitali, his mottled, un-shed coat gone, but his eyes still tired, his ribs still painfully visible, calloused, unsightly skin around the pasterns where his shackles had once been.

"Some manipulators you all are," he scoffed, shaking what was once his mane, but now rather his un-muscled neck. "Where's the boy?"

"Right here," Aro called from behind, and toward us scampered the white, beady-eyed colt. Even from here, there was a permeating word running through everyone's mind: free.

Asger, having never met the pooka himself, raised his brows. Even without the shackles, the ancient stallion looked like he was being weighed down by something, as if his knees were willing him to find a place to finally collapse without any need of ever rising to his feet again. He blinked a few times, closed his eyes, breathed a tiny sigh and then shook his head. "Go home."