This chapter is dedicated to @ThefabledDavid for all the nice comments he never fails to leave me:)
(Sorry, I've been kind of forgetting about dedications lately...) All of you regular commenters are especially appreciated, and in time I come to recognize your usernames/ profile pictures and smile every time I see them:)
About the One-Shots: [ENDED]
A few rules:
You may ship any characters you want, as long as they are not related by blood.
There is no word minimum, but the maximum is 4,000 words. (This is approximate. You won't be disqualified for having 4,001 words;) )
Must NOT have any R/Mature content.
Tag your story #SWoneshot and comment the link on this chapter (this one only to make it less confusing please!) And please don't spam. It won't make your story any more likely to win.
I reserve the right to exclude any story from the contest should they have inappropriate, undesirable, or against the rules content.
Deadline: January 3rd, 2015.
This is the prompt/theme:
It's Christmas time, whether in the human world or Aeolus (where they don't actually celebrate Christmas if they haven't had lots of contacts with humans). What is/are your favorite character(s) doing? Short must focus on one or two characters only, but how ever many you want can make an appearance.
Tip: I will be looking at creativity most of all, but the writing itself (grammar, etc...) will also be considered.
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Recap:
Aiden joined the group in the mission to Sperodyifis. The four of them stopped for the night at a farmer's and decided the detour to the guard tower would be worth it.
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Chapter 36
As soon as we landed at the foot of the guard tower, I folded my heavy wings back thankfully.
"Too much flying. I'm not fit enough for this."
"Don't say that, you're holding up great," Chase said. "If anyone told me that about a week ago you didn't know how to fly, I would think they were lying."
"But then again, you're not very smart, so-" Aiden ducked out of Chase's reach, sticking out his tongue tauntingly.
Chase decided to ignore him and strode up towards the wide doors of the building.
A tall, bearded man answered the door. "Yes?"
Chase extended his hand. "Chase Parker, Second in Command of the Junior Troops. How do you do?"
The man shook his hand firmly. "Landen Merrick, Senior archer here at the Hamar guard tower. Please come in."
"So, they're just going to let us in, no questions asked?" I whispered to Autumn.
She laughed quietly. "First, most people don't walk around with a sword like Chase's if they aren't in the military. Second, his belt. The buckle has the Junior troop insignia. Third, I've heard that there's something special about their handshakes."
I nodded, "Wow, you sound like Sherlock Holmes."
"Elementary, my dear Watson." She joked.
Aiden sent us a 'you're weird' look, and we followed Chase inside.
***
I wasn't aware I was sleeping until someone shook me awake. Somewhere along the boring, military talk, I must have fallen asleep, curled up in a comfy, beat up armchair.
"Come on, Hailey," Chase said softly. "Time to go."
I looked up at him blearily, feeling more tired than before I had taken my nap. "What?"
"The men here lent us some peryton, and if we go now and fly fast we can get to Sperodyfis by tonight."
I stood up, stifling a yawn. "Okay."
Chase led me outside, where Autumn and Aiden were waiting, each perched on top of a peryton: Autumn on Juno and Aiden on a brown one. Two other peryton stood to the side.
"Have you ever ridden a horse, Hailey?" Chase asked.
"Uh... I rode a pony once at a petting zoo. Does that count?"
"Yeah, we'll say it does. Don't worry, peryton are easier to ride than horses anyway, from what I've heard. Of course, I'll be flying right beside you so if you feel you're slipping just call."
"Yep, you've heard right, Hailey!" Aiden called out. "Our brave hero Chasey will be riding the fearsome steed that is a flying reindeer."
"I love how he can so easily make fun of both of us at the same time," I noted, picking up on the 'flying reindeer' jab.
Chase sighed. "Indeed, isn't he just lovely?" He eyed the animal distrustfully. "I'm not going to pretend I'm looking forward to being on the back of that, though."
"How about we make a deal," I offered. "If you fall, I fall, and vice versa, then we make it look like it was a carefully planned and coordinated stunt."
"Sounds good to me," Chase laughed. "Now let me introduce you to the most cleverly named animal in the kingdom: Grey."
The doe, true to her name, had dappled grey fur. Her wings, though, looked almost silver.
"Aw, I love her already," I smiled.
The peryton chewed on the bottom of my shirt in agreement.
"It loves you too, I see," Chase chuckled. "Come on let me help you get on its back."
***
As it turned out, flying on perytonback was much faster than flying by wing. Also, surprisingly not that uncomfortable, once I got over my fear of falling off Grey.
Chase, although he was certainly a much better rider than me, still did not look too pleased to be riding the distant cousin of the peryton who'd kicked him in the face when he was little. Yet, he still insisted we eat in the air to save time.
"Are we almost there?" Aiden asked.
"We are now," Chase answered. "Just a small hour left."
"Good, 'cause it's been like five hours, and I wanna stretch my wings and legs." Aiden paused. "An hour, you said? Well that gives us plenty of time for me to tell you about that time accidentally put salt in my sister's birthday cake. And ate all the chocolate chips, but that part wasn't accidental."
I laughed, "Can't wait to hear it. Autumn, you're sure the peryton aren't going to be tired?"
"They could easily fly three hours more if needed. Well, maybe not Aiden's because his is a bit fat, but don't worry, they'll be fine."
"Hey, don't insult Mr. Potato! He's not fat; his coat is just fuzzy."
"Mr. Potato?" Chase made a face. "If I recall correctly, your peryton wasn't named that when we left."
"Yeah, but Romeo is a stupid name for a peryton. He likes Mr. Potato better."
"I bet he does," Chase muttered.
"Anyway, back to the story. See, I was sneaking in the kitchen to eat the chocolate, and I was just about to grab the tub of chocolate chips, when my mom came in, so-" Aiden started speaking animately.
***
"Let's land," Chase called out, interrupting Aiden's efforts to get us all to sing along to a song I didn't even know.
The peryton, obviously familiar with the order, obeyed promptly.
We landed in soft green grass, in front of a tall, mountain-like, rocky facade.
"We're here," Autumn announced.
She hoped off Juno and walked up to a smooth, oval shaped mark in the rock and knocked on it several time, her taps varying in length and interval.
"Morse code?" I questioned.
"Something like that."
She let her hand drop to her side, and immediately a large sheet of rock above us slid to the side, revealing a man in light blue robes.
"Passage has been granted. Fly up!"
We let the three borrowed peryton free so they could go back to the guard tower, and, following his indication, opened our wings and flew up to his level. He gestured to the gaping hole behind him, which was big enough for a Winged to fly through easily, or two, perhaps three, to walk through side by side.
"If you would follow me."
My three friends and Juno entered without hesitation, so I followed them. The dark sheet of rock slid back into place behind us, but instead of us being plunged in darkness, little blue stones embedded in the rock lit up one after the other.
"Cool," Aiden said. "Can I have one of these glow in the dark stones?"
Our guide looked a bit surprised, unsure what to answer to that, but Autumn interjected, "Don't listen to him, he's kidding."
The blue-robed Winged nodded. Passing in front of us, he led us through the passage.
"Don't worry, we'll be out soon."
Sure enough, the blue light soon faded to be replaced by the warming rays of the sun. Abruptly, the tunnel ended, and I found myself at the edge of a cliff, taking in the sight in front of me.
I thought I would never see anything as beautiful as the Sol castle emerging from the clouds, but I was proven wrong. Very wrong.
A large island floated in front of us, as if hanging from invisible threads. Smaller islands, of different shapes and sizes, surrounded it here or there. The bigger island was topped with a rock mound, mostly covered in mossy green vegetation. A stream of water flowed from its base, disappearing over the side of the island and into the clouds in a never-ending waterfall. The rock mound itself was crowned with an elegant, airy building of whitewashed stone, almost like a greek-style temple.
The setting sun, which cast pastel light on the scene, gave everything an ethereal look.
A bright blue butterfly, the color of the glow-stones in the tunnel, floated up to me effortlessly, then let itself be carried away by the wind.
My right hand reached up to the key around my neck of its own accord, my fingers curling around it.
Our guide pointed to the temple-like building.
"Just go there, someone is waiting for you."
"Thank you," Autumn seemed to have regained the power of speech before all of us.
"Glad to be of help." He flew off.
"Damnnnnn," Aiden finally spoke with a slow whistle.
"You can say that again," Chase agreed. "They weren't exaggerating when they said Sperodyfis was gorgeous."
"If anything, they were understating it," Autumn said. "Now let's go, someone's waiting for us."
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Is Sperodyfis anything like you expected? Tell me what you thought of it!
Also, lately Secret Wings has been competing with one or two novels for 1st place in the Fantasy category, yet Secret Wings has more reads in total than said novels... Think we can beat them for first place in Fantasy? ;) I'll add in a special surprise if we do! :D (Why yes, I am kind of bribing you.)