Whispers In The Wind-Ch. 2

Nyela awoke with a start. She was having the strange feeling that someone was following her. She shot up realizing she wasn’t in the cave anymore. She looked around her. She seemed to be lying upon grassy earth. The night was empty and noiseless, even the nocturnal animals seemed to be silent. She was sitting in a dark place with no sounds apart from her breathing. She listened again. There was something there. She could hear heavy breathing. Shifting and following it, she stumbled upon Drake’s body slumped against a tree. His dark skin, no longer there, replaced by pale flesh. Resting a hand on his body, she fought not to pull it away. He was cold, really cold.1

Why was he like this? She had no recollection of what had happened. She could only remember just as she left the cave. She sat next to him, cold flesh meshing against hers wherever her skin was exposed. She put a hand on his back, jumping slightly at the way he fell into her lap. Uneasily, she began to rub her hand against his flesh. His breathing became uneasy and he started taking short intakes of breath. 2

“What are you doing?” 3

She looked up, fighting to see through the thick mass of shadow, only to see a pair of silver green eyes and wings. The rest of his body concealed by the shadow. She knew it was Vince; he had probably come to fling her against a tree.4

“How did he get like this?” she asked ignoring his question. He scoffed, “Why are you playing that you don’t know?” 5

“Because I don’t.” she said rubbing Drake slower now. She looked up at Vince, “Are you going to stand and watch. Why not build a fire.”6

He stepped towards her, “Build a fire? If you hadn’t done what you did we wouldn’t be here. No, I can’t light a fire. We are in the Borderland. ‘Nothing’ lives here. I light that fire, we die.”7

Nyela thought it best not to say anything. She was tired of the way he was treating her. She had done no wrong yet he treated her like an animal. He seemed to agree with her as she heard him turn and walk away.8

“You should try getting some sleep, we leave as soon as these shadows lift.”9

She ignored him. Sleep wasn’t going to come and find her here in this place. She was too busy trying to warm Drake. What had she done? Why was he so cold? Why couldn’t she remember what happened? Millions of questions bombarded her mind. Vince wasn’t going to be much help. And her only source for answers was in some far place. 10

__11

She had been rubbing against him for what seemed like forever. He grown warm, his breathing had returned to normal but he just didn’t wake up. She paused to rest her hands, head leaning back against the tree trunk. She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. She had grown accustomed to the silence. Nothing could be heard but there even breathing. Not even a slight breeze blew. She jumped out of her skin when she felt movement in her lap. She opened her eyes and looked down. She raised a brow when Drake’s skin changed from pale to dark. She tried to lift him off of her realizing that his wings came next. 12

“Take it easy, I’m not going to hurt you.” She heard him breath. She breathed a sigh of relief. He slowly lifted himself off of her. Hands shaking involuntarily as he did so. Nyela helped him, becoming terribly afraid that whatever she did had hurt him badly.13

She watched intently as he turned to face her, wings escaping from his body and folding about him. She sighed. Even now, when she seemed to find people who were like her, she still differed from them.14

“Why do you look the way you do?”15

Nyela looked up at him. It was the first sentimental question either of them had asked since they’d met. She was dealing with complete opposites; or at least it appeared that way. Either way, she couldn’t trust them, “Vince said I did something, what did I do?” 16

“You need not pay any mind to him. He has issues. Of which, we cannot discuss in the Border.”17

“What is this place?” Nyela asked when he stood. As uneasy and unstable as he was, he still pushed his body to its maximum, “This is the Borderland, the Land of the Shadows. Nothing of light can live here. Not even us. Soon we will over stay our welcome and the shadows will come for us. Its darkness spreads from the land of the humans to ours. We know not to whom it owes its allegiance. So anything spoken that belongs not of this world shall not be said.” 18

Nyela wasn’t sure she understood what he meant but she didn’t say anything. She sat back against the tree and hoped he didn’t question the confused expression on her face. 19

“How much do you remember?” he asked after a long silence. 20

“Only my name.” Nyela whispered almost inaudibly. It was the only thing she did remember, the only thing that they had drilled into her head. She had no memory of…anything, other than those she had created after the experiments were over. 21

“You aren’t the first that the humans have taken.” Drake said, reaching down and holding her hand. He seemed to have regained his strength by the way he just lifted her, not waiting for her to help herself up. 22

“Nor will she be the last. The shadows are growing. If we don’t leave now we may never leave.” Vince’s voice came through the darkness. 23

“I know, they’ve discovered that we are here.” Drake said quietly. Nyela stared about her, realizing she could neither make out Drake’s nor Vince’s wings. 24

“Who are they?”25

“The shadows. They’re coming. You must hold on to me.” Drake said wrapping her arms around his neck. She looked around her, growing afraid. She felt his hand on her chin, “Look at me at all times. The shadow takes you buy eating away at your fear. I want you to be ready.”
“Ready for what?” 26

But he didn’t hear her. The wind created by his flapping wings drowned out her speech. She clung her arms around him tighter, as they lifted off the ground.
She felt a hand on her foot. Yelping she looked down, shaking and yanking her foot violently. She could feel it beginning to crawl upon her. Hand after hand, climbing her back, clinging to her.
“Look up. Don’t let the shadow take you.”
She looked up, opening her mouth to tell him she was afraid, only to have it filled with shadow. She felt her hands slip from around his neck, quickly falling back into the shadows. She tried calling for Drake but it was useless. The shadow was filling her entire entity. She was still falling when she felt a hand wrap around her wrist. Slowly, she felt herself being pulled up but she could still feel the shadow crawling about her pulling her back in. She closed her eyes just as they started to fill with water. She wanted to cry, something she rarely did. 27

“Open your eyes, Nyela. You need to be ready.”
‘Ready for what?’ she thought. She was about to voice her thought but she saw what he meant. The shadow was starting to get thinner. She was able to see Drake’s wings again. Even the shadow that clung to her slowly fell back into its darkness. Sighing, she hung her head, wiping away the tears that fell from her eyes.
They had entered the sun filled sky, leaving the shadow behind. She looked down at the shadow that was now a good distance below them. She tried to see where it ended but it just carried on to the horizon everywhere she looked with exception to the direction which they were travelling. In that direction, it broke off into a barren wasteland of nothingness and only housed some vegetation a couple miles inland shortly before breaking into mountainous territory. 28

She wondered how far he was going to carry her by her arm. It was in that moment she received her answer. He let her go. She looked up at him, wondering he had done such. Fear beginning to build in her again. Her skin began to sting her, creating an itching feeling. She looked down as she drew closer to the shadow. It almost seemed to be welcoming her. Without warning her right wing escaped from her body. Off balancing by the air caught in her wing, she curled over on her left side, wing pointing directly up into sky. She started to fall even faster. She closed her eyes; they’d left her for the shadow. She didn’t know why they had done that. They hadn’t bothered to come back for her. 29

“You’ve a lot to learn I see.” She heard someone whisper. She opened her eyes to find Vince diving next to her, a big grin on his face. The first she’d seen on any of them.
“Fold your wing and put your weight on it.” He said to her. Nyela raised a brow and looked at him. Sighing, he held onto her and rolled her over. Her right wing folded beneath her, almost simultaneously, her left wing joined its partner. She stopped abruptly, wings outstretched, a few inches away from the shadow. She looked up at him, he smiled and shrugged, “Broken wings tend to give a lot of trouble. Next time stick close to me, Drake’s a bum at flying lessons. He insists on letting you learn the hard way.”30

Nyela feigned a smile. She was still shaking from her little ‘fall’ and Vince’s smiling wasn’t helping causes.
“And you find the entire thing funny.”
He laughed and held a hand to her, “Indeed not, but had you seen the look on your face.”
When she hesitated he added, “We wouldn’t have allowed you to fall into the shadow Nyela. You’re too valuable to be left in the hands of the humans let alone the shadow.” 31

Nyela hesitated yet again. Why had he suddenly changed? He seemed lighter and was behaving as though nothing had gone on between them. She wanted to trust him but didn’t know if she should. Drake had gone ahead, leaving them behind, and she didn’t know the way herself to wherever they were going.
“Oh come on, your wings will give on you in an hour at the most and you’re already lagging behind. How far do you think you’ll get?” he said trying to hide the fact that her not trusting him amused him.
“How far to where we’re going?” she asked uncomfortably.
“At your rate, you’ll be there by nightfall, you’ll probably have to walk the rest when your wings go in for the night.” He laughed when she started off in the opposite direction. “Nyela, you’re going the wrong way. You should be going West.” He said pointing in the direction of the rising sun. Nyela stopped and turned to look at him, “You mean East?”
He shook his head, pointing behind her, “That’s East. West is that way.”
Nyela opened her mouth to speak but the words stuck in her throat.
“The sun rises in the West here and sets in the East. The Moon of Artoni,” he said pointing up in the sky, “our biggest moon never rises or sets.” 32

She sighed and took his still open hand. Either way he held advantage. A light breeze blew and with it came the language she could not understand. She heard Vince sigh. She looked up at him, “What’s the matter?”
He opened his eyes wide in surprise, “You don’t understand the wind and its voices?”
She raised a brow and shook her head. Vince breathed out heavily and started off West, “You have indeed a lot to learn. If you cannot understand the voices on the wind then you are indeed troubled.”
“I’m not troubled,” she muttered softly.
“Nyela,” he replied sternly, “If you cannot understand the language of Ilixir, which is spoken on the wind by our kind, a language instilled in us since birth. Then you are indeed troubled.”33

Nyela said nothing. He had answered a question amongst thousands she had. She did belong to their kind but it only sparked more questions and she was beginning to believe they held no answers.
She stared around the barren land as they crossed over the ends of the shadow. The shadow really did seem to go on forever. Even with the shadow gone the land still didn’t grow any signs of vegetation until a good ways out. She wondered how this was possible when in the shadow itself, there was some sort of life. 34

‘Even more questions’ she thought rolling her eyes. She silently prayed that where she was going had answers to all of them. They were crowded her brain not allowing her space to think clearly. She glanced down absolutely amazed at the speed Vince was flying at. They had flown over the wasteland in the matter of minutes. She was now looking at lush green land, butterflies fluttering in the air. Animals feasting on the shrubbery, trees so tall that she would like an ant if she stood beneath any of them and springs that flowed with more grace than any dancer you could imagine. It was paradise. Or as close to one as she had ever seen. 35

Vince, seeing how fascinated she was, flew lower ending up beneath the tall evergreen trees. He pulled her beneath him, holding on to her other hand and allowing her to glide beneath him instead of beside him. He flew them over the spring, wetting her face as the water hit against rocks. She giggled loudly, giggle echoing through the forest.
She watched in awe as the land beneath her passed on in a blur. She was enjoying the bliss. This was much better than her morning runs to the beach. All at once, she started to feel dizzy, her wings folded around her. Her vision blurred and she saw nothing but blackness. She tried calling out for help but the words crashed around inside her head. The only thing she heard was a voice calling out to her. Nyela.