Disclaimer:I do not own Warcraft or it's sequels. Blizzard entertainment does.
Weeks passed.
I didn't leave the illusion once afterward. I went each day to the Scribe of Stormwind and did the same boring nine hour repetitive thing. I kept a lookout for the blood elf Jeziba, but he never showed up again. Not once. I only caught sight of him once afterward, in an alleyway, next to the bronze dragon disguised as a gnome. They were looking at a strip of parchment -I noticed it was the one Jeziba bought- scrawled along the middle with a straight line, with other lines projecting off of it, leading to blocks of writing. I had no clue.
I slowly and steadily felt worse. Well, not exactly worse, but more jumpy. At first it was merely Amanthe struggling to keep up with my pace when we went out of Stormwind to practice her hunting, but eventually I kept shifting on my feet, pacing, fidgeting while I sat. I even woke up one night to find that I had literally walked out of my bed, down the stairs, and regained consciousness while I was pacing the kitchen floor, in my sleep. My speech slowly sped up, to being nearly twice as fast as before. I didn't know what was happening to me. Amanthe didn't either, and when I asked Samuel he said he was too busy studying for his CCSPPC exam, or 'Cones, Cylinders, Spheres, Prisms and Pyramids of Cold'.
"Go away, Selria. Unless you want to help me by being a target dummy..."
"Nothank you"
Amanthe decided that I simply had too much energy pent up and I should run. I did. I ran all the way to Goldshire and back, but nothing happened to my pent up energy. Well, that would be a lie. It actually seemed to increase.
Amanthe got better and better at hunting. One day, during the Pilgrim's bounty festival that I refused to take part in, just like all the others, I watched Amanthe stalk towards a doe and fawn from the tree tops. I could hardly contain my energy, I almost shook the trees and scared them away. Amanthe was hiding in a bush, covering her smell. She put her hands together and muttered a quick few words, and a flash of yellow light exploded around the fawn. It fell dead in an instant and the doe jumped away into the woods. I dropped down onto the ground next to the fawn, listening for any signs of life.
None.
"Amanthe,youcancomeoutnow!" She stepped out with a shocked look on her face, stuck like a mask.
"I, I actually did it"
"Yeah,congratulations"
"Should I feel sad?"
"Oh,no,theirthoughtcomplexesaren'tanymorecomplexthan'hungry-eat-night-sleep.'.Probablynoteventhatadvanced,theydon'texactlyhavealanguage..." I trailed off, pushing my weight off each foot onto the other, bouncing slightly without actually being airborne. Amanthe walked up to the deer, a grin slowly attaching itself to her face.
"Well, now what?"
"Nowwegoteachyouhowtocookit" She paused for a moment to decipher my speech.
"Seriously? Have you ever had to cook... anything before?"
"No,buthowhardcanitbe?"
"There are books, in the Stormwind Library, about how to do that. I'll check one out and read that"
"Iguessthatworks,letstakethatwithus'". I gestured to the fawn's body.
"Um, alright. I guess, but where should I put it so it doesn't, well, rot?" I thought.
"Goodpoint,leaveithere,"
"Are you implying something?"
"Amanthe,I'malreadyunabletostopmoving,Idon'tneedtoeat,givingmeevenmoreenergy" I was bouncing up and down quickly now.
"True, true. Let's get moving back to Stormwind before you explode"
"Goodidea" I started on my way back to Stormwind, running, no, sprinting as fast as I could. I sprinted the entire three kilometers back into the gates when I stopped to wait for Amanthe. Nothing, I wasn't a bit tired. I decided to sit on the ground and wait for her to get back, but in seconds I found myself running circuits in between the walls, kicking off of one into the air, twisting my body midair and hitting the ground running to the other. About twenty minutes later when she showed up, I still was not tired.
"You need to pace yourself, Selriona. Even if you don't feel tired, you're body is going to be worn out. I don't think you'll be able to take much more" I sighed.
"You'rerightbutIcan'tstaystill!Ijustcan't!"
"Well then it might be a good idea to find out how. Come on, I'm going to the Cone of Cold in the Mage Quarter, Samuel just got a job there"
"Okay,'?"
"It is, but it's also the name of a new shop in the place"
"Oh,okaylet'sgo" I bounded off when she called my fake name.
"Selria!" I skidded to a stop, shifting my weight repeatedly. I had to keep moving. If I didn't I got this sort of... itch. "Slow down, alright? You don't know where it is, and I don't have that sort of boundless energy you do"
'Rightright,slowingdown" I forced myself to remain at Amanthe's side the whole way to the Cone of Cold. As we turned into a deserted alley in the Mage Quarter, she asked me a question that sent me flailing.
"So, did you have any friends, at the Bastion?" I stopped dead in my tracks. I sighed.
"Yeah,Fuluthlion,Asteriona,Verthe-" I stopped myself. "Just,let'sjustkeepwalking" Amanthe did, but she kept talking.
"You were about to say something. Verthe, who?"
"He'snobody" Of course, he wasn't. He was my best friend, my destined mate, my shadow practically. I missed him, but I had no way of knowing where he was. I was looking for a, what's the term mortals use? Needle in a haystack.
"So, your friends, how are they?" My eyes drooped. My throat was so dry it felt like sand, but I forced out the words anyway, my throat slowing me down to a normal pace.
"Fuluthlion and Asteriona died" Amanthe put her hand over her mouth lightly before taking it off.
"I, I'm so sorry" I sighed.
"Thanks"
"If you're alright with me asking, how did they die?" I took a deep swallow, and breathed in.
"There, there was a red dragon chained near the bastion, Lirastrasza. One of the night elves freed her, and she started attacking my patrol. Fuluthlion and Asteriona were both on it, they both died. She very nearly killed me, too. V- my destined mate thinks I'm dead" I felt a tear forming in my eye, and I quickly dabbed at it. What was that? I wouldn't have teared up so easily before coming to Stormwind. Was being around mortals for so long starting to influence me? Or was it just Amanthe? Was it really a problem? I swallowed again, this time clearing my throat and removing my speech restriction, which in all honestly, was just making me talk at a normal pace. "Let'sjustgototheConeofCold" Amanthe nodded and led me through the quarter.
The Cone of Cold was a simple set up as human stores went. There were buckets of various foods around, fruits, milk, this weird brown stuff cold chocolate, some of it dumped into a container and beset on all sides by mages channeling frost spells over it, chilling it to incredibly low temperatures. Another one would stand infront, and take money and requests before venturing through into the middle of the blizzard and taking out one of the solidified foods and giving it. A lot of the people here were human whelps, eating the cold foods. I noticed Samuel was one of the mages channeling frost onto the central bucket of foods. Amanthe walked up to the man administering it.
"Hello Hans"
"Hello, what would you like to buy today?"
"I would like a standard Cone of Cold, strawberry, and um, Selria?"
"Idon'tknow"
"And an Ice Cream Bar"
"Mm hmm. That'll be ten silver please" Amanthe produced ten flattened pieces of silver metal and handed it to 'Hans'. He nodded and walked over to the circle of ice and cold, pulling out two things. One was a hollow cone made of some kind of hardened bread with a weird pink... thing filling it. The other was a brown box, condensation covering every square centimeter of it. He walked over and gave it to me and Amanthe. I looked at the brown box in my hands. Amanthe was biting the pink thing on her cone.
"Whatisthis?"
"It's ice cream, try it. You're is encased in the chocolate" I shrugged, and took a bite out of the box. Immediately my senses went into overdrive. My throat made a hacking noise and I spat out the thing onto the ground.
"UGH!" Amanthe took another bite out of her Cone of Cold.
"I like it. Come on, let's get to the library so I can check out that book"
"Goodidea,let','teatmeatraw,right?"
"Shh! We're in a public place, don't say the M word! But yeah, we can't"
"Seeyouthere" I ran off through the Mage Quarter, but something happened as I turned the corner. My legs gave out from under me, my body suddenly deciding it didn't want to cooperate with me. I fell down and cracked my head on the floor.
The very next instant I was in Amanthe's house, lying on a bed somewhere. She was looking at me worried. I tried to get up and start moving, but my arms and legs refused. I could feel the extra energy in me, but I couldn't use it. I was slowed down to normal.
"What, happened?"
"Well I'm going to guess your body gave in. It was probably exhausted, but you didn't feel it somehow. Eventually your body simply didn't have anything left even though you felt like it did, and you passed out. Stay still"
"I don't have a choice in that" I was getting a slight itch in the base of my skull. I needed to move.
"What? Why not?"
"My arms and legs aren't moving. Look, I'll try to move them now" I focused all my attention on my limbs. Move Move Move. Nothing happened, no response from anything.
"I've never seen this happen before, but I'll go out on a limb and say your body's on a sort of emergency shut down. You won't be able to move" The itch in my skull had expanded to my entire head. I needed to move soon.
"Oh that's just great. And I'm getting an itch because I can't move"
"You mean the one that forces you to keep moving?"
"That one. It's getting, ach, worse"
"Well, is all your energy burned off?" I shook my head.
"No. I can still feel it bubbling under my skin, but I can't use any of it. Oh this hurts so much"
"You're probably going out of your mind aren't you?" The itch had just engulfed my neck.
"You-have-no-idea"
"Any muscle fatigue, like, feeling your muscles are tired?"
"Not a thing"
"Well, it's not like you'll be going anywhere until your body decides it's good enough. I'm going to go consult with Shaina Fuller, she knows first aid, maybe she can figure out what's going on with you. We need to find some way to burn off your energy" I nodded, then groaned in misery as the itch slowly crawled down my arms and chest, engulfing my fingers and reaching my waist. I tried to squirm, but nothing happened. It was terrifying, mainly because it reminded me of the horrible days, maybe weeks, when I laid on the ground of the Wetlands, unable to move, tendons snapped from Lirastrasza's attack, confident in every aspect I was going to die...
I shuddered the few parts of my body (my head and torso) that would listen.
"See you, Selriona. Try to sleep, it'll take your mind off the itch" I nodded and tried to do as she said. I couldn't. My whole body was buzzing in pain. The itch was slowly flowing down my lower legs. I whimpered. The pain wasn't growing, but I needed to move. It was psychologically painful in addition to the itch's physical pain. Finally, the itch engulfed my feet. It had never gotten to this stage before, ever. I hoped that it would peak out at this point.
Of course, I wasn't that lucky.
The itch steadily increased in intensity all over my body evenly. It got more and more painful. I screamed in pain as long as I could, until my lungs gave out, then I took another breath and screamed again. The itch not only seemed to be getting worse, it seemed to be seeping down through my skin, affecting my insides as well.
My body was on fire. I screamed in pain over and over again. I vaguely felt my head buzzing, but it was completely overshadowed by the itch. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I was losing my sanity. I passed out from the itch, if it could even be called that at this point.
When I woke up again, the itch was gone. But I still felt like, well, to be honest? Like crap. I opened my eyes and closed them as the light blinded me, snarling in pain. I grabbed my head. It was swimming, it felt like it was melting. Hold on, I grabbed my head? I did a mental check. Yup, I can move again. I still felt the pent up energy in me, but it wasn't... wasn't active, is the best way I can describe it. I felt sick, like my insides were being slow-roasted. I groaned again when I heard Amanthe's voice.
"OH THANK THE LIGHT, YOUR AWAKE, YOU'VE BEEN ASLEEP FOR THREE DAYS" I whimpered. The darkness behind my eyes had colors bubble quickly into and out of existence behind them at the pounding noise.
"Loud..."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" I hissed at her.
"Loud... be quiet"
"OH, I THINK YOU MAY BE NOISE SENSITIVE. HERE, I'LL TRY WHISPERING. Is this better?" I smiled.
"Much better, thank you" My body felt like it was being churned over, like Valiona was stepping on me. I thought darkly about all the pain, death and misery I had caused in the war. I deserved this. I really did. But, ugggh.
"Can you talk? How do you feel?"
"Terrible. Everything's bright, and loud, and I feel like there's pressure all around me"
"Like you're sick, with a migraine?" I groaned
"Exactly like that"
"Well, I'm guessing you're going to be here a while. Do you want to talk about whoever this 'Verthe' is?"
"Verthelion"
"Who was he?" I nearly retched as a fresh wave of nausea crashed over me. My world spun. I risked opening my eyes a crack, but nearly roared in pain when the light seemed to impale my eyes, slamming them closed again.
"He was my best friend. After Lirastrasza attacked me, he thinks I'm dead" I felt Amanthe's hand on my body... somewhere. I couldn't pinpoint the location, the world was spinning too fast. I chuckled faintly. "Out of every group of us, the strongest male and strongest female are chosen. They have their aging accelerated"
"Like you" I groaned in pain from the sickness swimming around me.
"Like me, yes. They also become destined mates for when they mature two years later"
"How is this impor- oooooh. Verthelion... he was..."
"Yes, he was" I groaned in pain. "I, I loved him. He thinks I'm dead. I don't have any way of tracking where he is" My despair temporarily pushed my sickness down, but I kept my eyes closed. "He probably asked to be transferred away from the Bastion. I have no way to find him. And even if I did, I don't know if I could get him to leave the war like I did. He doesn't know the voice lied-"
"What voice?" I nearly regurgitated again as the sickness came back up, then groaned.
"When I was in my egg, after I had... changed, I heard this voice. Each of us heard it. It told us all sorts of things, how the reds were evil, our brood-mothers abandoned us if we were from another flight like me, and gave us false information. The voice made us want to be on Deathwing's side. I'm probably the only one who knows it lied" I spat out that word with all the venom I could muster even in my condition.
"Maybe you could convince him" I groaned again, pulling something over my head, sealing me off from the outside world. Blankets? I was laying in bed like a normal human, under blankets? Hmm, Amanthe probably put me down into the bed like that. Assuming she was the one who picked me up after I passed out, which is incredibly likely. Which reminded me, where had the ice cream gone? Not that I wanted to eat it, but what had happened to it? I forced myself to focus.
"How could I? I'd need to find him first" My voice dropped. "Even if I did find him, did convince him to leave the war, then what? We'd still be hunted down until my flight is extinct. And I'll never even find him to begin with..." I felt a tear slide down my face as despair started to grip my heart.
"DON'T SAY THAT"
"Loud", I hissed at her.
"Sorry. I'm whispering right now. Are you that noise sensitive?"
"Apparently, light sensitive too"
"Okay, I'm going to find a way to treat you. I'll go find a doctor, you just lay here and rest, okay? Try to sleep" I groaned my agreement. I heard loud footsteps as Amanthe walked down the steps, leaving me to my illness and thoughts. Thinking was nauseating in my state, but I forced myself through it. I needed to do something. I forced my thoughts to Verthelion. If I could find him, I could persuade him to leave the war!
And then what? What would I do? Where would we go?
If the war was won and Deathwing ruled... then what? What would he do to the world? I'd caught glimpses of him making insane passes through the land, torching everything in his path without rhyme or reason. Would world domination really make him sane? No. Not a chance. He would continue burning up the world until nothing was left and we all, myself included, died. He would kill everything if he won.
What if he lost?
If Deathwing lost, the outcome didn't seem much better. The black flight was already down to a single brood-mother, Sintharia, but if Deathwing lost that would also mean she dies, and THAT would mean extinction for the black flight. The world throbbed around me, tinging my vision with red. I groaned again. If Deathwing lost, what would my flight do? The cultists would keep doing what they've always been doing, hiding underground and then taking the side of who or whatever wanted to destroy the world next. But my flight had nothing to do. We served Deathwing, end of discussion. If he died...
We would probably scatter to the winds.
The other flights would hunt us down, no doubt, so that we couldn't regroup and attack them. If Verthelion and I hid, we would be found eventually, and killed. This thought sent me into another round of despair. No matter what, I was going to die. I heard more footsteps and a hushed,
"She's in there, Shaina. Be quiet, she's sensitive to noise right now"
"I will" The energy in me was still bubbling over, inert, but definitely there. It was getting painful, I needed a release!
"Hey there, Selria. Your friend Amanthe tells me you have too much energy?" I groaned an agreement.
"Let me just take a measurement..." I heard Shaina chant some words under her breath and a blinding light engulfed me. I flinched, and it subsided.
"I don't know. She's in some sort of withdrawal. From what, I don't know. But she's in a withdrawal" I heard Amanthe's voice come.
"Thank you, Shaina. I can handle this from here, I think I know what it is" I heard more footsteps, and Shaina walked out, her faint scent leaving with her. If I had my eyesight I probably would have noticed. I whimpered a response to Amanthe.
"Back so soon?"
"Soon? Selriona, it's been hours" Hours? So I had passed out at some point. Great. "Selriona, I think I know what the problem is, but I need to be sure. I'm going to take you off the bed and get you room. When I do, drop your illusion, ok?" I nodded. I felt Amanthe's hands go between me and the bed, lifting me up and setting me to the ground. There was a sickening moment of something I rarely felt-vertigo-where I was in the air but couldn't see, and then I was stable again. I did as Amanthe asked and let myself unfurl into my true form, laying on my sides, wings limp. Then I noticed something with my wings. They were tingling like mad. They weren't affected by atrophy either from not being used in all this time, apparently shape-shifting doesn't work like that. But it felt like thousands and thousands of ants were crawling all over them.
"FEEL ANYTHING?" I groaned again.
"Loud"
"Sorry. Feel anything?"
"My wings are tingling like crazy" The air around me seemed to be pushing in on my skull, trying to crush it.
"Okay, I think I know what it is. Change back, I have an idea" I groaned as I forced the magic through my body. It hurt so very much to do. Normally it wasn't like this, but whatever was wrong with me, it made everything more difficult. Eventually, a human female was laying on the floor. "Okay, I think I know what's wrong with you. You're in flying withdrawal, you're ground-sick. I've never heard of this before, but then again I don't, really, have any experience with it. I'm going to guess that's it" That felt like one of Valiona's meteorites to the torso. I did miss flying. More than almost anything else, second only to Verthelion. I wanted to fly. I needed to fly. But where could I fly without being seen? I would be killed.
"Flying..."
"Selriona, I have an idea. Oh, on a side not while you were sleeping I read a book on how to cook deer meat. I'll be right back, try to rest, okay? After that I'll show you what I learned" I groaned in agreement, and let my eyes slam shut of their own accord.
In my dream I was soaring through the air. I didn't know where I was. I was some place high up. I flew around a huge tree and down a cliff. I had to get somewhere fast. I needed to get to someone before... before something happened soon. I dived down as fast as I could. Vague, blurry, colorless blobs danced around a giant colorless blob, which was spewing more blobs onto the smaller ones, making them drop straight down. Heat beat at me from my right, a source of fire un-matched by anything else in all of existence.
All of eternity seemed to hang on that point. The colorless shapes in front of me seemed to stay still in their dance. I heard someone scream.
"Rseay, no!" I felt like that wasn't their real name, though. A moderate sized blob smashed into a small one, throwing it out of the air. The world resumed it's course. I felt something in me wretch, a great breaking, shattering myself, breaking all things in the world...
I woke up with a startled gasp. I quickly shut my eyes again, roaring from the pain of the light. My head was still being compressed. I had so much energy in me, I felt like I was going to combust. Whatever Amanthe was planning I hoped she would hurry up. For a few minutes, hours, months, I don't know, I lost track of time, I laid on the floor, my mind blank.
I could hear the door downstairs creak open, setting ever nerve in my body on fire as it did. Two people trudged in. One I could clearly tell was Amanthe, and the other one smelled like that disgusting ice cream.
"SO AMANTHE, WHAT'S THIS ABOUT YOU NEEDING MY HELP? CAN'T DO IT ON YOUR OWN CAN YOU/ AH, NOT SURPRISED" I winced in pain. The thudding as the twins walked up the stairs made me feel like I died each time. I heard Samuel stop in his tracks when I felt his gaze move over me.
"WHAT...HAPPENED?" I heard Amanthe's voice, thick with false patience, cut through the air like a cultist ascendant through an army.
"Shh! She's sensitive to noise right now. Whisper. Samuel, I need you to open a portal to somewhere. Selria's sick, I need to take her to somewhere"
"Why? Can't you just-"
"No, I can't"
"Oh, interrupting? Tsk tsk tsk, if you're asking for my help, mind your manners, dear sister!"
"May I please continue?"
"Sure, go ahead"
"She's in withdrawal. I need you to open a portal to some place high up, with lots of open space in the air, and nobody around" I heard a thick silence for a moment.
"I KNOW JUST THE PLACE" I hissed in annoyance. My poor ears...
"Quiet! She's in there" They walked in.
"Oh wow, she's really sick, isn't she?"
"Yeah, she is. Please, open the portal"
"Alright, just give me a moment to prepare a binding cantrip" I heard Samuel mutter some words underneath his breath. A smell permeated the air. It was like something had burned, but pure, unchanged, basic, primal. The closest thing I could compare it to was ozone. Then it ended with a whoosh.
"Okay, it's open"
"Where does it go?"
"A floating rock in Outland. I'll need to come along to help you come back"
"Oh... okay. Thank you, brother"
"Hey, anytime" I felt someone pick me up and toss me through something.
The world spun around me, impaling me on burning hooks carving into my flesh suspended above lava, pummeled me, hurt me. It was like those days in my red egg so very, very long ago, at the hands of the faceless, the wrong-things, hurting me, changing me. And then the pain ended.
I felt lighter. My head cleared up. I was put down on the floor. But it wasn't floor. I groaned and opened my eyes against my better judgment, expecting to be blinded. I wasn't. The purple-shell was amazing. There was grass under me, tickling me. I pushed my face up, looking out.
The purple-shell was a bright blue extending all around me, but the top was black. A shimmering stream of purple energy seemed to cross over the colors, dividing the world in two. Giant spherical rocks dotted with holes overlapped each other, a small blue one about a third of the size of a red one in front of it. Another had rings around it. The moons of Outland. Something like a cloud was visible, but it was a spiral, with a bright light in the center. My disorientation was slowly fading away, but the pent up energy in me was still painful. I slowly got up and half crawled, half dragged myself to the edge...
The edge? Edge of what?
I looked down and forgot how to breathe. I was on a rock like I was after I hatched and left the Bastion for the first time. There was grass all around me, covering it entirely, a layer of warm, soft dirt underneath. Clouds lazily patrolled the sky above me. One was above me, shadowing the sun, raining a very, very light mist onto me. The rock itself was maybe a kilometer above the ground, floating. There was a vast plain of grass stretching around me as far as I could see, a huge white crystal in the distance barely noticeable. I got to my feet, and took a step closer to the edge. I heard Samuel's concerned voice.
"Ah, Selria, what are you doing?" Amanthe answered him.
"Samuel, I need you to promise me something"
"Yeah sure, what?"
"Don't freak out, and don't. Tell. Anyone" I jumped off the edge.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOing-" Samuel's voice faded as the wind rushed past me. I threw my illusion off entirely. My wings unfurled from my sides, the tingling being washed away by the wind. For a moment I was worried I would forget how to fly, despite it being impossible. Still, I needed a couple of beats of my wings to reassure me that I could not forget. The ground was flying up to me at an insane speed. 800 meters. 500 meters. 200 meters, now! I pulled up as sharply as I could, my stomach passing right over the grass on the bottom, scraping the sensitive skin lightly. I pulled up further, making a loop in midair.
The air rushed past my face so fast I thought scales would peel off. I opened my mouth and let it flow into my mouth. I angled myself up and shot straight up, beating my wings to make it. I came back up to the rock, and twisted around so that I was looking at Amanthe and Samuel. If there was ground under me, it would have looked like I was standing on my hind legs, my tail hanging down, my wings spread out to the sides. Samuel yelped and backed up. Amanthe was just looking at me in awe. I smiled and flipped myself back, spinning parallel to the ground. I brought flames into my crop and blew them out in a steady stream as I went, just because I could.
I flew around, diving, spinning around, doing loops, while I vaguely heard but didn't listen to Amanthe explaining everything to Samuel. I could feel my excess energy burning up, draining away, but I probably had several hours left in me. I laughed.
"Oh I never want to land!"
And it was true, I didn't. I didn't even realize how much I missed the sky until I was back in it. I flew up as far as I could, into the clouds above the floating rock. I hid there for a while, hovering, and I got an idea. I dove straight down to the island where Amanthe and Samuel were. The wind screeched, a banshee scream seeming to rip from my wings. I watched Samuel look up and throw himself away. I laughed as I pulled up out of my nosedive, spinning around like I was laying on my back, smirking at Samuel. He waved back at me, and collapsed in a heap.
I laughed again.
I didn't care how long I was there. The sun was setting in the sky and I still had tons of energy to spare. Amanthe and Samuel were both sleeping next to each other, but I didn't care. I dove over herds of Clefthoof. I wondered what they tasted like, but I didn't care enough to stop flying. I let let myself go parallel to the ground kilometers above, nearly touching the clouds, and dropped myself like a stone. I brought flames up and spat fireballs at random directions in the sky, completely random places, and got my descent under control, slinging myself upward, using gravity's momentum to power myself up.
A warm thermal rose up, rare at night, making it even more delightful. I let myself hover, spreading my wings out as far as they could go, a huge updraft combining with the thermal to keep me suspended without me having to do anything. I looked down at the world below me, reveling in the feeling of weightlessness. I grinned to myself. Nothing else existed. Stormwind, Amanthe, Samuel, the war, the bronze dragon, Verthelion, none of it was real. All that was real was me and the vast plains of sky.
I had never had such a natural high in my life. I flapped my wings several more times, heading upward to the rock. No doubt they would be sore in the morning, but right now I had enough residual energy left to get up there. I flopped down on the rock. Samuel and Amanthe had rolled next to each other and were sleeping back to back. My remaining energy, brought from a few months of not flying, ran out. I nearly collapsed then and there. I had no excess energy. I wasn't jumpy. I could stay still without an itch. I wasn't ill. I was cured.
I let out a hysterical laugh again, slowly gliding down from my euphoria. I brought all of my remaining flames up and sprayed them into the sky, lighting up the night briefly. Now I understood that saying I had overheard from paladins and cultists who used to be paladins- Light really does burn brightest in the dark. I fell asleep, and dreamed about an eternal flight, never tiring, never sleeping, just being in the air for all time.
I woke up feeling better than I had in a long time. I rolled myself over onto my back, breathing in the fresh, somewhat sharp scent of grass. I heard Amanthe's voice.
"Hey, are you feeling better?" I grinned.
"Worlds better" I rolled over and got to my feet, opening my mouth wide to yawn. Titans damn it, that was the exact moment Samuel chose to wake up, and looked at my gaping mouth opened towards him. He promptly passed out again. Me and Amanthe looked at each other for a good long time and broke into laughter. I collapsed, rolling on my sides, getting grass stuck beneath my scales. Amanthe was on her back, holding her sides like she was afraid they would fall apart. When we finally got our breaths back, we both stood up. I walked over to her and wrapped my wings around her, pulling her into a sort of hug.
"So, did you explain everything to him?" I let her go.
"Oh yeah, I did, but he's stubborn. You'll probably have to knock some sense into him when he wakes up, provided he doesn't pass right out again. You might want to, um..."
"Oh, right, yes" I shrunk down to my mortal form. Samuel started to stir in his sleep.
"N-no. Go... away...pyramid...of...cold...", he muttered. He opened his eyes, blinking a bit. "Where am I? Oh yeah, I..." He looked at me. "AH!" He was up on his feet in an instant. "G-get away from me! Shit, shit shit"
"Now Samuel, calm down. Let me explain things" I took a step to him, and a bolt of ice shot over my head, me barely ducking under it. "Easy!" Samuel's eyes darted around between me, Amanthe, and the kilometer long drop to the ground below.
"Would someone care to explain to me what the hells is going on here?"
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