"Hey, Serif!"
"yeah ink?" I answered, looking up from my origami.
Within a day of the disastrous battle in MelonTale, Ink was awake and virus-free. When he came too, all seemed well. The basket of apples was lost on him, though. That was unfortunate. Dream and I got a kick out of it anyway.
Ink grinned.
"Close your eyes!"
"um… why?"
"Just do it. And no peeking!" Ink ordered.
Shrugging, I complied. As the world turned to the comfortable black, in a split second, Ink grabbed my hand and whisked me away through a portal. My eyes snapped open, just to be clouded by a band of color; the words "No peeking!" reverberated through the aether. It was then I discovered blind portal travel was twice as dizzying as usual. If barfing could be achieved magically, well… I just might find out.
Thankfully, the trip only lasted a few more moments. Ink kept me from falling as my feet found solid ground. Disoriented, I stumbled forward a bit, just to have Dream steady me.
"Ink," I heard him lightly scold, "don't send Serif through surprise portal trips. Especially blindfolded! He's not used to this kinda travel, remember?"
"Oh, right… But, he opened his eyes! I said no peek—" I assume Dream gave Ink a disapproving frown, because he sighed and concluded—"… sorry Serif."
"s'alright, ink," I murmured. "guess you did say no peeking…" I think this made him feel a bit better. "so, can i see now?" I asked hopefully.
"Wait… Almost…" Ink murmured, waiting for something. "Ah, yes."
With that, the color band disappeared. The relative brightness of the light surprised me. Blinking, I stared at the world before me. I wondered if some of the color magic was still in my eyes.
We stood on the crest of a ledge jutting out from the side of a mountain. Blinding, gorgeous splashes of pure orange, goldish yellow, deep blue, pink, and purple painted the sky, dawning over shifting jade grass. A seemingly endless terrain stretched out before me, trees and meadows scattered here and there, with a city in the distance. we're… on the surface.
As if that wasn't stunning enough, suddenly, blurred figures zoomed around the edge of the precipice, taking to the sky. I stared after them, gasping in amazement. They were flying. There were three figures, chasing each other, dipping, tracing patterns and loops through the air. A minute later, one broke away from the flock and disappeared above the clouds. I gazed up, wondering where it had gone, until something dropped onto the ground behind me.
"sup' ink," a voice said. I whirled. My mind stuttered.
"Hi Raven!" Ink said, Dream replying in kind. The speaker turned. wings, my mind stammered uselessly. so big. so cool.
"hey… serif, right?" Raven asked. I stared at him stupidly; it seemed he was inspecting me, too. He pulled a hand from his black jacket—which boasted the fluffiest, black-feather-rimmed hood I'd ever seen—and pushed the yellow tinted pilot goggles to rest on his forehead.
At first, I thought I was in for a bad time. His left eye, blazing yellow and blue, made me think he'd activated his magic. But to the right, the normal, white sphere of light told me otherwise. A cornflower azure turtleneck could be seen peeking from the jacket; black shorts fluttered in the breeze. Bunched up blue socks led down to grey slippers, at the end of which were three talon-like metal pieces, resembling a bird's foot—which made sense, considering he seemed to actually be a bird.
Enormous midnight wings sprouted behind him, nearly twice my wingspan in length. Every feather was in perfect symmetricity, smoothed and sleek, yet downy enough to reflect only a glimmer of light. A tail, feathered like the wings, tilted behind him to counterbalance the push of the wind gusts. My gaze drifted back to the magnificent wings. Raven, apparently done sizing me up, suddenly gave a quiet laugh. I glanced at him, puzzled, just to get lightly swatted in the face by the tip of one of his wings.
"seriously, kid, you can touch em' if you want," he chuckled. "you look like you've never seen wings before."
"i've only ever seen mine," I said, hesitantly touching, then running my hand down the sleek feathers. "and they're not majestic like yours. well, not quite…" I smirked. "i guess i'm pretty attached to them, though." Apart from Ink's muffled snort, no one laughed. There was a dumbfounded silence.
"Serif, that pun was horrible," Dream said blatantly. My grin grew bigger.
"i know," I admitted, "but i'm getting better."
"Better?" a voice balked.
Whirling to my right, I realized the rest of the flock had landed. I'd felt small beside Raven, but now I felt like a moth among eagles. Undyne, Papyrus, and a human child stood at the edge of the precipice, staring at me. Each was almost as stunning as Raven.
Red dragon wings webbed out behind Undyne. The ribbing was cyan, intricate scales shimmering slightly in the sunlight. The colors perfectly matched her poppy red hair and sea-blue skin. Papyrus's wings were the purest white. The tip of each feather faded into a light marigold yellow. He seemed rather angelic; all that was missing was a halo. It was fitting.
As the human climbed off Papyrus's shoulders, I realized they were smaller than my hacker had been; this appeared to be a child instead of a teen. A row of dark brown feathers faded to dark penny to caramel to a tawny, cream white. Despite the size of the kid, the wings seemed relatively small. They timidly peeked from behind Papyrus's red boots, clutching the fringes of his yam-orange cape.
"WOWIE! BROTHER, THERE'S TWO OF YOU!?" Papyrus exclaimed. He then caught sight of Ink and Dream on the far side of Raven's wings. "THERE'S… FOUR OF YOU?" He gave Raven a puzzled look. "HOW MANY ARE THERE?"
"Psh, come on Papyrus!" Undyne exclaimed, "Don't you recognize them? It's Ink and Dream! They kicked butt during that glitch-freak's attack last year." She cut me a glance. "But I thought Blueberry was… different." The child came scampering over to Raven as Undyne spoke, reaching up.
"hey kiddo," Raven greeted, lifting them to sit on his shoulder. "what's up?" The child pointed excitedly to the tips of their wings. A moment of close inspection from Raven later—"ah, i see it. told ya' you'd get another row of feathers soon." The child beamed. Smiling, Raven addressed Undyne. "nah, he's not blueberry. blue couldn't come today. he's, ah… kinda tied up right now." Based on Ink's flinch, I decided that was a poor choice of words. "this is serif. he's been hanging with ink and dream; he's flying with us today."
"i am?!" I gasped, my soul leaping with excitement. Raven turned to me.
"yeah, if you wanna."
"He can fly?" Undyne interjected. "How?"
I shot a gaping look at Ink and Dream. Ink whispered "Surprise!" and Dream gave me a thumbs-up. they… did this for me. Now smiling wide, I turned back to the flock and snapped out my wings. Undyne seemed shocked. Papyrus gave a quiet exclamation of "WOWIE!" I glanced at Raven. His eyes flashed in curiosity.
"i was wondering where you were hiding those," he mused.
To my surprise, I felt a small hand pat the edge of my wing. The child, who had clambered off Raven, stroked it gently, a look of wonder on their innocent face. Seeing I was looking at them, they stopped and simply held my gaze. A second later, the tiny child went on tiptoe and tried to give me a hug—but only managed to wrap their arms partway around my waist. My mind stuttered. a human just hugged me. The last of my apprehension melted away.
"come on," Raven said to the flock. "let's fly."
One by one, they leapt from the cliff and took to the sky. Raven snatched Sparrow—the human child—before they could go over the edge, though, scolding that their wings were too small to fly the strong winds yet. The kid settled for a piggyback ride. Before I leapt over the edge, I turned to Ink and Dream, and smiling a mile wide, said—
"thank you guys."
The day passed in a wonderful blur. I raced the others, competed in a diving contest, chased, and was chased by, my new friends. Raven taught me all sorts of tricks and maneuvers, the most notable of which was how to extend the tips of my wings, like a defined primary "feather." Now I could turn corners on a dime.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we found a high cliff and rested for a while. Eventually, Undyne and Papyrus went to go chat with Ink and Dream, leaving Sparrow, Raven, and I atop the crag.
The child scampered about, exploring the sea of buttercups shifting in the evening sun's light. Their head would occasionally pop up above the ocean of gold. Soon they came and begged a handful of gummi worms off Raven; he pulled a whole bag out and split it between us. He found it funny that gummi worms were my favorite candy, too; we were both practically birds, he pointed out, so eating "worms" was probably "healthy." It was like Christmas morning, but on a summer afternoon.
Swinging our legs over the edge, the three of us sat, watching the sun slowly sink out of sight. Undoubtedly, it was one of the most stunning things I'd ever seen.
"cool, isn't it?" Raven asked.
"pardon?" I responded.
"the sunset," Raven clarified. I nodded, unable to tear my eyes from it.
"yeah. it's amazing. i've never seen one before."
"your human hasn't broken the barrier yet?" Raven asked. I shot a glance at Sparrow. The child had fallen asleep.
"my human wasn't keen on freeing us," I murmured quietly. "just on making life a living death."
"sorry," Raven replied simply, then questioned—"'wasn't'? past tense?" I nodded.
"they're gone now. long story. basically, by coming here, i forced them out."
"so, you made a second chance." Raven smiled, shaking his head. "you seem about as determined to write your own happy ending as the humans are." He turned to me. "so when are you going back?"
"what?" I asked, pulling my gaze from the horizon.
"when are you going home?" Raven repeated.
This question made me hesitate. My gaze drifted over to the far ledge, where Papyrus and Undyne stood talking with Ink and Dream. Undyne made a passionate, boastful exclamation, and—ignoring Ink's desperate head-shaking and hand-waving—grabbed both him and Dream and took to the sky. Oddly, Dream's laughs and Ink's panicked shrieks didn't bring a smile to my face. when am I going home?
"i… don't really know," I admitted. Raven shrugged.
"well, whenever you do, i hope a kind human soon follows." He glanced down at the child draped across his lap, sleeping peacefully. "a human like sparrow," he finished, smiling. The last of the sun slipped beneath the treeline. Raven carefully scooped the kid into his arms. "gotta make sure sparrow makes their bed time. tori will have my feathers if they show up to school tomorrow exhausted." He grinned at me. "you're welcome here any time, serif. don't be a stranger." I smiled back, and we returned to the ledge with the others.
Soon, the flock flew off towards the city. Ink, Dream, and I watched them go. Turning back to my friends, about to thank them, I noticed they were still smiling a mile wide.
"Was today a good kind of surprise?" Ink asked hopefully. I nodded.
"yeah, completely worth the crazy portal trip." This earned some smiles. "thanks guys, really," I said. Dream and Ink exchanged a glance. I noticed. "what's up with that look?"
"Well... there's one more surprise," Dream admitted. Ink reached into a deep fold in his scarf and pulled out a pendant, holding it out to me. Honored and unsure what else to do, I took it.
It resembled Ink's paint vials. The heart-shaped glass was filled with a light teal, thick liquid of some sorts. Paint, probably. A cord wrapped around the smaller part, attaching at the top, and looped up like a necklace.
"It took a long time to figure out, but I finally made it!" Ink explained. "It's a replacement for portals."
"cool…" I breathed, inspecting the pendant with new interest. Ink nodded excitedly. "how does it work?" I asked.
"Stand inside a protection bubble and shatter the glass," Dream said simply. "Don't worry, it'll reform."
"So! Now you can go anywhere you want, and that pendant will always bring you back home!" Ink exclaimed. My soul stuttered.
"home?" I asked, numb.
"Yeah!" Ink affirmed. "Back to the Doodle Sphere!" I nodded, trying to hide the broken hopes now falling from my betrayed soul. that's not home. Dream grinned, opening a portal.
"Meet you back at the Doodle Sphere!" he said. I forced a smile, formed the golden bubble around me, and broke the pendant.
The sphere rapidly filled with liquid teal light. The moment the bubble was full, it popped, shattering outwards—leaving nothing but a fading glow on the ground. As I slipped through the currents of magic, I found myself wondering—when will i go home?