Disclaimer: I do not own any characters referenced
"We have arrived!" Asterin announced, swinging open the gates to the unnaturally large stables. Dorian gaped. Wherever he looked, the magnificent beasts, like dragons, just... smaller. The separate stalls lining the walls were not doing much to restrain the wyverns. The stalls seemed to simply be their resting haven.
"Here she is!" Asterin exclaimed, dashing to a bold wyvern in their midst, "Alyx!" Dorian gaped as the animal spread its wings and bolted for Asterin, letting out a shriek of excitement.
Asterin laughed as she enveloped the flying beast in a tight hug and turned to Dorian, "This is my baby, Alyx. She's a little bit... hyped - for lack of a better word. But, like, 24/7 / 364."
Alyx scrambled from Asterin's cradling arms to perch upon her shoulder, staring Dorian down with a gaze like piercing lighting. As Manon had described, the size of a cat or small dog, although Asterin must've had trained muscles to support Alyx' weight. She flashed her teeth at him, obviously wary, and when he took a step forward, she flared her wings, narrowly missing Asterin's head, who yelped in response.
"Alyx!" She scolded softly and the wyvern calmed, cocking its head. Asterin chuckled and nuzzled her head against the creatures wing.
"Let's go out back!" She suggested and Manon nodded and responded, "Let me just get Abraxos real quick. He's probably sleeping." She scratched her neck sheepishly and headed towards a stall behind them. Any wyverns in her path dodged as soon as they whiffed her scent.
Asterin turned to Dorian and grabbed his arm, stalking off, straight through the stables where all the wyverns where. Too many of them. "Where are we going?" He asked her stupidly and Asterin clicked her tongue as they approached, answering simply, "garden."
He blanked, "yea no shit, but why through the entire stalls?"
"Why not?" She grinned maliciously as she eyed the group of wyverns in front of them - some unnaturally big. Dorian tugged her to a halt and asked, "Why don't we walk around them? They don't look willing to move..." He hadn't realized his hands starting to shake.
Obviously, his question wasn't even deemed worthy and answer, because Asterin scoffed and turned back to the looming creatures. Fastening her grip on his lower arm, she chuckled lowly and said to him, "Get ready to run, mate."
"Wha-" Without a second's hesitation, Asterin tugged a chunk of meat from the pocket of her cargo pants and chucked it into the midst of the wyverns. A deafening screech rang through the air, courtesy of Alyx, who dived towards the group, causing everyone to scatter and take to the air with cries of rage.
"Run!" Asterin yelled, her voice almost drowned out by the wyverns. Without thinking, Dorian sprinted with Asterin, dodging flocks of wyverns diving towards them, each other or the meat, he wasn't even certain. He yelped as a talon scratched his cheek.
Through the furious flapping of wings he heard Manon's voice from the behind the flocks, "Fuck you, Asterin!" Asterin roared a laugh as they broke through the masses, flinging open the back gates to reveal the shining sun in their faces.
Dorian fell silent. That was no garden - it was humongous. He couldn't even even see the end of it. Ponds, sheds, small gated off areas with benches or training systems everywhere. It was breathtaking. Groves of various trees decorated the entire area, as far as the eye could see.
Suddenly, a shadow flashed past Dorian, barely scathing his arm. The shadow dived into a thicket of flowers with a screech of pleasure, and Dorian turned to see a fuming Manon standing there.
"I thought I told you, not to do that kind of thing!" She yelled, pointing to the massive flock of wyverns fighting within the building. Astern laughed manically and stuck her tongue out at her cousin.
Manon scoffed and then sighed in realisation, "Where is Abraxos..?" Dorian raised his brows and turned to look into the thicket where the shadow had perviously fled to and stifled a chuckle when he saw a small wyvern rolling around in the wildflowers.
Scales the colour of molten night and wings that shimmered in the sun light. The spikes that all wyverns had, had been replaced by ones of iron, as well as his teeth, as Dorian recognised as the creature's jaw slacked as he inhaled the scent of the flowers. Abraxos... was smaller. But when he opened his eyes, Dorian acknowledged why Manon had chosen him as her wyvern. The eyes were like lightning bolts; fierce, piercing and... clever. Like he had the brain of equal caliber as a human's.
"There you are, worm!" Manon laughed as she hopped up beside Dorian. Abraxos' eyes lit up, but before he could do anything, Alyx came soaring in, tackling Abraxos. Dorian and Manon watched as the two wyverns wrestled playfully, before taking to the skies in a flurry of scales and wings.
"You know, wyverns are quite clever... We have taught them quite a few tricks!" Manon grinned as he propped her elbow on Dorian's shoulder.
He smirked and cocked his head, "Please, do demonstrate."
"He's finally asleep!" Aelin whisper-shouted with glee, watching Fenrys snoring soundly on the couch. With a sigh of relief, she let herself fall back into Rowan's arms and giggled stupidly.
"It's only 10 pm. What should we do now?" She asked him, fumbling with a loose strand of his hair.
Rowan responded, wrapping his arms around her waist lovingly and nuzzling his nose into her hair, "You want to go out? Okay... I have an idea."
In a swoop, Rowan stood up, lifting Aelin into his arms in the process. He walked the few steps to a cabinet and set her down, opening the doors to reveal various materials. Nonchalantly, he picked up a stack of paper and turned towards the exit of the apartment.
Aelin narrowed her eyes, "What's the paper for?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out." Rowan answered, a smirk tugging at his lips, "But what do you say, we go for a bike ride?"
"You have bikes here?" Aelin asked, folding her arms as he started walking to the door. Rowan halted abruptly, tilting his head back to look at her, "Darling, we have everything here~"
Aelin took a second to consider, ultimately scoffing, surprising the grin that was making its way not her face as she followed him into the stairwell.
Once in the garage, Rowan opened a door to a separate compartment where Aelin craned her neck to peer over his shoulder, recognising a room filled with various manual vehicles, such as bikes, skateboards, longboards and all sorts of others.
"So?" Rowan asked, "Which do you want?" He strolled into the room and gestured to everything lying around.
Aelin's eyes lit up as she dashed right past him, "Can we take skateboards?!"
"Of course," Rowan smiled softly, "but I would suggest you take a longboard. It's... easier. I don't assume you have ever ridden a skateboard before." Despite her eye's slight twitching, Aelin nodded and took one of the boards beside her, handing Rowan a skateboard.
Once having exited the garage, Rowan breathed in the cold air of the night and smiled wholeheartedly, "Let's go!"
"Watch out!" Rowan exclaimed as he watched Aelin sway, narrowly escaping falling, on the longboard. She laughed sheepishly as he hopped off of the board, gesturing her to do the same. They had arrived at a grassy hill, with one single paved path to the top.
"We can't ride up here. Let's walk." Rowan reached out to Aelin who took his hand with a soft giggle. They tucked their boards under their arms and without a moment's hesitation, she started sprinting up the hill, dragging Rowan along with her. And he laughed.
Slightly out of breath, they arrived atop. Rowan let himself fall onto the grassy slope, spreading his legs and patting the area in front of him, "sit." He said simply.
Aelin complied, a microscopic blush rising to her cheeks as she sat down, leaning back against his chest. Rowan tugged the stack of papers out of the bag he had brought, which was lying on top of the skateboards beside them.
Carefully, he folded a paper plane and, with one swift movement, threw it over the edge, watching it soar past the fields at the foot of the hill and over the grove of trees, disappearing into the distance where the distant lights of the city shone behind groups of windmills.
"The view is so beautiful. We're so far away from Rifthold..." Aelin muttered, smiling brightly as he handed her a piece of paper. "Isn't this considered littering?" she laughed as she folded the paper.
"Meh. Fuck it." Rowan responded, chuckling as Aelin held her arm back, taking a deep breath. The moon light reflecting in her eyes made his heart thump wildly. And she released. The airplane flew - barely. After two seconds of air it came crashing into the slope beneath them.
There was a moment of filled silence as the crinkled piece of paper laid there until a gust of wind sent it rolling down the hill.
Rowan roared a laugh, falling back onto the grass, causing Aelin to fall with him, who couldn't help but to brake into uncontrollable hysterics as she watched him. She rolled off of him, both ending up on their sides, face to face.
"You're beautiful..." He murmured, raising his hand to cup her cheek. Aelin giggled and stuck her tongue out, flicking his forehead in a playful manner.
Rowan chuckled, leaning in to press his lips against her own. Wrapping her arms around his neck, a smile tugged at Aelin's lips as they kissed to the rhythm of the midnight air, the sounds of the city far below them drowning out.
"You're such a romantic~" She whispered in a mocking manner as Rowan tugged her closer, his warm breath tickling her neck as he responded playfully, "You flatter me."
A/N: So... the chapter's up... one day late. WHICH IS STILL AN IMPROVEMENT! At least it's not a week! Am I right?
So, as you see, I chose the name Alyx for the wyvern's name. I received multiple suggestions, via review and pm, but eventually settled on this name. It actually was quite a hards choice. I decided I wanted to name the wyverns with greek mythology in mind, or greek names in general, because I really like how those names sound, so yeah.
Also, I have started reading Tower of Dawn, although I'm not very far yet, considering all the stuff that's been going on; I don't have a lot of free time on my hands, but still. Up 'til now, I absolutely adore it, like honestly, all the new characters are so amazing!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review! Ja ne!