Chapter XXVII

„The Shine of Wind"

And indeed, Asuna turned out to be a strict, but wonderful teacher, and me and Eugeo made swift progress thanks to her, even without falling on our faces at least once every hour. Eugeo very quickly caught the principles of using fire and I gladly practiced with him for a day, before Asuna decided to let us try it in flight.

"The key to it is perfect control over your wings," she said when we ascended above the lake, its waters warmed by the forenoon sun. Ronye, lazy after the late breakfast, watched us sleepily from a nearby tree. "They cannot disturb your concentration on anything else. They need to become something as natural as walking or running, they need to become an obvious reflex."

It sounded simple, but the situation quickly became more complicated than I anticipated.

When we went over from theory to practice, I was able to summon a flame so strong and beautiful that even Asuna wouldn't be ashamed of it. I was all pleased only until I briefly looked down though. When I noticed the dangerously quickly approaching surface of the lake, I panicked slightly and started to beat my wings harder, the flames between my palms vanishing instantly. I glanced to my left and saw Eugeo having similar problems. We both looked up to Asuna, who hovered above us at ease, watching us with what seemed to be deliberation.

It was then that I realized how much of my concentration went into the movement of my wings, and that it became painfully irregular as soon as I started to focus on something else.

"As you can see it only sounds easy..." Asuna said after lowering herself a bit towards our level. "How about we just practice more flying for starters, so that you get used to it as much as possible? We can also train the endurance in long-distance flight at the same time." At this point a little smile decorated her lips, as if she just came up with some interesting idea. "But I don't plan to chase you in circles around the lake or anything like that, don't worry. What would you say to... a little trip?"

The wind got a bit quieter, the surface of the lake smoothened.

"A trip?" I repeated, rising my eyebrows.

This time Asuna wasn't very eager to explain much though. When we returned to the mansion, she asked us to organize some provisions and some clean clothing for ourselves and prepare for departure. To the question about the purpose of it all she answered only with a playful smile and went to the other part of the residence to have a word with Kaan.

"Any ideas as to what attractions she prepared for us this time?" I asked Eugeo, watching him fold a shirt on the neatly made bed, so unlike my own.

"You need a clairvoyant to answer this question, not my humble person, Kirito," he answered with a hint of amusement. I just smiled and went to pack some small stuff as well.

After returning Asuna grabbed her bag from her room, the surprised Ronye from one of the armchairs, which she just contently started occupying, and flew out to the lake again. She made a few circles around the mansion's premise, as if enticing us to leave our hesitation on the balcony we were watching her from, and when we finally joined her, she turned south.

Our sudden journey lasted two days. We spent one night in the Selerath Valley, in a small cluster of trees on the west bank of Istria, which mooned around lazily on her way to her estuary somewhere far in front of us. We knew it made no sense to interrogate Asuna about anything if she refused to give an answer once already, so we decided to just enjoy the trip and the calm winds.

The second day she directed our flight just slightly to the west, and it became even more clear that we weren't heading for the druid camp, like I initially suspected. We sailed on the remnants of an east wind, but I started to feel subtle, irregular wafts from the south, that brought some unknown to me, but interesting scent with them.

"Asuna!" I yelled after her at last, my patience burned out.

"Yes?" she slowed down a little to be able to talk to me more easily.

I pulled Ronye, who was flying with me that day, slightly up so she didn't slide all the way down my back. "I really think it's about time you told us..." I said.

"And I'm really surprised that you were able to keep quiet all this time," she gave me an amused look. "But patience pays off..."

She looked straight ahead and my eyes just followed.

Beyond the already visible border of the Silivren Forest there was something glistening silverly, as if something really big was reflecting the sun's rays and was visible even from a fair distance. It took another few minutes of flight for us to see what it actually was though.

Sea...

A sea that spread towards the farthest verges of the horizon, its surface a crystalline turquoise, glimmering marvelously in the heavy-golden rays of early-summer sun...

Its calm, fine waves ran onto the bright sand of a slim band of beach at the feet of enormous cliffs, covered by the last trees of Silivren Forest, and then eluded like frightened fish back into the azure depths, where they belonged... The woods, hiding their secrets, their tranquility and their inhabitants in the silvery-green, accompanied the shore towards the west as far as the eye could reach.

My bewilderment brought me to a standstill in midair. I've never before seen the sea, despite having heard and read about it a lot of times during my captivity in the royal castle, thanks to boring topography lessons or the far more interesting adventure books. I didn't even begin to imagine that it was something so breathtaking though... The voices of birds mixed with the mysterious whisper of the waves, the scent of the forest with the salty breath of water. It was this whiff that I perceived towards the end of our journey.

Asuna let us some space for a few moments, so that me and Eugeo could feast our eyes to our hearts' content, before coming closer and asking: "How do you like it?" Her voice was quiet, as if she didn't want to disturb the melody of the waves.

"It's unbelievable," I finally managed. "It's..."

"Beautiful..." Eugeo finished for me. He sounded even more mesmerized than I was, which was unusual. "I grew up in the mountains and always thought they were magnificent, but this..." I tipped my head a little, taking note of the fact that breathtaking landscapes were able to make the normally reserved Eugeo suddenly talk about himself.

Asuna smiled warmly and turned her gaze to the horizon again. "This is where I learned to fly. I spent countless hours catching the sea breezes and allowing the waves to catch me if something went wrong. We have excellent conditions for exercise here, and for regenerating our bodies and minds after it."

"So we stay for a while?" I was already excited, never even worrying about the exercise part.

"Until I give the allowance to return," Asuna joked.

I set Ronye down beneath one of the trees at the border of the forest and the three of us flew out above the endless waters. Up to some point every detail of the sandy sea bed was clearly visible. After that the bottom must have been going into an abrupt drop, turning the water dark and impenetrable. There, in the water's reflection, I was able to observe myself in flight basically for the first time. I saw for myself how my wings looked like in all their glory, how they changed shape while gracefully catching the wind... and how all of that harmonized with what I was feeling with every beat.

Asuna soon tore me away from admiring myself, deciding to show us the real magic of flying.

She taught us all conceivable maneuvers that we could possibly think of, from barrel rolls and wing-overs, through using air currents to fly as long as we could without beating our wings, to flight with one wing dipped slightly into the cool water. She didn't need to remind us to do it carefully. I've experienced first-hand what the consequences could be and wouldn't forget them for the rest of my life. My favorite move became a free fall towards the water and opening my wings at literally the last moment to change the fall into a glide right above the small waves, from which tiny droplets rose towards me, torn free by the force of air movement.

Sometimes I felt like I could fly like this without end. In the air I felt boundlessly free, all my worries stayed on the ground somewhere. With each of my breaths I had the impression I was taking a subtle piece of the sea and coastal greenery and welcomed it to my very soul, becoming one with them. Above all else though, I delighted in the effect it had on Eugeo. The longer we played like this, the more lively he became, more eager to open himself up fully and I had the impression that sometimes the last remnants of pain, that always residued at the bottom of his eyes no matter what I did, were suddenly starting to fade.

Ronye on the other hand turned out to be rather insensitive to the charm of something she wasn't able to do herself, and when the exercises started to absorb our full attention, she set off into the brushes in search for wild strawberries.

A few days passed like this. We spent the nights under the branches of the forest, among the green of cedars and ivy, surrounded by the fresh scent of sea and the whisper of its waves. We ate breakfast shortly after dawn and set off into the sky above the waters. At the beginning Asuna suggested a simple play of tag in order to improve our agility in air, of course making me and Eugeo the chasers. It sounded silly to me at first, but turned out to be one of the hardest games I've ever played. She was experienced, skilled and very fast, making it hard for even the both of us at once to catch her. Every time I thought we finally had her, she eluded with a movement light as a flutter of a butterfly's wings. It also didn't help matters that me and Eugeo sometimes felt tempted to chase each other like silly kids rather than chasing our teacher. With time though, observing her made us understand some subtle mechanics and develop a new kind of instinct as well and we set the games aside.

We trained the usage of fire in flight again and planned to bring swords for some lessons in midair with them in the near future. Asuna seemed very pleased with our quick progress and I felt more and more hope with every successful exercise. At the end of each day we sat down in the grass of the high shore and observed the clouds, carrying the glow of setting sun on their edges, while eating. If a rain occurred in the morning and the afternoon was hot, at the end of the day the forest emitted a dizzying scent that soothed the exhaustion and helped to fall asleep peacefully. After dusk Ronye always rested in the crown of a low willow, listening to our calm breaths, as if watching over our sleep and our safety, and disappeared only shortly in the middle of the night for a hunt.

Every now and then we visited the druid camp to replenish our provisions a little and check if Sharish has decided to show himself again. Time passed though, and the successor of the Caydranth lineage was nowhere to be seen...

„And we will fly there to this small Paradise

Where we are there, alone but together

Enjoying the detours we make..."

Another shorter chapter with a bad title... sorry about that.

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