A single mid-morning sunbeam managed to force its way through Rimedahl's cloudy sky, filter through the inn's window, and land squarely in the center of Adelle's face. Yawning, the girl sat up, threw the cot's covers to the ground, and stretched her back. She looked to her left to see that, unsurprisingly, Gloria had already gotten up and, equally unsurprisingly, had also made her bed. After quickly splashing her face from a bedside water bucket and throwing clean linens on, she headed to the commons.
Gloria was just finishing a cup of tea when Adelle thumped down next to her at the table, her bowl nearly overflowing with porridge and her plate piled with sausage and snow elk bacon. Playing an instrumental role in repelling Holograd's forces and putting an end to the town's fairy hunts three months ago had earned her and her friends free meals for life at the inn.
"Good morning." Gloria greeted her, setting her cup down and blotting her lips with a napkin.
"Morning," Adelle replied with a mouthful of meat.
"Martha stopped by earlier and asked for your help with something for Gwilym. She was reluctant to say exactly what, though."
"Huh, that's a bit funny. Martha's not a morning person at all. Short of someone dying, you never see her up before noon."
"Well, if that truly is the case, it seems that you should visit her as soon as you can."
"You don't need to say that twice." Adelle began ravenously scooping her porridge and eventually put the bowl to her lips, gulping its contents down before slamming it on the table. "If Elvis or Seth come looking for me, will you let them know I'm visiting Martha?"
"Absolutely. Although I doubt Elvis will even get out of bed today, let alone want to talk to anyone. During the night I heard him stumble back to his room, and if my ears didn't deceive me, he was bragging to himself how he outdrank half the town's watch,"
"That sounds like the good old boozehound." Adelle laughed as she ran back to her room to gather her belongings.
Adelle had barely stepped inside the Dragon's Grotto when she heard a familiar voice.
"Adelle! It's so good to see you!" Martha trotted up to her from behind a stalagmite, waving furiously. "When I heard your lot was coming round to Rimedahl, I got so excited! But also a wee bit nervous that I might not get to see you, you being a big name and all now."
"It's great to see you, Martha," Adelle chimed. "And you know I'd never pass up the opportunity to see a friend. I don't like the spotlight much anyways, it's not really my thing. And Elvis seems to be plenty happy taking it for the whole gang, so it works out." They both laughed.
"So then," Adelle continued, putting her hands on her hips, "What's going on with Gwilym that's got you up this early?"
"Oh, uh, nothing actually! That was a little fib." Martha briefly lowered her head before raising it again. "But I did need to talk to you!."
"And you couldn't just tell Gloria that?"
"Ah, well, it's a bit of a topic that's been bugging me. And I was afraid that if it wasn't something urgent, you might not get down here right away."
"And you couldn't have just waited around in town for me?"
"Nope! No, I could not." Martha's cheeks turned red as the interrogation continued.
"Then spit it out, silly. Or do I have to pull the words out of your mouth for you?" Adelle teased.
"Well," Martha hesitated, kicking a pebble out of the way, "about everything that happened the last time you all were here, I just wanted to say"-
"Say no more." Adelle interrupted. "There's absolutely no need to thank me. Friends watch each other's backs, and what I did was the least I could have done."
"Oh well, that's actually not what I wanted to talk about!" Martha chuckled.
"It's not?"
"Nope! Or what I mean is, yes, thank you dearly; I feel like I never really got to properly thank you for saving me. But I'm also sorry for flustering you with anything I blabbed about that day. One second I thought I would be joining the ranks at the bottom of the Jaws of Judgement, then I see you jump after me and I think you've totally lost it, then you grab me and suddenly I'm not going to die and I see these long locks of white hair and gorgeous, glittery wings and beautiful, glowing skin and"-
Martha shut her eyes, huffed, and stomped her right foot. "Ugh! I just did it again! Even months later I can't think straight about it!"
Adelle put an arm around Martha and patted her shoulder. "Hey hey hey, I get it. Things happened so fast, I had never told you I'm… a fairy, and your life was on the line. If I was in your position, I probably would've acted the same way."
"The same way? Really?"
"Yeah, really."
Silence began to fill the cave, only disrupted by quiet drips of water from its ceiling. Snow from outside slowly but steadily piled near its edges. A light breeze blew some in; flakes landed and glistened on Martha's coat and Adelle's scarf.
"How about I make things up to you?" Adelle piped.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just follow me." She walked toward the entrance of the cave; Martha followed and they stepped out into the flurries.
Adelle stepped close to her. "Grab on."
Martha wrapped her arms around her in a bear hug and Adelle wrapped hers in turn. Martha felt an unexpected feeling of warmth rush over her- it was still morning, she hadn't drunk anything that day yet. It was then, however, she realized that the feeling wasn't coming from her own body, but Adelle's, as a dazzlingly bright light enveloped the two of them. While blinded, Martha felt the shirt her arms were positioned over change to a silky, gossamer texture. A thin, dainty membrane beat back and forth against her arms as a pair of wings unfolded from Adelle's back; a barrage of soft locks of hair tumbled down past her chin and partly into Martha's face.
Before Martha could say anything, Adelle crouched and effortlessly shot up into the air, leaving a cloud of dusty snow in their wake. They stayed close to the ground at first but slowly rose higher and higher into the sky. The countryside passed below them: paths through the snow to Rimedahl and Enderno that had been carved into the earth by countless travelers weaved like tiny snakes, animals and monsters looked like smudges, and even the most lofty and ornate belfry of Rimedahl's chapel disappeared beneath them.
"Since you've ridden on Gwilym, I know this isn't quite as thrilling as it was the first time around. But still, we're not in a life or death situation anymore, so you can actually enjoy the view."
"Oh Adelle, this is amazing." Martha craned her neck and looked over Adelle's left shoulder; their cheeks briefly brushed against each other. "A ride on Master Gwilym is spectacular too, but there's something so different between sitting atop his back and holding onto you. Something indescribable."
The flurries abruptly turned to a squall and the already cold temperature dropped just as swiftly; since Gloria's retrieval of the fire crystal, the region's temperature had returned to its bitter norms both for better and for worse. The frigid air burned Martha's cheeks and stung her eyes; she buried her face into the fur collar around Adelle's neck and let out a huffy breath.
"Isn't this cold bothering you? Aren't you having any trouble seeing?" Martha asked.
"Not particularly. But if you want to get down, I can land right now."
"No! I'm fine too." She buried herself further as the wind became violent and blew her coat's hood up and over her head. "I was just a bit curious."
"I've got a feeling you're lying."
Both distracted by their conversation, the two didn't notice the distance they were closing between an enormous, thick cloud ahead of them. Before either of them could notice, they collided with it and were swallowed up in its white, wet, void.
"Eeek!" Martha squeaked. "I can't see anything!"
"My bad, I wasn't watching where I was flying." Adelle apologized. "Let me get us out of here." She slowed the beating of her wings in preparation to descend. They had gone down barely ten feet, however, when a booming air current swept them upward. It was incredibly powerful and wild- far too strong for Adelle to fly against.
"Ah damn it! I can't remember the last time I made a stupid mistake like this!" Adelle cursed. They were at the mercy of the turbulence; there was nothing they could do besides waiting for it to subside.
As they were sucked upward, a horizontal current struck them and sent them tumbling in a circular motion. Both girls screeched this time.
"Hold on, Martha!" Adelle spread her wings as wide as she could and wrapped them around her, forming a cocoon.
"I'm trying!" She yelped.
The dense cloud blocked out most light from the sun above and the shield formed by Adelle's wings reduced that remaining light to almost nothing. What little was left reflected off the scales on her wings, allowing the girls to just barely see each other's faces with a faint, azure glow. They kept their eyes locked as they spun; the green in Martha's contrasted against the blue illuminating them.
"Adelle, are we going to be alright?" Martha's voice trembled. "This seems like quite the pickle."
"Yeah, you bet it!" Adelle hollered, her voice nearly drowned out by the gales; the tone didn't quite match her words. "This isn't the first time I've been caught by the wind." She gave her friend a reassuring smile; only the contour of her lips was illuminated. "And I'm not gonna let it be the last!" She hugged Martha even tighter and nestled her face in her shoulder.
Martha calmed down slightly.
The pair continued to spin for a short while before they were abruptly spat out from the top of the cloud. The deafening sound of the wind ceased just as its flow did; for a scant second, the pair found themselves falling before Adelle unfurled her wings and tore open their cocoon. Martha's hood flew back from her head and her tawny hair flowed outward.
The sky was clear, blue, and empty aside from a few wispy, almost ethereal cirrus clouds; the sun shone as intensely and brightly as it did over Savalon's dunes. Its rays struck the thousands of tiny water droplets that had been flung from Adelle's wings and formed a rainbow over the pair. Her wings themselves glittered in the sun as well, reflecting more light than the fullest of moons.
"The sun shining over Rimedahl….And a rainbow." Martha remarked. "I can't remember the last time I've ever seen something like this. I don't know if I've ever seen something like this."
"It's… beautiful," Adelle spoke, her mouth somewhat agape as they soared above the comforter of clouds below them.
"It really is."
"Come to think about it, I don't think I've ever been up this high. I didn't want to say when it was happening, but that turbulence was dreadful, the worst I've seen. It must have taken us up really far."
"I think you're right," Martha replied, her breaths sounding faintly raspy.
"My goodness," Adelle barked. " I don't want you suffocating up here. And I can't breathe too well either. Let's go back down." She began to slow her wings again.
"No! Let's stay and look just a wee bit longer," Martha begged.
Adelle hovered in place as the two gazed out into the endless blue; Martha turned her head as to look in the same direction as Adelle. The only audible noises were their shallow breaths and the steady beating of the fairy's wings.
"If heaven is a real place," Martha started, "we must be on its edge. Perhaps Master Gwydion is not much further above us."
"When fairies die," Adelle started, "we return to the earth whose growth we once came from. Sorta like a cycle. We don't really fear death, at least not a peaceful one, the way your lot does. I'd go as far to say that a few almost even look forward to it, going back to the lush earth."
Martha stayed silent, expecting Adelle to continue.
"But you know, this is wonderful too. If I were a human, I don't think I would mind going to a place like this when I die."
"And I hope I go here." Martha coughed.
"Alrighty, sounds like we really should be getting down now."
"But how are we going to get through all those clouds again?"
Adelle smirked and cocked her head to one side, the two antennae-like strands of hair atop it following suit. "You're gonna ask Gwilym for a favor, and I'm gonna fly like there's no tomorrow." She took them upward, past even the cirrus clouds, to where a few too many seconds of lingering would tinge their ears with frostnip. She twisted her body and positioned herself so that they faced directly down toward the layer of clouds. "You ready?"
"Y-yes," Martha stammered. She closed her eyes and began praying. "Master Gwilym, Lord of Dragons, grant us you luck and strength and perseverance and"-
Adelle dove downward like a falcon swooping to catch a fish from a lake, her wings folding back into a V. They crashed into the clouds and were met with the same uproar and turbulence; tiny crystals of ice struck their faces. This time though, the wind's tumult was no match for their speed: they continued powering through, eyes squeezed tightly shut until they triumphantly emerged from the cloud's bottom and found themselves directly over Rimedahl.
Gasping from the effort, Adelle relaxed her wings as they approached the same belfry they had flown over earlier. She slowed down and glided through an opening on one of its sides, landing a few feet from a set of stairs. The two released their hug and Martha dropped a few inches to the stone floor. Adelle slouched her back and rested her hands on the front of her thighs, still catching her breath from the exertion.
"Adelle, that was truly incredible. I'm not lying when I say that was the greatest sight I've seen in my life. But... why are we landing here of all places?" Martha asked, bewildered. "You really want to trudge down forty-one flights of stairs and have the clergy wondering what we were doing in an off-limits place like this?
"I certainly….. do not," Adelle replied, brushing snow and ice off herself. "But this was…. the best spot I could think of." She finally caught her breath.
"Best for what?"
"Martha, I misspoke up there. About guessing I wouldn't mind going to heaven if I were human."
"You mean…"
"I know I wouldn't mind going to heaven. Because I'm already there."
Martha stared in utter confusion for a moment before her eyes widened and her mouth spread into a grin. The two leaned in and Adelle brushed her face up Martha's neck and locked lips with her. Martha ran her right hand up her back, ever so slightly grazing the spot where her papery wings melded with skin, and then cupped the back of her neck with her thick, unwieldy glove. There they stood on the tallest point in the region, as close to any heaven as they could be on solid ground.
"Those months back," Martha confessed, pulling her head back, "I was thinking straight the entire time. But I guess I was in… denial."
"About me? Or a girl? Or a fairy?" With a finger, Adelle followed a strand of hair down Martha's cheek and onto her coat, stopping just below her breasts.
"Perhaps all three." Martha blushed.
"But then that doesn't matter any more, does it?"
"No, it doesn't. I'm over that stuff now. Adelle," Martha paused, "I like you."
"Me too, Martha. I like you too." As she spoke, Adelle felt her face turned bright red, as if she was burning up with the most lethal of fevers, and her lips broke into a heartfelt smile. "A lot. And have for a long time." She tightened her embrace and slipped her left hand beneath Martha's coat and blouse, feeling the toned and impressive musculature on her stomach.
"Well," Martha chimed, " it looks like one of us is much better at keeping things under wraps than the other. Not surprising, now that I think about it." They both laughed and sat down on the belfry's floor; Martha placed a hand over one of Adelle's. The gray stone was filthy, icy, and freezing, but they were too infatuated to notice.
"Martha, what were you expecting to happen when I came by the Grotto?"
"I-I wanted to apologize about what I said, and I thought you would just brush it off and then invite yourself in for a bite to eat and we'd do some catching up. I had the tiniest sliver of hope you would say something more, but I kept telling myself it wasn't going to happen." She paused for a moment and then continued.
"I hadn't imagined you'd take me flying. But I'm so glad that you did, because when we got caught in that storm and I might have thought for a second that we were goners, I realized there wasn't anyone I would have wanted to go out alongside more than you." Martha finished and clasped her hands in her lap, as if she just concluded a presentation for a school class. "What were you thinking? When I apologized."
Adelle slid her hands behind her and leaned back, looking up toward the inside of the belfry's roof. "That you were lying through your teeth. When you're feeling something, you sorta wear your heart on your sleeve; did you know that? I didn't want to say anything though because I didn't know if you wanted me to. But I did now, and I think I can safely say that this time around you wanted me to say it."
"You're absolutely right," Martha replied. She craned her neck and gave Adelle a quick peck. Suddenly she heard a clatter of footsteps running up the tower's steps.
"Someone heard us; there must have been some goings on in the upper church today." She stood up and looked toward the stairs. " I don't think either of us would get in terrible trouble if we got caught, but I don't want to take that risk or push our luck."
Adelle jumped up, stretched her back, walked toward the opening in the north-facing wall, and perched herself on its stone railing. "Then let's get going."
"Wait one second." Martha said. She ran up to the tower's massive, golden bell, grabbed its rope, and yanked it with every ounce of strength she had, her hands pulling a weight that the church normally designated to three bell-ringers. An ear-splitting, thunderous DONG pealed and shook the entire structure as Martha ran back to Adelle, climbed up the railing, and wrapped her arms around her chest. They jumped and vanished into a low-hanging cloud drifting at the tower's height. It was just thick enough to obscure their figure from the frazzled deacons entering the belfry as well as the town populace looking up from below, pondering the reason for the bell's toll.