If one chanced to look closely, they might have seen three figures, laden in bundles of clothing, waddling away from Sapius as fast as possible. Now, on cool, clear crisp evenings like this, most may have not given this a second thought - beggars came to appeal to the Good King for food and shelter, and the king was generous to those less wealthy than he. But these were not ordinary beggars.
"This is ridiculous," one of the bundles hissed, stepping in a mud puddle.
"Shut up!" a decidedly female voice was heard to answer. "When they find we're gone, they're going to be looking for two nobles and a servant. It's going to be a bit easier if somebody spots two nobles and a servant piddling about with no good reason!"
The third figure was quiet, smoothing out the map, which looked like it had been torn out of an atlas. "That way," he said, pointing in a northwesterly direction.
"Besides," the female voice went on, "we can get out of the clothes when we get far enough away from Sapius."
The first figure didn't answer, just kept up with the others. When the next morning dawned, it would not be cool and clear, but large thunderheads had gathered in the sky, threatening to downpour.
# # #
"You're legends," Yizeer told his adoptive daughters. "No human-Luftwing has ever survived The Call."
Helen and Susan nodded sickly. Neither of them had spoken much since The Calling, and Susan was beginning to think that she would never speak again. Every morning she had a headache from her teeth being clenched so tightly together, and her throat was sore from silent screaming in her dreams. She massaged her throat as she thought of it - and bumped into someone.
"I'm sorry.." she croaked, looking up. But as she did, her words stuck in her throat like briars.
She had run into the most handsome man she had ever seen, human or not. Like all Luftwings, he had black fur and wings, but this one was very muscular and tan. Muscles bulged out over his body, and his long brown hair was pulled back into a pigtail at the nape of his neck. He flashed a perfectly white smile, and bowed slightly.
"It's quite all right, I assure you," he said eloquently. "Susan, right? I've heard about you. I passed The Call two years ago - the first week after is really horrible, isn't it? It'll get better, I promise."
Susan opened her mouth to speak, but her throat tightened, and she barely managed to nod. Helen, sensing what was going on, stifled a giggle.
"How rude of me," the very handsome Luftwing went on, "I haven't introduced myself. I am Reicano, of nest seven."
Yizeer grinned at Susan, who was still rendered speechless. "Yes, Reicano, we should be getting along now... see you around."
Reicano grinned again, nodded to Yizeer, and winked at Susan, who was still mute, and then he flew off.
"My God," Susan said faintly, gasping slightly. "I mean... my God!"
Yizeer laughed. "You're not the only one, he does that to all the females around here. But he seems to have taken an interest in you... I told you, the ones that survive The Calling always get the best mates."
Helen inhaled mountain air so sharply she choked on it. "Mates?!"
"Yes... Goodness, Helen, when do you humans get mates... you are eleven, aren't you?"
Susan, who was still staring at the spot where Reicano was before, snapped back to the present. "Most humans don't get married until they're in their twenties... some later than that... and some don't at all!"
"Strange," Yizeer commented, shaking his head.
"Yizeer," Helen asked abruptly, "did you ever have a mate?"
Yizeer's eyes widened, as if he was going to respond tartly, then his features rearranged themselves confusedly. "I... I don't know..."
Helen whirled around to where Yizeer was. "You don't know? It's not like something you forget."
Susan watched Yizeer carefully. His face scrunched into a sad position, as if he were about to launch into a sob story, then got angry again. She frowned. It's almost like he's being controlled, or something...
Suddenly, lightning cracked outside, and rain poured in torrents. Several Luftwings came in for a crash course, as it was hard to fly when rain pelted on delicate wings. Yizeer's mouth opened.
"Fewmets!" he cursed, going to help the elderly Luftwings move their nests out of the drenching rainpour.
Susan and Helen stood silently for a moment. "It was sunny a moment ago, wasn't it, Susan?" Helen asked.
"I thought it was... and how can you forget if you were married or not?" inquired Susan. Nobody answered.
# # #
Erika Potter was enchanted by shiny objects, and the large, polished brass knob that shone like sunshine over her was just too much temptation for her tiny fingers. She reached up to touch the gleaming metal, when it gave out from behind her fingers and a large white board swung backwards, revealing a hole in the wall, and a new room.
Baby lips curled into a slight frown. She was going to have to figure out how these strange 'door' contraptions worked. Erika toddled into the room.
In this room was the lady with the very twisty hair, in the same shade of Erika's own black, except there was much, much more of it. When her legs gave in from under her, the black-haired lady looked up.
Sarah, who was feeling rather down at the moment, smiled slightly at the baby who was crawling around on the floor. "I remember when Susan was your size," she told Erika. Erika cooed in response.
Sarah got up off her bed and towered over the baby, placing her hands on her hips. "What are you laughing at?" she asked in an ice-cream-voice.
"Up, up, up!" Erika chanted. She had figured out that if she said that, most of the time somebody picked her up off the ground, so she could see all over. Erika was quite sure that if the right person picked her up someday, she might be able to see the whole world. Sarah complied and picked the baby up.
Erika Potter looked a lot like her father, in the respects that she had the same black hair, and the same green eyes, even though the eyes were more hazel than green. Susan put her nose up to Erika's. "You know what Susan did when she was your age? Once, she got so mad at me, she went outside and started banging her head on the concrete. She did that a few times, before she realized it was painful, and stopped doing it."
"You should hear what the twins did when they were little," a voice said from behind.
Sarah's hand was to her wand, and nearly had it aimed before she realized it was only Gabriel in the doorframe.
"Did you hear about the time they buttered the couch?" Gabriel asked, not missing a beat.
"Can't say I heard that one," Sarah replied, pocketing her wand.
"Once, when I was gone, and Seamus was taking a nap, Gerald got out the tub of margarine, and started spreading it all over the white sofa." Gabriel started making exaggerated gestures of scooping butter up with her fingers, and then dramatically spreading it over the couch.
"They didn't," Sarah said, bouncing Erika on her hip.
"They did," Gabriel said firmly. Stubbing her foot against the doorframe, she looked up. "I'm sorry about you and Draco, Sarah."
Sarah shook her head, and tickled Erika under the chin. "Don't be. It was stupid to even think of it - it really wouldn't have worked out."
"Well, if he ever makes you mad again, you could testify as a witness to his involvement with Tom Riddle," Gabriel pointed out with grim good humor.
"You have the oddest way of cheering people up," Sarah said dryly. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why in the hell didn't I inquire into his past?" she fumed, a line, thinner than gossamer creasing her brows.
Gabriel shrugged and sat down on the bed. "Everybody acts like that when they're engaged - it's a good thing you weren't here when Seamus and I first got married. We were nuts."
Susan shook her head again. "I should have been worrying about Susan, anyway. I hope she's all right."
"She should be," Gabriel said firmly. "Goodness knows that she has a cooler head than you do."
Sarah glared at her.
# # #
The company that was Gerald, Grace, and Rob had gotten quite a distance from the castle. Of course, it wouldn't have been the same if they had ridden a basilisk, for say, but it was good timing anyway.
"We should be coming on the 'Black River' any minute now," Rob said, as he was manning the atlas.
"Good," Gerald said, not noticing the look that had flickered across Grace's face. "I'm tired of all this bloody walking."
Twenty minutes later, the threesome did indeed come upon the River, and it was a sight to behold. The ends of the river spanned out of sight, and it was way too far to the other bank to swim. What was more curious than this however, is that the water was actually an ebony shade, and far off in the center of the raging water, there was a small, but overgrown island. Grace couldn't help but notice that even though the sky was thick with fat rainclouds, there was a perfectly circle patch of bright blue sky.
"Odd," Rob said, rubbing his swollen eyes, and touching the black water, letting it run over his fingers.
"How are we supposed to get across?" Gerald asked, slightly panicky.
"Um..." Grace said, looking around.
"Yer lookin' ter cross th' Black River?" a voice asked.
The three whirled around, to come face-to-face with a man. He was no taller than they were, though he looked eons older. His front teeth were missing, and he wore simple breeches and a shirt.
"Er, yes," Rob replied, eyeing the man.
"Come with me."
They followed the man to a rather wretched-looking hovel, in front of which was four kayaks, looking as if they had been hewed out of the trunks of trees.
"Wow!" Grace said, clapping her hands together. "Perfect!"
"How much?" asked the ever practical Rob.
The man crossed his arms. "How much yer got?"
Rob looked at Gerald, who looked at Grace. They hadn't thought to bring any money. Grace looked at the pair again, and released a long, suffering sigh, before pulling a band off her wrist.
"That should cover it," she told the man, handing over the ruby and golden bracelet. The man took it, and looked it over.
"It does," he agreed. He took a shuddering breath, as if intending to speak, but he exhaled it. "Have a nice trip," he supplied awkwardly.
"Thanks," Gerald said dryly, attempting to climb in the kayak, which was rather hard as it kept wobbling about. Finally Rob steadied it, and Gerald gingerly climbed in.
"Come on," Grace said, digging a paddle into the black waters. The wooden kayak glided smoothly across the surface, skimming like a water bug. It was a very well made craft, light and agile. When the three of them were a good half mile out, the man stopped watching them, shook his head and walked back into his hovel, muttering to himself.
# # #
Yizeer was out of sorts the rest of the day, avoiding the girls like the black plague. Instead of bothering him, the twosome retreated to the safe walls of the nest, conversing and munching on various berries and mosses.
"You know," Helen said, biting into a berry, "when I was human, I wouldn't have thought of eating this."
Susan shrugged, spreading a piece of mountain moss with a form of berry jam. "Helen, have you thought that there might be anything... wrong... with this place?"
Helen scratched the top of her head. "What do you mean?"
"Yizeer forgetting that if he had a mate or not... rainstorms at a drop of a hat... something's up."
"You just noticed," Helen said dryly. She leaned back against the walls of the nest. "I think this place is being controlled. Either that, or there's something really wrong with the climate controls."
"Do we even know where we are?" asked Susan, finally. "This can't be earth. This isn't in our solar system. Unless Jupiter has become suddenly life-formed friendly."
Helen shook her head. "Wish we knew where Rob and the others are. That might help. We haven't been anywhere off the mountainside."
Susan shrugged and turned back to her moss.
# # #
"I don't like that river," Godric informed the other three, carefully wiping the horn of his trumpet.
"Honestly," Salazar said, slumping his head against his fist. "You sound like Helga." Helga took no particular offence to this, being used to Salazar's cutting tongue.
"I don't like it either, but unless you plan to pick them up and deposit them on the other side of the banks, you talking about it doesn't to any good," Rowena said, scratching the side of her nose. "Helga," she said, turning to face the fourth founder. "You're awfully quiet."
Helga gave a watery smile. "It's nothing."
Salazar stroked his bushy moustache. "She's Seen something unpleasant."
Helga shrugged. It was not her business to go about blabbing fates. Besides, she learned that if she said anything, things always went haywire.
There was silence for a moment, before Godric interrupted it by blowing an especially squeaky b flat in Salazar's ear, making his clap his hands over his ears and holler. The two ladies sighed as Salazar started chasing Godric around the room, who was trumpeting something of a patriotic song as he ran in circles.
# # #
Gerald, Grace and Rob met the other side of the banks around noon the next day. The ominous cloud cover that seemed to plague the place lifted, and the three were noticeably startled to find how close they were to a very tall mountain.
Rob checked his map, which was, by now, very crumpled and wet. But his eyes were refusing to focus properly, so he handed it to Grace.
"Rinoraut," Grace said, looking up at the stone with breathless awe. Gerald made a whining noise in his throat.
"We have to climb up that?" he asked wearily. Grace whapped him over the head with her paddle.
Rob moaned as he hauled the kayak to the side. They had been paddling for nearly three hours, and his arms felt like they were going to fall off of his shoulders. His eyes were screaming, and they kept on closing in on themselves.
"Can't we sleep for a while?" he whimpered, forgetting about being dignified about it in the pain of the moment. Grace attempted to sigh, but it quickly turned into a yawn.
"Yehuh," she said, lumbering over to a tree. The three of them collapsed under the tree, and fell somewhere between unconsciousness and sleep.
# # #
The mad rush of Luftwings to the entrance of the huge cave awakened Susan and Helen from their own lazy nap, cuddled in a nest.
"What's up?" Helen asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes. In the crowd of Luftwings that passed, one stopped, a kindly little one named Tiarana.
"Intruders!" Tiarana said excitedly. "Found under the mountain... humans, too!" Before she could explain more, she was whisked away in the turmoil of the crowd.
"What the hell are human intruders doing here?" asked Susan as she and Helen joined the throng of Luftwings. "I thought that humans and Luftwings hated each other."
Helen shrugged, grabbing onto Susan's sleeve - which was now little more than a greasy rag - and praying not to be lost in the mess. When the crowd stopped, Susan couldn't see anything.
"What do you see?" asked Helen, rolling on the balls of her feet.
"The backs of heads," Susan replied, trying to see over tall wings.
"Hey!" a voice called. Susan looked up to see Reicano sitting on a tall nest, beckoning to them, the handsome young male from earlier. "Come up here! You can see better!"
Helen giggled - she rarely forgot a voice. Susan paled, but managed to get her wings to work to get her up to the nest. Helen followed, still grinning in blind amusement.
Reicano smiled prettily at the two girls, flashing white teeth. Susan swallowed and forced herself to look at the spectacle.
Three humans were being dragged into the center circle, before the King Luftwing. Their bodies sparkled with silvery Talent, so Susan supposed that they probably couldn't move, or speak either. She shifted in her spot and related this all to Helen, who frowned.
"What is your business here, humans?" asked the king in a grave voice that sounded much like a frown. The crowd quieted, and the three humans made muffled noises.
"That's what they all say," the king said dryly. The crowd tittered. Susan leaned forward so far that Reicano had to pull her back by the wings, save her falling out.
There was a distinct popping sound, and a voice seared out, loud, grating, and barely translatable. "Rleze uz!" the voice said.
Helen clapped a hand over her mouth. "That's Rob!" she cried. Unfortunately, she cried it a little too loudly, and the entire Luftwing population turned around, including the king.
"Do you have anything to add?" the king asked icily, green eyes glinting. Helen swallowed hard.
"Sir," she said with utmost respect, voice trembling, "those humans are not intruders. We know them. Clan blood," Helen explained, using the term for the greatest of friends.
The king's eyes darted from Helen to the three bound and gagged humans. "Tell no falsehoods. Do you speak the unvarnished truth?"
Susan made a hand sign, with her palm crossing her chest, swinging up to her chin, then curling in a fist and stopping in her breast area. This was the sign of Disarmed, shown both to say you were not going to attack, and that you are not lying. "Unvarnished."
Grace was trying to reacquaint what had happened. Some Luftwings were having a conversation - she hoped it wasn't about what kind of spice they would taste best with, as carnivorous Luftwings were known to eat humans every once in a while.
She had been dozing, when a shadow swooped over her. She had assumed that it was just clouds crossing the sun, but had been proven dreadfully wrong when she found that her body was in a state of paralysis, and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton. Strange, flying people were hovering over her, and the next thing she knew she had been brought here, among legions of flying monsters. She sighed inwardly. Maybe we'd have been better off at Sapius, she thought.
One of the monsters came gliding down from a higher nest. Unlike the others, she was wearing clothes, but they were little more than black scraps dangling over her body. Her black hair shone with grease, and her green eyes glinted like liquid emerald. Behind her flew another; nearly identical winged creature, with very familiar features, and cloudy eyes.
Gerald attempted to shout out, but the result was muffled by magic. The two Luftwings looked them over.
"Jar-eld," the black-haired one said, pointed to Gerald. "'Ob. Gace," she went on, forming the words with difficulty. Realization dawned on Grace.
Susan! she cried in her mind. Helen!
"Release the prisoners from the bonds," the king ordered. The five Luftwings that had spelled the humans did so with a little reluctance. Rob rubbed at his arms, which were rather asleep.
"Nice to see you again," he said dully. Helen winced. The human dialect was so coarse!
"You know these humans?" asked the King, ice green eyes freezing the two young Luftwings with their glare.
Susan nodded meekly. "Before we became what we are, we were with them."
"What do they come seeking?" the King asked.
"Vhat 'oo ya vant?" asked Helen, struggling to form the guttural words. Luftwing language was light and rolled off the tongue like water. This was like trying to talk with a mouthful of rocks.
"I think she wants to know what we want," Gerald muttered to Rob. Rob pulled out a crumpled wad of paper, the rhyme.
"We have to converse with the Luftwing king..." Rob said. He looked at Susan. "Which one is the king?"
"Swower," Susan said, frowning at the way the words came out.
"Slower?" asked Grace. When Susan and Helen nodded, Rob repeated.
"Your Majesty..." Helen trailed off.
"They want to speak with you," Susan finished. The King looked affronted.
"If they wish an audience with royalty, they have to plan it in advance, like everyone else," someone muttered from the crowd.
The King glared in the direction of the outburst, and eyed Susan and Helen again. "Why?"
"Vy?" Helen asked, not liking the job of mediator very much.
Gerald frowned. "How are we going to explain that we need to talk to the king because we've been transported here from another dimension and that we got a riddle in a dream that says that we have to talk to him?" he asked cynically.
Grace giggled. "Really politely?"
Rob, however, wasn't paying much attention. He was frowning at the page that had the riddle on it. "Seek beyond golden wing?"
He looked out at the vast assortment of black wings, and saw that only one, the Luftwing that was in front of them had any other color but black. He was gold.
"Beyond golden wing?" he murmured. He tensed up as he noticed the mob of winged creatures shuffling around. "Because we need to seek beyond golden wing?" he squeaked to Susan.
"He says that... that they need to seek beyond golden wing..." Helen said dryly.
The king crossed his arms. "Golden wing? That's a term for a Luftwing of royal decent. What does he need that's behind me?"
Helen relayed this back to the other three, with difficulty. There was silence for a moment, before - later, everyone would swear that this was a gift from whatever God that was watching over them at the time - a small breeze blew into the cavern.
The breeze ruffled the cape that the King wore. Grace snapped her fingers.
"That's it! We need to see the cape!" she squealed, repeating this slower to the two Luftwing translators.
"They need to see... your cape..." Susan said, cringing. The King looked behind himself at the white embroidered cape that swung between his shoulderblades. "Your friends aren't thieves, are they? Unvarnished truth again."
"Not that we know of," Helen replied steadily. The King glared at the group of humans, but flicked off the cape, and let it flutter to the cavern floor.
The two Luftwings and three humans crouched around it, peering at the cape. It looked like the remnants of a half-completed tapestry that had been partially trampled over. There was a smear of red blood in the corner, but other than that and a few unsightly tears, the cloth was complete.
Gerald scratched his head. "Didn't Mum say something about a tapestry during her visit to Sapius?"
Rob jolted his head up abruptly. "You don't think..."
There was a moment of silence as they all regarded the tapestry. Sure enough, it was half-done, and it was a battle between light and dark beings, half completed, and the white void looked exactly like the turrets of a castle... Grace groaned.
"Vhat's rong?" asked Susan with some difficulty.
"Now I know this isn't some screwy dream," she muttered.
"But what's the significance of it?" asked Rob, averting back to the problem.
They ran their hands over the tapestry, Helen and Susan marveling how they got the Luftwing King to give in to their whims so easily.
"Does this have anything to do with the way Yizeer was acting earlier?" Helen asked Susan, who shrugged.
Gerald turned the tapestry over in his hands, peering at it closely. The stitches were all the same size, all the same. It was mind-boggling to think who would put the effort in.
Something crunched.
Gerald pulled back his hand like he had touched hot fat, and looked at the others, who had heard the crunch also. Pressing his hand back down emitted the crunching sound again.
There was a tear in the side, and Rob gently tugged at it until it was big enough for him to reach into. He gently pushed his way through the fibers until his hand clasped around something round, which he pulled out. Oddly, none of the Luftwings seemed to mind this ravaging of the tapestry.
It was a transparent tube, with a stopper on either side. Rob pulled out the cork, and dumped it to the floor. Out came three skinny, feathery wisps, and a piece of parchment. Grace took up the parchment, and read:
"I'm the strangest creature you'll ever find, two eyes in front and many behind".
One line scribbled into the parchment, and that was all. Susan plucked one of the wisps from the ground and looked at it. It was very soft, and shiny brown and green, which glinted like precious metal in the sinking sun's light.
"What is it?" asked Gerald, looking at the parchment.
Out of habit, Rob went to push up his glasses, only to remember that he wasn't wearing them. "I have no idea."
"Two eyes in front and many behind?" inquired Helen. "How can a creature have more than two eyes? Is it a spider?"
Susan shook her head, examining the wisp she held in her hand. "I think it's some sort of bird."
"Speak in normal English, please," Gerald said irritably.
Helen wrinkled her brow. "'Oo speek in 'Uftwing."
"She's telling you to speak in Luftwing," Grace giggled. "Go Helen!"
Helen, however, wasn't paying attention. She rolled up the tapestry with careful hands and presented it back to the Luftwing King, who took it. "We are forever indebted to your generosity," Helen said.
"You are to be leaving with the humans?" the King said, making no note of Helen's eloquence.
"Well... yes," Susan said, stubbing her toe in the ground. "It is our destiny."
The King nodded. "It saddens us to see you go, but destiny cannot be averted. There will be no ceremony - we will supply you with provisions." He flew off, leaving the girls to wonder what had made the King so generous all of a sudden.
The rest of the Luftwings eventually lost interest, and flew off. Soon, the only ones left were Yizeer and Emena. They didn't say anything - they just enveloped the two girls into embraces, leaving the other three humans to watch the spectacle. Susan and Helen didn't care. In spite of herself, Susan felt a trace of wetness feel its way down her cheek. She had family somewhere else, but truthfully, she would have been content to live with Yizeer and Emena forever. They were her family here.
"Make me proud," Yizeer said, before flapping off into the cave.
Emena sniffed. "Yizeer is not a male of many emotions." She smoothed a lock of hair away from Helen's face. "I am not a female of one. Please, take care." Her lip trembled, before she fluttered off as well.
Never had Susan felt so alone. The two Luftwings might have just left her in the middle of a desert, for all that she felt. She sniffed loudly, before turning back to join her comrades.
"Lez go," she told them.
# # #
Dusk found the party back on the ground, walking towards the Black River, with all five of them shouldering packs of provisions, and every so often, Helen or Susan would shoot a forlorn glance back at the mountain that was rapidly disappearing behind trees.
"Honestly," Gerald snapped, "you'd think their mother had died."
Grace smacked him. "Maybe to them, it's like that."
The sun was sinking even lower, tinting the sky blood red against purples. The three kayaks were still moored on the pebbly beach, and even though they were offered to share, Susan and Helen insisted they could make it across, at least to the circular island. There was the crunchcrunchcrunch of the bottoms of the wooden kayaks against the shallow banks before they were out skimming over the water. Grace looked at the sun. It looked to be about seven at night.
"Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight," she whispered, reciting the old proverb. The usual cloudy sky was distorting her view of the red sky, and she felt a little queasy.
The water rippled slightly in the wind. It slopped up against the side of the boat, waves doubling, tripling, quadrupling, until they were nearly a foot high. They crashed into each other, growing larger.
The party stopped, wondering what was going on. The waves mounted, splashing, thrashing, turning the water white in spots.
Rob yelled, and yanked his paddle out of the water. A long, green tendril snaked out after it, wrapping around the ore, and with an easy snap, the wood was in two.
"Oh my God!" Gerald yelled, as thin, green water plants came to life out of the water, wrapping around his boat, tighter and tighter until the wood cracked.
Helen dropped her bag of food into the water and snatched Gerald out of the water as the wooden kayak sank beneath the steadily growing waves.
Grace was using the side of her paddle, fighting off the green plants as they struggled to take her boat, take her under. There was another snapping sound, and a scream, as Rob's boat snapped in two, just like the ore. Susan yanked him up by the back of his clothes before he went under.
"GRACE!" Gerald cried, "LOOK OUT!"
A plant, much larger than the others, had pulled out of the water. Grace slapped at it hard with her paddle, but it stormed right back, coiling tightly around her ankle, and dragging her off the boat.
Gerald made a mad lunge, and grasped onto Grace's left wrist, and held tight. Helen made a despairing noise in her throat as she tried to support her's, Gerald's, and Grace's weight, as well as the added tension of the persistent vine. She beat her wings as fast and as hard as possible, but was gradually sinking towards the madly thrashing waves. There was a mad tug from behind her, which told her that Rob had grabbed onto her robes (or what was left of them), and Susan was pulling also.
Grace's hand was starting to slip from Gerald's grip.
"No!" he cried, and Helen whimpered as he pulled a little farther from her grip.
"Gerald!" Grace yelled, face white as cheese, "let go!"
"Are you insane?!" asked Gerald, pulling harder. "I'm going down with you if I have to!"
Grace writhed in her brother's strong grip. "NO!" she said so forcefully that Gerald almost let go in spite of himself. "Don't you see? Then he'll win TWICE!"
"Grace... Grace..." Gerald chanted, "please don't do this to me..."
"Do what, you dumbass!" Grace shouted. "I want to save your life! I want you to get out of this fucking dimension, and I don't want to drag you down with me! LET GO OF ME!"
Gerald was openly sobbing now. "No... nonono..."
"I have a destiny, dammnit! And this happens to be it! You have one too, and this DOESN'T HAPPEN TO BE IT!"
They were all sinking, slowly towards the black waters. Grace was almost submerged to her waist in the thrashing wetness. She stopped writhing, and looked down into the glossy waters. "I'm coming," she whispered. She looked back at her brother, despairingly, but with resolve. "I love you," she said.
With that, she gave her brother's arm a sudden unexpected slap, which made him release her on account of reflex. The pulling group of children shot away like a cork out of a bottle, due from the release of pressure. Gerald was able to see a cloud of golden hair billow just below the surface of the water, before sinking out of sight.
The remaining four crash-landed on the island in the middle of the Black River. They were all weeping uncontrollably; even Rob had lost his composure. Gerald was wailing loud enough to shatter glass.
"This wasn't supposed to happen!" he was crying over and over again. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"
Rob gripped handfuls of fresh grass, and said, in nearly a choked whisper, "Who said anything about happy endings?"
# # #
Taps rang over the night.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound?
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I'm found.
Was blind but now I see..
Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace my fears relieved,
How precious did that Grace appear,
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come,
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far,
And Grace will lead me home.
The Lord had promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures,
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise,
Then when we've first begun...
# # #
A/N: I can't believe I just *wrote* that! ::wails:: Damn the storyline that requires I kill somebody off! Damn it! ::sobs:: I made myself cry while writing this. Seriously. No, this is not the end of the story, and *no*, I'm not done with Grace yet. ::timidly:: If you all don't hate me too much, please review? I've been noticing the box is kinda empty lately...
~Moxie ^_^ ::sniff::
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own this computer. I don't own America Online. I don't own anything of value. I don't have a lawyer. Don't sue.