Wings of Freedom

Chapter 20

Crack-BOOM!

Thunder rolled over the air as lightning struck in the distance and the winds howled as rain fell down in sheets, pelting the leaves and bark of the treehouse.

All the while, Eren and Armin sat on the couch and stared into the fireplace with near petrified expressions and an aura around them that sang doom, while Scarlett's head was in Eren's lap and her wings covering them both, and Armin was clutching his own Dragon tightly to his chest as the poor thing whimpered and buried it's head in his shirt in fright.

And then there was Mikasa, staring at them in disbelief "seriously guys?…it's just a storm and Roy already told us that the tree is warded against lightning strikes" she deadpanned, to which the others turned their wide eyed stares to her and Mikasa could have sworn the air around them darkened as that anime style aura, intensified.

Eren then swallowed hard and gave a smile void of any joy "i-it's not us" Eren explained with a shaky voice and Armin nodded in agreement. Mikasa just blinked in confusion though as she tried to understand, but then another lightning strike rang out much closer and this time the tree shook a little but not because of the lightning and a Draconic yelp accompanied it. Mikasa then looked over her shoulder to see Thalia with a barely hidden expression of fear as she hunkered down a little and Roy stood ramrod strait, next to her with a similar expression.

Mikasa just contiued to stare in confusion for a moment before her eyebrows shot up as she remembered that Dragon Riders can feel their partners pain and emotions, especially when stressed, and she looked back to her friends as Eren rubbed Scarlett's head soothingly and Armin winced as his Dragon's claws dig into his chest a little "yah, apparently Dragons don't like storms…especially when they're high up in the air" Armin explained with the same shaky voice and smile of doom, that Eren had. Scarlett gave a weak growl in response "I fear nothing" she weakly protested with wounded pride, only to contradict herself with a yelp as more lightning struck.

Mikasa just stared for a second as she processed that and in hindsight she supposed it made sense for a race like them to be scared of thunderstorms and how it would be bad if they got caught flying out in it or simply standing out in it for that matter if they were older.

Roy then came up and plopped down on the couch "well, I'm not getting anything done today" he complained as he suppressed the nurvessnes he was feeling as best he could. Mikasa was about to ask why, when the floor rumbled as Thalia laid down next Roy and whined a little while laying her massive snout at his feet.

Mikasa, while now actually almost relived that an egg had yet to hatch for her, felt a bit like the odd one out as she looked the others over "are Dragons usually scared of storms?" she asked and Thalia seamed to turned back to her old self for a moment as her pride took over "I enjoy the rain just fine…when I'm on the ground…and in a cave and not this rickety tree" she said, her voice and face becoming less and less sure of herself as she spoke and Mikasa had to admit it was a bit disconcerting when the tree swayed in the winds a little.

Roy sighed as he rubbed his face "well seeing as the rain has put a damper on things, does anyone have any idea how they want to pass the time?" he asked as he tried to take his fellow Riders and the Dragons' minds off the storm.

The others hummed as they thought it over "well back home we used to get together and read out of Armin's book on the outside, when we didn't have anything else to do" Eren said and his friends smiled fondly at the memory "yah, it's a shame I couldn't take it with me but we would have just lost it along the way if I had" Armin replied with a bit of a sad expression but then his face lit up as he looked over at Roy "but what about your home Roy. You talked about it a little when we first met but that's it. I'm sure there's all kinds of stuff there!" he said.

Roy blinked with surprise at the question "Alagaësia? Well I suppose they're are a few things but aside from Vroengard and a single trip to Ellesméra during training, I hade never even traveled beyond my old home town, and the only real difference between this land my old town is it being a little bit colder here" Roy explained, his words did little to dissuade the kids eagerness to here of his homeland, and so with a sigh, Roy allowed himself to get lost in memories of happier times. He told them the basics about his mother kingdom but was careful to avoid talking about his former home. Armin and Mikasa actually surprised him here as they helped steer the conversation away from that topic, apparently remembering what little they had gleaned and how sensitive he was about it, to which he was grateful. He told them about life on Vroengard and nearly busted out laughing at the look on their faces when he told them about the giant snails that were indigenous to the island and apparently very delicious to a Dragon. He then Told them about he and Thalia's brief flight over the desert on their way to the Elven kingdom and then the beautiful forest that comprised said kingdom.

As Roy continued his tails of his homeland, the group slowly began to tune out the thunderstorm as the stories become less of just facts about the land and more tails of all the shenanigans Roy and Thalia got into with their friends Brom and Saphira. Then the kids started cutting in with tails of their own.

By the time the first hour had passed, they were all laughing at each other's stories and the Dragons had actually calmed down substantially, not that they didn't still cling to their Riders though, especially Armin's infant Dragon.

Eren laughed and wiped a tear from his eye as he finished up his most recent tail "I swear, the look on Hannes' face when he found out…" he trailed off as the other laughed with him "yah that's our Hannes for you" Armin added and Roy rubbed his chin as he chuckled along with them "sounds like he was good friend. A terrible solder and a drunk but a good man at heart" he commented while and the others nodded while growing concerned and wishful expressions "yah, I do wonder if he made it to Wall Rose though" Eren admitted.

Roy rubbed the back of his neck while glancing down at Thalia "well, actually me and Thalia will have to head to the Wall here in a few weals for supplies. We could look for him and anyone else if you like" he offered and the kids smiled in response "really, that's be amazing thanks" Eren said but Roy waved it of with a smile "it's not a problem, just tell me what he looks like" he said and the kids eagerly gave his description but by the time they finished, Roy was staring at them with wide eyes "uh, Roy?" Armin started with concern before Roy slapped himself in the face and started laughing at himself "I can't believe it took me this long to realize it, I must be loosing my mind" Roy mutated.

The kids just looked at each other with confusion for a moment before looking back to Roy and he shook his head "ever since we met you three, I've had this nagging feeling that I've see you before but I couldn't place it until now" he explained which only brought up more questions "wait, how could you have already seen us? We had never met before you brought us here" Mikasa asked and Roy smile "because when we first started searching for Scarlett's egg, we stopped at Wall Rose and since I couldn't understand the language at the time, I probed the minds of the people there and I saw you in Hannes' memories" Roy explained.

The kids all looked at Roy with surprise but then smiled "so Hannes made it to Wall Rose!?" Eren asked with excitement and Roy nodded "yes, he wasn't in the bast condition though, apparently he thought you had all died and all I was getting from him was a memory of you during the breach" Roy explained and the kids mood seamed to dampen a little bit but they were still clearly happy that Hannes was still alive.

Roy coughed into his hand to try and brake the somewhat awkward silence that fallowed "anyway, is there anyone else you want me to look for?" he asked and the kids looked to each other for a moment "well, do you think you could look for my dad. He was heading for the interior for work so he might still be alive" Eren asked and Roy nodded "I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him. Is there anyone else?" he asked but the kids just shook their heads "we didn't really have that many close friends aside from each other and any family we might still have out there, we weren't close enough with to know who they were" Armin told Roy and the Rider nodded. It was a little sad that that didn't have anyone else waiting for them, but Roy could understand and relate to their situation, so he let the matter be.

A slightly somber silence, settled over the group on that note but Armin saw fit to brake it this time before their minds could wonder back to the storm "hay Roy, I've been meaning to ask you something" he started and Roy hummed in acknowledgement, prompting Armin to continue "well, you see when we first started learning magic, mine was yellow, but then after bonding with my Dragon…" Armin paused to lift up his hand while speaking a light spell and a small orb of green light, floated there above his palm "ever since then my magic has been green" he finished and Roy nodded "a Rider's magic always matches the color of their Dragon's scales so your's naturally changed once you bonded" he explained.

Armin's eyebrows rose with intrigue as he dismissed the spell "so your's was different too before Thalia hatched?" he questioned but Roy just busted out laughing for a second before reining himself in "I'm sorry it's just…well magicians are already pretty rare among human and I didn't even have a formal education of any kind before Thalia hatched for me, so I don't know if my color was any different or not" Roy explained and Thalia lifted up her head "indeed, and those who practice magic among humans are already slated to become court mages and such and are thus not normally presented before Dragon Eggs" she explained before giving a thoughtful hum "among Elves it is beloved that the color of a person's magic will already match the Dragon they are meant to be bonded with, but Elves are already much closer to magic and Dragons so there is no way to confirm this among Humans, and that is even if it is true among elves" she finished.

Armin smiled as he absorbed to information like a sponge but Mikasa grew a thoughtful expression as she looked down at her hand. Her magic had been grey and there was a grey egg among them. Mikasa quickly banished this train of thought though. She had already wasted enough time stressing over wether or not an egg would hatch and it had caused tension between her and her friends and she wouldn't let that continue to come between them, not after hearing what it had done to Roy.

And so Mikasa turned her attention back to her friends as they got back to swopping stories as the rain came down around them and she couldn't help but smile at the scene. It felt odd to be doing something so normal for a change after everything they had learned and been though, but it felt good to just have fun and be with her friends and a rare, genuine smile, graced her lips as part of her old, innocent persona the hand somehow managed to survive through everything, grazed the surface of her mind as she felt real happiness for the first time since arriving here.

A/N - Amazing how waking up to rain hitting your roof can inspire you to write.

Sorry that this one is kinda sort, especially with how long the wait between chapters has been but I already have an idea of how I want the next one to go, so here's hoping.

And I finally got around giving this story cover art. I don't own it but it was royalty free.

Also, I looked up the timeline for Inheritance Cycle and calculated up the time between the Fall and the beginning of the books as 104 years. I would just like to know if any of you can confirm this because it will change up my plans for the story if this is accurate.

And by the way, this story has hit 4,000 views so thank you for reading and for all the reviews so far and good luck dealing with the virus if you have to go out.

I promise to work on the side stories I promised once I get past the next chapter.