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noring the fact that flying made his body twice his original size, marking him as an obvious target
and sparing Margriete and I.
He shielded Margriete below him as I pumped my wings harder than I ever had in order to keep up,
the rain pounding hard across my feathers and filtering from my tail, making it hard to navigate the
air. Another crack lit up the sky, hitting the ground beside us as the bolt split, the smaller half ignit-
ing across the sky in slow motion, nicking the tip of Sam s wing as I heard him cry out in pain, his
body jolting down to earth where he cut through the muddy desert ground, leaving a deep trench
about fifteen feet long.
The last rumble filtered into the distance, the clouds now somehow content with the injury it had in-
flicted and twisting east and away from us as whiter clouds suddenly filled the skies. I landed on the
wet ground right next to Sam as he lay on his side, half grunting from the pain and half laughing. I
quickly changed and placed one hand on his smoldering wing, inspecting the spot where the bolt
had hit him.
Sam shook his head as Margriete trotted toward us, mud layered in thick clumps to the fur on her
feet. She shook the rain off her as she changed, her spine arching up into a standing position.
Sam, she gasped, falling to her knees as she placed her hand on his wing, pushing me out of the
way.
I couldn t help but deny the way she had reacted to the situation, as though Sam had suddenly
meant much more to her than she had previously revealed.
Sam, does it hurt? Will it be ok? Margriete tried to heal his wound, but in this world it was no
use.
Sam smirked and sat forward. Oh stop mothering me, I m fine. It s nothing more than a battle
wound. He grabbed Margriete s hand and pulled it away from his wing, his fingers laced around
her wrist as though it were a twig.
They stared at each other for a brief moment before Margriete thrust her arm out of Sam s grasp,
grumbling and falling back onto her butt.
A sharp exhale rushed from my lungs as I realized what had just happened. Looking away, I hid the
smile that was growing on my face despite the somewhat stressful situation. Margriete actually
cared for Sam, cared for him in a way I could tell she didn t know how to react to. When I looked
back, Margriete was rubbing her wrist as Sam tended to his feathers, tucking his wings back into his
back and standing, the tension now thicker than the clouds that had began to shroud us in their swirl
back around the vortex.
I think we should get going, I pressed. The wind picked up then, just as it had before.
Margriete looked to the sky and adjusted the pack on her back, turning with an abrupt grumble and
walking forward with one arrogant step. Sam looked at me and shrugged, winking as he gave me a
partial smile. He had heard everything I had thought about the situation, right down to the thoughts
in Margriete s head as well.
We walked forward then, both struggling to keep up with Margriete. The storm was still a ways off,
but up ahead I could just make out the edge of what seemed a cliff, the desert floor ending in an
abrupt drop-off. As we came closer, it almost seemed as though the world suddenly ended, and all
that was beyond this point was swirling clouds and a sea of misty air. Margriete halted just inches
from the edge, craning her head and looking both ways. She grabbed the book from her back, her
face still painfully twisted as she tried to make sense of the earlier incident.
Distracted, it took her a while to get the book open and flip through the pages, the wind also creat-
ing an annoying obstacle. Sam walked right up behind her, looking over her shoulder and reading
along, antagonizing Margriete even further. She took one angry step left, twisting away from Sam
and talking to herself, her finger pressed hard against the glowing paper of the book, causing the
gold lettering to sear off the page in her flustered attempt to read.
Sam gave me another wink and I tapped my foot, narrowing my eyes at him. I looked overhead at
the impeding clouds, now only minutes from where we stood. I crossed my arms against my chest
and inched closer to the edge, looking over as I felt the vertigo of the cliff as it dove down through
the misty clouds and into nothingness, the world still black and white, emphasized by only the sub-
tle light escaping from the sky. Below, the misty fog sat still like a giant pool of cotton, the wind un-
able to reach it as the cliffs shielded it from this landscape.
A large drop hit my forehead and I looked away from the crevasse and back toward Margriete. Her
eyebrows looked more relaxed and I could tell she had found something helpful as she seemed to
weigh the information on the page with that of our surroundings.
There should be a ladder somewhere here, a drop of fat rain hit the page she was reading and she
shut the book.
I looked over the edge, Where?
Sam approached the cliff, now squinting and craning his head as well.
The wind was really beginning to pick up, threatening to push us over the edge as I continued to
search.
There! Sam yelled over a heavy gust and I looked in the direction he was pointing.
Squinting even harder as the sand began to swirl over the edge, I saw something jut from the cliff. It
tangled downward and I struggled to discern how Sam had even seen it to begin with. The clouds
clapped in the distance, sending chills down my spine. Margriete motioned us toward the ladder,
picking up our pace as we hurried to reach it before the storm. Sam spread his wings and flew out
over the edge, his injured wing struggling, but holding as he spiraled around and downward, in-
specting what he had seen.
He flew back up toward us, yelling across the distance, It seems safe!
Margriete didn t hesitate as she put one hand on the rough wood that seemed to grow from the
earth, and as I looked closer, that s exactly what it did. She threw herself over the edge as the large
root ladder groaned and twisted under her weight, but still strong enough to hold. I placed one hand
on the twisting root, looking skyward once more before ducking below the surface of the cliff, the
wind ceasing almost instantly.
Rain began to fall in heavy bands, but as we descended, we were safe from the storm, now shielded
close to the edge. Sam continued to spiral downward and as we became engulfed by the misty fog,
the world was suddenly silent and Sam was no more than a blurred figure beside us.
THE LAKE
Sam! My voice echoed but I was unable to see just what it echoed from. Sam, are you still
there?
I heard a deep throaty laugh as the fog beside us swirled and Sam flew closer to the ladder, Still
here.
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