Flying Without Wings

[HoudiniDerek]

Kerodi looked at the elf girl in front of her and realized that she was not going to be satisfied until he had answered her questions. He nodded at her request and motioned for her to sit down at the table. He pulled his canteen from his pack and took a long drag.

"I'm not sure what you want to know," he said, wiping the moisture from his lips. "I'm sure you want to know a lot of things, but why don't you ask me some questions and I will tell you what I know." Kerodi smiled kindly at her.

"We can talk for a while, but then I am going to eat and get washed up. It's been a while for both of us," he said, smiling happily at her. He leaned back in his chair and waited for Nyi to ask questions.

[ShadowZero00]

“Who are you and how is it that you know…part of me?” Nyi carried an unyielding expression as she sought her questions in his eyes. She had not sat down as he motioned but lingered near a chair with an eye in sight of the door. Her wings ruffled purposely as she laid a hand on the back of this chair and traced the wood’s cut with her fingertips. After her gazing at his eyes, she looked at the entirety of his face. She knew her questions would be irrational spoken at this time but it would help her settle if she just knew a few answers. She could not piece together the past few days. She remembered the morning, the most recent…though it ended in a blur.

Flashback…two days prior…at her homeland...Icaria…

Positioned cross-legged on the floor, in her private room as sunlight pushed through an open window, she patiently watched as the light slowly inched towards her, moving stealthily on the floorboards. She heard the widening of the aroused wood, the birds as they sung their song and the southern zephyrs that brought in the scent of her garden. The concentrated fragrance of lavender soothed her but only for a moment as with a twitched flutter of feathers, she brindled the desire to rush out the front door. It was unpleasant for this teasing and restriction so early in the morning.

She knew the Avariel males were soaring through the skies at this moment. She tilted her chin towards the window, thingyed her head and contemplated leaping through her window. However, she knew a scolding would fall upon her by the elders. It was forbidden that the female Avariel fly with the males this early. It was an ancient tradition that held strong today. She didn’t know why it was, only that it was. Nevertheless, she knew there was at least one thing she could do. Watch. This had no boundaries, though she blinked her gaze away from the window, wondering if she could restrain herself. She placed her cold hands on her sun-warmed lap as she thought on this matter before peeking over at the window. After a short while, she finally stood.

At the outsized window, she took a deep breath, her heart raised to the base of her neck at the sight before her. How beautifully breathtaking; there were the Avariel males soaring above, through and beneath the white puffs of cloud and they were singing. A faint smile came to her lips as she listened to the deep harmonies of their song. Their wings glistened in the sun; silver, white, gray, speckled and those tipped. It was a magnificent sight, which filled her with pride. As her pride filled, she grew restless and tightened her grip on the window panel, which she knew not she grasped intensely. She loosened her grip and collected herself. She evened her breathing and studied the flight of the Avariel males. They flew with such sophistication that she felt like a fool, knowing that when it was her turn to fly, she’d lack the sophistication and finesse. She sighed, looked away, shifted her weight, and then gave a light shake of her head. For an Avariel, she had little patience. No. It was more than that. She was simply unlike the others. She fretted over her impatience and childish skittish feeling because she so very much so wanted to fly. It was uncommon and shameful. However, who would know of her true feelings?

She lifted her head. Over towards the eastern clouds, the sun rolled higher. Thankfully, she saw the Avariel males land. Her eternal wait ended at this moment as they beckoned the females to take to the skies. She was more than willing and ready. She walked quickly from her house and immediately expanded her wings, revealing their lengthy span. After this stretch, she began to flail her wings melodically. The strong beating quickened until she was off the soft ground. As a gust of wind passed by, she leapt on its back and began floating downstream. She turned and twisted as it did, dipping her silver wings as the orange sunrays illuminated them. She then began to sing, claiming the sky hers. As she sang, the other females also sang. Their voices reached far, stretching over the hills of the world beneath this one...

*

Once this morning ritual came to an end, both male and female took to the skies, mostly those wedded or promised. ianna’Nyi flew to her spacious home without glancing over her shoulder to watch the lovebirds fly away. It would only be a minor envy to her, but the greatest was hers. She had loosened her wings and freed her spirit. She was content and ready for this day. She had arranged plans. The list of them sitting in a drawer in her private room. She didn’t need the list though, to know the first of her chores. As she walked by her garden, she took a few of the lavender. A friend of hers wanted its unique smell for their home. Nyi was willing and able to provide this. After collecting her specimen, she walked to the enormous doorways: the front door of her estate. Their enormity was very much needed and helpful. The large doorways, windows and rooms made her feel less claustrophobic. As it was, the Avariel lived this way, since a more preferable means of living, large trees, were not on Icaria. If there were trees large enough on this sky island, all the Avariel would live in them. After all, it would bring them closer to the skies.

Before entering her home, she turned and looked at the sun as it stretched over the clouds. Today, she mused, would be a fine day...

*

But how wrong she was…

Later that day, while delivering her lavender, she remembered feeling pained. Both in her heart and to her wings and suddenly, she was crashing – no – hurling towards…

Present[/i]

“Why were…” She thought quickly before committing to asking her question. “Why have you tried so hard to obtain me?” She still spoke as if she was the old woman’s precious gem and the men’s show-off prize. “I thank you up to this point that I am…we are safe but it makes me wonder, why? This world…” She trailed off, unable to finish her thought.

[HoudiniDerek]

Kerodi watched as Nyi continued to stand, her gaze lingering on the door that was now shut. She asked how he knew her and then seemed to stare off into space. After a few minutes, she came out of her trance and asked him a few more questions.

"Nyi, I have no wish to obtain you or own you. You are a free person and you are not being held," Kerodi sighed. "I know that your most recent companions have not shown you more courtesy than wondering how much coin they could get for you, but not everyone in Valear is like that."

He stood and rummaged in the front pocket of his pack. He pulled out a small silver whistle hanging from a chain. The light caught it and it sparkled prettily. "Have you ever seen one of these?"

[ShadowZero00]

{OOC: This sucks…}

|IC|

It gave her little comfort that he didn’t wish to obtain or own her. Stating her freedom she did not believe it. Without the use of her wings, she was a caged bird who sung to jump on the back of the winds. She looked away at that thought of the sky but quickly caught herself and looked towards Kerodi once more. He never gave his name though named the land Valear. She couldn’t recall if she had ever heard of such a place. Her people seldom traveled to the land below. They remained above the clouds mostly, out of sight and out of mind to all others. It was how they lived.

ianna’Nyi’s head turned. She watched Kerodi intently as he fussed with his magic pack. He then retrieved a silvered item. Her brows scrunched as she tried reaching deep into her mind for any remembrance of such an item. She shook her head in answer to his question. What was it? She did not know.

[HoudiniDerek]

Kerodi watched as the elf shook her head slowly, still not fully trusting of him. He couldn't blame her, but he was hoping she would begin to trust him since he had tried to help her twice now. He sighed mentally and set the whistle down on the table with a clink.

"This is called a 'aspleinche.' It's an old dwarf word long since forgotten as to what it means. However, the dwarves made these long ago and they are a form of communication device." Kerodi leaned back in his chair and seemed to stare past the young elven girl to another time and place.

"I received this particular item about three years ago," Kerodi stated...his voice monotone as he spoke from the past, seeing it before his eyes.

"I was working on the Blaze Mountain, near the volcanic top. I was researching old tribes of civilization that used to live and worship there in the beginning of the world. It was late at night and I was tired. I went to bed early, thinking I would get up early the next morning and get a good start. It didn't happen that way." Kerodi's eyes refocused and found Nyi again.

"Instead, I was scared awake by a sound. It was the sound of this," he said, pointing at the silver whistle on the table. "It was loud and nearby. I followed the sound and found it in a cave about a hundred yards from where I was camped. It was stuck in the wall and just happened to be protruding. It was shrieking loudly until I dug it up and held it. At that point, it stopped."

Kerodi picked up the whistle and eyed it, his eyes going distant again. "It reacted to my presence. Suddenly I was engulfed in a silver light and I was in another place. I was across from a man. He was saying that he needed to know who I was. I told him who I was and what I was doing there. I told him how I had came by the whistle. He nodded approval and told me that he was glad to have met me. He told me his name and what the whistle was and what it did. I asked him how he knew and he said he had learned much the same way I did from someone who had held the whistle before me."

Kerodi looked at her again. "These are passed down through generations of people. Not through families or bloodlines, but by chance. The man had blown it for years and no one had responded. I did and so the whistle was passed on again. They had been used in the days of the dominance of the dwarves to unite the different tribes in times of combat. Once the dwarf population had dwindled and other civilizations became more dominant, the whistles disappeared, but retained their magic."

Kerodi pocketed the whistle and his eyes returned to Nyi's. "The man that told me about the whistle and its history is known to you, Nyi. That man is your father."