The Dawn’s Dusk - 13. Chapter 13- Struck, part 1

Warning: Kidnapping is Always an Option?

Emery and I were still in our winged forms, curled onto our sides, with our wings as our blankets. He had claimed me so many times that I stopped counting after the fourth. At some point, we had allowed our natural wyvern forms to take over. We were far enough away that we drowned out the sounds of any other bonding wyverns with our own. Troth Season felt a lot less frightening after that.

I felt a strange tingle beneath my scales as the sky began to change colors. Was dawn approaching? The more my mind stirred awake, the more I began to think about the events that happened before Emery found me. Had Owin kept flying all night? Did he ever find Seph?

'Emery, were you with Sepherus? Did you see my brother?' I asked him in Kedoryn.

'Owin is fine,' Emery rumbled behind me. I felt his tongue gently swipe along my healing mating mark. The area was bruised in my other form, but the four deepest punctures would remain as mating scars. 'I was right next to Sepherus when Owin found us. He was the one who told me the general direction of where you were.'

I relaxed against him once more. If Owin was with Sepherus, I trusted the alpha to protect him. But, then another question came to mind. 'Wait, how did you know we were here?'

'Your parents were quite adamant in Sepherus claiming one of you,' the Eld explained with a growl. 'They insinuated that they had convinced you both to attend Troth Season, not that I believed that for a minute...'

'So, you both came to find us,' I concluded. 'It seems the Edesias did one thing right.'

My attention then turned to my grumbling stomach. As I glanced towards the Eld, he was already rising onto his hindlegs. My heart skipped a beat when he dipped down to nuzzle the side of my face. Emery's my mate. How many times would I have to repeat that to myself before it fully sank in that this was not a dream?

'I'll bring over some fish and fruit, my Enthale,' he said.

A warmth filled me at the new name. Enthale, if I remembered correctly, was a large white and blue flower that could be used as an aphrodisiac if processed. I was both embarrassed and pleased that the Eld considered me to be as lovely as such a flower. Then again, I imagined many newly-mated wyverns felt the same way.

'If I'm your Enthale, then you're my Cojalis.' I replied. 'Your scent reminds me of it.'

'Cojalis? I like it,' he admitted as he stretched out his steel-blue wings. 'I won't be long.'

The Scholar was graceful even in flight. He didn't need to take off at a run as whelps did on their first attempts to lift their bodies from the ground. His wings were more than powerful enough.

He became a smaller figure in the distance, and I frowned at the sight of the clouds gathering towards Emery's left. Immediately, I rolled onto my legs and moved away from the nearest tree. Stepping onto the open field was no longer the threat it was before I was claimed. My scent may have died down with my abating heat, and my mating mark was easily visible. All I needed to do was to turn to my side to show it off, and that would be enough to ward off any mateless alphas that remained.

However, storms still made me wary. Though the thunder cackled at a distance, I still tensed up. Being struck by lightning was no joke. I felt a phantom pain in the area where my left wing joined my body and instinctively snapped my wings shut. As the clouds rolled closer and closer, I began to pace. Would it be better to wait for the Eld near the stream? No, of course not. Water was a conductor. What was I thinking?

A flash and rumble in the distance startled me. That had been a bolt. As I peered overhead, I could almost see the lightning branching within the clouds. Then, I shut my eyes after being blinded by a bright light.

I had been unprepared the first time that I was struck by lightning. This time, I felt the heat of the strike rolling over and around my scales. The warmth that filled me was not as blistering as the fire I had felt as a whelp. When I opened my eyes, the entire open field was full of static electricity. Those fine lines of energy; how was I able to see them? My wings tingled, but they did not hurt.

I gazed up at the sky again, but the dark clouds were still overhead. My thoughts drifted to the river wyverns back at the Vesper estate. Though I was unsure of my instincts, I tilted my head back and opened my snout. Warmth gathered at the back of my throat, and then heat and light expelled out of my mouth up into the clouds.

Fear rolled down my spine, and I resumed my pacing. Had I just shot lightning out of my mouth? What? Did this make me an electric wyvern? Would Eld Emery know anything about wyverns that harnessed lightning? What if I accidentally shocked him, like what sometimes happened with static electricity?

I felt the ground shake and turned around, thinking that Emery had already returned. The massive amphiptere that took up half the field was something I had not expected to see. The amphiptere's head was twice the size of any wyvern's. Its long body dragged along the ground, and the wings on its back were massive and feathered.

'Are you able to understand me?' I asked hesitantly in Kedoryn. Wyverns generally only spoke Kedoryn in their winged forms and Ziulish in their squill forms. I knew that amphipteres could communicate with their cousins, the sea serpents, but I hoped that the one before me could grasp at least some Kedoryn.

The amphiptere didn't even respond. Before I could react, I felt the force of its massive tail as it slammed against me on the side.

"Oof!"

I don't know what compelled me to shift. But by the time I hit the tall grass in the glade, I was no longer in my winged form. Almost as soon as I stood up on my trembling squill legs, I felt a tail wrapping around me. My stomach dropped when I was tugged into the sky.

"WAIT!" I cried out in Ziulish. "EMERY!"

I didn't see my mate anywhere below. We seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. The tears that pooled in my eyes were not only due to irritation from the hair strands that flew into them. They were also due to frustration and despair. Between vertigo and an upset stomach, I succumbed once again to unconsciousness.

::

Twenty minutes into our trek up the cliff, we began to see families heading back, departing on foot. I was younger than the average beta that attended Soaring Season, but I had learned how to glide short distances thanks to my brother. The wind was a cold presence that cut through the humidity in the air. I looked up and noted that the darkness of the clouds made the leaves of the tree stand out in contrast. The colors were pretty.

"Should we head back, as well?" Owin asked. He rarely refuted any of our father's ideas. Was he concerned about me?

"A little rain is nothing." Oswith Edesia scoffed. "Besides, we will have the sky to ourselves this way."

Owin kept sending me worried glances, but I couldn't curb my excitement. My brother would no longer have to sneak around to fly, and I would be able to fly right by his side. I'd never be left on the ground again.

"Stand firm and open your wings," Father instructed when we reached the top. "Feel the wind and use it to glide. You must be STRONG to pull your wings in against it. Never allow the wind to wrest the control of your wings away from you."

He took a few steps closer to the edge of the cliff. "I will only show you once, so pay attention!"

My eyes grew wide as my father dove off the cliff. Those wings were more massive than Owin's and mine combined. The two of us looked on as he glided and then flapped his wings with massive force, gaining further height.

After showing off a few aerial tricks, he then swooped upside-down over our heads and landed behind us. I saw Owin grin before taking the cliff at a run and jumping off. If nothing happened to our father, he felt more confident that nothing would happen to us, either. I rushed over to the edge only to see him safely gliding. I was both relieved and excited until I felt a sudden shove. The surprise and vertigo I felt were both massive distractions.

I was already halfway to the ground before I thought to open my wings. I underestimated the strength needed to force my limbs open enough during a fall. So, I pushed them open with all my might. At first, the snatch force lifted me and gave me a thrill. I had just barely passed a tree when heat and pain suddenly shot right through me. My ears rang in agony after a loud sound.

My wings felt as if they were on fire. But, the most frightening feeling was of not being able to move. I couldn't control my body enough to breathe. Nothing filled me with more panic than struggling to take in the air. When I finally managed to draw a breath, I caught the scent of my flesh burning. My stomach dropped as I fell from the sky.