Winged

Chapter 7

Uroda sat down in a chair with the queen, wrapping her wings around herself. Flora turned on a lamp which coursed with an energy that made the new slayer's eyes hurt to conceive. Frykas, Wojna, Piekno and herself were around a map that sat on a table of the ground, along with key points of attack and recent battles. It had records of the sizes of the dragons, and even names that represented things she was unfamiliar with.

"So, Uroda, to catch you up to speed. We are currently in a war with the dragons. We've had help from different cultures on the ground that do trade. However, We've had to keep quiet about certain cultures due to... certain qualities of their lives."

"Like?"

Piekno shook her head,

"We cant tell you that now. just know it is a problem that we've been dealing with as slayers for a while now."

"Why can't you tell her now?" Flora fumed, flapping her wings.

"We don't want to scare her. Shes just too new at this. Once she has mental training and..."

"Its fine, I understand. " When Flora spoke her voice wrapped around the room like a clenched fist and choked the air out of everyone's lungs. It was a power Uroda hoped she could harness one day.

The fledgling slayer looked at the map, and looked back up at Flora.

"How much of this has been kept from the public?"

Whatever is in reason. At least, it's what I've been told from my political advisors. I don't make many decisions regarding that kind of thing. If I knew more I would tell you-."

"That wouldn't be such a good idea" Piekno coughed, glaring at the Queen. She glared back, and the air between then seemingly sparked. Uroda placed a hand on Flora, shaking her head no. The queen looked surprised for a second, then her cheeks flushed a little pink before turning away and huffing.

"Anyway, what's the plan to get Stracony back?" Uroda leaned forward, studying the terrain.

"We need to get you your own sword, armor, and we'll head out. The queen will use her staff to open the storn barrier and we'll fly through the gap it creates. We need to hurry though, as it'll close in one us if we're too slow."

"So how long does it take to move through the barrier?" Uroda shivered at the thought of flying through those dark, electrified clouds.

"Five minutes. And the ends begin closing first, so we'll have to dodge strings of cumulus that form in the later stages. I would highly advise against getting trapped." Wojna stated, shuddering.

"So what happens if I'm too slow?"

Frykas and Wojna looked at eachother. Frykas sighed, then pulled down the neck of his shirt. Uroda swallowed a scream as a large burn was revealed. It enveloped his shoulder and went down to his chest.

"That was just one lightning strike. If you get covered in the clouds... Let's just say we'd hold a funeral the next day."

"So... what, I get no training before this?"

"Usually you would. But do you want to save your friend?" Piekno asked,

"Yes."

"Then we leave today. Combat training will hopefully start when we land. Now's the time to earn your title, winglet."

Uroda sat in silence for a bit, contemplating her own life. What she'd done her entire life

Yet, despite her own self preservation screaming against it, she nodded.

"I will lay down my life. I am going to be a slayer."

"Then we'll fit you promptly. The queen here will be in charge of powering your weapons and armor." Piekno got up and left the room, Wojna and Frykas reached down to grab a chestplate and leggings. The chest piece split down the middle, opening up with ovular holes for her wings to slide through. She turned around and pulled her shirt off, sliding into the armor, then clicking it on and fastening. She did the same for the leggings and glanced over at the Queen. Flora bowed with Piekno, who had come back with her staff, and carefully lifted it. It was wooden, twisted as if it had been wrenched by a beast. As twisted as it might have been, it was even more dark. Darker than anything the young warrior had ever seen. Looking at it upset her stomach, and even worse; at the tip was a jewel so bright it seemed like it was sucking the energy out of the light above. In fact, she thought she saw some sort of string jump from the light into it. Raising it towards Uroda, Queen Flora placed the head of her staff onto the chest of the armor. Uroda's eyes slowly traced the energy that flowed from the base of the staff. The wand split into four, energy not unlike the one used for the lamp burst out the sides and flowed into her suit. She wanted to scream but her lips remained pursed as long tendrils of power wrapped around her body, covering her eyes and streaming into her ears. Piekno and the other slayers didn't flinch, but Flora glanced worryingly over to them.

Then, the wand let off a huge rush of energy, blowing Uroda back and slamming her into the wall behind her. She fell forward, the wind knocked out of her. The room went from being extremely, intoxicatingly bright to dull and moody. Flora yelped, rushing over and throwing the wand aside. Before she could reach her new friend, Frykas stepped and and blocked her.

"Hey- what are you-... Move you big oaf!" She huffed, pushing against the bigger Sokol. Frykas shook their head.

"No can do, miss. If you touch her right now you will explode. If you touch a high energy source before it has a chance to fully absorb, it'll run very quickly from high to low. Example, you. It will try to quickly equalise the pressure and you'll end up killing not only yourself but her as well."

"Oh..." Flora stammered, backing up, suddenly scared.

"Depending on her strength it'll take an hour or so for it to mend to her soul. She'll be paralyzed until then. So for now we should-."

Before they could speak, Uroda leapt to her feet. The slayers whipped their heads to her, taking a second to process what she'd just done. The new recruit smiled, looking up.

"I feel amazing! So, when are we going to leave?"

Piekno had her mouth agape. The room was stunned to silence. The Sokol in front of them stretched out her wings, deliberately feeling out the power that now protected her.

"So how strange is it that she's up right away?" Flora asked, looking up to Piekno. The slayer shook her head, chuckling.

"It's definitely strange. Definitely strange indeed."