Sonope

Chapter 7

Darby rolled over in the suspended hammock and cracked open an eye. The other hammocks were empty, as they were the night before. She heard nothing and stared out the window to see the sky still fairly dark, with the second moon sinking towards the horizon, signifying dawn was not far behind.

Not knowing what time angels rise, she decided to go ahead and get ready. She dropped the few feet to the ground and checked out the dresser for clothes. After sifting through the first few drawers and seeing nothing but white, she finally pulled out what looked like a knee-length dress, kind of like what Gabriel had worn, just longer and more feminine. Darby searched for anything else, but found nothing.

"No pants?" she grumbled.

One of the top drawers revealed a tan belt that she could wrap around her waist to bring in some of the billowing fabric. Looking around helped her to find some sandals of the same color.

Darby could only stare.

Then she sighed and put on the various articles of clothing just as the first rays of the sun streaked the sky.

She was finishing buckling her sandals when a loud clanging shook the air. She stood up quickly and hurried to look outside. Angels everywhere were clearly struggling to wake up as there were sounds of commotion from each house that surrounded the pit in a square.

Darby was suddenly grateful that she woke up before the bells, coming from the council's building it seemed like, had awoken everyone else.

As the skies were turning rosy with hints of blue finally starting to show, angels started to trickle out and the bells stopped ringing. From across the way she saw Gabriel stretch and look around. When he spotted her, she thought he grinned as he began to race over.

She still stood in the doorway of her whiter than white house when Gabriel finally reached her.

"Hey! I see you made it through your first night!"

She half-smiled. "Yeah well. What do we do now?"

He shrugged and grinned. "It's really up to you. Unless the council calls you for a job, which they probably won't as you're so new, you can do a lot of things."

He paced in front of her as he rattled them off. "You can train in various weapons, like the sword or the bow, which I use, you can master your crazy magic abilities, or," he sneered a bit, "you can read."

Darby looked up, surprised. "You guys have books?"

Gabriel scoffed. "We only have one of the best libraries ever. All of Midworld's books come from us. Well, us and the elves' awesome tech, but eh."

Darby looked at him. "Could we also...leave?"

He stopped and turned around slowly to stare at her, a confused smile on his face. "Well, yeah, I suppose you can, but you just got here; why would you want to leave?"

She pushed past him and headed straight for the pit.

"I need answers that only my friends on 'Midworld' can answer."

"Wait!"

He hurried up to her and grabbed her arm. "Let me go with you; I know the terrain from the air and can help you get back when needed."

She hesitated for a second, then nodded and smiled. "It'll be good to have you along. Let's go."

They flew a bit into the air to get some height (remember, the pit is still surrounded by pointy rocks), Darby a little unsteady still, the folded their wings and plummeted through the swirling mass that would take them to Midworld.

The swirling mass that would take Darby home.

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The whole falling thing was not exactly high on Darby's wishlist, yet here she was, again, falling.

The portal led to someplace high above a densely packed forest with what looked like tiny lights through the leaves.

"OK!" Gabriel yelled out at her. "When I say, unfurl your wings. It'll be easier than last time. Hopefully."

Darby sighed. "Got it!"

They fell closer and closer, until Gabriel yelled, "NOW!"

He was right, it was microscopically easier than last time. However, jokes aside, that small difference actually helped Darby right herself before she crashed into the lit trees. She flapped her wings lightly to keep herself afloat, still struggling with this whole flying thing.

She peered into the trees.

"What's causing the lights?"

Gabriel grinned. "Well, I suppose there's no harm in telling you now. The fairies guard the portal to Heaven."

She forgot to flap for a second, then quickly righted herself. "Wait, what? Sop that's why the humans have never found it!"

He laughed a bit. "Well, duh. We don't want people just flying in."

Darby contemplated this for a second before she shook her head. "Let's go. I need to find...someone, but I'm not sure who yet."

Gabriel gave her a mock salute. "Yes ma'am."

She rolled her eyes and flew in the general direction of...yeah she had no idea where she was. Just practicing flying felt pretty good. She was actually getting better, as Gabriel remarked previously, so it wasn't as bad as before.

They flew in silence, right above the tree line.

After several minutes of nothing, Darby heard a commotion and dropped through the trees to see what it was. However, she also hit lots of branches on the way down, which was slightly painful.

When she landed, she stood up and shook out her wings.

"Are you ok?" Gabriel yelled down.

"I'm fine!" she called back.

"Darby?"

She immediately looked at the source of the words.

There stood Paravi, Rou, and Andrew.

Well, stood is a relative term.