Little Talks (Dragonfly #7)

The Second Twist

    Everything seemed to be going so well.

    It was an absolute joy to be an Ice-claw once more. I can't even begin to describe the feeling.

    "Great Glamora!" Jay sighed, as he padded along beside me, "This is the closest I will ever get to spontaneously regaining my sight."

    That was a good way to describe it. I simply enjoying the wind on my fur and we raced each other through the trees. The breeze bristling through my fur and under my feathers, the cool soil between the pads of my feet, and the earth and sky all around me.

    We eventually found a clearing to take off in. Walking was easier on Jay but we were caught up in the moment and wanted to get home as fast as we could. I stretched my wings out and scooped up the air, feeling nostalgic. I hadn't felt this good in a very, very long time.

    "Jay!" I gasped. "The sun is rising."

    He purred in amusement. "Tell me about it."

    "Oh! The sun is so intense, and the whole sky is a vibrant red, it's like it's trying to escape. It's so beautiful."

    "Not as beautiful as someone else I know, I bet." He added, drifting a little closer to me.

    My face heated up. "Hey Jay?"

    "Hm?"

    "Thank you for this."

    He let his eyelids fall closed. "Anytime my princess."

    I rolled my eyes and mrred as his dumb nickname. "how long have you been waiting to use that one?"

    He laughed. "Years!"

    I laughed with him.

    We landed shakily on the sun bathing rock in the early hours. I glanced around, not many other claws seemed to be up yet, but it was good to feel the snow under my pads again.

    We disappeared into the tunnels and headed straight for the Meðal-den, where we can wait for instruction from Zach on how to proceed. One our way though, it didn't take long for the word to spread and soon I saw the faces of my parents appear, the pale-white moon shaped face of my mother and tree-bark resembling texture of my father. He looked very angry. I winced as he came storming through towards me.

    "Zarathustra." He breathed in. "If I buried you forty feet under this hill you could not be more grounded then what I'm going to inflict on you for this stunt."

    "Zara." My mom's eyes watered up a bit, oh Glamora it was always hard seeing it from her.  "Baby you strain our poor old hearts too much."

    The fire in my dad's eyes calmed down a bit and softened with the the soft waves of comfort from my mom. I embraced them both quickly and sighed.

"Okay putting aside the fact I'm grounding you for eternity, darling you look so happy?" He titled his head gently.

"Yeah, Jay and I took some time away just be be with ourselves, I think it really put things into perspective."

It was a lot more believable and less concerning then starting to hear my dead brother's voice in my head assembling a concoction to bring him back from the dead.

My mom's bright blue eyes blinked slowly. "Oh honey... are you telling me what I think you are?"

I frowned. "...what?"

My mom's eyes flicked over at Jay and then back it me. "You know... are you two finally together?"

My cheeks heated up. "Mom!"

She laughed. "I'm just kidding, I'm happy for you!"

My dad rolled his eyes, but he looked happier. "Are you gonna tell us what you two were up too?"

"Uh... I promise it was nothing scandalous sir." Jay nodded respectfully, though it was a few degrees off.

"We're also busy right now." I tried to insist, prickling my fur slightly.

My dad frowned, and I realized he was still untrusting of me, He was happy I was happy, but he was suspicious as to why. To be fair, I would too.

"What exactly-"

He was cut off because then all of a sudden I started choking.

I don't know what happened, just all of a sudden I couldn't breath and I was gagging and writhing on the floor with the concerned faces of my parents saying things I could barely hear. There were panicked faces and I saw Jay rush away, I didn't see where.

The world started to ebb away into a maelstrom of red. There was no air getting into my lungs and something insisted on forcing it's way up. Something was squeezed into my maw, something with such a hurried scent and taste that I gagged, and coughed something up.

I spat a black lob of guck onto the tunnel floor.

I felt my blood freeze in my veins as I recognized the sight. No, no, no, no, no nonono...

Oh yes.

Then all of a sudden I was locked behind the walls of my own eyes. My body stopped responding to my desperate attempts at a warning. I watched as my mouth let out a nervous laugh that grew into a cackle. I could only watch my parent's and Jay's horrified expressions. This wasn't supposed to happen, I can't believe I let myself be tricked into this.

"Thanks for helping me reopen the Ostium Malitia darlings." Tenebris smirked from my face. "It was nice doing business with you."