Dark Trees and Light Leaves - The Story of Mother Earth's Revenge

Kirin's Luck

We travel for what seems to be days, the beast running as fast as he can while I anxiously scan the horizon and our flank for danger, my head on a constant swivel. My inner thighs ache and my hoodie threatens to tear as my wings itch to be free from the clothes holding them back.

The trees begin to thicken and with each passing hour I begin to lose my precious hope of finally having peace and being able to see a blue ocean. I begin to daydream, fantasizing what it would be like. What would it sound like? Would it be calming like the rustling of leaves, or something like static? I guess I would have to survive in order to hear one for myself.

There. That's my motivation.
Survive to see the blue ocean.

Following the green trees is getting harder and harder as grey and white soul trees surround us. The beast made of sturdy bark and leaves of green's panting catches my attention. He is starting to get tired. His movements start to become rigid and the leaves on his shoulder grow limp and yellowed. I take a chance and run my right hand through a patch of them.

I grimace. Scythe had said not to stop... yet this dragon will die if he continues running in this dark and thick forest. To my right, I spot a small clearing a little ways off of the path we were following.

Is it worth it? They could catch up to us and we wouldn't have anyone to distract them like her...

"Hey! Stop!" He halts. I yelp as I nearly tumble forward and off of him from the abrupt change in speed.

"Go right. There's a clearing where you can rest and get some energy from the sun." Time to see if the rumours of these hybrids needing the sun rays for energy are true.

The beast throws his head, almost refusing.

"It'll be fine. Go." I say while pulling myself back up into my original position.

He huffs before heading towards the clearing. I lean down to avoid the white energy collectors of the soul trees from hitting me. The beast stops and I look for a soft spot to land. Before I can jump, the beast crashes and falls to ground. I let go, letting out a short scream.

I squeeze my eyes shut. The feeling of my hoodie being torn from my body instead of the pain that should come with falling hard against the ground causes me to open my eyes again.
My chest burns slightly as I feel wind gust around me and a faintly familiar sound of flapping wings makes me smile.

I'm flying! How the heck did I forget I had wings?

My excitement is short-lived as I fail to keep up with the amount of energy needed to flap my wings this hard and fall onto the ground.

"Ow."

I hear a faint whine and look behind me and past my still-outstretched wings.

The sight is adorable.

The beast is lying stretched out with his wings fully fanned out, almost like a solar panel. His tongue that I didn't know he had is hanging loosely out of his mouth.

I get up, stretching my wings in time with my arms. After having them cooped up all that time in my hoodie, being able to have them free felt amazing. What isn't so amazing is the fact that I had moulted all my feathers during my time in the camp and they now all lay strewn around the clearing.

Shit. I'm going to need to clean that up.

I see a Kirin
Tries to wake beast up. Fails.