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I plopped down on the floor, completely exhausted after spending yet another day in this place everyone called "The Gale." It was a place without float stones, without Fallon, without anything I knew. Every moment I learned something new, about "humans" and "towns," "magic" and gods that weren't Cressa and Nassima. Everywhere I looked I found something that surprised me - just stepping outside the cave I now called my new home here in Fire Gorge Mountain was enough to overwhelm me.
From the very first second I found myself in this strange place, I didn't know what to do or where to go. I was even attacked by a zaigatz, the very same creature Fallon was trying to escape.
After that, I just wandered around trying to find my way back home to where Fallon waited for me. While I searched, I ran into someone new, someone who reminded me a little of Fallon, although I couldn't say just why.
His name - or "her" name, as I l was later told - was Samura. And she was looking for her teacher, a "dragon."
"I know dragons are reknown for being ferocious, but Valor's not like that at all. He's very kind. Smart too."
As it turned out, the teacher she was searching for was the zaigatz - the "dragon" - who attacked me.
I balled up my shirt and scarf to use as a pillow. As I lay on my belly on the floor, I opened my wings, leaving as much of my body uncovered as possible as I enjoyed the cool night after yet another hot, humid day.
"The grotto was never this hot," I grumbled as I settled into a comfortable position. "I can't wait to go home..." I mumbled as I drifted off to sleep...
Only to instantly wake up again when I felt something violently smack my back.
"Wake up," growled a familiar voice.
I rubbed my eyes, blinking as I glanced around the cave lit by "magic," as my new cave-buddy called it, until my spotty vision finally came into focus.
Orange hair. Bright red clothes. Piercing blue eyes the color of the sky, crossed arms, and a frown. There was only one "human" - "dragon-human"? The creatures in this world were so strange - it could possibly be.
"Welcome home, Valor." I yawned and scratched the back of my neck. "Are you all done training Samura tonight?"
Valor's cheeks instantly flashed red. "That's none of your business!"
Valor was always happiest after having one of his "super special private midnight lessons" with Samura. But tonight he still looked pretty mad.
"Ever since you came back, this cave has reeked of fish!" Valor said with his usual frown. He uncrossed his arms, pinched his nose and glared down at me. "Go take a bath - you stink!"
Vangry2 by Goddess-of-Gales
He pointed at the floor beside me and I saw what'd hit my back.
It was the one thing worse than the heat. Worse than being attacked. Worse than anything else I'd ever encountered in this world so far:
It was "soap."
"I went fishing this morning," I grumbled as I sat up and scooted away from the bright white, flower-smelling horror of this world. I chanced a glance up at Valor. "I went in the water. That's a bath," I told him.
"I'll bet you went fishing," Valor growled at me again. "Anyone within 100 miles, be they follower of Obsidian, Raze, Sin... I'd even bet spirits can smell you!" Valor picked up the soap and thrust it right under my nose. "Now go take a proper bath."
My nose crinkled at the awful flowery scent. The soap glittered in the magical red light coming from the circle painted on the floor of the cave, taunting me.
"No!" I smacked the soap out of Valor's hand.
Valor and I both watched the soap fly all the way to the opposite side of the cave where it bounced off the wall into a dark corner.
"That stuff stinks worse than fish," I pinched my nose.
"You..." Valor growled, his entire body beginning to glow.
I slowly got up -
"BIRDBRAIN!" Valor roared.
Valor turned toward me, his eyes glowing red as his human form magically changed into something else. All at once his body that'd only been about three-fourths my height changed into that of the towering, orange, scaly zai-dragon who attacked me.
I sprung to my feet and ran for the cave's entrance, barely escaping getting chomped by Valor as he struggled to move around in the cave that all at once became too small for him. Glancing back, I saw the fiery gemstone on Valor's breast begin glowing.
I ducked out of the cave just in time for a bright red fireball to shoot out of the entrance. The familiar smell of burned feathers quickly reached my nose.
"We agreed no fireballs!" I yelled back into the cave as I inspected my wing. A couple of my feathers were a little singed, but it wouldn't hurt my flying.
"I prefer the smell smoke to the stink of fish," Valor stepped out of the cave, this time back in his human form. He took in a big breath of fresh air. Valor looked quite pleased with himself as he grinned at the tiny flames burning the dewy grass just outside the cave. He lifted his hand toward me.
"I'll take a bath!" I balked again at the soap clenched in Valor's fist. "But no soap! That stuff stripped all the oil from my feathers!"
Valor shrugged. "Just don't come back until you're 100 percent fish-odor free -"
"Samura doesn't think I stink," I grumbled.
"She also doesn't have a dragon's nose," Valor said. "Samura is..." Valor trailed off, still staring at the tiny, flickering flames as they snuffed out one by one.
"Your student?" I finished for him. "A 'woman' and a 'druid' and a 'granddaughter of Raze,' right?"
Valor nodded as a tiny smile struggled to lift the corner of his lips. "Samura is... all that and more... to me."
"Valor? Your face looks really red," I said. "Are you feeling okay?"
He wasn't going to turn into a dragon and breathe another fireball, was he?
"I'm fine!" Valor said as he spun on his heel and ducked back into the cave.
I crossed my arms behind my head and walked out toward my favorite cliff. "I'll be back soon!" I called back toward the cave, but Valor didn't respond.
I ran out to the cliff and jumped off into the cool night breeze. I rode the wind down from Fire Gorge Mountain all the way to Goddess Lake by the light of the bright full moon.
Countless bubbles frothed around my body and wings as I dove deep into the clear water of Goddess Lake.
Bright fish with wavy tails swished quickly away when the noticed me shooting down toward them through the water. They probably weren't expecting me so late at night considering I usually only fished in the early morning, when I "made all sorts of noise" and "stunk up the place at the crack of dawn" as Valor so often put it.
It made me wonder...
I poked my head up out of the water in the middle of the lake.
The glowing moon lit the lake, a lake bigger than any other I'd seen - before I finally saw that thing called an "ocean" my Teacher once told me stories about - and it glistened like the mirror I found just before I arrived in The Gale.
I rested my back atop the water and spread my, making plenty waves in the water's tranquil surface in the process as swished my arms and stared up at the unfamiliar stars in an unfamiliar sky.
"Does Valor not like me?" I asked the moon.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't respond.
"You're no help," I sighed. I slipped under the water, re-wetting my hair and face before I came up again.
As I wiped the refreshingly cold - although it wasn't as cold as in the grotto - water from my face, I heard the whisper of a familiar voice in the crisp night air. Looking around, I saw a shadow in the distance whose unusual shape I recognized tromping up and down along the water's edge.
I grinned, and silently slipped under the water.
I propelled myself invisibly beneath the glossy surface of the lake, using my webbed hands and toes along with the rest of my body to slip through the water better than any fish. Not even the fish noticed me as I passed, and once I reached the edge of the lake, I planted my feet in the sand and stood up.
"Hello!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I threw open my wings and arms, casting a shower of water in every direction around me.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The shadow screamed loud enough to make my ears ring.
I heard a strange sound, and felt a light puff of air waft around my neck.
"... Samura?" I said as I pushed my dripping forelock out of my eyes.
So-Rin's Bathtime by Goddess-of-Gales
"Is that you So-Rin?" Samura said, still holding his huge, glowing knife - he called it his "magic sword Pyrussel"... or was it "Bezel?" Something like that. He often talked to it like it could talk back, but I never heard it say anything - an inch from my neck.
Asamura by Goddess-of-Gales
Samura. The first creature I spoke to in this strange place who didn't try to burn me alive, and the first one to become my friend. He - oh, that's right... Samura's a "she" - wore a lot of furs like I did, but unlike me she also had a lot of fancy stuff like "necklaces" and "earrings" in alternating bands of sky blue and crimson red. Whenever I saw Samura, she reminded me a little of Fallon, but I still couldn't figure out just what it was that made them so similar.
It wasn't their hair; Fallon's hair was short and red, but Samura's was long and brown. Samura didn't have wings either. Maybe it was because they were both short... but in The Gale, almost everyone was shorter than me, and even compared to Fallon Samura was tiny.
Except for her chest. For some reason, Samura seemed to be keeping something hidden under her shirt, but every time I asked her about it, she denied hiding anything.
Now that I thought about it, when I saw Valor in the middle of giving Samura her "super special private midnight lesson" once, she had her shirt off... but Valor was in the way and I couldn't see. Maybe whatever Samura was hiding had something to do with her training with Valor, and that's why she kept it secret?
Whatever it was, I wish they'd just tell me, or let me watch them train instead of keeping so many secrets. There was already enough about The Gale I didn't know.
I grinned at Samura as she lowered her magic sword Pyrussel/Bezel.
"What in the name of Raze... what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" Samura squinted at me like she couldn't quite see me. "I thought you might've been a giant fish or something possessed by a demon; I could've killed you!"
"Giant fish?" I exclaimed. "Are there really giant fish in this lake? How big are they? Can you show me which part of the lake they're in?" I said as I stepped closer to Samura.
"I don't actually know much about fishing. I could tell you about hunting, demon slaying, and a bit about magic, but not..." Samura paused, her mouth hanging slightly open as she stared at me.
It was strange talking to her while I was still in the lake; with her up on the bank, we were almost at eye-level with each other.
As Samura stared at me, I remembered why I was at Goddess Lake. I really shouldn't have been thinking about fish.
"Sorry, do I still stink?" I lifted my arm and tried to smell myself.
Samura's hands shot up toward her face, but instead of covering her nose she covered her eyes.
"So-Rin, why are you naked?" Samura yelled.
I tilted my head. "I'm taking a bath," I told her. It seemed like a funny thing to ask, so I asked Samura back, "Why? Don't you take your clothes off too before taking a bath?"
"Of course I do, but that's - why are you out here taking a bath in the middle of the night," Samura asked, still covering her eyes.
"Valor said I stink and kicked me out of the cave," I moped. Then I had an idea, "Since you're here, can you help me wash my back? I can't quite reach around my wings," I said. I turned my back to Samura and showed him how I couldn't quite get my arms all the way around.
I looked over my shoulder at Samura and saw her peeking at me through her fingers.
Was she playing a game?
I sat down in the water, ducked my head underneath, and fluttered my wings to move the water over my back before sitting up again.
"Just rub between my shoulders a little," I told her as I set to work on my wings.
"... he's like a bird. A big bird. A big bird with blue hair," Samura mumbled. She knelt down behind me on the bank and rested her palms flat between my wings. "A big bird with blue hair and abs."
"How was today's lesson with Valor?" I asked. "Did you have fun?"
"Uh, well, you know..." Samura muttered, her palms suddenly feeling a lot hotter on my back. "... yes."
After being in the cold water so long, her warm hands felt nice.
"That's good," I nodded. It made me happy that my two friends, a student and teacher just like Fallon and I were, were getting along so well.
I plucked out a loose feather and tossed it into the water. It floated away like one of the "boats" I saw bobbing in the ocean.
"Samura? Can I ask you -" I started.
"Nothing else about my 'super special private midnight lessons,' thanks," Samura interrupted. She sounded like her face was red.
"No, not about that," I winced as Samura pressed deeper into the tight muscles between my wings.
"I haven't found a way to take you home yet," Samura mumbled quietly like she did whenever she looked sad. "We still don't know where your mirror is, either."
"It's not that either," I shook my head. "It's about Valor."
"... and it's nothing about our 'super special private midnight lessons,' right?" Samura said, her voice tightening like she thought I forgot and was annoyed.
"No, it's got nothing to do with that," I grumbled.
They really were too secretive about their lessons. Samura always looked so happy when she was with Valor. As a fellow teacher, I just wanted to learn so I'd have something fun I could do with Fallon once I found my way home.
"You spend the most time with Valor when he's not at the cave, even when you're not training, right?" I said.
"Yep," Samura said. I could tell just from the sound of her voice that she was grinning.
"Do you think Valor likes me," I asked. "That he likes living in the cave with me up on Fire Gorge Mountain? He always yells at me, says I stink, and calls me 'birdbrain'..."
"Valor really calls you 'birdbrain'?" Samura giggled.
"...so I've been thinking maybe I should find somewhere else to live while I look for a way home." I finished by whispering, "I'm not a bird. I'm Avin."
"Valor... is complicated," Samura said as her hands came to a rest on my back. "He has a hard time showing others how he really feels. Whether it's because he's a dragon, whether it has something to do with Obsidian or being a follower of Raze, the demons, or anything else, in front of most people he tends to hold himself back. For a long time Valor even held back from me."
"I don't think Valor's ever 'held back' anything from me," I grumbled as I roughed away the charred edge of one of my feathers.
"And that's why I'm actually a little jealous of you, So-Rin," Samura said. She spoke softly, almost whispering in my ear, "You're living with Valor and seeing all the sides of him he doesn't show to anyone else, not even to me. I'm sure he likes having you around. If he didn't, he'd have kicked you out or left a long time ago."
"If you say so," I said as I flicked the surface of the water with my fingers.
"I know so," Samura said as though she were grinning.
I sniffed my arm, "Do I still smell like fish?" I asked.
"Nope, you smell Goddess Lake-fresh!" I heard Samura stand up.
"Thanks for helping me wash my back," I said as I stood up and turned around. "I'll help you wash your back sometime too if you want -"
The heavy sound of giant wings flapping, followed by the thud of something falling on the ground nearby reached my ear. A plume of dust rippled toward the lake from the direction of the sound.
Once the dust cleared, I saw Valor in his human form, standing in the center of what looked like four giant animal tracks stomped into the ground.
"I'm here to pick you up, since I know you have a hard time taking off down in these plains," Valor said with his eyes closed. He had a piece of cloth - I think he called it a "towel" - draped over his shoulder. He shook his head, "But you'd better not still stink like fish, or I'm throwing you back in the water."
"Valor!" I flapped my wings and stood proudly, showing off my clean body. "Samura says I'm Goddess Lake-fresh!"
"Samura?" Valor's eyes shot open, and his cheeks turned bright red.
"A big bird with blue hair. A big bird with blue hair and abs." Samura mumbled as she struggled not to peek through her fingers. Her cheeks glowed red too.
Valor glanced between me and Samura, his shocked expression quickly shifting to one I knew all too well.
"You can't still smell me with your dragon nose, can you?" I lifted both arms, "I can't smell anything."
"Cover yourself up already," Valor growled as he stomped up to me, his fist clenched tightly around the towel.
"No thanks, I don't like that "towel" thing. It's too rough and scratchy," I shook my head and crossed my arms.
"You..." smoke streamed from Valor's human mouth.
"A big bird with blue hair, abs, and..." Samura mumbled.
I ducked back down into the water, but not before hearing Valor yell:
"BIRDBRAIN!"
