This is an old piece that I was reworking in the hopes of sending into a scholarship. I didn't end up getting it ready in time, but I'm curious as to people's reactions to the piece.
Her cheeks were numb with the cold and he shoved his fingers into his pockets to keep them from losing feeling. On either side of them, great mountains stretched up to thrust their snowy peaks into the midnight sky. Stepping around the rocks and gravel that littered the path, they skirted the small fires nestled in among the contours of the ground as they walked. Smoke billowed into the air above them and everything stank of ash.
She coughed and he looked over to make sure she was all right. With a small smile, she assured him that she was and he faced forward again. She gave one more, small cough and he frowned, but stopped as she flashed another – wider – smile.
Rolling her shoulder blades, she fluttered her wings to keep them from going stiff. He spread his wings as well, more in friendly rivalry than anything else. They were magnificent things these wings; rows upon rows of brilliant silver feathers with black flecks scattered throughout the fibers. Full-spread, they stretched nearly seven feet from tip to tip. Her wings, black where they met her shoulders and gradually fading to white at the tips, were only a few inches shorter than his, but he took every opportunity to remind her of that.
Shooting him a look out of the corner of her eye, she sped ahead of him and extended her wings their entire length before slamming them down along her back, sending a rush of air in every direction. It lifted her off her feet for a moment and the fires nearby flickered, falling down into the dust, only to rise up higher than before. He laughed and shook his head.
“You planning on flying, Sera?” he asked.
She grinned sheepishly, her short, brown hair falling forward into her eyes. “No…”
Shoving his hands deeper into his pockets, he chuckled. “Why not? It’d be faster than walking.”
“But…” She glanced back at him curiously. “We can’t fly, Gustave.”
“We can’t?” he asked impishly.
“No, we—” She stopped, seeing the look in his eye and punched him lightly in the shoulder.
The valley floor took a sharp turn and they followed it as it slanted upward to a long, level plateau. A mass of tents and shacks were standing in haphazard rows, shielded from the rush of the wind by the bend. Scattered between them, campfires sent sparks into the night air, burning cleaner than the untamable flames of the valley and warming everyone around them. At the nearest fire, Gustave tapped one of the men, pressing him aside to provide space for Sera. She smiled gratefully and sat down, folding her arms over each other.
“What took you so long?” the man asked.
“Well, Berne,” Gustave looked at Sera. “We were going to fly over but we decided it would be more fun to take the scenic route and walk.”
Berne grunted and Sera hid a smile, glancing down at her hands.
“Fly?” a man across the circle questioned, eyes wide. Blinking, Sera looked back at him in surprise. Scarred hands clutched the hem of his coat, fingering the cloth nervously and long white lines showed in his exposed forearms. “You can fly?”
Berne shook his head. “He’s just joking.” He flicked a glance at Gustave. “The scamp.” Gustave grinned, but the other man wasn’t giving up that easily.
“You’ve been to the top?” he asked earnestly, searching Gustave and Sera’s faces. “You’ve seen the great city of the sky?” He waited with bated breath for them to give him an answer.
Sera glanced at Gustave uncertainly, and then back to the man. “What city?”
“The great city!” the man said. “Where we can fly! Where—”
Berne coughed loudly, sending him into silence. “He’s been talking about that city ever since he came here. He’s says there’s no smoke there and no ash.”
Sera looked down at the ash that had gathered on her boots, biting her lip.
“He’s just another madman.” Berne poked at the fire with a long stick. “You’d be crazy to try and climb the mountain.”
The man started to protest, but the others in the circle silenced him.
They stayed by the fire for a few hours more and then the men moved off, heading into their tents to sleep. Berne patted Gustave on the shoulder as he left and then led the madman away. Taking Sera’s hand, Gustave pulled her to her feet. Together they walked through the tents, saying goodnight to whoever was still up and continued on past them. Just beyond the last tent, the ground rose still higher, turning the floor into a series of hills and platforms set against the sides of the mountains beside them. All together, they made a twisting, uneven path, a staircase out of a giant’s castle, which led nowhere.
Sera scrambled up the first few steps until she reached a platform large enough for both of them and took a seat, setting her back against the next hill. Coming along behind her, Gustave pulled himself up as well. She pulled her sleeves down over her hands and they tucked their wings around themselves to keep out the cold.
“It would be great,” Gustave said after a moment and she looked at him curiously. “Finding the great city in the sky.”
She laughed softly. “I’m sure.”
“You don’t think I’m serious.” He raised his chin to look down at her. “But I am. It’d be a great place to be.”
Sera shrugged. “How you would even get up there?”
“How?” He looked at her incredulously. “How? Well, by climbing, silly.”
She started to laugh again and it turned into a cough. Immediately, he got up, drawing her with him.
“I guess we have to move a little higher,” he said and jumped up to the next step, helping her up behind him. “But just imagine what it would be like in the city. When we got there, we’d knock at the gates and then parade down the streets like we owned them. Heck…” he moved up the next step. “We will own them.” Grinning, he went on, encouraged by the smile she gave in return. “And you’ve heard of seaside cottages? Well, we’re gonna have an airside cottage up there in the city in the sky.”
Sera giggled. “Airside.”
“Yeah!” He was only getting more excited as they continued upward. “And when I say cottage, I mean what they would call a cottage. Down here it would be a palace.” He stopped as they reached the next platform, holding her hands. “The greatest thing you can imagine, that’s what it would be,” he promised.
She opened her mouth to reply and stopped, seeing the look in his eyes. Somewhere this had ceased to be a joke. His eyes were lit up with the idea and there was no telling whether he actually planned to make the trek to the top of the mountains. Sera hesitated, looking for something to say and finally spoke.
“And we’re going to get there by climbing?”
He glared at her good-naturedly. “How do you feel?” he asked dryly.
Moving away with a smile, she sat down again. “Better,” she told him. She took a deep breath. “There’s not as much smoke up here.”
He sat down as well, letting his feet dangle over the edge of the platform and gathering his wings around him once more. Drawing her knees to her chest, she looked out over the valley, watching the fires flicker in their beds, flare up and die down, wink out and blaze into being. Everything else was veiled by the smog and the fires seemed like stars, embedded in the earth. Catching herself looking for a shooting star among them, she shook her head and turned to the real sky that lay above them.
He watched her for a moment before facing the mountains. Running his eyes along the slopes, he saw furrows cut into the stone by long years of rain and wind. The grey, fire-scarred base gave way to white snow as it went further up. Cold as it was down here, he couldn’t imagine how cold it must be there to collect snow all year round. Yet, the mountain whispered in his ear – Climb me. Gustave looked up at the peak. Climb, it pressed.
“Do you think it’s true?” she asked.
He twisted around to look at her, tilting his head. “What?”
“That there’s no smoke or ash up there?” She turned back to him. “I mean, it would make sense. The higher we go, the less of it there is, but do you really think somewhere there’s none at all?”
Gustave shrugged. “Why not?” She looked down, disappointed and he bit his lip. “There’s no way of knowing until we get there, right?” he went on. Forcing a smile, she nodded.
Scooting back to sit beside her, he nudged her with an elbow. “Hey…” his voice was low and she could feel his breath against her cheek. “We could go.”
“Go?” She looked at him blankly. “And come back hailed as madmen?”
“That won’t happen,” he told her. “We’ll use bigger words than that guy.” He gestured grandly. “Instead of ‘great city in the sky’, it’ll be the ‘metropolis in the firmament’.”
She laughed silently, shaking her head. “Gustave…”
“And who said that we were coming back anyway?”
* * *
The next morning, her cough came back just as soon as they went down into the tents. They passed through quickly, heading into the lower valley before anyone else was awake. Sera kept close behind him, pulling her jacket snugly around herself as she tried to adjust her breathing to the smoke that lay thick in the air.
A few minutes later, they stopped and turned to face the mountain ridge. Gustave paused, eyeing the stone wall in front of him. Sera crossed her arms against the chill morning air and waited, glancing back and forth between him and the rock.
“We don’t have to go,” she said after another minute had passed without him moving.
He turned to look at her quickly. “No. We can do this.”
Swallowing, he stepped forward and grasped the first stone in the steep sides of the mountains. The rock was cold and hard against his palm, coated with a small layer of dust. He ran his fingers over it, wiping away the dirt and pulled himself up. The next handhold was easily within reach and he grasped it, rising just that little bit higher.
He laughed suddenly at the ease of it all. The stone was cold and sharp in places, but the valley floor grew farther away with every move. Gustave glanced back at Sera who still stood waiting at the bottom.
“Come on,” he called down. “It’s a piece of cake.”
She coughed heavily into her hand and shook her head, uncertain. “Gustave—”
“Come on,” he said, hanging by one hand to meet her eyes. “I’m not going another step without you.”
Glancing down the valley toward the camp, she bit her lip. Then, slowly, she stepped forward and gripped the stone, pulling herself up. Gustave grinned, waiting until she was just behind him before he started upward again. Every move brought them higher and the ash and smoke receded until they could barely smell it. The very stone in front of them seemed transformed and it only took a single glance down to prove just how far they’d come.
He laughed aloud, his voice echoing off the cliffs as he grasped another ledge, with his wings spread out for balance. The fresh clean air filled her lungs and the breeze danced around them, tugging at their clothes and wings, lightly brushing through her hair. Silently, Gustave dared the world to tell him that he wasn’t invincible.
Without warning his foot slipped. His fingers grasped desperately at the stones before him, falling, skin scraping against rock. Sera flattened herself against the slope and he tumbled past her. Catching hold of a small ledge in the mountain’s side, he jerked to a stop. His body slammed into the rock face and air tore from his lungs. His grip loosened and he fell a few inches further, then stopped.
Horrified, Sera looked down, leaning as far away from the mountain as she dared. “Gustave!” She started back down to him, working her way among the rocks. “Just hold on!”
“I’m all right!” he called back, though he didn’t believe his own voice. Glancing at the empty air beneath his feet, he shut his eyes tightly. Blood seeped from the scrapes on his arms and hands and his own sweat stung as it slid into the wounds. The wind grabbed at his clothes and wings, lifting him away from the mountain. Struggling to keep hold, he could hear her above him, shuffling through the stones. He shifted his hands to get a better grasp.
The ledge was slick under his fingers, stained crimson with his blood. One hand slipped and he crashed against the side of the mountain again. He scrambled to grab hold again, but it was too late. Sera screamed and dropped her hold on the mountain, tucking her wings against her back to follow him.
They plummeted.
Crying out, he collided with the mountain, continuing down. Tumbling through the stone and gravel, rocks struck his back and limbs, slashing through skin. The fall seemed to last an age, the stones bruising and cutting. He spun in the air, smashed against the mountainside again and one wing snapped. Pain shot through to his spine. Dust filled his eyes and mouth and something tore into his arm, then across his side. Finally, he rolled to a stop.
* * *
When he woke, light flickered in front of his eyelids. Beside him wood crackled as it burned and someone shifted in their seat on the other side. Slowly, he turned, meeting Sera’s gaze. Beyond her, the tents of the camp spread out on both sides and the men milled about between them. The rest of the valley expanded beyond that, edged in by the mountains, which appeared taller then they ever had before.
Sera stood, coming to sit on the ground beside the cot he laid in. She was wearing a fresh shirt, the collar turned up against her neck and the sleeves pulled down to cover the backs of her hands.
“Are you awake?” she asked, laying a hand on his arm through the blankets that covered him. He shifted stiffly, discovering more bruises and wounds than he would have thought his body could hold. One wing folded along his back properly, the other jutted off at an angle.
“Well, that was fun,” Gustave murmured, laying still again.
Sera lowered her face, biting back a smile. “Did you feel it up there?” she whispered.
“What?” he asked. “The sharp rocks or the really sharp rocks?”
“The air,” she breathed. Eyes bright, she looked up. “Did you feel it?” He blinked, staring back at her. She stifled a cough and pressed on. “The farther we went the better the air felt. I didn’t cough once, Gustave. Not once. We only went fifty feet. What would it be like higher?”
“Higher?” Gustave croaked.
Nodding, she leaned forward. “When are we going to try again?”
He swallowed. “We’re not.”
* * *
Winter came and the wind gained a bitterness that even the valley’s bend could not shield them from. The men hunkered down by the fires and extended their hands over the flame, trying to keep a small part of them warm, while ignoring the bite that drove into their lips and cheeks.
Then she disappeared. Hoping she’d be back, Gustave waited for her all night at the bottom of the giant’s staircase. The next day, he combed the valley, searching every spot that he and Sera had ever ventured into. He found an irritated bear who wished the boy hadn’t disturbed him and an empty cave carved into the mountainside that proved valuable when he was forced to hide, but no Sera.
The winds only grew fiercer; then became unbearable. Gustave left and headed to the cave that had protected him from the bear to take refuge from the wind. The further inside he went, the less he heard the howling outside and the less the air smelled of smoke. The only ash was the ash that sneaked in on the bottom of his boots and in the creases of his clothing.
* * *
Climb me.
Gustave jerked to attention, raising his head out of the shelter of his wings. It has been a long time since he’d heard the call and he hadn’t missed it. Climb me, the mountain murmured again and now mingled with it was a call from the sky: Learn to fly.
Climb, the mountain pressed, no longer giving simple encouragement, but blatantly ordering him.
He covered his ears. “No,” he whispered, clenching his jaw against stinging tears.
The next day he tried, and fell, from almost the same point he’d fallen before. He managed to spread his wings to slow his descent, but the pain was just as great, though it was drawn more from the past then the present. Still, he tried again, beginning at a different point along the ridge and made it a little further before tumbling back down.
He thought he knew how deeply the stones could cut, but each time they seemed to drive deeper, opening old wounds and dealing out fresh ones. Each new scrape or bruise dug further, stabbed deeper, spread farther, hurt more.
On his fifth attempt, his wing snapped again, and that was the end of it. He wandered along the valley floor and didn’t look up. The sky still called and the mountain still commanded, but he hardly heard. The days when he had the audacity to glance toward the peaks were few and far between.
* * *
“They look better from the top,” she whispered.
He whirled to face her, tearing his eyes from the mountaintops. Tripping suddenly, he fell backwards, jerking his wounded wing in the process, and lay there for a moment, staring up at her.
She laughed softly and held out a hand to help him up. He glanced at it in confusion before looking up at her again. Her hair had grown longer, curling down to frame a smiling face with dark-lashed eyes. Her wings were folded along her back, but she carried them with more strength than anyone he’d seen before.
“Gustave?” she asked, tilting her head. Her voice was soothing, containing an optimism that understood darkness, but defied it. That was different too. “Are you gonna get up or did you decide to stop and do some cloud watching?”
Hesitantly, he accepted her hand and his eyes widened a little at her strength as she pulled him to his feet. Gently, she inspected his arms and hands, running fingertips over scars from long ago.
“How are you?” she asked, slipping around behind him to feel along his wings.
“I’m fine,” he replied slowly, still in shock that she was here. “How about you?” He jumped as she pressed against the joint where the wing had cracked and bent out of shape.
“I thought this healed a long time ago.” she murmured.
“Uh… yes and no.” She flicked a glance at him. “That’s actually a new break.”
Swiftly, she took hold of the wing and snapped it back into place. He wrenched himself away, gasping and turned wildly to face her.
She laughed again. “Calm down, Gustave.”
“What did you do?” he demanded, staring at her. Backing away further, he put one hand over his wing, feeling along the bone.
“It wasn’t broken,” she told him simply. “It was just disjointed.” Uncertain, he flexed the wing experimentally. It hurt, but not much. Convinced, he stopped, eyeing her suspiciously.
“It is Sera, right?” he asked.
She looked down, biting back a smile. “Who else would I be?” Slowly, she turned a complete circle before meeting his gaze again to test his reaction.
Brushing her sleeve, he stepped closer. Her smile seemed more genuine then he remembered, and there was more behind her eyes then there ever had been before. Yet the light there was the same as it had been…
“Trying to see if I’m real?” she chided. He shook his head. “Is that how you greet old friends?”
He broke into a smile, wrapping her in a hug. Sera laughed and slid her arms around his neck as he picked her up, spinning her around. When he finally put her down, he took hold of her hands and began dragging her back along the valley floor.
She stumbled along behind him, her laughter echoing off the stone. “Where are we going?”
“Just wait,” he replied, grinning. “You’ll love it.”
He ran between the loose stones on the path, guiding her around to the front of his cave and then pressing her inside. Almost immediately, it became too dark to see, but he hardly slowed, pulling her along to the back of the cave by feel, then stopping abruptly. She ran into him and nearly knocked him over but he grasped her by the shoulders, keeping them both upright.
“What’s going on?” she asked uncertainly. Her hands found their way to his arms, trying to see something in the darkness.
“Just…” He hesitated, excitement clear in his voice. “Breathe.”
She did, pulling in a lung-full and letting it out slowly.
“There’s no smoke,” he whispered. She couldn’t see, but she knew there was a smile on his face as bright as the sun. The smoke had lessened the further back they went, but she could still taste it in the air. She didn’t say anything.
“You could stay here forever and not cough once,” he went on. “Can you imagine? It’s wonderful. And the wind can’t even reach us here. And—”
“It’s wonderful,” she agreed. “But I’d have to be a bat to see.”
Laughing he patted her arms and slipped away. “Stay here.” He took a few more steps and ran his hand along the contours of the wall. Finding a wooden box, he slid a match out, striking it against the side with practiced ease. Light flared up in his hand and he bent to light a candle he’d set on a ledge in the uneven stone. She turned around, examining the cavern while he hurried off to light the rest of the candles that were spaced along the walls. Finally he turned back, watching her.
She had her head tilted back to look for a ceiling still veiled in darkness. Her wings were extended slightly to give her balance as she leaned back and her hair fell away from her face in soft curls.
“Where did you go?” Gustave asked after a moment.
She gave him a smile and returned to running her eyes over the lines and swells in the stone above her. “To the top.”
“All the way?” he asked. He tried to catch her gaze again, forcing the image of falling off the cliff - of his fingers slipping away from the rock - out of his mind. How could she have done it when he couldn’t? “How did you do it, Sera?”
“The same way you will,” she replied. “By climbing.”
He looked away.
* * *
They stayed in the cave for a few hours, before she drew him back out into the valley, tugging him along in much the same way that he had pulled her. Once again, her strength surprised him, as did the strength of her smile.
He knew where she was going before they arrived, but he cringed when she stopped and pointed to the mountain – to the same place where they’d begun to climb before.
“Climb,” she told him, turning to give him her full attention. The mountain echoed the word behind her. Climb.
Swallowing, he took a step back, looking back and forth between Sera and the mountain. “I can’t, Sera,” he murmured.
She laughed. “Why not?”
Looking at the high peaks, his stomach turned as he remembered the stones and the way they dug into his flesh. He could feel their bite and taste the blood and dust mixed in his mouth.
“You were gifted wings,” she pressed, reclaiming his attention. “Why won’t you use them?”
Learn to fly.
He shot a look at the sky nervously, taking another step back. “I fell,” he said, agitated.
Sera followed after him, holding his gaze steadily. “You tried,” she corrected. “Try again.”
He stopped, hitting the mountain behind him. “No. I failed.”
“No, you didn’t,” she told him with the same resolute tone. “You tried, you fell and now it’s time to get back up again.”
She took his hand and tried to lead him back to the first handhold.
Violently, he shook free. “No, Sera!” She froze, her eyes widening. “I fell! I can’t do it!” he told her. “Don’t you get that?”
“But you can,” she insisted, her voice level.
“No!” He gripped her by the shoulders, turning to force her up against the valley wall. Her eyes grew larger and every shred of her smile slipped from her face.
“I can’t, Sera!” he shouted, his voice shattering the silence of the valley. “I fell. I can’t make it all the way to the top! It’s impossible for me! You can’t ask me to. I fell, Sera! And you don’t know what it’s like to fall, do you?”
She tried to avoid his eyes, but he shook her by the shoulders, forcing to face him again.
“It hurts, Sera! And you can’t understand just how much it hurts!” Gustave stopped, drawing back as he noticed the look on her face and the tone of his own voice “I fell…” he finished fiercely.
She took a deep breath, eyeing him fearfully. “I fell too,” she whispered, near to tears.
Sadly, she pulled back the sleeves of her dress and he saw the scars that criss-crossed her skin for the first time. Now faded with age, they scratched a malevolent pattern across most of her skin, stopping as they peeked out from under the neckline of her dress. He swallowed and released her suddenly, backing away. There were more than he could count. How many times had she fallen?
Sera looked down, crying silently. “You can say that I don’t understand, Gustave. But I do. I don’t know how many times you fell, but for me… I stopped counting long before I made it to the top. And I’ll bet, that you never made it higher than that.” She pointed to a spot, fifty feet above them. “You can’t even see the places I’ve fallen from, at this distance.” She paused and then tried to laugh. “I really did break. You should be thankful you only knocked a wing out of joint. I came back for you because I wished that someone had come back for me.”
“Sera…” he whispered, unsure what else to say. “I can’t… I just can’t.”
“Do you want to stay here?” she snapped. “Is all this so wonderful that you can’t bear to leave?”
“Sera, please,” he said. “Please, understand…”
“Be my guest,” She spread her wings and then she was gone, shooting off into the sky. He stared after her, eyes wide. She’d flown.
* * *
The fires in the valley raged that night, filling the air with their haze and roaring in their beds. He made his way back to the cave, but for once even its walls didn’t shield him from the stink and the smoke that flooded his lungs. Lighting the candles, in hopes that the light would sooth him, he only found that it clarified the edges and the thickness of the smoke.
He huddled on the floor, his back to the cold stone wall. She had made it to the top.
The breeze swept through the cave, whistling through a crack in the wall and adding to the howl of the wind in the valley. He wrapped his blanket closer around his shoulders, bending his wings around him to try to block out the wind. It was still cold. His fingers went numb, clutching the cloth about him.
She had flown.
Slowly, he stepped out of the cave, turning to put his back to the freezing wind. He made his way along the valley floor, stopping as he came to the spot where he had failed before.
“You tried,” Sera corrected in his memory.
He coughed as the smoke caught in his lungs and then closed his eyes and grabbed hold of the rock. Without even thinking, he pulled himself up, opening his eyes only to find the next handhold and rise further. He didn’t laugh. He didn’t look down. He simply pulled himself further and further into the cliffs, his wings tucked tightly against his back so that they wouldn’t snag in the wind.
It seemed like hours before he found a place to rest: a large outcropping in the rock with a level platform. Breathing heavily, he lay down on the rock and shut his eyes. When he dared, he peeked over the edge, gripping it tightly, and stared in shock at how far he’d come. He couldn’t even see the valley floor through the smog, though the fires glinted, tiny smears of red that had seemed pillars of flame from where he had been before. There he had heard them crackling and snarling. Here, there was silence.
Almost. Footsteps sounded behind him then Sera’s gentle breathing.
He turned, watching her as she came to sit beside him and looked down at the fires as well. “I hoped that you would come,” she said quietly, tears still shining in her eyes.
He forced his gaze back to the valley, hating the look on her face. “It’s so far,” he murmured, letting his eyes wander up the sides of the mountain, trying to measure how far he’d climbed and how much was left. “How did you ever do it?”
Sera glanced down over the path, remembering climbing it herself not too long ago. “It was never too far. And you told me that it was possible, even though you stopped believing that.” Getting up, she brushed off her hands and grasped his wrist. “Let’s go.”
Rising to his feet, Gustave met her gaze. “You’re coming with me?”
Sera nodded. “I came back for you. I’m not leaving you behind.”
He smiled, tightening his grip on her hand. “Then let’s go.” Slowly, her smile returned and she wrapped him in a hug, burying her face in his shoulder. She withdrew quickly, meeting his eyes one more time and started up the cliff, setting her feet and hands firmly, as if she’d been there a million times before.
They climbed for hours, the sun rising slowly behind them as it faded into the early morning hours. Stopping frequently, they made their way up the mountainside, Sera only a step or two ahead of Gustave, with the heels of her boots always within his sight to remind him that he was not alone.
The sun beat on their backs, its heat competing with the cool mountain air. Before long, he could feel the sweat on his palms and his hands began to slip. Suddenly, his foot slid off the stone and he shot downward. Almost immediately, he jerked to a stop. His shoulder hurt for an instant and then quieted.
Looking up, he found Sera’s fingers wrapped around his wrist. She hung by one hand, her wings gently beating to keep herself upright, her eyes focused on him.
“Get your footing again,” she said, bringing him nearer to the cliff face.
He swallowed. “Can’t we just fly to the top?”
“No,” she told him, shaking her head. “I can’t carry us both.”
He stared ahead at the jagged rocks of the mountain. “What’s up there?” he demanded finally. “What are we trying to get to?”
“You’ll see,” was all the answer she would give. “Take hold again.”
Taking a deep breath, he grabbed onto the rock and she released him. Slowly, resolutely, they continued on.
He slipped again, and again, and again before they made it to the top. Each time, she caught him, and each time he asked what they were aiming for. She refused to answer, pressing him to continue. The hours passed, and the sun began its descent through the sky.
The horizon was turning a vibrant pink and violet, fading into navy blue as it crossed the sky when they reached the peak. Soft layers of snow padded their footsteps and clouds concealed the landscapes below. He gathered his wings about him for warmth, looking at the solid white around them.
There was nothing there. Just the snow that crunched under their heels, a mist that concealed everything more than a few feet away and a jagged cliff that extended out over nothingness on the far side of the mountaintop. Even the sky was hidden behind the mist, leaving them in an ocean of frost.
“What did we come for?” he asked slowly, turning to see if he’d missed something. He hadn’t.
Sera didn’t reply, but walked steadily toward the cliff, gazing at the nothingness as if it were everything.
“What did we come for?” he demanded, his voice muffled by the snow. “What was so important?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder, stepping close to the cliff edge. Turning back to face him, she smiled. “Are you coming?”
“Coming?” he asked, confusion filling his voice. “What are you—”
Suddenly, she stepped off, disappearing over the cliff.
“Sera!” He rushed over, clawing the mist for any hint of her, but there was nothing. He combed the fog for anything. She had to be there.
“Jump off,” Sera whispered behind him.
He whirled around, staring as she floated in mid-air in front of him, gently flapping her wings.
“What?” he asked.
“Jump off,” she repeated calmly.
“We came all this way to jump off a cliff?” Gustave asked incredulously. He glanced over at the edge, unnerved by her calmness. “I could have done that down there!” He gestured down to the valley.
She laughed, shaking her head. “You won’t fall. Just jump off. You’ll fly.”
“Fly?” He looked down and then looked back at her frantically. “Why did I have to come here? Why did I have to come all this way?”
She rose a little higher, spinning slightly to survey the area. “What did you expect to find? A metropolis with a flight instructor standing by to show you what to do?”
“Sure,” he said desperately, glancing over the edge again.
Sera shook her head. “He’d tell you the same thing I’m telling you now.” Setting herself down in front of him, she stepped across the few feet that separated them. “Do you trust me?” she asked, meeting his gaze levelly.
He searched her eyes. “What?”
“If I’d wanted to watch you fall, I’d have done it before. I’ve had chance after chance. I caught you every time. You trusted me while we were climbing. Now, all I’m asking is for you to trust me one more time. Jump off. Spread your wings, and fly.”
He glanced over the cliff.
“Jump off, Gustave,” she said again.
He searched her eyes for another moment. There was nothing there but hope, and a little bit of that thing that he had seen earlier when she’d come down to him on the valley floor. Slowly, he stepped back.
And dropped.
The wind rushed past him as he fell, plummeting toward the earth.
“Spread your wings,” she whispered from just a few feet above him.
Without even thinking, he did. The air caught him and he seemed to shoot upwards again, rising into the mist, even higher than the peaks.
“Come higher,” Sera ordered and he obeyed, following her into a cloudbank. The clouds cleared and there before his eyes was a street with gates a hundred feet high, carved into swirls and lines to look like clouds. Winged creatures flew here and there, busily attending the city.
“Your metropolis, Gustave,” she whispered.
