Standing in the middle of the clearing I prayed silently that I had lost them.
For a moment there was quiet. Then the howling started up again and I knew they had caught my scent again.
I swore and ran back into the forest. “I knew I should never have come here.”
The howling drew closer and I turned to look behind me. I crashed into something and was flung to the ground.
I rubbed my eyes to try and focus my vision. It didn’t work. In front of me stood a blurry figure but I couldn’t see if it was a friend or foe.
For a moment we seemed to be frozen in time. Then, the figure looked up and suddenly scooped me up in its arms. I wondered what it was going to do to me and I winced as I felt wind rush past me.
The blow never came. I slowly opened my eyes and my vision came back into focus. A handsome face looked down at me. The face was tanned with emerald green eyes and blonde hair.
“Erm… Hello.” I said cautiously.
“Hello. Hey, do me a favour and don’t look down.”
Naturally I looked down and screamed. We were high above the forest and he was flying! He had wings!
He sighed and mumbled something about trying to warn me.
“I, you’re, we’re… what the hell is going on here?”
“I came across you in a bit of trouble. You ran into a tree.” I blushed a little.
“So? Why did you help me? And who are you? Oh, and why do you have wings?”
“I am Fin, I am an Iriad which explains the wings. I am also a nice person which is why I helped you out.”
I wasn’t convinced. “What are you going to do with me then?”
He looked confused, “What do you mean ‘What am I going to do with you’?”
“Well, where are you taking me?”
“Over there.” He nodded his head towards the sea which could just be seen from this height. “Right now though, I need to land for a second. It is not easy to fly carrying someone like this.”
I was about to say something until he suddenly dived towards the ground.
I threw my arms around his neck and buried my head as far into his shoulder as I could possibly go without actually piercing the skin.
The landing was in fact so smooth that he let me go and said, “Um, you can stop trying to decapitate me now.”
I opened my eyes and slowly untangled myself from around his neck. I then walked very quickly backwards away from him, embarrassed.
“So, how are you planning on carrying me?”
“Um, well you stand on my feet and I am going to tie you to me with this.” He flew up a little and severed a thick vine using magic.
Once he had landed he motioned for me to come back, I had moved about half the clearing away from him.
I walked over and stood on his feet. I noticed how close we were but wasn’t really bothered by this. After-all, I had just been clinging to him for dear life.
He, however, seemed quite uncomfortable with it and fumbled with the vine tying it around both our waists.
“Could you, put your, um, arms around, um…”
“Yeah sure.” I said and put my arms around his upper torso and held on to his shoulders.
I closed my eyes for the take-off and my stomach sank right down to my toes as the ground fell away from us and he tipped so that we were flying horizontally.
“Why are you going to all this trouble to make sure I am safe?” I asked once I was a little more used to the sensation of flying.
“You remind me of someone.” He answered curtly. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead. He was taller than me so I had to look up to see his face, but he still never looked back at me.
“Who?” I decided I was going to make him look at me.
“Someone I used to know.” He still refused to look at me.
“I hope this someone was a girl. I wouldn’t like it if I reminded you of a boy. Or a man for that matter!” I smiled. He still didn’t look at me. “I hope she was a pretty girl too.”
His mouth twitched slightly and I knew I had hit a nerve. “Yes. It was a girl.”
“Good. So who was she then? Your girlfriend? Your wife?” I laced my words with a well placed patronising tone which I could see was getting to him.
“No. She was, just a friend.” His eyes flickered slightly.
“Oh. Did she not like you back? I can see a bit of un-requited love in your eyes.”
Finally he looked at me. He stopped in mid-air and glared at me. “I could drop you if you like?”
“Ok, sorry. I was just interested.”
“Actually you were right.” I smirked, I was right again! “But not the way you think.” I frowned, what did he mean? “She loved me, but I didn’t love her.”
I decided to shut up for a while.
~SishBee~
x
For that reason only, of course, not for the reason that he has green eyes and blonde hair and is really handsome. 
