9 #2
“No.” Killian continued to cough out laughter as he moved to Gaoth’s side and pulled himself up and onto his back with ease. “Are you coming?”
Fear constricted my heart as I took cautious steps towards Gaoth. He watched me with wide, black eyes until I halted at his side. “I’m supposed to get up there, somehow?”
“I’ll help you up.” Killian leaned over his one thigh and narrowed his eyes at me. “Once he gives you the go ahead, of course.”
I looked back at Gaoth, his long wisps of white lashes tickling his own skin as he blinked at me.
How am I supposed to know what the go-ahead is?
“You have to ask him for his partnership, Olivia.” Killian smirked at me, knowing I had no idea what that meant. “Repeat after me?”
“Okay.”
“Ka. Rich.”
I pinched my face. “Ka. Rich.”
“All together.”
“Caraid?”
“Close enough,” Killian looked forward to Gaoth, whose head turned towards me. His muzzle pressed against my chest, where the grainy texture of his hairs tickled at my neck.
“Is that a yes?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure if I was speaking to Killian or Gaoth.
“That was a yes.” Killian reached a hand down towards me.
The moment our fingers touched, he wrapped a tight hold around my wrist and yanked me into the air like I was nothing more than a leaf.
Setting me down in front of him, he laughed against my hair and sent a shudder down my spine.
Once we were relaxed against him, Gaoth stretched his wings once more and tucked the feathered stretch against our thighs, pressing us close against his stomach.
The echoing clop of hooves prefaced the appearance of Niamh and her horse — pegasus — that was as black as the midnight sky.
Shea appeared next, her beast ruffling her mane just as she stretched her grey wings wide.
Lastly, and possibly most importantly, was Prince Raegan, looking more profound than ever upon the golden creature beneath him.
If Prince Raegan was royalty to pixies, it seemed like the stallion he rode was the same for equines.
Each of the pegasus’ swung their heads to the stallion as he lifted his solid neck high, his rounded muzzle swinging in the air as he swaggered his way into their midst. It would have been easy to believe his pelt was melted gold and his tail were threads of it with how they glistened in the sun.
Looking at all of the straight-backed pixies with their sharp jaws and untamed hair, the beasts beneath them being something from a fairytale, I realized that a month might not be enough.
It was possible that nothing would ever be enough.
How was I to return to my nine-to-five, mortgage payments, littered streets and thick pollution in my throat?
How could I go back to dating-apps and first dates in chic bistros, talking about favourite colours and politics in the news?
This was living. I didn’t realize how long I had been without it.
~
Wrapping my fingers around some of the equally as unkempt mane of Gaoth, I nodded to Killian and let him give Gaoth the command. A brief tickling of his shins against Gaoth’s side was all that was needed, and we began a brisk walk through the clearing.
“How do you want to do this, Raegan?” Killian called back to the Prince.
“Do what?” I whispered.
“Fly until our borders. Test passage through Uisge, pray to Cernunnos that they are reasonable. Take to the lands for the remainder,” the Prince responded.
Only about half of that made sense to me. All of it made sense to Killian, and Gaoth, apparently, because without further ado, the silver stallion pushed off of the ground, his wings spanning either side of him as he began to beat them furiously.
It wasn’t as gut-shredding as ascending on the hoverflies, yet Killian’s body still tensed and acted as a solid wall that my body slammed against as we were suddenly climbing higher and higher with every bat of those silver sheets.
We levelled out above the normal-sized trees, what felt like hundreds and hundreds of feet from the ground. Only then did I release the tension in my body, unfurling my limbs and sagging against Killian.
“Are you alright?”
“Better than ever.” I grinned, even though he couldn’t see me.
Gaoth knew, though, because he tossed his head as he glided along, each of his wings snapped to the side as we soared across the tops of trees.
From the vantage point of any humans on land, I assumed we looked like little more than small birds flying across St. Michael’s Mount.
Reaching forward, I let a hand glide along Gaoth’s neck, my fingertips feeling each small hair. He let out a short whiny, his head tossing once more before he banked to the right and brought us closer to the others.
“How does it feel, little human?” Raegan beamed as he spread his arms out on either side of him, a poisonous smile on his face as he tipped his head to the sun.
There, beneath the penetrating rays of light, Raegan looked more blond than he had within his throne room. Each of his small, fine jewels twinkled, reflecting sharp light in every direction as he seemed to bask in the cool air.
“Surreal!”
He dropped his arms and looked right at me. Another thing I had been wrong about – he didn’t have dark eyes like his father, but vibrant, earth-green. Not the dark shade like Killian’s, but something far more pure and unfiltered that gleamed as he blinked at me.
We remained frozen like that for a few moments, neither of us breathing, neither of us blinking. Just existing, as a flower did beneath the sun, as the stars did beside the moon.
Gaoth let out a shrill squeal as the stallion Raegan sat on stretched his neck and nipped at Gaoth’s hind.
“Rìoghail,” Raegan chuckled as he shook his head and ran a hand down the stallion's neck. “Behave, would you?”
Rìoghail was prepared to do anything but as he snorted back at Raegan.
Together, they were two princes let loose amongst the world.