16. Magic #2
“ Is everything okay? ” Nyra asked, her voice tinged with concern.
Aeden inspected the thick, broken tree. It had snapped towards the root, falling up the embankment, which stood between them and the top path back to the academy.
“We can’t go any further,” he said, looking up at the embankment. It was filled with vines and bushes and smaller trees that reached up out of the ground. Aeden thought they might be able to hold his weight, but he imagined they wouldn’t be able to hold Nyra’s, just from her size alone.
He took a moment to examine the fallen tree. The trunk was thick enough, and its branches could actually work to their advantage. He just wasn’t sure how this would work for Nyra.
“Do you think you could make it up the embankment?” he asked. “There’s a clear run to the top.”
“ I think so. What about you? ”
“I think I can use this tree like a ladder.” He pointed at the differing branches that spread out from the tree trunk and across the embankment. “If I can get to there, I should be able to use momentum and those other trees to help me get to the top.”
Nyra walked to the fallen tree and looked over, her large eyes moving fast as she analysed every part of it. She then leaned forward and grabbed hold of one of the branches with her beak, snapping it clean off before turning to pass it to Aeden.
“ Will this help you balance? ” she asked through their bond.
Aeden took the branch to examine it. It was thick enough to hold his weight, but thin enough for him to hold tightly as he wrapped his muddied hand around it.
The wood was damp and covered in moss, showing just how much time had passed since the tree had fallen.
The moss looked more like a blanket covering the trunk.
Aeden went to work on scraping the moss off the top section of the makeshift staff so that he could grip it that little bit harder.
“This is great, Nyra, thank you.” He slammed down the wooden staff a couple times to test it. Perhaps he would have just enough to get to the top of the embankment. His ankle throbbed, but the pain was still nowhere near as severe as when he had first injured it.
Nyra padded her feet and shook her head with excitement, clearly proud of herself for being able to help Aeden.
“Do you want to try and go first? I think I would rather see that you can get to the top before I try.” The last thing he wanted was to reach the top, only to then find that Nyra couldn’t.
At least this way if she was successful and he wasn’t, she could always come back to the bottom of the embankment more easily than Aeden could .
Nyra stepped back, eyeing the embankment, and Aeden took a few seconds to admire how truly beautiful she was – her scales, her beak, her focused eyes, all of her.
She was truly majestic in his eyes. She set off running, still more unsteady on her feet than Aeden would have liked, but better than how she was just a few hours prior.
Her feet slammed into the dirt, her talons churning up the earth as she made her way up the embankment, her focus remaining on the top.
“Keep going, Nyra, that’s it, you’re doing it!
” Pride swelled in Aeden’s chest as he watched the determined Aer-Kin make short work of the climb, which was at least forty or fifty feet high.
Dirt and stone flicked up behind her as she continued to use her weight and claws to her advantage, and the accelerated speed seemed to help her gain ground.
She slipped a couple times, and Aeden felt a spike of fear as he worried that she would fall back.
With her being unable to use her wings, she would have nothing to brace herself with.
She defied all expectation as she reached the top of the embankment with relative ease. She raised her head and chittered in delight.
“Well done! You did it,” Aeden said, waving his makeshift staff in the air like it was a prized trophy.
“ I did do it! ” Her enjoyment quickly changed to a flash of pain and her body jerked as she looked behind at her wings again.
“What is it?” Aeden asked. There was only a short distance between them, but seeing her in discomfort did something to Aeden. His stomach lurched. He felt physically uncomfortable being this far from her and not being able to comfort her .
“ It’s my wings. I forgot they were broken when I got excited .”
“Try to keep them still. I am sure Master Ember will know what to do when we get back.” Now it was Aeden’s turn to make his way to the top. “Hold on, I’m just behind you.”
“ Okay, please be careful .” There was genuine concern in Nyra’s voice that made Aeden that little bit more determined.
Aeden grabbed the first branch, pulling himself up with his left hand while using the staff to relieve the pressure from his ankle. It helped more than he thought it would, and he pressed it into the ground to give himself that little bit more leverage.
Taking another deep breath and gaining confidence, he pushed forward to grab the next branch before repeating the same process.
On the third attempt, Aeden’s confidence got the better of him, and his staff slipped, causing him to plant his injured foot against the steep incline. Magic aside, pain ripped through his leg, and he cried out in pain through gritted teeth.
Nyra shot forward to the edge, her body coiled and ready to spring down towards Aeden and help him.
Aeden raised a hand. “No, no, no!” he said, his jaw clenched tightly. “Stay there, I don’t want you falling and hurting yourself.” Her wings were already messed up, and Aeden didn’t want her to cause any further damage to them.
Nyra reluctantly stepped away from the embankment’s edge, chittering her disapproval but thankfully listening to him .
Aeden gathered himself, taking some deep breaths before trying again, until he reached what he thought would be the last tree.
His legs burned and his arms ached, but he was determined to make it to the top. He had come so far, he wasn’t going to let anything stop him now. That was, until he took his last step, which was right into a divot in the ground, covered by fallen leaves.
“Shit!” he cursed as he slammed to the ground, winding himself. The staff fell from his grip and he started sliding downwards. “Shit, shit, shit!” He braced himself to slide all the way back down to the bottom.
He didn’t, however. Aeden looked down and then around him. Perhaps he had snagged on a branch; his shirt was pulled up behind him.
But it wasn’t a branch, it was Nyra. She had stopped him from falling down by darting forward to catch him, and she had the scruff of his shirt clamped tightly in her beak. She started to step backwards slowly, dragging Aeden up and over the edge to safety.
In those brief moments, Aeden could feel the power and strength that Nyra already possessed, far beyond any strength he could muster.
When he was a safe distance from the ledge, Nyra let go, leaving Aeden to collapse in a heap.
He rolled onto his back, panting and exhausted, but still determined to get back to the academy.
“Thank you.”