What good re wings? Without the courage to fly?
The Hesperian Bridge, Northern Ardeneon
April 14
"I'm hungry" Seraphinius whines as they barely made It halfway across the rickety bridge. Their eyes are fixed on the creaking wooden planks beneath their feet. Seraphinius is clinging onto Elijah on his back for dear life while occasionally whining. They are being as careful as they can to avoid falling or the bridge breaking. Elijah was starting to wonder if it would have been better had they gone one at a time.
"We're almost there Phinie" he lies to the tiresome six-year-old.
To which Seraphinius groans "I'm six, not blind".
"This is going to be a very long walk." Elijah mutters
"I don't like this" River scans his surroundings "We're too exposed out here, I feel like we're being watched"
"You're wary 90% of the time River" Emily scoffs "Even if we were being watched, they can't do anything to us, because I don't think any sane person would cross this bridge"
"What's that supposed to mean" Dexter gasps turning to face Emily sarcastically. Dexter is at the front, then Skai is behind him and in front of River leaving Emily in front of Seraphinius and Elijah who are the last on the bridge.
"Let's be real Dexter, we lost our sanity weeks ago, if we were sane, we wouldn't have made it this far, no sane person believes in all this" Emily shrugs, they knew she wasn't wrong.
The bridge shakes a little "Guys I'm not sure how much longer this will hold, we have to move faster" River interrupts Dexter before he could even respond.
"Wary again" Emily mumbles under her breath.
Seraphinius tightens his grip on Elijah "We can't rush, the bridge could fall" Elijah tells them.
Skai almost slips and holds on to the rope at the side of the bridge "I don't know guys, I've got a really bad feeling about this" her voice trembles as she lets go of the rope, Dexter turns to look at her briefly, making sure she was okay.
The bridge creaks ominously, and they quicken their pace, their senses on high alert.
As they near the midpoint of the bridge, a loud crack echoes through the air, and the wooden planks begin to sway eerily.
"That's it, we need to move, now!" River commands through gritted teeth.
"River's right, the bridge is going to collapse any moment, we have to get off, fast!" Emily urges quickly assessing the situation.
Elijah moves Seraphinius into his arms swiftly and they begin to run, they hasten their pace, their feet pounding on the creaking bridge, Seraphinius' eyes shut with fear, and he clings onto Elijah's neck.
"There's no way we're going to make it guys!" Skai yells "It's going to break" her voice trembles.
They were already close to the end of the bridge. Dexter turns around grabbing her arm. "Don't look back just keep moving" but then suddenly a wooden plank gives way beneath Skai's foot, her hand slips out of Dexter's, and she falls through the gap, her scream echoing through the air.
"Skai!" River yells. He curses repeatedly as he rushes to the edge of where she fell.
Emily peers down "She's moving, guys she's good, we have to get her out of there" Elijah looks down noticing it wasn't that deep. He looks around the edge of the bridge for a way to get down there and sees a rope that isn't connected to the bridge but the land at the beginning and end of the bridge with several ropes hanging from it.
"Dexter, you take Emily and Phinius to safety. River and I will get her out" he tells Dexter.
"No" Dexter responds firmly "I'll go down, I was the one that didn't hold onto her properly"
"You can't seriously be blaming his self at a time like this" Elijah says but given the severity of the situation, he decides not to fight with Dexter and just go along with it. "Fine go" he agrees, quickly explaining his plan to Dexter before getting off the bridge with Emily and Seraphinius.
They settle beside a dying tree and sit in wait. They could spot Hesperia in a short distance.
Meanwhile, Skai is laying in what seemed to be a ditch, bones scattered everywhere. "Guys!" she yells towards the bridge attempting to stand up, but she falls back down, groaning from the pain searing through her leg.
"We're coming!" Dexter calls back to her and she lets out another groan. This time at the fact that she had to face Dexter again, that nagging in her gut that she made a mistake kissing him coming back to her.
"Focus Skai you need to get out of here" she hits her head.
"I see you're going crazy again" her brother appears beside her, Dexter jumping down beside him.
They both bend down in front of her and Dexter curses while carefully examining her feet.
"Let's get you out of here" River carries her in his arms standing up, Dexter was now examining her ankle, his lips down turning and eyes crinkling as he couldn't imagine the kind of pain she must have been going through, and just then the bridge crashes down only barely missing them.
Shock, fear and the will to get out of there surges through Skai's body and before she could blink, they were flying in the wind and they land on the ground harshly in front of Elijah, Emily and Seraphinius. A groan escapes Skai's lips as not only her feet but now also her head was aching.
"They can fly!?" Seraphinius enthuses as River places his little sister on the floor next to the little sprite who is eating fruit.
"I'm sorry guys" Skai breathes out after the conversation of her saving them had died down, she didn't feel like she deserved the praise because she literally got them in there in the first place, it's hardly saving. So she thought.
"You can't seriously be apologizing for falling" Emily chuckles.
"Yeah, it's not your fault, the bridge was hanging on to dear life anyways" Elijah adds.
"That aside, can you walk?" River asks her.
"If I could walk, I wouldn't be sitting on the floor, would I River?" she says.
"I don't think you want the answer to that question Skai" Emily laughs. "But point made regardless"
"We don't have medicine here; we need to find an alternative" Elijah says taking a look at Skai's condition.
"There's no life here and we don't have alternatives, we'll have to create a makeshift splint and work with that" Dexter tells them. His eyes locked onto Skai's, and for a split second she wanted to make it work, but she quickly pushes the thoughts away as he looks away.
Emily examines Skai's ankle gently and carefully "it's a clean fracture, but we'd definitely have to immobilize it before we move on, it will make movement easier for you...ish" she explains and Skai nods.
"Like a splint?" River asks Emily and she nods curtly "yes"
Dexter mutters to himself "that's literally what I said" but only Skai heard, it made her smile a little...why she was smiling? she had no idea either.
"I've got an idea," Dexter says rummaging through his bag. He pulls out the cloak for his uniform and tears a strip of cloth from the hem. "We can create one using this."
"That's brilliant" Elijah smiles taking the cloth from Dexter and handing it to Emily "Wait before that we should stretch the joint" he points out as Emily was about to wrap Skai's ankle.
"Stretch?" River and Skai looked at him as if he had two heads.
"Yes stretch, it was a technique my mother taught me" he tells them "It aids the healing process, bite on to this" he passes the rest of cloak and River practically stuffs it in his sister's mouth.
"Bite" he tells her, and she does so, Elijah begins to stretch it out, pain shoots through the region and screams leave her throat but all that came out were muffled sounds. Emily ties the cloth around her ankle firmly "This should help stabilize it" she pats Skai's shoulder as River and Elijah help her get up, Skai leans on her brother, trying not to put weight on her bad ankle.
"Is Skai okay?" Seraphinius asks. "I'm fine kiddo" She smiles at him. Dexter hovers nearby, his eyes never leaving Skai. she could sense his worry.
"Alright let's get moving," Elijah says, "We need to get to Hesperia before nightfall."
Skai nods, determination washing over her, she didn't want to be a burden to her friends because of the injury. Dexter steps forward, his hand brushing against Skai's as he walks ahead of her to meet Elijah up front, Dexter has touched her hand numerous times, he has brushed it like so countless times, but his touch has never made her feel the way she felt in that moment.
'It was an accident Skai, shut your mind up.' She tries to tell herself, but she couldn't focus when he kept on turning to look at her, worry tracing every inch of his face. The way he looks at her, the way he touches her hand...it was all so subtle yet it sent her heart racing a billion beats in each millisecond. She tries to push the thoughts aside reminding herself that it's not going to happen, that it couldn't happen.
When he looks away, she couldn't help but steal glances at him, his striking profile, his determined stride... it was all so familiar to her, yet recently, it felt so...different. Then it comes again, that little flutter in her chest, the sense of awareness that unfailingly overcomes her when he is near, the desire to be the best version of herself so he would notice her even more.
'You're being ridiculous, Skai shut your mind up, you're going crazy, you couldn't be anything but friends, and that's that.' She tries harder to push away the thoughts reminding herself that they have more important things to do than thinking about boys... Not being able to believe she thought that herself. Call her boy crazy but they were the one thing in her life she felt completely in control of, she'd never really felt in control of much in her life, She constantly feels all over the place, but when she gets a boyfriend, they make her feel like she has control over her life, like she can make decisions, that's why she has a bunch of failed relationships, she never picks the right one.
You can't blame her, she's just 16.
Hesperia; the kingdom of darkness, looms before them, as they walk Dexter slowly moves closer to Skai, but he keeps complete silence, she couldn't help but notice the silence growing thicker, heavier. She knew he could sense it too, the newfound awareness between them, it made her wonder if he is feeling the same way, if he also struggling to ignore it like she was.