I Wish

Chapter 31

“Come here,” she says, dropping my hand and opening her arms. I looked nervously at the animals surrounding us, and tried to think about how I would feel if she went flying, and left me down here. By myself. Suddenly the flight was sounding a lot less terrifying. I tipped forwards and wrapped my arms securely around her waist. Ivy pressed a kiss to the top of my head and actually cooed at me. 

“b***h,” I mutter, my cheeks fire red. She pinches my side in retaliation, and sweeps me up into her arms. I try very hard not to squeal, it might provoke them. What? It wasn’t like it was unreasonable. Both my legs wrap around one of her hips, curing around her lower back like a hug and my arms cling to her. “What is with the lifting?” I hissed at her, and buried my face into her shoulder.

“How else were you planning on climbing up there?” she teased me, and that made me stop and think about it. Yeah, I was too short to get up on my own, no matter how hard I tried to climb, but if you actually stopped and thought about it for a moment then you would wonder how Ivy was planning to get up there. Without thinking about it, I squeezed my eyes shut in preparation for whatever she was going to do this time. A rush of wind blew around us, and the next thing I knew I was being settled on something warm and soft. Taking a deep breath I opened my eyes. 

“This is really high up,” I said blankly, looking down. I thought I would get up here, and it would sort of look like it wasn’t as bad. I was wrong.

“Are you scared?” she teased, wrapping her arms around me. Amethyst's fur was a blondie colour, and his feathers were beautiful pinks, purples and oranges, and soft. So, so soft. There was a low rumbling snicker as I carded my fingers delicately through the combination. He was also big enough that squished together, Ivy and I would be able to sit next to each other cross-legged. Her attempt to shame me would have gone a lot better, had I not been raised with Harry Potter.

“If I wasn’t scared I’d be foolish indeed,” I told her, failing at not sounding overly pretentious. It came out much better in my head. Anyway, she snorted and I tried to carry it like I had come across exactly as I’d meant to. 

“Uh-huh. Sure,” she said, before leaning forward to pet the horse's mane, “Let’s get out of here Ame’s.” I would have to be careful about what I said in front of the horse, because he clearly understood her. The neigh he let out was ear piercing and resonating musical, which had a hard time equating in my brain. Given that it sounded like it had been fused with a cry from a bird of prey and when he reared back on his hind-legs, I almost fell off entirely. 

“Oh,” I gasped, feeling myself start to twist and teater violently. My blood is pumping so hard by this point that if I happened to get a paper cut right now, the blood splatter probably would have shot around fifty feet. Before I could progress from heart attack maretial to the part where I got to actually wet myself, Ivy’s strong arms wrapped around my torso and anchored me to her. The only thing that made it possible to use the word almost in regards to falling. To my death, call me overdramatic, I don’t care. Her laughter echoing in my ears and vibrating at my back, never minding the part where sitting astride Amethyst involved practically doing the splits. Wings had snapped out, and spread out in a beautiful kaleidoscope of colours that would have blocked out the sun, had we not been pointed right at it. The rest of the herd… flock, I was going to have to ask because it was bugging me way more than it should, started prancing around us, and echoing the noise. Rearing back and starting to run around the meadow, before they joined us. For lift off.

“You okay?” Ivy yelled and if this were a movie, I totally would have been capable of playing it cool. Of having a hope in hell of getting out of this without making it clear that I was metaphorically wetting my pants right now. Air rushed around us, and the beat’s of his wings were so loud as we climbed higher and higher. The rest of his buddies, and that temporarily solved my little classification issue, filled the air. The ground below us rumbled and shook, and the wing from who knows how many pairs of wings gusted all over the place.

“NO!” I screamed, leaning my head back against her  as I shook and tried desperately to keep my eyes open, “This is incredible. Why is the ground shaking?”

“Creature’s of Spring align with the element of earth,” she said shortly, and really it wasn’t the greatest time to ask questions. The sun bounced off the clouds, and made the hair of Amethyst's mane a metallic sheen. We ascended upwards with great big wing beats in choppy increments. It tastes different, the air here. Breathing it in made you think of the crispest, sweetest citrusy sparkling white wine. The kind you save for engagement parties, weddings, and especially classy Christmas parties. It went to your head, and coupled with just how awe-inspiring everything that was actually happening was, left you feeling buzzy and drunk with it. When we leveled out we were so high above the clouds that they circled around below us in little dots, and our four legged friend had flattened out intp an easy glide. 

“Oh wow,” I said looking at the virtually clear and open sky. Above us, below us, around us. If it wasn’t for the glittering dust vapour, in great rose gold and shining bronze waves. Wind currents twisted through them like veins, or spiderwebs. Evidently in some places, nigh invisible in others. Briefly I worried about the effects of breathing in whatever that dust is. I discard that worry just as fast. It was just too beautiful. It should have been cold up here, and it was, but the sun was so warm that you felt it down to your very bones. “You’re really trying to get me out of my panties, huh?” I told her, and she snorted. If it wasn’t for the fact that we did just as much laughing together as we did at each other, it might have been considered a red flag. 

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Ivy said into the shell of my ear, moving her hands suggestively over my waist, “Do you want to make this more interesting?” I wasn’t sure if I could handle something more interesting, this was already blowing my mind so hard I was scared that even when we were back on the ground I would never come down. Not really. Unfortunately it was also phrased in a manner that could be taken as a challenge, and I was defiant okay? Not only that, but Ivy seemed to push all of my buttons without even trying, there was no way I was going to make the smart decision here. 

“Does it exist? Because this is… I don’t think it gets better than this,” I say, and she rocks us both back and forth for a moment. 

“In so many ways, does it get better than this,” she promised, “Is that a yes?” I nodded against her shoulder, and the noise she let out… I couldn’t tell you what it was, only that, intrinsically, it meant victory. Amethyst seemed to know what that meant, because he reacted at once, and Ivy… well she took the opportunity of my surprise to start playing around with the hem of my dress. I might have snapped at her, or smacked her hands away but I was too busy being shocked about where the crazy horse was headed. Oooooh. If we lived through this, I thought numbly, I was going to kill her.