I Wish

Chapter 30

We went searching for a meadow, where the flying horses liked to hang out, and honestly, I would not have been able to tell you how we got there. Everything was a happy daze, and all I really remembered was her hand in mine. It felt like walking with my girl, and that just made me feel all kinds of fluttery. The meadow she took me to was… unreal. It stretched so far that the trees were just a small blurred line in the distance. It would have looked so big and empty except.

“Whoa,” I said in awe, it should have been an space except it was filled with flying horses. Flying horses that did not look like anything I had ever seen or before. They were massive, beautiful and seriously forget everything you’ve ever seen or heard of in books and movies. This was nothing like that.

“Yeah, it’s another spatial distortion. They’re all over the place here,” Ivy said as we slowly ambled closer to the creatures. My hand shook in hers, and she did me the courtesy of not mentioning it. “It’s remnants of when the oldest of magick’s were still practised here. Nobody ever uses them anymore because even the most power hungry and evil won’t risk destroying us all,” she cautioned, and while that was an interesting little bit of information, I wasn’t sure why it was relevant.

“Neat,” I commented, “But I meant them.” I understand why they weren’t called Pegasus because they looked nothing like them. Barely resembled a horse, to tell you the truth. If they rested their snout on the floor, the tops of their heads would have been taller than me. Ivy would have been able to rest her head in between their eyes. They were huge. Most of their faces were soft fur, with brightly coloured feathers around their eyes like a mask. They joined up and continued between their ears to form a feathery mane that mixed with pastel candy floss hair that curled and seemed to defy gravity. Complementary wings so big that if they spread them out they could double as a queen size feather bed spread. They had feathers that glinted like they were sharp along the edges, easily as big as my forearm. Their feathers ran down their back and melted seamlessly into their fur. Their tails, the same feathery cloud of gravity defying curls.

“Yeah, they’re something,” she said smiling, “How are you… processing?” It was cute how she stumbled over the last word, like she wasn’t sure what context it was used in, but she knew it was important to me, so she tried anyw… Oh dear lord, was I really going to be that dumb f**k? I needed to stop justifying everything, for good or for ill, it was clearly making me stupid. Something wasn’t quite the word for these beauties. Their legs were as thick as my thighs, and the hooves on their feet looked like they were capable of killing with a single kick. As beautiful as they were, I had a feeling that a wrong move could be my last move.

“They lied, all the stories of winged horses there was never anything like this in there. Are you sure that they aren’t dragons?” I asked her in a hushed voice, trying not to spook anyone.

“Definitely not dragons,” she said, humming in disapproval. Did that mean that there were? I was going to take that as there were dragons around here somewhere. It wasn’t that I wanted one. Smart money said observe from waaaaay in the distance, but unless they talked — and I wasn’t ruling anything out, I was calling them all Paarthurnax or Spyro’s. Yeah, my dumb ass little brothers played Skyrim too, wasn’t I just spoiled for choice with the crap things they liked to put on the TV? “Want to go for a ride?” she asked slyly and squeezed my hand.

“Conflicting emotions,” I managed to reply while my heart did its best to pound its way clean out of my chest. “On the one hand, hell yes,” I said, trying desperately to find the will to just go for it because if I could, this was going to be the most amazing experience I’d ever had in my life.

“And on the other hand?” Ivy pressed with a small worried frown. I didn’t blame her, she’d really pulled out all of the stops and instead of carpe diem’ing it like anyone would, I was stuck being prodded by a little thing called reality. As nice as it was as an idea, there were far too many things that could go wrong. This was fairyland, I told myself somewhat viciously, Ivy was never going to let anything happen to me. If I wanted to avoid regretting this forever, I was going to have to suck it up about the risk factors.

“I’m sticking with you, yeah?” I asked her softly, and that wasn’t what I’d been planning on saying at all. It also just seemed like the only thing that was going to get me any closer than I was already. Let alone going flying. She smiled and bounced on the balls of her feet.

“It’s you and me, treasure,” she promised, pulling me forwards. She dragged me through the… heard? I was assuming it was still called a herd, but given that they flew, it might be a flock. We stopped in front of one of them. “Hi, beautiful boy, hello. How are you?” she cooed at it/him like he was a teacup pig, “This is Amethyst. Ame, this is my best girl.” It must have been my imagination, but the horse tipped his head and shook his lavender mane, so it floated around him, and appeared to roll his eyes. As if to say, look at this drongo, can you believe it?

“Yeah, she’s a ham,” I agreed, and they snorted. Ivy shot us both offended looks.

“That’s what I get for introducing the two of you? Attitude? Really nice, the pair of you,” she said, but she wasn’t really mad. Just a bit blushy about the fact that her horse and I had come to an agreement that she was overly dramatic.

“Even Ame agrees,” I told her wryly. She pouted and crossed her hands over her chest.

“I think,” she said softly, and somewhat sadistically, “That it’s time we went for a fly.” Another wave of what-if spin cycled through my brain, and I stared at the admittedly gorgeous horse blankly.

“Ahhh,” I said, stalling, and it was the back of my mind that pissed me off. I’d broken more bones than I could remember, my netball injuries alone were ridiculous, when has been scared ever stopped me from doing something I wanted to do? The answer to that was pretty bleak, and it coincided with around the same time that we could start wearing pyjama bottoms all day, every day. I wouldn’t be so bold as to say that nobody was forced outside their comfort zone, home is generally considered a safe zone and I hadn’t had to leave it in a long time. I didn’t even know what I was so scared of. Falling? Animal injury? I couldn’t say, but I was done letting it control me.

“Ahh?” she mocked, and it didn’t feel malicious. It sounded like she was baiting me to reiterate that I needed her. Which okay, I know myself well enough to know that in her shoes I’d do it too.

“How do we get up?” I asked, trying to play it off like I was scared of looking like an i***t climbing on. Not that I was too much of a chicken to go in the first place. I had a preference for her not picking me up without warning or struggle, it did terrible-terrible things to me.

“Just sit tight and leave that to me,” Ivy promised, “Trust me, you’re going to love it.” Did I trust her? No. Was I going to act the same as if I did anyway? Yes, because to live in fear, is no way to live.

“Let’s get out of here. I want to try to touch a cloud,” I told her as brightly as I could. My voice shook, and I was so worried about what, I thought, was going to happen that I didn’t think about what my little request was going to equal up to. It just goes to prove that some of the best kinds of things come around accidentally.