Episode Seven: "Lifted"

This is without a doubt my most favorite chapter I've written so far. Please ignore the typos. And please find "episode one" if you're new. Thanks for reading.

Episode Seven: "Lifted"

I kept by his hand, and into nothingness I followed him. We knelt behind a tree as fires sparked at a distant hilltop where the prison sat.

Kaze wrapped his arm around my back. "Stay down. These men are shady, and there's no telling what they're capable of."

"Why did you come for me?"

"It's irrelevant. Stay down."

"How can you know where you're going?"

"It's irrelevant."

"Are you going to answer any of my questions?"

"I'll answer that one only. No."

The guards shared words that were hardly kind. "Do we know which prisoner escaped?"

"I believe it to be the blue-haired girl."

"How did she escape? She's human."

"We're currently questioning her cell mate."

One of the guards drew his sword, and with his free hand, he commanded a scorching flame that flashed and burned the grass surrounding the prison.

Kaze backed into me. "If he keeps this up, we're gonna be seen. They can't know it was me."

The fire's light flickered faintly against the canopy of the trees.

"You tell me to keep quiet, yet you've said double what I've said."

He placed his hand over my mouth again as footsteps crunched against the dry earth close by. "Let's go."

He grabbed my hand, and we ran deeper into the forest. We jumped and skipped over fallen trees, roots, and times came when I fell and scuffed knee. He always knew where to grab for my hand though. He always knew where my exact presence lied.

"Stop!" I said as I released his hand and attempted to catch my breath. "Please, just stop. I need a moment."

"Very well." He said coldly.

"Where are you taking me?"

He stood quiet.

"Are you there?" I had to ask with panic in my voice. "Don't go."

"I'm here." His voice too seemed panicked. "I'm not leaving you."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For not leaving me there. I thought you had completely abandoned me after you refused to defend me yesterday."

"You shouldn't have told Patrix you stayed at my old house. He will search for you there now."

It suddenly made sense. "I didn't realize" I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry." He spoke kindly. I listened as he shuffled around in the compost on the forest floor. "He was going to arrest you anyway you looked at it. He can't keep Krio contained, and someone needs to be contained."

"Can they really sentence him to death for breaking the curfew?"

Kaze heaved a heavy breath. "No, but the issue at hand is that he escaped containment. Patrix knew he would. Escaping containment is punishable by death. But I honestly don't think they could kill him even if they tried. He may be the most powerful non-human born in this village. I wonder why he doesn't simply run away. I would."

I bit my lip, and stared into the nothingness. "What would you run from?"

"I'd leave all of this. I'd leave the corruptness. I'd leave my old life behind and all of its secrets""

"Tell me your secrets."

He laughed. "There's a reason they're secrets. Don't you have any?"

I thought about Callice and the things she told me, but I rubbed my arm and decided it best to keep them to myself at the moment. "I may have secrets that I don't even know about yet."

"They'll come. Believe me, you'll surprise yourself one of these days. I know I've questioned my beliefs and morals lately. That will happen when you're human."

I sharpened my focus and searched for his silhouette, but found nothing. "You're not human."

"But I am""

"I know better. Your vision allows you to see in the dark. You may have everyone else fooled, but please don't take me for a fool."

"If you think you have me, you don't. I merely know my way around the prison."

"That doesn't explain the torches mysteriously going out either." I said blatantly. "There's something bigger about you, I just don't know it yet."

"There is nothing stopping me from leaving you here." He humored.

"You wouldn't dare." As my words left my mouth, he fell silent and fast footsteps in the brush faded. I came to my feet and attempted to follow, and when panic set in, I hollered. "Kaze, I'm sorry."

A hand clasped over my mouth. He leaned and whispered in my ear. "Don't scream. If you speak not another word about my abilities, I'll show you when the first sun rises."

He released his hand. I breathed, and mentioned his secrets no more. "Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you the long way around the village, and back to the shop you worked at. Maybe the store owner will let you stay with him until I see it safe that you can continue to live with Gairee." He explained generously.

Every time he answered a question, more rose.

He grabbed my hand, but this time with his left. The warmth of his palm calmed me until something cold slid between my fingers. I gasped when I caught his engagement ring, and released myself from him.

"What's wrong?" His voice shuttered.

I shook my head and the silence fluttered by. "I'm sorry." Then I felt for his right hand and grabbed it.

He squeezed it as he spoke. "It's okay. We're going to figure this out."

"I believe you. I really do for reasons I think I'll never understand."

We talked throughout the dead of night. Wind Hounds howled distantly. Kaze explained that they never actually howled like normal Wolfs, but that they galloped so quickly that they broke the wind, creating an eerie howling noise. "I've never seen one." I told him.

"They keep far away from people. I can't blame them."

I laughed and leaned against him as we walked. The sky began to transform into a dirty orange. Much like the color of watered down tea. Some mornings were beautiful, and others horrid and plain. This morning was a combination of the two. Neither beautiful or mundane. I observed it on the moments we didn't speak.

"I may be able to show you some." He said.

"Wind Hounds?" I asked.

"Just beyond this thicket of woods, there's a rocky field. No one lives near it because the land is bad for farming. There's a nest of pups there, and maybe you can see the mother."

"They won't attack us?"

He faintly laughed. "No, the mother has gotten really close to me in the past. This is her third little of pups over the last few years."

I nodded. "I'd love to see them."

We continued to hold hands after we regained our sight, but when we neared the clearing, he knelt me down behind a large rock covered in moss and Glitter Bugs. The Glitter Bugs flashed a deep blue from their backs and only when the Suns first rose and set. They lit the giant stones scattered across the hillside like galaxy clusters across the universe. When Kaze neared them, their light died down, but when he passed they sprung up brighter than before.

Kaze climbed on top of a stone, and stared into the distance. He raked his hair back from his face, and held out his left hand. A gentle breeze rolled across the landscape.

My brow fell in confusion as a massive white wolf stepped from behind a rocks edge. She walked slowly, the grass combing around her body. Streaks of her fur faded into the wind and swayed like clouds. With deep emerald eyes, she stayed fixated with Kaze for minutes before moving back to her den.

He turned to me, and urged me to come stand with him on the rock.

I shook my head. The beast stood at least five feet off the ground, and wild animals are highly defensive when it comes to their young. I worried for Kaze, but his ecstatic smile meant the encounter was nothing to him.

"Come on." He urged me as he stepped down from the rock. "Run to me." He said. "Run to me and dive."

"I don't understand." I called to him from the distance.

"Run to me, and jump. Dive at me. I'll catch you." He walked towards me with his arms thrown out, the wind rolling around his body and messing his hair. "I'll show you what I can do."

I bit my lip, uncertain and blind as to what would happen next. I slipped my bangs behind my ear, and ran.

He ran too, and I jumped right before him. He grabbed me by my waist, and hoisted me into the air above him. And the wind roared beautifully. He spun me slowly and never once did he stumble as leaves and glitter bugs spun and danced.

I remembered how I felt like the center of his universe in that very moment.

I closed my eyes and feared for a moment that he'd drop me as my hair whipped around my chin and neck. But the familiarity of his wind drowned that fear. It whipped around my body like water and bubbled my clothes frantically.

Then it stopped.

With his hands still gripped around my waist, he let me down and kept me in front of him. "I'm the wind." He said. "That's my secret."

I didn't know how to react. Something inside of me found every second I spent with him to be absolutely right, but logically speaking nothing about him should feel right.

"How many women know your secret? How many women have you done this with before."

His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. His breathing grew heavy and drawn out. Then he answered boldly. "I dreamed we did this immediately after I met you. But I called you Ayva, a name I've never heard, and you called me Ray."

I held my breath.