No longer bound by the throes of sickness, Leander answered the call. He had done so once before, and though he had failed to complete the fae’s mission, his failure had ultimately led him to his sister. And so he took wing. He was still too-thin and perhaps a little wobbly in the air, but Lee felt stronger every day. His lungs expand and release easily, freed from the plague’s terrible grip – a part of him jubilant to breathe clear air as he soared through the skies, though he knew firsthand that whatever task was set before them wouldn’t be simple.
No, it wouldn’t be simple at all.
At the foot of the Mountain, he listened to the fae’s directives with a firmly set jaw – perhaps his stubborn streak could serve him well here. He knows of the Island mentioned, having seen it from above in previous explorations of Beqanna, before the lands had become festered and plague-ridden and he himself had been confined to the northernmost reaches of Icicle Isle. He struck out, launching into the clouds. Perhaps this task would distract him from the fact that his sister was nowhere to be found. The thought spurred him forward, and for once he pushed Kora and his potential niece or nephew from his mind to focus on what might lie ahead.
Alighting upon the ashen shores of Tephra, he glanced upward at the volcano looming overhead. A black smoke was spewing steadily from its crater, the smell thick and sharp and cloying. He had not yet seen it look quite so menacing – but then, volcanoes were always unpredictable. A frown crossed his features before he shook his head, turning his brown eyes to the waters lapping at his hooves instead.
He plunged into the waves, broad wings tucked close to his sides as his legs worked to cut through the sea. His father had taught him to swim from an early age, and thus he did so comfortably and with some real skill. With his head lifted, he could see a few others outlined against the wobbling line of watery horizon, and ahead of that was the Island for which they aimed. With each swimming stroke, its sandy beach grew ever closer – until something suddenly grabbed at a hind leg.
Whatever it was, it pulled him under.
Leander hadn’t even drawn breath before the creature had snared him. Had it really been so easy to breathe moments earlier? There was salt in his airways and a fire in his chest, and with effort he flared his wings wide through the water to slow his speedy descent to the depths. This made whatever had a hold of him tug even harder, but now he was fighting, desperately fighting to break past the waves and breathe again, just breathe easy again, breathe, breathe…
With all four of his legs kicking wildly, one of his hooves must have struck the thing – hard enough that he felt its grip loosen momentarily. With that, Leander beat his wings downward with all his might and kicked for the surface. Propelled upward by this final burst of energy, his face broke from the water and his lungs raked in blessed oxygen, his lungs burning and his eyes rolling. He knew the creature wouldn’t be far behind.
And it wasn’t. An ugly, gelatinous head protruded from the sea before him, rows of razor-sharp teeth gaping from its open maw, its movement through the waves frighteningly silent. Deadly. He was about to give a final, desperate lunge for the air, when a loud whistling sound pre-empted a chunk of volcanic rock that barreled over him, narrowly missing his own skull, shooting like a bullet directly into the sea creature’s brain.
Thank the stars for the unpredictability of volcanoes, he thought – that is, until a veritable storm of spewed rock began falling around him, quickly realizing the creature’s unfortunate fate could very well become his own in short order. With renewed vigor he swam for the Island’s shore. Sometimes the ominous splashes of falling rock came dangerously near. Leander’s eyes grew wide when a boulder two times the size of a horse fell thirty yards away, leaving a massive wave in its wake.
He reached the beach, gulping back deep breaths as he gratefully climbed out of the water. Only when he tried to put weight on his hind leg did he realize how deeply the sea creature’s teeth had punctured him, and he favored it heavily as he strode further upshore. A few of the flying rocks had glanced off of his back, scraping his overo skin so that blood trickled from the shallow wounds – but these were minor compared to the ache that now pulsated from his ankle as his adrenaline waned.
