The wind roared in my ears as those wings flapped hard, lifting me higher above Yosemite Valley. The lights below dwindled. I could hear Akasha and Anton nearby, ascending with me. We continued flying to the northeast, following the river and climbing above the ridge line. Far below, we could see the Rangers’ search lights making their way up the trail.
I closed my eyes and felt the map of the land laid out before me. I saw the rocks and boulders that represented every living thing near us. We continued north-east, heading deeper into the mountain range. I followed the map in my head. The rangers from town were still several hours from reaching where the family was.
After several minutes of hard flying, I pointed to where I could see the man on that map. Anton dove toward that spot, trusting in my direction. It was still too far to see what I knew was there. Akasha and I angled more east. We tucked our wings and swooped down closer to the land. We skimmed above the trees, looking for a woman and a child.
We cleared the tree line revealing the sheer cliffs below us. A drop of hundreds of feet to the canyon below. There, nestled against the cliff face, were the woman and her child. They were on a ledge not large enough to support them. The woman clung to meager vegetation with one hand, trying to hold on. Akasha and I dove to them. The woman looked up, right at us, and her grip slipped. She screamed as the girl slid down the cliff and into the open air.
Akasha changed direction for the woman. I folded my wings and plummeted after the girl. She tumbled through the air, too scared to even scream. Her eyes were wide as she flipped head over heels towards the rocks below. I scooped my arms under hers, clutched her to my chest, and unfolded my wings. The wind caught us, and we swooped out away from the cliff, narrowly missing jagged rocks as we changed direction.
The young girl buried her face in my chest. Her little arms wrapped around my neck. I held her tight as I flapped my wings, bringing us slowly higher. I turned north and flew up above the tree line. I could feel the young girl breathing hard and fast against my chest. I wanted to say something, but knew the wind was all she would hear. I held her securely against my chest and kept flying.
Up ahead, just past the trees, I saw lights. A crowd of people milled around in the parking lot of Olmstead Point Overlook. I saw the lights of flashlights carried by Rangers as they made their way down the Olmstead Point Spur Trail towards Snow Creek Trail. I spotted a small clearing south-west of the parking lot, with a line of trees around it—enough to hide our landing. I leveled off, swooped down closer to the trees, and touched down in the small clearing.
I folded my wings into my back and knelt with the girl in my arms, bringing her feet down to the ground. I knelt, my arms still around her, her feet resting on the ground. Her legs trembled, her face still buried in my chest.
“It’s okay, little one. You are safe now.”
The young girl took a step back, tears still trickling down her cheeks. There was something familiar about her face. I recognized her from our first walk through town two days ago.
“Lord Edgar?” she whispered. I nodded, surprised. She dug into her back pocket and pulled out a small carved wooden dragon. She held it up for me to see. “I knew you’d come save me.”
I put my hand around hers, holding the warm wood against her fingers. “How did you know?”
“A Lord always protects his lands and his people, right?”
I nodded, not sure what to say.
“Where did your wings go?” she asked with a shy smile.
“What is your name? I didn’t catch it when we last met.”
“Elizabeth.” She blinked at me. Her large eyes watched everything. “Are you an Angel?”
I laughed softly as I shook my head. “No. I am no Angel.”
“Angels have feathered wings, right?” Elizabeth asked in a small, wondering voice. “Yours were leathery like a bat, or some kind of lizard.”
“I’ve never seen an Angel. I don’t know what their wings would look like. Some depictions of them have feathered wings, like birds.” I shrugged. “Elizabeth, it might be good if we did not discuss what happened with your parents. They may not understand.”
Elizabeth’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at me. “I fell. You saved me.” She paused and bit her lower lip. “That’s all I need to tell them. I won’t mention your wings.” She smiled as I nodded to her.
I heard movement along Snow Creek Trail. Voices coming towards us from lower on the mountain.
“She fell. I saw her fall! How can you tell me to calm down!?” A woman’s voice filled with anger and distress. I heard a soft voice speaking in a low tone. The words were too quiet for me to hear, but I knew that voice and I smiled as I heard it.
“Lizzy!” A man’s voice. Elizabeth lit up as she heard it.
“DAD!” She took off running towards the figures coming around the bend. I stood, watching as her father walked into the clearing, followed closely by her mother. Elizabeth ran to her father and leapt into his arms. Anton and Akasha were close behind them. Akasha was wearing her sweatshirt, zipped up almost to her chin. I came walking over. The father looked up at me.
From the other direction, more lights approached. The Rangers came down the trail in response to the noise.
“Lord Edgar?” The man looked at me while Elizabeth clung to him. He slowly set her down, holding her hand tightly in his as he looked at me. “How did you get here?”
“We walked.”
“That’s not possible…” He looked over at his wife, who knelt to hug Elizabeth.
“I saw you fall,” the older woman whispered.
Elizabeth patted her mom’s back. “It’s okay, Mommy, Lord Edgar saved me.”
Akasha walked around them to stand next to me. Anton followed, standing just behind me. Akasha wrapped one arm around my waist, leaning her head on my shoulder. Elizabeth’s mom looked at us, her eyes full of tears.
“I don’t understand what I saw. Thank-thank you.”
The Rangers came crowding around us carrying blankets and medical supplies. They offered bottles of water to the family who stood quietly in the middle of that circus of questions.
“What happened?”
“We were hiking up to Olmstead Point. Lizzy wanted to see the canyon. We got too close. The ground gave way. They slid out. I tried to find help. Got turned around in the woods. Then they showed up.” He pointed over in our direction. “Guided us up here…”
Elizabeth and her mother stayed silent. I saw her mother’s confused look. Elizabeth met my eyes. She smiled and nodded once. She looked back at the Rangers around her and did not say a word. One of the Rangers walked over to us. He was an older man with gray hair at his temples. He pushed his hat back on his head as he scratched his forehead.
“How did you find them?”
I shrugged. “We were in the area. Heard the shouts.”
“In the area?”
“We like to hike Yosemite at night, from time to time.”
“That is not a very safe thing to do.”
I gave the Ranger a warm smile. He pulled his jacket a little tighter around him as the wind gusted through the trees. The Ranger eyed me warily, then shrugged.
“Thanks for your help. You folks can head back to wherever you came from.”
“Thank you, Ranger Evans,” I said as I noticed his nametag. He blinked at the use of his name, then turned and walked over to the small crowd around the family. As he walked over, he pulled his hand-held radio and contacted the other group of rangers hiking up the trail. Letting them know the family had been found safe and sound.
I felt that familiar weight in the back of my head. On that cue, the headlights of a car turning into the parking lot splashed across us. I started walking towards the car, Akasha, and Anton close on my heels.
The driver’s side door opened. Jacob got out, closed the door, and took a step towards us. He shook his head as he came around the front of the car and leaned against the headlights. He crossed his arms over his chest in confusion.
“How did you get here before me?”
I looked at Jacob, met his questioning gaze, and shrugged. Akasha laughed softly. Jacob raised his eyebrows, frowning. He looked at each of us. His eyes lingered on Akasha for a moment.
Jacob shook his head again. “No. It’s not possible. Nobody flies…”
I shrugged again, not sure how to respond to his statement.
“We are going to head back down to the house. I trust you can find it?” I asked.
Jacob furrowed his brows and shook his head in disbelief. I raised an eyebrow. He sighed. “Yeah. I’ll find it. Guess I’ll see you there in another ninety minutes…”
Jacob turned, grumbling under his breath as he got back into the car. He started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. Akasha squeezed my hand as we watched the headlights of his car head down the road away from us.
“Something about him doesn’t sit quite right,” I said. Akasha nodded against my side.
“He said, ‘Nobody flies?’”
“He did,” Anton answered. I turned and looked at Anton. He met my eyes then looked away. I took a step closer to him. Akasha stepped with me, keeping her head on my shoulder.
“What?” I asked more pointedly than I meant to. Anton flinched. I smiled at him. “Just tell me, Anton, I won’t be angry with you.”
Anton turned back to me. “It is… uncommon. Humans fear what they don’t understand. With modern technology, it is hard to stay undetected when flying. With so many eyes and lights in the sky, even at night…” Anton shrugged again. “Most do not risk it. Most Lords have forbidden it.”
I laughed. I could not help it. Anton looked shocked. “How can you not want to throw your wings into the air and fly, Anton? There is nothing like it. It makes me feel so alive to soar through the sky. The only time I feel that alive is when I’m…” My words trailed off. Akasha laughed softly against me, hugging me even tighter. I could feel her turn my gaze up to mine. My pulse thumped hard in my throat. I could feel her breasts against me. I tore my gaze from her face, that soft hunger in her eyes.
“Elizabeth’s mom saw Akasha. She said she was confused.”
Anton nodded, “Humans will try to rationalize what they see. Especially the fantastic. They will make it fit into their own definitions of reality. Dragons aren’t real to them. Their minds will change it to something that they can believe in. If you went to her now and asked what happened, she would probably tell you that Akasha walked out of the woods and pulled her off that ledge. She would deny any other story. Her mind cannot handle the truth. She will create a story that makes sense within her definitions of reality.”
“Elizabeth didn’t do that. She saw me. She accepted it.”
Anton laughed. “She is a child, my Lord. Children are more malleable. They are more willing to accept what they see because their views are not rigid. But give her ten years, and she will not even remember it happened. In twenty years, she might not even remember visiting Yosemite at all. That memory will no longer fit into what she expects reality to be.”
I stared at him. It made sense. It wasn’t pleasant, but it made sense. “Okay. Why the flight ban then?”
Anton sighed. “To be seen by the naked eye is one thing. The human mind can deny what it sees. Rewrite its own memories. But a recording. That shows the truth. And then they must wrestle with the unknowable. What their mind refuses to grapple with. It becomes a paradox. I’ve seen them go mad, trying to figure it out.”
“To go without ever stretching out your wings… Anton, how did you live that way?”
Anton laughed, but it was a bitter, harsh sound. His eyes held regret. “You do what you must, my Lord. What you have here, in Yosemite, is rare. A chance to be who you truly are. It is a gift beyond measure. There are so few places left in the world where you can do this. Savor it, my Lord.”
That bitter sound in Anton’s voice made my chest hurt. I wanted to wipe that sound, and that look, from his face. Akasha stepped back from me as I walked over and hugged Anton. He was stiff in my arms for a moment, then wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly. He sagged against me, pushed his face into my throat, and inhaled slowly. There was a soft hitch in his breath. I patted him on the back, soothing him.
“Thank you,” he whispered against my skin. I nodded and gently pulled back from him. There were tears in his eyes. I smoothed one hand across his cheek, my thumb along his cheekbone.
“You’re welcome.” Akasha came up next to us and hugged us both. Anton laughed.
“Shall we go home now?” she asked in a soft, husky voice. I felt things low in my body tighten. Her eyes glowed softly in the dark. That hunger slowly filled them. I knew what she wanted, and I wanted to give it to her. Then Akasha pulled off her sweatshirt, and tied it around her neck again.
Anton took a step back, his hand lingering on my shoulder. “Let’s go back first…”
I laughed and nodded. We walked through the parking lot to the raised edge overlooking the steep decline. We spread out. Anton unfolded his wings first and leapt into the sky. Akasha was next. Then I followed.
