Black night cloaked the forest, making the trees seem like nothing more than shadows from the past, reflecting on days of greatness when once they ruled the land of Tarin. Mist floated through the ferns and bushes, pushed through leaves and branches by rippling breezes that moved fretfully, as if fleeing before some great beast. The silver light of the moon cast lances of brightness through the treetops to fall shapelessly on the leaf-strewn forest floor. A dark shadow momentarily blotted out the gilded light, cast by either a passing cloud or some flying night creature, searching for a midnight meal. A mouse scurried out from underneath a bush, standing on its back feet and sniffing the air cautiously. Its ears twitched frantically as it surveyed its surroundings. The sudden cracking of a twig sent it bolting for cover back underneath its previous hideout.
A willow-like woman wrapped in a cloak of deep green burst in on the peaceful scene, jumping logs and dodging branches. Only the sound of her labored breathing marked her headlong passage through the trees that now seemed to stretch their branches out to grasp at bits of billowing cloak, pale skin, or slender ankles. The white skin that was exposed on her hands and claves were crisscrossed with red scratches. A hood covered her face but allowed a few strands of long black hair to hang forward. Farther down, the cloak bulged unevenly around something that was concealed within its folds.
The woman�s face turned back the way she had come, the hood shifting just enough to allow a ray of silver light to illuminate her high cheekbones and yellow cat-eyes that were softened to the color of butter by tears and the moonlight. Behind her, a long line of yellow lights snaked swiftly through the trees at her back. Shouts sounded and hounds bayed faintly in the distance, but near enough that they were perfectly clear to the woman�s enhanced hearing that she had had since her birth.
�Over here men! The dogs have found the dragon spawn�s trail! We�ll get her yet! Hurry!�
�Spence, give the others those bows and arrows in case the lizard woman takes to the air!�
Lizard�the golden-eyed woman thought, ducking her head towards the bundle she carried to mask the growls of anger that welled up from her chest. For the first time in her life, the woman felt an overpowering need to turn and reduce these townspeople and their prejudices to nothing more than ashes on the fallen leaves. If her empathic powers, which enabled her to sense the emotions of others, hadn�t prevented her from killing them all, she probably would have. But, she thought, I certainly wouldn�t be able to kill that mage before he killed me and then my child would be murdered as well�eventually.
The child in question tilted her head up toward her mother�s lowered face from out of the confines of the green cloak. The girl�s yellow eyes lit in a question as she recognized the tears that shone in her mother�s eyes alongside the fiery rage. Her tan face, so much like her father�s, stretched in a yawn that made the black locks inherited from her mother fall into her eyes. �Mother? Are the bad people still following us? Where are we going? Is father following us?� she asked her voice soft and thick with exhaustion.
�Yes, Tavia, but we�ll be alright.� She sung a soft song, trying to lull her child back into the sleep she had induced before, but it wasn�t working as her daughter was becoming more alert, �Go back to sleep child. We�re going to visit Uncle Marius and Aunt Lora but we have to be quiet so the bad men don�t catch us, alright?� The woman whispered urgently, hoping her daughter would cooperate without too many more questions.
Tavia�s eyes dropped and her face turned as she rested her cheek against her mother�s chest once more. Horrible images flashed through her mind but she pushed them ruthlessly away. The night�s events were just too painful to remember completely. Especially now that they were still so vivid.
The voices grew louder and the fires on the torches brighter as Tavia�s mother stumbled. The motion jarred two carefully repressed tears loose to fall from her eyes, suspending momentarily like twin stars before being caught in the folds of the green cloak as the woman moved forward again. Another fleeting glance behind her confirmed what her ears told her: her pursuers were gaining. The flames on their torches bobbed erratically and illuminated their bearers� rugged, unshaven faces, lit with blood lust and a vicious pleasure, but enough fear that it was recognizable in their eyes. her enhanced sight made them appear to be standing right next to her.
I�m running out of time. I must act now. The fugitive thought, slowing down her headlong pace. She dropped pale lids over golden eyes and concentrated. Two black, pointed horns rose from her forehead just below her hairline, curving toward each other. A pair of large, ebony wings emerged from her back. The moon cast a platinum sheen over the wings, accenting their leathery appearance as they stretched, almost like a pair of twin black cats rising from sleep.
The woman opened her eyes and looked back again; the men were much closer now. With one sweep of her powerful new appendages she was airborne, milky skin glistening silver in the moonlight, making of her a spirit who sailed through the mortal world on wings of night.
Tavia, feeling the slight lurch as her mother took to the sky, looked up once more. She loved flying but her mother had insisted that she wasn�t yet old enough to do it by herself. Tavia, therefore, had settled for flying within the protective confines of her mother or father�s arms. She remembered when her father would fly up as high as he could go and then toss her out into the air, letting her free fall for a few seconds before swooping underneath her to catch her once more. He always made her laugh. Or he used to, anyway. A tear formed in the corner of Tavia�s eye and slid down her cheek, leaving only a trail of wetness to mark its presence and soon even that was obliterated as the wind from her mother�s flight dried the dampness.
The older woman, meanwhile, was hovering three feet above the forest floor, searching for an opening in the canopy of leaves that would allow both her, her wings, and the precious bundle that she carried to pass through unimpeded. So far, however, she was not having much success and the voices of her pursuers were getting louder. As the first of the townspeople broke through the trees that stood like sentinels at her back, the airborne lady reached a decision. She stretched one hand palm out toward the tops of the trees that impeded her path, relinquishing half of the hold that she kept on her daughter. The long sleeve of the cloak fell away to expose her smooth ivory skin as tiny flames began to build in her outstretched palm. The orange tongues of fire gathered in the center of her hand, building until the woman held a small conflagration between her fingers.