When Rain awoke, she wasn’t in her bed anymore. She wasn’t in her house anymore. She wasn’t in Vesk anymore. Her eyes racked open as she felt a slight tickle all around her body. When she looked around, she saw a monarch butterfly on her nose. She blew upward, and it fluttered off. When she sat up,  she was coverd in them. They left her in a shimmering, crimson mass that wafted like dust in the air. She looked around. She was in the hull of an upturned ship, but she was still in the desert. The ship was on it’s side, and she was in it, but the floor was covered with layers of blue and red sand. She wasn’t far from Vesk. But someone had brought her here. She sat up, and looked around. She stood, the sand feeling good under her bare feet. She stepped out, and saw that it was almost dusk. She had been asleep for almost a day. She needed to go back to Vesk. Now. But first she needed to find who saved her. She looked outside the ship, finding only footprints. Human footprints, so she was not captive of the Nullroth, but she was still scared. “Oh. You’re awake.” someone said from behind her. It was a boy, in shoddy, desert-worn clothes. He had flecks of dye on his face and hands. He was a Sornawinde. Rain’s heart leaped for two reasons: one, that she was not the only child Sornawinde, and two, that she must be near another village. “You’re a Sornawnde?!” she shouted, rather rudely. “Yeah, and so are you.” “But what village are you from?” he looked down, and his eyebrows furrowed. “V-vesk.” he said, stuttering. “No, you’re not from there. I’m the only Sornawinde from Vesk.” she said questioningly. “What village are you really from?” “I just said. I’m from Vesk.” “well, how do you explain that your dye is almost worn off? In Vesk, every Sornawinde,” there were more that one, but she was the only young one, “had the dye re-administered daily.” “Well, I said I came from Vesk. I don’t go there anymore.” Rain had never met someone as strange as he was. And he was so quiet. The only quiet, timid person she had ever known was... herself. She realized she liked it. “Why not?” “Because I ... I did something bad.”  Rain was scared a little by what he said. “What did you do?” she said. “This.” he shut his eyes and let his shoulders hang loosely. His black hair began to move in the uprising wind. Suddenly, without warning, the wind exploded around her eardrums. “Aggh!!” she dropped to her knees. The wind was so fast, so strong she was sure she would have flown off if it was any stronger. But as she looked, shielding her eyes from the sand, she noticed that the boy was not on the ground anymore. He was several feet above it. His arms hung loosely as he moved entirely by the wind’s strength. His hair was blown back, and his eyes -which Rain realized were strange, because they were rather silvery and pale in color, like hers- stared at her, focused, and then he looked worried. The wind died down, and he dropped. She asked, “what was so bad about that?” she had done much worse with her gifts. “No, I don’t do what got me in trouble with people around anymore.” “Can you describe it?” she asked. “Um, yes. I start to fly, and then things around me start to move. And then they get thrown up into the air, and they get broken. I can fly without doing that, but that just got me in trouble.”  Rain noticed that this boy wasn’t very well-read. He wasn’t stupid, exactly, but he just didn’t seem to know the words for his thoughts. So he had been banished for breaking things with his power. But she didn’t remember that. How old was this boy? He looked about the same age as Rain, maybe a little older. “Why did you take me from Vesk?” she asked. “Because the bad man was going there.” “What bad man? Who are you talking about?”  The boy’s eyes suddenly widened. “The one who makes the flowers bleed, the birds cry for man’s sake. The one who’s face makes children scream, men weep, and women cry. The one who will serve his father in the times of shadowing to enslave all men in his accursed army and wage a war against the High ones.” he had recited that entirely out of his mind. Then he shook his head, and looked worried. “What did I say?” Rain was scared. That happened to her, too. It was the ancestor living inside of him that had sais that. And the ancestors only took full possession of a body of a Sornawinde when it was urgent. Rain was scared. Genuinely scared. “Why did you break those things in the first place? That’s why you got in trouble, right?” “No. I got in trouble because f what happened after they yelled at me. I was real little, and when they yelled, I got scared and...” he stopped, and looked at her innocently with big, storm-grey eyes. “You have strange eyes, too.” he said. Rain had noticed that. They both had strange, silvery eyes that seemed to glow in light. This bot was the only other person she had ever met with the same eyes as she did. “What happened after they yelled? And after you got scared?”  He began to tremble slightly. His lip quivered. This boy was a child, though he looked around fourteen. Well, maybe not a child. He just seemed terribly scared and mentally fragile. “What’s your name?” she asked slowly. “I’m not allowed to say it anymore...” “Who says? Who said you’re not supposed to say your own name?” “My dad...” “Well, he’s not here right now. And you can tell me.” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder assuringly. “My n-name is... Morrow. That’s what people usta call me. Morrow.” he said it with a sigh, like it was a weight off his shoulders. “OK, Morrow, what happened after you got scared?” he shook, his strange eyes shining in that horrible memory. “I hurt... a lot... and, I got different.” “How do you mean?”  She thought she knew what he meant by ‘different.’  And she could relate. “I looked different.” “How? What did you look like?” she asked. Suddenly, he regained maturity. “Is it OK if I don’t wanna talk about it right now?” he asked. “Sure.” this boy was strange. Very strange. But, strange in a way she could understand. She knew what he meant by different. She knew although she would give anything she owned or had to forget it. They both had something special about them. Something they had in common. Something important. “How did you get here?” she asked. “He saved me. I was walking in the desert, and then I fell down. It was dark. And then I woke up, and he gave me food and water.” “Who’s ‘he’?” she asked. “I am.” a light voice said from above them. On the railing of the upturned ship, something was balancing lightly with clawed feet. She looked up. Almost unnaturally, a gryphon (not griffon, like Ace or Don, a gryphon is different) as tall as a man was balancing with bent knees watching them. He had bright yellow eyes that seemed oddly calm, and long black hair that hung down to his lower back. He had grey feathers, with three stripes of white on either sides of his face, along his arms, and any other patch of bare feathers visible on him. He had a tattered leather hat with a few stitches along the brim, and a strip of cloth along it’s top. A red and white feather was poked through it. His beak ended in black, and looked dangerously sharp. He had a necklace that had a white feather that ended in red. He had a long cloth poncho with red and brown swirly designs, that ended in black tassels. One lock of his hair was braided and beaded and hung down on his shoulder. His pants were baggy, and he had many pouches and amulets hanging from his beaded belt. He had two strange devices slung on his hips, and had two belts with strange, small metal cylinders crisscrossing over his chest, in a way Ace called, “Pancho Villa style.” the metal devices on his hips had a curved, leather handle and a metal, engraved nozzle with a round, convoluted block in the middle. It was a Nullroth device called a ‘gun’. He had two large wings with several rows and patterns of white feathers, contrasted with his deep red ones that covered his entire body. His hands and feet were clawed and five fingered. He flapped his wings once, and then he floated down to them from the tall hull of the ship. “Hello. I am Neal. What’s your name?” he said politely, with a hint of an unplaceable accent. He reached out with an open hand. Rain reluctantly shook it. His hands were warmer that she expected them to be. “Uh, hi. I’m Rain.” “Oh, that’s a pretty name.” he said, smiling. He was nice, she thought. “Why did you save us?” she asked. “Because your village...” he said as he looked down apologetically. “..your village was destroyed.” with that, Rain fell. Everything, and everyone, she had ever known or loved, was gone. Her world was gone. Her life was gone. As she stared at him, her eyes welled up with tears. His eyes widened when her saw them. “Your eyes are...” he didn’t finish. He looked shocked. “You’re lucky I saved you. So lucky. If I hadn’t they would have... they would have taken you.” “Well, if they did, at least my family would be safe!” she ran at him, punched him in the chest. He was unphased, but sad for her. “No, Rain. If they found you, they would’ve done worse. Your family may well be still alive. When I found your village, half of them were already gone, the rest were packing up to move anyway.” “So, they might still be alive?!” she said. “Yes, but for now, we must leave.” “No!! I have to find them!” “I must take you to somewhere safe!” “But what about my family?!” “They will be safe! If they are found, as to not cause alarm and knowledge of Imbroloth’s searching in this continent, they will simply raid them, if they even touch them at all. They have seers with them, that know if someone,” she looked her and the boy in the eyes, “is like you with them.” “What do you mean, ‘like us?’ You mean if we are Sornawinde?”  “No. Not that. But we must leave now.” “No! Explain what you mean!” the gryphon looked pained, and then just annoyed. “I mean, uh, your condition.” “What condition?!” “Your... your eyes.” “What’s wrong with them? So what if they are strange!” the gryphon sighed. “No, I mean, uh, just follow me. We must go. I will explain everything when we get there.” “Get where?” Morrow asked. “When we get to Mortha Daileth.” “What?!” Rain had barely heard of that place. It was an arctic continent far to the north. It would take many months to get there. “Why do we have to go there?” she asked. “Because I have to seek the council of Neideven. He will not be happy with this.” “Who’s Neideven? This is happening too fast!” he turned to her. “Are we gonna walk there?” she asked. “No, of course not. A million miles and an ocean separate us rom Mortha Daileth. We are going to fly.” “But we don’t have wings! Morrow can fly, and so can you, but what about me?!” “Morrow can only fly for about an hour or two, and he’s not fast enough. We will need to use Wyverns.” “What’s an Wyvern?” she asked. He lead her to the other side of the ship. There were two dragon like creatures that stood like birds, with two feet and hunched over. They had long necks with dozens of small, crystalline needled jutting out of it. Their heads were roughly lizard shaped, with ridges above the eyes ad two, large, convoluted horns that had small canyons in it like a ram’s if it was straightened out. Their blue pupils and red irises looked calm, even with those fierce colors. One was indigo-blue, the deep, deep blue color of burnt wood, and the other was white and red. The white one’s wings had a coloring of a monarch butterfly, and the blue one had the striped color pattern of a lionfish. They were strangely beautiful, and had powerful hind legs with sharp, pale blue claws. The blue one licked it’s chops, and it’s tongue was blue, ending in a deep green. They were strangely colored, indeed, but they still had a natural grace about them. They weren’t tied up, they were just lying down in the sand. When they saw Neal, they immediately sat up. “Wow. They’re gorgeous.” Rain said. “Thank you. Each of you get on one.” Rain picked the blue-black one, because she thought it matched her hair. Morrow chose the white-red one. It had a saddle that felt comfortable, but the many saddle bags on each of them seemed to weigh them down. Neal led them out, and made a whistling noise. Immediately, the Wyverns crouched down and shot up into the air. It was impossible to hold on, but Rain held tight to the reins. Morrow seemed to not notice, staring blankly at the setting suns. From the corner of her eye, Rain saw Neal rise up next to them. He seemed more comfortable flying than walking. It was surprisingly silent up here. She could hear Morrow’s periodic sigh, even over the powerful woosh of the wyverns’ and Neal’s wings. Rain looked back, hoping to see Vesk. But she couldn’t. The familiar blue sand eventually waned, leaving the harsh, unforgiving red. The moons’ silhouettes were already beginning to be visible. She simply stared at them in deep thought, wondering if she’d ever see her family again. Morrow sighed. Rain noticed that her arms were shwoing, and her scars were plain to see. She was about to cover them up, when she noticed that Morrow had them too. She stared at his arms, and the scars that covered their underside. She and this boy had more in common then she thought.