They had been flying for more than three hours when the blue-black wyvern moaned. It was a long, groaning noise that sounded rather like a bird, but deeper. He croaked and hissed again, looking at Neal.

“What’s wrong?” Morrow said, suddenly awake. “They’re tired,” he said. “And so am I. Let’s head down.” so they did. The Wyverns seemed to be exhausted, and Rain couldn’t blame them. She got off of hers and stroked it’s muzzle. He seemed to enjoy it. The wyverns laid down and curled up. They abruptly fell asleep, and purred. Rain leaned up against it. She had grown rather attached to him. “Does he have a name?” she asked. “Yeah,” Neal said. “Kwerene. And it’s a she.” “Oh, that’s a pretty name,” she said, more to the wyvern than to Neal. Neal smiled and drank from a waterskin. They had met Andreas halfway through their flight. And Andreas had become rather jealous of Kwerene. Morrow also seemed to like his wyvern, as he often scratched behind it’s ear. It licked his hand. “What’s this one’s name?” he asked. “Oh, she’s Nyrvala.” “They’re both shes?” Rain asked. “Yeah. Females tend to be a lot more, uh, social than males. The males are too aggressive, and are usually kinda stubborn.”  Neal took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair, brushing out sand. he seemed tired, as he breathed heavily. But, Rain figured, flying was probably really hard. Harder than running, at least. It was midmorning, and the sun was bright. But the wyverns were multipurpose. Their wings were sunproof, and acted as roofs quite well. And the wyverns themelves seemed to enjoy the heat. And the light that filtered under their wings was quite beautiful. They had set out a blanket, and Neal was gathering firewood.

“So,” Rain asked. “You just happened to be in the neighborhood and you wanted to help out two little kids?” “Pretty much, yeah.” he said earnestly. “No, not really. Just messin’ with ya.” “OK, then why did you come to help?” Rain asked. He sat down, and stared. “I grew up in a village not that far from yours,” he started. Rain sat down criss-cross, and Morrow simply stoood against his wyvern and watched, arms folded. Every now and then, he scratch her nose, and she’d hum. “And it was OK. My parents were traders, and they just decided to settle down here. They bred wyverns on a big area of land. It was good. We were all happy. Even though I was the only inhuman at my school, they still treated me well. Especially when I’d fly with them. But I kinda always wanted to be a lawkeeper. So, one day, I went to the sheriff’s office, a sheriff is someone who keeps the laws obeyed, and offered. He trained me, and since I already had great aim, I was soon pretty good. And I was fast, and didn’t need a wyvern to cross distances. A long time ago, the village had intercepted a Nullroth military cargo full of weapons and food. Our craftsmen soon learned how to make them. I had these custom built for me.” he said, one hand patting the gun on his hip. “But for some reason, a large group of Nullroth had been traveling through the towns, and we thought they were just bandits or raiders. So, I offered to take care of them. I arrested and disarmed some of them, but the rest... they just went kamikazi.” “What’s a kami...whatever?” Morrow asked. “It means they’ll fight and not care if they die.” “Oh.” “But anyway. So I took care of them, and then I went back to town. They were attacking it. I saved as many people as I could, but... they just kept coming. So the ones that survived, the majority of the town, are going to the captial, and I’m trying to warn all the villages I can to move and get out. Your village was the only one that I couldn’t save. But I helped a lot  of the survivors escape, and found you. They thought you were dead.” “So, why can’t we go back with them?” “Because. If you are who I think you are... you’re too important.” “What?! What are you talking about?” Rain shouted. “He means that we’re special because either we’re Sornawindes or there’s somethin’ else. And I don’t wanna know what that is just yet.” Morrow said, uncharacteristically wise. “Oh, uh, thank you?” “Yeah. But Kwerene and Nyrvala are the only wyverns I took from the farm. The rest I left to my parents. And the other ones who had to leave their homes.” “Oh.” suddenly, Rains face perked up. “Hey! Can we take the wyverns and explore a little bit? Please?” “Um, OK! Sure!” Neal said. Rain cheered and jumped. Morrow cracked a sad smile. But it was still a smile, and a rare thing to see him do. So for the next couple of hours, Rain and Morrow trotted around the area, looking for things to chase. The wyverns walked well, and they were fast. They bounced a little when they walked, almost like large birds. When they ran, clouds of dust and sand were scattered into the wind from their speed. After that, when both the kids and the wyverns were tired, they went back to the camp. Neal had set up a small fire. So they ate and drank, saving rations, and told stories. Mainly Neal told them, as Morrow was silent and Rain didn’t know any good ones. They sat huddled around the fire, watching the gryphon raconteur tell myths skillfully. He used his hands and face, even sometimes using his wings. Long into the dusk, when the sky was dyed a deep blue, he finally stopped and rested. Rain’s head was filled with images of other times and people. Morrow’s head didn’t seem to be filled with anything, unless it was so filled at all times he didn’t take anything else in. But he seemed to enjoy the stories anyway. Then, out of the corner of Rain’s eye, she saw something. The size of a horse, and quiet, was a wolf. Not any kind of wolf, a dire wolf, which were not uncommon but at the same time a rare site to see up close. It was huge, and it’s teeth were at least as long as her finger. It had a strange necklace of feathers around it’s neck and mane, and it had several strands of it’s hair braided and beaded.  It’s fist-sized eyes shone in the firelight, it’s face solemn. Neal saw it and swore. “Oh god oh god...” he said as quietly as he could as he reached slowly for his gun. The wolf’s eyes shone as it stared. At Morrow. He had only looked a little worried at first, knowing he could easily scare it off with his power. But he shook slightly for a second as he stared into it’s eyes, and then, something strange fell over him. His arms were no longer folded, but hung limply by his side. He stared with a kind of dull obedience that he had never shone before. He nodded a little from time to time, which gave the illusion that they were silently somehow communicating. The wolf shook it’s feathered head and it’s eyes widened as Neal’s gun clicked, armed. “No, don’t.” Morrow said. He stopped leaning on Nyrvala and walked slowly towards the huge creature, moving as if he was slightly dizzy. He stepped over the fire, his eyes never leaving it’s. he stared fiercely, determined. But determined to do what, that was the question. He finally got to the immense wolf, and it’s nose touched his forehead. The wolf breathed heavily, and Morrow shook. The wolf turned, and was about to run off. It waited for Morrow. “I... have to go.... for a while.” he said brokenly. “What? Why?” Neal said. He and Rain were still amazed the thing hadn’t eaten him by now. “Because. He says it’s important.” “Who says?” Rain questioned. “The wolf?” but Morrow didn’t answer. The wind suddenly picked up, his hair flying wildly, putting out the fire with a hiss, and slowly rose into the air. He seemed weightless when he flew, unlike Neal. His arms and legs hung limply, like a doll. The sand around him swirled and shifted, and then, flying after the now running wolf, he vanished. Sand kicked up with every time the wolf’s feet slammed into the ground, and the sand simply made a small wave where Morrow flew. Soon, they could no longer be seen. Rain turned to Neal furiously. “That’s it? You’re not gonna follow them?!” she said, her shouts echoing. “No. He’ll be back.” “How the hell do you know?!” “Because.” “Don’t try that bull with me!! I’m going after him.” Rain said as she mounted Kwerene. “Why? You don’t even know him. And, besides that, I know he’ll come back. And you know why? Because you’re something special, and so is he!” Neal shouted, angry. “Why are you mad at me? I should be screaming at you!” “Because if something was wrong, he would fight back. You haven’t seen what he can do. When I saved him a few days ago, we were attacked, and-”  “save it!! He needs help. How can you live with yourself?! He’s just a kid!!” Rain said as Kwerene flew off, tired. Neal screamed at her, as she flew off. “Because!! Because he’s not just a kid!!! and you’re not either!!” he shouted. But she couldn’t hear him. Couldn’t, or didn’t want to. Neal kicked a rock and shouted. Nyvala fell asleep promptly.

Rain’s black hair flowed like water in the wind. The strong wind almost blew her off as Kwerene flapped her wings viciously.  Her eyes searched the ground, the sky. Morrow couldn’t be seen. The shapeless desert went on for miles. He had to be here. He had to. She looked for anything abnormal, anything. She saw nothing, just dunes of sand. She cursed under her breath over and over, not realizing or even questioning why she had to find him. Why she wanted to. Maybe, she thought, it’s because he’s the only person I’ve ever met who actually acts like me. Maybe, he understands me. Or maybe I just don’t want to be alone. Like I have been all my life. She saw nothing among the desert sands. Not even any animals. Suddenly, she saw something. Something strange. Light. In the desert, on the ground, she saw a light. A bright, white light. And somehow, deep down, she knew what it was. She asked Kwerene to fly down, and apparently Neal had taught her Rain’s language. She swooped down, the force of gravity almost prying Rain off. Suddnely, Kwerene stopped. Rain’s hair flew in her face from momentum, and she realized that Kwerene had stopped a few hundred feet away from the light. Kwerene wouldn’t move. So, Rain got off and ran. He feet threw sand behind her, her hair again flying back. She was going amazingly fast. She tried to slow down as she neared the light source, and realized she couldn’t. She was being drawn in, closer and closer, feet dragging in the sand. She was going into that light whether she wanted to or not. Her arms flailed, as she almost slammed into the large ball of light. Then she stopped, hovering in midair. She saw what was causing the light. And was shocked. Morrow was floating, floating, a few feet above the ground. And not of his own wind, either. His eyes stared on, narrowed slightly. His shirt had been torn clean in half, a jagged tear running down it. His body was heavily scarred and bruised. His eyes seemed to not be aware of what was happening. His hair moved as if it were under water. And she realized she couldn’t move. From the corner of her motionless eyes, she saw sveral Nullroth. And one of them was not the ugly, brutish Nullroth. This was a magistrate. His eyes were large and bulbous, their three pupils shining and dialating all their own. Thick eyebrows and cheekbones framed intelligent eyes, and were covered with tiny needles, implants for muscle preservation. Black, cubic teeth were framed by bony lips, and two huge, fleshy, thick, triangular, mustache-like appendages fell from above the mouth to the chest. Two large, crystalline tanks on his back and shoulders glowed with an unearthly light, and tiny tubes ending in syringes always imbedded in the arms limited movement. And a pulpit with an ant-like abdomen behind him (serving as the engine) and six spidery, thick, metallic arms struggled with the desert sand. A long, bony finger reached toward Rain’s face. It was clammy, and smelt of death. It trailed along her face, making her skin crawl. She wanted so much just then to run, but she could not. One of the ant-like legs (which ended in a malleable orb which could change form) reached toward her. The orb at it’s end shook and bubbled, until it shaped into a three-fingered claw that groped at her eyes. She screamed silently inside. It grasped her eyelid, and a small glass device scanned her pupil. Her lip trembled, and was soon silenced by the burning light. After it was done, it shifted back into a lag and was put back on the ground. “Mygthir anyfigyya.” the magistrate said as his bony lips cracked into a hideous smile. Just as the magistrate was about to say something else, a low rumbling was heard. A shifting, cracking, snapping of bones and tendons. His face contorted into one of confusion, and turned to Morrow. His body was changing, shifting, growing. His face shot out into a muzzle. And with that, the magistrate let out a croaking scream. Morrow was different. And though Rain was horrified, she wasn’t really surprised. Inside, a deep satisfaction and bliss spread over her body. She wasn’t alone anymore. Morrow had changed. He was a lupius. he had black circles of fur around his eyes, and reddish fur everywhere else. His arms stretched and shook, and snapping, cracking noise coming from somewhere above. She looked up, realizing that the paralyzing light was weakening. Sparks flew from the light rained down on the magistrate and his guards.  He flexed his fingers, shaking, and the light flickered. With a deep boom, the light ended. And an enormous machine, with mandibles, wings, and millions of eyes and at least a mile long, it hovered just next to them. The magistrate screamed and tried to get into the hatch leading into the ship. But Morrow wouldn’t have it. “YEEAGH!!!” he screamed, hands outstretched. A gale-force gust f wind sent the feeble magistrate tumbling, his hands flailing.

“Run!!!” he screamed to Rain. She did. But not before she got her payback against this hideous monstrosity, too. She held her hand to the sky, and almost immediately, clouds formed. And lightening. It struck the magistrate, ending his life abruptly. She was getting better at this. She told the lightening to strike the enormous machine, and it did. As it did, a huge explosion of light blasted from the carapace, a cloud of smoke rising, fire spreading. Then she sent rain. Rain that would have just pounded the surface. But now, it found a way in. She heard screams and grunts as bolts of pale green lightening plumed from the hole her lightening had made. And soon, the ship crashed to the ground. With a massive and ominous BOOOOOM, it sent a huge tidal wave of sand screaming toward them. “RUN!!!!” Morrow said. She tried to, and tried to get on Kwerene. And as soon as she got one foot on, Kwerene bolted from the wave. Morrow was already ahead of them, and Kwerene was off balanced from Rain. She fluttered incessantly, but to no avail. By accident, Kwerene hit Rain in the face with her wing, and Rain fell. Fell into the wave of sand that threatened to consume them. And it almost did. She fell fast, almost certain of death’s release. When two arms grabbed hers and she began rising. She grasped with every muscle in her arm to them, and she secretly enjoyed it. Her eyes were shut tight, and when she opened them, she realized she was saved by Morrow. He had changed back, his face pale. “Oh God, thank you thank you thank you!!!!” she screamed as the wave began to wane. Morrow simply blushed a little, and flew faster. He tried to contain his smile. The wind was hard to stand, but it seemed reassuring, too, like it would catch you if you fell. Soon the wave of sand died down, and all was silent. “Uh, you know you can let go a little now, right?” Morrow said. “Oh, heh heh, yeah.” but she didn’t. And neither of them cared.

In fact, they secretly liked it.