Winter wonderland

"If I could fly I would never come back", you said

It had stopped snowing. A pale winter sun hung low over a landscape blanketed in white and illuminated the glittering expanse in shades of blue and gold. Not a cloud could be seen. Only the faintest haze of frost hung about the maze, that would become unpleasant and dangerous once the sun set. But for a while longer the light offered the barest hint of warmth, that allowed for fire born birds to frolic just a little while longer.

Without wind to carry her upward, Maea had to work for every inch of ground she made. The crow was not really a glider. Her wings were more suited to agility and acrobatics, to wind her way through dense woodlands and narrow cliff crevices, and crossing great distances made her chest muscles burned from lack of practice. The labyrinth below offered some variation at least; she could entertain herself by following the winding patterns of thorny hedges, where late roses hung ice-coated beneath caps of snow - made white as her feathers by the season.

A shadow followed in her wake. It was pleasant, having someone to fly with, and she was learning much just by watching and imitating her teacher. Young as he was, Edmund was not a bad teacher.

Maea

Edmund happily soared up and down, staying close to Maea but allowing her the room to spread her wings and learn. It may have been the innate instinct that comes with a shift, but the older Ancient was doing just fine. When she seemed to struggle momentarily and lost momentum, he came to her side with a strong flap and showed Maea how to maneuver her wings and tail to regain it. Shie picked it up swiftly and was back to gracefully flying over the winding trails. Flying with a partner was honestly far more fun than Edmund had expected. Gore crows were often found in groups, so maybe they could convince the other Ancients with the shift to join them next time. Edmund dark wings, shadowed soul

"If I could fly I would never come back", you said

With practice came confidence, and Maea did nothing if not practice the use of her wings. One of the reasons why she was picking up the secrets of flight at such a pace had to be because she loved it so much. The swooping sensation in her gut when the wind caught hold and swept her upward, the way the landscape shrank beneath her and revealed the soft curve of the horizon far, far away and the giddy elation of falling back towards the earth with wind whispering over her feathers - all things that let her forget everything but the present for the sheer wonder of it all. The only reason why she wasn't spending every waking moment in the air was the cold, and it was the reason why she eventually steered their path towards the center of the labyrinth.

From the air, the Queen's Gambit was easy enough to navigate and it took little to no time to reach the pyre that burned at its center. Teasing Edmund by cutting in front of him, the white crow tried to urge him into a game of flying through the blazing fire. Seeing as they were fireproof it wouldn't do anything to their feathers, and the warmth was very much a welcome bonus.

Maea

It took a moment for Edmund to realize what Maea was trying to do. But when he did, he let out an enthusiastic 'caw' and dove after her. Swooping low, he tucked his wings in. The young Ancient shot through the flames, letting the fire flicker along his feathers before snapping his wings out to catch the air. Rising up, Edmund did a happy loop as he regained altitude. Embers fell away like a fiery tail as he circled the Eye before diving back in. It was exhilarating to bathe himself in fire and see how high he could get the trailing embers to go before they dissipated into the wind. Childishly, Edmund wondered if this was what it was like to be a phoenix. Edmund dark wings, shadowed soul

"If I could fly I would never come back", you said

It was bliss. The warmth from the pyre gave lift to the air beneath her wings and sent Maea shooting up much faster than she had expected. The sonorous caws rolling from her open beak sounded a lot like laughter, interspersed with 'ooh'ing sounds when she saw Edmund's play at being a firebird.

Mimicking him for a while, it was only the fatigue spreading through her muscles that eventually brought an end to the game. Circling down towards the ground, Maea shifted back to her usual self and rubbed at sore spots beneath her collarbones.

"No one told me that new shifts came with muscle ache," she lamented, offering her companion a rueful smile. "How long did it take you to get used to this?"

Maea