Chapter 233 - Discovering
Quetz hovered in the sky for some time. When he found a clearing, he landed over there softly and tucked his wings back. Dawn got down. She gazed around. 'Where are we?' she asked.
'We are still in Ensmoire,' he replied. 'I have my boundaries set up.'
A row of silvery oak trees that were larger than any tree she had ever seen, that made tallest trees look like saplings, surrounded the small clearing. The ground was covered with grass and amongst them were daisies and dandelions—so soft under touch… Most other foliage was just various shades of silver. 'I want to see nature in its natural color…'
'You can't,' he informed. Even his vision was silver. What could he do? 'You have to let go of the magic if you want the vision restored.'
The sunlight, which stole its way through the thick canopy overhead, fell on the tiny daisies, daffodils and buttercups, which swayed in the cool breeze, subtly scenting the air. She walked ahead in this hypnotic world, on the soft silvery-green grass. The place was live with birds chirping noisily. Dawn cocked an eyebrow and looked at little yellowish silvery birds hovering around Quetz's head. Will you come to me? she asked and found herself speaking the strange language instead, 'Vultis venire adien?' The birds left the dragon and flew towards her.
'You can speak to them?' asked Quetz.
'I don't know!' she said with her eyes bulging as the birds came to perch over her shoulders. Her mouth fell open. 'I think they followed my words.' The birds were so cacophonous near her ears that even though she wanted them to fly away, she cherished their velvety wings, which brushed her cheeks making her giggle.
'Boríte na tergum in si vos ut draco,' she said to them, amused that what she actually wanted to say was 'if you like you can go back to the dragon'. One of the birds pecked her cheek with its beak twice as if to say that they liked her and then went to sit on the crown of her head. Dawn giggled like a small girl.
'What are you even talking to them?' asked Quetz, confound by her newfound magic, which enabled her to speak with birds. He wondered, 'Can you talk to other animals?'
'How do I know?' she continued to titter as the birds trilled around her. 'Geez, I love this!' she said.
Suddenly from the corner of her eyes, Dawn saw a reindeer with a mesh of long antlers, transparent and as tall as her height. Its skin was bedazzling under the rays of sun and the most intriguing part was that amongst all the things that appeared silver, only the reindeer was golden. A flock of transparent Aurelian birds flew over it, chirping loudly.
The forest spirit.
Dawn's body prickled with reverence, with veneration. She had seen it in Falshire Forests along with Arawn and baby Quetz.
Quetz slowly padded towards his rider and watched the spirit amble. He was in awe. The reindeer looked at them for a fleeting second and they thought it smiled. Some birds perched on his antlers. Regally he walked deeper inside the forest.
When the spirit disappeared, the two realized that they were holding their breath and the birds that were sitting on her had flown away to join the one who were around the spirit.
The experience left them enriched, satisfied and with pure love.
As if in a trance, Dawn followed the path of the spirit, but Quetz pulled her back with his wing. 'That's not our path Dawn.'
Her trance broke and she gazed at him. 'Do you remember him?' she asked.
'Yes, he came to bless me when I was a baby.'
Dawn smiled and her hands went to Quetz's wing inadvertently, which she stroked gently.
'Should we continue?' he asked.
'Hmm…'
Dawn resumed with her new magical powers. She communicated with more birds and other small animals like a porcupine or squirrel only to find that they could all answer her back. They could all understand her so well. It was amazing. The problem was that she had to speak in her magical language and whenever she tried to speak with them in English, the thoughts conveyed to them were always in her mythical language. Also, she found that when she spoke with them, lying was nearly impossible. The world worked only with complete honesty. Even if she tried to deceive the animal into something they didn't want to do, they would do it for her, but with utter lack of trust, which burdened her mind, her soul. So yes, lying, deceiving was out of question.
Well, it wasn't a problem… just a puzzle…
'If you will lie to them, your powers will fade, because you are drawing your power from them also,' Quetz explained.
'It looks like I am a leech. Everything that comes in my contact, I leech off their power to my advantage.'
'It's not your fault. Your magic is making you do that. It demands energy and vigor. You will have to rely on external factors to garner all that.
The entire day went by and by the end of it Dawn became tired. It was close to nighttime. Even though the Eobens had fed her the whole day, she missed proper water and the lack of it parched her throat. 'What could I do to have pure, filtered water?' she said.
'Why don't you try generating it?' Quetz suggested.
'I can do that?'
'Maybe, who knows,' he replied. 'You won't know unless you try.'
'And how do I do that? How can I generate water?'
'No idea!' he shrugged. 'Look inside your mind for the answer.'
Dawn went to sit on a silvery brown boulder, tired as hell. The magic around her fingers crackled smoothly. She closed her eyes, brought her hands forward and whispered, "Vepó…"
The ground in front of her rumbled lightly and a small stream of water tried to force its way out of it. However, it died down after a few bubbles gurgled out. Only in that much magic Dawn felt extremely tired. She thought all her energy had drained and she could pass out anytime. Her limbs became slack. The hands fell to her side. Her forehead had beads of sweat and stars danced in front of her eyes. "No," she said in a faint voice.
'Dawn?' Quetz called her, but she was on the verge of becoming unconscious. He rushed to her, his wings opening and closing with tension.
Her eyes became heavy-lidded. Just as she was about to faint, she saw a steady stream of jet emerging from in front of her. Hungrily she lapped the water that splashed on her face with gentle force.
Through her half-opened eyes, she saw a man with silvery green hair standing in front of the boulder. He scooped her up and made her sit on Quetz. He sat behind her and held her securely in his arms. Next moment she felt Quetz taking to the sky with powerful strokes of his wings.
She heard the man's soft voice, "Don't perform the water magic during pregnancy ever again."
She slipped into darkness.
When she woke up again, she was in her bed at the Silver Mansion.
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