It was true that Tewey had, on occasion, been less than subtle in her pursuit to deliver a message ahead of schedule. But to a drak a shortcut was a shortcut and sometimes that shortcut was a snack. She was discreet where it counted though and Reyra had made the right decision in sending her knowing that information of this importance couldn''t be left to just any drak. Tewey did not bother herself with the details of human pursuits but she understood the complexity of their emotions. She understood that this job was important to her familiar, more important than most things, and that made it important to her.
The temple she departed from sat at the heart of the crystal fields and for the most part the winds there were easy to read. They swirled and circled the heart like veins and arteries that pumped magick to and from that center. She spent the first part of her journey looking for good places to cut across currents and into others, using the winds to propel her faster and navigating her way to the outerlands.
Just above the clouds, in the lower atmosphere, the currents were the fastest and this is where Tewey did her best work. It could be tricky when the higher reaching clouds reduced visibility and currents shifted on a whim but she had made this journey many times before, for familiars before Reyra and she likely would for others after her.
The driev began to melt together as she flew, the landscape far below feeling like a different world altogether. The streaks of different colored terrain bleeding into one another with little to no distinction from her height. Occasionally she passed other draks along the way, their minds and emotions brushing hers like bright spots on the otherwise bland canvas of the sky around her. She did her best to keep her own a neutral red as she passed, blending in with the tones of the sky, not to be bothered. Sometimes she would drop out of the sky to descend upon an unsuspecting wyrn or even a smaller drak and take her meal to go, storing calories for the trip ahead.
As she was cruising over the lands to the north along the path to the Great Sea, she picked up the chittering of a hivemate heading home not far off her course. She diverged only to bring her just close enough to quickly brush minds, getting any news she may be carrying. It would also serve as an update when the other returned home, letting the familiars at the temple know that she had made it to the northern coast and was preparing to cross the great sea. Once their minds had been shared she quickly returned to her course, determined to have her time under the Eye.
Draks that wanted to make it over the sea needed to ride the winds at the highest altitudes they could to avoid the turbulence of the sea itself in addition to the morfae that lived in the depths. Strange magicks ruled the seas and they were far too temperamental to risk the chance of being swallowed up on one''s journey. So Tewey circled higher and higher into the sky, finally slowing her pace as she climbed into the upper reaches of what was considered the cruising altitude. As she slowed, the high pitched whirring of her gossamer double-wings became a low hum as they beat opposite each other, working to take her up, up, up.
It was cold in the cloudbank even when the Eye blazed down upon the soil and baked it in heat. It was freezing now when the Eye did not grace the land. She would surely have icicles attached to her underside before long. She was flying to somewhere the Eye touched though, where she could bask in the warmth for several extra cycles if she arrived early. Until the call of the magick inevitably drove her back to the crystal lands and the beating heart at its center.
The cold began seeping into her thick skin between the breaks in the chitin scaling covering her body, prompting her to retract what she could inward. The thick plates slid together as designed, creating a hard-shelled bullet out of her, capable of slicing through the winds no matter the conditions. Her legs tucked up close to her body, pressing nearly flat against her underside.
Tewey shot straight out over the water at the highest altitude the winds and her wings would take her. Once she was on course she picked up speed once again, aiming to use her momentum to reduce energy loss along the trip. She could feel her organs cinch in, close together, preserving warmth and slowing her biological processes. On long trips it was essential to reduce energy waste as she would not stop to eat or rest along the way. For all they were built for; plated and armored for defense, equipped with sharp claws and teeth for fighting and their long skinny bodies easy for slithering through shallow waters, draks did not float. And once wet it took time for their wings to dry out enough to take flight
The sky was clear enough for the first driev that she could see the ships like little flickering speckles on the surface of water far below. There were many of them at first but the further she went the less there became until there were none. It was just her and the dark ocean far below with the occasional puff of cloud.
She passed over a stormfront somewhere into her second driev and she watched from above as the bursts of light rolled through the clouds and briefly lit up the sky around her. She caught glimpses of a flock of storm byrds from time to time bursting up through the clouds before diving headfirst back into the storm. They made a graceful sight, all long necks and sleek feathers moving in sync as they rolled and dove between each other in their strange games. Despite the knowledge that they would have made a tasty meal she ignored them in favor of continuing on her journey, she was halfway across the sea already and she couldn’t spare the energy for the chase.
Below her, great thunder claps echoed across the open sea. They would have rattled the walls of buildings had they sounded over land. Storms of that size rarely made it inland though, relying on the moisture and the seasonal winds to lay the right conditions to feed them into the monsters they became. She passed the storm by after a driev and was back over open water. By the next driev she was starting to recognize shapes on the horizon, barely there yet but definitely taking form. She knew she was getting close now but she didn’t dare relax her rigid form until she got much, much closer. She was liable to pass out shortly upon arrival and she didn’t dare risk losing the tailwind she was currently enjoying. It wasn’t a personal best but she’d made excellent time as usual.
As soon as she could actually see land in the distance, the shapes of mountains looming, the shore outlining the edges, she hooked a sharp turn and headed lor, toward The Eye. She couldn’t see it yet but she could see the way the sky shifted from the deep, dark color of the long nente to something brighter and brighter until it was a blazing red at the edges. She was nearly there now. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
She flew until she was whistling overhead of small coastal townships, until she went far enough that a sliver of The Eye could be seen peeking over the horizon. With it the sky became so bright that the natural glow from the flora far below dimmed to nothing, instead switching over to gathering light instead. As she flew she began to descend circling around on currents that took her back toward the land. She started to feel the heat that came with the light that graced the surface of the planet. She basked in it as she glided the last few eides to her destination. The grandiose city she was gliding into had not been there for long. It’s shining jewel of a tower had only been built sometime during the last reign of human lords and then rebuilt and expanded after the Great Destruction. She’d only bothered with it recently, in fact, at Reyra’s request.
As she came within landing range she circled a few times around, first to relax and descend her legs, letting the feeling return to them. Then she began to stretch her body out to length, separating the plates that had kept her internal processes safely regulated during her long trip. She felt the warmth around her begin to seep into the exposed skin.
She was still going quite fast as she descended and zipped once, then twice around that shining tower to slow herself down, startling the other drak that had been settled upon its sloped rooftop soaking up the heat. She looped around and came to a running stop along the long roof of the royal hall. Despite it all she managed to come to a rather graceful full stop, whipping her tail around to shift her weight and using her nails to dig in and stop herself, sliding around into a stylish standstill.
She gave herself several moments to breathe and when she noticed a palace drak eyeing her, sizing her up, she turned and let out a hissing shriek, raising the spines along her back and charging toward the other for several steps. She was in absolutely no mood for their antics. The other drak immediately backed down to avoid the scuffle, thankfully. They didn’t know she’d just flown the Great Sea and wasn’t fit for much let alone a fight. Tewey took one more breath and used her tingling legs to take her all the way across the palace roof and up to the tower walls.
In truth, only the top most part of the tower gleamed like a gem. The lower floors were made of stone bricks and other very climbable materials. Tewey used the last of her reserved strength to climb her way up the side of the tower to a familiar window that she found unlocked and let herself in.
The room was empty, its occupant gone doing whatever it was that humans busied themselves with in their castles. She hopped from the window ledge and let her wings glide her the short distance to the soft, blanketed bed. When the human returned she would convince them to build a fire to warm the room but for now she crawled between the layers of blankets on the bed, curling up beneath them as best she could despite the soft fibers catching on the ridges of her plates. She managed to create a tangled mess of a nest and was asleep before her eyes were even closed.
It was sometime later, possibly the whole driev had gone by, when the sound of a door opening and closing alerted Tewey that someone had returned and she stirred from her place curled beneath the blankets. As she poked her head out it was then that the human caught sight of her and gave a surprised shout, jumping just a bit. She pushed her mental presence outward in a swirl of colors to announce herself.
“Oh, Tewey?” Nimel breathed with relief, recognizing her specific color combination. She slinked out the rest of the way and shook herself out and went into a long stretch, letting her hind legs trail behind her and wiggling her tail. She was careful not to catch at the bedding with the spines or rough edges along her body. Nimel came to stand beside the bed and reached down to stroke along her head and the smooth underside of her jaw. They knew exactly how to appeal to her and she purred in delight.
“I''ve already sent Inder down rowe but he couldn''t have arrived already. What kind of message warranted them sending you?” Nimel laughed as Tewey plopped onto her side so they could stroke her underbelly before reaching for the harness carrying the message tube that she''d expedited all the way there. They unclipped and unrolled the curled piece of parchment within, reading it silently but Tewey felt the burst of alarm that quickly reared up from them.
“Oh no… Onoara...” They shook their head as they went on. “-now believe that the original translation was misinterpreted and we are looking for someone named LoVelly….” They looked down at Tewey, a puzzled expression on their face. “I suppose that is reason enough to send you. It certainly changes some things.” Nimel turned their back to the bed and sat down on the edge next to tewey, parchment in hand and hands in their lap. They released a great sigh as they wilted backwards onto the bedspread. Tewey wound herself around their side and slithered in next to them, stealing any body heat off them she could. It was so cozy and warm pressed against the softness of a human. She made several audible clicks low in her throat to communicate her pleasure before letting her rumbler go, filling the room with the comfortable sound of drak purring.
“So now we’re looking for two people, are we?” Nimel shifted to look down at her. They knew she could not speak back to them yet they appeared to wait for an answer. She instead pushed vague ideas and colors at them. She did not know what would appease this situation or even what they were asking. Her job was done, she’d flown the route and delivered the message. Now was her chance to bask in the heat of the eye while she could before going back to the desolate crystalscape that was home.
“Things just keep piling up don’t they…” They spoke at her running a thumb under her chin, annoyance and anxiety fluttering across the limited mindscape they shared. “First it was Teramyn’s prophecy girl and now we have find Onoara’s too? I just feel like this is getting away from us.” They ran a consoling hand carefully down her back spines. “Not to doubt the will of the Universe or anything Tewey, but I think you and I got the worst jobs in all of this.” They lifted their head to look directly at her and give her a commiserating look. She let out a little huff of air through her nose in response as she laid her head upon their ribcage and snuggled in.
“I know, I know. You need to eat and rest now.” They placed their warm palm over her head and she couldn’t help but nudge into that warmth. “We’ll start getting the word out after the nente cycle. For now,” they shifted, dislodging Tewey and eliciting a grumbling and several shades of dark gray-blue displeasure from her, “let’s maybe get you something to eat.”
Tewey did not mind her long trek across the great sea and over the vast distance because she particularly enjoyed her time with the human Nimel. They indulged her much like Reyra did and she could see herself striking a bond with the hatchling in the future perhaps, once her time with Reyra had passed. For now though she let them gather her up and drape her long body over their shoulders like a scaly, cumbersome scarf. She would let them hand feed her in the midnente-silent kitchen of the palace and later she would convince them to take her to the gardens so she could bathe herself in the warm light of Sol on one of the large stones there. Perhaps she would have a soak in the fountain, if she was feeling up to it. She would enjoy her respite knowing her job was done and it had been earned.
The rest of it, afterall, was the humans’ problem.