TALES OF THE WIND | joining

[alaire]

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X e n i z a t i o n . n.
A haunting echo follows him.  The cackle and roar of flames as they swiftly rose into an early morning sky.  Spreading and growing as a living creature, bringing down the foundations of a small family cottage.  A voice, repeating unusually sharply for his mother, a simple command; Vole!

The world around him became a blur.  Obedient son, he flew.  He kept flying, with no other direction, for hours.  He kept flying, sure one day he'd catch the sound of other wings on the breeze, lifted by the air.  Instead, as he grew tired and traded talons and feathers for paws and fur, Alaire discovered his mistake.  Undeterred, he attempted to backtrack.

Despite his usually accurate sense of direction, the youth failed to recall the path he took correctly.  How long, how far, how fast had he flown away?  His mother told him to fly.  Had she not followed him someway?  Scrambled out of the burning house before it all crumbled?  His father?  Aine?  Surely his father blew out the flames in time with his wind manipulation.  Right?  Then they must be seeking him out because he flew too far, right?

For the first time in his life, Alaire discovered himself to be alone.  Alone in a strange land, a stranger.  While the concept of adventure had always excited him and his sister, he thought the event would be more fun with her at his side.  Together, taking on the world beyond their little home, just as they always wanted to.  Just as they always played pretend.

As a gentle rain drifted down from an otherwise blue sky (his father's favorite weather to paint), Alaire found some dense undergrowth to settle beneath and watch.  Given enough time the ground would become muddy and he could play.  The prospect sounded entertaining but missed the important aspect of his sister's secret giggles as they conducted their clever plan to sneak into the rain.

Alaire held the sky to his memory as stray droplets hit him on the nose.  A pretty picture, if he could find the correct materials.  All the while, he sat unaware of his rain-cover sitting on the other side of someone's new border.