@Maren & @Nizho --

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Mama said it was okay for me to go alone, that Yseult would keep me safe and that I could fly on my own. Sure, I had been trying to fly for a while now, but getting to a distance island that I can't even see seems impossible. My fear is welling up inside as I get a running start, launching into the air with my heart thrumming in my head. I am going to die, here and now will be the death of me because I am going to crash land in the water and I can't swim, I've never even thought of trying. I swallow the knot in my throat, opening my awkwardly large wings and setting off into the vast emptiness of the sky, where the earth gives way to endlessness that I cannot even begin to fathom. The world falls out from under me, the windy sea giving me gentle pushes with subtle shifts towards the east, in which Yseult butts my head into the right direction so that I don't fly off the map. Without her and that slight bit of sympathy from mama, I would probably have flown off into some foreign land, the idea of that cold and unsettling because it could definitely still happen, Yseult was not always guaranteed to be with me. Mama was not always guaranteed to be nice. 

I was given instructions to patrol a specific area with two others, but what good am I when I cannot see anything. I am merely dead weight to drag around, something to disregard with my uselessness, my lack of strength or knowledge or sight, I'm a severed limb that someone still won't let go off. I asked mama what she thought of me going on a patrol, of being active within the herd and she told me with very little enthusiasm, "great." The underlying harshness of her tone sent chills down my spine, because I know that she wants me gone, because I am just another reminder of Aurelia. She didn't even bother to comfort me when I fell to my knees and became what I'd been running from ever since Misael told me to stay strong. I sent myself into denial every time my breath shortened and my gut churned because I did not want to bow to my emotions, yet they were overwhelmingly powerful and I was weak. Worthless.

Yseult's subtle weight against my withers tells me that I should begin my descent, shifting the angle of my wings so that they would carry me to the surface, back to solid ground, to something that I feared less than the openness of the sky, where giants grasped and titan trees rose, where solid material drifted weightlessly and cried down upon us. Where a disk lingered along up there, trapped and alone, forced to watch us grow and form relationships while they are trapped in the sky. The moon, lonely, quiet, ignored and disregarded until it shines the brightest, only once every month. Poor moon. 

I feel my legs hit the ground and a gasp escapes my lips, whining as wind leaves my lungs and my body hits the ground with a solid impact. I lay panting on my side, sightless eyes wide as Yseult lands on my shoulder, delicately placed upon my hide with her talons playfully clenching my skin as if to say, "ha, you suck." I flit my ears back, gathering my composure and rolling over, getting double slapped by the four winged zephyr before she perches on my withers rather than my shoulder, pulling at my mane while I struggle to stand. I stumble forward, tripping over a stone and hearing my hoof land in the water with a plunk, feeling the sea eat it up. It's nauseating to thing that the world even expands below this, that the ocean is a whole other piece of the world to be discovered. I pull my foot out and stand by the water, ears pricked for the signs of my herdmates, but how I'll know who it is and if they are within my herd, I do not know. 
“talk talk talk.” -- table by velvette --