Don't you want to be alive before you die?
Inside Zyran Palace , The Floating Kingdom
Of Zephyr, Northern Ardeneon.
April 16
Elijah, River and Skai were back from talking to their fathers, River said he was going back to sleep, Elijah went to take a shower, now it's just Dexter, Emily, Skai and Seraphinius in Elijah's room, although Seraphinius is half asleep.
"So, are you two together now?" Emily asks Skai sitting next to her as Dexter carries Seraphinius to the bed.
Dexter tucks the little boy in and walks back to them.
"-ust so sweet" he manages to hear little of what Skai was telling Emily when he re-joins them, Skai turns to face him and smiles, he smiles back, glad that he can finally make her smile.
"See was it that hard?" Emily giggles and looks over at her little brother who was lying on the bed fast asleep.
"On my way here Lethia told me that she would teach me how to fly" Skai changes the topic "She said I have secret wings" she giggles.
"Woah really?" Emily asks excitedly and Skai nods "When?"
"Later today!" Skai smiles "her dad slash my grandfather is going to give me the blessing to touch the clouds, Lethia will teach me how to get the bolt and rain" she giggles "Isn't that cool?" she looks at Dexter her eyes sparkling.
"It's crazy!" he chuckles "I can't wait to see you fly" then Skai turns to Emily.
"Can you give us a second? I need to talk to Dexter about something" Skai stands up giddily, pulling him out of the room before he could even process anything.
She pulls him into his room.
"Hold up Skai" he chuckles.
"You're so tall" she whines staring up at him Skai isn't crazily short herself, Dexter is just unusually tall. Skai's 5'5 frame was nothing compared to Dexter's 6'5 one.
"Is that a problem?" he laughs confused.
"It is when I can't kiss you from down here" she stares at him, her eyes glistening.
"How about from up here?" he picks her up and she smiles big, her legs wrapping firmly around his waist.
"Thank you kind sir, this is much better" she giggles in a funny voice before leaning in.
"Wait, you won't push me away this time, right?" Dexter asks seriously and she frowns.
"I'd be beyond foolish to push you away again" he could sense the sincerity in her voice, and he takes that his cue.
...
"What if we can't save the world?" River asks randomly as they are sitting in his room discussing everything and anything, just letting themselves be kids for the first time in a long time.
"We weren't born to save the world" Emily answers in an attempt to console him, but it sounded more like she is consoling herself.
"I don't mean to rain on your parade sunshine, but..." Elijah trails off and they all realize.
Elijah was actually born to change the balance of this world.
"Sorry" she looks down sheepishly and he smiles at her telling her it's fine.
"You know" Dexter starts, gathering their attention "When you think about it, all we wanted was a place to feel like home, that's kind of why we bonded, because the feeling sort of grows" I sigh remembering back when he never felt like he belonged, they all bonded because they never felt like they belonged.
Dexter was bullied for being an orphan.
Elijah was bullied because of his eyes.
Emily was bullied for being a know-it-all.
And the twins, they were talked about for not looking like twins.
It was what brought them together, they were outcasts, outcasts that are about to save the world.
Well, Delarune and Kaito are going to, but they played a part in it too. Kaito wouldn't have been there without Elijah seeing him, and that wouldn't have happened if they hadn't fallen into that portal.
"Deep" River takes in what Dexter said "And true" they all nod in agreement.
"Well technically we bonded because Dexter and Skai kept trying to pull us into crazy stuff" Elijah points out.
"I beg your pardon?" Skai gasps.
"I was 10 pulling dirt and worms out of places dirt and worms shouldn't have been." He says "So you are fully denied of my pardon" Elijah tuts.
"We couldn't afford the fancy mud baths okay? We had to improvise" Dexter says in a duh tone.
"And you refused to ask your parents to take us" Skai adds.
"Because they'd think their son had gone mad" Elijah deadpans "Did you see normal 10 year olds swimming in mud?"
"Or tp-ing the entire school" Emily adds
"Or placing love letters in everyone's lockers for April fools" River joins.
"Okay hey! That one was a good deed" Skai tells him.
"A good deed on April fools is always going to be seen as a prank" River shakes his head.
"We specifically pointed out that it wasn't a prank" Dexter tells him.
"But it was" River looks at them tiredly.
"If it was a prank-" Emily cuts Skai off
"It was a prank" she points out.
"It definitely was" Elijah adds
"Okay okay, can we stop focusing on the past?" Dexter says "Skai and I have grown past that"
"You spray painted the poop emoji on the principal's parking spot in February, that was like two months ago" River remids them.
"Because he's not even the fart" Skai winks and she and Dexter high five.
"No" Emily says flatly "Just no"
"Okay so we did all that, but what was it Elsa said again?" Dexter pauses and all of them groan except Skai knowing what was coming next and she and Dexter both sing together "Let it goooo! Let it goooo! The past is in the pastttttt"
"Okay whatever" River shakes his head knowing fully well they wouldn't change their ways, he changes the subject "So you guys want to go back to earth?" River asks and they all look at each other without a definite answer.
The twins didn't have anything left to find on earth, Emily hated it there, but she hadn't technically met her family in Ardeneon—except Seraphinius that is. Elijah didn't have anything left on earth either. After all of this his mom would probably come back to Ardeneon, but Dexter had his adoptive mom, who was dying, he had to go back, he had to see her again.
"That's a question for later" Emily answers for all of them "Let's just enjoy the now" she smiles.
A knock on the door interrupts their conversation.
"Come in" River yells out and princess Lethia walks in with Kaito, Delarune and Seraphinius holding onto Kaito.
"Lethia said she was teaching Skai to fly" Kaito chuckles "After all the practice you've gotten Skai, I know you can do this" he winks at Skai.
'Wait... is this why he always took Skai skydiving? That's pretty smart, I'll give him that.' River thinks to himself before saying "I'd love to see this too"
.....
Skai and princess Lethia are currently standing at the highest point of Palace Zyran, the rest of them watching from different balconies at safe distances.
So far no one has flown, the princess is talking to her daughter, some of the kids were trying to see closer with their binoculars. Skai wasn't the least bit scared, if anything she's excited.
"Isn't this a bit dangerous?" River calls out to his father who is on a separate balcony.
"Not really, that was how Nyxia learnt if I remember correctly" Kaito answers him "If anything goes wrong, Lethia or one of the guards will catch her" he assures his son, taking out his scroll touch and beginning to record his daughters first flight.
River nods in understanding and they go back to watching them.
"Think of it as a breathing exercise, when you fly your wings will immediately come out to stabilize you, it's instinct" Princess Lethia tells her daughter from the top of the roof. "We'll start with freefall"
"What's that?" Skai asks.
"It's like you're letting go of all your worries" Princess Lethia explains "You can let it go and fall because in life my dear child, nothing is free but falling, and falling?" she chuckles "is easy, let me show you"
She dives down the tower and flies back up effortlessly, her wings are a beautiful hue of blue and purple making Skai wonder what color hers would be.
"Think you're up for it?" Princess Lethia giggles landing next to Skai and Skai nods jumping down casually without hesitation, and just like she said, wings sprouted out of her back.
She begins to make her way back when suddenly she feels stuck, she just couldn't fly higher, it felt like she was floating in the same spot, and she was.
"I can't move!" Skai yells out to her mother.
"It's okay, it happens" "Should I come help you?" she yells back worriedly.
"No, I'll do it!" Skai stubbornly calls out to her.
Trying again to fly up, out of nowhere an arrow goes right through her, a sharp excruciating pain seeps through her entire body, and she glances down at where the pain is originating from. Looking at her stomach, her eyes widen in horror. An arrow.
Skai's vision begins to blur, and she feels everything start to disappear, all the sound around her quiets down as if the only thing existing is herself, the arrow in her body and the pain, she didn't even notice when her mother flew down to save her. Her vision starts to leave her slowly and she barely hears shouts and screams but she couldn't see, she couldn't say anything.
Emily gasping in shock, River and Dexter begin to run into the room alongside the adults, finding their way to her, Elijah on the other hand was looking at a more logical way to go about it, his eyes dart around the palace walls looking for where exactly the arrow came from. He briefly sees a figure disappear from a window side.
Before he could even ascertain what is going on, some sort of bird flies down from behind him, catching both Lethia and Skai and a faint glow emanates from the black bird.
"Phinius?!" Emily screams down towards the scene "Skai?!"
The bird lands them safely on the ground and turns to dust renewing as Seraphinius, leaving everyone shocked, the shock didn't last long as they all began running down to where they landed
Princess Lethia breathes out fear still gripping her "She's alive" it was the last thing Skai heard before she lost sense of everything.