Tuesday 22 July 2008

Cymru - Chapter 12

Warning: this is very badly written. Very badly. It's also incredibly short and nothing much happens in it. This is because I haven't written this is months and needed to get back into the swing of things. But anyway: next chapter ought to be quite important.

AERONA

The Aberystwyth Landing Tower seemed strangely empty, and Aerona realised as she landed that in one specific sense it actually was: through the archway at the end of the runway she could see the clearly empty stalls normally occupied by the Alpha Wing merod, or in this case those of the visiting Wings. She bit back a curse. Short of some peculiar emergency that had called the Casnewydd Wing away to help out the city below her, Awen couldn't still be here.

Aerona trotted Briallu up the runway anyway and into the stables. If nothing else she could do with watering Briallu; the mare's neck was covered in sweat from the long ride, her wings drooping slightly at her sides. Hastily, Aerona moved her to the water trough, glancing nervously at the clock on the wall by the manager's station. It was midday. She could probably manage the flight to Milford Haven, if she hurried, but really that would have to be her outer limit today, or Briallu was going to drop out of the sky.

"My apologies, Rider! We didn't realise you were coming."

The voice came from behind her, anxious and hurried. Aerona glanced over her shoulder to see a man in his thirties scurrying up the spiral ramp, futiley trying to wipe his hands clean on a tunic that had clearly seen better days. As he neared he bowed to her, eyes downcast.

"It's fine," Aerona assured him wearily. "Honestly. This is an unsheduled visit, I was hoping to catch the Casnewydd Wing. I'll be gone again in a minute."

"Your timing is unfortunate, Rider," the man said, offering a small smile. "They flew not ten minutes ago. You ought to be able to catch them, they're headed for Milford Haven."

Relief surged through Aerona. Briallu whickered.

"Thank the gods," Aerona muttered. "Thank you. I should get going."

"Now?" the man asked, eyeing Briallu's drooping wings and sweat-slicked body. "You won't rest here first? They'll be at the Harbour a while."

"No," Aerona sighed. She felt tremendously guilty about it, but Briallu was tough. "No, I have to go. I need to speak to the Wingleader as soon as possible."

"Best not leave, then," a familiar voice said behind her. Aerona turned.

Awen was trotting into the Landing Tower on what may have been the biggest meraden Aerona had ever seen, tossing his head petulantly and snorting. She was flanked by another Rider Aerona hadn't met, whose beads marked her as a hunter and who carried a red kite on her shoulder. Aerona smiled at the sight of them, a knot of tension lifting itself from her shoulder blades.

She had to fight to keep the smile in place as Awen drew closer, however. The warmth Aerona remembered was gone from Awen's face, her expression grown hard and focused. Aerona quickly looked her over for obvious indicators as to why, and immediately her eyes fell on the scar, thin and sharp, running across Awen's throat just above the line of her collar. It had the look of something healing fast, the way wounds did when druidic magic had been involved, which suggested it had happened the day before. Looking further, Aerona noticed Awen's left shoulder set slightly too stiffly, her hand on the rein just a little too tight. The Rider with her was riding slightly closer than necessary as well, a hint of protectiveness that was otherwise well-hidden.

Awen smiled, an expression that was clearly forced but Aerona nonetheless felt it was genuine.

"Aerona," she greeted amiably. Aerona upgraded her own expression to a grin.

"Awen," she answered in kind. "I was starting to think I'd have to chase you all the way to the Archwiliad."

"Oh, you know," Awen shrugged; and that shoulder was definitely stiff. "I thought you could use a break from teaching for once, get some exercise. This is Adara, by the way," Awen added, glancing at the other Rider who nodded curtly. "And we need to talk."

"Yes, we do," Aerona sighed. Briallu snorted.

"At the Sovereign's Residence would be best," Awen said. "I need to speak to Lord Gwilym, and he should be back soon."

"With socks," Adara said. "Or gloves."

Ah. Awen had succeeded in roping Gwilym into talking to Marged, then. Aerona was impressed; she'd never have had the nerve to try. But then, she wasn't a Wingleader.

"Lead on, then," Aerona said as cheerfully as she could. "We can talk in the air."

5 comments:

Steffan said...

Enjoyed this! Nice to have Cymru back. It shows signs of not-being-written-for-ages, but it's nowhere near as bad as you made out.

So now the two women with names beginning with A are together! Hurrah! I didn't confuse them often enough before.

Quoth the Raven said...

Three, in fact. All begining with A! Mwahahaha!

Initially all the Riders were going to have names beginning with A, but I very quickly got bored of that. By that time I'd already named two of them, though, and I really liked the names.

Steffan said...

Thank goodness you gave up on that. I need different initials to keep characters separate - particularly in ongoing serial stories.

I told off Blossom a while ago for having a million names beginning with J in her play.

Jester said...

Yay! Cymru is back! This is NOT badly written, you numpty! It was an easy read and an important first meeting of the A-team. Brilliant!

Anyway, I'm off to read the next section and stop with my "dont put yourself down" scolding.

Blossom said...

Hooray! Cymru is back!!! :-) Really enjoyed this!! Going to read the next one now!