.[SRP].

Dancing with the Wind


Keebin stood on the edge of the cliff, looking at the patterns of the wind. She could feel an ache between her wings telling her to stretch them and join it but she smiled. Not yet. The ache grew stronger and the urge to jump off and dance with the wind spiraled throughout her, pulsing slowly. No. Not yet.

She spread her fingers, reaching out and trying to cup the wind, hold it in her hands. But of course, no one could capture the wind. That was what made it desirable. It was free and it danced it's bliss. She opened her hands, letting the winds pull at them, doing her best to make them feel weightless, like they were two little birds, flying. Of course, they weren't at all like birds.

She reached her hands out further, stretching her arms and letting it bite her, as playful as a kitten. It called to her, like the same kitten through a door, wanting attention. She took a breath, flooding her lungs and air sacs with oxygen that twittered, wanting to burst. Wanting to be free. She released it.

She continued playing with the wind, exploring it's freedom and feeling the longing to join it. Letting it slide through her fingers, twitching her ears, fluffing her feathers. Finally she loosened the grip on her wings, letting them spread more comfortable from the death grip she held them in. She felt the wind attack them, getting between every feather and exploring.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she opened her wings, spreading them to their full span, stretching them and feeling the pull of her muscles connect her wings to her back. Her eyes closed, feeling the wind as it rippled around her, begging her to join its dance, hoping she knew the song. Hoping and begging she wouldn't fall to the ground like so many others. The wind was running low on dance partners for it's deadly dance and wanted her, hoping she wouldn't be down another partner.

A few seconds more.

Now.

She fell off the side of the world.

The air rushed around her, filling her senses to the brink. Overload. Crushed. Buried. Clobbered. Smothered. Destroyed. With those thoughts passing through her mind, she opened her wings from their streamlined position and felt air jerk through them, like hitting concrete. Pain spread through her muscles as she managed a flap, straining for another. Then suddenly, she felt weightless as an updraft caught her, sending her soaring almost as fast as she had fallen moments before.

And then she joined the winds and danced their dance.