I lowered my back again and looked at her.
“I don’t… oh! Do you want me to ride you?” she asked.
I huffed a nod.
She bit her lip. “Really?” She looked around at the cloudless night sky. I could sense her excitement.
“Won’t you drop me?” she whispered.
I growled.Never.
Her body tensed with adrenalin. “Okay,” she said, “let’s do this. Do I just …”
She grabbed my spine and tugged it.
I nodded.
She bit her lip again. “Alright. You only live once, right?”
She slowly began to climb up my back to the hollow cradled by spines. Her hands clutched one spine tightly.
I stretched my wings. One knocked a stone pillar, sending it crumbling. She watched the stones tumble down the valley with wide eyes.
“Maybe I shouldn’t…”
I leaped up, airborne within seconds.
She let out a small shriek as we climbed higher. I rumbled.
Open your eyes.
I felt her body still as her eyes snapped open.
“Oh my god…” she whispered.
We could have been the only creatures alive. The moon, crescent shaped and silver, shone brightly in the deep purple of the sky.
The stars, they were awake and sparkling. Each twinkle part of the music of the heavens.
Something wet touched the back of my shoulder.
Tears.
Seph was crying.
Why are you sad?
Seph laughed, her voice thick. “No. I’m not sad. I’m just – This is like a dream,” she said.
Below us, the valley was black as pitch. Through my dragon eyes, the night stirred to life. The wolves bounded deep in the wilderness. The owls fluttered from tree to tree.
We passed a river that glittered like a mirror in each lapping wave. I flew low skimming above the water so she could see it.
And suddenly, her vise-like grip loosened. Her hands slid free, raising to the heavens like she could grip them and claim them as her own.
She was like a spirit from the veil, ethereal and ghostly. But she also glowed with her own light.
She couldn’t see it like I could. I was drawn to her light like a moth to flame. It was like carrying a fallen star on my back.
