Sister of Hearts By Claire Smith

Greysky, daughter of Skylight, daughter of Ashfall, the last of the Green Water clan, flies for two days before she sees water again. She nearly tumbles out of the sky, her wings can barely hold out any more. She crawls to the water and gulps down the coolness greedily.

The feel it in her parched throat is heavenly.

Sun glints off the water, and once she has satisfied her thirst, she curls up and rests. She will hunt after. Where there is water, there will be life, and where there is life, there is prey. Her mother taught her this. She buries her head under her wings as her chest aches.

The warmth is luxurious against her scales, and without the bracing winds that buffeted her home cliffs, she warms far quicker than she ever did at home. But at home she had the others—her mother, her nest mates, all her aunts, even her sire when she was truly little. Now she has nothing. No mother, no nest, no home. Just her wings and her fire and her love.

She hates the creatures that drove her from her home and slaughtered her kin a little more.

Greysky’s eye lids begin to flutter and she thinks a short sleep would not hurt. She can hear nothing around, not even the rustle of grass not-fish.

A loud clunk makes her eyes shoot open. The sun has moved towards the land, and Greysky freezes as more clunks can be heard.

Closer and closer it comes, and she remains as still as she can. The colouring of her scales is finally useful, dull and like the rocks. The clunking approaches the water and then stops. Then twittering erupts along with rustling and grunts. Greysky dares not move her head to investigate.

There is a moment of silence before the splashing of water. Slowly and silently, she raises her head, twisting her neck slowly to see what it is.

It is a medium sized creature, seemingly rubbing one of its arms with a paw, sat back on its other two legs. It seems the same size as the creatures that dove her from her home, but instead of a hide of silver cold-not-quite-scales, it has a hide of something neither scale nor fur, but dark in colour. It does seem to have a lot of fur on the top of its head though, arranged in a peculiar style, like it’s all threaded together.

Then she sees the cold-not-quite-scales scattered about it.

Good stars! Has this creature ripped its own scales out?! What kind of monster is this!?

The creature turns its head and suddenly sees her. It shrieks and startles back, making her recoil in likeness. Then they remain motionless, simply watching each other. Greysky doesn’t want to provoke the thing, Great Mother only knew what it would do if it could survive removing its own scales. However, the creature looks equally fearful, regarding her with wide eyes. It twitters something breathlessly before falling silent. It smells of fear, but not aggression.

The silence stretches out endlessly.

Finally, Greysky thinks to speak. She reaches for the creature’s mind slowly, testing out the waters first. Mother said to only speak when allowed, so she carefully asks. The creature flinches and she pulls her mind back.

The creature gapes at her, twitters again. It still smells like fear, but also…curiousity? She wonders if that’s what she smells like.

Tentatively she reaches out again, and this time the creature, not quite welcomes it, but allows it. It does not seem to know her tongue, so she tries to send feelings.

Hello. Lost. Hungry. Tired. Friend?

The creature breathes loudly, and sends back: Hurt. Lost. Lonely. Friend.

Greysky pushes a little closer, looking into the creature’s thoughts and letting the creature peer into her mind as well. Perhaps Mother would have thought it foolish, but Mother is gone. She wants a friend.

In the creature’s mind she sees more creatures, with brightly coloured not-hides. She feels the happiness, the love. She hears the same twittering over and over, and thinks perhaps it is the creature’s name. The creature feels like a daughter, but not a mother, but she’s not sure.

Then she sees paler creatures, in cold-not-quite-scales attacking, killing the ones like this creature, fighting it, forcing it away.

It strikes her then. This creature is like her.

This creature, this daughter of lost daughters of a dead clan, is looking for peace, for safety, for home. But also for revenge.

Greysky thinks of what her mother said once. That one day she would find her Sister of Hearts, her life companion. Though this creature is not of fire and sky like her, she thinks perhaps this is it.

They will find their peace. They will find their revenge. They will do it together.

#Prose