Frost Arch (20 page)

We knew we would be able to see better when the moon shone through the veil of clouds in the sky, and reflected off the snow. It would be much easier then. In the end we decided to only to train Hawthorne to fly on moon lit nights.

The first flying lesson was quite tiring.

“Okay Hawthorne, Brace your back legs to spring into the air-” Camryn began.

“No, no, just flap really, really fast, like this-” Jack waved his arms in a ridiculous manner, looking a lot like an over grown, out of proportion bird.

“Maybe he should get a running start-” I suggested, jogging on the spot in demonstration.

Hawthorne looked between us, utterly bewildered and not knowing who to listen to.

“Maybe some wing exercises?” Jack provided, “To strengthen them up a bit?”

“What if-” I started.

“Be quiet and let me teach him.” Camryn hissed, and Jack and I fell silent.

Hawthorne huffed and nudged my head with his nose, indicating to me that he was bored. I lifted my hand and stroked his face lovingly, with a small smile. I would really like to see him fly, but the reality of what would happen after he learned was very sad. Somewhere deep down I hoped that he wouldn’t be able to fly at all.

Jack folded his arms and tapped his foot, “Who made you boss?”

“Hawthorne is mine.” I reminded her.

“Who do you think taught the foals to fly?” Camryn snapped.

“Well they learn all right in the wild, don’t they?” Jack smirked.

“Don’t their mothers teach them?” I mused.

Camryn glared, “Yes, but when two tamed Pegasi had foals here they allowed me to help, and they learned twice as fast!”

Jack rolled his eyes and muttered something unintelligible under his breath, which sounded very much like, “Probably learned to fly faster to get away from you.”

“I heard that!” Camryn snapped and Jack turned pink.

I grinned and leaned against Hawthorne who sniffed me appreciatively. Whenever I took the opportunity to visit Hawthorne in the stables he never left my side. A loyal friend. It was as though he bonded me to this world. I lived for Hawthorne now. He was the most important thing to me. I loved him dearly, and although I hadn’t told him this specifically, I was sure he knew I did. I’d always had a lot of trouble with saying that word. Love. Of course I felt it for my friends and family, but it was another thing altogether to say it out loud for everyone to hear. When it’s said, all your defences go down and it makes it possible for people to hurt you. I didn’t like that. I never said it, I just hoped people knew.

I could tell Hawthorne loved me deeply from the way he looked at me with his too-intelligent eyes. They sparkled when I was near, and he would nudge his nose affectionately against me.

I snapped back into reality to discover that Jack and Camryn were bickering now. I sighed. It was time for action, and no more discussing strategy.

“Hawthorne.” I turned to him and he looked back at me, not needing to cock his head up to look at me anymore, “Perhaps you should just try and do it your way.”

Hawthorne bowed his head quickly in an unmistakable nod and I stepped back from him briskly.

Jack and Camry stopped their arguing to watch, realising that I had moved away from Hawthorne now.

For the first time Hawthorne spread his great, white wings, each of which were clearly wider than eight feet. I gasped at the sheer beauty of them. He simply glowed under the moonlight and against the snow. It was the kind of beauty that made your heart ache. With a sly glance of confidence at me, Hawthorne beat his heavy wings slowly at first, the snow around him fanning away in the great rush of wind. I felt my hair whip back from my face as he sunk into a crouch, ready to spring into the air. I tensed myself as though I too were about to take off into the night, like there was a chain bonding us. My heart seemed to stop with anticipation at the very moment that Hawthorne allowed himself to spring from the ground and into the air, his wings beating powerfully, larger even than the wings of a Pegasi.

He jumped perhaps five feet into the air, and I found that I had been holding my breath for a long while now. The next few moments were very anti-climatic. I felt a strange pull in his direction when Hawthorne seemed to rise another foot as he beat his wings harder, the wind rushing past my ears loudly, but the next moment he fell with a thud to the ground. I gasped and rushed forwards frantically, like a mother who wanted to baby her fully grown child from a grazed knee.

“Hawthorne!” I fell to my knees beside him as he shook his head, dazed, “You okay?” I petted him.

Hawthorne snorted indignantly. I chuckled at his annoyance and stood, waiting for him to rise. He sat there, thinking hard, it seemed. His intelligence astounded me, as always. It was so unusual to see magnificent creature like this, so obviously thinking, calculating, and solving. I wished more than ever that I could hear his thoughts, to understand him somehow. It seemed he was trying to work something out.

“What is it?” I asked him.

Jack and Camryn had joined me now, and were looking down at Hawthorne with strange expressions.

“Did you see that?” Jack muttered to Camryn.

“Yes. Very unusual.” She agreed silently. They both looked worried.

“What was? Look, no one expected him to do it first try.” I said defensively, folding my arms across my chest.

“Oh, no, it’s not that.” Jack waved his hand dismissively.

“Then what?” I looked at them in turn. What had they seen? They were hiding something from me; I could feel it, “Tell me.”

Jack’s brow furrowed and he pursed his lips, “I’m not sure, but it was weird. It looked as though he was about to fly, but something was holding him back.”

“He wasn’t strong enough to keep going, that’s all.” I muttered.

Hawthorne snorted, and I knew he was disagreeing with me.

“Well, sorry.” I rolled my eyes at him, “But that’s usually the case.”

Hawthorne sighed and put his head down on his paws in defeat.

“What? You’re giving up already?” I fumed at him.

“No, Avalon, listen.” Camryn interrupted my one sided argument with Hawthorne.

Jack grimaced, “It was weird. He was in the air for a few seconds, and when he went just one foot higher, well-” He trailed off, thinking how to phrase it.

“You sort of … lurched.” Camryn finished.

“Lurched?” I raised an eyebrow at them sceptically, although I recalled an odd tugging feeling in my chest as Hawthorne had attempted to fly higher.

“Yes. The moment he flew that foot higher, your whole body heaved in his direction like there was some invisible force bonding you together, tethering him to you.”

I looked at them incredulously, “That’s ridiculous. He just needs more practice.”

Jack, Camryn and Hawthorne all sighed in unison and I smirked, “C’mon. Up you get.” I nudged Hawthorne with my foot who got up reluctantly, shaking the snow from his coat and drenching me with it.

We all stood back again this time as Hawthorne tried his second attempt at flying.

Once again his wings beat powerfully. Surely that amount of force was enough to lift him from the ground. Like last time, Hawthorne sprung into the air. I held my breath in anticipation again only to be disappointed. A second later Hawthorn crashed to the ground as though he had been yanked from the sky.

“I felt it!” I gasped, holding my chest.

“Yes, we saw. You did it again.” Jack seemed concerned as I rushed over to Hawthorne.

“It was like great big hooks attached to my rib cage, pulling me towards him.” I panted as though I had run a marathon.

I knelt by Hawthorne’s head who was still lying in the snow, annoyed at his second failure.

“Did you feel it?” I whispered to him.

Hawthorne looked up at me with his big blue eyes and bowed his head once quickly. Yes, he felt it too.

“What does this mean?” I turned back to Jack and Camryn, “How will he be able to fly if he is tethered to the ground by some invisible force?”

“Didn’t you say you saved him?” Jack said slowly, “When you first met him, it was because you saved him. Maybe in doing so you created an unbreakable bond, and he is tethered to your side until the debt is repaid.”

“But I don’t want-” I began. I didn’t want Hawthorne to be bound to me because he felt obligated to repay a debt.

“Jack, you’re talking like its magic.” Camryn whispered.

“Well, why not?” He folded his arms, “two thousand years ago there was no such thing as Mages. The humans called us magicians at first. If we are possible, why can’t this be?”

We were all silent for a long while, until I found my voice, “So does this mean he won’t be able to fly away from me until the debt is repaid?” I muttered.

Hawthorne looked at me with reproachful eyes that quite clearly stated that he never wanted to leave me, even if he could.

“What if Jack’s wrong?” Camryn began slowly.

Jack scoffed, “I’m always wrong.”

“Shut up. I mean, what if it’s not the fact that there’s some silly, mystical debt to be repaid?”

“Go on.” I liked the idea that Hawthorne was not in my debt. He was not my prisoner.

“It’s simple.” She said, “Love.”

“L-” I bit down on my tongue, “That?”

“Why not?” She said defensively.

I looked at Hawthorne who held the same expression as my own. Could that be it? The fact that I loved Hawthorne so dearly, and he loved me so much in return was like a great invisible force, bonding us together.

“Yeah, yeah, love and the bond that was formed when you saved him.” Jack agreed eagerly.

I laughed at Jack’s eagerness to be right.

“Maybe.” I muttered, stroking Hawthorne and stifling a yawn, “But that still doesn’t help us teach him to fly.”

Jack checked his Time-Keeper in the moonlight, “Its two o’clock in the morning.” He noted, “Perhaps we’d better call it a night.”

I huffed and got up from my crouching position, Hawthorne following my lead.

As we walked back to the stables I heard the crack of a twig in the nearby trees. Hawthorne’s ears pricked up and a growl formed menacingly deep in his throat. It was quite a scary sound.

“What is it?” I whispered to Hawthorne, squinting through the darkness.

Jack and Camryn had come to a stop too, looking around for the source of the noise.

“Someone’s there.” Jack whispered.

“Probably a squirrel.” Camryn muttered, though she sounded nervous, “C’mon, let’s get Hawthorne into his stall and go to bed.”

I nodded and headed for the stable door once again, but Hawthorne didn’t move. The hair on his back was standing up menacingly, his face contorted into a threatening scowl as he glared into the trees.

“Hawthorne, stop it.” I hissed, “It’s just another animal.”

But Hawthorne’s coat rippled from purest white to jet black in the blink of an eye, making him absolutely terrifying.

Fear gripped me. It wasn’t like Hawthorne to be so hostile. Did he really sense danger? Some think that animals can sense things better than Mages. Hawthorne’s growl got louder, and he crouched forwards ready to pounce.

“Hawthorne, please, you’ll wake up the whole manor.” I begged, “Just come inside. It’s nothing.”

Crack. Another twig breaking.

Hawthorne let out a terrible yowling bark that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I’d never heard him make a noise like that before. Shivers of fear ran through my body. I clapped my hands to my ears and flinched. Surely that noise would wake the manor. Jack and Camryn looked at me fearfully. None of us knew what to do now. We were barely aware of the crashing and fumbling noises coming from the trees as someone ran from the sound. There had been someone there, watching us train. They had fled at Hawthorne’s warning cry.

Hawthorne did not pursue the stalker but retreated a few steps, still growling.

“Please Hawthorne! They’re gone now! We have to hide!” I hissed at him.

As though coming from a trance, Hawthorne blinked and shook himself before running with Jack, Camryn and I to the stables.

We bundled into the stables and ran to Hawthorne’s stall, stuffing him back in and getting him to lie flat on his side so he wouldn’t be seen. From a distance we heard the back entrance to the manor slamming open, and saw Charles accompanied by one of the large male chefs came onto the grounds, carrying a lamp through a window of the stall.

“Lie down!” Camryn hissed at me and Jack. We obeyed her and fell to our stomachs in Hawthorne’s stall as Camryn closed the waist high gate and bolted it closed.

Panting, Jack and I listened hard as voices came closer to the stables. I could hear Charles more clearly now.

“Sounded like a wild animal. Can’t have it running around the grounds.” He sounded nervous.

“Don’t worry; I brought the gun, just in case.” Said the other male, with whom I was not familiar with.

“I don’t see anything. Do you think it ran off?” Charles fretted.

“There’s a light on in the stables.” Said the other man. They sounded very close now.