Utopia of The Infinite [C]

The quiet was the first sign.

Not calm and peaceful, but the wrong kind of quiet. Lyra had to stop in the middle of a sentence because her voice was shaking. The ones that stopped the wind from breathing.

Auri looked up from the front of the ship.

"Do you feel that?" She asked in a low voice.

Rhei was in the middle of a repair hatch. 

"How do you feel? I've been knee-deep in old wires down here. Please be more clear”

Instead, Lyra spoke up, her eyes fixed on the horizon. 

"The sky stopped moving"

The clouds above them were no longer clouds. They changed into something slower and heavier, folding in on themselves in ways that were too exact for weather. Misty strands curled up against each other like hands getting ready to clench.

Auri stood up and said.

"Something's coming. It's not just a storm either”

The first blast came in like a whisper but with teeth.

There wasn't a lot of shaking, but the ship shook sideways enough for Wen to fall and Mira to grab the bar next to her.

Izzy ran to the controls on the left side. 

"The price of stabilizers just dropped by 30%. I did not touch anything!"

"That's because the storm is changing the air pressure"

Wen said as he quickly scrolled through the report. 

"It's making the wind go around the ship instead of over it. It was like a tornado pulling us in”

Rhei came out of the hatch with a sparking tool in his hand. 

"A weather pattern that can feel will eat us? Wonderful. Add that to the list"

Auri yelled.

"We're not going to be eaten!" 

"Izzy, follow the emergency flight procedures. Wen, find me a way out that won't kill us"

"What about me?" 

Rhei asked as he ran quickly to the engine room.

"You? Don't let us fall from the sky"

Lightning flashed across the sky in long, wide lines that sparkled side to side. The next sound wasn't a crack. It was like hollow bones letting out a deep sigh.

The girl put her hand on the ship's wall.  Under the rough surface, Mira could feel that something was wrong. Something living. It wasn't aggressive, though. Just scared.

She said in a whisper.

"I think something's inside the storm"

No one heard her. As she looked toward the front window, a streak of silver passed by. Not trash. Wings.

"I saw something fall!" 

Mira yelled and ran quickly to the loading hatch. 

"It's alive!"

"Hold on, Mira!"  Auri made noise.

Mira was already putting the harness on, though. 

"I can bring it in. All I need is a line and someone to help me catch the wind"

A calm Lyra walked up to her and said.

"I'll go. I can read the pull. Believe me”

Auri clenched her teeth. 

"One minute" she said.

With a loud scream, the door opened.  Mira attached herself to the line. The wind blew past her ears and pulled on her hair. Lyra pulled herself up on the edge and watched the swirling air with eyes that were slightly lit up.

She called out.

"There! Drop now go left!"

Mira fell down. It was a terrible storm. She put her fingers together around the smooth, feathery fur.

The animal was bigger than it looked from above. It looked like a cross between a hawk and a fox, and there was a light glow around it's eyes. One of the wings was bent in a way that hurt Mira.

She slowly pulled it into the ship and held it close. The storm howled again, but this time it was quieter, like it was watching.

She said in a whisper.

"It's okay. I have you"

Sera had already arrived. Even though the ship was shaking, she knelt next to the thing with her hands steady.

Mira told her.

"Don't touch the broken joint yet. That's deep. I think it hit the edge of the flow”

Sera said

"Yes" 

She held her hands over the cut. She touched something and warm, low-level golden light came out, like the sun rising through fog.

The thing didn't fight. It leaned toward her touch.

Sera slowly let out a breath. The magic was moving through her, making her body shake.

She said in a low voice.

"I'm not just healing it. It's making my back better"

All of a sudden, everything stopped. There is no wind. Nothing. Nothing but quiet.

Then a shape appeared out of the sky. Wings. It is very big and made of stars and stormlight. It looked like the feathers were made of bands of violet and silver that caught the sky's breath.

Zephyra went down like a dream falling.

She floated just above the ship, her eyes bright and her face hidden. She had a body the size of their whole ship, but she moved through light like mist.

Rhei fell backwards.

"Tell me that's not the final shape of the storm"

Auri said.

"It's not"

And she was barely breathing. 

"She is the one who is fighting it"

The animal in Mira's arms made a weak but hopeful chirp. The Zephyra landed.

That's right, she didn't talk. But the air around them changed. Each girl had her own feeling.

Lyra felt the stars line up again in her chest. Mira felt like her heartbeat was in time with something very old. In Auri's mind, she saw a map come together.

Sera was so at peace that it made her cry.

Zephyra dropped her head, and her feathers danced across the edge of the ship. There was nothing she asked for.  She did nothing but watch.

Mira took the lead. She said in a whisper.

"She was watching us. Don't test. To see if we would care”

Sera said

"Yes. And we did"

Zephyra spread her wings. One gust clean and soft. The clouds opened up like curtains. The wind stopped. The storm turned into the sky.

She was gone.

For a while, they didn't talk. The ship sailed slowly, not hurt, enjoying the peace and quiet.

Izzy took a deep seat on the deck. 

"All right. Okay. The giant dream bird just saved our lives and made our sky puppy better. What did I miss?"

Auri gave a small smile. She said.

"Nope. That's pretty much it"

Later, when the stars came back out, Mira put the sleeping sky-beast next to her blanket while Wen stared at her screen.

In her code, a new sign had shown up. A feather. Softly shining.