8 Awry in the Sky (1/2)

A life that had always been prone to weird coincidences and bad luck, was on track to end with the weirdest, baddest luck of all.Nelda drifted every upwards, whipped along by intermittent bursts of wind.She felt the bridge of her nose.It did not seem broken, but she could feel a bulge over her eye and a cut from when she head-butted the cave wall.

The two satyrs had tied the ends of the ropes together to make a kind of makeshift swing that they sat on glumly.

It was getting colder and colder. There were wispy clouds around them, allowing only occasional glimpses at first of forest and then some kind of marshy moor.

”Have you tried thinking downly thoughts?” BugleHead offered.

”D-downly th-thoughts?”

HoneyBeard spoke up.”If she's not feeling down right now, she's even crazier than I thought.”

”Well, she's not doing the flappy kind of flying.So maybe she is doing the thinky kind of flying?”

”We're all doing the dying kind of flying,” HoneyBeard muttered.

A third, deep and sibilant kind of voice, broke the silence.”Thisss one greets yourself.”

Out of the clouds, the enormous form of a dragon emerged with astounding silence.The breadth of its wings materialized from the mist above them, gliding in the wind.The dragon looked down at them with a head the size of a Mini Cooper balanced on a long sinuous neck.It blinked two large yellow cat-like eyes.

”Um, hello,” Nelda shouted.”I, um, wonder if you could help us out here?”

She glanced down to the satyrs who clung to the ropes with their eyes wide in static terror.

”What isss it that yourself requires?”

”I have recently taken up flying,” Nelda extemporized. ”And I seem to be having some trouble with the landing part.I wonder if you could help, um, put me on the ground somewhere.”

”Hmmm.It is an unusual accomplishment for a crawling being to become flighted,” the dragon said with what seemed like sincere praise.”However, this one is already late and if this one lands here in this one's current position this one may not be able to take off again.”

”Because you are, um, with egg?”