Poppy's Adventure

Vael bucks through the icy dark, his wings laboring. Below, the ravine vanishes into cloud, but ahead, a slit of amber torchlight breaks the mist, a ridge-line signal near the rendezvous point.

The hunting horn answers again, closer now, its rhythm steady enough to follow. Vael twists hard, trying to angle away, but the strain ripples through his great frame.

A gust hammers them sideways. Poppy’s grip slips on the hot scales, and Vael dips toward a jagged line of black stone jutting from the cloudbank.

He beats upward once more, fighting the air and the spell alike, and the amber signal ahead sharpens into a marked landing ledge, close enough now to reach if they survive the next dive.

Poppy locks both arms around Vael’s scorching scales, feet sliding for an instant before they bite in again. Her body flattens to his back, and the dive stops being a threat and becomes a choice.

Vael answers with a hard twist of his wings, banking toward the amber ledge. The horn sound smears behind them, thinner now, swallowed by cloud.

The ravine falls away beneath them. Mist tears open, and the lit landing ledge broadens in front of Poppy like a promised handhold.

Vael drops at the last breath of height, his shadow slicing over stone. Poppy’s grip holds, tight enough to steady the plunge as the ledge rushes up.

Poppy shifts her weight forward, and Vael follows the change without a word. The ledge snaps into the right place beneath them, amber light washing over claw, stone, and her braced hands.

She releases one arm just long enough to catch the edge with her forearm, then drives her knees down as Vael lowers his chest. The landing hits hard, but it holds.

A jolt runs through her shoulder from the impact, sharp enough to sting, and the grip she has to reset leaves her palm burning. Still, she stays on the ledge.

Behind them, the wind claws at the ravine mouth and the hunters' voices fade into the cloud. Their lantern light wavers somewhere below, half-swallowed by mist.

Ahead, the lit landing platform waits in full view, ringed with wet stone and amber glow. For the moment, the ledge is theirs, but the darkness beyond it stirs.