Evay Maver: I woke up to a giant crash barreling through my front door as a blur of auburn hair rolled next to my bed. Aurora’s eyes were wide and frantic as she shook me like a ragdoll, “WE NEED TO GET TO THE EMPEROR OR SOMEONE NOW! EVAY! WAKE UP!” She gave me a slap across the face and I held up my hands for protection,

“OW! OW! OK! I GOT IT! LET'S GO!” She pulled me out of bed and combed her hands across my hair and looked at me with concern,

“You haven’t been washing or cleaning your hair… I told you to not slack off on hygiene.” I pulled my head back and grabbed her hand,

“Let's go, we have a war to deliver, remember?” She nodded and sprinted towards the giant windows as her hair changed from a shiny auburn color to a violent shade of electric blue. She rammed her shoulders into the glass and it shattered into a million pieces as she leapt off of our three-story room and danced across the various roofs of the giant, beautiful buildings littered around the capital. I looked at her with wide eyes and shouted out as she sped across the city,

“I MEANT WE SHOULD TAKE THE DOORS! WHY WOULD YOU GO THAT WAY? AURORA?! WE NEED TO PAY FOR THIS!” Gold’s Veil adorned my body as I floated out of the window and ascended into the crisp, cool morning sky. The orange and pink morning skyline basked my entire body as I saw a blur of blue rapidly run along the capital floor. I flew after her and slowly descended onto the capital floor as I followed Aurora and her frantic race to the capital. She flipped over a wagon containing what seemed like hundreds of cabbages, slid under a carriage, and jumped over three marble palaces before somersaulting onto a patch of luscious green garden-grass. She dashed forwards with blinding speed as I descended even lower and closer to her until I was literally floating right besides her. I laid down on my side in mid-air and put my hand on my head, “looks like you’re struggling there.” I gave her a wicked cocky smile and she rolled her eyes,

“Ha, ha, ha, ‘I can fly and you can’t’, what a funny–WOAH–joke,” she rolled over a giant bridge and leapt over a canal while I floated higher into the air. She looked up at me and stared into my eyes with maximum annoyance as we both kept moving through the city, “Hey! Great idea! What if you just picked me up and flew me there?” I did a barrel roll in the air, turned upside down, and gave her my best teasing smile,

“I would but you did go on without me–and you also smashed through a very expensive window may I add.” She jumped up and tried to reach me but I quickly floated higher just out of her reach. I laughed loudly as Aurora started to get even more mad, “Almost! Here, try again.” I reached out my hand and her cute little eyes furrowed with anger–I smiled teasingly and waved my hand. We both leapt onto a giant red barn as huge green pastures and hundreds of cows, horses, and pigs grazed to their full intent. Giant wooden buildings were scattered around the farm as metal vats of something that smelled really, really, really bad stood tall along the skylines. It was weird–seeing a huge farm placed in the middle of an industrial capital…. I looked down at Aurora and she reached out for it again but her eyes filled with shock as her body suddenly dropped down like a huge stone over a cliff. She looked at me with wide eyes and a blank expression as we had both failed to see that we were about to fall into one of the giant metal vats that I had seen earlier. I looked into the vats and finally realized what was in them. They were filled with fertilizer–so much fertilizer….. My new and improved sense of smell caused my entire body to nearly faint as Aurora’s face began to fill with panic. I dove down towards her and grabbed her hand while plugging my nose and immediately shot towards the sky. We rose higher, and higher, and higher until we were far above the clouds. I gasped for air and started to descend back below the skyline as Aurora started to smack me while talking in between her hits,

“I–smack–TOLD–smack–YOU-smack–TO–smack–CARRY ME INTO THE AIR!” I shooed her hands away and smacked her fingers out of my face as I did a couple barrel rolls while being blinded by Aurora.

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“LISTEN I TRIED! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT WE WERE ABOUT TO FALL INTO A VAT OF SHI–” Aurora stopped smacking me and her eyes went wide with panic,

“EVAY! MOUNTAIN!” An enormous mountain filled with giant trees and greenery appeared in front of my face as I grabbed tight onto Aurora. I blasted off of the air itself and flipped over the mountain as both of us turned upside down for what seemed like an eternity. We eventually flipped back around and I kept grabbing onto Aurora as we descended into the forested treeline. Giant trees and branches popped up in front of my face with extreme speed as I steeled my nerves and focussed. I spun around a massive tree branch, flipped over a huge oak tree trunk, and pushed my way through a giant patch of branches before soaring over the tree line. I coughed and sputtered loudly and tried to blink the spare leaves and sticks out of my eyes as I soared wildly through the forest. Aurora looked at me with a glint of humor in her eyes, “So you missed the giant mountain that was literally right in front of your face,” I rolled my eyes and she let out a little giggle, “Thank you for carrying me into the air–now let me get those things out of your face.” She smoothed my hair and brushed a bunch of leaves off of my face as she flicked my forehead with a little smile, “You know you look really cute when you furrow your eyebrows like that.” I looked at her with confusion,

“What? That’s my focused face, I’m supposed to look scary and terrifying–I’m not supposed to look cute!” She giggled and pulled some mud and sticks out of my hair,

“Well Goldilocks, I think that you’re adorable.” I looked into her eyes and suddenly started to feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. The sunlight hit her auburn hair so that it looked like she was glowing with a warm, autumn buzz. Her eyes shone like flashy golden coins and her clothes and hair fluttered in the cool morning air like the wings of a flying dove. She looked intently into my eyes as I returned her gaze. For the first time in a while I slowed down to a stop and held Aurora in her arms over the giant emerald green forest. It was a really weird feeling–we were on a very important mission to deliver some life changing news to the emperor of Taegan, and if we didn’t succeed the entire nation would be invaded without warning. We were on the verge of war and would be fighting for our lives in a couple weeks but it all felt a little small. I didn’t really know why all of this was happening–why I was here, why Hiem chose me, why I lied about what had happened at the championship, or why I was fighting in the war. I was on a mission to avenge my family, to kill noble Wyren….. A small laugh went off in my head.

Ha, noble Wyren–how many lifetimes ago was that?

I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do and a lot of stuff that needed to be done but when I looked into Aurora’s eyes all of that stuff went out of the window. I wanted to say sorry to everyone I wanted to avenge ...to my old self for not devoting myself to killing noble Wyren, to my friends and family for not trying to avenge them, to Amie for not trying to avenge her and for….. replacing her. It always dug at my soul and chipped away at my heart as I felt like I was leaving them behind. I had promised myself that when I had gotten power I would protect myself and avenge the ones that had been wronged by the powerful in the past…. It was my entire plan…it was all that I had dreamed about for my entire life. But when I was with all of them–my friends–and with Aurora all of my past goals sort of... disappeared. All my worries were swept away, all of the doubts, the bad memories, the pain, and the deep pit of misery temporarily flashed out of existence. It felt so nice not to remember the past for a little while and it felt so much better when I was with her…. Aurora looked into my eyes and spoke with the softest, sweetest voice that I had ever heard, “The delivery mission can wait a little bit…right?” I nodded and held her face in my hands as I combed her hair out of her face and brought my face closer to hers,

“Just a little bit,” I closed my eyes and felt Aurora’s lips press up against mine as we embraced in the air, all alone, quiet, and isolated from everyone else. The pink skyline enveloped us in a giant hug as I held her head in my hands. I’d seen and felt a lot of weird things over the past year–I had been hit with way too many liquor attacks, I had been burned, stabbed, and punched more than I could count, I had a blueprint burned into my body, I had died, come back to life, and dunked my head into the fountain of youth. It all felt so overwhelming, so difficult, and everything always felt like too much. But this time, and only this time, everything felt good.

For the first time in…well forever…

I felt happy.