Before Diana knew it, she was looking up into the golden eyes of… of…
It’s Calvin,she thought, as she stared up into the wyvern’s scaly face.
It didn’t make any sense, and yet, it was also completely true.
I don’t know how I know, but….
It helped, she supposed, that the wyvern was currently emitting a deep, booming purring sound – almost like it was an enormous, scaled, winged cat. Diana was pretty sure it was meant to be a sound of reassurance – and it was working.
“That’s pretty soothing,” she told it, with a quick laugh. “It definitely makes you sound friendly. Not that I thought you weren’t! And – youarepretty magnificent, I have to say.”
The wyvern writhed a little, the brilliant sunshine that broke through the clouds shimmering on its dark green scales, turning the membrane of its wings into a diaphanous emerald canopy as it stretched them wide, almost as if…
Almost as if it’s showing itself off,Diana thought with another laugh.
Her heart was singing. She had to admit, before Calvin had shifted for this second time, she’d almost been expecting that somehow, she’d hallucinated the whole thing.
I suppose there’s still time for me to wake up and realize all this has just been a dream…she thought, but the idea dissipated as soon as she lifted her hand, and, walking across the few feet that separated them, ran her fingers over the surprisingly soft and smooth scales that covered Calvin’s body.
The wyvern let out a low crooning sound, as if in approval, and when Diana glanced up at its face again, she could see that it was clearly preening, as if it was pleased that she’d called it ‘magnificent’.
“Well, you are!” she laughed. “There’s no other word for it!”
As happy as she’d be to sit here all day simply gazing at the incredible creature, running her fingers over its scales and shading herself from the sun beneath its wings, Diana knew that they also had a curse to break –andthere was the small matterof getting back before Ash’s activities were over and she had to go pick him up.
“Okay,” she said, gritting her teeth. “Let’s do this.”
Obligingly, the wyvern lowered its long body to the floor of the grassy clearing.
Diana couldn’t say she was an expert on the differences between dragons and wyverns, but Calvin having only back legs while he was in this form now seemed pretty obvious – as were his ice-breathing powers, since she’d always just assumed that dragons definitely breathed fire. But maybe that was just in fairy tales?
Well, I can find out more about it all later,Diana told herself. She still had about a million questions – and not just for Calvin but for Kieran too, and whoever else in this town turned out to be a shifter – but for now, she had to stay focused.
Okay. Here goes!
Getting a handhold on the study-looking arch of his wing, Diana pulled herself up onto Calvin’s back with an undignifiedoof!
It was a little hard to tell where she should sit, but she thoughtbehindhis wings probably wasn’t right – she’d just end up getting blown right off his back as they moved. So she shuffled forward, situating herself on his shoulders – or where she supposed his shoulders would be, if he had front legs – before leaning forward to wrap her arms as far as they would go around his neck.
“Well, here goes nothing, I guess,” she muttered. And then, louder, “Okay, Calvin – we can take off whenever you’re ready.”
The wyvern – Calvin – let out a quick trilling sound, as if to give her fair warning. And then, with a massivewhoompof his wings, they took off.
Diana gasped. She barely dared to look down, but in the end, she just couldn’t help it. She felt secure and safe on Calvin’sback, and so looking down at the rapidly diminishing view of the trees below wasn’t nearly as frightening as she’d thought it would be.
In fact, it’s… it’s…
Breathtakingbarely summed it up.
Diana stared at the forest laid out below them, in its brilliant summer greens. She’d never thought she’d see the world from such an angle. That was for powerful birds of prey who spent their lives soaring and hovering, the masters of their territory. Or, she supposed, for enormous mythical creatures, so powerful and mysterious that she’d never imagined for a moment that they really could exist.
The laugh that burst out of her was one of pure joy.
And it was loud enough that she felt the wyvern’s neck muscles shifting beneath her arms, as it turned its head to look back at her with something she could definitely identify asconcernin its golden eyes.
“I’m fine!” she called to it, the wind whipping her words away. “I’m just… I don’t know! I don’t know how to describe it.”
And really, she couldn’t.Werethere words to describe the feeling of riding on a wyvern’s back?
