‘Get on and we will fly,’he toldme.
I didn’t need to be told twice. With the sound of giant stomping feet in the distance and the threat of that female breeder coming back, I was so out of there. I would be waking up soon anyway, so flying the skies until that happened seemedbest.
As I threw a leg over him, he turned his head back unnaturally far.‘Why is Kit covered in Galadria food?’he asked, sniffing myleg.
My eyes widened, and it took me a second to get his meaning. The greenstuff.
‘Oh. I was trying to mask my scent so the giants wouldn’t eatme.’
Roger nodded.‘Kit issmart.’
His wings snapped open then and he boosted off the ground, taking to thesky.
I petted the side of his rib cage.‘Thank you, Roger Marshmallow. I am forever in yourdebt.’
Roger nodded. ‘Dawn has asked Galadria council for permission to bring Kit to sky home. Permissiongranted.’
I froze. Sky home? The elusive place where Galadrias birthed, and raised their young until they were old enough to fly the Dream Wars, and find their own food and shelter? And I was invitedthere?
‘I… I’m honored, Roger. Thank Dawn and the council for me,’ I toldhim.
He was quiet a moment.‘You just did,’hesaid.
Wow. It was thateasy?
I laid my head on the spot between his shoulder blades, staring out into the dark green phosphorescent sky, and wondered what sky home would be like. Would I wake up before I’d arrived there? For once in my life, I didn’t want to wake up. I’d been talking with Dawn since I was a young kid. For ten years I’d been curious about sky home, about how the Galadrias lived their lives. Now I was finally going to seeit.
We flew for over an hour, up and up and up, my ears popping a few times as we moved through thick green and grey clouds. I was just wondering if we were going to fly too high, to a point where my human body couldn’t take it, when we broke through the clouds and a brilliant golden white light washed over me. I sat up slowly, holding on to Roger’s sides, and stared at thatlight.
It was thesun.
Looking down so I wouldn’t hurt my eyes, I started to weep. I didn’t know why—maybe I was about to get my period or something— but for the past ten years I’d come to the dark, depressing Dream Wars, and knowing that somehow, the entire time our sun was being hidden made mecry.
‘Is Kit hurt?’Roger asked, worry filling hiswords.
I laughed.‘No, Kit is happy. Kit likes thesun.’
‘The warmlight?’
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. ‘Yes, Kit likes the warm light. It reminds me ofhome.’
Roger nodded.‘Every planet we go to has a warmlight.’
That wasn’t a surprise to me. You needed the sun for humanlike life toexist.
‘The warm light kills the hatchlings, so the breeders hideit.’
Now thatdidsurprise me. I tucked it away for possible futureuse.
I was about to ask him more about the breeders when a large floating island came into view. It was literally a floating hunk of dirt in the sky, filled with lush hyper-colored plants and hundreds of Galadrias of all sizes. I just stared, my mouth hanging open as we flew closer and started to descend over the top of it. It was about the size of a large shopping mall, big enough that I could walk the perimeter in a couple hours but too small for the entire Galadria race to live up here full time. As we landed, I saw a huge clear jelly-like lake, something I’d never seen there before, and off to the side a smaller green pond where a few medium-sized teenage Galadrias weredrinking.
‘Roger. It’s incredible,’I saidbreathlessly.
Dawn was waiting for me with four extremely large Galadrias behindher.
‘Roger loves sky home,’he toldme.
I could see why. It was like a calming oasis in the middle of the evil shit storm of the dark DreamWars.
