Flash fiction: Homecoming.
Mar. 12th, 2010 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jolantruInspired by this:
***
She heard them even before she saw the familiar shadow - so huge! - on the fields. It was the soft rustling of large leathery wings and the whistling of fur on an aerodynamic body. She left her spinning and ran towards the Quetz now making a graceful landing, wings spread wide to provide balance.
"Sissie!
She frowned. Her milk name. She hated that. Her sister was still using it all these years. Shaking her head, she approached the tall figure walking up to her, dressed in the flight uniform of the Riders.
"You know," she said a trifle curtly, "I am Lifang. And you are Lixi."
Her sister - now a full fledged Guide-Rider! - grinned playfully, showing a set of perfect white teeth. Lifang had to quash a pang of jealousy. The Quetz's big sail-like pinions shielded them from the hot sun. The sheer beauty took her breath away. The wings reminded her of opalescent butterfly wings, a mottling of different bright colors. Green-blue-red-amber. The Quetz crawled alongside Lixi, its finger-claws making its wings functioning limbs too. It moved, Lifang noted, like a bat. Its long crimson beak slowly swayed, as if sniffling the air.
It had tawny fur, she noticed with surprise. Like the fur of the neo-lionesses. Golden, soft. She wanted to stroke the Quetz.
Lixi placed an affectionate hand under the animal's chin. For a moment, Quetz and Rider stood silent, communing. Something passed between them. Message? Emotion? Lifang waited, until her sister opened her eyes and turned around to face her, her expression calm.
"I hope there is food around," Lixi said and the Quetz clapped its jaws as if in agreement. "Vika is hungry."
With a sigh, Lifang brought her sister and Vika to the corral where the sand fowl were kept. Questions about being a Rider had to wait.
***
She heard them even before she saw the familiar shadow - so huge! - on the fields. It was the soft rustling of large leathery wings and the whistling of fur on an aerodynamic body. She left her spinning and ran towards the Quetz now making a graceful landing, wings spread wide to provide balance.
"Sissie!
She frowned. Her milk name. She hated that. Her sister was still using it all these years. Shaking her head, she approached the tall figure walking up to her, dressed in the flight uniform of the Riders.
"You know," she said a trifle curtly, "I am Lifang. And you are Lixi."
Her sister - now a full fledged Guide-Rider! - grinned playfully, showing a set of perfect white teeth. Lifang had to quash a pang of jealousy. The Quetz's big sail-like pinions shielded them from the hot sun. The sheer beauty took her breath away. The wings reminded her of opalescent butterfly wings, a mottling of different bright colors. Green-blue-red-amber. The Quetz crawled alongside Lixi, its finger-claws making its wings functioning limbs too. It moved, Lifang noted, like a bat. Its long crimson beak slowly swayed, as if sniffling the air.
It had tawny fur, she noticed with surprise. Like the fur of the neo-lionesses. Golden, soft. She wanted to stroke the Quetz.
Lixi placed an affectionate hand under the animal's chin. For a moment, Quetz and Rider stood silent, communing. Something passed between them. Message? Emotion? Lifang waited, until her sister opened her eyes and turned around to face her, her expression calm.
"I hope there is food around," Lixi said and the Quetz clapped its jaws as if in agreement. "Vika is hungry."
With a sigh, Lifang brought her sister and Vika to the corral where the sand fowl were kept. Questions about being a Rider had to wait.
