She nodded, so he spread his own white wings and jumped off of the rocks. He dipped down for a moment before he got up enough speed to start gaining altitude. Then he swooped upward. He found a rising thermal and circled higher until the caravan below was only a string of dots, like ants. “All right,” he said in Littlespark’s ear. I’m going to let go now.”

“I’m scared,” she said. “We’re so far up!”

“All the more time for me to catch you in. If anything goes wrong, I’ll be right here. I won’t let you fall, I promise. You ready?” When Littlespark nodded wordlessly, he let go. She gave an excited shriek and for a moment she tumbled through the sky, but then her wings came open and her fall slowed. She stopped tumbling and pulled up in a smooth glide. Aidan came up next to her and gave her a thumbs-up. “See! I knew you could do it! Come on, let’s catch up with the caravan!” He banked sideways, adjusting his course to follow the road that twisted below. Littlespark followed his example, though she turned too far at first and had to correct herself. Soon the pair was soaring over the tiny string of wagons below. Aidan dipped downwards and waved at Flame Song. Littlespark followed, gleefully buzzing the wagons. Aidan had a bad moment when he thought she might have gone too low, but she pulled up easily. She was already mastering her ability to fly. He laughed and shouted, “You’re doing great!”

They flew until Littlespark began to tire. Her wing muscles were unused to the activity. Her landing was a bit clumsy, but she made it down just fine. Aidan set down next to her and they ran to the wagons. Littlespark climbed up, saying excitedly, “Did you see that?”

Flame Song hugged her and assured her that yes, she had in fact seen her flight. Then she turned her emerald gaze to her husband. “Are you going now?”

He shrugged and said, “I might as well. I’ll spend a couple of days in Aerievale and then try and catch up. If all goes well, I’ll probably reach you by the time you dock at Snowcap.”

Flame Song jumped down off of the wagon and gave him a hug. He hugged her back, suddenly wondering if he should go. There was a faint uneasiness in the back of his mind. He didn’t want to be away from his family, but it was more than that. He couldn’t pin it down, it was just a vague something. Still, Thomas had been an elderly aerian when Aidan had first known him, and if he didn’t go see his friend soon, he might never have the chance. Reluctantly he stepped back. The wagon had continued on down the road. Flame turned and jogged after it. When she reached it, she climbed in with the children. All four of them waved at him. He waved back. Then he spread his wings and launched himself skyward. Without Littlespark’s extra weight he had no trouble getting off the ground. He circled the wagon once, waving again and then he turned his course southward.

He was still along way from Aerievale when the sun set that night. His tiredness dragged at him, he still hadn’t recovered fully from the Clan’s last quest, so he made camp for the night. He remembered his last attempt to visit Thomas. He’d stopped at a tiny village just north of the high peaks where Aerievale lay to spend the night. He’d been waylaid by a would-be vampire hunter, but in the end she had let him go. He wondered for a moment how Shauna was doing.

He awoke reluctantly some hours after sunrise. His internal clock enabled him to awaken as reliably as if he’d set an alarm. He could have slept longer, but he wanted to reach Aerievale that day. He could see the mountains rising ahead of him, south and slightly west of where he’d camped. Their tops were dusted with snow, their flanks green with forest. He took to the sky, headed for the towering peaks, the highest on Mysteria.

As he flew he kept an eye on the forest passing below. He wanted to feed before he reached Aerievale. He didn’t know how his old friend felt about vampires, but arriving hungry and in need of a meal wouldn’t help things. The land here was wild, the forest that passed below him thick and untamed. Few roads crossed it, and few indeed were the people who lived in the depths of it. Aidan passed over a wide meadow surrounded by towering trees and saw what he was looking for. A herd of deer grazed peacefully below. Since deer have no natural airborne predators, they never even looked up when his shadow passed over the herd. A moment later he’d dropped out of the sky next to a fat doe. With reflexes faster than human he grabbed her around the neck before she even knew he was there. She struggled silently for only a moment before he bent to her neck and his sharp fangs cut through her skin to reach the blood that flowed beneath.

The heady rush of it filled him with a flush of warmth and energy that was like nothing he’d known during his breathing life. It was a kind of high, but there was no following low, no crash. It was like the endorphin rush of battle, only there was no tension and no fear. It left him feeling revitalized like nothing else could.

When his hunger was sated he released the doe. She staggered a bit in shock. Then she bounded off after the rest of the herd, which had fled when Aidan landed in the middle of them. That was the reason why he preferred such animals, deer and elk, or horses and cows in more settled lands, it was because their large size allowed him to take his fill without harming them. Sometimes he thought it was ironic. The humanoid races of Mysteria and the humans of Earth feared vampires and regarded them as monsters, and yet he left the animals he fed upon alive, while they killed to get their dinners. He was no activist, no animal rights fanatic; kill to live was the natural order, he knew that. He hadn’t been a vegetarian before becoming a vampire either, and his own wife was a predator by nature. But he was very glad that he didn’t have to kill. Even the life of a deer was a life, and taking life wasn’t something he did easily.

That thought brought back memories, both good and bad. He was headed now toward the place where he had first killed a man. And he was headed also to see the man who had helped him begin to turn his life around.