Chapter Eighteen
Eathen and Katelin talked the rest of the afternoon away, and the sun was already beginning to set by the time that either of them looked out to see what time it was.
"So," Katelin began. "Do you wanna come out on the porch and watch the sun set with me? That is, if your leg is okay. I don't want you to hurt yourself." Her mind was racing the moments the words left her mouth. She, watched the sunset nearly every night so it was normal for her, but he didn't know that. Would he be expecting it to be romantic? She knew that his knowledge of normal interaction between people was lacking, but what was more romantic than a country summer sunset? Did she want it to be romantic, or rather, did she want to be romantic with him? They weren't that far apart in age and she'd already kissed him once.
Eathen could tell that Katelin was anxious, but didn't know why. Maybe it was because she didn't want him to hurt himself just to be with her. Eathen couldn't help but smile at the thought of her concern. "My leg is fine." he said fanning away her concern. "And I would like that very much if you wouldn't mind the company."
The two of them walked to the porch in an almost awkward silence, broken only by the sound of Eathen's sword hitting the ground, the one that he was still using as a cane. As they stepped out on the the porch they both noticed that there was a strong wind coming in from the opposite direction direction as the setting sun.
Katelin shivered and Eathen noticed even though she tried to hide it. "It's a little chilly, do you need a jacket or something?" he asked and almost instinctively began searching for the nearest jacket."
Katelin stood up. "Yeah, I'm gonna go grab one. Do you want me to get you something too?" she asked.
"I'll be fine, but thank you." Eathen said.
Katelin would've argued, but she knew that with as tough as he was a little bit of cold wouldn't bother him in his baggy sweat shirt and sweat pants. She however, was in a thin tee shirt, boy shorts, and hated being cold. So she grabbed her winter coat and snuggled close to Eathen on the porch swing.
"I'm back, hope you didn't miss me too much." she said with a smile.
After several years of training under Master Sam, Master Jason, and Master Miller, Eathen was quite skilled at sarcasm and the art of wordplay. "Nope, you made it back just in time." he said with a smile.
"Just in time for what?" she asked, just as he hoped she would.
Eathen did his best to hide his smile and look as desperate as he could. "To save me. I don't know if I could've gone another moment without you." he said letting his smile come through.
Katelin started to blush. "Don't forget that I did save you once already." she said giving him a playful nudge and blushed even more as he let her get even closer and took her hand in his.
"I'll never forget that you saved me. Ever." Eathen said, meaning every word.
Katelin didn't know what to say so she gave his hand a gentle squeeze and turned to look at the setting sun. It was painting the sky almost purple and the clouds red and orange. "It really is beautiful." she said. "The sunset I mean." she added and laid her head on his shoulder.
Eathen had seen the sun set on more than a few different worlds, but it was different here. He hadn't paid much attention to the simple beauties of life much before and maybe, he let himself think that this particular sun set was so wonderful because he was sharing it with Katelin. "It is nice." he said after a few moments.
"Is it like this on other planets?" she asked.
"Kind of, but this is different." he said.
"Different how?" she asked.
Eathen thought for a moment, trying to think of how to put it into words. "The sky seems bigger and clearer here. It's beautiful." he finally said, leaning his head against hers.
"Do you ever wonder what it would look like from up there?" she asked, lifting her head to the sky.
"I use to." Eathen said, thinking back to when he was a little younger in age, but much more so in experience.
"I bet it was beautiful. I've always wanted to fly, to see everything from up there must be magical." she said.
Eathen stood up and using his shockhaven to help him walk, without a limp, out into the yard.
"What are you doing?" Katelin asked following him out to the yard.
"Do you wanna see it?" Eathen said and she looked even more confused. "The sun set from the sky." he added, trying to make sense to her. Katelin still didn't have a clue what he was trying to ask her and it showed. Finally he said, "Do you want to fly with me and see the sunset?"
"How?" she asked, still confused.
Eathen took off his sweat shirt and smiled. He wasn't normally a show off, but he wasn't shy either. He sent the sweatshirt to the porch swing and created a small glowing red orb of shockhaven energy, maybe a half a foot in diameter, and held it hovering in front of his chest. He would have to get use to the new color, he thought to himself. Eathen spoke five words to the orb the Katelin couldn't make and then pushed it into his chest. Then he started to glow and out of his back shot two wings over seven feet each. As the glow faded Katelin saw that the glow had changed Eathen somewhat. He was slightly taller and looked a little older and the two giant wings were covered in bright red feathers.
"Do you want to fly with me?" he asked again.
Katelin stumbled forward with her mouth hung open in awe. She reached and started to stroke one of Eathen's wings. They were soft, but still looked like they were more than powerful enough to get the both of them airborne "How is this even possible?" she finally asked.
"I promise to tell you all about it later, but if you want to see the sunset then we should hurry." he said extending his hand to her.
Katelin hesitated, but it wasn't that she didn't trust Eathen. However, to be fair, he did fall out of the sky to even get here in the first place, and Katelin was certain that she wouldn't survive a fall from the clouds. On the other hand he was giving her the chance of a lifetime and she knew that wouldn't put her in danger. At least not real danger. Finally she took his hand, Eathen pulled her close, and wrapped his arms around her waist and she wrapped her's behind his neck.
"Hold on tight." Eathen said as he started to beat his wings hard, kicking up little clouds of dust. If he were on his own he would've simply used his shockhaven to augment a jump and taken to the air that way. However he wasn't alone on this flight and as jerky and rough as that type of take off could be for one person he thought better of it. Besides, he wasn't in a hurry and this wasn't combat. This was a nice relaxing flight, whose only purpose was to be just that, nice and relaxing.
Slowly the two of them rose into the air and started to gain more speed the higher they went. Eventually they stopped flying up and started flying out towards the setting sun with their bodies parallel to the ground below.
"This is amazing!" Katelin called out as she held on for dear life. She knew that she was probably smothering poor Eathen, with her chest as tight as she was squeezing him, but she couldn't bring herself to stop. She'd never been so terrified in her whole life, but she'd never felt so alive.
She kept moving her head around trying to get a better view than what she had, given that she was upside down. This flight was for her, Eathen thought to himself as he tilted his wing so that they rolled and he was the one upside down. "Is that better?" he yelled over the wind. At least he tried to yell, but he was smothered by Katelin's jacket.
Finally Katelin loosened her grip when she realized that she couldn't hear him. As much as Eathen enjoyed being able to do this for Katelin, he couldn't fly upside down, he could only glide. "Let go of my neck and I'll spin you around so you can see better cause I can't fly really well upside down." he said.
Katelin looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Are you crazy?" she asked.
"I've got a hold of you with my shockhaven. You couldn't fall if you wanted to." Eathen said with enough certainty that Katelin guessed that he'd been holding her the whole time.
She'd already trusted him enough to fly without
even a word of safety, so this was just one more step in trusting him. One that she was happy enough to make if it would make this easier on Eathen. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, waited for him to recover, and slowly let go. The feeling that followed was something that Katelin had never experienced before and had trouble putting into words, but she would never forget. When she let go she expected to feel the air pull her back, she expected to feel Eathen's physical grip around her waist tighten, but what happened was anything but expected The rushing air that she could feel on her face and through her coat stopped completely. At least her ability to feel it stopped. She could still hear it as though nothing had happened, but what she felt was a stillness of air like she was in some sort of a small room with no draft. Then slowly she began to turn. At first she thought that Eathen was holding her still while he turned right side up around her, then she realized that she was the one that was actually moving and not that the sky and ground were changing places. It was weird, because she couldn't feel anything moving her or forcing her to turn and then she came to the realization that the absence of feeling was Eathen's shockhaven. She'd never felt her own shockhaven before, so why should she be able to feel his? This was question she would have to ask him later on the ground.
Even though Eathen had himself and Katelin in his haven awareness and control, he hadn't touched her shockhaven with his until he went to turn her. She had a golden warmth that glowed and to him it matched her beauty perfectly. Master Jason had told him that the color of a person's shockhaven was something that even he hadn't managed to learn how to change at will. The color of a person's shockhaven tells you what defines them as a person. Katelin's golden glow said that in spite of all of her loss, or maybe because of it, she was still innocent. She shown with an untainted golden glow while he burned with a blood red crimson that gave truth to the deep anger that raged beneath his calm exterior. The thought was sobering for Eathen. Until now Katelin had know him as an innocent child, a boy in training. Once he explained how this flight was possible and where and how he learned about his wings, her thoughts of his innocence would be gone for better or worse. He had healed enough now that, if after she heard all of the things he'd done she wanted him to leave, he could. for now though, he would do his best to enjoy this moment with Katelin as much as possible.
Katelin was oblivious to Eathen's inner turmoil. The sunset was beautiful and flying was amazing. They had to be a couple of miles away from the house already and the sun had out run them and slowly set before them. With the sun went the warmth and Katelin started to worry about Eathen since he didn't even have a shirt. "Maybe we should head back. It's getting kind of cold." she said.
"Yeah," Eathen said, coming back from his distant thoughts. "You're probably right." he added, resigning himself to the inevitable. With only Katelin's comfort in mind he used his shockhaven to block the wind on the quiet flight back to Katelin's farm.