Silver Bolt, Anasa, Nyuni, and Amana copyright to Silver Bolt. Serine, Erevu, Kipofu and Damu are copyright to Serine Hatake not to be used without either of our permission.

Oh and this is a different Anasa to the Anasa in John H Burkitt and David A Morris’s Under the Acacias. But of course praise to those two people, in which I have come to love TLK fan fiction.

Based loosely around the Disney animated movie The Lion King.

Questions, comments, abuse and praise to either of these emails:

silver_bolt_9787@hotmail.com and staceyliger@hotmail.com

Two Worlds United under One Sky

The sun rose fast over the scorched savannah as it greeted Erevu’s pride. The roar woke what little remained in his territory, the rains have been long overdue and the earth is cracking under the heat, slowly becoming uninhabitable.
They emerged gradually out of the comfort of their small cave, some that are completely awake exit first, whilst the sleepy ones linger.
There were seven lionesses including the queen, two cubs, and the king, Erevu himself. He ruled with an iron claw, strict and determined to keep his pride and his land. Erevu is handsome, well muscled and cunning, but has a short fuse when it comes to anything other than his queen and his sons, Kipofu and Damu. Like most of his Pride, his appearance is quite unique, he has a jagged ‘sock’ of a dark brown colour on each limb, and the rest of his body is the natural gold. His mane was long and shaded his eyes well from the sun; it too was a dark brown, although it came close to being black when not in sunlight. He held himself with great arrogance, but arrogance not misplaced. He was passionate about his pride, but even more so of the land that belonged to him. They had fought long and hard to acquire the land they had today.

“Wake!” yelled Erevu into the cave. The lionesses yawned which echoed off the caves walls.
“Good morning Erevu.” the lionesses all said in turn as he watched them come from the depths of the cave.
“I want the hunting party to head out early, bring back what –”
“What if nothing is caught?” interrupted a small lioness still looking as though she was asleep.
“–Bring back what you catch,” he finished, and nodded the huntresses to go to work.

“Hold it I have something special for you to do.” He told the little one as she started to wander past him.
‘Oh…wonderful, why can’t I just go and hunt with the others? I mean come on, they need all the help they can get in order to find anything…’ thought the little lioness with an awkward half-mane that was royal purple with a pink streak covering her right eye.
“You Serine, I want you to scout the western borders, observe what lies beyond, and whatever is seen report back to me at high sun understood?” Erevu commanded her.
“Yes-sir.” Serine said obediently with her head bowed and a look of dissatisfaction on her face.
“Good. Now go.”

She ran with the sun at her back towards the western borders which, she thought with a scowl aimed at Erevu, were the furthest from their cave.

As she ran she could hear the beat of her paws hitting the ground. It was hard under her paws; the grass was crisp and the same colour as her pelt, a soft tan.

Although most the pride had unique features, she was probably the most unusual lioness, not only because of her shocking half-mane but she had a tattoo of sorts on her left forearm, and three black bands, one around her neck, her right paw, just above the toes, and one at the beginning of her tail tuft.

She ran for a while, she had lost track of just how far she had run until she came to a bent tree that split and grew into two about half way up the tree.

This was the mark of the end of Erevu’s territory. She let out a deep sigh as she looked both ways down the invisible line between herself and the land of their neighbouring pride. ‘Best start… I choose… right.’ And she began a steady walk to survey the land as she was instructed.

‘Wow this is exciting… why is it that Erevu does not allow me on any more hunts? He must know that the more we have out there looking the higher the chance of a meal.’ As she was thinking of the food that has not passed her mouth in days, her stomach grumbled loudly, ‘I know. I know. I’m hungry.’

As she continued her walk, she saw a small bird fly down and land on a berry bush in front of her.

‘Hmm I’m surprised there is still fruit left on that thing…’ she shuddered at the thought of eating that which is not meat.

“EWW!” she said out loud, and it startled the little bird and he took off with a beat of his small wings.

She watched him fly away until she could no longer see him, and then continued her patrol.

She was daydreaming until she came upon another row of berry bushes. They were rather dry and it was capable to see through them clearly, Serine saw something move behind them, it was something much bigger than a bird but… it had wings. She bounded out from behind the bushes and bared her teeth growling,

“You know your trespassing!?”
He laughed, “Yes I know little one, don’t worry I wont be long I just wanted something to eat. Did you want some?” he offered her an eagle’s claw full of berries.
“Eww no thanks,”

“Suit yourself.” he replied, and chucked a couple in the air and caught them with his mouth.

Once she had calmed down she started to survey the odd other.

He had the wings and front legs of an eagle, his tail was made out of feathers too, but it was a rather long tail, almost the length of a normal lion’s tail.

The rest if him was lion, he was not that much bigger than Serine but his muscles were prominent. His face was handsome and his golden eyes complimented his dark red adolescent mane and dark brown wings well. “What ARE you exactly?” she questioned.
“A Flyer.” He said proudly adjusting his wings slightly so that the sun glinted off them. She could almost hear the capital of the word.
“…Well I can see that, the wings are a big give-away,” she said with little amusement in her voice, “but WHAT are you? As in species, are you a lion or a bird?”
“I’m neither; well let’s say I’m both. Part lion and part EAGLE not just any bird, the best one. As I like to say, the best two predators there can ever be, the king of the land and the king of the skies.” He chuckled as he continued to pick what little berries remained on the bush in front of him.
‘Erevu is not going to like this at all…’ she thought while eyeing this newcomer.
“He doesn’t have to know I’m here,” He said, looking out the corner of his eye at her.
Looking at him shocked, “Did I say that outlou… Never mind. What is your name?”
“It’s Silver Bolt, but you can just call me Silver. And yours?”
“I’m Serine, and how about SB instead?” She perked up still watching Silver.
“…Sure why not,” He grinned and looked up and examined the lioness,

“You know I’m a little surprised that you haven’t done anything yet, you’re unusually calm for a lioness,” he smiled.
She just looked at him with an eyebrow raised, and wondered how others would have reacted and what could have been the ‘normal’ reaction for this meeting, but she couldn’t think at the moment, her mind was darting between wanting to know more about this ‘Flyer’ and her assigned duty to patrol and report back at high sun, which was not far off.
“OH NO I HAVE TO GET BACK!” she yelled while looking at the crystal clear sky.
“Huh, why’s that?” Silver Bolt questioned her.
“Erevu… I’ll just be in a WHOLE lot of trouble if I don’t do my job. Are you going to stay around a while?”
“Possibly, I don’t know, I’m just wandering around where I please. Why?”
“Would you mind, if perhaps you could return tomorrow? I have a lot of questions I want to ask you.”
He gave a quick laugh and nodded his head,

“I’ll be around for a while okay. I’d suggest you get a move on.”

He knew this type of character, the type with a million questions to ask and will hardly let up until they get an answer, he could tell she was curious before she even proved it.

‘Well at least she is honest about why she wants me to stay around, and I am rather glad she is different to the other Landies I have met. It’s a relief.’ He thought as he watched her run off to find her king.

She had made it back to the cave only to find a small cub lying down just within its shadow.
“SERINE!” yelled the cub with a cheerful ring in his voice as he ran to her and danced around her paws.
“Hey there Kipo,” she gave a gentle nuzzle, “Where is your father and… hey where is your brother?” she questioned, usually if you see one cub, you would see the other either, underneath being pinned in a game, or somewhere close planning an attack.
“They both went off somewhere, I’m not sure where though… sorry...”
“Ah no problem I’ll just wait ‘till they get back, how are you today? I’d say you have grown a bit. You’ll become a fine king I think,” she complimented while placing a paw on his little tuft of maroon mane. He simply smiled and pushed her paw off his head.
“Not the mane okay!”
“Oh,” she chuckled, “okay then…” looking slyly at the innocent little cub, “HA!!!” she shouted as she wrapped both her paws around him and picked him up off the ground and gave him a very squishy hug he could not escape from. They both laughed and played until a familiar snarl came from behind them, it was Erevu and following, looking around his father with questioning eyes at the snarl, Damu.
“Get away from him!” Erevu glared and Serine backed away with her head low.
“I was waiting for your return sir. There is nothing to report on the western borders, nothing worth our time, everything is dead or dying out there, as is here. You must see this,” she began to muster her courage, “There is nothing left here and there is no sign of the rains coming anytime soon –” she was cut short.
“MIND YOUR PLACE!” he calmed his appearance and continued, “The hunting party has caught enough for only a few, there is not enough for yourself and some of the others.”
“…I understand sir.”
“You may go.” Erevu affirmed with arrogance abound.

As Serine walked away, tears came to her eyes when she heard Kipofu say, ‘Why isn’t there enough food for everyone Dad? I will share my food so everyone can have some’

Night greeted them with welcoming arms; the shade of the night sky cooled the ground that the pride laid on, since there was no rain to come some lioness’ slept under the heavens and dreamt of a bountiful land not known to them.
Two days had past since Serine had seen the flyer and she was beginning to fret as to whether he had stayed around. There was one day where a shadow the shape of him passed over the ground in front of her, but by the time she realised what it was and looked up, there was nothing there.

On the third day she was again ordered to scout the borders but Erevu was being especially mean and told her not to return until she had observed their entire border.

She was expecting the Flyer to have left but he was calmly circling over where they had first met.
He had seen her when she first started out from the cave not only because of her obvious mane colour but also because his keen eyesight given to him by the eagle side of him. He adjusted his wings and tail to come down and meet her just beyond the berry bushes.
Puffing and panting she spoke through gasps for air.

“I thought you would have left… I’m sorry I did not come back before…”
As he landed he replied, “Don’t worry about it, I could see you had your days planed out for you… that, and the fact I couldn’t decided where to go…” he chuckled.
She sat in the morning sun still catching her breath and he could help but ask;

“Why are you panting? It wasn’t that far to run.”
She just stared at him in disbelief, she had just run over a k as fast as she could, and to add to that she had not eaten for three days straight. This being the longest she has ever been without food.
“Hey, seeing as you have thrown several hundred questions at me; remember from our first meeting,” she nodded her head, “Well, my turn now.” He ended that with a grin appearing across his face. She began to worry.
“Wh –” he was cut short by an amazingly loud grumble, “…What was that???”
Serine grabbed her stomach as it growled at her, wanting more food. “Sorry, I’m a little hungry…” then smiling innocently up at his puzzled face.
“But your hunting party caught something, I saw them,”
“Yeah but, well you don’t get a lot when your near the bottom of the feeding order… well more like nothing when your as low as me… But no matter today will be better.”
“Oh, why so sure?”
“Honestly I don’t know. I’m just hoping they do,” Silver began to laugh. “I don’t see what’s funny?”
“Blind faith, it can lead you astray,” he answered. ‘But I suppose hope is what keeps most of these types of lions going…’ thought Silver as they began a hurried walk around the borders. Glancing at the continuous sunburned scrubland, it blended seamlessly into her homeland.

Upon return Serine once again had nothing to report, mainly because there was nothing worth reporting. It was mid-afternoon when she got back and most of the pride had returned for the day, some were inside the cave taking shelter from the sun.
“Where have you been?” said a lioness raising her head off her paws to inspect her.
“Surveying the borders, and I take it you have come back from the hunt?”
There was not a lot of care in their voices, as neither of them really liked the other, they would put up with each other but only to a degree.
“You took your sweet time about it.”
“And you seem to have done well with the hunt.” Serine rebutted coldly. She then lay down and drifted off into the dreamtime, where anything she wanted could happen, even the ability to fly like SB.

Over a moon passed with only a few visits between Serine and the Flyer. But in those few visits they got to know each other a great deal better, Silver was the one with the questions though, he learned a lot about Serine’s history, how her mother had kept her safe and far away from her actual pride and then once her mother abandoned her, she sought out Erevu’s Pride. She was told of Erevu taking in any lions that had been ‘exiled’. He was known well by those who were pushed aside from and/or by their families. He would take in lions for reasons unknown, perhaps for a larger and more powerful pride, to be able to fight for land and succeed. She had grown up in Erevu’s pride, for the most part, learning what little she could by observing. Serine even fought for the place she now called home; luckily no one was severally injured.
‘It’s a little awkward… talking about my past, I’m not use to it.’ Serine thought while on her way to see SB.
‘This lioness sure knows how to take her time…’ He thought while gliding through the warm afternoon air over a grouping of dead or dying trees, ‘Hmph, I wish she would hurry up, I’ve been flying over this spit of land so long I bet If I were blind folded I wouldn’t run into a single tree!’

“AH, IT’S ABOUT TIME!” Silver yelled at the tiny purple and tan dot. She looked up to see a large bird-like silhouette making its way down.
“What??? I came as soon as I could.”
“Well that’s not good enough,” SB said, and after he landed he turned his body and face away from the lioness and looking oh so snobbish, ‘lets see the reaction’ a smile appeared across his muzzle but Serine couldn’t see it and she thought he was being serious.
“But… I…” she gave out a sigh and lowered her head “I’m sorry…” Silver couldn’t hold it in any longer he started to laugh. He turned around to see the confused and angry female quickly raise her head to see what was so funny.

While laughing he was able to get out a few words, “Ah I’m sorry, but your reactions are classic!” wanting a little payback she began to walk calmly past him, her path took her along his side and then crossing in front. As she passed close she used a strong paw to shove him, he barely moved but it got the point across.

Serine then began to bound through the shrubs that dotted the dry savannah occasionally looking over her shoulder to see where the flyer was. When she looked back for the fifth time, she couldn’t see him, so she placed her two front paws firmly on the ground making her come to a complete stop. She then turned and glanced around wondering where he may have hidden but there wasn’t anything big enough to hide him.

‘This aught to be good,’ Silver thought evilly. He had taken to the skies when she had leaped over one of the many shrubs, timing her jump with his down beat so as to cover the sound and the dust. While she was looking around he flew behind her and landed as quietly as he could.

Serine heard something behind her but didn’t know what made the sound. She turned back and her face was only a few centimetres away from his, he had a huge smile.

“HEY!” he yelled.
“WHOA!!! TOO CLOSE!!!” she said while backing up out of fright.
“Ah cool it little one, hey looks you liked it, your smiling too!” he let out his loud laugh and walked away triumphant. “Hey wait what about Erevu?”
“What about ‘im?”

“Aren’t you meant to be back?? It’s getting late…” Questioned Silver.
“Meh I’ll get back a little late, no prob.” He looked at her with one raised eyebrow.
“Well I’m knackered I’m going to find somewhere to rest okay, I will see you later alright, little one?” He put emphasis on the ‘little one’.
“Yeah I’ll see you later… and I’M NOT THAT LITTLE!!!”
He extended his wings laughing and with two down strokes, ending up with Serine’s mouth full of sand, he took flight.

She sat there for a while thinking about nothing in particular, just imagining Silver Bolts’ home. ‘I’m certain his home would be better than here, well I guess anywhere is probably better then here…but why leave it…’

She wandered back to the cave, it was just on twlight and everyone was already inside.
When she arrived the greeting was not welcoming, the ones who did notice her absence merely glared at her wondering where she had been.
“Where were you today Serine?” Inquired Erevu, with a shockingly calm voice.
‘Well something’s wrong…’ she thought, “I have been out sir.”
“Clearly,” Erevu rolled his eyes and his tone of voice changed drastically, “WHERE were you? And WHY were you not helping your pride? This was your day for the hunt,”
Serine spoke out of turn, “But for the past moon you have had me search what is beyond our borders! I was not told.”
“MUST YOU BE TOLD EVERYTHING!? FOR THE PAST MOON YOU HAVE SCOUTED AND HAVE COME BACK WITH NOTHING!” He growled and realised that his two sons were watching him and immediately calmed down not wanting to scare the cubs. “Go to sleep, we will deal with this in the morning.”
She made her way past the intimidating king and went to her secluded corner to rest.

The night came fast with the moons light making its way into their resting place. That night was a restless one, but not only for Serine, who was feeling a little anxious as to what dawn may bring for her, but for Erevu and his cubs also. With there being two male cubs one and only one would become successor and they were coming to the age where there had to be one chosen.
The night dragged on for far longer than any of them had wished. When morning finally came it was greeted by a gathering of the pride.

“In order to keep my pride, and my family going, sacrifices must be made. There is a lack in food to sustain all of us, the more mouths there are; the more mouths there are to feed. I am saddened to say this but it is time to get rid of the weakest among us, the ones who lower our chances to find a meal.” He paused for a second then stared at Serine
“Serine, you are a weak hunter; you are unable to hide efficiently. In the past, hunts have been abandoned due to your ‘unusual’ mane colour, for one. The others, Nyuni and Amana, it is just your lack in skill. Sorry, but you are here-by exiled from this pride. Dare to return and you will suffer greatly.”
Serine’s heart sank at the mention of her name as the one to be exiled. She may not have had that much in skill, but that was only because of the lack in a teacher. All she knew she learned from observing the poorly planned hunts she had been on in the past.
All eyes were on her and the other two, as she stumbled slowly backwards in slight disbelief, whilst the other two turned with their heads down and started to leave, heading south. Erevu and some of the other pride members began to walk towards the three of them, edging them away towards the border. She turned and ran not looking over her shoulder for fear of seeing little Kipofu looking sadly at her. Although he was not her cub, she cared for him as if he were her own.

She ran unrelenting until she was well beyond the border, not able to see the pride and in another land. Unknown to her she had run past the western border, where she had met that strange flyer and where all their meetings had been. He was circling above gracefully on the wind drafts and saw the lioness down below. He came down as silently as he could, came up behind her and yelled;
“BOO!”

She jumped a few meters in the air and turned around to see that Silver Bolt was on the ground on his back laughing his head off at her reaction.
“…That’s not FUNNY!” she yelled at him but a small smile crept onto her face as she watched him.
“No, no im sorry you’re right you’re right, it’s not funny…” he tried to control his laughter but failed miserably, “IT’S HILARIOUS!” He continued his loud laugh and Serine joined in.

After they had both settled down Serine had remembered all the questions she had wanted to ask on their first meeting but couldn’t. So she blurted them out one by one, with no time between them for any type of answer. They were the basic questions, who, what, where, when, why and such. Even when she had finished asking the questions she still didn’t get a reply.
‘Yep I was correct; she is the type with the million questions… I can’t even remember what half of them were; they came out so fast…’ Silver thought during the space between her questions and the expected answer. So in answer he asked her one.
“Here’s one for you; aren’t you beyond your border?”
“Uhhh yes, yeah I am, why?” She began to pace and look at her surrounding to see if the area they were in was safe enough to remain in.
“Well it’s just that you lions are not the type to go wandering off into other pride’s territories. And it may be best if we get moving, better chance of not getting spotted I feel.”

“Well?” he asked her

“Well what?”

“Why are you beyond your border?” he asked again as they began to walk in no general direction.

“I was exiled because I can’t hunt and I get spotted too easily when I am in the hunting party.”

“And why are you hopeless at the hunt again?”

“Because I’ve never been ‘taught’ exactly that’s why”

“Oh right”

While they walked she kept an eye on him, she could not get over how strange he was, ‘He must be the only one of his kind, and I haven’t seen one like him before, there must be only him… Surely… Hmm’ that thought continued through her mind as their steady pace lead them to nowhere.
While walking they talked about many things, this and that and nothing in particular. Serine did most of the talking, throwing in as many questions as she could between statements to which no reply followed. Whenever there was a gap in her speech Silver would speak up. Each time he got a word in, it would be greeted by a smile and a look of excitement across her face. She was at last getting answers but they were vague. Of all their meetings he had never said anything about his history or where he lived, he only ever said that he was a new traveller.
She was ecstatic to have someone who treated her as an equal and who didn’t judge her.
He felt the same, plus feeling the vibe coming from the weird little lioness beside him, it was hard not to. Having someone who didn’t bow before him as though he was a divine being sent down by Aiheu. He didn’t have to put on a show or have to hold back. He was pleased at that fact. Because when he was brought up, he was taught to try and stay away from normal lions, because they would think of him, mainly just the Flyers in general, as angels sent by Aiheu and the only way to leave them in peace was to act as one and then leave.

They walked and walked and walked, and as they did they became even more comfortable around each other. Serine was telling Silver about how boring some days would get when Erevu would forget she was alive, when she noticed that Silver had stoped walking, he was standing still and staring straight past Serine

“What’s a matter SB?”

“Turn around” He replied, sounding annoyed.

When she did turn around she could see a rouge lion standing about ten feet with a evil grin on his face, he was looking at Serine with hunger in his eyes, but a hunger not for food.

He started walking towards Serine but started growling as soon as she ran back to Silver

“What is your problem man?” Silver yelled at the growling lion in front of him

“Your mate, I WANT her!” he replied looking at Serine.

“Get real!” screamed Serine at the same time as Silver started,

“Okay first off, she’s not my mate, and second, go to Hell!”
The rouge dove at Silver and attempted to tackle him. Silver knew what he was going to do the second the rogues body weight moved, so he launched himself into the sky and simply jumped over him, landing where the rogue was standing, while at the same time, Serine dove to the side out of the rogue’s way.

When the rogue realised Silver wasn’t there, he stopped and turned around,

“How the fuck did you do that?!”

“Watch your mouth!” stated Silver as he jumped him again, and the rogue’s swipe hit mid air.

‘He mustn’t have seen SB’s wings yet’ thought Serine as she watched Silver playing with the bigger lion in front of him.

After yet another jump over the lions head, Silver stated,

“No wonder you’re a rogue, you can’t even catch a SMALLER lion then yourself! HA! PATHETIC!”

“THAT’S IT YOUR DEAD!” Replied the rouge and he dove at Silver’s throat aiming for the jugulars.

Silver just sat there, and at the last second raised his taloned claw and drove it into the rogue’s chest, knocking the wind out of him and making him stop in mid air, then drop really hard to the ground right in front of Silver.

Coughing and trying to breath, he stood up and stared Silver straight in the eyes.

“How is it that you are so strong for a puny lion?” he asked in a mocking tone.

“Because I’m an Angel” Silver replied and stood up “The Angel of DEATH!” and he rose up onto his hind legs and snapped open his wings opening them to their full 15 foot length.

Serine giggled to he self as the rogue’s eyes got wider and wider until he realised what Silver was, and took off in the opposite direction with his tail between his legs.

Laughing, Silver landed back down and folded his wings back down his back.

“You just can’t help yourself can you?” Serine asked laughing and shaking your head.

“Never!”

After walking for another few km’s still laughing about the incident with the rouge, Serine, being overly excited and pleased to have made a new friend thought it was appropriate for a little glomp. ‘Hmmm’ thought Serine and she dived at Silver and attempted to glomp him.

“Too slow there Serine Ha-ha you will have to do better then that!” he said as he ducks her attempt and grabs her in a chest crushing bear-hug. When she starts struggling for air and tries to move, he notices that she has no chance of breaking his grip, so he tightens it in another hug, and then puts her back on the ground.

Still laughing he turns away from her, only to hear her body weight move in a quick pounce, screaming “Ha got ya off guard!” with obvious satisfaction in her voice, getting him in another glomp.

With her on his back, he turned his head.

“Gee look at that you got me,” he chuckled and he dumped Serine off his back onto the ground. The second she hit the ground he launched into the air and grabbed her again and shot straight up into the air.

“What are you doing SB?” Serine asked,

“Ha-ha you’ll see,” He got around a thousand feet in the air, gave her a quick grin and held her at arms length from his body, she opened her mouth to say something, but then he tilted his head in a smile and a shrug and just let her go.

She started screaming at the top of her lungs. She would have got around 50 feet off the ground, still screaming profanities at Silver when he caught her and placed her on the ground and landed ever so gracefully. Even though she was safe on the ground she was still screaming at Silver.

After she had calmed down she said to Silver, “You know, if you do that again I will kill you.”

“Sure sure.” he replied with a grin.

As soon as he finished she pounced him again in another glomp hug.

“That’s it now you’re going to get it!” he screamed as he flicked her in the air in front of him. As she came down to the ground, he grabbed her tail and took off into the air.

She started screaming at him, mainly out of pain because his teeth were cutting into her tail and was going to rip it off very soon. After getting about three feet off the ground, he tossed her up and caught her with his talons, without hurting her. The whole time she was screaming profanities at him, and promising him she will kill him, he laughed to himself, because he knew her better then to let the threats hit home.

Once he was around 30 feet in the air, and she had calmed down a little bit, he dropped her again, this time intending for her to hit the ground, but at the last second, realized she would severely hurt herself, so he dove down and caught her about 5 feet off the ground, then landed, only because she was going crazy and biting him and clawing at his neck.

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU SILVER!!! DON’T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!...”

He dumped her on the ground, and as she tried to get up on shaky legs, he started laughing his head off, and she pounced on him and slammed her teeth into the side and top of his neck and bit just hard enough for him to start bleeding but not enough to do any serious damage. The whole time she was biting him, he was just laying there laughing to himself.

“Finished now?” he asks, still chuckling.

She glared at him, but after a while she stops and just lies down next to him to bask in the warm sun of the afternoon. She closed her eyes and just began to daydream.

After a while he asks;

“Hey Serine…”

He turns his head to look at her. “…Serine?”

He starts laughing “Typical! Of coursed YOU’D fall asleep.” he said out loud still chuckling.

‘Hmmm ha-ha this will be good,’ he thought to himself, thinking up a very evil plan in his head.

He gave her ten minuets after he noticed her change in blood pressure and breathing pattern, which portrays that she had fallen into a deep sleep, he stood up, rolled her onto her side, as careful as possible, so as to not wake her, and laid down next to her, tucked his wings under, and as close to his body as possible, so as to not hurt them.

Still smiling to himself at his idea he placed her front right paw over his shoulder, and her back right paw over his hip, and in one quick movement, rolls and stands up, with her straight on his back. Checking that she is still asleep, he takes off into the air.

“Whoa this is different!” he says to himself the extra weight of the little lioness on his back was making his flying a little bit harder, ‘well not exactly harder,’ he thought to himself, ‘just more frustrating.’ He laughs as he begins to gain altitude.

He had carried others before, but that was with his legs not his back, and that was only in desperate emergencies, like when a poor lioness once got trapped in the middle of a fire and couldn’t get out, he had to dive and pick her up and took her back out of the fire, closer to her pride. ‘That’s probably why they think of us as angels,’ he thought and laughed to himself, because she was thanking him and Aiheu for saving her. He just said there was no need for thanks and took off.

After flying for a little while, he debated with himself as to whether it would be a good idea to take Serine to his homeland. She would be the only non-flyer to see it.

“Bugger it; I’ll deal with the consequences when I get to them.” He said out loud, and turned in the direction his heart told him to go. The direction Home.

He had been flying for around half an hour, and was beginning to get rather hot and sweaty, mainly because of the extra use his wings had to go through, it felt like he had been flying for half a day straight, not half an hour. He saw some clouds that were just above his head, so with a few extra beats of his wings, he climbed and soared straight through the clouds, drenching himself and Serine in cold, beautiful tasting rain water. After making sure she was still asleep, he went through another one. Feeling a little better he kept going.

After another half hour he had just soared over the cliffs surrounding his Homeland when he felt Serine’s body weight shift, she must have just woken up and tried to roll over, thus making her almost fall of Silver’s back.

In a quick sideways slip, he got her centre of balance in line with his again, but next minute heard her scream in his ear,

“WHERE ARE WE?!”

He just laughed, and a sudden yet evil idea came to him. Making sure her body weight wouldn’t move, he flew up three or four feet really quickly, so as to flatten her body down against him, as soon as he was sure she wouldn’t fall off, he tucked one wing under his body and rolled over in mid-air.

The resulting scream from Serine would have wakened the dead. He laughed as he heard her voice crack half way through the scream. As soon as she stopped screaming, she dug her claws in to make sure, that if he did do it again she would be ready.

‘Shoot that scared me, you evil bastard,’ thought serine, she was still waking up from the sleep and was wondering why she was so cold, when next minute the world turned upside down on her. She knew what had happened; Silver had felt like being evil and had rolled in mid-air.

“WHERE ARE WE SILVER!?” she screamed in his ear.

Instead of answering her he just angled towards the ground.

He got his back paws on the ground then next minute all Serine could see was the ground. Coming up really fast.

As soon as he landed on his back legs he put his chest down onto the ground with his fronts legs straight out in front of him, and that made Serine roll off his, back on the ground.

When she landed a cloud of dust came up around his eye level and started settling back down.

With his legs still out in front of him he stretched his back and felt a few of his vertebrae click back into place.

“OH that feels good!”

“…I don’t like it here…” exclaimed Serine looking around, the place where Silver had landed looked a lot like the lands on the east side of Serine’s old pride, they were barren, but not because of no water, its because nothing COULD live there because the terrain was so harsh.

“What’s not to like?" asked Silver after a little chuckle,
“I love it here, no one can get into this coven of heaven—”
“Heaven! It's a dirt patch SB!” Serine interrupted with a disgruntled look on her face.
“As I was saying, no one can get in here - except for us flyers.” he added with a little grin in Serine's direction.
“Anyway see that little hill over to your right?” he pointed with his right wing, “Once we walk up that and look into the heaven side of this canyon you won't be able to tell me you don't like it here, come on its about a half hour walk.”
“Or a three second fly…” Serine pointed out, still sitting on the ground.
“Yeah but that would take away the glory of it afterwards, believe me, you will thank me you walked up there and that I didn't fly you.”
“Okay fine!” exclaimed Serine with a sigh.
“Heha.” chuckled Silver.
“Okay let’s get going.”
“But, but...I still can’t feel my legs...” whined Serine still slumped in the dirt.
“Then moving will make things better, and seen as it is a half-hour walk I suggest you get started..." having said that he crouched and opened his wings to take flight.
“Wait WHAT!!!??? HOLD UP THERE SB!!!” she yelled as she ran behind Silver to grab his tail between her canines and planting herself firmly on the ground, “YOU’RE not flying anywhere either!!!”
A low bass snarl broke the early night as Silver Bolt slowly turned his head to face Serine pulling at his tail.
“You would want to let go... NOW!!!” he roared, its echo made it even more threatening. For fear that he would take flight once more and drop her from the skies she let go and began to run towards the small hill he had pointed out. He decided to be nice and he ran beside her.

In all honesty, Silver hadn't meant to growl that loud at her, he only did it out of reaction because her teeth had almost bitten straight through the feathers in his tail, what he didn't expect was the echo! Although he had never talked to anyone here anyway, except the odd flier, but that was only in the air where there was no echo.

After a while of silent running Serine broke the silence,
“Hey SB you said 'only flyers'... you mean there are others like you??? Other lions with wings???”

“Yeah, well you---” he was cut off short as she continued to throw knew questions at him.
“How many are there??? Where do you live??? Where do THEY live???”

“Well you seem to have recovered your strength... and too much energy... hey, lets race for the last leg, I’ll even let you have a head start.” he felt like being evil once again so he started counting to ten, at a rather fast pace.
“Ah crap!” Sighed Serine, as she said those words he beat his dark wings and took flight once more and soon landed at the top of the small hill.

Although he had been flying since he was old enough for his wings to lift him off the ground, he always enjoyed that first launch into the air. It was that little thing that you would always remember in the back of you mind that you would always love doing, like playing with the ants or the younger birds when you were a cub.

Serine ran as fast as she could and got by his side panting then gazed at what laid in front of her. When Serine got there, he started silently laughing to himself at her panting so hard, it wasn’t really that far, ‘But I suppose,’ thought Silver, ‘She hasn’t eaten in so long she must be exhausted.’ He turned and looked at his Homeland.

Even though he could see fine, mainly because of his eagle eyes and because it WAS his home, it was still getting dark, so he would have to bring her back up tomorrow in the morning to see the full effect of the “Valley of Heaven”, as the ancients had once called it.

He didn’t know who inhabited this valley first, whether it was the birds or the Flyers, but they sure knew how to keep a secret, not a single land animal, apart from Serine now, knew about this place. He was sure some one would find out about him bringing her here, but he didn’t care, he didn’t have anyone else to share this place with, seeing as almost all flyers knew about it already.

From the hill where they were standing, they could see all the way to the distant cliffs that blocked out all land based animals, and that was a good day-and-a-half's FLY from the hill, He didn't know how far it was to walk, and he wasn't game enough to find out either.

Like a crack down the middle of the land, a massive river that was the only water source flowed away from them, with a smaller yet still wide creek, (but it was to big to be called a creek) that joined the river about a half hours walk from the hill.

Just at the bottom of the hill, there was an old dead Yellow-Box, that was about to fall down into the river,

‘Hmm, I think I’m the only one here, so I had better fix that.’ Silver thought to himself.

At the far end of the valley, where the river was beginning to disappear from sight, you could see another log across the water.
‘That’s weird,’ Thought Serine, ‘Why would they need a bridge when they could just fly?’

On the right hand side of the river there was a long, low ridge of a mountain, with the whole far right side of it covered in a deep thick forest.
Down, right next to the river, still on the right side of the river, there was an almost overgrown walking track, but from this height you could still see it curl its way up the side of the ridge at different intervals.

On the left side of the river bank there was a long row of blackberry and raspberry bushes, Silver was hoping they still had fruit left on them and that the hornbill’s hadn't eaten all of them already.
There was a gigantic Willow tree on the far side of the 'creek' whose branches would have to reach ten meters along the bank.

There were two small hills on either side of the creek but, of course they only looked small from up here. There were scattered trees all over the hills and around the river, but not as much as on the far side of the ridge.

Up near the far Log Bridge, one hill was completely covered in prickly bushes that made it impossible to walk up or land on.
Behind that and to its right, there was the biggest mountain in the Valley; it was at least half-a-days walk higher then the cliffs and the cliffs themselves were three quarters of a day walk high. Silver knew this because one day a crow had dared him to walk up it from the bottom, it nearly killed him, but the crow was enjoying himself though. And it took him two days to recover - without water- before he was strong enough to fly down to the river.

“See that huge Mountain over there? It’s called Mt Nisei”

“How come?”

“Wouldn’t have the slightest.” he laughed.

“Oh okay then.”

'Perhaps that is the reason I have not heard nor seen this place... it is completely inaccessible to anyone without wings! This place truly is amazing... I wonder what it would look like at dawn.' Serine thought after looking at the cliff face behind Mt Nisei.

“W.O.W,” exclaimed Serine; she even made it into a three syllable word,
“it is so beautiful...I'm sorry for doubting you about this place being heaven...”
“That's okay Serine, that’s why I made you run!” he laughed. He ducked as she swung a paw with her claws sheathed at him, but she only did it half-heartedly.
“Now we need to get under cover before it starts to rain”
“Rain?” asked Serine “There's not a single cloud in the sky!”
“That’s the whole point, in five minutes there can be a tornado in this place, that’s just the way She made it, perfect land, but dodgy weather,” he joked, “Now come on.”
“Wait, are you taking me all the way back home, even if it could start thunder-storming?” asked Serine, winding up into one of her waves of terror.
“No silly,” Silver assured her. “We are going back to… my place I guess you could call it, although I haven’t been there in a while so someone could have taken it by now, anyway let's go.” With these words he continued to walk. She sat there for a few seconds gazing at the disappearing land then leaped after Silver Bolt.

They slowly made their way, now walking along the river, towards SB's 'home'. The steady walk along the bank was relaxing to both Silver and Serine.

Serine began to think of her home, and the state she had fled from it in. It was dry and dying, there had not been rain there for months on end, everything was brown and crisp, and it had even begun to crack in some areas.
'Perhaps if the rains hit here they will make their way back home in time...' Serine thought hopefully.

“SB... How much farther is it?”
“If you start asking that question on a frequent basis I will fly there and leave you to stumble around in the dark!” SB stated with a straight face, Serine was shocked at what he said and just stopped and stood there looking at him with enquiring eyes.
“Just joking, I'm messing with ya,” he said while laughing, “We will be there soon enough.”
“Hmph...I wish you would stop doing that, at least now, during the night,”

“Oi did you hear what I said? Silver?”

He did hear her but he remained silent and continued his steady pace.

“OI!”

He still didn’t respond, trying his hardest not to smile.

When he didn’t respond, she got a little annoyed so she dove at him and crash-tackled him into the river. It was a spur of the moment thing, and Silver didn’t have enough time to dodge the diving lioness.

She hit him right on the side and the force of the tackle drove both of them into the river.

Both play-fought in the water splashing and dunking the other underwater. The river was wide and deep, deep enough for neither of them to touch bottom, but in some spots it was up to their bellies

After playing in the water, they were nice and cool, although they could have been freezing, but their blood pressure had risen a lot because of the mucking around, they were standing opposite each other when Silver suddenly got a brilliant, malevolent idea.

He suddenly looked up into the sky as if he had seen something.

It worked.

The second Serine's eyes were sky-bound he yelled;
"GOTCHA!" And he jumped the distance and dunked her head under the water again, and seeing that he had won the battle he took off to the shore, he was already out of the water shaking the water out of his fur and feathers by the time she had re-emerged from the water, and motioned for her to come on with a side wards nod of his head.

When she did get out of the water and started following him, she stayed back a little bit, so Silver had to turn to look at her, she had a glazed look over her eyes, and he knew what she was thinking, it was probably the same thing he was thinking.

The last time he had fun would have been about a year earlier with an old friend of his, another flyer, but he hadn't seen her for almost a year.

He could tell Serine had another million questions ready for him when she jogged to catch up, but still had her head down, looking at the ground.

"Why is it that Flyers - not you SB but Flyers in general - seem to steer clear of those without the ability to fly? Do they hate us or think we are 'low-life’s?'"

He was going to point out that she had asked two questions, but the second was kind of apart of the first, so giving it some thought, which was, of course too long for her, he answered.
"Well-" he was cut off as a small rain drop hit him in the eye; he shook it out and kept talking.
"Well, it’s not quite that, we don't think of you land-locked animals as 'low-life’s', although that’s kind of what we think of you." - "Only because" he added quickly from the sad and hurt look on her face,
"Only because of the way you Landies act half of the time, yous are always fighting over land and killing each other and all the other animals as well, and hunting away other predators like the Hyena and other Cats from your own family. You do this even though there is the whole world out there which has almost no predators at all."

"I know this is a little difficult to explain, so I’ll try it this way, have you ever seen birds and Flyers fighting for ownership of the air?"
"No…"
"And do you know why this is?" She just shook her head.
"It's because we have come to realise that fighting over something that was never yours to begin with, is just stupid and unnecessary and the only thing that comes out of it is hurt and vengeance, so as a rule you aren’t allowed to attack and/or hurt another flyer if he flies near you or where your home is, although you ARE allowed to fly out or warn them that you have children and if he does anything to harm them, you are allowed to attack, but no one does that anymore, as I said before, its useless to attack for no reason. Even all the old vengeances have been forgotten.”
"Then why do all flyers keep this place to themselves?" asked Serine after digesting all the information Silver had just said.

"Well as you guys live on the land, we can't live on the wing, we need to land somewhere that hasn't or isn’t coveted by any Landies. That's also why we keep this place secret, so that way, even though it is almost impossible to get in here, there is bound to be someone game enough to try it, and we can't risk that.
That’s also why I am going to have to ask for your complete truthfulness in this promise. Can you please keep this place a secret?"
After a second Serine replied with a nod of her head;
"Yes, I Promise,”
"Good," sighed Silver.

"Hey want to know how you can ground a Flyer?"
"Yes, how? Wait, you wings don’t fall off or anything do they???"

Silver laughed, "No. Here watch this. This is how."

Silver unfolded his wings straight up in the air, and with a gust of wind that almost knocked Serine off her feet, took off like a bullet into the sky, then, tucked one wing under his side, turned and shot back down into the water, made a splash big enough to get Serine, and staying completely under water, swam back to the bank, crawled out and stood there looking like a wet rat.

Still shaking the water off of herself she asked;
"And just what does splashing me have to do with grounding you?"
Instead of telling her he just showed her.

He unfolded his wings as far as he could because they were still full of water, the feathers were completely soaked, he beat them twice as hard as he could, but only on the second did he move, his front claws lifted off the ground, but only by mere centimeters. After that he stopped trying and grinned at Serine.

"If anyone was strong enough to risk taking our life, to keep us grounded just either rip apart their wings or shove them in a lake.

Although I doubt that anyone now days is strong enough for one of us to worry about." he added with a chuckle and a hint of arrogance.
"What do you mean strong enough? You’re only just a little bit bigger then me, and that’s kinda small for a lion…" Inquired Serine.
Silver gave a small chuckle,
"For Flyers - my kind of fliers that is - it doesn’t matter what our body looks like, like how big it is, we are still stronger, faster, I wouldn't quite say smarter, but our brains do process things a lot quicker then normal lions, or eagles for that matter. We are more agile, and swift, a lot more cunning, or in my case evil, our sight and hearing is about 10 times better, but that is mainly because of the Eagle side of us, umm also, I don't quite know what this is, maybe just a mix of our hearing and quick thinking, but if its quiet enough and we are concentrating hard enough we can kind of hear the thoughts of others around us, but it doesn’t work on other Flyers, its not like 'reading your mind' but more like a gentle nudge in the direction your thinking.
Again I probably shouldn't be telling you this but it doesn’t matter, you won't tell anyone, I KNOW you won't." He added slyly.

By this time, there walking had taken them to the edge of the river where the 'creek' joined it.

Silver looked over at the bushes, and thankfully there where still berries on them, so he walked on over.
"Want some?"
"Eww no, that’s what birds eat!"
"Fine suit yourself." He chuckled as he cut some off with his talons and chucked them in his mouth.
"I think that’s were we get that eating habit from, the bird side of our ancestry."
"Do you still eat meat?" asked Serine, curious once again.
"Yeah every now and then, if I happen to come across someone with a carcass, I politely ask if I can join them, they either swear at me, or run off scarred. Some might let me eat with them, it just depends who it is."

They started walking along the 'creek' now, in between the hills.

"Why don't you just hunt an animal, it would be so much easier with those wings, you could just land on them and take them away." Fantasized Serine.
"I don't like to hunt personally, I don't like killing someone who has their whole life ahead of them, maybe if their old and haven’t got long to live, I would take them away in the night, so its not as painful on the rest of the family."
"Your weird SB, that’s just the Circle of Life though, we try our hardest to catch them and they try their hardest to get away. That's just how it is."
"Yes, for you maybe, but I have the best advantage any Landie ever could dream off, it wouldn't matter where the herd went I could catch every single one of them if I tried."
"Can you hear that?" Silver suddenly asked.
“Hear what?"
"Hmm maybe not yet." smiled Silver.
After another hundred meters Serine could here it, it sounded like a waterfall, but a small and slow moving one.

"Is that a waterfall?" Asked Serine.
"Yes, it is ‘bout ten minutes from my place, and we are almost there."

Once he told her that, her pace quickened, but no matter how fast she went it still didn't get any closer.

One minute she was daydreaming about what it might look like, when suddenly Silver grabbed her around the stomach from above, she didn’t even hear him take flight, and when he took off with her in his talons, she noticed something was wrong, because for one, his talons were digging into the side of her stomach, and if he wasn't careful she would start bleeding.

"What are you doing SB-" She started before Silver cut her off with a 'shhhh'.
"There is someone in the cave, and it’s a Flyer."
Fear flooded through Serine and she asked;
"Do you know who it is?"
"Not yet."

He placed Serine on the ground without landing, behind four Eucalyptus trees and told her to stay there.

He then took off into the air back to the mouth of the cave. From Serine's viewpoint, the cave was facing away from her, so Silver was facing her when he suddenly landed about 10 feet away from the mouth of the cave, his expression wasn't firm or angry as Serine expected, but was warm, welcoming, and that looked really weird to Serine because of the aggressive landing he did, he made sure to land hard on the ground so the other could hear it, he landed hard enough for it to leave prints indented into the ground.

"Hello…" He said loud enough for whoever was in the cave and Serine, to hear. His tone was different again, instead of welcoming and warm like his smile, it sounded like he was bored or didn't care if anyone answered him or not.

Someone or something suddenly came into view, because Silver's face was shocked, and it must have been someone he knew, because then not only was he smiling but he also stood up and ran forward to greet them.
Serine still couldn't see who it was in the cave, so she decided to walk out to meet them, since and obviously, they must have been friendly.
When she got close to them she saw Silver greet the unknown female, and Serine knew it was a female, because they just finished rubbing their heads and necks together, and could hear Silver saying;
"It's been too long, Anasa, what have you been up to?"
"It hasn't been that long Boltz," She replied, her voice sounding like wind chimes, and it made you think about beautiful things. "It's only been 11 moons!" she laughed, sounding like the most beautiful thing in the world. "Not that much I just went and visited some other Flyers about four moons flight from here; it’s good to see another Flyer every now and then. Have you run into anyone else since we were last together?"
"No, no Flyers just a Landie Lioness."
"Oh," Anasa replied, "and what do you think of her?" she asked with a cheeky grin.
"Ha-ha it’s nothing like that yet, we only met about a moon ago" replied Silver with a little bit of shock on his face.

At that point Serine decided to come out of her hiding place and show herself to Anasa.
As always Silver heard her before he saw her, but so did Anasa, and she hissed at Silver,
"Do you know who this is? Is it a Flyer?"
"Um yes I do but it's no Flyer." he replied shamefully.
All this had happened before Serine had got her second paw on the ground.
When Serine had walked around to where Silver was standing, there was no one opposite him. She turned and looked questionably at Silver and asked;
"Hey where did your friend go?"
"Well um, whatever you do, don't scream...when you turn around…” after informing her Silver nudged with his head to about three centimeters to Serine's left.

When Serine did turn around all she could see was these massive fangs about an inch from her face, she hadn't even heard Anasa land or flap her wings or even feel the wind from her flapping her wings.

Once she realised what the fangs were she started tripping over her own paws to get back behind Silver.

A snarling growl come from the female Flyer that sounded both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. At first Serine thought it was directed at Serine, but when Anasa started yelling, it was directed at SB.

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS SILVER!!!? WHY WOULD YOU BRING A LANDIE IN HERE!! ESPECIALLY A FEMALE ONE!!? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? WERE YOU THINKING AT ALL!?? I MEAN HONESTLY WHY NOT JUST GO OUT AND STAND ON A MOUNTAIN AND SCREAM IT OUT TO THE WORLD! ‘HEY I KNOW THIS AWSOME PLACE COME AND JOIN ME!’ WHAT ARE YOU MENTAL!? NOW WHEN YOU TAKE HER BACK HOME SHE IS GOING TO GO AND TELL EVERYONE SHE MEETS ABOUT THIS PLACE!” She paused for a moment then asked, “Wait. You didn’t tell her anything else did you?”
“No not about that” Replied Silver, with a serious look on his face.
“Thank Aiheu for THAT! Now please tell me B, why would you do this?”
As Silver started to answer her, Serine got a good chance to look at Anasa.

She was almost the same build as Silver, but perhaps a little bit bigger when they were this close, but she still had a feminine look to her, as if she was very breakable. Although she had eagle front legs and talons, just like SB, the muscles were not as prominent as his. If she were a normal lioness she would have been of average build, nothing overly out going, but beautiful! She was the most beautiful lion Serine had ever seen, compared to Minshasa from stories about her and Mano, Anasa was just as beautiful.

One thing that Serine couldn’t stop looking at was her face, if ever there was a perfect face, except for Aiheu himself, this would have to be it. But her eyes! Her left eye was a beautiful floral green and the other warm butterscotch gold. The only thing that was wrong with her face that Serine didn’t notice at first was that a scar ran down from her left ear down under her chin to the middle of her chin.

Once Silver had stopped talking Serine thought she should add something.
“It’s not all his fault I asked if he could take me some—” Anasa cut her of with a growl.
“THAT DOESN’T MEAN HE SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT YOU HERE!”
“HEY DON’T YELL AT SERINE IT’S NOT HER FAULT!” Replied Silver.
“YEAH THAT’S RIGHT PROTECT HER! NOT YOUR HOMELAND BUT SOME SNOTTY NOSED LANDIE!”

Then with a “Hmph” Anasa opened her wings, which Serine noticed were bigger than Silver’s and took off into the air, a lot faster than Silver ever had, but still with elegance and grace.
“Shoot,” stated Silver, “I’ll be right back.” And he took off into the air after Anasa.

After a while he landed. But he was a little closer to the cave from where he took off.
“She’s gone. Come on I’ll show you were you can sleep.”

Silver started to walk into the cave with his head not even an inch from the ground, if there was a rock his nose would have scratched it.

Instead of following him into the cave she remained outside trying to get her head around what had just taken place. ‘A friend, a close friend, of Silver had come here looking for shelter, or at least that is what I am assuming she was there for, as did we, and she was pleased to see him… that much I get. Then when I showed myself, she went berserk at him for bringing a friend to this place. I’m a friend, and why would I tell, not only that who would I tell. I thought flyers were friendly towards others unless they attack first… no wait that’s other flyers I think… AHHHHH THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENCE!’ she thought in distress and with one last glance at the night sky she headed inside.
Silver had already curled himself up in one far corner of the cave, his head faced the rock wall but he didn’t touch it. His glorious wings were tucked in close to his body in order to keep himself warm. She decided not to bother him, even though she had much to ask, so she went to lie on the opposite side about halfway between the entrance and where he lay. She stayed there awake for a while and on occasion looked back to see if Silver was all right. He shuffled from time to time, but didn’t move from his spot.
Sleep finally came to her and they both slept quietly for the remainder of the night.

Silver had woken just as dawn was approaching. He yawned and stretched but couldn’t stretch his wings fully otherwise they would have hit either side of the cave. He drifted slowly past Serine who was still fast asleep. He sat at the entrance with his wings stretched out fully so he could catch the warm rays of the rising sun. As the sun caressed his body it passed between his feathers and cast a shadow into the cave, the shadow missed Serine, and with the sun hitting her eyes she woke. He heard her yawn as she rose to come and greet him. She ducked under his right wing, with the feathers touching the top of her nose running up to the top of her head, she cheerfully said, “Good morning Silver Bolt,” hoping for a similar reply, she was sad as she only got a “Mornin’,” out of him.
She sat next to him and gave a gentle neck rub, trying to comfort him. With a spark of inspiration she shot up and stood right in front of Silver facing him, “Hey lets go to that waterfall you said was close. It will be a good way to start the day, a quick swim,”
“Sure, we can go, its in that direction,” he pointed in the direction of the four Eucalyptus trees that he had dropped her behind last night, “Just past those trees.”
“Okay! Come on lets go!” Said Serine excitedly bounding off towards the trees.
“Okay, okay I’m coming geez.” Rolling his eyes he slowly moved to follow the energetic lioness.
Once there she did not stop to take in the sights, she just ran straight for the water and jumped right in. Lush emerald green trees and bushes surrounded the slow flowing waterfall; the sun that entered from the clearing above danced across the surface of the water and made it shimmer.
As she came back to the surface she burst through the water splashing it in the general direction of Silver. She giggled then went back under just incase he would jump in after her, but nothing happened.
‘… Why?...’ thought a drenched Silver Bolt.
“You know I’m surprised.”
She came back to the surface with droplets of water all over her face, “At what??? I was able to splash you??? I’m not… you’re a little slow in the mornings hehe.”
“No, not that, the fact that you haven’t asked any questions yet.”
“Why would I ask questions when I know it is probably something I am better off NOT knowing???”
“It is just odd. You are usually the one asking a million and one questions. And after what has taken place, I expected at least another million to add to the ones you have yet to ask.”
“Well,” said Serine shaking some water off her purple and pink half mane, “When you ask a lot of questions people eventually get annoyed, and I don’t want to be TOO annoying and risk losing a friend… Plus something’s you just know not to ask, and what happened last night… I know not to question most of it. You see I am a professional question asker! We know when to stop… most of the time,” she stated with great pride in her voice, once more trying to cheer Mr. Gloomy up.
“Hmmm, MOST of the time?”

“Yeah, one thing I am willing to ask if you would allow me to do so?”
“Go for it…”
“What would be best for you?”
Silver looked bewildered by this, “Ya lost me…”
“As in, would it be best if I stayed in this place, and never left, that way no other ‘Landies’ as you call us, will ever find out. Of course I would probably end up starving to death due to no food other than berries,” She shuddered at the thought of only having to eat those little things, “Or would it be best for me to be dropped off in the outlands, where no one lives… OH HEY! HA I’M BRILLIANT!” she yelled while jumping about in the water splashing with her paws, “Seeing as I was asleep during our journey here, I don’t know how to get here, so if I were to be blind-folded or even asleep on the way back I wouldn’t be able to find this place again! HA I ROCK!” she exclaimed excited that she had found a way to help Silver out.
“You do have a point there Serine—” he paused and looked into the sky, scanning for signs of flyers. “I suggest you get out of the water and get behind a tree. NOW…” whispered Silver. She made her way out of the water and headed for a large Eucalyptus tree, thick enough for her to hide behind completely. Just as she was out of sight she heard Anasa’s voice.

“WHERE IS SHE?!!!”
“Why are you yelling? Calm down.”
“CALM DOWN!!! YOU BROUGHT A LANDIE TO THE VALLEY! OUR HOME! IT BELONGS TO US!”
“It belongs to no one, if it does belong to someone it is our ancestors, they have allowed us to live here and have this place as a hidden haven for whenever we are near, no ‘one’ flyer owns it.”
“B,” She moved closer to Silver so as to talk eye to eye, “This place is not meant to be seen by Landies, they are not meant to be here, SHE is not meant to be here. You know what they are like. By bringing her here you have broken the silent covenant that all flyers live by.”
“I know, she wont tell a soul, she promised and I—” Silver was cut off again.
“OH she ‘PROMISED’ and that is supposed to make everything better is it? You said yourself you have only known her for a moon—”
“ANASA!” called out Serine, mustering all the courage she could find in order to come out and face her. “Perhaps if you heard me out you will see things in a different light,” she waited for a response, and got one.
Serine’s sudden appearance didn’t help Anasa’s mood, she began to snarl, surprisingly enough even when snarling she still retained her beauty. Her wings were extended well above her body and with the sun illuminating them; it made her look ten times the size of the little Landie. “What could you possibly have to share that is of importance LANDIE?” Anasa glared.
“Well, you may not believe me when I say it but, I was asleep for the majority of the flight to this place, the flight was so boring.” Started Serine creating little lies in order to convince her she hadn’t seen the way, Serine began walking carefully with her tail between her legs towards the two of them, Silver was watching Anasa while she only had eyes for Serine. “So I don’t know how to get here. So if I were to be blindfolded on my way back-”
“HA, what lies! You honestly expect me to believe that a Landie that has NEVER flown before, who finally gets the chance to do so, falls ASLEEP???”
“She is telling the truth. I almost dropped her a few times because she was stirring in her sleep.” Silver tried to persuade Anasa, “Anasa, when have I lied to you?”
From the slowly disappearing snarl on her face they could see that either she was beginning to believe them or she had had enough, “You haven’t… Yet.”
“And never will.” replied Silver with a calm and soothing voice looking Anasa straight in the eyes, which seemed to glow with the way the sunlight hit her and the ground around her.
Anasa stayed quiet for sometime, contemplating on what to do, what to believe.
With no warning she beat her wings heading straight for Serine, Silver was stunned that she would do such a thing but couldn’t do anything to stop her; she was far too fast for even him.
Serine saw the flying lioness, with eagle talons extended towards her. Serine rose on her strong back paws within the second Anasa had launched herself allowing Anasa’s talons to hit her square in the chest and wrap themselves around her shoulders slightly, not actually penetrating her, but the blow still hurt. Then in a quick movement, fell onto her back, and with her back paws placed on Anasa’s chest, she shoved her into the water. SB was in shock, not only because of his, usually calm, friend doing such a thing, but that Serine had actually remembered something he had taught her. He rushed over to help Anasa out of the water. She reluctantly accepted the male Flyers help.
“I’LL BE GONE SOON ENOUGH!” yelled Serine with tears welling in her eyes, “You are so worried about how many others I will tell but have you not considered that this lioness has no one to tell? I ran away from my pride, my friends. Silver Bolt here is, right now, the only friend I have. So honestly who am I going to tell? Not only that, but why would I tell another? Especially when I have promised SB that I wouldn’t”
Both flyers looked back at her. Silver was rather stunned to see that she was beginning to get upset.
“Plus you say you know how we are, well have you any idea of how many different pride territories we would have to make it safely through in order to get remotely close to this place!? Not only that but this place wouldn’t be able to sustain even a single lion for very long seen as there is no food for us here.”
Silver began to talk to Anasa in a calming voice, “I’ll take her back soon okay.”
She starred at Serine, “She had best not know her way, to OR from this place.” While all this was being said, she had spread her wings in the sunlight in order for them to dry quicker, but they were still rather wet. “I’m a little surprised that you knew that trick Landie. It was well executed.”
Regaining control of her emotions Serine uttered, “Uh… Thank you Anasa.” She decided to go into the water again because her chest was feeling rather warm and a little hurt. The cool waters soothed the sore; she was lucky she wasn’t bleeding.
All three were quiet just in case a word set off another yelling fit. Serine looked at her reflection and walked around in the water while Anasa and Silver Bolt were on the shore.
Serine saw something move in the water and began to chase it, splashing and pouncing all over the place. She tried to keep her mind amused and to not think on what had just come to pass. The two flyers looked over and thought to themselves, ‘what in the world is she doing?’
“Uh, what are you doing?” Questioned Anasa, as she looked up to see what the Landie was chasing.
“NOBODY MOVE! I’ve lost my fish…” Serine stated looking intently at the water, watching for any movement under its surface.
“A fish?”

“Yes SB, a fish,” then she pounced into the centre and with a splash she turned around to show her prize, a medium sized fish still wriggling half out of her mouth, “Ium hunry,” she mumbled.
“What was that?” he asked with a slight laugh present in his voice as she moved back to dry land.
She spat out her fish and placed her right paw over its slimy body, “I’m hungry, and this is the first thing that I have seen that is eatable…for me.”
“You know that fish probably has a family.” Anasa pointed out disgustedly.
“Well he didn’t swim away fast enough,” she dug into the fish and with a few bites it was gone. “Ah, wasn’t the best and defiantly wouldn’t have been my first choice but it tides me over a bit.” She rolled onto her back to take in the sunlight and dry her coat.
Silver gave Anasa a nudge looking at her as if to say ‘You should say something’
“Do I have to?” whispered Anasa, Silver just stared at her. “Fine.” She unwillingly moved towards the Landie. “Look, I’m…sorry, that I jumped you…”
Serine opened one eye to see the forced smile on Anasa’s face. “It’s cool.”
“That’s it? You don’t have anything more to say?”
“Only a question,”
Silver began to laugh, as he knew it would be the first of many for her.
“How many ‘Landie’ friends do you have? And when I say friends I mean ones who are more than just acquaintances. Others that you don’t look down your beautiful nose at.”
Taken aback at the question Anasa didn’t know how to respond. ”Well, um, a few.”
“Uhuh…” She let that topic drop, “Hey can we go back to that hill so I can see the valley in the daylight Silver?”

“All right, you comin’ Sas?”

“…Nothing better to do” Anasa replied as the other two got up to leave, and with a sigh got up her self and walked with Silver.

Serine ran behind the others and began to nip at Silver’s heels happily.
“OI remember what happens when you do something like that?” mocked Silver, looking over his folded wings at the innocent looking Serine. She giggled and ran ahead and soon realised that she did not know the way. She stopped and waited for the other two to catch up.
“I’m flying.” Stated Anasa looking towards Silver Bolt once they got close to Serine, “Want to come?”
“Sure, only if the little Landie is willing to run after us.”
Smiling and wide-eyed, “no problem! And I’m not that LITTLE!”
Raising one eyebrow each and a smile, they both spread their wings and created a gust of wind that would have knocked Serine over if she were close enough, it managed to bend a sapling in half and snap it, as they made their way into the sapphire sky. She had to run extremely fast in order to even keep them in sight, not to simply keep up. They soared gracefully, diving and playing on the winds.
“HEY, have you learnt any new tricks Anasa?” Questioned Silver in the middle of a mid-air corkscrew.
“Yeah watch this.” She rose; the sun glinted off her wings near blinding SB who watched keenly. Folding both her wings, she spiralled down towards the earth, which began to flow into a forested area. She levelled out and opened her wings slightly, just enough so that at the speed she was flying she was able to stay off the ground. She weaved amongst the trees skimming some that leant in towards her. An opening was ahead and she ascended to the level Silver was. He was staring, mouth open.
Gleaming she said, “It took me a while to be able to go through without getting scratched by the branches, but it’s a handy trick to know.”
“WOW! You’ve got to show me how to do that!”
Anasa laughed loudly, even Serine, now sitting on the ground could hear her faintly. “It is not something you can be taught, you already know how to do all of it, you just have to practice… a lot.”
“Yeah. Practice. Right. Yeah I’ll get around to that…”
“Yeah, sure sure B.”
All three had arrived at the little hill that looked over the Flyers homeland. The two Flyers did what they do best. Fly. They soared over the Valley of Heaven. They swooped low over the gushing river, wings touching the water and creating ripples that reflected the suns life-giving light, they flew between the lone trees scattered around the valley and performed amazing feats in mid-air, some of which they had not attempted in a while, at least not since they last saw each other. Both spiralled with the other heading towards the ground at amazing speeds breaking apart just in time before they came in contact with the long grass. Serine stared in awe at their gracefulness and utter control over the skies, they held such power in the skies, and nothing seemed strong enough to come against them. She may have been sitting on the dry ground, but her mind was soaring with the others.

With a large smile appearing across his face he couldn’t help but start to laugh since he was having so much fun. ‘So long, so long since I have flown like this with another flyer.’ Thought the ecstatic Silver Bolt as he had begun to descend over the river. ‘This place looks wonderful from up here. Hmm.’ He made a sudden turn and flew close to the ground heading back to the hill where an oblivious Serine sat. Anasa looked around to see where Silver went and could see him heading back to Serine; she wanted to keep flying so she let him go.

The blades of grass bent as Silver beat his wings flying so close to the ground that the grass was nearly tickling him. He gained speed and as he approached Serine, he leaned his head back, beat his massive wings once in order to stop himself and landed gently.
“What do you think?” he asked her.
“What do I think? I think this place is beyond amazing. It’s astounding how beautiful this place is. It’s gorgeous both at night and during the day. You should be proud and take good care of this immaculate place.” As she spoke he had moved to face the valley, where she was looking down towards the river that headed in the direction of the giant mountain and the cliff face, the only thing separating their two worlds. And then up at Anasa in the middle of another corkscrew.
“You know, you get a better view from the air.”
She sharply turned and looked at him with happiness galore in her expression.
Silver lowered so as to let Serine get on a little easier, “Just be- OW!“ he grunted as she carelessly jumped onto his back, “…careful…”
Giggling she apologized, “Sorry SB.” He rose and leaped into the air and, with three strong down strokes, they were flying.
He flew towards Anasa. She was unsure of what he was doing, ‘He seems slower, heavier, why? Wait a second…’
“What do you think your doing!?” She inquired obviously trying to hide distaste of Silver’s actions.
“Giving her the chance to see the Valley from our point of view,” then turning his head slightly to indicate that he was now talking to the lioness on his back, who was looking open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the amazing view, “what do you think from up here?”
“I…It’s…WOW!” She began to lean to the left a little too far it offset Silver.
“WHOA don’t lean too much!” yelled Silver adjusting to keep them both in the air.
“Whoops, sorry again.”
The disgruntled Anasa flew off by herself. Serine leaned forward and spoke only loud enough for him to hear, “I’m sorry for causing trouble with your friend.”
“Hey it’s not your fault, I brought you here remember.”
“Yeah but still…” she faded with guilt in her voice.

‘Hmmm, evil time.’ Silver thought as he folded his wings and dove to the forest area they were currently soaring over. A scream came from the Landie on his sturdy back until he moved his wings so that he was holding her in place, then the scream turned into a laugh because she knew that he would not crash, or at least that’s what she hoped. They dove until they could touch the tree tops with their tails, skimming across the surface making loose leaves come off and float around them, at the end of the forest the river came into view. With his wings extended out flat, thus letting her go, he suddenly rolled, tucked one wing under his stomach which resulted in Serine getting dumped in the water. She screamed at him while falling the few meters to the waters surface then landed with an almighty SPLASH!

“I’ll come back for you okay? I won’t be too long. Stay put, and don’t go wondering off!” yelled Silver Bolt as he continued to gain altitude, once high enough he did a fancy 180-degree turn, which was more like a back-flip, but then correcting himself so he wasn’t upside down, headed off to find his childhood Flyer friend.

He knew exactly where she would be; it was her favourite spot in the whole valley. It took a little while to get to Mt Nisei but as usual she was there.

She was sitting there looking at the sun making his lazy descent onto the cliffs that surrounded the Valley of Heaven.

She was facing away from Silver so when he landed she turned and faced him with the evidence that she had been crying as tears had stained her fur under each different coloured eye.

“What’s the matter Anasa?”

“Nothing Bolt,” she said, turning away, “It's nothing.”

“No it's not I know when you are lying Sassie.’ replied Silver with a serious look as her turned her face softly back towards him with a claw.

“Now what is it?”

“You haven’t called me that in years.”

“Yeah I know, it just came out, reaction sorry, now enough distractions, what is a matter?”

“It's just… nothing…” She sighed and turned back to the sun. Silver stood up and walked around in front of her, took one look at her face and could see the tears falling, and hugged her.

After a few minutes, and by the time Silver's chest and shoulder was soaked with salt, she stopped crying and broke the hug.

“I'm sorry Silver,”

“It's okay, what about?”

“I shouldn’t break down about this, but I can’t help it!”

“What can't you help?”

“The way I feel about you! Damn it Boltz are you that blind!?”

“No, I'm not blind, and yeah I know…I'm sorry for being so damn gorgeous!” He laughed trying to make a joke out of it; she smiled at his weak attempt to cheer her up.

“Funny ha-ha Silver.” With that she shoved him with one taloned claw as hard as she could, but he didn’t move all that much.

“May I ask why you can’t control them?” he asked.

“Haven't you heard her!? She’s practically screaming it! If ever I have heard someone’s thoughts clearly before it would have to be hers.”

“I try not to dabble in other peoples heads if I can help it. But yes I have heard her. When she would be asleep in the cave and if I tried to listen to the world, all I would hear is her. It does get annoying some times, so I have to walk outside to listen peacefully…but I can’t see how that annoys you.”

“It's because I can't tell what YOU’RE thinking, and I'm ashamed to say it, but i'm jealous of her BECAUSE I can't tell what you’re thinking.

Do you love her Silver?...Do you love me?”

Silver turned and sat beside Anasa and they watched the sun move about twenty meters downwards before he answered her.

“In all honesty Sas, I don’t know. I have feelings for her but I can't tell what they are yet, but I don’t think of her more then a friend at the moment though. And with you Anasa…. again I don’t know. At times I feel like I do, I see you in a different light. One moment you’re like my sister sitting there, then you will move just slightly and the sun will hit you a different way and all I can think about is this Flyer that is more beautiful then Minshasa herself, and she could be all mine, if I just simply asked! But then once my mind starts to wander down that path all I can think, is ‘Damn man she is like your sister, she’s your best friend.’”

Once he had finished she stood up and looked at him with a cheeky and seductive grin, “in what why do you see me now?” she asked rubbing her whole length across his chest.

He replied with a little laughter in voice “I see a beautiful Flyer trying her VERY hardest to try and seduce me.” With a quick grin.

“And is this beautiful Flyer succeeding?” she questioned him.

“I don’t know,” he replied with an equally seductive grin, “She may have to try a little harder then that!”

She turned in whilst still rubbing against him and planted a kiss right on his lips. After a second he was kissing her back.

It was over as soon as it started. Because half a second later he stopped.

“Why did you stop?” She asked him a little annoyed.

“Because you did it to me. Again.”

“Sorry.” She said but not meaning it.

“Another thing I find annoying Silver, is that I can tell you enjoy being with her that’s why I took of just now. Because I simply couldn’t stand it.”

“I'm sorry but I can just be myself around her I don’t have to act like a saint or anything, because she knows the truth.”

“That’s one more thing I'm annoyed about, no wait, annoyed isn’t a strong enough word, Pissed Off at is more like it, and how much DID you tell her?”

Laughing at her he replied, “Not a lot I didn’t tell her anything about us growing up or any of our history. Just mainly that we have kept this place secret for all these years, but when I think about it even if we didn’t keep it secret and even if other Landies got in here, they wouldn’t have any food, cause they can't live on fruit like us.”

“I can't see why not, I love the stuff!” replied Anasa

“Yes but we are different to them in that way.”

‘What else did I tell her? Hmmm’ Silver asked himself

“Oh I told her the only way to ground us,” he laughed, “That was fun.”

“Why? I hate getting my wings wet.” Anasa laughed with him.

“Yeah diddo, we were just talking about stuff on the way to my cave, hey she wouldn’t believe me on how much better we are then them, like stronger and stuff, that was funny!”

“Yeah typical Landie.” she laughed

“Hey she found it funny that you are taller then me, she wouldn’t leave it alone!”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha, well of course I'm taller that’s because I'm better than you!” she laughed

“Oh yeah?” asked Silver, and he dove at her, using his wings to launch himself at her, yet, as always, she had moved the second before Silver had gotten contact with her. She went straight up into the air and Silver soon followed. They began play around in the air trying to get one another in a game of Air Tag. After they had finished playing around, they headed back to where Silver had dumped Serine in the river.

…………

“I’ll come back for you okay? I won’t be too long. Stay put, and don’t go wondering off!” yelled Silver Bolt as he continued to gain altitude, once high enough he did a fancy 180-degree turn, which was more like a back-flip, but then correcting himself so he wasn’t upside down, headed off to find his childhood Flyer friend.

“Gee thanks SB!” Serine screamed at him as he flew off.

After she watched him leave her sight she swam over to the edge of the river. Thankfully it wasn’t moving all that fast, so although she had a little trouble getting to the bank she still made it.

She walked out and lay down on a soft patch of grass to dry her self.

For a few minutes all she could hear was the current, and then next minute her stomach grumbled. It sounded like an earthquake!

“Ohhh…” she sighed “Bugger I'm hungry! I’ll have to get SB to take me out side the valley so I can catch something to eat.”

‘Or attempt to catch…’ she thought sadly.

With that she stood up and sat at the edge of the river looking deep into its depths. For a full minute she didn’t see a single fish, then suddenly five darted pasted her, and she dove.

After all the splashing had finished, she was surprised because she had one in her mouth!

She walked out on to the bank and ate him.

It wasn’t as good as the last fish, but it did tide her over for the time being.  She was used to not eating much, but she had never gone more than three full days with only two mouthfuls of meat. After a while all she could think of was food, so she quickly left the river and started walking, in no general direction. She knew that Silver told her not to go anywhere, but if he had to look for her he would just fly.

She eventually got to the log bridge that she had seen on her first day in the valley. When she walked up to it, she could see a clearly marked path running down the center of it.

“Hmm Flyers must like to walk almost as much as they do to fly.” She said to herself out loud.

She crossed the bridge and started walking up the ridge of the hills on the far side of the river from Silver's cave.

She got to the top and realised, when she looked up to the tip of the gigantic mountain, she could just make out two figures, one sitting still while the other was rubbing it's whole length across the others body.

She quickly looked away, in case the rubbing led to something else, and also because tears stung her eyes, because she knew that the two up on the mountain would have to be SB and Ana.

She started walking in the opposite direction to the mountain, back towards the hill where SB first brought her. She only got half way there before suddenly, with no warning, plus scaring the wits out of her, both SB and Anasa landed either side of her.

“AHH! Don’t do that!” she screamed.

“Sorry.” they said in unison, making them both start laughing.

“Come on lets go back to the cave.” Said Anasa.

The next day Serine had got Silver and Anasa take her out of the valley to go hunting. Although she wasn’t the best hunter, she had at least ONE back up Flyer to help her, because she was sure that Anasa only came to see her fail.

They landed after flying almost all morning; the sun was nearly directly above them. Silver had dropped her close to a herd of zebra, the only meat he liked, and flew back to where Anasa had chosen as a look out point.

“How do you reckon she will go?” she asked.

“Don’t know, here’s hoping she goes okay and doesn’t get hurt,” replied SB.

They started watching her as she started creeping along the tall grass getting closer and closer to the unsuspecting herd. At one point she must have stepped on something, because two or three of the ones close to her suddenly looked up, the only problem was that she stopped a second too late, and they saw the grass sway, with no breeze, so instinct kicked in and they took off, with Serine close on their tails. She got close enough to one and launched but it changed direction when she was in mid flight. She landed hard but kept going. She slowed because they were to far away for her to catch, so she turned and looked at SB and Anasa,

“Please!” she yelled.

Silver took off, and Anasa soon and reluctantly followed. After a few minutes they returned to the look out point, where Serine was already there waiting for them.

When they landed with two zebra she thanked them for about five minutes straight.

“Thank you so much SB and thank you too Anasa.”

“It’s okay Serine, even if you did get one; I was going to get another one anyway. Because I know how hungry you are, so you can have this one all to yourself.” He then chucked the zebra he had over to her. Anasa dropped hers and lay down next to it, took four mouthfuls off it and stopped.

“What’s a matter Anasa? Don’t you like meat or something?”

“No I DO like meat, but this zebra had a family, I was chasing down his mate when he turned and reared, very stupidly too ‘cause my talons went straight through his heart, he was dead before my body hit him. But as it is I wouldn’t be able to eat any more then about a quarter of a carcass, even a small one. I prefer the fruit and berries.”

“Yeah that’s where I prefer the meat.” Silver chucked in.

“Yeah but you still eat berries I saw you remember?” Serine asked him.

“Yeah I know but I do prefer meat, even if I have to go without it for moons on end, I still can resist killing someone every day.”

By the time they had finished their meal, the sun had began his descent into the cliffs for the fourth day Serine was in the Valley. They took flight again and went back to the cave.

Half way through the night Serine was awoken from two people yelling.

One she could tell was Anasa, and when she looked around she couldn’t see Silver anywhere, so she knew that he was the other out there.  She didn’t want to walk out there and interrupt them but she didn’t want them to argue any more. She couldn’t work out what to do when suddenly, they stopped yelling and Silver walked in and lay back down. She didn’t say anything to him, just pretended she was asleep.

If Silver was thinking outside his own head he would have been able to tell from her breathing pattern and her pulse that she was awake, but it didn’t even cross his mind that he could have awoken her.

The next morning Serine awoke with both Silver and Anasa missing from the cave. She walked out side and looked around, she couldn’t see either of them, and so she started walking. Her feet, without thinking about it, took her to the waterfall, and Silver was floating around in the pool on his back, using his wings under the water as flippers.

“Good morning SB!” she said cheerfully.

“Oh I didn’t hear you walk up, good morning Serine.” he replied.

“Why are you in the water, with your wings wet? I thought you hated it.”

“No I don’t hate it, it just annoys me,” he laughed, “besides I felt like a swim is that okay?”

“Yep, so long as I can join!” and she launched herself into the water, making a splash big enough to drench Silver's face.

“Hey where’s Anasa?” she asked him, as innocently as she could.

“Oh she left, she was going to say goodbye but she left late last night, she prefers to fly at night.” He said with a straight face and with a hint of a monotone.

“Oh I didn’t get to thank her again for not killing me and for the food yesterday.”

“Its okay I told her for you.” he laughed.

“Oh. Okay cool thanks.”

They swam around for a bit, until the sun was high enough over the trees for it to hit the ground, they then swam to the bank and lay on the grass drying them selves, Silver was taking up most of the room because he lay on his back with his wings spread out along the grass drying in the hot sun.

“What do you want to do today Silver?”

“Well I was thinking-”

“I bet that hurt!” Serine cut in.

“Funny. But really, can you remember that dead tree almost falling into the river the first day I brought you here?”

“Yeah kinda.”

“Well I need to make it fall across and make it into a bridge, would you like to join me?”

“Yeah sure!”

“Okay let’s go.”

He jumped up and Serine jumped on his back and he took off into the skies, and after about a minute of just flying around in no general direction he sailed over to the tree.

“Here jump off and watch this.” He said whilst hovering real close to the ground.

She landed about ten meters from the tree, and turned to look at Silver.

He did a low circle; he would have only been about three meters of the ground, and about twenty meters from the tree, just hovering there looking at the tree. He gave it ten seconds, and took off as fast as he could, straight at the tree.

This scared the heck out of Serine when she realised what he was going to do. And right before he hit the tree she squealed.  It wasn’t enough to stop Silver though and he hit the tree but at the last second before he made contact, he lifted the top half of him self up, so that his back legs hit the tree that same time as his front legs.

The impact was amazing! The tree just lifted out of the ground, roots and all, and landed straight across the river, from bank to bank, leaving about a couple of meters between the end of the log and the start of the river on both sides.

When he landed he said “What do you think of that eh?”

“I knew you were strong SB, but I didn’t know you were strong enough to rip a tree out of the ground!”

He just laughed, “Now watch the annoying part.”

He took flight again and hovered next to the tree where the first of the branches were. He put his back paws underneath it, and with his front claws, slammed them into the branch, right at the base. It broke off as thought it was centimeters thick, not 12 inches thick.

He caught the branch with his bottom legs, and chucking it up into the air, caught it with his front legs again. He chucked it on the other bank, and set to work in the same fashion on the rest of the branches, even the roots at the end he clawed off and made the base into a ramp so others could walk up it.

It took him almost half the day to have it completely finished, because he would fly over ever inch of it look for cracks or flaws in the bark and wood, and if he did, he would claw at them till they were smooth or the bark was missing, then he set to work on the bark on the top, where you would walk over, he didn’t remove them completely just smoothed them out so that, others still had grip but it wasn’t sharp anymore.

From watching him Serine wondered if he had excessive compulsive disorder, the disorder where every thing you did had to be right and perfect and in order.

Serine helped a bit with the bark on top of the bridge, she started at one end while Silver was on the other end, but after a while she stopped.

“What’s a matter Serine?”

“Well unlike you, my claws aren’t invincible, and are now going blunt; I will have to stop, sorry.”

“That’s okay Serine, I can finish it. And mine aren’t invincible, but I suppose they can with stand a bit more then yours can.”

After he had finished he stood back and looked at his handy work.

The tree no longer looked like a tree, but looked like a root that had grown out of the ground a meter from the river and then grown across the river, then buried it self, back into the ground a meter from the river on the other side. He and Serine then spent the next ten minutes walking over it to find all the bumps, and when one of them would, Silver would claw at it and make it smooth.

When they finally left, after a twenty-minute play in the water together, it was twilight and they headed back to the cave.

When they got there, he said good night, and lay down in his corner and was asleep in less then a second.

She smiled at him and lay down next to him. Without thinking about it, Silver lifted his wing so she could snuggle in to his side. His wing folded back down over her and engulfed her in darkness. She fell asleep soon afterwards.

Over the next few weeks Silver and Serine would only ever leave the Valley to catch some food, but all the time they were inside the Valley they would just stay at the cave or have a swim in the river and some times go to the waterfall.

“Here come with me; I want to show you something.” He took Serine out to the edge of the small hill that the cave stood on.

It was early morning and the sun was just coming up over the cliffs.

As she was looking out at view she asked, “What am I looking at?” and was startled as talons suddenly grabbed her around the sides. At first she was scared but since they didn’t hurt her she knew it must have been Silver.

She couldn’t believe how much quieter his take-offs have been lately.

Before Silver had met up with Anasa again, his take-offs had been rather obvious, she could even hear him simply unfurl his wings without looking at him.

Now a days though, even in the quiet of the cave or the night, the only way she could tell if he had even moved was if she was looking at him. She had thought about this before, and the only reason she could succumb this silent take off was because of annoyance, mainly because Ana was always as quiet as a ghost when she took flight, and most of the time Serine had seen her she was angry. She just couldn’t work it out, because SB had always been fine around her and nice to her.

They were flying over the vast expanse of the Valley of Heaven, over a section that Serine hadn’t been over before, but that wasn’t very hard since the place was huge and although she had been there for almost a moon now, she never went very far from the cave or the waterfall, mainly out of laziness more then anything else.

Silver headed towards a gorge that was between two hills. The gorge went for miles but Silver set her down after just coming into the shade of it.

It wasn’t a boiling hot day but the shade was nice and welcoming.

When Serine first looked down the gorge she couldn’t see where it ended.

‘It must go for miles!’ thought Serine.

“This place is beautiful, just like the rest of the Valley!”

“Yeah I think its okay.” replied Silver.

The gorge was about ten meters wide, from one side to the other and it snaked down between the hills with a mind of its own.  Covering about eight of the ten meters there was a shallow yet swift running creek that just came up out of the ground about twenty meters behind them. It was a natural spring and it ran into the river after the gorge finished, so the water had been there for thousands of years before Serine, and before Silver, and it would be there long after they were gone. Along the right hand side, where Silver had dropped Serine there was a narrow track that followed the river with every bend and curve. The water was a deep blue, from the minerals in the stone underneath the water, so when it was reflected. It would make the water look a deep blue. Silver explained this to Serine before she had a chance to ask.

Although the river was shallow there were random deep holes all the way through the gorge which was home to a few fallen logs and a lot of fish.

At some points down the track, the track itself went up onto the side of the gorge and made it almost impossible to walk over, but they were still a fare way away from that section.

“Does this place have any significance to you SB?”

“No, not like the cave, it’s just beautiful here, mainly because no other flyers – birds included – come through here often, too cramped to fly freely.” He replied. “It gives the feeling of claustrophobia.”

This made Serine feel sad. The whole last moon since Silver had brought her to the valley she had realised just how alone Silver must have been before he had met her. Of course Anasa was his friend and would drop by every now and then, but she lived her own life away from the Valley.

When she first met him, she thought he was okay, but only because she thought he was the only on of his kind.

But even though he had come back to his homeland, and even running into Ana again, he had become a lot more self-conscious and self-indulged. He was still as nice and as friendly whenever Serine spoke to him, and ecstatic when Anasa would. But when she would quiet down, which wasn’t often, he wouldn’t talk he would just sit there with his head down, or stare out at the distance, his mind a million k’s away.

They began walking down the gorge, Serine was using the path while Silver was walking in the river, and making sure his wings wouldn’t get wet he held them open up in the air.

Again he had his head down, an inch from the water, and when he would step into a deep hole his nose would sometimes go under the water, and Serine just couldn’t resist from laughing, trying to cheer him up.

After a minute of watching Silver's nose go into the water with each deep hole, Serine gathered up enough guts and walked over to him, splashing the water a little in her haste to get over to him.

“Silver…” She started.

“… Do you li-love Anasa?” she asked, changing her question in mid-speech.

He kept walking as if he hadn’t heard her.

After a while he responded.

“…Yes I guess you could say I do…” With that Serine's face dropped, but he didn’t see.

“…Because I care about her as much as I would a mate I guess… but then no I don’t… She is my sister in more ways then one, except for blood of course, although we don’t know for certain anyway, I have known her almost my whole life.  But yes I do love her but not like a mate I guess.”

“Hmm I didn’t know you grew up together. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I guess it just slipped my mind. Sorry” apologised Silver.

“Oh okay,” she looked across at him but he still had his head down.

“Well don’t I feel like crap!” exclaimed Serine.

This made Silver look up for the first time since landing in the gorge

“…Why…?”

“Because of me you will probably never see your friend for a long time….”

He stayed silent at this and that only made Serine more sad and miserable.

“No I don’t think so…” Started Silver, “She doesn’t hold grudges all too well.”

“She had one against me for being here, remember?” pointed out Serine.

“Yeah that’s the longest one I have ever seen her pull.” he laughed with no humour in it.

“I heard the fight you guys had the night she left. I'm sorry I shouldn’t have listened, but it woke me up.”

‘Hmm then that was why she took off without finishing what she was saying.’ Silver said to himself.

Serine got gutsy again and re-angled her direction. With each step she took, it brought her closer to Silver.

When she was paws length from his shoulder to her own, she thought about it for another minute, looked at him, he still had his head down, so out loud she said;

“Stuff it!” and leaned across and kissed him on the cheek.

For half a second he didn’t respond just kept walking, and then suddenly he froze and looked up at Serine through confused golden eyes.

When she saw the look on his face, she regretted kissing him immediately but was still glad she had found the guts to do it.

They stood there in the water staring at each other for about a minute before Silver stupidly asked her;

“Did you just…kiss me?”

“Yes I did but I’m sorry I shouldn’t have I don’t know what came over me because I know that you don’t like me that way…” she rushed out.

They stood there for another minute before Silver started walking again, the same as before, his nose an inch from the water.

Serine started following a minute later in the exact same fashion, head an inch from the water, although the water in front was disrupted by more that just her paws, her silent tears were falling freely from her eyes.

Silver could hear her silent sobs through the vibrations in the water and could hear the tears hitting the water. He felt cruel for making her cry but there was nothing he could say or do without either making it worse or give her the wrong idea, so he just kept walking.

After walking for about a k he looked over at her and she was still crying, her half-mane was covering her eyes but he could still see the tears.

“I'm sorry Serine.” He said as honestly as he could.

She looked up at him through her half-mane at him with red and bleary eyes but didn’t say anything.

After walking for a little bit, they got to a bit where the gorge came down to ground level before going back up to its original height.

“Gah!” exclaimed Silver because a gust of sweetened wind, and a beam of sunlight hit him square in the face, and because of his wings still being open, his feathers concentrated the beam straight into Serine's eyes as well.

She only gave a little whine when it hit her but didn’t say anything else.

The whole time since she had kissed him he had realised what the feeling deep in his heart was. He didn’t know what it was to begin with but he knew it truthfully now.

“I'm sorry Serine,” he said again.

“That was cruel leading you on like that, I shouldn’t have. Me bringing you here was a big mistake, because it led to you believing that I wanted to be alone with you. I'm sorry.” He fell quiet for a few more minutes. As he looked around, he knew this place as good as the back of his claw; he just wished Serine would look up.

“I have realised something though, S,” he started; she still hadn’t looked up from the blue water yet, so he walked over to her and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“I have realised the feeling that has been inside, I thought it was feelings for Sas, but it has been getting stronger and more recognisable every day I spend with YOU.”  After he finished he kissed her again.

Only after the second kiss did she look up, not believing him.

“Prove to me that you’re not lying.” She told him with a stern voice.

And with that, his massive yet gentle front legs and talons picked her up around the ribs as if she was a rag doll and gave her the biggest and most passionate kiss he ever could have given any one, after a couple of seconds, she joined in and was kissing him just as passionately back.

Just before they had stopped kissing, Serine could fell the sun on her back but didn’t realise it was getting hotter, and when she looked around, she realised they were above the gorge, panic-stricken she looked down only out of reaction, and noticed that they were 20 feet in the air. At first she was scared, but then surprised that, when she looked closer, the only thing holding her entire body weight was just his front legs and the muscles weren’t even straining yet.

She knew he was strong but when she was on his back, she could tell he was obliviously having trouble but he didn’t say anything, yet this didn’t seem like it was troubling him.

“Oh” she gasped, because she didn’t hear him take off or even hear the water falling from their legs and tails back into the river…

The End. To Be Continued. To Be Concluded. To Be Deleted.

I don’t know, you tell me.

Should we keep this going or not? We only will if you guys and girls like it.

And if you do, give either myself or Serine an email.

Even if you hate it, just send the email to Serine, not me.

:) just joking, but feedback would be great guys.

Cheers. Silver Bolt.