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bookwyrminspiration · 3 years

Text

Shattered Upside Down

A kotlc wings au: masterpost here

Chapter 6: The Beasts

word count: 6.1k

chapter summary: Sophie is beginning to question her own resolve to her cause, but she doesn’t have the time so think it over before a new threat emerges.

warnings: lighting storms and chaos, being trapped (not the main characters), swearing, intentional misuse of grammar for dramatic effect, let me know if there’s anything else /g

taglist: listed in the replies. let me know if you want to be added or removed!

This chapter feels chaotic to me but I promise there’s some good moments peppered throughout it. Also it was a lot of fun to write so hope you enjoy! And yes there is a cliffhanger. Like always.

ao3 link here or read beneath the cut

Brrrr.

The hollow echo of a creature sat itself down among the vines near what had to be its head, a thick snare of sticking foliage wrapping around its skull, down its neck. Empty, beaded black pits wide as its mouth distended, no sound emerging.

No.

They weren’t empty.

Terror. Absolute, fucking terror clawed its way down its face, enough to still her in place, hovering above it. Tremors shook its emaciated body, bones visible through grey flesh, tearing as it thrashed--to no avail.

Time became fluid, lucid, viscous, and Sophie couldn’t stop it as it dripped down from the trees, seconds ticking away as she sat there stood there froze.

No. Not again.

Desperately, she forced herself forward, swooping closer to the vines, able to move more freely with this new agility, this strange body full of great terror. This monster was...enormous grotesque painfully distended.

And entirely helpless.

“Okay okay okay,” she whispered, easing down, reaching out and making contact with the veins of thick vines, strung so tightly between the trees she could rest her full body weight upon them, slowly setting her feet down.

She crouched down, trying to ignore the stick against her skin, similar to that of your thighs on a leather chair in thick summer heat. The bucking and thrashing of that thing didn’t make it easy, sending tremors through the entire web of deadly vines, upsetting her balance.

Those empty white eyes watched as she slipped, tilting backwards, gasping as her hands flung out behind her, catching her. She breathed. Too close.

Brrrr.

The echo creature was just ahead, and it leapt directly onto the terror-struck monster, rubbing its face against the other--comforting. The erratic movements calmed, enough for Sophie to resume her crouched position, slowly making her way toward that creature’s head.

Wait. What the fuck am I doing?

She slowed, and it was as though she’d broken a trance. Everything pounded against her senses all at once, like she hadn't been awake and all the sudden she was living living burning alive.

The stagnant air filled with the stench of the vines and the creature assaulted her mind the old sweat against her skin like a film and coating every inch of her and she hadn’t showered in days and was wearing old clothes and hair tickled the back of her neck and her fingers were coated in sopping sticking wet from the foliage and she could feel the vibrations in the air and hear the movements of the grass and her own heart screaming in her chest.

Brrrr.

Breathe. She couldn’t freeze, not now--not again. She wouldn’t freeze again.

“Talk it through, Foster,” she said, holding tight to the vines. “You’re in the forest. There are vines everywhere--they’re all jumbled together around the trees. There’s a monster stuck in them--and you were led here by another creature. Why are you here? What are you doing? It stuck and--”

She paused. Something...caught. In her mind. The monster was stuck.

The little echo had found her and brought her here.

“You want my help, don’t you,” she whispered, momentarily too awed by the intelligence of this tiny creature to comprehend the request. The moment didn’t last.

Her tongue soured, and the shudder of revulsion that spiked it way down her vertebrae had the wings shivering. No no no no no. Why had she done this. Why did she follow the echo? Why why why did she never think things through and why why why was she sitting here in these vines and why why why was it staring at her like that.

She’d never seen eyes so dark before, deepened by the dimmed light, the myriad of vines reaching above them, devouring the sun.

Vines coiled around its face, reaching down it’s rib cage, branching out along its upper limbs, thick bundles of muscles ending in--it had wings too.

Angry red veins pulsing bulging bursting beneath its skin reaching up out down around branching across those membranes growing maiming spreading from its back. She stopped. She couldn’t think.

All she could do was sit there, look, unhearing of its silent screams as her eyes remained fixed on those wings.

No.

Not again.

She wouldn’t do this again. Sophie pushed herself forward, fists clenching, nails digging into her skin. She wouldn't do this again. She wouldn’t.

Gritting her teeth, she climbed through the vines, all those human years at play places coming in handy, dancing her way up to its head--its head alone was nearly the size of her entire torso, each dripping fang longer than her fingers as it snapped its teeth--she flinched.

No. It wasn’t snapping at her. It was trying to reach the vines.

“Think, Foster.” She wouldn’t freeze. Okay. Think it through.

The monster jerked, but she held tight to the vines, allowing her knees to absorb the shift. It’s neck. That was most pressing. At least, it was in people.

Thick ropes curled around its skull, snaking their way down its flesh--that was the most urgent.

Her body moved as if she’d already made the decision, nothing but clear adrenaline flooding her veins as she moved, barely noticing the ick coating her fingers as she made her way around the side of the head, reaching out and running her hands along its skin.

It jolted beneath her touch. “Shhh shh shh; I’m helping, dumbass,” she consoled, then paused.

“I'm...helping you.” Why? Why was she helping it? She shouldn’t--she really really shouldn’t. This horrible, despicable creature before her was suffering--good. She should be glad. Creatures just like this one had torn everything from her, wrenched it limb from limb and scattered the pieces in the wind of its own screams.

Just like this one.

Sophie should sit here and watch it wail and cry and hurt like it had hurt her, a twisted vengeance of some sort. Or she should turn around a leave, pretend she’d never been brought to this place and had never found it. Let it die.

Monsters just like this one killed her life. Were slowly killing this new one.

She should hate it for that. Curse it out and scream at the sky and watch it writhe and suffer. Didn’t it deserve it? Retribution for the suffering it brought to her family, to her?

Sophie exhaled.

This monster--it could have done any number of things. It could’ve been the very one to first break through the fields of Havenfield all those months ago. It could’ve been the one to tear Eternalia to its knees.

It could’ve been the one to devour the gnomes that built those homes.

Could’ve could’ve could’ve could’ve could’ve could’ve.

She’d never know.

Slowly, deliberately, she braced both hands on the creature, skin coarse against her fingertips in a way that made her nerves tingle, vaguely painful. Something something something burning through her veins; she closed her eyes. Inhaled.

She curled her fingers around the vines, slipping her hands beneath that tight suction, the viscous syrup clinging to its flesh.

“On purpose,” she whispered. “Oh purpose on purpose on purpose. I’m going to help you on purpose.”

And

she

pulled.

The vines stuck to her palms, grating and slipping and sticking all at once and it was burning her alive but she refused to freeze. She wouldn’t.

With a grotesque, wet pop the vine released, giving as easily as the crystal grate had burst when she’d first decided to run away from herself. Easier than he knew it should’ve been.

“You’re okay,” she whispered as the creature flinched. Carefully, she ran her fingers alongside the opening she’d created in that seal, vine ripping away from its skin. She followed it around, and the creatures pitch black eyes followed her as she moved around it, carefully untangling it.

It panted heavily against her skin, rancid air brushing her legs as she worked. Deliberately. Intentionally. She was choosing to help it.

Each touch sent shivers and goosebumps raving across her skin, but she wouldn’t freeze.

Slowly, each vine fell away, and the creature gained more and more mobility, but it still didn’t move. It did nothing until she stepped back, panting and sweaty, palms red from whatever substance coated these vines, pollen dusting her skin. She hadn’t showered in days.

Then it shifted. Slowly. Deliberately. Carefully crawling up the vines, maneuvering through the spaces and sending tremors through the foliage--Sophie tightened her grip.

Brrrr.

The echo followed it, glitching towards the open sky alongside it, rubbing affectionately against its side as they moved in tandem so so carefully.

Sophie tilted her head back, palm pressed against the stitch in her side as she watched them move further and further away.

Her eyesight could pick up the way each muscle moved beneath its skin as it worked its way up up up towards the sky, towards release.

She stood there and watched. The vines thinned enough that it began to spread its wings, flapping them slightly as it prepared for takeoff, the echo beside it moving so quickly too and fro in place it was like a hologram she couldn’t concentrate on.

Then it looked back.

They both did.

They looked at her and they saw her.

For a few, eternal moments, they saw each other.

And then they were gone.

And Sophie was here.

Burning.

On purpose.

Pollen crusted her bare feet, accumulating and redistributing itself who knew where with each step Sophie took. She could’ve flown home. The wings had cooperated twice now, maybe they’d do it a third.

But not yet.

She needed this time.

The time it took her to walk back, using the faint presence of her friends to guide her way home to them, tracking them subtly. Hopefully they didn’t know she was gone.

They were used to her being alone, but they’d become such a part of her that maybe they’d sense something was different. Different different different.

She blew lightly across her palms--to ease the burning. Her feet and hands and legs and arms were coated in whatever those vines secreted and it irritated her skin, turning it faintly red.

Quietly, the forest seemed to hum as she passed by, flowers curling and leaves shivering and the air buzzing with something heady. The foliage beneath her feet began to thin and reshape itself, flattening out into a path that wound its way through and under the trees--it seemed to be leading back to the gnomish village.

So she followed it, followed until the trees opened just enough for her to glimpse the faint edge of a wooden patio up in the canopy.

She was back.

And exhausted. Climbing up the trunks a second time seemed like so much work--how had they done it the first time?

There was too much too many all the time going on around in her mind, so she did the first thing she could think of.

She took flight.

It shouldn’t have been this natural, this effortless. They shouldn’t have worked alongside her so easily--they should be fighting her tooth and nail against her every wish. They weren’t supposed to act like a part of her.

But she coursed through the air, curling around and around in an almost perfect spiral upwards until that platform was moments away and her dirty feet made contact and the wings folded themselves neatly against her back and those dozen and dozens and dozens of feet had turned to seconds and it had been over before it began.

On purpose.

She’d saved that creature on purpose and had the bruises the itching the scratches to prove it.

Now what.

An unnaturally cold breeze brushed itself against her skin, and she closed her eyes. Now what? Right now her skin was coated in something icky; right now her friend was hurt and she didn’t know how to help him; right now her parents didn’t know where she was; right now she hadn’t showered in days; right now the sun was setting and the sky was burning itself alive.

Right now the world was filled with monsters.

She opened her eyes. A shower seemed like a good first step.

“Sophie! There you are!” Fuck. Marella nearly crashed into her with her impatience, Sophie throwing her hands out for balance. Marella’s tiny braids were frazzled around her face, nose scrunched with vague annoyance, the light squeeze she gave her arm betraying her affection.

“Sorry--do you need me?” If something had happened and she’d been gone she’d never forgive herself for--

“No.” Oh. That...she didn’t know how she felt about that. Marella had turned, starting to walk away, gesturing for her to follow. She made a face, though, shaking off her hands. “What is that? Where were you?”

Ah. The one question she was hoping not to answer. Fuck. “Not sure,” she ventured, choosing her words oh so carefully. “It does burn though--I should wash it off before it gets worse. There’s a lot of unkempt plants in the area--I guess with my luck I happened to run into the wrong ones.” She’d technically answered the questions, but she hadn’t given the information she was unwilling to face quite yet.

Marella laughed slightly, shaking her head as she moved with determination, choosing bridges to cross and houses to walk through with intention, faint laughter sounding up ahead.

Finally, they curved around a particularly large tree and everyone came into view. Dex leaning to Keefe alongside a flowered bench, bandages wrapped around his back; Fitz at their feet beside Linh who was speaking animatedly about something. Wylie had suspended a dull ball of light in the center of the group, emanating rich yellows and oranges and pinks like some kind of faux campfire.

“Lose a fight with the forest, Foster?” Keefe called out when he saw her, raising a brow in amusement.

“You could say that,” she answered, smiling back slightly. Tension drained from her muscles, providing enough relief that she momentarily didn’t notice the itching. Something about other people just being there made it so much easier to exist. She wasn’t the only thing to exist anymore.

Maruca snorted, walking into the area from a bridge on the opposite side of the platform they’d gathered on, Tam and Biana a few steps behind.

Sophie flushed slightly, smile turning to a full-on grin to try and hide it. She never should’ve walked away from these people. All the time alone in her own mind had created monsters that weren’t even there, fantasies to scream and run from when there were people right here who loved her and she loved back.

She briefly met Dex’s eye and he shrugged slightly--alright. He was alright right now. She didn’t press for details; he’d provide them if he wanted. Maybe that episode had just been a fluke, maybe he’d just get better and better with time.

“Seriously though, what happened to you,” Fitz asked, bewildered, looking her up and down. Sophie brushed some of the pollen off her arms, but it just smeared in that vine ick.

“I haven’t showered in days, Fitzroy, and the plants are mean.”

Linh leaned forward, an uncharacteristic grin slicing her face. “Here, let me help!”

“Help with wha--” Sophie asked, starting to move back.

A torrent of icy water blasted her from head to toe as Linh slammed her wrists together, fingers closing hypnotically until her hands formed a mock spout--aimed directly at Sophie.

It lasted for a few brief moments, absolutely soaking her all the way through. She was left standing, sputtering, dripping water onto the patio.

Linh was grinning, flushed and suppressing her laughter, as if embarrassed by her own joke. Keefe took one look at her, stilled with shock, and snapped his hand to his mouth--it didn’t do anything to mask the giggles. And he wasn’t the only one.

Biana laughed openly, Tam shaking his head with amusement right beside her.

“Hnnng thank you Linh,” she breathed, voiced unnaturally high from the overwhelming cold, shivering slightly. “I love you so much I just can’t believe how helpful you are. Really, uh, really appreciate that. O-oh” She braced her hands on her knees. “Cold water was uh--that was a choice. I’m so, I’m--really appreciate you.” The last syllable lasted a lot longer and a lot shakier than she meant for it to.

She gave a thumbs up as she stood, gently pulling the fabric of her shirt away from her skin as she did so, shaking it out a little. Now there were smiles all around the circle, everyone enjoying her comedic suffering.

“Want me--want me to--” Marella couldn’t even get the words out, trying to force her face into a neutral position of superiority as she raised a hand and snapped, sparks flying.

“Set me on fire? Go for it--sounds nice.”

Before she got the chance to, Linh reached out, drawing the water out of her clothes and hair, sending it floating around her in tiny dew drops, dispersing into the air.

Sophie shook herself off--as humorous as it had been, it had actually gotten rid of most of the substance and helped the burning. But it seemed it had been even better for morale.

She didn’t know what the atmosphere had been like before she’d arrived, but now there was an undeniable air of ease, a lightness. It reminded her of Keefe in a way, the effect he tried to achieve through his humor.

“Sorry,” Linh said, still smiling. “You just set it up so well. I had to.”

Sophie smiled back, lowering herself down to sit around the faux-fire--Linh had even cleared the water from the wood.

“It seemed like she could use it,” Dex mumbled, eliciting a few laughs that had Sophie flushing. Maruca shook her head slightly, smile tugging at her lips.

Now seemed like an excellent time to change the subject. “What’s everyone doing out here?” She’d just been brought here by Marella, she didn’t actually know what was going on. Which...wasn’t great if she was supposed to be the leader. Although everything was more of a group effort most of the time.

Biana stepped forward, sitting on the bench on the other side of Keefe, who put his arm on her shoulder and leaned against her like she was a counter. As she did so, she spoke. “Why not, you know? We can’t exactly go anywhere right now, and there’s no one to boss us around--so why not have a little fun!” She swatted at Keefe’s arm with annoyance, but he just stuck his tongue out at her. “Also, just a little check-in, see where everyone’s at--although I wasn’t expecting anyone to be fighting plants, much less losing to them.”

Had she lost, though? The question screeched painfully through her mind, catching her off guard. They’d made a mess of her, yes, but she’d technically gotten the creature out. Wasn’t that a victory? Or were they all losing, fooled by their own misguided wants that they tricked themselves into believing otherwise.

“I live to surprise.” She didn’t want to be thinking about it either way; she’d had enough moral quandaries to last at least the rest of the week. Propping her head against her hand, she surveyed the group. Chatting amongst themselves and sitting and existing peacefully--Biana was right. They didn’t have moments like this often. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time they’d existed so carelessly.

Biana smiled at her, then turned away, attention caught by Tam as he leaned in to say something. She could hear it if she wanted, knew there was so much more to each of them than they'd ever have time to discover.

She didn’t. She tuned it out and let the moment be. Biana pushed lightly at his arm in mock annoyance, and Tam’s eyes caught the light of the fire, reflecting it back like a cat. Maruca flicked her fingers a few times, messing with the faux-fire in little spikes of flashing force fields. Marella leaned over, asking Wylie a question.

He nodded and the fire shifted colors, turning a rich magenta and melting into purples and blues and aquamarine and cycling through the whole spectrum of color, bathing all ten of them in faint rainbow light.

This is nice, Sophie thought, watching the colors play across her skin. A brief reprieve. A few moments stolen from time. A few moments where none of them worried about anything except for who could talk the loudest. A few moments where their world hadn’t ended and they weren’t so alone.

Where they were nothing but a group of teenagers enjoying each others’ company in the fading sunlight, content to stay with each other eternally.

Sophie’s eyes caught on a fraction of movement off in her peripherals and she blinked, trying to find it. Strange. She could’ve sworn there was something there. Something hollow and white staring at her, through her.

Then Fitz laughed and the moment was over.

This wouldn’t last, but it was nice to imagine it would.

“Did Linh show you what she did in that house near the outskirts?” Tam asked, walking beside her. The group had dispersed as the night got darker, Biana, Linh, Marella and Maruca disappearing somewhere; Fitz, Keefe, and Dex discussing something animatedly, Wylie straight-up vanishing--which left Sophie and Tam together.

Their arms were interlaced as they walked about, ensuring the other didn’t wander off somewhere. Despite his adeptness in the dark, Tam didn’t seem to be seeing very clearly.

He kept squinting, the shadows only thickening in his presence--luckily, there was enough moonlight that they could glean general awareness of the area.

“No, what did she do?” She grabbed his arm, pulling him along so he stopped straying to the edge of the bridge; she didn’t think he’d walk off it, but she also didn’t know how well he could see. Whatever had happened to his eyes, they way they reflected light, it had clearly affected his night vision. Not that she had the energy to think about that right now. Her head couldn’t take much more, she could feel it.

“Rerouted some of the old irrigation systems into a functioning shower system.”

“Ah. I see.” It seemed she was the dirtiest among them, everyone else changing clothes on a reasonable schedule and such. And they loved to bring it up.

He smirked at her slightly when she glanced back, amused suspicion written all over her face. She wasn’t going to make this easy for him. “You’re mentioning this because…” She raised her eyebrows at him and he gave a sort of half-laugh.

“Just thought you should know.”

She rolled her eyes, then looked out around the scenery. Fragrant flowers curled against the edges of the porches, leading into those quaint, decaying homes. She hadn’t been out this way before--then again, she’d spent the better part of the day untangling a monster from a snare of vines. But damn she’d love a shower. After this little moment, this calm, then she’d shower. Reset her mind and prepare to face herself in the morning.

Maybe even check her imparter.

Just the thought sent a pang of something so strong and repulsive through her gut she nearly stumbled. Accompanied by all the hairs raising on her arm, she couldn’t resist the urge to rub the sensation away, scouring her skin quickly, small poofs of pollen floating into the air.

Tam sneezed a few times. “Sorry,” she mumbled, trying to shake off the sensation.

He squeezed her arm, glancing around uneasily in a way that made her pause. “Do you feel that?”

“What?”

“That.”

Sophie glanced around, the unease oozing through her skin growing with each second, and the realization curdled her blood--this was not just her nerves.

Each pollen-coated hair on her arm raised, something deep, instinctual buzzing through her veins, wrapping its vice around her heart, squeezing squeezing squeezing her tight and lighting her cells into pyres, eating its way through her sanity.

Then the rain hit.

It descended like a sheet; it hadn’t been there, then it was everywhere. Droplets pelted her skin, the downpour so heavy she couldn’t see anything but the blurs of them falling in front of her face, could barely see Tam a foot away, arm still wrapped around hers.

Shit.

Petals and leaves whipped their way through the air, torn from their stems and trees, flailing about in the gusts. The bridge beneath them shuddered, their weight upon it the only thing holding it slightly steady--they had to move.

Sophie reached out blindly for a few steps, recalling those memories from a few moments ago when she could see the railings, and grabbed hold. She clung tight to the railing of the platform, other arm interlocked with Tam’s as they stared across the crossing paths of bridges waving and completely unstable in this torrent, barely able to see more than a dozen feet in front of their faces.

Rain mixed with the wind, chilling her to the bone as it whipped her hair back and forth, pelting those delicate wings at her back.

WHAT’S HAPPENING, several someones screamed, and Sophie winced, hand shooting to her temple to massage the ache forming there. She’d already been low energy, but--every few weeks or so, the strain of maintaining the mindbubble gave her a horrid headache; the more it was used the worse it got.

Everyone.

Everyone was talking. Yelling. Trying to find each other through the storm, shoving images of locations into the space to try and find each other. None of them could see through the rain--the rain that had fallen like a thick sheet, suddenly there all at once.

Cacophonies of Who started it and Can you feel that and Where are you and What’s happening and--

Quiet. Tam sent an aggressive streak of shadows alongside the scathing message, shocking the others enough to shut them up.

Thanks, Sophie and Fitz whispered as one, voices strained enough that an immediate wave of guilt washed over the others, detectable even in their minds.

Her head pounded, her neck scrunching up instinctively to try and force the feeling away. She needed to concentrate. Why did her head have to be such a bitch now? Each pulse of blood reverberated through her skull. She was so tired. She’d had such a long day, why couldn’t she just have a little break. A few hours where nothing went wrong.

Tam’s arm snaked its way around her back, drawing her closer to his side as she pressed her face in his shirt. The sudden humidity and change in air pressure hadn’t helped. Why was this affecting her so? What even was this?

Something prickled in the back of her mind--Linh. Linh was drawing her hands up towards the sky in a great sweeping arc, drawing the rain out of the air and suspending it above her, above all of them.

The incessant pelting against her skin stopped, the water drawn out of her clothes and hair, all of the moisture flattening out into a slightly curved circle, a lens held above them.

She’d blocked the rain.

Sophie turned her head, watching as Linh stood in the center of that circle, tiny droplets floating rhythmically to join the configuration. They could see again.

Linh turned, surveying them all, skin unnaturally alight, almost iridescent, dew drops coating her limbs and running down her arms. Why hadn’t she taken the water off herself?

The wind still whipped violently at her face, pollen dusting off her skin and scattering in the wind, Tam holding her tight as she massaged her temples. Everyone was scattered, but with their eyesight they could all see each other, all the panicked faces down to the dilated pupils.

Linh and Marella both stood in the center of her shield, the latter staring vacantly into the sky, an almost entranced look creeping over her face. The former was more stoic, seemed to see, no, sense something the rest of them could only imagine.

The fuck is happening right now, Maruca hissed, but quietly so as not to hurt Sophie and Fitz. Considerate. Sophie had to search for a moment before finding her off to her left, covering Wylie’s back with a cloak--the wings.

Fuck. The wings at her own back buzzed with a phantom pain--could the insect wings get wet? Would that damage them? Why did the thought frighten her so?

Some of her panic must’ve gotten through to the others, enough to pick up on the source.

Both Keefe and Fitz, the latter massaging his temples, took up a stance on either side of Biana, shielding her back despite Linh’s cover, and Tam shifted her so that none of the stray droplets tossed by the wind could hit her back.

There’s something up there, Marella whispered, voice too light too soft too steel. She drew everyone’s attention.

What do you mean? Sophie asked, but she received no response.

Marella? Multiple voices echoed throughout their minds, then out loud. She didn’t respond to any of them.

Sophie eyed the bridges between them--no way in hell were they going to be able to cross those. The vines were shredding themselves, stray flowers whipping about as the area self-destructed. A window somewhere behind her shattered, the sound of falling glass shocking her to her core.

Wait.

There was a shattered window in that room she’d claimed. What had broken it so thoroughly?

“Marella what are you--” someone screamed, and Sophie was snapped back to this horrid reality, Tam at her back, wind pelting her body, thoughts that weren’t hers clouding her mind.

Marella had crouched down--

“What the fuck,” she whispered. Tam inhaled sharply behind her, hands tightening on her arms.

Glowing. Each of Marella’s veins was luminescent beneath her skin, crawling beneath her flesh, lighting her up from the inside-out as she stared vacantly into the sky. You could trace the map of pulsing blood, everything leading back to the center of her chest, a concentration of light glimmering there.

That’s cool and all, Dex said, voice shaking. But what are you--

Lightning struck, ravenous thunder shuddering through the sky. Again. Again.

Shit. Lightning like that--they were literally in the trees, this was not a good place to be.

Something boomed high above.

The rain flickered.

It was gone for a brief moment, completely halted before it crashed down twice as hard a moment later. Everyone’s hands were pressed tight to their ears, the torrent of rain drops pelting to roofs, the platforms, the shield of water above absolutely deafening.

Yet...Linh and Marella stood in the center of them all, staring through the sky.

“I don’t like this!” Tam yelled by her ear. She agreed. But she didn’t know what this was. Much less how to stop it.

Another resounding boom came from overhead, halting the rain for a few seconds more.

Sophie watched as Marella’s head cocked, tension lining her muscles as she stayed crouched there, eyes half-lidded as she tuned into to some frequency far beyond her own understanding.

Brrrr.

The breath caught in her throat as Sophie froze, gaze whipping around, trying to find it--that little echo. She knew she’d heard it.

There.

Barely, across the clearing, she could see it for a moment. Watched as it glitched it’s way across the dilapidated roof of one of those gnomish houses, seemingly untouched by the downpour.

It made eye contact with her, those empty whites piercing her as it blinked once, then was gone.

Another flash of lightning struck, the hairs on her arm raising, dread coiling in the pit of her stomach. Goddammit. That echo was here again, but why? What did it want with her?

Wait, did that mean--

Sophie Foster wasn’t known for thinking. She was known for doing.

There was strength beyond her understanding lurking beneath her skin, ripping through those vines had taught her that much. Breaking the grate had taught her just how far it could go.

She flexed her biceps, jerking her arms out on either side, breaking Tam’s hold. He wouldn’t let her go any other way, she knew. And she loved him for it.

Using the adrenaline she’d generated, she rushed to the edge of the platform, there in an instant, everything around her so so so painfully slow as she did not think.

She jumped.

And the wings snapped open.

Clear, unadulterated determination spurred her forward, over those unstable bridges. Levitation too risky with this wind, walking an impossibility. They’d thought themselves stranded, unable to reach each other until the storm died down--no. They weren’t bound to human--or even elven--limitations anymore.

Rushing towards Linh and Marella, the center of that water shield, she aimed her trajectory upwards, all that practice from earlier today, weaving in and out of the trees giving her just enough knowledge on how this body worked to twist backwards in the air, face to the sky as she adjusted course.

The apex of that curved lens beckoned her, growing closer and closer as she aimed up up up.

Something snapped in the mindbubble, echoes and reverberations sounding out like something irreversible had broken.

She glanced down.

Marella took flight, Linh a moment behind.

Marella’s eyes shone with something ravenous, her movements unstable but forceful as she propelled herself after Sophie, the same determination written in the lines of her face. Linh rushed to meet them, swaying slightly in the wind.

And as a group, a unit, they burst through the top of that shield, shooting up up up into the sky, rain pelting their skin, Linh suspending it away from the delicate insect wings just in case, ever so considerate. And they charged.

Right into the center of the storm.

Sophie couldn’t hear the buzzing of the wings at her own back over the crackling lightning splitting the sky. She couldn’t hear the screaming in her head, a solid wall of power clamped around her, Linh, and Marella so thick not even Fitz would have a chance to get in.

Thunder rumbled through the sky so powerful so close so everywhere she could’ve sworn she could hear her bones crunching, her brain rocking, the nerves screaming in her body as the world reoriented itself, her body only a fleck of dust amongst the storm.

The others gasped alongside her, senses overwhelmed by the sheer force of the chaos.

What now?

Oh fuck what now?

What the hell is your plan, Foster! Marella ground out, teeth gritted. Her hands were clasped over her ears, trying to block out that deafening scream, nature’s fury.

Plan.

She was becoming woefully negligent when it came to planning.

That echo had shown up and suddenly she’d been flying through the trees not thinking anything through just living breathing doing on purpose on purpose on purpose. She’d seen the creature and thought maybe maybe maybe this was--

Something bellowed above them. Screeching deep and pained and hollow and angry and alive alive alive.

That wasn’t thunder, Linh said.

That was living breathing alive. There was something above them, something screaming it’s mind into this echoic sky.

Each passing heartbeat reminded her just how bad of an idea this was, just how much she hadn’t thought it through and now she’d dragged two of her friends alongside her into this chaos. Linh was holding another shield around them, water droplets pelting an invisible sphere and collecting, distorting the image beyond.

Lightning flashed, setting her eyes burning as the electricity sizzled and popped through the air, a continuous arc from one dense cloud to another.

Wait.

Marella surged from her stagnant hover, something inhuman in her face as her lip curled, eyes set solely on the origin of that lightning. That unnatural lightning.

“MARELLA--” Linh screamed, moving after her, tearing at the clouds the mist the storm with her hands, rending the world to shreds in an instant.

Linh

tore

the

sky

apart.

All the condensation clouding the sky shredding and dissipating, leaving everything else remarkably, unbearably clear.

Sophie could see everything. Linh just ahead, reaching desperately for Marella; Marella, wings on full display behind her, hypnotized by the beasts in the sky; the beasts--

No.

The wings at Marella’s back beat behind her, glistening red against the dark storm, scales crusting the thick muscles, leading out to taut membranes and wicked talons, scratching against the fabric of the night.

As they moved something swarmed beneath the surface, glowing hot beneath her skin.

No.

Marella continued her advance, eyes focused only on those beasts in the sky, like calling to like.

Lightning crackled against the scales of one, its teeth at the other's throat as electricity lit its eyes. Smoke curled from the mouth of the other, wings beating furiously as it scratched and clawed and bellowed.

Two dragons battled for dominance in the air.

And Marella was drawn to them, carried by blood-red dragon wings.

#that was fun #how's everyone doing after that #was kinda worried too much happened in one chapter when i wrote it but i've decided eh #why not #anyways feel free to scream about this in my asks #/g #I have many thoughts about the wings au all of the time #spectacular #i'll stop now but hopefully you enjoyed that as much as I did #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc fanfic #kotlc fan fic #kotlc fanfiction #kotlc wings au #shattered upside down #shattered upside down chapter #do i need anymore tags or was that all of them?

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