If Only

         With a laugh, Lieri ran down the slope. Disarrayed black hair flew out behind her as she leapt over rocks and dodged trees. A boy strode after her, worry furrowing his brow.
         “Lieri!” he pleaded. “Lieri, be careful! What if you break your neck? What if my mother finds out? You know she worries about you.”
         The girl in question slowed and finally stopped her perilously rapid descent. “I won’t hurt myself, Dren,” she retorted, turning to face him. “Besides, if you don’t tell Aunt Ryuthe she won’t find out.”
         “Well, running that fast—” Dren began, only to be interrupted by Lieri.
         “I like running that fast. It’s the closest anybody could get to actually flying.”
         “Oh, you and your flying nonsense,” he grumbled. She only laughed in response.
         “Come on, I’ll race you back to the house!” she called over her shoulder, already halfway back up the hill.
         Groaning, Dren trudged upwards behind her. He was fully prepared to plod to the door as Lieri slid into her seat, but a few yards above, he found his cousin waiting for him.
         “Why did you wait for me?” the boy blurted, puzzled, before he could stop himself. After all, he was so slow that she rarely bothered. She shrugged.
         “Don’t know,” she answered vaguely. Dren looked at Lieri in alarm. She was never vague or absentminded, as far as he knew. Then he saw what she was looking at: a patch of particularly lush and velvety moss. He didn’t know why it was so fascinating, but he found himself drawn to it as well.
         “Hmmm…pretty moss,” he remarked, surprisingly sleepy. All of a sudden, the moss stretched, melted, and flowed into the form of a woman clad in layers of wispy green. Lieri gasped and stumbled back, the spell of the moment broken. Dren yelped in shock, leaping away.
         “Stop.” The woman had not raised her voice, yet every tone was commanding them to stay where they were. So they stayed, frozen in bewilderment and wonder. She did not seem to be fully human, for green tinted her long braid, and her emerald eyes gleamed with more knowledge than was natural.The woman looked Dren up and down, measuring him. Now her appraising eyes turned to Lieri. “Come to me.” A slender white finger beckoned to the girl. Amazingly, she resisted the woman’s mysterious power and hung back.
         “Why?” she demanded nervously. “Who are you? If you’re a, a dream, then j-just go away. Or something.” The tiniest of smiles lifted the corners of the woman’s mouth.
         “You have nothing to fear from my…associates, or I,” she said gently. “As for me, you may call me Ylune. Now please come closer.” The girl took a few reluctant steps, but as soon as she moved toward the stranger, she pulled Lieri’s wrist closer.
         “Oh!” Lieri cried fearfully as Ylune stroked two long fingers across the back of the girl’s hand, for some strange pattern was forming on the skin that the woman touched.
         “Ah, yes,” Ylune said to herself, her gaze riveted on the girl’s hand. “Yes indeed.” The woman looked up sharply. “I want you to come with me.”
         “What?!” She could not have been more astonished. “With you? Where? And leave Aunt Ryuthe and Dren? Are you—” Luckily, she broke off before she could say, “crazy.”
         The woman sighed. “You do know that Mistress Ryuthe was your father’s sister?”
         Dren gaped, thunderstruck, as Lieri’s eyes widened in awe. “How do you know that?” he demanded. They both crossed their arms across their chests and tapped their feet, eyebrows raised.
         Ylune sighed once more. “Just answer the question, please. Do you know that Mistress Ryuthe is your father’s sister?”
Lieri rolled her eyes, momentarily forgetting that this uncanny stranger wasn’t supposed to know. “Of course I do!”
         “And do you know who your mother was?”
         The children both shifted uncomfortably, and Dren replied for her. “No, Uncle Bexle just turned up with Lieri when I wasn’t old enough to remember. Mother said she was only too glad to take care of her, ‘cause Father was already dead.” He made as if to say more, but closed his mouth tightly.
         Glowering at her cousin, Lieri snapped, “Well, go on!” Dren looked at her pleadingly, but received only a haughty glare in return. “Fine then! What he neglected to mention is that two weeks after my father dumped me, he poisoned himself. As if he even thought about me…!”
         He winced. “Please—”
         Ylune shook her head in warning, and he pressed his lips together again, looking thoroughly miserable. “Please trust me. Your aunt and cousin will be informed of your whereabouts, and I’m sure you want to see your mother’s people.”
         “My mother’s people?” Lieri stared, her anger quite gone.
         “Yes, your mother’s people.”
         “No! Don’t go!” Dren burst out. He glanced at Ylune apprehensively, but she paid him no mind. His cousin was staring off into space, lost amidst dreams of seeing her mother’s relations. Her lips were moving silently as she pondered the fantastic possibilities of such an excursion, and she seemed half-ready to go with the strange woman wherever the other wished. Panic rose in his throat again, and he repeated desperately, “Lieri! Think of yourself…don’t go!”
         But it was no use. “Could I…” she trailed off, then tried another time. “Could I go with you, just to see my mother’s family, then come back? In a week or so?” Dren was gesticulating wildly, turning bright red with the effort.
“Lieri!”
         Ylune, however, looked down kindly at her new charge. “Of course. Then you can stay with your aunt, and maybe visit us once in a while.” An arm draped with green wound around Lieri’s shoulders, and the girl turned back to her companion, bidding him goodbye.
         “I’ll see you then,” Dren said, hopeless.
         “G’bye, Dren," she nearly sang, still wreathed in uncustomary dreaminess.
         The woman who was taking his cousin and childhood friend off to some unknown place turned an infuriatingly benevolent smile on him. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” she assured him.
         “I wish!” Furiously under his breath. Ylune heard, of course, but pretended not to notice.
         “Shut your eyes,” she intoned, embracing Lieri loosely. And with that, they melted away again, only this time, there was no patch of lush, velvety moss.

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         “Wow,” the girl whispered, awed. For now they were standing in a quiet glade, with no sounds but an occasional birdcall and the two humans’ breathing. Then she frowned. “My mother’s relatives live here? It’s pretty, but—”
         Her guardian laughed noiselessly. “No, my dear. It is merely our…stopping point.”
         "Oh,” she said. Most would have been rather embarrassed in the same situation, but Lieri wasn’t abashed at all. “Where are they then? How are we to go then? Are you going to make more magic?” Clearly the girl was regaining her usual spirit, and her inquisitiveness caused Ylune to laugh again. However, she did not answer the girl’s questions.
         Instead, she wrapped her arms around Lieri, telling her to close her eyes.
         “Why?” the girl demanded.
         Ylune sighed. “Not now.” So she had to obey, though reluctantly.
         Now the firm ground withdrew from her feet, and Lieri felt as if she were dangling from the woman’s arms (she was). It was not a pleasant feeling, but the harder she fought, the tighter Ylune's arms became.
         "Do not be so foolish!" she heard the woman hiss, showing more feeling than she had ever shown to the girl. "If I release you you will surely fall to your death." At this, Lieri's insides gave a squirm and she stilled.
         “We’re in the air?” she asked in a tiny voice.
         “Yes.” By now Ylune had hidden any sign of emotion away once more, and her voice was as calm as ever.
         “How did we get up here?” Lieri’s voice rose to a barely audible squeak. As feisty as she was, having nothing beneath her feet was a frightening experience.
         “You will see when we reach our dwellings.” This was hardly a satisfactory answer, and the girl gripped tightly onto Ylune’s arms. When she felt the woman touch solid land, her entire body relaxed. Only then did she realize that every muscle of hers had been clenched tight during the flight.
         At the exact same moment as when Ylune gave her permission to, Lieri opened her eyes. They were standing amidst a field of pale green, grass-like tufts, and further away were stone houses flung here and there. A narrow path, paved with stones from which a softly glowing mist rose, evidently served as the main street. The few trees that they could see were small, more like bushes than trees, bearing fruit that seemed like tiny silvery berries. And all around were blooming vines that climbed over the houses and the stones and the trees, their flowers’ petals mere wisps that exuded a light, pleasant fragrance. Lieri bent to sniff one; its scent reminded her somewhat of jasmine and the air after a hard rain.
         However, it was not unpopulated. Tall people (or what looked like people) dressed bright robes that belied the muted landscape strode purposefully from one house to another, or lingered over the jasmine-rain flowers, or spoke quietly to one another, their footfalls as silent as if they were not there. One woman, her near-white hair tinted with pink, bent over a close by pond and scooped something into a pitcher. It was then that the girl remembered how thirsty she was, and after pointing the pond out to her guardian, she ran there. Some of the tall people stopped what they were doing to look at her directly, and others glanced at the backs of her hands, but most of them took no notice of her and the ones that did look did so quickly. Lieri was glad of that, she did not want to seem suspicious to these strangers.
         So she, too, bent over the pond, but what was this? No water did she see but clouds floating under—yes, under—her hands. With a gasp, she rocked back onto her ankles, then peered down more cautiously. Still she saw the same thing: clouds floating in sky like leaves on water, but below, not above. That was when she remembered how Ylune had told her on the way that they were flying.
         Flying? she thought. Oh, powers of earth and heaven. We’re still in the air!
         “Ylune!” she gasped in fear and wonder. “Look!”
         “Yes?”
         “The clouds…the clouds! Under…sky…We, us!” she sputtered, incoherent.
         The woman again hinted at a smile. “Did you not suspect as much, when I told you that we were far from the earth?”
         She drew herself up indignantly. “Of course not! How could I know? I thought that it was just a quicker way to get there, I mean here.”
         Ylune’s lips twitched slightly. “I am sure that your family will want to see you. They have heard of you but never seen you.”
         A flicker of her eyelids, a quick movement from her fingers. Although Lieri just managed to disguise her eagerness, she was sure that her new guardian could tell how excited she was. “Oh, where do they live?” Her wave took in the little houses.
         “We still have a distance to go, Lieri.” Her voice was gentle, but hinted of laughter. Frankly, she was surprised that Ylune had let her amusement show through at all. Certainly the woman could hide her emotions well enough! “But there is no pressing need to take to the air now.”
         The girl frowned. “How did we get in the air, anyway?”
         A closed expression settled over Ylune’s face. “Hush now. You shall see, right soon.”
         For a moment, Lieri puzzled over this, but she banished the thought in an instant. “All right, but can we do any more ‘taking to the air,’ even if we don’t need to?”
         “Of course.” The closed expression flowed away, although the woman’s face was still as unreadable as before.
         “Goody,” the girl said cheerfully, skipping around. “It was actually pretty fun, except for I might have fallen, and except for you were holding on to me very tightly. I wish I could ‘take to the air’ like you can. Am I allowed to guess how we did it? Was it Magic? Was it a machine?”
         A passing being with her pale, pinkish locks gathered into one bundle, her white robes embroidered with bright pink at the edges, gave them a small smile. “Ai, have you brought one of the earth-dwellers to our Celestfeldes then?”
         Ylune gave an equally small nod. “Indeed I have.”
         “’Twill be a novelty, sure enough,” the woman-being remarked. “And who might you be?” The last question was directed at Lieri’s guardian.
         “I am Yluneviron’ssa-he’Atzire-ha’Ifiyun,” Ylune stated gravely, and she grew as tall as the beings of the Celestfeldes, a greenish light spreading from her hands and eyes. Lieri’s own eyes widened in shock.
         The pink-haired woman bowed, in a way, placing the tips of her fingers on her collarbone and ducking her head. “Windblessing, Ylune. I am Kiretarel’ffe-he’Jana-ha’Niruz.” Similarly, a lavendar-tinted light emanated from her hands and eyes, although she did not grow taller.
         “Windblessing, Kire,” the other replied.
         “Um…” Lieri attempted, feeling oddly timid. Ylune glanced in her direction, and somehow conveyed with that glance that the girl should go on. Feeling encouraged, she continued, “I don’t think I can remember your name…”
         “My name, or my truename?” Kire asked.
         “Hmm? There’s a difference?” She was very obviously confused.
         The new woman laughed softly. She did not, Lieri noted, conceal her emotions as much as Ylune did. “Just call me Kire then. And who may you be?”
         “Lieri Bexle,” she said, coloring a little. Usually people would exchange knowing looks at this, whispering not-so-discreetly to each other that Ah, this was a motherless child! and drawing their children away. But evidently the people of these Celestfeldes had no such naming-system, and Kire gave her a pleasant (if not very big) smile.
         “And others know you as Lieri?”
         “Um, yes.”
         “Lieri, then. Windblessing, Lieri.”
         “Windblessing” must be the greeting these people use, the girl thought. She tried it out: “Windblessing, Kire.”
         Kire laughed in that quiet way again, her eyes crinkled in delight. “Ai, she is a quick learner, is she not?”
         “That she is,” Ylune agreed, her tone reserved as always. Her charge flushed with pleasure.
         “You are kind, Mistress Kire,” she murmured, dropping her eyes and remembering her manners.
         This provoked more gentle laughter from the pink-haired woman. “And are these the earth-dwellers’ customs? Come, child. There is nothing to be gained from gazing at the ground, but much from the heavens.” Now she turned toward Ylune. “She will be staying?”
         Before her caretaker could say anything, Lieri shook her head. “I’m just here to see my family.”
         “Is that it, then?” Kire inspected the girl anew, an odd look in her eyes. “Is that it, then?” she repeated, more softly, and left.
         “What was that about?” Lieri asked, confused. “Why’d she leave?”
         The closed expression returned. “I do not know,” Ylune answered, but Lieri was firmly convinced that the woman was not being truthful with her this time.

...stuff I haven't written yet...