Tag: laughter

Emine (pt 18)

On Emine’s eleventh birthday, she flew.

“Hold on as tight as you need, you can’t pull out my feathers.”

Those were the first words Norro had ever said to Emine. She had picked Emine right off of the ground and placed her at the base of her neck, a ways before the place where her wings met her torso. Emine had no fear of pulling too hard on the feathers, she had cleaned off Milwurl’s and Milwurl’s had been strong. Norro’s were stronger. These feathers could not be compared with a bird.

“Do not worry about falling. Even if you let go, you won’t.”

Whether that meant she would still be able to cling onto Norro’s back or if Norro meant that she wouldn’t let Emine hit the ground, Emine didn’t know. But from where she sat, holding onto Norro, she didn’t think she would be going anywhere that neither of them wanted.

“Have fun!” she hear Sanni shout.

Then Norro took off. Emine’s heart beat in her throat. She held where she was, before pulling herself forward with Norro’s feathers until she could see properly off the side of her neck. There was the Heights, becoming smaller and smaller as they ascended.

Everything was so small. Like from a dragon to a human. Dragons made more sense.

Emine began to laugh, unable to help herself. And as she did so she heard Norro, in such a foreign and draconian fashion, do the same.

And at the end, it really was

In the beginning, I had thought the entire trip would just be the two of us laughing without a care in the world.

That was before the flat tire, of course.

“Get out the spare,” she said, taking control of the situation. She changed it out (with my help) and we were on the way again.

Then the hotel had misplaced our reservation in the hands on some family who had obviously already trashed the room.

“I guess your competitors get our business,” she said, without even blinking. She led me to the next best place, which proved to be the best place by the very fact that they at least accommodated us.

Finally, I was way too nervous. Even after having a great night out, the previous two incidents had freaked me out too much. I’m a big believer in the rule of three, after all. Something else had to go wrong.

“If you put it out there, that’s what you’ll get back,” she said, helping me out of my bra. “Let’s enjoy the rest of the night, ‘kay?”

Perhaps I got a foot cramp which interrupted us, but she started laughing so hard that when the pain passed… I couldn’t help but laugh too.