Page 2 of Monsters of Air

Da was well over six feet tall, and just as broad. He was covered with corded muscle from a life of working our acreage and herding our cattle. He was the polar opposite of Ma, who was short and spindly and looked too frail to carry the bales of hay that we did every day. I looked more like Ma, right down to the green eyes and brown hair.

“Thanks for getting the fire restarted.” Ma sat up in bed with a yawn, the ropes creaking from her moving.

I was already moving toward the kettle and the coffee that was the one staple in this house. We may be poor farmers, but we would always have coffee.

“I keep hoping spring will come, and it keeps proving me wrong,” I said, scowling at the kettle like it controlled the weather, and my hair color. “I almost froze to death,”

“Doubt that,” Ma said with a gentle smile. I was being dramatic and she knew it.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you had to chop off my toes first thing after waking up.” I tried my best to say that in my most serious voice, but failed miserably.

That got her laughing as she turned away from us and began whispering softly to get my little sister up.

Eloda whined, clearly not happy with having to leave her dream world. I understood that all too well. It was always a fight to wake her up, but once she got up and moving, she never stopped.

I could already see her blond curls through the heavy blanket she was slowly emerging from.

I was all brown hair and tanned skin, where Eloda looked like the expensive dolls you saw in the windows in the shops in town. She was beautiful. She knew it. We knew it. Everyone knew it. She had already gotten a few merchants in town requesting a betrothal for her to their sons.

I would be jealous if that was the life I wanted for myself.

Who knows, if I didn’t become a rider maybe I would just pack up and get out of town before Da could finish the agreement and betrothe me to Kile, the farmer's son down the way, and he started filling my belly with babies.

Ew.

I shivered, and not from cold. I didn’t want Kile’s dick anywhere near me. I had rolled in the hay with him once and that was enough, the guy kissed like he was licking foam off a milk bucket. Double ew.

“Drink and bundle up, Rayna,” Da said, already stepping into the layers that were required on the farm this time of year. “It smells like snow and we need to get the animals secured.”

I inhaled, of course he was right. Our family had a weird gift for smell, something that Da had shown off at more than one event in the village.

“Be ready in a minute.” I burned my tongue on my coffee as I climbed the stairs to the large chest that held all of my belongings.

Digging through my chest, I searched for clothes that would work. We weren’t well-off, but we weren’t poor as mud either. My clothes were worn, and I only had three dresses that I rotated through. Thankfully, Ma had a way with the needle to make things look new.

“Milk the cows while I get the hay out,” Da said, the second I stepped outside. He was already on his way to the side of the barn to grab his pitchfork.

Grabbing one of the buckets we kept near the cow pen, I moved to my usual stool and our two dairy cows who were too busy eating to even notice my existence.

Milking was easy, and I could easily fall into a rhythm… pull, squirt, pull, squirt… Or I would have fallen into a rhythm if Da wasn’t talking to someone outside.

It was still dark, the air still felt like ice, but I could clearly hear two voices, and then the sound of hooves as the messenger rode away.

“Da?” I asked as he walked back into the barn, his face pale. “What is it?”

“The Fae,” he half hissed, as if the words cut his tongue. “They attacked Ynxi.”

I gasped as though I had been stabbed. Ynxi was the town just north of our village, Lixny. It was our sister community, the only one close enough that we could go to in an emergency. If they attacked there…

“They are close. Close to us, this far inland…” I could hardly believe what I was saying.

“The Fae destroyed their village,” he continued, glancing around the barn as if the cows would hear, or even care that those blood sucking Fae were so close.

“Destroyed? Did the dragons and riders come and drive them back?” My heart was in my chest, a weird mix of warning, panic, and awe blending through me. I knew I should be scared. He looked scared.

But I wasn’t.

I wanted to go there. I wanted to be part of them. I wanted to see the dragons, not just hear stories of them.

---