"Don't clip my wings,
I was born to fly high
Don't chain my feet
Let me discover the limitless sky."

-Adwityaa

~

VALERIE

"What took you so long?" Oh I heard the words and I knew we have met our impending doom already.

But when I turned towards the source of the voice, all I saw was a large man, with a... ahem... large torso, wearing some heavily sequined Aurae robes, with a ton of silver makeup covering his face with his moustaches and eyebrows painted silver as well, grinning widely at us.

Okay my life has been a joke, if this is the face of our impending doom.

"I'm Aurellius!" he says, excitedly clapping his hands

The king regent?

Others must have come to a similar conclusion like me, because he scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Yes I have the same name as that blasted husband of your Queen, but I'm more renowned in the realms than that creature will ever be."

Coral tries to stifle a laugh beside me and I fight the urge to smile.

The Aura's face contorts, "I mean have you seen his hair? Looks like he drags his head up and down the bed all day."

Oh wow, real burn.

Aurellius then looks over at Rey and grins widely, "Girl! The wings! Love them!"

Rey gives him a confused smile, "Um, thanks?"

"I'm seeing some real colour after so long! Stupid Zeus or Jupiter or whatever you call him put me up here. These people are so plain! This whole place is so plain! I mean where's the red? The purple? The yellow? The green?"

Okay then.

"Sir," Rachelle begins, "We came looking for..."

The...God I guess, waves her off, "Yeah yeah the key. You want that key don't you? My buddy Foreseer told me about the situation with Chaos."

He looks friendly, maybe getting the first key won't be so hard after all.

"I could hand it to you directly, but you...I've got a flair for show business."

I jinxed it didn't I?

The god then perks up, "How about I make you a trade?"

Trade? What could we possibly have for him?

"Gimme the girls wings, and I'll hand you the key right now and off you go, wherever you have to go next."

Every one of the Air Users gasped at this.

"No," Rey said, backing away from the man.

"Is there maybe a...second option?" Rachelle spoke up again.

Aurellius the Aura just closes his eyes, hopefully thinking about a counter offer. I've seen how attached Air Users are to their wings. But if these wings got us out of here without much damage, isn't it worth it in the end?

"Take mine instead," Mikaello says, all of a sudden.

I turn to Rey who's watching him with wide eyes.

Aurelius raises his white eyebrows, "Nah I don't like orange. Too bright."

"Mika...why?" I hear Rey whisper to him in front of me.

It is only then that I notice that our invisibility shield is down and we have thousands of pairs of blue Aurae eyes staring down at us.

Rey lost focus and dropped our shields. Wonderful. Wait....how was Aurelius seeing us before this?

"Give me some credit, Valerie Beck, I'm a god. I can communicate both telepathically and verbally, and see through your little invisibility wall," Aurelius says, catching me by surprise.

"Oh and mind reading is included in that telepathic communication of yours?" I sneer at him.

He ignores me and turns to the Air Users in front of me, "Well, I don't mind the yellow wings either. They are pretty."

Lia makes a whimpering sound beside Rey.

And instantly I observe Augustus's hand snake around Lia's shoulder, as he faces the wind god.

"How about an offer that doesn't involve taking our wings?" He says, "I see you have a celebration here, why would you want to bring down the festive mood by splashing Faerie blood on your spotless tiles?"

Aurelius again closes his eyes confusedly.

He then perks up again. Is he running on clockwork or something?

"Okay, so the Aurae want you to be in the chariot races. Well, not Aurae but Victoria, you know, the charioteer and Jupiter yada yada, she's visiting and she is sure looking for some entertainment, what was that Vicky?" He closes his eyes again, "Yeah you lose, and I'm sure you'll love the dungeons out here. We have plenty of sunlight and great ambience. If you win, the key is in hidden somewhere along the way anyway. You just have to find it and as a bonus for the entertainment I'll guide you to the portal for your next location. The choice is yours."

Hold up, dungeons?

Augustus opens his mouth, "The sec-" but Zarren interrupts him and smiles at the wind god.

"Could you give us a moment?"

We huddle away from the Aurae on one of their huge marble steps and Zarren glares at the Augustus.

"Dude what's wrong with you? You're risking imprisoning us here forever! Just decide whose wings to cut off and give to them," he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I second that," Kaito says in a quiet voice.

Mika, Lia, Rey are just looking at them with pained expressions.

I clear my throat, "I think it's the best option. It guarantees a key to us. The second option gives us no guarantee of winning whatsoever and if we lose, Rey or Lia meet a worse fate than just losing their wings. Hell, the whole of Neraida will face a terrible fate."

Augustus sighs, "You don't understand. Our wings are as much a part of us as our hands and legs. Removing them leaves us crippled. I can't let that happen to another Air User."

Mikaello steps up, "I agree with Augustus. All we have known since we were born was flying. And suddenly taking that ability away is like taking your eyesight or hearing, and I can't see any of them suffer like that if I can help it."

Rey sighs and pulls out the butterfly knife which Atticus gave her, "Which one of you is going to cut them? Just, make me unconscious when you do it" she points to the wings on her back.

Mikaello whirls around to where Rey is standing, "No! We are not giving them your wings! End of discussion."

Avalkyra joins the conversation, "No, not the end of conversation. If she is willingly giving up her wings, then why are you stopping her?"

Rachelle steps in between, holding her hands out, "Okay everyone, stop arguing," she turns to Zarren, "you are right that giving her wings is the easy way out, but think of how useful her wings can be later on. She is our fastest and strongest flyer, and incapitating the strongest soldier is a bad move for future wars."

Damn, she has a good point. Rey is one of the stronger ones in our group. It would be a bad idea.

"Then give them the yellow wings," Zarren grumbles.

Lia shrinks away from where she was standing near him.

"How about we don't give up any wings and try to counter offer the dude," Simba says, all of a sudden.

I raise my eyebrow at him, "What do you mean?"

"We agree to race, and if we lose, we'll agree to give up the wings," he said, "They'll have the entertainment they want from the race, and it will give us a fighting chance. What do you say?"

That just made so much sense. Very unexpected from someone like that boy.

I nod at him in approval and he beams at me.

~

Aurelius actually took up our offer with ease. Very little persuasion needed.

Strange...

But here we are now, standing in the stables of the Palace of the Aurae, looking at a broken down marble-wooden-or something else chariot.

Now I know why he didn't need persuasion.

That son of a bitch.

Aurelius fake gasps for our benefit, "Oh no! What happened to it? It was in good condition a few days ago..."

I grit my teeth and glare at him, "Oh you know exactly what happened to it."

He just grins at me, "Val, Val, Val, you need to calm down."

"Don't call me that," I sneer.

"Hey, hey, calm down," Simba says, standing in between us, "Don't you have better chariots?"

The God shrugs, "Only one left. The other racers took the rest. And let me tell you, there are no rules..."

"What about horses?" Augustine asks, looking around the empty stables.

"Yeah, the horses are very hostile to outsiders, and anyway, we don't have any available stallions. Oops."

Suddenly a loud voice booms from behind us, "YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH HORSES? UNACCEPTABLE."

And Goddess Victoria strides in front of us. She is...something.

She is half the height Zarren is, with golden brown hair and bright golden eyes. And she is decked out in bright golden armor that is beginning to hurt my eyes.

Her and Augustus would make such a lovely couple with all the gold involved...

Aurelius groans, "But Vicky!"

She scoffs, "The competition must be fair," she says, then waves her hand at the chariot. Instantly, golden rims appear at the wheels and fasten them tightly to the chariot. All the cracks begin repairing themselves, as if being worked on by an invisible pair of hands. The steel rims of the chariot turn into gold and the torn reins begin braiding themselves back into perfection.

Damn.

There, in the place of a broken chariot, stands a sparkling, polished wooden chariot, fit for a king.

"And for the horses," Victoria trails off. She places two fingers in her mouth and whistles sharply.

Two horses, their manes the same colour as that of the Aurae's wings zoom into the room and stand by her feet.

"Thought Aurelius did say the truth. They are a little hostile, so good luck!" She says, "We will send someone to escort you to the field in a while. There can be a maximum of three people on the chariot so choose wisely."

With that, both the deities leave.

And as soon as the goddess left, the horses began getting frisky. They started jumping, nodding their heads, and I have a strong suspicion they are about to bolt out of the stable, and Victoria won't be as generous to us once again.

So I close the stable doors immediately.

Augustine steps near one of the horses, and the horse neighs loudly and turns away from him.

"Rude," I hear the boy mutter.

"These are wind spirits, maybe they'll respond to my power," Mikaello says, and walks towards one of them again, but as he comes near the creature, it raises it's feet in the air neighing loudly.

Mikaello scampers away, squeaking in terror. Great. Absolutely great.

"Well, according to Greek legends, horses have their origins from the oceans, so if I am correct..." Kaito says, calmly walking towards the horses, the horses don't move, as he puts a hand on one's blue head.

Well, I have water powers too.

I walk towards the other horse and it glances menacingly at me, before pulling the same trick as it did on Mikaello.

"Maybe it's not a water thing..." I mutter, straightening my armored vest.

And a moment later, Minakshi is standing, her hand on the same horse's head, and the blasted creature is neighing gently, nuzzling her side.

What was so wrong about me approaching the creature then?

When Arbor approaches one, the horses give a negative reaction to her as well. Guess it's not an Earth thing either.

And finally, when Augustus approaches it, the horses draw near to him, and look cheerful as he places a hand on both their heads.

"So clearly, Gus, Kai and Meena can handle the horses, so we know who to send," Mikaello begins, but Rachelle puts her hand up.

"It's basic knowledge that we need one driver, one defender and one attacker," she said, "There are no rules, remember? You can and will be attacked. We don't need three people to drive, we only need one."

"I'll drive," Minakshi says, petting one of the horses on its head.

"Are you sure?" Augustine asks in a quiet voice.

Minakshi faces him, "Are you doubting my abilities, August?"

"It's just that, you need to pull the reins with a lot of strength, and you don't look-"

"Oh trust me when I say she's pretty strong," Arbor cuts him off.

"Rey and Lia's wings depend on you, are you sure?" I ask her.

She nods at me with a somber expression, "I'm sure, give me a chance."

Augustus sighs, "What about you Kai, you in?"

Kaito looks down, "I can only make shields against magical attacks, and the Aurae don't possess magic, so I would pretty much be useless."

The golden boy sighs, "Well, I can make some strong shields, I'll be the defense."

Behind me, Avalkyra clears her throat, and taps the leather bracelet Atticus gave her on her wrist, her fiery eyes gleaming excitedly "Leave the opponents to me. I read some stories about chariot races, with Rachelle, and I'm glad I did."

~

HELLO! Here's the birthday update. I almost forgot today was uploading day how stupid of me. Anyways how was it?

Next chapter is in Augustus POV and I really like that one, it has Meena being cute and Avalkyra being totally badass.