"I need to fly," Jorghan said aloud, maintaining eye contact with the beast. "Now."
To his surprise, the creature lowered its head, allowing him to climb onto its back.
The twins, who had just mounted their own beasts, watched in shock as Jorghan took the reins, and the rust-coloured beast launched itself into the air.
Flying was nothing like Jorghan had imagined.
The wind tore at his wet clothes, chilling him instantly. The beast moved beneath him in powerful surges as its wings caught the air currents. It took all his concentration just to stay on its back.
Ahead, he could see Kael'var's blue beast soaring toward the west, with the twins following close behind. Their laughter carried back to him on the wind, fuelling his anger.
"Faster," he urged his mount, leaning forward against its neck.
The beast responded, its wings beating harder as it pursued the others. They were flying away from the main island now, toward a cluster of smaller floating landmasses covered in dense woods.
The West Forest, the Aranian, as the Nor'vack called them, were rarely visited except by hunters or those gathering specific herbs that grew only in their shadowy depths.
Kael'var glanced back, his expression changing to surprise when he saw Jorghan actually following.
He hadn't expected the younger boy to give chase, much less to tame a beast to do so. He said something to the twins, who nodded and suddenly veered off in different directions.
Warning bells rang in the back of Jorghan's mind, but his rage drowned them out.
All he could think about was catching Kael'var and beating him into a pulp until he bled and became unrecognisable.
The blue beast dove suddenly, plunging toward the largest of the small islands. Jorghan followed, his stomach lurching as his mount descended rapidly. The treetops rushed up to meet them, a canopy of deep green punctuated by strange, luminous fruits that grew only in these isolated woods.
Just as Kael'var's beast was about to disappear below the canopy, Jorghan heard the beating of wings to either side of him. The twins had circled around, approaching from both directions.
"Now!" Morden shouted.
Too late, Jorghan realised it was a trap.
Lira's beast slammed into his from the right, while Morden's raked its claws across his mount's wing. The rust-coloured beast screeched in pain and panic, its temporary bond with Jorghan shattering as instinct took over.
It rolled in midair, trying to face its attackers.
Jorghan, unprepared for the sudden movement, lost his grip on the reins.
For one terrifying moment, he was suspended in open air, with nothing between him and the distant ground far below the floating island.
Then he was falling, plummeting through the canopy of the West Woods. Branches whipped past him, slashing at his face and arms. He tried to call on his mana to slow his fall somehow, but panic made concentration impossible.
A particularly thick branch struck him across the chest, knocking the wind from his lungs. His descent slowed as he crashed through the lower branches, finally landing hard on a bed of moss and ferns. The impact sent shocks of pain through his entire body.
Above him, through gaps in the canopy, he could see the three flying beasts circling once, their riders looking down to ensure he had fallen. Then, apparently satisfied with their work, they turned and flew back toward the main island, leaving him alone in the dense, unfamiliar woods.
Jorghan lay still, fighting to draw breath back into his lungs. Pain throbbed in his right ankle, and he could feel blood trickling down his face from several cuts. His rage had evaporated, replaced by the cold realization of his situation.
He was alone, injured, on one of the West Woods islands—places he had been specifically forbidden to visit without adult supervision. And no one knew where he was.
As his breathing steadied, he sat up slowly, wincing at the various pains that made themselves known. Nothing seemed broken, but his ankle definitely couldn't bear his full weight, and bruises were already forming on his arms and chest.
The forest around him was eerily quiet.
Shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy, illuminating floating particles of dust and pollen. The trees here were unlike those on the main island—their trunks twisted into strange shapes, their bark glowing faintly with traces of raw mana.
Jorghan knew he needed to find his way back somehow.