Over the Wall on Feathered Wings
But when the group arrived at the Academy, what greeted them was a hole that had been sealed shut. Perhaps repair work had been done over the break — the opening had been cleared out so thoroughly that not even a single ant pup could have squeezed through.
"Should we just break it open again?"
"The wall's way too high to climb over."
When they tilted their heads back to look up at the Academy's ramparts, it was plainly beyond anything they could scale.
"We might manage if we could fly like birds. No, that's too dangerous."
"Is there any other hole besides this one?"
"This is the only one I know of. Do you two know of anywhere?"
"...Well, um, maybe we could ask Tempesta?"
"What? Ask who?"
The mention of the bird reminded Bayul of something.
"Actually, back in Hamilton, I used to sneak out at night with Tempesta's help."
"Sneak out? Whoa, don't tell me you literally flew out like the wind?"
Bayul nodded.
"I called it! And I was just saying it offhand! Amazing! You're the best!"
Aidan gaped in genuine astonishment, exclamations pouring out of him one after another.
"A wind spirit turns out to be surprisingly useful."
Quinn, evidently rather pleased on the inside, offered his own backhanded compliment.
"Bayul, what are you waiting for? Call them out already. While we're at it, let's get a look at all your other spirits too!"
"You think Shame would actually show up?"
"Eli, why don't you sing a song for us? He'd pop right out, I bet."
"What kind of song am I supposed to sing out here in the middle of the night? Besides, for all we know, Shame might already be somewhere down at our feet."
It was a reasonable guess. But with no way to see through the ground, there was no telling for certain.
"Bayul, come on! We don't have all night!"
Innocent, Tempesta, Shame — could you all come here for a moment?
Urged on by his friends, Bayul hurriedly called his spirits together. Spinel had been with them the whole time, so there was no need to summon her separately. When she was the first to appear, no one was the least bit surprised — as if they'd expected exactly that.
"Bayul, you didn't call for me?"
Next to show up was Innocent. The spirit, who had been resting at the Water Garden, arrived scattering translucent droplets of water every which way.
"Ah! Ingrid!"
"Squawk! Squawk!"
It happened before Bayul could even get a word out. At the long-awaited reunion with her dearest friend, Ingrid — who had been perched serenely on top of Aidan's head — sprang to her feet and began chirping up a storm.
"How have you been? Waah, I missed you so much! Ingrid! Do you know everything that happened to me while you were gone?"
As Innocent flitted into the air with a whine, Ingrid fluttered up after her, wings beating furiously.
"Those two are as loud as ever, I see."
Just as Eli shook his head in resigned exasperation, the spirit in question made his appearance. Tempesta was, unsurprisingly, still wearing a face full of grievance.
"Hi there, Tempesta! Been keeping well?"
Aidan greeted him cheerfully, but the boy only looked sullen. Arms crossed over his chest, head snapped sharply to the side — he was the very picture of a sulk.
"Our adorable Tempesta! I missed you so, so much, and I've finally gotten to see you again!"
At Aidan's transparent friendliness, Tempesta's head turned back a fraction.
"It's been such a long time. Do you remember me?"
"Yeah, I know you. You're Bayul's friend."
"Not just cute, but smart too! We only ran into each other for a moment, you know."
"...I've always had a good memory. I don't easily forget something I've seen once."
"Wow, impressive! Oh, but Bayul mentioned you got in a fight with someone. Who was it?"
"HIM!"
Tempesta's eyes suddenly blazed as he jabbed a finger at Death.
"It's all because of that Death! Do you know what he did to me? He didn't say a single—"
"Tempesta!"
Worried that the boy might let the word demon slip out, Bayul hastily moved to shut the conversation down.
"We promised we wouldn't bring that up again. Death didn't do anything wrong."
"But... I'm just so mad about it!"
"Everyone has at least one thing they don't want to talk about with other people. So you need to understand that."
"Well, I don't have anything like that! I can tell anyone everything!"
Of course you don't.
There'd be nothing for you to hide in the first place.
If you're going to be stubborn, at least be stubborn in moderation — every time Tempesta threw one of these childish tantrums, Bayul felt his head start to throb.
"Waaah!"
Just then, Innocent — who had been twirling through the sky, playing with Ingrid — suddenly let out a scream.
Bayul and his friends, who had been focused on Tempesta, scrambled to look up.
"What is that?"
"I-Is that Ingrid?"
"Don't tell me she's grown again!"
She had. For reasons no one could guess, Ingrid had swollen to an enormous size yet again.
The difference from before was that instead of cowering in a corner and trembling, she was soaring freely through the sky alongside Innocent. Even from a considerable distance, when she beat her wings the wind carried all the way down to where the group stood.
"Ingrid! You look so cool! Amazing!"
Apparently delighted by Ingrid's new bulk, Innocent's praise came without pause.
"Can you get even bigger than this?"
"Hooooo!"
"Really? Show me! Try it!"
Just listening to the two of them chatter made Bayul break out in a cold sweat. Aidan was no better.
"Ingrid! Stop! That's enough, come down!"
He cried out in a panic, hastily calling Ingrid back down.
"Innocent!"
Bayul quickly brought Innocent down as well.
WHUMP!
Ingrid, wings flapping wildly, touched down in a gust of fierce wind. Clothes and hair whipped about so violently that for a moment everything blurred before their eyes.
THUD!
The sheer majesty of the creature as she landed, leaving massive footprints in the ground, dwarfed what they had seen at Aidan's house. Happily, once again her adorable face hadn't changed in the slightest.
Having witnessed firsthand the situation they'd only heard about, Eli and Quinn seemed privately stunned, unable to tear their eyes away from Ingrid.
"Ingrid, why did you suddenly get so big? Is your body acting up again? I thought the molting was finished."
"Hooooo!"
"...It was your own decision?"
"Hoo! Hooooo!"
"Innocent asked to see it, that's why?"
"Yep! She said you got all big, so I said I wanted to see. Why?"
Oblivious to Aidan's smoldering panic, Innocent asked brightly back at him.
"Innocent, I know you care about Ingrid and you love her, but you mustn't ask her to do things like this. Ingrid went through so much suffering, you know."
"Suffering? I never heard anything about that?"
"Hoo! Hooooo!"
"See? She says she's fine."
"Ingrid, is that really true?"
"Hoo! Hooooo!"
Ingrid bobbed her enormous head up and down vigorously.
"Heh heh, she says it's fine because there are no scary rats around here."
Aidan was on the verge of clutching the back of his neck at the absurd remark when Eli suddenly spoke up.
"At this size, she could probably carry riders."
"What did you say?"
"She's big enough to haul every single one of us. Isn't she perfect as a mode of transport?"
"Now that you mention it, she could probably clear that wall with no trouble."
Once Quinn weighed in as well, Aidan blinked blankly. He seemed to be thinking it over.
"Could that actually work?"
"Why not give it a try as an experiment?"
"It's the break, so there's no one around — worth a shot. But what if we fall while we're at it?"
"Why worry when Tempesta's here? He'll keep us safe, won't you? That much is nothing for a wind spirit, right? Isn't that so, Tempesta?"
Aidan had already made up his mind. Ingrid needed training to adjust to her new form, anyway. There was nothing to lose.
"Oh, fine. I can manage that much."
The moment Aidan flattered him, Tempesta's face melted into a beaming grin. Bayul knew the boy was weak to praise, but he hadn't realized it ran this deep. When it came to handling children, Aidan truly was in a league of his own. The twisted, sulky Tempesta of before was nowhere to be found.
"What about you dreary gentlemen over there? Will you be all right with this?"
Eli asked the Death brothers, practically radiating an air of I'd rather not go along at all.
"A paltry little wall like that? It's nothing to us."
"That sounds remarkably like a claim that you could leap over this very tall rampart."
"Not that we couldn't."
"However, if you would kindly offer us the opportunity to ride Ingrid instead, we shall not refuse."
Amon stepped politely in front of Death and answered with impeccable courtesy. Thanks to him, the acidity of the retort Eli had been about to fire back softened considerably.
"Ingrid, what do you say? Can you manage it?"
"Hooooo?"
"Yes, you know the cabin in the heart of the Fallen Forest? Could you carry all of us there?"
"Waaah! That sounds fun! Ingrid, me too! Take me with you too!"
"Innocent!"
As Innocent bounced around recklessly beside the deliberating Ingrid, Bayul felt a pang of guilt. After all, the whole reason the bird had grown so enormous in the first place was Innocent.
"Innocent, you can fly on your own. Save that request for later, once Ingrid's had a chance to get used to it."
"Aww! I can fly by myself, but I still want to ride once! Ingrid's my friend!"
"Hooooo! Hooooo!"
"Really? Ingrid, thank you!"
While Bayul was still talking, Ingrid chirped something, and Innocent beamed and spun in a happy circle. Bayul couldn't understand Ingrid's words, but he could guess what she'd said.
"Everyone, let's ride! Ingrid says she'll give it a try."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Just when you'd think she'd be scared, she goes and commits the moment Innocent says she wants a ride. I honestly can't decide whether that's a good thing or not."
"Getting to the cabin comes first, doesn't it? We can sort all that out later."
It was better to finish their errand before the night grew any deeper. When Ingrid lowered her body so the group could climb aboard, Aidan mounted first, followed in order by Eli, Bayul, Quinn, and the Death brothers.
"Kyaaa!"
Innocent, thrilled beyond all reason, took up a spot on Ingrid's head — a seat even further forward than Aidan's (?) — and squealed with delight.
"Tempesta, we're counting on you."
"Don't worry. Just trust me!"
Losing balance mid-flight would mean plunging straight down — and what came after that hardly needed saying. With a declaration that they should trust only him, Tempesta shot up into the sky.
"Hoo!"
At Ingrid's signal that they were departing, she kicked off the ground with both feet and launched herself into the open air.
"Uwaaaaah!"
Bayul and Aidan couldn't help but cry out. The speed was bad enough, but the thought of entrusting their lives to a handful of feathers made their legs go weak. There was no room left to be awed by Ingrid's magnificent wingbeats.
"Are you quite all right, my King?"
Spinel had been flying alongside Ingrid the entire way. She asked in a voice thick with concern, but Bayul was in no state to answer.
The strange thing was that apart from those two, everyone seemed utterly calm. The Death brothers being demons, that was understandable — but Eli and Quinn were a genuine surprise.
Watching them casually sightsee their surroundings, Bayul found himself doubting whether they were even human. Those two were anything but ordinary, that much was certain.