Cherise's First Flight

Everyone always talks about how amazing it would be to fly through the air on the back of a Pegasus.  How romantic they’ll say.  The views will be beautiful.  The clouds will swirl up around you.  It will be simply magical.

Why has no one EVER mentioned to me that it is TERRIFYING!  Here I am hurtling through the night on the back of what I can only described as a truly magnificent beast.  I think that’s what fooled me really.    The damn Pegasus is so utterly enchanting.  The clouds aren’t enchanting.  They are cold and wet and I can barely even see them we’re moving so fast.  I can make out the forest but given my precarious state it feels as though its a million miles away and that at any moment I will fall from where I am clinging on for dear life and smash into it in a bloody mess.

I can almost hear you say what about the romance.  Am I not clinging to the gentleman driving this creature?  Well yes I am but that is only because if I were not holding onto him with every fibre of my being I feel as though my death would be a certainty.  I may try to kill him when we land.  I didn’t embark on this fools mission knowing that he is an UTTER MADMAN.  He has tried to make me feel better by assuring me that in the event I was to fall off he would just phase shift my mass and I would simply float until he and Valley could pick me up.  However the crazed laughter on takeoff and the insane whoops when we do something particularly dangerous have practically negated any of his assurances.  Plus relying on the unknown magic of a man from the Kingdom of Orssira did not sit well in my bones.

Now this is at least partially my fault.  I let the insecurities I felt about accepting the betrothal of the second Prince of Orssira lead me to go ahead with Gerard’s offer to go meet him.  He offered me the chance to go meet this mysterious prince straight away.  No one would ever know.  We’d ride there and be back before morning.  He assured me that we’d be able to do it in no time.
I looked up just in time to see dodge past a massive fir tree.  Valleys back tilted alarmingly and I screamed whilst desperately trying to hang on with my thighs.  I also had my arms wrapped around Gerard’s waist and was gripping Valleys pommel so hard my hands were white.  Gerard treated me to another round of raucous laughter.

“Calm down,” he yelled out.
“Did you really have to bank to go around that tree at the last minute?!” I yelled with indignation and barely concealed fury.
He laughed again and replied, “No but that wouldn’t be as much fun.”
I screamed back, “You have a warped sense of fun you insane, feather brained, daredevil Orssiran messenger boy.”

He looked back at me his blond hair whipping about in the wind and yelled, “Are all Yurans like you?  This has been so much fun.  Maybe after I’m done helping with all this betrothal stuff I’ll go back to Yura and pick up a girl for myself.  Do you have a sister?”

I let out a shriek of frustration and screamed back, “My sister is already engaged to be married and if you so much as lay a finger on her I will pluck every one of your hairs out just like I would to a chicken!”
I could feel through his shirt that he was chuckling which at this point only made my rage worse.

“Hey look!” he yelled, “There’s the start to the cliffs.”
I looked past him to see a rock wall leading high up into the clouds.  Looking down I could see the forest has petered out and a sparse plain lead up to where the mountain began.  The mountain itself was enormous.  It spanned as far as I could see in either direction though the slope did not seem to be as severe on the left.  It even had a road leading up the mountain for those travellers who were lucky enough not to have to endure the trip via winged beast.  I was caught for a long moment looking at the majesty of those mountains when I realised that they were getting rather close.  Then I remembered I was riding with a lunatic.
“What are you doing?!” I screamed, “Slow down we’re going to crash straight into mountain!”

Leo looked back at me again and yelled, “Come on!  I’ve been flying these mountains since I was a kid.”

I closed my eyes and then opened them and then closed them again.  I couldn’t decide whether facing my death or waiting for death was more petrifying.  Suddenly I felt Valleys back start to tip upward.  When I opened my eyes again Gerard wrapped the reigns around his right hand and I heard a click from below as he did something with the stirrups.  He grabbed my left wrist with his left hand and I felt a little nauseas.  He must have shifted our mass again.

The tilt of valleys back was getting extreme.  We were almost vertical when I left my legs starting to lose grip.  Suddenly we were vertical and my legs slipped off the back.  I was on solely by the grace of my hands grasping the pommel.  My fingers started to scream out in indignation and for the first time I registered how much sweat my hands had created.

Then my hands gave way.  I felt the sensation of freefall and then promptly blacked out.

Can you feel my heart again by candid-crocodiles
https://candid-crocodiles.deviantart.com/art/can-you-feel-my-heart-again-432826614