Wind is whipping at my back and sending my hair flying. My helmet has fallen off somewhere, but I don't care. I feel like I'm diving down a waterfall, with wind and something cold and fast and heavy pushing at me from behind, and more in front of me to surge along on. Maye whoops and so do I. The air is filled with static electricity. I can feel my arms and legs and head again, and I can feel Maye beneath me. My face feels wind-chapped, and cold prickles stab into my cheeks, but it's just a relief to feel again. We scream and laugh and just breathe. The darkness envelops us and spits us back out again, and I feel amazing, energized, like someone just shot pure electricity into me. I exist, I am colors and shapes and hard, bony angles. I can see my hands in front of my face, and I can feel the strain on my knees as I grip onto Maye's back.

I see a pinprick of light before us, glowing brighter and getting bigger as we get nearer. I lay down on Maye's back to reduce wind drag, and she tucks her wings in like she is a torpedo. We zip out like a projectile shot from a cannon. I cheer as we even out, soaring over the land. We zero in on the caverns. I have never seen them while I am airborne before. They are a long path of bumpy hills, each one with a dim, pulsing glow. They are beautiful. My heart rises into my throat as we speed lower, lower, lower. We touch down in the center of the battlefield. Unfortunately, we land directly in front of Everett. His lip curls, even as a look of pure astonishment crosses his malevolent face.
"What are you doing here? They told me you were dead!"
I snicker at the expression on his face. I lightly descend from Maye's back and walk up to him. "Well, I realized that I wasn't done whipping your butt. So I came back!"
The expression on his face makes everything worth it. He snarls at me, and then he does something that I never in a million years could have anticipated. He steps back from me. But as I watch, his face changes.

His strangely yellow eyes widen and grow bigger. His face, the color of spoiled milk, sharpens and grow a thin layer of fur. His nose stretches forward and morphs into a snout. His teeth hang over the sides. His clothing changes into a lithe, feathered body. His feet become claws, talons. His arms morph into huge wings. He lets out a terrifying, shrieking battle cry, and I realize who he truly is. Everett is a Scavenger. Everett is a Scavenger! I truly do not know how I never knew this before. His yellow eyes, his greyish skin, his tendency to eat his meat bordering on raw- I must have been blind to the obvious.

He rushes towards me on the air, his mouth open, his talons up. I lift my sword, and hit him right in the talons. He screams, but it is not a scream of pain. It is a scream almost inhuman, an animal sound. It is the call of a bird of prey, tiring out its latest victim. But I will not be a victim, today or ever. Instead of falling for his bait, I roll to the side, and Maye uses the edge of her wing to lift me onto her back. Everett is trying to exhaust me, and then he will kill me. I can feel it. So Maye and I take to the sky, going high enough that I can feel the atmosphere thinning, and all the air is wet with condensation.

The bad thing about combatting a flying enemy is that you can't escape to the sky for a reprive. Everett follows us, and then he lands on Maye's tail. She whips her tail around towards her head and shoots a blast of fire at him. He tucks his wings and dives to the ground to avoid her flame, faster than a bullet. I watch his progress, a dark streak falling through the sky. He lands in front of the Caverns, but instead of flying up with increased speed, he turns- and opens the door to the Caverns. He and his army storm inside, as he morphs and I see his wicked grin once again.