RO Bonus Story: Seeds on the Wind (nonbinary Wren)

This one ended up being long too idk what's happening lol. I really like it though, I hope you enjoy it too!

"Alright everyone, time to bed down. Anyone who goes beyond the wards fails this assignment, am I understood?"

We nod to the senior agent who's chaperoning us through this adventure. Our cadre's hit it's fourth year, and that means we're ready for our first Night-season-night in the wilds. I exchange an excited look with Viara, wondering what will happen. We're not far from the city, but even here illusions form and fade constantly beyond the camp's wards. I've even heard a few voices, people I recognize but who couldn't possibly be here.

"We've been to the wilds before," I hear Leon mutter from where he stands at Viara's left side. "We're not gonna go past the wards; we're not stupid."

The agent hears him too. The woman's honey-brown eyes snap to my classmate with a sternness I don't envy being under. "Even the most experienced agents know better than to underestimate the trickery of this season. Stay alert, and stay humble. It'll keep us alive."

It's not the first time we've heard that. There's a reason recruits start off in Flame season. Night season is dangerous in a whole new way: the mental tricks of the fae ramp up now, and it's a constant fight to keep hold of our grip on reality. As I drift slowly off to sleep, I wonder if it'll be an eventful night.

"Hey. Hey, are you alright?"

I open my eyes. I'm in a field of grass softer than any I've ever felt, the clear blue sky above me. At the corner of my vision I see a bright red flower and a bee buzzing past it. More interesting, though, is the kid kneeling down to look at me. They have dark skin and brown eyes that are lit up with curiosity and concern as they look me over.

"Where am I?" I sit up, confused. "I was with my cadre, I..."

"Cadre?" they frown. "Were you dreaming?"

"No, I-" I frown, the dream fading already. I try to catch it but it slips between my mind's fingers like the dandelion seeds on the wind around us. The kid reaches out and catches two in their fingers, and I marvel at how precise their movements are.

"Here," they offer one to me. "Make a wish - my ma says that's how you shake cobwebs from your mind."

I do. "I wish to win the next race," I murmur, then give the seed back to the wind. The current darts around me like the easy farewell of a friend who's stopped by for tea, then the seed's gone, higher up in the air than I can see. I smile. The wind is always like that here in Nosret - our word for it means 'the welcome guest.'

"If you say a wish out loud, it won't come true," they remind me. "Guess you'll have to rely on practice instead. Want to get some in now?"

I could say yes, but I have a better idea. Mischief rises in me and I take off running instead - a head start. They seem to have the same idea, though. They're only a second behind me, and our laughter at ourselves fills the garden as we dart down the paths.

I call a gust of wind as we near the first greenhouse, and feel them do the same. It takes some concentrating, but I propel myself upward onto the roof and keep going, skidding halfway down the other side before I call another spell to push me forward to the next.

"Nice one!" my new friend cheers beside me.

"You're not so bad yourself!" I call back, nearly dizzy with excitement. I'm good at wind racing - so good it's hard to find other kids who can keep up. But the kid beside me has me on my toes, and in seconds it becomes more than a competition. We point out routes to each other, combine spells to make more powerful jumps, and when they offers their hand before the tallest building in the garden I take it. I don't need the help, and neither do they. But as we alight on its highest point and stare down at the city the feeling of their palm against mine is like a kind of magic I've never felt before. I watch the way the gardens below us glow in the late afternoon sunlight for a minute, catching my breath and lingering in a moment that feels stolen. The adults will spot us soon, and we'll have to run away just as fast as we ran here, but right now everything feels alive and electric and peaceful all at once.

I turn my head to my companion, who's looking at the scene below us with just as much wonder as me. "What's your name?" I ask.

They open their mouth to answer, a warmth in their eyes that feels like something I want to fall into and never climb out of.

"It's-"

I open my eyes. The wilds around me are chirping with the sounds of animals that shouldn't be awake right now, but otherwise they're quiet. I sit up, and for reasons I don't understand I look southwest.

A figure dances at the edge of the wards there, a fae with a body like a skeletal, glowing dragonfly. Its head looks like a dandelion that's gone to seed. It beckons to me with its short, spindly legs.

"No," I murmur, too quietly to wake Viara beside me. I call a gust of wind to me and send it out, watching until every last seed of the creature's head has been carried away on it, and its body fades out of my sight.

I roll over, hoping my dreams will be less eventful now. But even so, I can't get the kid's face out of my head for days.