I snapped back into reality to discover that Jack and Camryn were bickering now. I sighed. It was time for action, and no more discussing strategy.
“Hawthorne.” I turned to him and he looked back at me, not needing to cock his head up to look at me anymore, “Perhaps you should just try and do it your way.”
Hawthorne bowed his head quickly in an unmistakable nod and I stepped back from him briskly.
Jack and Camry stopped their arguing to watch, realising that I had moved away from Hawthorne now.
For the first time Hawthorne spread his great, white wings, each of which were clearly wider than eight feet. I gasped at the sheer beauty of them. He simply glowed under the moonlight and against the snow. It was the kind of beauty that made your heart ache. With a sly glance of confidence at me, Hawthorne beat his heavy wings slowly at first, the snow around him fanning away in the great rush of wind. I felt my hair whip back from my face as he sunk into a crouch, ready to spring into the air. I tensed myself as though I too were about to take off into the night, like there was a chain bonding us. My heart seemed to stop with anticipation at the very moment that Hawthorne allowed himself to spring from the ground and into the air, his wings beating powerfully, larger even than the wings of a Pegasi.
He jumped perhaps five feet into the air, and I found that I had been holding my breath for a long while now. The next few moments were very anti-climatic. I felt a strange pull in his direction when Hawthorne seemed to rise another foot as he beat his wings harder, the wind rushing past my ears loudly, but the next moment he fell with a thud to the ground. I gasped and rushed forwards frantically, like a mother who wanted to baby her fully grown child from a grazed knee.
“Hawthorne!” I fell to my knees beside him as he shook his head, dazed, “You okay?” I petted him.
Hawthorne snorted indignantly. I chuckled at his annoyance and stood, waiting for him to rise. He sat there, thinking hard, it seemed. His intelligence astounded me, as always. It was so unusual to see magnificent creature like this, so obviously thinking, calculating, and solving. I wished more than ever that I could hear his thoughts, to understand him somehow. It seemed he was trying to work something out.
“What is it?” I asked him.
Jack and Camryn had joined me now, and were looking down at Hawthorne with strange expressions.
“Did you see that?” Jack muttered to Camryn.
“Yes. Very unusual.” She agreed silently. They both looked worried.
“What was? Look, no one expected him to do it first try.” I said defensively, folding my arms across my chest.
“Oh, no, it’s not that.” Jack waved his hand dismissively.
“Then what?” I looked at them in turn. What had they seen? They were hiding something from me; I could feel it, “Tell me.”
Jack’s brow furrowed and he pursed his lips, “I’m not sure, but it was weird. It looked as though he was about to fly, but something was holding him back.”
“He wasn’t strong enough to keep going, that’s all.” I muttered.
Hawthorne snorted, and I knew he was disagreeing with me.
“Well, sorry.” I rolled my eyes at him, “But that’s usually the case.”
Hawthorne sighed and put his head down on his paws in defeat.
“What? You’re giving up already?” I fumed at him.
“No, Avalon, listen.” Camryn interrupted my one sided argument with Hawthorne.
Jack grimaced, “It was weird. He was in the air for a few seconds, and when he went just one foot higher, well-” He trailed off, thinking how to phrase it.
“You sort of … lurched.” Camryn finished.
“Lurched?” I raised an eyebrow at them sceptically, although I recalled an odd tugging feeling in my chest as Hawthorne had attempted to fly higher.
“Yes. The moment he flew that foot higher, your whole body heaved in his direction like there was some invisible force bonding you together, tethering him to you.”
I looked at them incredulously, “That’s ridiculous. He just needs more practice.”
Jack, Camryn and Hawthorne all sighed in unison and I smirked, “C’mon. Up you get.” I nudged Hawthorne with my foot who got up reluctantly, shaking the snow from his coat and drenching me with it.
We all stood back again this time as Hawthorne tried his second attempt at flying.
Once again his wings beat powerfully. Surely that amount of force was enough to lift him from the ground. Like last time, Hawthorne sprung into the air. I held my breath in anticipation again only to be disappointed. A second later Hawthorn crashed to the ground as though he had been yanked from the sky.
“I felt it!” I gasped, holding my chest.
“Yes, we saw. You did it again.” Jack seemed concerned as I rushed over to Hawthorne.
“It was like great big hooks attached to my rib cage, pulling me towards him.” I panted as though I had run a marathon.
I knelt by Hawthorne’s head who was still lying in the snow, annoyed at his second failure.
“Did you feel it?” I whispered to him.