The Gathering of the Powers

From that day on, they could never fly without the aid of a bird or a dragon again, as they all felt as if they were pulled to the ground.

He remembered pulling the traumatized Nimpsy out of the water, to which the dragons threw her. She had no trouble breathing underwater, because he hadn't taken that power from the fairies but she was not herself.

It still distressed him when he looked back on that moment. She was so pale, and when Pnomera raised her head she slowly gained consciousness and started to move. When her lips weren't blue anymore, she spoke, "The… powers… Starfiuse… can't… I've seen it… the powers…."

"It's alright," Pnomera had assured fixing her sister's ravaged silver cloths on her numb body, "We've got the powers to fly and see into the future! We've done it!"

"But…" Nimpsy started.

She couldn't completely close her eyes because her eyelashes had been torn but she blinked several times.

"But this voyage isn't over yet!" Starfiuse had completed, but her confused expression had made it clear that it was not how she planned to finish the sentence, "I still need the fire's power to heat and melt, the chameleon's power to change itself, and much much more!"

He had explained to them that they could no longer use the tunnel because the Oogles were onto them and that they would have to use the creature he had created to get to the planned Mount. Chameleon.

When they had examined the very peculiar creature they learnt that it had the wings of a dragon, the head of an elephant, the front legs of a deer, two more legs of a spider in the middle, and the back legs of a kangaroo. They had laughed for a few minutes at the thought they would have to ride it.

Starfiuse wondered where the creature, which he named Xornim, might be right now.

Off they had been on top of Xornim with a decision to not speak aloud of their sanctuaries, rising higher and higher every time they noticed Grunes or Oogles. Xornim had never seemed to get tired, and Starfiuse was mighty proud of his magical new animal.

Once again, Starfiuse had fled danger. But, after all, he did get caught eventually and not much later.

Following a seven days pursuit they had reached Mount Chameleon. They could not have spotted one inch of the mountain that was not covered with chameleons. It was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. At night, the mountain was black, at morning- blue, and at dawn it was the most gorgeous shade of red, matching the color of the sunset.

It was awful for him to think that even if he would live through this torture, he would never be able to see such beauty ever again.

For the first since he had begun his hunt for powers he had stopped to think that he might have been wrong. Maybe, just for sights like Mount Chameleon, leaving powers to the earth was indeed the right thing to do. What if he had stopped back then? He was already powerful enough.

But he hadn’t, and his decision was to fly up the mountain half an hour before the crack of dawn. He remembered reciting the recent events in his mind and realizing that he had indeed lost control. The awkward thing was that he hadn't felt bad about it.