Catalyst
Page 22
Everyone sprang up from the breakfast table and scurried to help clean, chattering all the while about what kind of beast would hatch, how wonderful it all was, and how, regardless of the bet, her brother would have to take over all Mina’s chores, including the chicken coop, once she started training. Groaning, Gaton said, “Maybe it would be better if your egg didn’t hatch soon.”
Mina laughed. She left her bowl on the rack to dry, nestled against the other bowls, and then went outside. The screen door banged behind her as Mother called, “Mina, get the kites!”
Mina waved so Mother would know she’d heard.
The farm sparkled in the morning sun. The fields stretching out before her shimmered with dewy leaves that waved in the soft breeze. As always, it was a beautiful day.
Orli, Papa’s old rain beast, was flying above the farmhouse, her wings stretched wide. She was dragon-shaped, like all storm beasts, but had the beautiful blue color that marked her as a rain beast. Her chest was covered in shimmering blue scales, and her wings were blue feathers, every kind of blue in the sky from pale morning yellow-blue to deep storm blue-gray.
Mina imagined herself flying on a rain beast, guiding the water that would soak the fields or fill the reservoirs. It must feel amazing to bring the rain!
“Gaton!” Mother called, sticking her head out the kitchen window. “Have you secured the wheat seeds? We can’t let the wind blow them away!”
Gaton called back from within the corn, close to the house but not visible behind the stalks. “Already done, Mother!”
Standing up on her tiptoes, Mina looked for her brother and saw the sunset-red glow of his beast, Arde, between the rows. A fat dragon, Arde didn’t fly often. He spent most of his days with Gaton out in the fields, soaking up the sun’s rays and then distributing them to whatever farm needed them the most. He also liked to chirp at passing birds. He had the silliest chirp for a beast his size. Not that I’d ever tell Gaton that, Mina thought. Gaton adored his beast.
“You’ll adore yours, too,” he’d told her once. “You’ll see. You can’t help it. Your beast will hatch, and it will feel like you’ve always known each other.”
She wanted that so badly that it sometimes felt like an ache. Hatch soon! She’d always thought of herself as patient—Papa called her “steady”—but now all her dreams were so close . . .
“Mina!” Mother again. “Stop daydreaming, and get the kites!”
Quickly Mina retrieved the kites from the shed and hurried around the house to where Papa was already hooking the twins up to the posts. If you wanted to be outside on a day when the wind guardians and their beasts swept across the farmlands, you had to secure yourself. It wasn’t strictly necessary, since the winds were never truly dangerous—not the way they were beyond the mountains—but if you weren’t used to feeling any wind, you could get knocked off your feet.
The twins were giggling and squirming as Papa tried to attach their harnesses. “Rinna, stop that!” Papa was saying. “Beon, don’t chew on the rope. You’re not a puppy.”
“Arf! Arf! Arf!” Beon barked.
Joining Papa, Mina handed the twins their kites, and they clutched them to their chests. She tied the ends of their kite strings to the posts. Papa at last clicked the harnesses into place and heaved a sigh of relief.
“Papa, I have to go pee,” Rinna announced.
Mina smothered a grin. I should have bet Gaton she’d say that.
Papa’s shoulders slumped, and he banged his forehead lightly on the post. “Can you hold it?”
Mother breezed past on her way to the porch. “No, she can’t. She’s too excited. Unhook her, take her in, and hook her back up. Beon, stop eating the rope. You’ll ruin your supper.”
“Arf!” he said to her.
“Woof! Woof!” Mother barked back.
Mina whispered to Beon, “Meow.”
Beon giggled so hard that he stopped chewing on the rope.
“I’ll watch him,” Mina told Papa.
Papa kissed her on the head. “You’re my sweet girl. Don’t forget to secure yourself. I heard from the message balloon that this one’s going to be spectacular.” He quickly freed Rinna and shepherded her into the house.
Beon laughed and meowed as Mina clipped on her own harness and then showed him how to unravel the end of his kite string. Before today, the twins had been too little to be outside for a wind day, and now Papa had made the twins’ first kites—simple diamond shapes, decorated with the symbol for their family’s farm. Hers was more elaborate—on both sides she’d painted pictures of the mountains that bordered Alorria, as well as their family’s sign.
The wind guardians used the kites to help them navigate. Every wind day, all the farmers flew kites so the fast-flying guardians could distinguish one farm from another. It was tradition. Also, it’s fun, Mina thought.
A few minutes later, Papa rushed back with Rinna in his arms and attached her harness.
“Papa,” Beon said, “I have to—”
Papa leveled a finger at his nose. “No. You don’t.”
Beon giggled again.
From the kitchen window, Mother called, “Mina, did you shut your window? You don’t want the wind blowing dirt on your egg!”
Of course she had. “Yes, it’s shut,” Mina said.
Mother leaned farther out, trying to see Mina’s window. “What did you say? Speak louder!”
Bells began to ring, a cascade of notes that reverberated over the hills. The wind guardians would be here soon! “It’s almost time!” Papa called. “Where’s Gaton?”
Emerging from the cornfields, Gaton jogged toward them. “Right here, and I can see Mina’s window—it’s definitely closed! Tornadoes take us if anything were to happen to her unborn sun beast.” But he winked at Mina so she’d know he wasn’t serious.
“It will be a rain beast!” Mother called as she disappeared from the window, closing the shutters behind her.
“Snow beast!” Rinna cried.
Looking up at her bedroom window, Mina thought, I’ll love you whatever you are! Just hatch soon!
Mother emerged outside and hurried across the yard. “It won’t be a snow beast. Mina isn’t creative enough. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, Mina. You’ve plenty of strengths. You’re responsible, mature, thoughtful.”
Not creative? “I love to draw,” Mina said softly.
“And you’re very good at it,” Papa said to her.
She beamed.
He grumped at Mother, “Mina’s plenty creative! Look at what a pretty kite she made.”
“I wanna pretty kite,” Rinna said. “Mina, make me a pretty kite! Papa, tell Mina to make me a pretty kite! Please, please, please!”
“Me too!” Beon shouted.
“I’m sure Mina will help you both make pretty kites for the next wind day, if you ask her nicely,” Papa said, and Mina saw his pleading expression. She hid a smile and looked sternly at the twins as if she thought they were incapable of asking for anything nicely.
Rinna yelped, “I said please!”
Mina opened her mouth to say yes, but Mother was already talking. “Of course she’ll help you, but you must promise to help her with her chores whenever she asks. And you mustn’t bother her when she’s with her egg. You understand why? Beast and guardian need to bond.”
Beon and Rinna chorused, “Yes, Mother.”
The bells tolled louder, chiming all together now in a mess of notes. Giggling, the twins clapped their hands over their ears. Mina held tightly to her kite. Beneath the bells, she could hear it: the wind. It had its own voice, a roar that steadily grew louder.
Before them, the cornstalks swayed, gently at first and then harder, until they were pitched at an angle. Mina felt the wind lift her hair, and she heard the twins squeal excitedly.
“Ready?” Papa shouted.
Ready, Mina thought.
“Ready!” her family shouted.
Each of them unspooled their kite st
ring. As the wind blew, it lifted their kites into the air. Mina released her string faster and faster, and her kite rose. The ribbon tail flapped in the breeze.
The kites danced in the sky, and the twins shrieked with delight. Mina laughed out loud as hers dodged and swooped. The colors were brilliant against the blue, and she felt the tug on the string as if the sky wanted to run away with her kite. Beside her, Papa was twisting the two strings that held his kite so it would dive beneath the others, then rise up above them. Gaton’s kite was wobbling in the air, and he unspooled more string. Mina guided hers higher and higher.
Soon she heard voices carried on the wind: the wind guardians on their beasts. Holding her kite steady, Mina watched the sky.
And there they were!
The wind beasts were silver dragons with white feathery wings and brilliant, sparkling antlers like deer. They flew in loops and spirals through the air between Mina’s family’s kites, while their guardians called to one another, shouting and laughing. Dozens of them flew overhead, flocking like shimmering birds, and Mina knew that hundreds of them were spread all across the farmlands, on their way to the bay to carry the fishing boats out into the deeper ocean. They’d remain with the boats for the rest of the fishing season. But today is our wind day! Mina thought as she flew her kite higher. With her free hand, she waved to the wind guardians.
Very soon, I’ll be flying too.
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About the Author
SARAH BETH DURST’s fantasy novels for children, teens, and adults include Spark; Drink, Slay, Love; and The Queen of Blood. A three-time finalist for the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, Sarah has won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature and an ALA Alex Award. She lives with her family in Stony Brook, New York.
Learn more at sarahbethdurst.com
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