by C.L. Mozena
*****
The sun shone brightly through the thin curtains of Orion’s bedroom the next morning. He awoke to find Kelia sitting on his bed, her face only inches from his. The shock of seeing someone else there caused Orion to cry out, get tangled in the covers, and fall off the other side of the bed. Kelia’s musical laugh calmed Orion as he tried to untangle the covers from his legs, wings, and tail.
“Heh, morning, Kelia,” Orion said, finally free of the covers.
“Good morning, Prince Orion,” she said, giggling.
“You don’t have to call me ‘prince’,” he said, picking the covers up and putting them on the bed, “Just ‘Orion’ is fine,” he smiled.
“Alright,” she said, looking him up and down, “You know, Orion, you’re really cute in your underwear,” she giggled again. Confused, Orion looked down at himself and realized that he wasn’t wearing anything but a pair of white undershorts. Horrified and turning crimson, he grabbed the loose covers from the bed and attempted to cover himself. Kelia giggled again. “Um, why don’t I wait outside in your main room while you get dressed?” she asked, smiling at him. He tried smiling back, but his embarrassment prevented much of a grin. Thankfully, she left him alone and shut the door behind her. He quickly threw some clothes on, dark blue to impress Kelia, quickly washed up and brushed his hair, pulling it back in his usual braid, grabbed his eye patch, and rushed out the door. He wanted to make a good impression to make up for the bad things he said to her on his birthday. He also figured that if she wasn’t Alex’s girlfriend, then there was no harm in trying to catch her eye, even though she was older than him. He found Kelia lounging in his recliner and reading one of his books.
“I’m ready,” he said, straightening his eye patch and walking up to her.
“Great,” she said, setting the book down and getting up, “Let’s go bicycling.”
They stopped at Joshua’s room to wake him up, gathered a few warriors, including Alex, and rode horses to a large park outside of Royal city. They tied their horses to a post, and rented bicycles. Kelia and Alex were expert riders, but Orion and Joshua, having never been on a bicycle before, had some difficulty. The other warriors stayed on their horses and trotted beside the bikes.
“Why are we riding these confounded things?” Joshua asked, turning his handlebars too far and falling over, “Horses are better. At least they can stand up on their own.”
“This is a great exercise,” she explained, “and once you can ride it, it’ll help you to get used to the wind all around when you’re flying.”
“So, if this is such good practice for us,” Orion ran his bike into a tree, “why isn’t Ricky here?”
“Prince Rick proved that he doesn’t need the extra practice. He glided perfectly off of that cliff yesterday,” she said, sitting on her bicycle with one foot on the ground and her elbows on the handlebars, watching Orion and Joshua struggling to learn how to stay on two wheels. Alex was getting bored, fast, so he took to riding circles around where the princes, Kelia, and the other warriors were.
“Stop showing off, Alex,” Kelia said, watching him ride without holding the handlebars.
“Heh, maybe Prince Orion and Prince Joshua would like training wheels?” Alex said, chuckling at the princes’ poor performance. It took several hours for them to get the hang of riding a bicycle, and by the time they did, it was getting dark. Kelia decided to end the lesson for the day, and bring them back tomorrow.