But there was no time for that. Gripping the slick ladder rungs tightly, she scrambled upwards and onwards, onto even more dizzying heights. Dasha was not afraid of the height, however. After all, didn't she have wings? Hadn't she been flying almost right after she could walk?

No, the height was not the issue. The issue was her ground partner, Krell, had looked like a small red ant ten minutes ago. But now? Now Krell was gone, and his absence soaked through her sweaty coveralls with fear.

Shaking, Dasha tugged out her flimsy plastic radio. "Krell? You there?" 

Nothing but static hissed back at her.

Dasha wrapped her leathery black wings tightly around her, as the chill morning wind cut past and howled like a wild animal, sending the sore red streaks that ran through her wings throbbing an even angrier shade of red. 

"Krell? Krell!" She yelled, hoping her voice would make it through the frustratingly substandard device she'd been issued.

Nothing. 

Icy breaths clung to the inside of her nostrils as she fumbled with her radio clip. A burst of static flooded in from the other end.

"Dash- Dasha- a- a- a?" 

"Yes! Thank you!" She hoarsely replied, warm to her toes again. Only for a second, but it still counted.

Dasha wiped back escaping strands of her oily blue braid, as she tucked away the radio and soldiered on. With the height, weather, and wind out here, flying all the way up to the top simply wasn't practical. She had flown halfway earlier, before switching to the ladder. Already, her sweat was freezing  

But the mountain beacons needed to be checked. This was their third today, having started even before the sun was up, and they had twelve more to go if they wanted to remain on schedule. It was the valley's only early warning system against the monsters. Dangerous, back-breaking work.

Therefore, one would think that the job would have paid better, instead of being considered cheap, unskilled, undesirable labor, that only the absolute, most desperate of fools, would accept.

Ahem, ahem, her and Krell, ahem.

Well there had also been Noonin. Nice fellow. Known him for ages. Real friendly. Just got married, in fact.

A monster ate him yesterday.

So yes, Dasha and Krell were very paranoid about check-ins now.

Dasha stretched out an arm. She could almost see the top now. Her breaths became shallower as the air thinned, and her lungs struggled for oxygen. Technically, they were supposed to have oxygen masks and safety lines. 

What they were given was badly sealed, worn out, cheaply made equipment that they were better off without using because half of it was dead weight, and the other half was an active safety hazard. So they didn't use it. But that left Dasha to do all the climbing. She was Avar, and therefore the only one with wings, after all. Krell had volunteered, but after what had happened to Noonin, she flat out refused to let him. No one else was dying out here, not hundreds of miles on the edge of nowhere.

Sweat stung her eyes, and the sun's glare was mirroring off of the metal spire and into her beady black eyes. Dasha winced, squinting to see. What was that, fifteen rungs left? Twenty? 

Her heart stopped as she saw a dark and distant shape swooping over the mountains. Curved and winged, bigger than a house, and coming their way. 

Dasha scrambled for her radio, but the static was already buzzing.

"Ksss- See it D- sha- Hunker d- til i- Sss."

"I hear ya, Krell." She murmured back. Clinging to the ladder like a spider to a thread, she waited, frozen, for the massive creature to pass them by.

The gusts of wind became louder and stronger with each powerful wing beat. For their size, Gyrs were pretty dumb. If you didn't move or scream, they wouldn't even notice you.

Of course, seeing a house sized bird with iron talons and a fish-hook of a beak fly over you tended to make a person less rational. Dasha squeezed her watering eyes shut, struggling to hold on to the ladder.

CREEEEEEEAK.

Uh... What was that?

Dasha's entire world lurched, and her stomach plummeted as she realized that the ladder had come loose from the wing beats.

Who in sorrows had skimped out on the cost of that?

And now she was falling. 

Dasha went temporarily deaf, as the blood rushing to her ears made them ring. Bright spots flicked in and out of her vision. Something large and blurry was moving nearby, and she didn't need a clear view to know that she'd been seen.

Gyrs were huge. She had no prayer of out-pacing one out over the open mountain tundra like this.

She still had to try. 

Unfurling her wings, Dasha flapped upwards, jerking herself out of falling. Nausea pangs shot through her stomach. She dropped again, more controlled this time, curving on the descent to give herself more momentum.

The cold wind tore past her, clawing at her skin and hair. She could feel the looming monster as it drew closer with every heartbeat. Warm, moist breath stuck to her back, as the world became shrouded in shadow. She darted left, spinning wildly out of control as something tore at her back. Dasha bit her cheek. Screaming was a waste of precious breath.

She zigzagged in midair, but she was already exhausted. She had no idea where over the mountains she was. She spiraled into another dive. The ground was coming up too quickly. 

Dasha yanked herself up by the wings, wobbling dizzily in the air. Everything went black for a few seconds. There was a sickening crunch from her left wing, and then she really did scream, the raw strangling sound of a dying animal.

The Gyr had caught her in its talons and was dragging her away.

Mercifully, Dasha couldn't stay awake after that.

However, it meant that she was rather surprised when she groggily opened her eyes again.

She was somewhere warm and dark, and in a lot of pain.

"Wha..?"

"Shhh, easy Dasha, you're pretty beat up."

"Wait-" 

She knew that voice. SHE KNEW THAT VOICE! 

"Noonin?"

The green haired young man grinned at her, his serpentine forked tongue flicking in and out in a friendly greeting. Dasha's eyes filled with tears. Suddenly, it didn't matter where they were or what had happened, her friend was back! Muscles aching with every movement, she dragged herself up and threw her arms around him. 

"You're here... You're not dead, you're here..." She sobbed, as he hugged her back, mindful of her many wounds.

An awful thought struck her, and she pulled back to stare at him quite seriously.

"Wait- Are we dead?"

Noonin chuckled slightly, a rasping sort of sound. "No, not unless the dead have missing limbs."

He held up the stump of his right shoulder with a weak smile, but she could see the pain flash through his golden eyes. 

"Noonin," Dasha croaked. "What happened?" 

Noonin sighed. "I'm not sure. She did something."

"She?"

"Here, let me show you." 

Noonin helped her stagger to her feet. By now, Dasha was pretty certain they were in some sort of a cave. She hissed as her back and wings burned with even the faintest twitch of movement.

Wait. Something felt wrong. Off balance.

Dread pooling in her gut, Dasha tried to turn.

Noonin held her shoulders. "Dasha don't."

This only made her dark eyes widen, and she anxiously squirmed away. She caught Noonin's pained expression out of the corner of her sight, as she finally turned around. 

Her left wing had been torn in two.

Dasha threw up.

Noonin held back her tangle of hair, murmuring comfortingly to her, but he could have been all the way back with Krell, or even back down in the valley, for all the difference he made. Her wing was gone.

Her wing was gone.

She would never fly again. A fate worse than dying for one of the Avar. Even as a plague-wing, born cursed and a despised outcast, she could still find solace in flying. It was the air in her lungs and the light in her soul, and now...

Now, she didn't even feel like a person anymore.

Dasha threw up until she was dry heaving, then cried until light-headedness threatened to send her fainting again. 

"Dasha?" Noonin's voice was so very small now. Frightened. "Please don't die on me. Don't leave me alone."

The Avar who lost their wings usually died of a broken heart. Not always, but it was the most common outcome.

Dasha thought about how overwhelmed she had been to find Noonin alive again, and she weakly nodded.

She would force herself to stay, for the moment.

"So..." She mumbled, gasping for a solid breath. Something stable and real that she could cling to. "Ya said... There was... A woman?"

"Yes... She... Listen, she's really really weird."

"Weird how?"

"Well she's not Avar, and she's not Gillain, and she's not Mora, and she's not Ekri."

Dasha blinked, confused. "...That's all the people that exist though."

"I know."

"...Are ya sure-"

"YES, I'M SURE!" He quickly winced, quieting down. "Sorry. Sorry. It's been weird. Just- Come on, you'll have to see for yourself."

And so, Dasha followed him further down, into the dark.