Hi, all.
 
I met a little girl named Ashling coming across the Bridge the other day.
I guess I shouldn't really call her a girl, she lived a long, interesting
life!  She said that she didn't want to be plain old Ashling anymore, she
wanted to be known as Asher Dancer, now that she has all her strength and
vitality back.  She really is very lovely, with a pale tawny coat like
the buff underfur of a lioness.
 
Well, Asher Dancer and I strapped on our wings (she only needed a little
help with hers this first time) and we went flying to the place that she
whispered to me that she wanted to see.
 
We flew over grassy plains strewn with wildflowers.  We flew up and over
the slowly rising green hills.  Those gave way to granite ridges and high
mountain crags, green here and there with little patches of dark pines.
 
Finally, we settled on one particular peak that jutts out over a
seemingly endless fall into a deep blanket of snow and boulders far, far
below.  Those rocks below look like pebbles, but really they are enormous
wedges of granite that have fallen away from the peak over the ages.  so
very quiet here, so far to fall.
 
We sat quietly together for some time, warming one another's sides.  The
wind blew our coats in little rippling patterns of fur.  I looked behind
us, and I saw the tracks in the snow that we had made with our landing.
They looked like little blue shadowed chinese characters that I'm sure
would have made some lovely poem, if only I could have read them.  It was
a timeless time for us, up on top of our world.
 
So very quiet here, so far to fall.  Ashley Dancer finally stood and
stretched out to her full length, straining to stretch out one back foot,
then another, one at a time.  Limber now, she lifted her wings to the
proper glide position, and she stepped out...and off...and flew.
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 4385]