The Alpha’s forgotten daughter
Luca shouted, one arm wrapping hard around my waist as the guardian's descent steepened, its wings beating desperately against injuries that clearly refused to cooperate any longer.
The ground rushed up faster than I could brace for, and at the last possible second, the creature twisted its massive body, absorbing the worst of the impact along its own uninjured side rather than letting any of us bear the full force of the crash. Even so, the landing threw us all sprawling across broken earth, the air punched entirely from my lungs on impact.
For several long seconds, nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Somewhere nearby, I could hear the guardian's ragged, shallow breathing, each inhale sounding weak