Mizalin-on-Sky: The Floating Mountains
#22 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl and her friends finally arrive at the nature park.
As they got even closer to the numerous floating mountains of Mizalin-on-Sky, the airship's smooth journey became increasingly uneven.
Jarzyl clutched onto the edge of her seating cushion as they were jolted from side to side. Being given free gifts from the teachers was good enough, but now the violent turbulence that was rocking the airship was truly doing wonders to improve her mood, possibly from the adrenaline.
"Drak! I understand why you said we ought to stay seated in the airship now!" Jarzyl excitedly said to her teacher, who was also sitting nearby.
Drak Tasilus nodded his head, though he looked slightly queasy. "I am not fond of mechanical transportation myself, to be honest with you. I'd have much preferred if we could fly to the natural park on our own wings, but you fledglings are still too young for that. If it had been a few months later after all of you have had more experience in flight school, maybe we could have flown. But the city's course happened to bring it closest to the natural park now, so we have to ride this metal machine..."
"It's great!" Jarzyl declared, and she happily perked up her neck frill as the airship continued its laboured journey through the skies. The same twisted magnetic flux lines that allowed the mountains here to float in defiance of gravity also caused trouble for the thruster systems of an airship, which relied on the same general principle of levitation. This therefore led for an exciting ride, at least in Jarzyl's opinion. "Woah hoho! Awesome!" Jarzyl yelled gleefully, as the airship experienced a sudden dramatic drop in altitude that made everyone feel like they were falling.
Most of the other fledglings (and teachers) seemed a bit more concerned, including Caden, who had flattened herself down against her sitting cushion and refused to even sit up. "Dragons were made to fly. But a giant metal shell powered by a cursed combination of frost, stone, and electric magic was not," Caden muttered, referring to the airship in what was probably supposed to be a derogatory way, thought Jarzyl thought it sounded cool.
Jarzyl cocked her head to the side as she thought about Caden's comment. "Actually, they were. Airships were totally made to fly. That is literally the point of an airship. Anyway, rocks aren't meant to fly either, yet look! Flying rocks!" She gestured out the forward windows, where immense rock formations towered around them in three-dimensional mazes.
Mizalin-on-Sky was a sight to behold. The floating mountains could look jagged and spikey from one angle, but then also smooth and spherical from another angle as the airship traversed around them. The landscape had a fractal pattern to it--big mountains were accompanied by smaller mountains, which had their own even smaller mountains surrounding them--from floating mountain to floating hill, to ever smaller stones. Rock arches and natural bridges were often visible connecting massive landmasses to another, spanning across the gaps and comprised of boulders and smaller rocks which were held in position by the immensely powerful flux lines.
Each of the floating mountains was unique in shape, form, and appearance. Many of them were coated in greenery, with shrubs and small bushes dotted about the upper halves, along with moss and vines adorning the shadowed lower portions. Another common feature was waterfalls that poured from various points in the floating mountains, streaming down to lower mountains (also floating) to form lakes or rivers which would flow off the side that that mountain to go ever lower in obedience to gravity. Then at other places the water would just be blown into vapour by the strong wind, scattered into the breeze long before the water could reach the ground far below, shining white in sunshine and creating sparkling rainbow arcs.
The floating mountains lacked the architectural, geometric precision of the City of Wings, but they were epic in their natural majesty. Jarzyl shivered from excitement, and if not for the constant turbulence she would have loved to stand up and press her nose against the window to take in the sights.
Puffy white clouds swept across Mizalin-on-Sky, occasionally obscuring parts of the floating mountains or even engulfing the airship entirely. Droplets of water formed on the windows, only to be blasted away by the wind.
Finally the airship adjusted its course to head towards one particular mountain near the centre of Mizalin-on-Sky that was easily the largest of them all. Though this mountain floated as well, one of its faces had a flat plateau area with bore clear signs of drakken construction. Boxy grey buildings had been built into the mountain, with brightly coloured flags and pennants waving proudly in the constant, intense breeze. Jarzyl let out a soft gasp, and she pointed. "That's the visitor centre!"
Though the turbulence was starting to lessen, Caden didn't move from her posture of lying flat against her seat cushion. "Ok... that means we're almost there..."
"This place is unbelievable! Amazing! I love it already!" Jarzyl murmured.
There were two other airships already floating near the visitor centre, looking not entirely dissimilar to some of the smaller, natural floating mountains that orbited the immense central rock formation. Dragons could be seen walking around the flat area near the visitor centre, or hiking around the rocky, mountainous terrain, or even flying around. Jarzyl's tail flicked from side to side, and she made a happy, rumbly purring noise from the back of her throat. "Rrrrrrr! This field trip is going to be great!"
Drak Tasilus still looked slightly queasy as he prepared to shepherd the fledglings out of the airship cabin. "Everyone, please remember to check that you have taken all your belongings and none are... none are left behind. Stick with your field trip buddy, please! Stick together! We've only just arrived, so don't get lost. Don't leave belongings behind, and don't leave people behind. Stand up, everyone."
"Let's go, Caden!" Jarzyl was the quickest and most eager to obey, leaping out of her cushion to dash down the aisle and stand right in front of her teacher, who was waiting at the passageway that connected this cabin to the other cabins. As she ran, the wooden sandals over her four paws clomped noisily against the airship's metallic floor.
Drak Tasilus gestured vaguely towards Jarzyl's paws. "You don't need to wear those until we're about to leave the airship."
"But I want to!" Jarzyl pranced on the spot, and the sound of wood sandals against metal flooring beat out a quick staccato rhythm.
"Noisy you, no surprises there," muttered Caden, who had just come to stand beside Jarzyl.
After about half a minute, the rest of the fledglings were all ready to go. With Tasilus leading the way, they moved through the airship and passed through various other cabins, all filled with seating cushions that had just been (and sometimes still were) occupied by other groups and classes of young dragons overseen by their own teachers.
When they got to the area of the airship where they had first boarded, the doors were open and the ramp was lowered, but it didn't go anywhere. The airship hadn't landed and it could be felt shifting occasionally from side to side, but Jarzyl had assumed they were hovering right beside a landing pad or next to a portion of the floating mountain for them to alight. However, this turned out not to be the case. Instead, the airship was still flying high above the mountain, with the Mizalin-on-Sky visitor centre visible out through the ramp, but a considerable distance away still.
"Oh, yes!" Jarzyl exclaimed, and her neck frill perked all the way up.
"Oh, no," Caden grumbled. She sat back on her haunches.
Out through the ramp, Jarzyl could see the dozens of other fledglings slowly circling about, wings spread wide as they descended down towards the flat plateau of the visitor centre. This airship wasn't going to land--they were going to jump and fly down for this last portion of the journey. Just from that sight and the thought of it, the inside of the airship suddenly seemed like a dark, cramped space compared to the bright sun, firm breeze, and wonderful openness of the wide outside world.
Tasilus cleared his throat, and he gestured for the group to pay attention to him. "As you can see, our airship can't quite get close enough to the visitor centre for a landing! The flux lines are very unstable today because of some atmospheric activity, or so I heard from one of the aircrew? But no matter, for since you are all fledglings now, you can just fly."
"Oh, yes, oh yes!" Jarzyl sang, her voice musical from pure excitement.
Tasilus gestured down the ramp with his paw. "You need to fly down towards the field in front of the visitor centre. It's only a short distance, but since you're all still fresh and new to flying, remember not to dive too quickly! If you overspeed, you'll lose control. Just do a slow, easy glide to the field. We have plenty of teachers in the air already, so don't worry if you get blown off course or anything. We will come save you. And stick with your field trip buddy so you can help each other if needed!"
Jarzyl nodded her head enthusiastically, then she turned to Caden and nodded to her too. Caden rolled her eyes.
"If anyone is feeling nauseous or uneasy after the airship journey, or you don't feel confident in your wings for any reason," Drak Tasilus continued, "then you can just stick with me and I'll bring you down myself. Everyone else, we'll regroup down in the field. Whenever you're ready, you may commence your descent!"
"I'm ready to fly. Yes, I am." Jarzyl shrugged her shoulders, left then right, and in the process she smoothly slid her wings off her back before unfurling them and extending her flight scales. She could have just opened her wings normally in one quick motion, but this way looked far more elegant and stylish (hopefully). She had been practicing at home in the bathroom mirror to make sure it looked smooth and proud. After all, she was a fledgling now, and being able to use her wings was the whole point of being a fledgling.
Caden just sighed and shook her head. "So much for the advanced marvels of mechanized, magical technology... We need to fly because this airship can't even take us all the way there."
Jarzyl checked her flight scales, making sure that these large, crucial scale plates covering the surface of her wings were able to move and extend freely. A dragon's flight scales were essential to their flight, acting as control surfaces to manipulate airflow and manoeuvre successfully through the skies. "I'm ready! Are you, ready Caden?"
Caden lazily waved her paw in the direction of the airship's ramp. "Sure, sure..."
No one had moved yet. Out of the combined class from their school and Eastwind, all the fledglings seemed hesitant despite Drak Tasilus having given them the go-ahead. Jarzyl glanced over her classmates and fellow young dragons--so many friendly faces and just as many new ones, with a mixture of excitement and nervousness on display. It was as if everyone was waiting for someone to take the lead and jump first, and Jarzyl was happy to do exactly that.
Jarzyl briefly made eye contact with Atlas, who was hidden behind the first row of fledglings, with Glecion by his side. Just like all the other nocturnal fledglings, Atlas had put on his dark goggles--the blackened, reflective lenses protected his sensitive night eyes from the full light of day. Atlas had been speaking quietly with Glecion, but then he raised his head and nodded towards the airship's exit ramp. Thought it was hard to tell exactly where he was looking at because of his dark googles, Jarzyl just knew that Atlas was looking right at her as he mouthed the words, "go for it", and a faint grin crossed his snout.
"I think I will!" Jarzyl murmured. She stepped forward from her classmates, first in a calm walk, then a skip, then she broke out into a full sprint down the ramp. "What's with all the hesitation? Let's go! Ryah!" With an excited yell that sounded close to a proper roar, Jarzyl threw herself into the open air. A powerful crosswind had been blowing the airship from the side, and the wind instantly slammed into her and knocked her sideways--Jarzyl reacted on instinct, doing a quick snap roll into the wind to throw herself almost fully inverted, before diving sharply away. It was an entirely unnecessary move, but it looked showy and Jarzyl had been practicing her aerial manoeuvring every week since she'd first learned how to fly. It was possibly the most fun she'd ever had in her life.
At first Jarzyl had been able to do little more than barely controlled glides, but then she had started to grow more confident in simple things like turns and adjusting her rate of descent. Quickly she had moved onto more moderately advanced manoeuvres like doing sharper rolls or faster dives, all while also building up the strength in her wing muscles to be able to not just descend, but flap her wings hard and climb. No longer did she just have to glide downwards after climbing up to a rooftop--she could take off and flutter her way into the air, though this was still a tiring task.
Today, however, she needed to do nothing but glide. With wings spread wide, Jarzyl soared across the open air. All around her was the extreme natural beauty of Mizalin-on-Sky. Surrounding her at distances ranging from far to near, there were the colossal floating mountains with grey rock clothed in greenery, floating steady in the air despite their unthinkably immense mass. Rivers poured from one mountain to another, or the water blew into the breeze and vaporized into mist. The sky was a bright and beautiful blue, interspersed with thick, puffy white clouds that shone brightly in the late morning sunshine. The air felt fresh to her nose, cool in her lungs, and pleasantly supportive beneath her wings as she soared.
In front and below her was the largest floating mountain of them all, with its flattened plateau and the visitor centre, but the airspace was so vast and open that Jarzyl didn't even need to aim her flight. Further below her at lower altitudes, dozens of fledglings and adult dragons were circling about and slowly descending as well, but there was so much space here that it would take deliberate effort to collide with another dragon or even with the mountainside.
Jarzyl turned her gaze upwards and backwards, towards the angular, pointed metallic shape of the airship she had just leapt from. From the open ramp she could see other fledglings jumping one by one, or something going in pairs or even small groups, taking to the skies after her. One fledgling with green scales was closer than the rest, and Jarzyl tilted her wings and levelled off her descent so that Caden could catch up.
"Look at this place! Mizalin-on-Sky! It's incredible!" Jarzyl declared, as Caden arrived. "And it's a lovely, lovely day to fly, isn't it!?"
"It is," Caden agreed, looking around at the majestic natural environment that surrounded them. She took up position flying beside and behind Jarzyl, trailing behind Jarzyl's right wing tip for efficiency. The two young dragons descended through the air in smooth, wide spirals, enjoying the scenery and the flight.
Minutes later, Jarzyl and Caden were at lower altitude--still high up above the true ground, but now approaching the plateau top where the Mizalin-on-Sky visitor centre was located. Still in the lead, Jarzyl had been descending at a moderate speed. Flying was fun and she could have challenged herself to see how efficiently she could glide, staying in the air for as long as possible without needing to flap her wings. However, she was excited to actually set foot on the floating mountains and see the visitor centre, so she struck a balance between rushing to descend as fast as she could, against taking her time to enjoy a slow, easy glide.
As they were descending, other fledglings from their group had been doing fast descents and had overtaken them, but there were also fledglings from previous groups who had been gliding slower and were now at the same flight level. Jarzyl was now close enough to the plateau that the field of green had resolved in a grassy meadow covered in tall grass, interspersed with wildflowers of blue, yellow, pink, red, and every other imaginable colour blowing in the mountainous breeze.
"This place is incredible!" Jarzyl repeated.
"Agreed," Caden replied.
Carefully making several wide, circling turns, Jarzyl lined herself up so that she would land in the part of the field closer to the visitor centre, right beside where the teachers were regrouping up the young dragons once they had landed. Caden was still trailing behind her, and she followed her turns smoothly.
Still in the air, Jarzyl used her paw to scratch her neck, and she adjusted the magnetic collar she was wearing. That collar suppressed all the twisted up flux lines of Mizalin-on-Sky which might have made her dizzy, but it also blocked out her natural compass and made it more difficult to tell exactly what direction she was flying in. Jarzyl also adjusted the wooden sandals she was wearing over her feet, making sure they were on tight.
Caden noticed this action, and she also checked her own sandals. "Let's land slowly, Jarz! I don't want to trip up and fall, and then get stabbed by a needlemir spike."
"Ooh, now that's a fun thought! Can you see any crystals?" Jarzyl levelled off and slow her descent even further, so she could glance down over the field. However if the soil here held any needlemir, it was impossible to see under the tall grass and wildflowers.
With a careful flare of her wings, Jarzyl touched down and came to a stop in the field. Seconds later, Caden landed right beside her. "Good landing, field trip buddy! Very controlled. Most nice."
"Thank you, thank you. You made an extremely graceful landing too," Caden replied. The two young dragons exchanged grins and approving nods, and they both furled their wings up, before they turned and started walking towards the visitor centre to regroup with their class. The grass was almost tall enough to obscure their view, and Jarzyl would repeatedly jump up into the air just to see around them.
In one large section of the meadow, a large rectangular base of smooth gravel served as foundation for the visitor centre. At the visitor centre itself, just outside the main doors, class groups of fledgling dragons were once again reassembling around their teachers. Drak Eeto was wearing two signs around her neck that listed the two class names of the combined group (made from her own Eastwind class, as well as Jarzyl and Caden's class), and she was clearly looking out for fledglings who had landed. When the teacher spotted Jarzyl and Caden, she used her wing to the two fledglings over, which was a mostly pointless action because Caden had already spotted her half a minute ago.
"Do you think we're the first ones from our class?" Jarzyl asked, as they walked over.
"Probably," Caden replied. "I saw Knaster and Graye making a speedy descent and they overtook us, but I think they landed at the far side of the field so they'll have much further to walk."
"Ha! Their mistake," Jarzyl said. However, as they got closer she saw there were already two other fledglings sitting on the other side of Drak Beritae--and then to compound her surprise, these turned out to be Atlas and Glecion.
"Hello," Atlas said. He leaned towards Glecion and said something to her which the wind made impossible for Jarzyl to hear, but from the way Atlas's mouth moved she could assume he had said, "Jarzyl and Caden are here."
"Hello!" Glecion also said. She waved her wing, appearing slightly awkward because she wasn't actually waving in exactly the right direction, but Jarzyl appreciated the effort.
"How did you two get here before us?" Jarzyl asked curiously. She walked over and sat down next to the two other fledglings, as did Caden. "I know Atlas is pretty good at flying, so I wouldn't be that surprised if it was just him, but Glecion you can fly fast too? Even without being able to... to see anything?"
"Haha... I wish!" Glecion let out a quiet chuckle.
Atlas spoke up quickly. "Drak Tasilus took us down. He used his magic to teleport us from the airship, which is how we got here faster than you."
"Ah, that makes sense," Jarzyl said.
Right at that instant, a large, whirling ball of magic materialized nearby, scattering sunlight and sending the dispersed colour everywhere. There was a loud crack sound as the magic collapsed, revealing Drak Tasilus--their teacher had his wings partially spread open to channel his magic, and under his mantled wings were four more fledglings.
"Really?" Jarzyl exclaimed. "You all just wanted to be teleported when you could fly? Flying is the whole point of being a fledgling. Lame!"
One of the other fledglings looked mildly offended. "It's too windy! I'm not practiced enough to fly in these conditions."
"Don't stress out your classmates, Jarzyl," Drak Tasilus said. "Everyone learns how to fly at their own pace."
"I wasn't stressing them out!" Jarzyl retorted, and her neck frill drooped. "Whatever. It's their loss..."
"Be patient. Once everyone is here, we'll go into the visitor centre and have a look at the museum," Tasilus said. "It'll be a good learning experience."
A large pit of white sand sat in the middle of a large darkened room, surrounded by a circular railing which held back a dozen curious dragon fledglings. Jarzyl was reared up on her hindlegs, resting her paws on the metal railing so she could peer into the sand pit. As simple as the sand pit looked, it was actually a complex piece of equipment called a light-field projector.
Inside the light field projector, sand swirled around as if caught in a stiff tornadic breeze, but the air inside the visitor centre was calm and still. Individual sand grains danced around, then they rose up and formed into three dimensional shapes suspended in the air. Illuminated by lights both surrounding the pit and coming from the ceiling above, the sand was visibly changing colour from its normal pale white to become grey, green, and even blue in places--it formed a miniature, three-dimensional representation of all the floating mountains of Mizalin-on-Sky.
Even as the fledglings watched, the projection zoomed in on right to the mountain they were currently on, and then the mountain appeared to cleave in two. With its internal structure revealed, the model rotated slowly. "Needlemir is the reason why all the mountains at Mizalin-on-Sky can float," announced a pre-recorded, clearly enunciated voice. "This region contains the highest concentrations of needlemir deposits in the explored world. Combined with frequent storms that roll in from the Glass Sea, these create the unique conditions which sustain the flying mountains. Heavy rain means that the mountains are saturated with water, which helps dissolve and liquefy the needlemir into ore veins that run throughout the mountains. When lightning strikes any of these mountains, the energy discharge then aligns the needlemir liquid crystals and creates a superconducting structure. Residual electrical energy will continue to circle through the crystalline lattice, and this leads to a repulsive effect on the planetary..."
Jarzyl nodded happily as the light field projector demonstrated this process in miniaturized model form, with fake storms formed from fake clouds which sent fake lightning bolts towards the models of the floating mountains. "This is really interesting," Jarzyl decided.
"This is _mildly_interesting," Caden replied.
"No, way more than mild." Jarzyl insisted. "If only every school lesson was this interesting, with a visit to interesting places! Ahh, this is the life."
Their tour through the Mizalin-on-Sky visitor centre continued. There were exhibits and displays that talked about how and why the mountains floated, what needlemir was, and even historical information about how the mineral had once been mined from this area.
Jarzyl found it all fascinating, albeit not quite as fun as the thought of being able to look around the natural park itself, but that would come later. Once their tour of the visitor centre's museum was complete, they had lunch in the cafeteria (also part of the visitor centre), sitting at benches to eat catered meals.
However after the meal was done, the young fledglings got the chance to do exactly what Jarzyl had been waiting for--to roam and explore the surrounding natural park, without having to constantly follow the teachers.
To be continued...