Mizalin-on-Sky: Reward
#25 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl's adventure continues.
"Sweet shitty spectral neutralizing nullfire," Caden swore. "The huge rock is still intact even after it smashed into the side of the mountain, and now it's rolling down towards them."
"That doesn't sound good at all," Glecion replied.
Caden sighed. "Huuh. It isn't. It appears... it appears that Jarzyl and Atlas have started a landslide. I must say that I didn't see this coming, but I'm not surprised at all."
"Are we in danger here? Should we... run away?" Glecion hesitantly asked.
Caden analysed the path of the giant boulder, along with the entourage of smaller rocks, stones, and pebbles that was rolling down the mountainside along with it. "No, I think we're properly out of the danger zone. Jarzyl and Atlas, though... they're trying to fly out of the way as fast as they can."
"Oh this is scary! For them, I mean. Heh..." Glecion let out a worried, nervous laugh, and she unfurled a wing to hug Caden. "I'm scared! Is it bad that I'm scared?"
Caden snorted, but she obligingly extended her own wing and hugged Glecion against herself. "It's normal to worry about friends. They'll be fine. They always are. Usually. They always seem to make it out of their adventures unharmed."
"Oh?"
"Except for the times they don't. Jarzyl did once break her leg falling out of a tree as a hatchling, before she knew how to fly. That was... terrifying for me to watch, just like this," Caden babbled. "But they are usually lucky."
"Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly!" Jarzyl screamed, as she and Atlas both desperately flapped their wings as fast as they could.
They managed to crash land beside Glecion and Caden, and still panting tiredly, they turned around and all four fledglings watched. About a dozen seconds after Atlas and Jarzyl had cleared out of the way, the boulder rolled by with ever increasing speed, accompanied by countless smaller rocks and stones that had been kicked up by its movement. Right as the boulder rolled by, that large protruding needlemir crystal came into view, only to be dashed against the slope by the mass of the rest of the boulder--retrieving that crystal had been the motivation for all this, but now they got to watch as the crystal was crushed into countless tiny, worthless fragments and scattered across the slope as the boulder kept rolling.
The ground itself shook faintly as the boulder bounced its way down the hill, smashing aside smaller rocks that were in its way and cleaving away chunks of its own mass in the process. With a tremendous crash that was even louder than the first impact, the boulder smashed right into the flattened part of the lookout area, and the energy from the impact threw up an even bigger shroud of dust and dirt. For a surprising amount of time, smaller rocks and pebbles continued to bounce down the mountain slope and land in the lookout area.
Finally everything went still and quiet again, and they was a shared, collective sigh of relief from all four young dragons. "That worked out alright," Jarzyl said, breaking the silence.
"No one died, no one's injured... I think that went as well as it possibly could," Caden agreed.
Glecion laughed nervously a few times, and she put a paw over her chest. "Haha... Hehe. Ho. That was so terrifying, knowing that you two were in danger! It's so stressful! How do you do this all the time?"
Caden nodded. She and Glecion were still hugging each other. "Tell me about it! I say that every time this happens, but they keep doing it! These two mad people!"
"I thought exams and meeting new people was a stressful experience, but this is taking _stress_to a whole new level," Glecion continued.
"Yes! Yes! Finally someone understands!" Caden agreed.
Jarzyl tilted her head from side to side, and she adjusted her helmet so it fit snugly. "Some people are cut out for adventure, some are not."
Before they could say anything further, however, Atlas gave an audible, shocked gasp. "Huh!" The other fledglings turned to look at him (or at least, Jarzyl and Caden did, while Glecion just turned her ears to listen since there was no point in her looking).
"Look at that!" Atlas exclaimed, with excitement audible in his voice. He used his tail and pointed forwards, towards the remnants of the landslide that were now visible as the dust cleared and settled.
On striking the ground, the boulder had crumbled into large pieces, revealing that it was actually a hollow geode filled with countless tiny shards of needlemir. And resting in the middle of all that was a massive singular needlemir crystal made from pure transparent material--easily much larger than any other crystal they had found today, perhaps about as big as one of their heads.
"Totally worth it. Totally worth it! Worth, worth, worth it!" Jarzyl kept repeating, and she pranced around the huge crystal, kicking her legs high and waving her wings back and forth in a dance.
Atlas was looking over the fragments of the boulder geode, picking out any slightly larger crystal chunks that might be valuable and storing them in his harness pouch, but the main attraction was clearly that singular crystal that had come from the centre of the boulder.
Caden was still just staring awestruck at the huge crystal, and Glecion was holding it and carefully feeling it over with her paws to get a proper sense of its size--it was bigger than a fledgling's head. Streaks of colour were fixed in solid swirls visible within the transparent crystal lattices, and sometimes tiny sparks of magic could be seen jumping from one part of the crystal to another.
Jarzyl kept dancing, wiggling her body and elatedly waving her wings about to celebrate their successful scavenger hunt. Finally the thing that managed to calm her down was not her friends, but actual circumstance. Stumbling to a stop, Jarzyl glanced down at her forepaw. "Aww, my sandal... The strap is coming loose." Moving her paw, the sandal dangled about as one of the straps had broken and it was no longer held tight.
Atlas glanced up, and then he reached into one of the pouches of his flight harness. Producing another wooden sandal, he passed it to Jarzyl. "Here, you can use this one. I have a spare because... well... you know why."
Jarzyl let out a bark of laughter, and she swapped her broken wooden sandal for the one Atlas gave her. "Bahahah. Thanks! That's one underappreciated benefit of having a three-legged friend..."
Glecion laughed as well, and Caden smiled even as she shook her head. "Alright, so I admit this whole crystal scavenger search was more successful that I imagined it could be, though it was also far more... stressful and exciting too," Caden said. She nodded her head towards the cliff. "Now let's get to the visitor centre."
"Oh yes." Jarzyl nodded happily, and she briefly harmonized along to the steady, deep thrum of the crystal. "Hommmm! So how do we... how do we divide this thing up four ways?"
Glecion shook her head. "Oh, no need. I have that one small crystal that I found, and that's enough of a souvenir for me."
"Yes, I think it's fairer if you and Atlas are the ones who split that big crystal. You two were the insane lunatics who risked danger to get it, after all..." Caden added.
"Are you sure?" Jarzyl asked.
Glecion and Caden both nodded. "You and Atlas did the work. You deserve it."
Atlas lightly tapped a claw against the crystal, and it made a pleasing ding sound. "Jarz, I think you should just take this whole thing home. It's... just... look at this thing! We can't split it up."
Jarzyl did have to agree with that sentiment. "I suppose it would be somewhat of a shame to shatter such a nice big crystal. But Atlas, why don't you take it home? I shouldn't be the only one who gets something out of this adventure."
Atlas instantly rejected that idea. "As Glecion will easily attest to, we don't have that much space in the clanless shelter. I've seen your house, Jarz, and you've got the space to keep this crystal in your room and display it somewhere."
"Hmm, that does make logical sense. Alright fine, but you can come over to my house and look at it any time you want. In fact, more than looking--you can come over to touch the crystal, and lick it, and do whatever if you want," Jarzyl told him.
Atlas raised an eye ridge. "I'll just stick with looking, thanks."
"Alright! It is decided." Jarzyl used her paws to heft up the crystal--it was surprisingly light for something this large, yet it did have a heft and a resistance to movement. It was actually decently heavy, but the crystal naturally lifted some of its own weight by floating, which meant Jarzyl could carry it without too much difficulty. Jarzyl's flight harness had been newly purchased just after she'd learned how to fly, and it was sized for a fledgling with plenty of room to grow.
Jarzyl emptied out her side pouch of all the other, smaller, inferior crystals that she had already found, for their tininess was pathetic compared to this find, only to realize that the huge crystal was still too big too actually fit in her side pouch. Instead she took out the water bag placed in her back pouch and quickly gulped down what little fluid remained within, before transferring the empty water bag into her side pouch and putting the large crystal into her back pouch. The crystal just barely fit, but it was a solid, pleasant weight against her back.
Atlas helped Jarzyl to adjust the straps of her flight harness, and he made sure the crystal-containing pouch was perfectly centred over back for balance. Jarzyl jumped up and down a few times with wings open, just to check that this configuration was secure and not interfering with her wing movements. "Ok, I'm good to go!"
"Let's get back to the visitor centre. I want to go to the hot springs and have a relaxing bath," Caden decided.
"Back down the slope?" Glecion asked.
"Sounds good to me," Atlas agreed. He walked over to Glecion and she placed her wing on his shoulder once more so he could guide her.
"Walk all the way back down the slope? No need." Jarzyl gestured towards the cliff overlooking the meadow and the visitor centre in the plateau below. "Let's just take the direct shortcut and fly right back to the visitor centre."
Caden nodded and turned towards the cliff, but Atlas and Glecion both spoke up together. "No, wait--" "That's not going to--"
Both the nocturnal, clanless fledglings cut themselves off, leaving Jarzyl and Caden in confusion. "Let's just... We can just walk down the slope," Atlas finally said.
"What? Why don't we just glide down to the visitor centre? It'll be way faster and easier than walking all the way back down the slope," Jarzyl countered.
Another prolonged silence followed, until finally Glecion shrugged her wings. "We can't fly back to the visitor centre because I can't fly. That won't work."
There was yet another moment of silence, and this one was truly awkward and dragged on for much longer before Caden spoke up. "Really? You can't... fly at all?"
"Not at all," Glecion confirmed. She showed no emotion, just stating this as a matter-of-fact. "I've never taken off, landed, or even did a glide or anything like that. It's just not possible for me. Technically you could even still call me a hatchling since I haven't fledged and can't fly. That's just... how it is. From young, I always knew my life would have to be like this."
Jarzyl was shocked by this admission, and even Caden seem taken aback. Atlas awkwardly glanced away, looking embarrassed on Glecion's behalf even though the blind fledgling herself didn't seem particularly bothered.
"Wow, that sucks!" Jarzyl said, before decided to rephrase. "Uh, I mean... that's very unfortunate. I can't even begin to... You can't... fly...?"
Flying was a simple, efficient means of getting from one place to another, but it was far more than just that. Beyond just being a practical means to get somewhere, it was also done as exercise, or as a hobby, and it was even all that and more. Flight was integral to being a dragon--it was a basic, fundamental part of their culture and society.
Flying was everything. Being able to fly was so important that it was the key ability that split childhood into two phases--being a hatchling and being a fledgling. Drakken athletes raced in flight circuits--no one would ever bother to have a race for running_or _swimming, because aerial speed or endurance was the real metric that mattered. Dragons who had just become mates officiated their pairing with a flight together.
Simply put--dragons were aerial apex predators. Even in modern civilization, that ability to fly remained the singular primary defining trait of their species. In ancient times, dragons had hunted wild game from the air, always roaming from place to place or at least controlling a wide territorial area that they could patrol and fly across. Avaeria, the City of Wings, was built around that idea. All buildings were constructed with balconies and open rooftops specifically so that dragons could land and take-off easily, while streets and larger buildings were carefully designed to channel wind and make flight more convenient. Flags and banners were dangled from buildings so they could indicate the wind, because that was what dragons needed to know to fly.
And not just how_it was built, but _why it had been built. The very idea of the City of Wings was linked to flight. Why would any civilization choose to build a flying city if they weren't, as an entire collective society, in love with the concept of forever being high in the skies? Avaeria was a monument to the drakken dominance of the aerial realm, and their unified desire to never settle in one location. Dragons were always roaming, even if they always lived in the same city. Some dragons were better than flying than others, and skill levels varied, but it held a special significance for their society as a whole.
But Glecion simply couldn't--wouldn't--get all that. Jarzyl felt a pang of deep sorrow, and for the first time she truly felt pity for the blind fledgling. Atlas was a cripple who walked slowly with a limp, but in the air he could fly as easily as any other fledgling. Glecion couldn't do that, and so she didn't understand the freedom and the importance of flying.
"Jarz, you and Caden can fly down to the visitor centre first. Glecion and I will just walk down the slope," Atlas said. "We'll meet up with you later."
Jarzyl instantly rejected that suggestion with a firm shake of her head. "No way! We're all friends, all on this field trip together. We'll walk down with you."
"I don't want to be a hindrance. You can just go ahead and fly first. I really don't mind that," Glecion insisted.
Caden strolled over to stand on the other side of Glecion. "Or... why don't we all just fly to the visitor centre?"
Glecion laughed softly. "Ha. Because I can't fly, like I said already."
"But why can't you fly?" Caden asked.
"Umm... Because I'm blind? Maybe I could just jump upwards and take off, but without seeing the ground I can't land. And without seeing, I can't fly straight and level."
"But it's only your eyes, right? Your wings would still work fine." Caden placed a paw on Glecion's back, gently touching the blind fledgling's wings. "Glecion, you're definitely not just a hatchling. You've got better developed wings than any hatchling, even if you've never been able to properly use them in flight. If the only thing stopping you from flying is not being able to see, then you just need someone to guide you." Caden glanced at her other friends, then she nodded as the idea solidified in her mind. "I'll do it. I'll guide you through the air, just like how I guided you as we walked up this hiking trail together."
Glecion's mouth opened and closed a few times, as if she was unsure how to respond. "Would that... even work? Could I... fly?"
"Sure you could. I'll carry you on my back for take-off and landing--those are the only real dangerous parts. But for actually just gliding down through the air, you can use your own wings and I'll just guide you to keep you flying at a correct descent rate and orientation," Caden said.
Atlas spoke up now. "Glecion, it's up to you to decide whether you want to try this. We could always just walk down the hiking trail."
Glecion took a deep breath, and she just held it and said nothing for a good long while. Finally she let out her breath in a huff. "Huh... Ok. Ok let's do it." Flicking open her wings, she moved them awkwardly, miming the beating motions of flight. "I've always wanted to fly. I've always wanted to know what I was missing out on. Just for curiosity's sake, I would like to try it once. It should be fine, right?"
"I'll take care of you," Caden assured her.
"Should I be...? Do you want me to be the one guiding you through the air?" Atlas offered.
Caden shook her head. "No, it should be me. Jarzyl has to carry that crystal on her back, so obviously she can't carry Glecion for take-off and landing. And you, Atlas... no offence, but doing a three-legged landing when you've got double weight is... probably going to be harder than a four-legged touchdown."
Atlas nodded agreeable. "That's true. Glecion, I'm good with Caden guiding you if that's what you want, just that it's supposed to be my responsibility to take care of you today since we're field trip buddies. I don't want to be abandoning or ignoring you."
Glecion smiled, and she bumped her snout against Atlas's shoulder in an affectionate manner. "Thanks, but somehow I get the feeling that your attention is more needed taking care of Jarzyl. Caden can help guide me."
"Sure. Just let me know if you need any help," Atlas said.
Jarzyl finally spoke up. "Hey, wait, why would I need taking care of?"
"Everyone needs someone to take care of them," Caden said. "Shall we proceed?"
Glecion again took a deep breath, and she lifted her wing away from Atlas's shoulder and put her other wing on Caden's. "Ok. Ok, let's do this. I trust you. All of you. You three have been great friends throughout this whole field trip, and throughout the whole day."
"Exciting!" Jarzyl adjusted the large crystal strapped to her back, and she and Atlas strolled up to the cliff edge.
Glecion and Caden followed behind them. "Atlas, Jarz, you two go first to check the winds and see if there's any gusting or wind shear. Then me and Glecion will fly," Caden said.
Jarzyl nodded agreement, then she turned to Atlas and both of them nodded to each other. The afternoon sky was still relatively clear and open, but a cloud was briefly obscuring the sun. From the lookout point, it was possible to see the shadows of clouds moving across the many floating mountains of Mizalin-on-Sky.
"See you on the ground." Atlas flicked his wings open and simply stepped off the cliff, dropping smoothly into the air and into an easy glide.
Jarzyl was tempted to do something more dramatic like a backflip somersault off the cliff, but the large crystal strapped to her back might possibly impede her movement and flexibility, plus now might not be the best time to show-off when Glecion was about to make her first ever flight. "Good luck, Glecion. You can do it!" Jarzyl turned edgewise to the cliff and then made a sideways step, rolling into flight and joining Atlas as he circled around in a slow, casual descent. As she did so, she let out a proud, victorious yell that was almost a roar. "Ryaaaah!"
Caden felt nervous, and not just the usual, standard level of anxiety that accompanied her normal daily life, but now a heightened strain of stress that was not dissimilar to the nervousness she'd felt prior to her own first flight. "Ready for this, Glecion?"
Glecion swallowed, and for a second Caden thought that the blind fledgling might hesitate or even change her mind, but then Glecion grinned and nodded. "I'm ready."
"Not nervous for your first time?" Caden asked.
"I should be, but I'm just... really curious and excited to do this for my first time ever. Everyone always talks like flying is so great and I want to know what I'm missing out on."
"That is true. Ok, then, let's do this!" Caden shifted her own wings and unfurled them open. "I've never tried carrying someone in flight, so this is a first for me too. But it's a simple idea. So, I suppose we should... I'll just stand still and you can climb onto my back."
"Ok..." Glecion still had one wing touching Caden's lower back. She shifted closer and then stood behind Caden so that Caden's tail went between her legs, and then she reared up and climbed over Caden so that Caden's back was against her chest. "Is this alright? Like a piggyback ride," Glecion muttered.
Caden chuckled. "Hehe. Actually I was thinking that our current position is probably used more for a certain other first experience of fledglings..."
Glecion gasped and raised her head, and she looked both shocked and intensely curious. "Huh! You don't mean...?"
"I think you know _exactly_what I mean," Caden replied with a wry smile.
Glecion adjusted her blindfold, keeping it over her eyes. It didn't matter since she couldn't see anyway, and was probably just a nervous habit. "Have you really...? Not just... but actually the full... thing? Oh wow. What was it like?"
Caden grinned. "No, I haven't. I have another friend... we did some things... some touching, some licking, some exploring, but he got nervous and we didn't do anything more than that. Why? Are you curious?"
Glecion snorted. "Pft. Of course I'm curious about that stuff. Who isn't curious about that stuff? It's... it's biologically programmed for you to get curious once you reach a certain age. We're all fledglings now."
Caden nuzzled Glecion's neck with her snout and she spoke in a softer whisper. "So you've admitted it... I bet you've fantasized about being in this position, but instead you're the one below and you've got a cute young fledgling drake riding on top of you... You can't see him but you can feel him, you dirty girl." Caden playfully rolled her hips backwards, which pressed her tail base against Glecion's underbelly since they were both so close.
Glecion did still have her hindlegs on the ground, and she was entirely unembarrassed. She hugged Caden's midriff against herself and rocked her own hips a few times. "Damn right I've thought about it. It's biologically programmed to think about it, like I said. Every fledgling our age has thought about it. Don't you call me dirty, when you're the naughty one." She used a forepaw to gently slap Caden's rear, and this was the cue for both fledglings to break into unrestrained giggles. "Hehehehahaha!"
"Hahaha... Ok, ok. Enough silly talk! Let's get to flying before Atlas and Jarzyl wonder what's taking us so long!" Caden announced, though she couldn't stop grinning. "Hmm. You know, speaking of Atlas and Jarzyl, I bet those two are examples of fledglings our age who haven't thought about it. They are so innocent together."
Glecion laughed. "Hah. Let me tell you--that clanless shelter Atlas and I live in has young dragons of all ages, and it can be... rowdy with indecent jokes and talk. I guarantee Atlas is at least aware of the concept of sex, even for how courteous and demure he always acts. Maybe he's too polite and proper to have thought about it? Jarzyl, though..."
Caden tilted her head. "Jarzyl's definitely still innocent. Her personality is far too playful for her to be deliberately being coy. One day she'll find out, though."
"They're going to start teaching it in school this year. In my school, at least. I don't know about your school," Glecion replied. Grinning, she again playfully slapped Caden's rear. "Or maybe you can teach them."
Caden made a soft, cheeky growl. "Rawr. Sounds like you're interested in me teaching you." Caden again rocked her hips back against Glecion, who was still half mounted on top of her. "Ok, ok. Seriously now. No more silly distractions from the serious moment--time for you to fly! Climb on properly and let's fly."
"Mm. Yeah. It's your fault from bringing this topic up in the first place." Glecion shifted her position, then she hopped forward so that her weight was entirely resting on Caden, with her front and underbelly pressed against Caden's back. Her hindpaws rested on Caden's thighs, while her forepaws clutched at the thick flight harness straps than ran over Caden's shoulders. "I'm not too heavy, am I?"
"No, you're not. You're lighter than I expected, honestly. I can carry you." Caden strolled forward to the cliff edge. "Ok. Here we go. Hold on tight. Last, last check--you ready for this?"
Glecion's reply was a quiet murmur that nearly got drowned out by the wind. "In a world that was right, I would fly on my own. In a world that was fair, we could have been sisters..." She pressed her chin against Caden's shoulder and nudged her snout against Caden's neck. "Thank you for this..."
"Don't thank me yet! If we get through this flight, we can be honorary sisters," Caden muttered. "Here we go! I'm jumping!" And then with all the strength she could muster, she threw herself over the cliff edge and into the broad, open sky.
Glecion's world was not dark, at least not to her. To say that her perception of the world was darkness_would have required an understanding of what light and dark even were, and while she did comprehend the technical idea of illumination and whether something was visible, this abstract knowledge was not the same as _knowing the feeling of light and dark.
However, there were still related concepts she could sense and enjoy--the heat of the afternoon sun, a warm breeze that brushed against her scales, and the natural scent of pollen and grass--all these things that were associated with the outdoors and the day, and which had come to be what she associated with light. Now she felt these things now, but most pressing of all was the sudden and dramatic sensation of falling.
The world dropped away from her, or maybe she dropped away from the world as Caden took them both into the air. However, that falling sensation quickly stabilized as Caden's flight eased into a smooth descent--the wind picked up in conjunction, as air rushed past and swept over the fledglings. Glecion could feel Caden's shoulder and back muscles shifting as she made a few wingbeats before going into a steady glide.
"Ok! We're in the air. Do it!" Caden exclaimed, her voice tinged with as much excitement as she had shown over this whole field trip. "Spread your wings, Glecion!"
Glecion did exactly that, but slowly and with some hesitation. She had been holding her wings tight against her back, instinctively keeping them from being pulled and dragged by the rushing wind, but now she deliberately unfurled her wings and extended them into the breeze. The wind felt so strong--so _forceful_against her wings, as if it was trying to tear them from her body. And yet it also felt so right, and her flight scales tingled from the touch of air, shifting and responding on instinct to try and get her aerofoils configured for flight.
More and more the wind was pulling against her wings, yet now it was pulling upwards and Glecion could feel the strain in her shoulders building. For a moment she resisted and tightened her grip on Caden's flight harness, frightened by the thought of getting blown away, but gradually she relaxed.
Then there came a specific, clear moment where Glecion made the transition. At first she'd been nothing but a passenger weighing down her friend's flight, but then suddenly her chest and underbelly were no longer touching, and her forepaws holding onto Caden's flight harness straps were the only point of contact. She was flying--flying with her own wings, kept aloft by her own ability even if she was still holding onto Caden.
"Ahh..." Glecion felt like she could laugh, or cry, or even dare to try a roar, but all her exhilaration was tempered by nervousness as she paid maximum attention to the feeling of air moving about her--was she still flying straight? She wasn't about to flip over or stall, was she?
"You're doing it!" Caden yelled, and Glecion also heard more distant shouts of encouragement--Atlas and Jarzyl, somewhere in the airspace around her. Glecion couldn't hear their wingbeats, but she imagined them somewhere nearby.
"So this is--woah!" Glecion cut herself off as a slight instability in the air made her tense her wings and almost overcorrect as she tried to stay level. "So this is flying!"
"Yes! Congratulations you're now officially, officially a fledgling. You're flying!" Caden announced.
Glecion grinned, and she tried to flap her wings. It was very tiring to do so--it seemed to take so much effort even to keep them open, let alone to flap, but that was no surprise given that she'd never before used her wings for their properly intended purpose. In that regard she was no different from any other fledgling making their first flight, testing their wings and fluttering awkwardly through the air.
"You want to try letting go? Doing some free flight?" Caden asked.
"No...?" Glecion shook her head immediately. To let go of her grip on Caden's flight harness would be to lose her only directing guidance. She would become unanchored, drifting through the air with no reference point. Glecion was scared that she might go into a dive without realizing it and crash and into the ground, or perhaps somehow flip over and go into a stall, or otherwise make some mistake. But did she actually need to worry?
As with all the other fledglings, Glecion was wearing a magnetic collar around her neck to block out the twisted magnetic field lines that would confuse her internal compass, but that only suppressed her sense of cardinal direction. Even if she couldn't tell whether she was headed north, south, east, or west, she still had an internal sense of balance to keep her level.
"Ahh! If I only ever do this once, I might as well do it properly!" Acting on impulse, Glecion released her paws and let go of Caden's harness. And then she was doing it--she was flying, properly flying like a real fledgling, all on her own. Her four legs awkwardly dangled, then she tucked them tight against her body to keep them out of the slipstream. "How close is the ground?!" she shouted, with a mix of exhilaration and terror in her voice.
"Not that close," Caden replied. "We're... about halfway down from the cliff, I'd estimate."
Glecion felt like her senses had been turned up as alert as they possibly could. She could feel every smallest change in the air around her as it washed over her scales, and her ears flicked about as she occasionally heard the faint flap of wings near her from the other fledglings. Flying was physically tiring on her wings but also her whole body, yet it was mentally taxing as well to be so attentive. Walking was so much easier in comparison--you wouldn't walk into a wall unless you were actively moving, yet flying required constant motion. There was no way to keep perfectly still and hover, since it was the movement of air under her wings that generated lift.
Glecion wanted to ask about these things, but there was simply no time to vocalize everything that she was feeling. She just tried to remember--to take in everything she was feeling and store it into memory, to be pondered over in her free time and in her dreams.
Finally the continuous worry about the ground became too much. If only she could see the ground, or even see the air around her so she could know when air stopped and land began. But without that ability, she was reliant on the assistance of her friends. "Caden can you...? Please?" Glecion asked, and she waved out with a paw, trying to reach for her friend again and once again have that guidance.
"Ok, just wait there a moment." Glecion heard the flap of wings and felt a slight turbulence as Caden flew nearby, and then suddenly the two fledglings bumped into each other again, chest against back. Reaching out, Glecion slid her paws along Caden's neck before she managed to grab onto the flight harness straps around Caden's shoulders. "Careful there..." Caden muttered.
"Sorry!" Glecion replied. "It is just a... big, scary world out there and I do not want to crash into the ground."
"I understand. It's fine! Be safe, Glecion. You're doing great," Caden said. "Ok, close your wings and I'll take us down for a landing."
Glecion pulled in her wings, and with that lift gone her weight was now once again resting on Caden. Somehow this felt like she was both more and less reliant on her friend.
Finally Caden said, "Ok we're real low over the meadow now. Coming in for a landing near the visitor centre... Ooh, ground effect is making things hard. It's a bit faster than I'd prefer, but just hold on...!"
Glecion did exactly that, clutching tightly to Caden as she felt of a sensation of dropping, then levelling off, then dropping again, then--touchdown. Glecion was thrown forwards, and she and Caden both tumbled onto the ground together. Fortunately Caden had aimed to make their landing not in the meadow itself, but in the gravel ground perimeter that surrounded the visitor centre, so there weren't any tiny needlemir shards to poke their scales as they both ended up in a tangled heap of partially intertwined limbs, tails, and flight harness straps.
"Are you ok?" Glecion asked immediately.
"Ha. I'm fine. You?" Caden replied.
"Yes, yes I'm fine. Wow." Glecion ran her paws over her body, but she found no bruises or abrasions, just a few scales that had been lightly scratched up by the landing. "Wow, flying is... something."
"It sure is," Caden replied. The two fledglings untangled their limbs, and Caden stood back up and helped Glecion back up as well. "We're fine! We're fine!" she yelled, before speaking more quietly to Glecion. "One of the teachers was walking over, he was worried that we crash landed and hurt ourselves or something."
"Thank you. Thank you, Caden," Glecion murmured. "I guess that makes us honorary sisters, or was that just a joke?"
"I don't joke about that sort of thing. And trust me--a single flight hardly makes up for all that you deserve."
"Well, flying is exciting, but I'm not sure I feel the need to repeat this experience..." Glecion decided.
"We totally could, if you ever want to do it again," Caden replied.
From nearby there was the sound of quickly flapping wings, then a crunch of gravel. Caden leaned closer to speak to Glecion again. "Jarzyl just landed nearby. As did Atlas, though he's quieter both in flight and in landing, just as he's generally quieter in everything he does. I wonder how he does that--make his wingbeats so quiet?"
Glecion giggled. "Hehe."
"You did it!" Jarzyl exclaimed, and then Glecion felt an impact from the side and a warm body as Jarzyl rammed into her and pulled her and Caden into a group hug. "You flew, Glecion! You're a fledgling now! Yay!"
"Yay!" Glecion agreed happily. Jarzyl's cheer was highly contagious, and even Caden seemed happy.
"You did it! You can fly, Glecion. It isn't easy, but you can definitely do it," Caden said.
Jarzyl released her hug, then Glecion heard the quick patter of paws on gravel, followed by a soft grunt from Atlas as Jarzyl ran over and presumably hugged him too. "Uh. Why?" Atlas asked.
"Because you didn't join in the group hug, and you deserve a hug too," Jarzyl replied.
Caden chuckled softly. "Haha. So! So, off to the hot springs, then? I could really use some relaxing after all that hiking, and all that nonsense with the boulder..."
Glecion bumped her snout against Caden's shoulder. "That sounds like a wonderful idea."
To be continued...