Broken Wing Fledgling
#47 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl plans to spectate an aerial race, and she gets Atlas's help to do so.
Story time. Features friendship. (8,508 words)
"Hey. Hey, hey, look at this!" Jarzyl bounded across her room and picked up something from her table--a long, cylindrical object made of shiny bronze metal, thicker at one end and thinning in steps towards the other end. With uncharacteristic care, Jarzyl held the large metal tube with both forelimbs and grinned at her friend. "Check this out."
The current other occupant of her bedroom--another dragon fledgling--showed no recognition. Atlas hardly reacted. "What is that? A scroll tube?"
Jarzyl scoffed. "Hoh! You're supposed to be smarter than me. Can't you tell what it is?"
Atlas raised an eye ridge. "Since when am I smarter than you?"
Using her tail tip, Jarzyl tried to poke at Atlas's side. "You're definitely smarter than me. But anyway..." She reached and popped a rubber cap off one end of the metal tube, revealing a concave glass surface underneath. "It's a spyglass!"
Atlas nodded, calm as always. "Right. A telescope. Why do you have a telescope?"
Jarzyl grinned again, and her neck frill perked up. "It used to belong to my aunt! She works in the airship fleet, and they use scopes like this one to look at things far away. Like navigation lights or signal flags or other airships or dragons in flight. It is very impressive. But they have even better, newer models now, so my aunt gave me this old thing." She offered the telescope to Atlas. "Want to try holding it? But be super careful--do _not_drop it! I'll never forgive you if you drop it!!"
A faintly amused smile crossed her friend's face. "You're carrying that telescope with more care than when you were carrying your cousin."
Jarzyl rolled her eyes. "Obviously! You can drop hatchlings and they'll be fine. I've dropped both my cousins plenty of times. They land on their feet. But if you drop this thing, the optical elements could be knocked out of alignment! So do you want to hold it or not?"
"Sure." Atlas cautiously took the telescope. Unique amongst all the people Jarzyl knew, Atlas was a three-legged dragon missing his left foreleg. Using his sole forelimb, he hefted the scope up and down. "Oh, it's heavier than I expected," he noted.
"It's all the glass and crystal inside. You would think it's simple to magnify light, but not so! Optics." Jarzyl let Atlas hold the telescope for a moment, then she took it back. She turned it towards Atlas and try to peer at him through it, but his image was just a dark blur--from his jet-black scales, and because he was much too close to focus. "Hehe." The young dragon lowered the scope and carefully gripped it against her chest with one forepaw, and then she scampered across her bedroom three-legged, over towards the open balcony doors.
She had already set up a metal tripod out on the balcony, and now Jarzyl set down the telescope into the bracket clamps--perfectly balanced on the tripod, she could smoothly pivot the telescope around to aim it at various things. She sat back on her haunches and winked an eye closed as she looked through the telescope. "Ok. And look at that."
At her beckoning, Atlas took his turn to peer through the telescope. "It's... a building."
"Yes, but it's a far away building! And now you can see it in so much detail!" Jarzyl beamed.
Atlas raised his head to stare into the distance, and he nodded. "Hmm. That is true. There's a lot of magnification and it looks sharp." He glanced at Jarzyl. "Do I even want to know how much it would have cost to buy a telescope of this quality?"
Jarzyl flicked her wings in an easy shrug. She bent her head down and peered through the scope again, tilting it about to look around at the city landscape visible from her balcony window. "It's a very sharp scope. The crystals in here are definitely expensive. I'd guess it would have cost a couple hundred, maybe?"
"Two hundred hexes? That's not too bad."
"Uh, I meant that in hexstrings."
Atlas sputtered and he visibly flinched. "Pfft. So not_two hundred hexes, but two hundred hexstrings? So it's _three thousand two hundred hexes?!"
Seeing her friend's reaction made Jarzyl feel a little bad. He was clanless and lived in a sheltered home, whereas Jarzyl was a member of clan Mintaka--one of the city's largest and most powerful drakken clans. And while they attended the same school, his life was definitely humbler when it came to certain things. Mostly material things.
Even the flight harnesses that each fledgling was wearing attested to that difference. Jarzyl's flight harness was relatively new, custom-tailored for her size, and well-designed. The carrier pouches were sleek and fitted against her body, while the straps were lightweight and comfortable against her scales. In comparison, Atlas's flight harness was worn-out, sized for a smaller fledgling, and looked old enough that he likely wasn't even its first owner. Jarzyl made a mental note--when Atlas's hatchday came next month, she'd gift him a new flight harness.
Meanwhile she patted her telescope. "It's... it's probably not that much. This is an old model, and it's used quality. So maybe not two hundred hexstrings, but just a hundred? Or maybe seventy-five."
Atlas shook his head in disbelief, but he had a faint smile. "Two hundred hexstrings. Wow. I think that might set the record as the most valuable thing I've ever held."
"Nah!" Jarzyl casually reached over and grabbed Atlas's paw, and then she put it against her neck. "There you go, record broken. Now you've held me, and I'm worth more."
Atlas chuckled softly. His paw remained against her neck for a moment, then he withdrew it. "Hah. That is true though. It must be nice to be in an apex clan like Mintaka! You are rich."
Jarzyl looked up from the scope to stick her tongue out at Atlas. "Hey! I'm not rich! I didn't buy this telescope. It was just a gift from my aunt, and she got it as surplus fleet equipment that was going to be decommissioned anyway. I'm not rich."
Atlas still looked amused. "If you ever got kidnapped, I bet your clan would pay hundreds, or thousands of hexstrings in a ransom without even the slightest hesitation."
"No, no, that would be against our principles," Jarzyl decided. "If I ever got kidnapped, the clan couldn't give a single hex in exchange for me. We would have to declare war and kidnap someone of equivalent value for a prisoner swap. That's how it works."
That made Atlas laugh. "Har. Funny, Jarz! Are you joking? I can't tell whether you're joking or serious." Atlas looked thoughtful, and he nodded towards the telescope as it sat on its tripod. "Two hundred hexstrings is a lot of money, though. If I were sold into slavery, I don't think I'd even fetch that much."
Now it was Jarzyl's turn to laugh. "Hehe. If you were being sold, I'd definitely put up a bid for you. I think it would be a fantastic deal to own you for the low price of a few hundred hexstrings."
"Would it really be a good deal, seeing as you already treat me like your personal slave?" Atlas drily replied.
Jarzyl grinned at her friend. "That is a good point. Speaking of that, let me explain why I need your help." Stepping back into her bedroom, Jarzyl gestured towards a poster that was stuck up on the wall. It showed several dragons swopping through the air. "City Circuit Competitive--you don't follow the racing season, do you?"
Atlas shook his head. "Not really."
"Why not? You like flying. You're good at flying."
"I enjoy flying, but that doesn't mean I want to watch other dragons fly in circles through the city."
Jarzyl shrugged. "Eh. Well I enjoy watching the races. And there's a race coming up next week! Let me show you the flight circuit." The fledgling scampered across her room and activated her light field projector--the device resembled a circular pit in the floor, just big enough that a dragon could stand inside, and filled with fine white sand. Standing at the rim, Jarzyl jabbed at a small pedestal located beside the projector, and with the push of the right button the device came alive. Magic and energy caused the white sand to swirl about as if kicked up by strong winds, yet it remained confined to a cylindrical column right above the pit.
For a brief moment as the projector warmed up, the sand grains danced around and swept through every colour like a dust storm of rainbows, then they snapped into exact positions to form a three-dimensional object within the sandpit. Now a miniature model of the city was displayed--Avaeria, the airborne city of the drakken, floating right inside Jarzyl's bedroom--which was itself part of the city, currently floating high in the sky.
The City of Wings resembled a vast flying mountain with buildings and spires covering both its upper and lower surfaces. Jarzyl twirled a knob, and the model of the city spun around. Then she clicked a specific set of buttons, and a trail of red arrows appeared that wove in, out, and through the city. "There. That's the route for this year's race circuit."
Atlas nodded. "Yes?"
Jarzyl spun another knob on the projector's control panel, making the model zoom in and in until it was only showing a single city sector. "And it goes through sector one! Right here in city central! Can you believe that?!"
"Is that rare?" Atlas asked.
"Yeah! The race circuit usually goes through the outer sectors. They have to close the airspace so people don't accidentally fly in the way of the racers, and that's a bigger hassle for sector one cause it's so crowded here. But they're doing it this year!"
"Ah. So that's why you're so excited," Atlas concluded.
Jarzyl's neck frill perked up. "No, that's not all of it yet! I haven't told you the best part! Mintaka is one of the sponsoring clans for this year's race, so the path is going through some of our territory zone here in sector one. And get this, get this--it goes right through my neighbourhood!" She pointed back out her balcony windows. "You see that tall building over there, with the shield spire? The race is going to pass right by that building! The racers will fly right there! I can watch the race, with my own eyes, literally from my bedroom!! Eeee!"
Jarzyl let out an ecstatic squeal and she threw open both wings and flailed them about wildly. Her left wingtip clipped into the sandpit and smashed the projection, making it dissolve briefly into sand that swirled around before reforming. Jarzyl's gleeful waving of her wings threw her so off balance that she spun herself around and flipped herself onto the floor, and she kicked all four legs into the air.
Atlas laughed. "Haha. That's lucky."
"Indeed!" With a quick, graceful motion Jarzyl flipped back upright and smoothly furled her wings back up. "And I've got this old but sharp telescope to watch the race. So I want to get practice with tracking moving objects at the correct distance." Jarzyl sidestepped towards Atlas and she excitedly hopped up and down beside him. "I need you to fly the segment of the race that passes nearby here, and I'll try and watch you through the scope."
Atlas squinted over the sandpit, which was still displaying the race path. "I see. Yeah, I can do that. Should be easy."
"Thanks! You can fly it once, then we can swap and I'll fly the route and you can watch me through the scope," Jarzyl said.
Atlas nodded. "Looks like I can... start from that square building with the orange logo over there, then fly north-northwest until I circle around that tall cylindrical building with the shield spire, and continue straight east."
"Yeeesss!" Jarzyl beamed.
"How was that? Did you manage to see me?"
Atlas's wingbeats were nearly silent, yet when he landed on the balcony, he sent a gust of wind through Jarzyl's bedroom that made her curtains ripple and her neck frill flutter. He could displace so much air with those big, capable wings of his, and Jarzyl found herself staring at her friend, feeling an odd emotion she couldn't recognize.
Was it envy? But she couldn't be envious of him. Atlas was a strong flyer, but Jarzyl was decently good with flight herself--if it came to a sprint, she could probably beat him, though only for short distances. From comparing their performances in flight school, Atlas would outfly her over a longer distance, and he was arguably better with manoeuvring and soaring. His wings were large, but sleek and elegant--and underneath all his dark, understated scales, there was clearly power in his flight muscles, despite his otherwise lean fledgling form. Jarzyl shuffled her own wings as they sat furled up against her back. Perhaps she was feeling a bit of envy over just how good her friend was with flying. Or was it admiration? Because of his missing leg, he was slow at running or even walking, but in the air he was fast.
"Jarz? Jarz. You're doing that thing again where you stare at me and just frown weirdly." Atlas waved his forepaw in front of her face. "What's going on in your head?"
Jarzyl's response was to dart her snout forward and snap playfully at Atlas's outstretched paw. He withdrew his limb too quickly, so instead Jarzyl made a lunge and bit at his neck. She got her jaws around his throat and her teeth slid against his scales, just lightly, not enough to choke or even scratch up his scales. For a moment she growled softly and kept up her bite hold, then she released Atlas with a parting lick of his neck scales. "Grrr... Honestly I have no idea what goes on inside my head. I just have thoughts and ideas and feelings. It's pretty disorganized in here."
Atlas rubbed his neck where Jarzyl had been biting him, but he looked amused. "That doesn't surprise me."
Jarzyl shrugged her wings. "Don't you ever get an intense urge to bite something? Or someone?"
"No? No, I don't." Atlas grinned at her with a faintly smug expression. "Hatchlings are the ones who go around biting everything around them. Aren't you supposed to have grown out of that by now?"
"I don't bite everything. Only food. And sometimes my friends. Mostly you, honestly." Jarzyl snapped her jaws and licked her teeth, then she nodded at Atlas. "How was the race flight route?"
"Straightforward. It's just a left turn, then a sharp right turn around that tall building. There did seem to be quite a lot of wind gusting past that building though, and there was quite the crosswind." Atlas gestured towards the telescope, sitting in its tripod mount. "Did you manage to see me with your telescope?"
Jarzyl bobbed her head cheerfully. "Oh yes. You looked great. Very sharp, and this tripod makes it really easy to track things with the scope." She gestured to her telescope. "Ok. My turn now--I want to fly the route, and you can try and spot me from here."
"Alright." Atlas experimentally tried peering through the scope, then he looked up and glanced at Jarzyl. "Be careful around the turn, though. The wind shear was strong."
"Hah! If it was an easy route that anyone could fly, the race wouldn't be such a big event," Jarzyl replied. "Watch me!" Hopping to her feet, she threw open her wings and leapt off the balcony. Flapping hard to gain lift, she climbed away into the warm afternoon sky.
"You were right." Jarzyl landed heavily on her bedroom's balcony, and she panted tiredly. "The wind shear right around that tall building is really bad. Urrgh."
Atlas nodded knowingly. "It's throws you away, then pushes you right against the building as you're trying to turn."
"It's terrifying! Do you think the race organizers knew about the winds there? They must have done wind condition surveys of the planned route. I assume. Maybe I should write in and let them know? But it's just some wind, I guess professional racers can handle it fine." Jarzyl fluttered her wings, then she folded them onto her back. "Did you... did you manage to see me with the telescope?"
Atlas nodded again. "I did."
"Great. Alright then." Jarzyl grinned, and then she danced her way into her bedroom, waving her wings and shaking her body and tail. Coming to a stop, she stared longingly at the racing tournament poster on her wall. "So the race will be this weekend, and I'm watching it from here. Want to come over and watch?"
Atlas followed her into the room. He didn't dance though, and his gaze was indifferent as he also looked at the racing poster. "I don't really follow the aerial races."
"Aww, but come on! Do you have something else you'd rather do?" Sidestepping closer to her friend, Jarzyl nudged the other fledgling's side. "It'll be a little get-together party spectator event thing! I've got Caden and Indry coming over, and probably Dezzie too. Maybe Nerlin. And if I can get Nerlin, I bet I can get Pyxis too. All of us friends--it's going to be fun! We'll watch the race through the sandpit and then out the window as the racers fly by. We can cheer and scream and eat unhealthy snack food."
Atlas looked thoughtful, but he remained silent.
Jarzyl headbutted Atlas's shoulder. "You're coming over, right? Right?!"
Atlas still looked unconvinced. "I..."
Jarzyl let her frill droop flat against her neck and she leaned against Atlas, resting her chin on his shoulder.
"I... suppose so," Atlas decided.
Jarzyl beamed, and her neck frill perked right back up. "Yes! Great. It'll be fun to have everyone over. If you're not that interested in the race, you can just hang out and chat. Or maybe bring your wing harp and you can practice your music?"
"That's a good idea. I think I'll do that."
"Yeah! Play me a quick and lively song." Jarzyl waved her wings back and forth, pretending that she was playing a wing harp, though unlike Atlas she didn't actually know how to play a musical instrument. Grinning, she resumed dancing on the spot, bouncing between her four paws on the spot while bobbing her head to an imagined tune of grand, glorious, cheery energy.
Jarzyl twirled around, chasing her tail, and then she shuffled backwards towards her balcony--though she stopped well before she neared the balcony, and careful made sure she wasn't going to bump into her precious, newly acquired telescope. She peered through the scope again. "I really hope I can see the racers when they come flying by."
Atlas strolled out onto the balcony as well. "Want me to fly the route again so you can practicing your tracking?"
"Sure!" Jarzyl looked up from the telescope and at her friend. "If you don't mind, that is. Just be careful about that wind shear!"
"No problem. I can fly it faster this time," Atlas decided. With a confident movement, he leapt off the balcony and flapped his wings hard, climbing up into the sky.
It took about a minute for Atlas to fly towards the nearby building and intercept the path that the race circuit would take. Jarzyl watched from afar. Her body was mostly still as she looked through the telescope, except for her tail tip which tapped against the ground to a beat. She hummed softly, singing a song to herself. "Stole your scales, but they were mine for the taking; they were mine, mine after all..."
Jarzyl watched him all the way, carefully tracking her friend with the telescope. Just as before, Atlas went behind a different building and out of sight for a moment, then he circled around and started flying quickly, following the race circuit.
"And here come the racers, finding their pace for the first round. Leading the pack is... an unexpected newcomer," Jarzyl murmured, pretending to be a commentator. Even though this wasn't the real race, her heartbeat went a little quicker as she watched her friend fly the path. Atlas was a spot of black colour, body sleek and wings pumping quickly, his scales too dark to camouflage against the metal and glass architecture as he sped past buildings. But then he approached that tall building with the shield spire, and Jarzyl saw her friend roll sharply, almost turning entirely on his side in a quick aerobatic manoeuvre.
"Tricky winds around these areas. Gusty and unpredictable," Jarzyl muttered. As she was watching, Atlas snapped his wings the other way, reversing his turn as he changed direction quickly as he neared the large building. "And that's wind shear. First a turn to the left, then a quick turn the other way to just narrowly clear the... woah!" Jarzyl's running commentary was cut-off by a gasp as Atlas didn't clear the building.
It was a tall, cylindrical building that was probably some sort of manufactory or refinery, but as Atlas tried to circle around the tower in a right turn, the winds were too strong and they blew him against it. His left wing clipped the smooth concrete surface and he went tumbling, falling into a sharp, uncontrolled spin through the air. Acting purely on instinct, Jarzyl pivoted her telescope to continue tracking her friend as he tumbled. "Ouch, that was contact. That'll... that'll affect the timing for..."
Her voice trailed off as she observed Atlas's trajectory. For a few worrying seconds he continued to fall, but then his outstretched wings caught the air and his descent seemed to stabilize. Jarzyl expected he would climb, either to finish the segment or just to fly back towards her, but instead Atlas continued to descend in a slow, gradual spin until he was suddenly out of sight, hidden behind other lower buildings.
Jarzyl swung the telescope around, trying to reacquire sight of her friend. Then she snapped her head up to get a wider view, but Atlas was still nowhere to be seen. "Oh. Uh oh." Worry made her tail tip tremble from side to side, and then Jarzyl threw open her wings and leapt into flight, sprinting towards where she'd last seen her friend.
The sky around Avaeria was sunny and clear--it was a warm afternoon that would have been a good day for flying or other outdoors activities, but none of that was on Jarzyl's mind and she frantically searched for Atlas. He was a better flyer than her! Any moment she expected that she would glance around to find him leisurely trailing behind her wingtip, asking what she was looking for--but her friend remained elusive until she reached that tall, cylindrical building that he collided with.
That building was located on the edge of a city sector. The City of Wings was flying slowly through the sky, and it was made up of dozens of immensely huge sections. The side of each sector was a long, wide, artificial cliff of buildings, balconies, and walls, and there were huge interconnecting bridges and struts that spanned across the gap towards the opposing sector side. There was considerable distance between each sector, enough for many dragons to fly side-by-side--and in this sector gap was where Jarzyl spotted one single dragon fledgling with scale of a sooty black colour, descending slowly with his wings open but still.
"Atlas!" Jarzyl dove towards her friend. He was about midway down through the depth of the city, inside the sector gap. Of course, since Avaeria was flying high up in the sky, even past the bottom of the city there was just more open sky, and true ground--wild, rolling forested hills, well-lit in the afternoon sunshine--was much further below. "Atlas?"
Atlas tilted his head upwards to glance up at her, but he didn't reply to her call. He didn't say anything until Jarzyl levelled off, flying right beside him. "I crashed. Hit the building. Clipped my wing." His voice was soft--not in the quiet, calm manner he normally had, but just sounding too tired.
"Are you alright?!" Jarzyl yelled.
Atlas didn't reply for another moment. Up close, Jarzyl could see that he was breathing quickly, almost panting. "Uhh..." he finally said. "My wing. My left wing won't move. I can't flap it, can't pull it in or out, can't move it at all."
Jarzyl's neck frill twitched. "Ok, remain calm. Does it hurt?"
Atlas shook his head. "No it doesn't hurt, but my wing isn't working! I just... I'm falling and I can't climb!" He tried to flap his right wing, but with his left wing not moving and just locked open, this made he tilt leftwards, then sideslip into a spin.
Jarzyl kept pace, descending quicker right beside her friend. "Stop! Just... just stop. Both wings open, level off. And remain calm. You'll be fine." Atlas didn't reply, but he did manage to pull out of the spin and stabilize his flight to go back into a gradual, but continuous descent.
Jarzyl continued trying to be reassuring. "This happened to me once before. Remember... do you remember that first month after we first went to flight school? And made our first flights? I told you about how I sprained my wing and couldn't flap it?"
"That was years ago."
Jarzyl nodded her head. "I was just a little fledge, didn't know anything. I could barely even hold level flight, but I jumped off the training building and tried to do a dive. Got too much speed and pulled up too sharply, which sprained my wing straight into a lock. Crashed into the training field. My mother was watching--she showed me how to set a locked wing back into the socket properly. And she taught me what to do if it happened in flight again. You'll be fine. Just... just trust me."
Atlas was staring straight ahead, his expression concerningly blank, but he made a slight nod of his head. Good enough.
Jarzyl's mind felt sharp and alert, taking in information, analysing. She glanced around at the surroundings. There weren't any other dragons nearby who could help, so it was just the two of them. By now they were three-quarters of the way through the depths of the city, still descending through the sector gap--and they were right in the middle of the gap, furthest away from the sector walls on both sides. This meant that there was no imminent risk of a collision, but they had to get back to a balcony, ledge, or some other place on the sector walls--they had to land somewhere.
Jarzyl made a quick estimate of the distances and their rate of descent. They weren't going to make it back to either sector wall. The only way to go was down. "We're going to fall out of the city."
"What?! No." Atlas snapped out of his blank stare. "If only I could just--"
Jarzyl cut him off firmly. "Don't try it. Don't force your wing, just maintain a steady, safe glide rate. It's fine--just think of it as... like we're taking an impromptu trip out of the city. A little adventure to the outer colonies, just you and me."
"It's not the same."
"But it's fine." Jarzyl again looked around, but this time she instead focused on the vast natural wilderness over which the city was flying. Forested rolling hills made for a tricky landing, especially since Atlas might not be able to manoeuvre well or land very slowly. However, she managed to spot a large open meadow which would make a good landing spot--it was flat with plenty of space, and no trees or other obstacles to obstruct the way. "Over there. Left, bearing twenty degrees and down. There's a meadow over there, next to that curvy little stream. We can land there. Do you see it?"
"I see it," Atlas replied. "This is... I'm really..."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it." The two fledglings continued to descend, side by side. Out of the city, down and down, out of the sky. At first they were mostly in the shadow of the city, but then they emerged and warm, bright afternoon sunlight poured down on them from above. Jarzyl took a deep breath of the fresh air--it would have been an enjoyable flight, if not for the circumstances.
It took them quite a few minutes, but finally they both landed in the meadow. Jarzyl landed first, and she trotted to a calm stop amongst the grass. Atlas was right behind her, and he landed slightly quicker, stumbling forward but managing to stay on his three feet--at least for a second, then he slumped down to the ground, with his left wing still fully outstretched but now more clearly at a twisted angle. It had only been a short flight, yet it had felt longer.
"Are you alright?" Jarzyl asked.
"No worse than before," Atlas sighed. He folded in his right wing, then glanced back at his left wing with a wince. "Oww. No, I lied. It's starting to hurt a little more now."
Sitting back on her haunches, Jarzyl flipped open one of her flight harness pouches. She took out a chunk of crystal that was about the size of her paw. The crystal was shaped into a disk with its lattices cut precisely, and a thin layer of metallic foil was wrapped all around it. Jarzyl was well familiar with this object--it was a healing crystal--a most useful thing to have. She peeled back the foil layer but made sure not to touch the exposed crystal herself. Instead she passed it to Atlas. "Hold that."
The moment Atlas touched the crystal's surface, the gemstone began to glow and emit sparks of colourful magic which leapt out onto his paw to sink into his body, or even skip across his scales as they gravitated towards his wing. A healing crystal was nothing but a store of magic, and the healing energies it released were unfocused and imprecise--a poor comparison against what a proper healer could do, but still good for scratches, bruises, cracked scales, or other minor injuries.
Atlas stared at the crystal. "Charged by your mother?"
Jarzyl nodded. "Of course. She seems to perpetually worry that I'm going to injure myself."
"But now it's my turn. I shouldn't have tried to take that turn so fast. The wind shear was too strong." Atlas sighed tiredly. His gaze darted up to meet hers. "Jarz, I'm really sorry for all this bother."
Jarzyl felt a stab of empathy for her friend. She really wanted to hug him, but touching him would divert the healing magic from the crystal as it would try to heal them both up, instead of just him. Jarzyl settled for fervently shaking her head. "No, I was the one who asked you to fly the race route in the first place. And anyway, you'd do the same for me."
Atlas gritted his teeth--he didn't look to be in much pain, but he seemed thoroughly embarrassed by the situation. "At least I didn't crash land into a tree."
Taking a deep breath, Jarzyl glanced around the meadow. The wild grass was just tall enough to sway in the wind, forming rolling waves as an afternoon breeze rolled through. Trees surrounded the meadow, flanked by bushes or smaller shrubs, shifting slightly in the wind. In one direction the ridge of a tall hill formed a backdrop covered in more forestry, while in the other direction there was a small stream that trickled down across the meadow. "This would be a nice place for a picnic, if it wasn't for the circumstances," Jarzyl murmured.
Atlas turned his head to track a pair of small brown birds as they flitted low across the grass, chirping as they crossed the meadow before vanishing into the forest. "Hmm." Lying on his front, his outstretched left wing trembled slightly as he tried to move it. The flurry of sparks that had poured from the healing crystal had now faded to a trickle, as the gemstone depleted its store of energy. "I still can't move my wing."
"It's probably dislocated then, not just a muscle sprain." Jarzyl shifted to Atlas's left side and examined her friend. The leading edge of his wing looked bruised, and some flight control scales had been cracked, and there was even some white paint that had dusted off from the side of the building by the force of impact. The healing crystal had undone most of the superficial damage, but there was clearly some internal injury that left his wing unable to move.
Now that the crystal had emptied out its magic into Atlas, Jarzyl gently grabbed Atlas's wing. Since her mother was a healer, there was a non-insignificant chance that she would inherit that type of magic, and she was near the age where a fledgling would be developing their magic. Jarzyl held her breath and tried to concentrate--she tried to project her will, to seeing into Atlas's body and find what was wrong, and somehow just fix it--but nothing. No sparks came from her paw, no power ran through her blood, and nothing happened. Shaking her head, Jarzyl let go. "I could try to set it right, but you should get proper medical attention just to be safe."
Atlas looked up again. Puffy white clouds were interspersed across the bright blue sky, and the City of Wings was visible as a huge mass of gleaming grey and silver. "How are we going to get back to the city if I can't fly?"
"There are ways." Jarzyl reached into her flight harness again, and this time she took out a small cylindrical canister made of metal, with a ring attached to the top. It fit neatly in her paw. "I've got an emergency marker. Always carried this thing around, ever since I was a little hatchling."
Atlas raised an eye ridge. "You really own all sorts of toys and things. Why do you have that? Were you parents that worried that you would fall out of the city at some point?"
Jarzyl flicked her neck frill. "As a matter of fact, yes, that is exactly why." She waved the canister about. "They seemed to be paranoid that as a hatchling, I might randomly fall out my window and glide all the way out of the city. But I never did!" Jarzyl grinned playfully. "I've been meaning to take this thing out of my harness ever since I learned how to fly. Good thing I didn't."
"So what exactly does that do?" Atlas asked.
"Let's find out." Jarzyl examined the metal canister. She grabbed the ring at the top, twisted it, then pulled hard--it was attached to a pin, which came free. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then there was a _click_and red smoke started to spew out from the canister in surprising volume, with a subtle hissing sound. "Ooh, that's fun! Probably shouldn't breathe it in."
Jarzyl tilted the canister away from her head. After a moment she sat down against Atlas and leaned against her friend, on his uninjured side. He was trembling just a little bit, either from the nervous adrenaline or just exhaustion. Jarzyl didn't comment on that.
Instead she took the opportunity to peer over her friend and look for any more injuries--head, neck, chest, back, even his legs--but he seemed fine other than his left wing. His flight harness had damaged by the impact, though. One of the main straps that ran over his shoulder had entirely torn and the attaching buckle had been broken from the impact, leaving his harness half-dangling off his body.
Atlas watched the coloured smoke as it slowly rose up into the sky, forming a trail that marked their position. "I wonder how long it will take for someone to notice?"
"Not too long, I hope. I'm sure someone in Airship Fleet Command is watching the environment around the city--" Jarzyl started to say, only to be interrupted by a loud noise that sounded like whoop-crack.
A portion of clear sky just above the nearby treeline crumpled up into a whirling sphere of magic, which almost instantly shattered to reveal two drakken flying in close formation at high speed. Cloudy vapour briefly clung to their wings as they in close, coordinated formation, circling around the meadow.
"Enforcers! That was fast! Nice," Jarzyl said. She waved the smoke canister, then she hopped away from Atlas's side and opened her wings to wave them, not that they were camouflaged at all--her amber-orange scales easily stood out against the green grass, as did Atlas's sooty black colour.
Turning sharply, the two drakken came in for a landing and smoothly dropped out of the air right beside Atlas and Jarzyl. Up close, Jarzyl saw that only one of the drakken was actually wearing a flight harness marked with the grey and white stripes of an enforcer. The other drakken's harness was instead dyed to a familiar red shade--Jarzyl recognized it because her mother wore the same sort of harness--a healer, from the city's medical centre.
Regardless of their different vocations, there was a calm, professional, yet authoritative manner to how both drakken looked and acted. "You require assistance?" asked the enforcer.
"Yes! My friend hurt his wing and... and we fell out of the city," Jarzyl said.
The healer was beside Atlas even before Jarzyl could finish explaining. "Hello there. What's your name? And what happened to you?" he asked in a friendly tone.
Atlas looked uncomfortable--possibly from mild embarrassment, or otherwise it was pain from his injured wing. "I crashed into a building. Now my wing won't move. It's just locked open."
"That's alright. It happens to everyone. Does it hurt? Just hold still and I'll help you." The healer stood beside Atlas, and he gently rested a paw on the fledgling's wing base. Magic flashed at the point of contact. "Relax and control your breathing. Don't you worry, I can get you fixed right up."
As the healer was worked, the enforcer nodded to Jarzyl. "How about you? Are you alright?"
Jarzyl nodded. "I'm fine." She bounced between her paws, watching with a mix of nervousness and curiosity. Her mind wandered as she observed, and seeing the healer work on her friend made Jarzyl wonder what it would be like if she eventually ended up having healing magic too. It would be good to help people in that unique way, yet her mother always worked such long hours in the medical centre, and from what she shared about her work, it was exhausting and sometimes monotonous. But evidently there were healers waiting to quickly respond to accidents and emergencies that occurred all around the city--that seemed a little more exciting, potentially.
Jarzyl again anxiously tapped her paws against the grass, worried for her friend. She wanted to run over to Atlas and hug him, but the healer was still working on him, and she didn't want to get in the way.
"So tell me--how did this happened? You said you crashed into a building?" asked the healer.
Atlas nodded. "I was just... going too fast and wind shear messed me up."
"You fledglings need to learn flight safety. There's no use rushing somewhere if you don't get there safely. Or were you flying fast to try and impress your friend?"
Atlas didn't say anything. Jarzyl's neck frill twitched.
"Here now." Then suddenly the drake pulled and twisted the base of Atlas's wing in a quick but short motion. Jarzyl flinched, but Atlas didn't make any sounds of pain. "How's that now?" asked the healer coolly.
Atlas looked just as surprised as Jarzyl, as now he could move his wing again. The fledgling hesitantly pulled his wing in and furled it up against his back, then he extended it out again and moved it slowly through the range of a flap. "Oh. It works now. Uhh, thanks..." He pushed up into a sitting position.
"Your most welcome. Are you injured anywhere else? I notice you seem to be missing your left forelimb."
Atlas chuckled, and Jarzyl laughed too. "That's been like that for a while. Although I wouldn't mind if you could fix that too..." he said.
The healer smiled warmly but shook his head. "Even modern medicine has its limits. Now as for your wing, fortunately it was just a minor dislocation. Rest and don't fly for the next two days, and avoid any strenuous airborne activity for the next two weeks. Got it? And if you feel any pain, enough that it disturbs your daily activities, come visit the medical centre and we'll get you checked out again." The healer nodded, looking faintly pleased. He reached for his flight harness and took out what looked like a simple strap, but which turned out to be a sling which he slipped onto Atlas's wing, to hold it into a furled position against his back. "Wear this for the next few days so that you don't forget not to fly."
Atlas nodded solemnly. "Does a wing harp count as strenuous activity?"
"Playing a wing harp is fine, after two days. It's good exercise. One more thing..." The healer took out a bottle filled with clear liquid, which he passed to Atlas. Jarzyl first assumed it was medicine, but then the healer took out another similar bottle and tossed it towards her too. "And stay hydrated. You too, orange."
Jarzyl nodded happily. "Sure. Thanks!" She hopped over to Atlas and bumped her snout against his neck. "How you feeling?" she asked.
Atlas made a slight tilt of his head--an inscrutable expression for someone else, but Jarzyl could read his emotions even before he replied. "Tired, mostly. But I'm fine. I'll be fine," he quietly said to her.
The healer turned to his colleague. "The fledge can't fly. You'll need to teleport us all back up."
The enforcer nodded, not looking surprised. He spoke to Atlas and Jarzyl. "We'll take you back to the city now, alright? And be more careful next time. Fly safely." Spreading his wings open, magic started to whirl in a large sphere around all of them.
Jarzyl had just enough time to wrap a wing around Atlas and hug him, and then there was the buzz of magic and a thump of shifting air pressure, as suddenly they were suddenly elsewhere.
Back at Jarzyl's house, Atlas picked up his harness pouches and tried to clip them back onto his flight harness, but the added weight was too much and it made his damaged flight harness slip entirely off his shoulder. He and Jarzyl had earlier flown here right after school, so his pouches held notes, assignment sheets, and other paperwork.
Atlas looked physically tired, but on a mental, even emotional level he looked down as well. "I should be going home. Just... huh," he muttered wearily, looking at the broken main strap of his flight harness.
Jarzyl very much disliked seeing her friend unhappy. "Wait a moment. Wait!" She scampered out of her room and to the kitchen, then came running back carrying a large cookie in her mouth. Jarzyl took the cookie and gave it to Atlas. "Eat this first."
Atlas looked surprised, but in a good way. "Uhh... thanks?"
"You're welcome. Now sit down. Let me see what I can do." Jarzyl unclipped the remaining buckles from Atlas's harness and lifted it off his body. Then she went to her cupboard and took out a box containing thread, needles, measuring tape, scissors, pins, and other such things--a sewing kit, as well as several types of replacement straps and buckles. Sitting down next to Atlas, Jarzyl started making measurements and checking sizes.
Atlas had been nibbling on the cookie, but now his eyes went wide when he glanced at her and saw what she was doing. His shocked expression made Jarzyl laugh. "Why are you giving me that look?" she asked with a grin.
"You can sew?"
"Yes?" Jarzyl casually replied. She started removing the damaged strap and replacing it with a new one.
Atlas looked amazed. "Since when?"
"Since a decade ago? When I was young, my grandfather gave me a build-it-yourself flight harness kit with lots of sorts of different straps and pouches and buckles, in different colours and designs, that I could sew together to make different styles. It was just a toy thing for a hatchling to play with. But I loved it. So I learned how to properly sew."
A look of revelation crossed Atlas's face. "Oooh. _That_explains how you always seemed to be wearing a different harness every few weeks or months. I always thought that you just owned a crazy number of flight harnesses since your clan was so rich."
Jarzyl laughed. "No, obviously not! Did you really think that about me?"
Atlas tilted his head. "Well, I'm equally surprised that you can sew. It seems like a very patient activity, and not really a fit for your... shall we say, restless personality?"
"No it's a great fit. Because if I ever break my harness from... adventuring, running about, or crashing into things, then I can fix it myself." Jarzyl gestured at Atlas's flight harness, which she was now repairing. "As I am now demonstrating." She also tapped her own flight harness. "And I like my harness to be perfectly comfortable and fit me exactly right. So when I say this was custom-sized for me, I meant that I adjusted it myself."
Atlas nodded. "I'm very impressed, Jarz"
"Eehee." Jarzyl's neck frill perked up. Seeing her friend look so impressed made her feel disproportionately proud of herself.
"And... and thanks for helping to fix my harness."
"No problem." Jarzyl nodded towards her balcony, where her telescope sat on its tripod. "It was partially my fault you crashed into that building, anyway."
Lying on his front next to her, Atlas put his head down and watched her work. He still looked tired, but not as down as before. Idly, his tail brushed against Jarzyl's, and an afternoon that had gone unexpectedly poorly now seemed to be not so bad at all.
"Look at them go!" Indry yelled.
"Overtake, overtake, overtake!" chanted another fledgling named Nerlin.
"Woooh!" Jarzyl threw her wings into the air and whooped loudly as one of the racers overtook another. The cheer was echoed by several other of her friends who were in the living room of her home, watching with various levels of attention as the light field projector displayed a miniature model of several dozen dragons flapping their way through the race circuit. Jarzyl's parents had gone off for an early dinner together, leaving the fledglings to their aerial race spectator party.
"That's the next stretch! Next segment is through the Mintaka residential zone. They'll be coming by!" Jarzyl scampered over to the living room's open balcony windows, again followed by most of the other fledglings. Her telescope was set up on its tripod and another fledgling--a blue-scaled young drakka named Pyxis--had been peering through it, but she quickly stepped aside as Jarzyl trotted over.
"Are they coming?" Pyxis asked.
"Any moment now!" Jarzyl hurriedly turned the telescope to the right spot. Then she gestured for her friends, who were all standing beside or behind her on the balcony. "Watch over there! That round building with the shield spire. They'll fly right over it. Any second now." Lowering her head, she looked through her telescope.
"I thought I saw the race course would send them around_the building, not _above it?" asked Indry.
Jarzyl replied without looking up from her scope. "No, that's the outdated route. I wrote in last week to have the race organizer committee change it to be above the building instead." Her neck frill perked up, and she held back a grin. "It makes for a better view from here! Hahaha. But also there's some wicked wind shear around the building, so it's much safer to fly above."
Nerlin had brought a pair of long binoculars which he had been looking through, resting them on his snout. He lowered the binoculars and offered them to the fledgling beside him--Pyxis, which made her neck frill perk happily as she leaned over to peer through them. Nerlin glanced over his shoulder and back into the living room. "Wind shear, you say? Atlas, was that the place you got your wing bumped?"
"Yeah, maybe..." Atlas had remained in position, and was still calmly watching the race through the light field projector rather than squeezing out on the balcony as most of the other fledglings were doing. "I blame Jarz for that. She asked me to fly the route."
"How's your wing now?" Nerlin asked.
Atlas flipped open his wing, and smoothly waved it about. "Good as new."
"Here they come!" Jarzyl yelled, as she spotted movement through her telescope.
In a blur of colour, dragons came flying by in the medium distance. The racers had scale colours of every shade, and their flight harnesses were brightly coloured so that each was distinctly recognizable. Some of them were flying close together, while others were spread out further as they flew.
Jarzyl cheered again, as did the other fledglings as they watched with rapt attention. "Wooo! Speed!"
It was over in a minute, and then finally the racers had all flown out of sight--even the last racer was flying with great speed, far more than any fledging could hope to achieve. Looking up from her telescope, Jarzyl sighed happily. Her friends slowly filtered back into the living room to resume watching the race through the light field projector, but she remained out on the balcony for another moment, enjoying the wind and the sun.
Then she strolled back into the room, went over to where Atlas was lying on his front on his small pile of floor cushions. Much as he insisted he was healed up now, Jarzyl had still given him the most comfortable spot, nestled amongst several cushions and blankets. Although perhaps it was only the second most comfortable seat, since the most comfortable spot was hers, as now she casually sat on him.
Atlas made no objections. "Was your cushion not comfortable enough?" he casually asked.
"Mmh. This is better." Jarzyl shifted her position, getting comfortable as she lay on top of her friend. She grabbed one of his horns to gently wiggle his head, then hugged him from behind and sighed happily. "This is definitely better."
END