City Sector Uplift part 7
#59 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl and Atlas explore the new city sector
Perched on top of the tall rectangular building, Jarzyl spread her wings triumphantly. "Behold, the territory of Clan Mintaka!" she yelled, proudly declaring it to anyone within earshot, which meant only Atlas.
"Show off," Atlas retorted, as he flapped to a landing beside her. After the gruelling experience of going through the storm and feeling the constant rumble of the airship's outer hull, it was an odd relief to feel proper solid ground under all three of his paws. The pennant flags tied to his wing tips were soaked with water and had been dangling heavily, causing significant drag to his flight. Atlas sat down and tugged off the pennants, then he tried to squeeze them dry, but they were still too damp to wear so he just slipped them into a harness pouch.
Then he shook himself again from nose to toe to try and dry his scales. The motion dislodged his dark goggles, making them slide down to partially cover his eyes.
Jarzyl noticed. "I can help! if you don't mind?" She glanced around, looking slightly nervous, and then she gingerly plucked the goggles off his head. Jarzyl then reached into Atlas's shoulder pouch and retrieved a small, soft, absorbent cloth that he always carried around with his goggles. He hadn't told her it was there--she had just observed from the past times he'd cleaned his goggles. She carefully wiped the lenses dry, then she casually put the goggles right back onto his head and returned the cloth to his pouch.
Atlas was certainly capable of cleaning his own goggles, but it was easier for Jarzyl to do it--she wasn't missing a forelimb like he was. "Thanks." He nodded approvingly, which made Jarzyl's neck frill perk up.
The amber-coloured fledgling beamed, looking pleased with herself. She took off her own soaked wing pennants and twisted them dry, before keeping them in her own flight harness. "No need for this fancy attire anymore." Though she didn't remove the kerchief that was around her neck, which showed off the Mintaka insignia. "We're in the new sector! Down on the ground. Exciting."
"It is, yes. I'm not sure we're supposed to be here, but it is interesting," Atlas replied.
"Yeah." Jarzyl straightened out her tail and began fiddling with the radio again. "Let me see if I can tune into the correct channel. I want to hear what the airships are doing."
As Jarzyl kept tweaking her radio set, Atlas took in the surroundings again. This was a very tall building, many dozens of stories high, enough that it was hard to discern things on the ground far below them. And because they were in the middle of sector forty-nine, their view of the local airspace was also partially obscured by other tall buildings nearby.
"Ah, there we go!" Jarzyl declared, as her radio suddenly came alive with chatter. She tilted her head to listen as coordinates, or instructions, or something was rapidly sent over the radio channel in quick, nearly indecipherable speech, followed by a reply that was equally quick and muffled.
"Can you actually understand that? What's going on?" Atlas asked.
"Yes. Maybe." Jarzyl turned down the radio volume and gestured about. "The sector has its own levitation grid, but for the launch there are going to be airships attached all around the perimeter to provide added propulsion and stability. And to help relay energy down from the city." She yawned, in a casual reminder that it was still just early in the morning.
"Tired out already? Want to take a nap? Or should we continue looking around the sector since we're here?" Atlas asked.
"Oh, we're definitely going to look around. Let's go explore!"
Most of the buildings and streets in the new sector were constructed with a similar, familiar architectural standard of the existing sectors of the city, but everything was newly built and unoccupied. Lights illuminated the streets and buildings to keep them easily visible from the air, yet Atlas could see that the insides of the buildings were completely vacant and without furniture. There wasn't even any paint on the walls.
Jarzyl clearly noticed the same as they strolled down the street. "Everything's empty. That's a little spooky."
"I guess furnishings are waiting for the sector to be properly connected with the city," Atlas said.
Jarzyl nodded. "Of course. But just... no one's moved in yet. It's all empty and deserted--like a ghost town!" Even as she trotted along, the fledgling threw open her wings and caught the air with them. "These buildings are vacant of soul. Will they be factories? Or offices? Or residential homes? While they remain empty, they are nothing. What is a place without its people?"
Atlas was less dramatic. "They are definitely not factories. There wouldn't be any space for machinery. And I'm sure your clan already has a zoning plan for the sector. I'm guessing this is going to be a row of shophouses."
"Roarwww!" Jarzyl suddenly raised her head and roared, making Atlas jump from surprise. Her roar echoed from the buildings and down the empty street, an abruptly loud sound amongst the silent, still air. With the dome shield up, there was little wind.
"Hey! What was that for?" Atlas hissed in a half whisper. There wasn't any need to be loud at all, with how quiet the street was.
Jarzyl thumped her tail noisily against the ground. "There's no one here but you and me! Why not roar? No one's going to complain about the noise, like if I did it in the city. We're walking in a street surrounded by buildings, but there's no one about." Coming to a sudden stop, she turned and stared at him. "We're really alone. Isn't that a thought? You could... you could just murder me, and I wouldn't be able to scream for help. No one would hear." Jarzyl put on a wide-eyed, fearful expression, which was completely fake.
Atlas snorted. "You've been reading from that murder mystery book series again, haven't you?" With his sole forelimb, he gestured towards his left shoulder. "And no, obviously between the two of us I think I'm the one who should be scared. If it came to a fight to the death, you'd definitely win."
Jarzyl broke into a wide grin. "Hehe. Oh yes. I could do whatever I wanted to you." Slowly she leaned close, her eyes narrowing but pupils wide, with a faintly predatory gaze. "Anything I wanted." She licked the side of his neck, then got her jaws around his throat. But instead of a crushing bite, she gently nibbled on his scales. "Gnaw..."
Atlas was unintimidated, but suddenly the silence and the still air was disrupted as a huge airship rumbled over head at low altitude. "Not so alone."
"Oh!!! Look! Skyrider! Skyrider-class generation three, heavy passenger transport!" Jarzyl hopped back to a stand and straightened out her tail, then she adjusted the radio again. "Their landing gear was extended. Are they actually landing in the sector? Let's go take a look! Come on!" Throwing open her wings, she hurriedly flapped her way back into the air to fly after the huge passenger airship, only slowing down to glance back and check that Atlas was following after her.
As it turned out, the viewing tours of the new sector weren't just from the air, but the passenger airships had landed to let observers disembark and look around. Both of the huge passenger airships had touched down in the large park area.
Jarzyl flew smoothly between the trees, then she landed gently. "Ooh, this is nice." She tapped her paws against the short, but densely soft grass.
Atlas landed beside her and peered around at the garden park. There were trees, saplings, and bushes, as well as paved walkways illuminated by streetlights leading around the place. The centrepiece of the park was a small hill on which a huge tree had been planted. On one side of this hill was surprisingly large pond, beside which the two passenger airships had touched down in another grass field. "This is... unusually green for Avaeria," Atlas noted.
Jarzyl gestured about. "My father told me about this park. Instead of maximizing the sector for building space, they also put in this big park so that people can walk about. Smell the greenery." The fledgling dipped her nose to the grass and took a deep sniff. Then she scrunched up her snout and sneezed. "Acchoo. Uhh. Smells fresh!"
"Smells expensive," Atlas retorted. For a flying city, every bit of space and weight had a cost, and to put all this soil and plant life in the sector was surely not cheap.
Jarzyl nodded. "Oh yes. Having a nice park is expensive, but it also improves property value across the entire sector. If you live in a house nearby, you can fly over to sit on the grass or perch in the trees! It's a community area, and good for uh... destressing and exercise and socializing. The trees improve air quality and add noise reduction. And the pond might look pretty, but it's actually a freshwater reservoir for this sector's tap plumbing. You can fly over it, but you can't swim in it."
"Clever. And your father designed all this?"
"No, no. He's just one person. The clan has an entire office department that does urban and architecture planning. But this was one of the new ideas they are testing with this sector." Jarzyl lay down in the grass and let out a relaxed sigh. She shimmied closer and leaned against Atlas's legs even as he remained standing. "Ahhh," she sighed happily.
Atlas grinned faintly. He glanced across the park, and over the pond to where the two passenger airships were landed. Ramps had extended out from the airships, and groups of dragons were alighting from the craft to stroll around that area of the park. "This is clever design. I can see why this is the place where they chose to show off your new sector for their tours."
Jarzyl bounced back to her feet in an instant, as full of life and energy as always. "Yeah, the airships! Let's go check out them out."
As the two fledglings approached the modest crowd near the airships, Atlas glanced down at his harness's shoulder strap--the access pass was still attached there, though no one bothered to check it. Instead, Atlas and Jarzyl smoothly slipped along the crowd of dragons leisurely strolling around near the pond.
Several kiosks had been set up and were giving out snack food, beverages, brochures, and even balloons floating on strings, while cheery music was being played by a quartet of drakken musicians equipped with wing harps and a large drum. A large model of sector forty-nine was also placed on a table, showing off all the structure and buildings.
Jarzyl grabbed two bottles of bright yellow beverage and offered one to Atlas, before sipping on her own. The drink was a sweet, icy cool, fruity tea with a faint sour aftertaste. Atlas took a drink, but he was still feeling a little chilled from earlier and he didn't consume too much of the cold beverage. Instead he grabbed one of the brochures and glanced through it.
Jarzyl went to get a balloon, undeterred by the fact that it was mostly families with young hatchlings who also were getting balloons. When she came back to Atlas, she had a balloon tied with string to her flight harness, floating in the air above her. "I got a balloon!" she boasted to him.
"Yes, I've noticed." Atlas nodded. "You seem quite proud of it."
Jarzyl nodded earnestly. "Balloons are great. They float. Isn't that nice?"
"It is amusing. Everything else obeys gravity and falls, but balloons float." Atlas thought about this for a moment. "Well, not _everything_falls. Clouds also float. And here at Mizalin-on-Sky, plenty of mountains and rocks float."
Jarzyl padded on the spot, bouncing between her four paws. "Ooh, I wonder how come no one has taken one of those floating crystal rocks and tied a string to it. I would love to have a floating crystal rock that I could drag around with me. That would be cool!"
Atlas thought about this too. "Isn't that sort of what an airship is? It's a big floating crystal, surrounded by metal and technology so that it can transport things."
Jarzyl looked very amused. "Mmm, yes. Airships float, which makes them cool too." She nodded up at her balloon. "Do you want one?"
Atlas shook his head. "No thanks."
"And what's that thing you were looking at?" Jarzyl asked, leaning over to glance over his shoulder.
"It appears to be... a flyer for building sales. Houses and commercial buildings for rent or sale in the sector. Looks like almost everything is already sold out. And, oh! Look at these prices." Atlas winced, then he folded up the brochure and put it back on the table.
"They can't be that bad." Looking curious, Jarzyl picked up the brochure and flipped through it. "Ahh. Hmm. That is... that is a lot of zeros."
"But it is for entire buildings. So this isn't the sort of thing that one person, or even one family could hope to afford. It's for clans. No surprises there." Atlas nudged Jarzyl's side, then he gestured subtly around them. "Everyone here is..."
Looking up from the brochure, Jarzyl appeared to properly notice the rest of the crowd who was leisurely mingling around the park. Just like at the viewings back in the city, everyone here was wearing expensive, well-made flight harnesses, and dragons were decorated with fancy wing pennants, necklaces, bracelets, or other sorts of accessories and jewellery. The emblem of Clan Mintaka was by far the most common, but representatives from the other four apex clans were also present, and there were members from plenty of medium or even small clans.
"Clan business as usual!" Jarzyl noted. Putting the brochure back, she and Atlas strolled off. They walked around some of the booths, but there wasn't much to see besides property development and sales.
Finally the two fledglings ended up at the top of the small hill at the centre of the park, atop of which stood a huge tree with a wide leafy canopy. The tree was several stories tall, easily competing with some of the nearby buildings for height. "That's a big tree," Atlas noted.
Jarzyl perked up. "Ohh, this one is my doing! Well, a little bit. When my father was doing architecture work for sector forty-nine, I saw the design and told him that we need to have a great big tree in the middle of the park. Big and wide for shade from the sun, and with lots of branches that will make for good climbing." Jarzyl grinned at him and untied the balloon from her harness to tie the string to one of the lower hanging branches of the huge tree instead. Then she leaned back on her hindlegs and leapt up at the tree. With claws extended for grip in the bark, she eagerly began climbing. "Lots of... lots of magic went into growing this thing. It's from Grendium."
Atlas was impressed. "All the way from the High Forest of Grendium? Then it's an ironwood hypertree."
"It's a hypertree sapling. I don't think the soil is deep enough for it to get properly big like it would in Grendium Forest. So it's big, but it's never going to outsize the building towers." Jarzyl peered down from the branch she was balanced on. "Are you coming?"
"Sure." Atlas begun climbing as well. He was considerably slower than Jarzyl because he was missing a forelimb, but the tree's craggy bark was easy to grip, and there were plenty of branches that made climbing relatively easy. "Climbing trees... is for hatchlings..."
"Climbing trees is good exercise and good fun!" Jarzyl retorted. "It's only because people forget how to have fun that they stop climbing trees."
Atlas chuckled. "Heh. No, I think it's because once you stop being hatchling-tiny, you could break a tree branch under your weight and fall."
"But if you're not a hatchling, then you could just open your wings and fly instead of falling." Jarzyl thumped her paw against a tree branch. "Anyway, these tree branches aren't going to break. Hypertrees are really strong. That's why they're called ironwoods, with metal in their lumber."
"I know. From the metallic soils of Grendium," Atlas said.
"Exactly. Apparently this tree needs a special kind of fertilizer and soil, different from all the other trees and plants in this park. A tree that eats metal--isn't that fascinating?" Jarzyl paused to let her friend catch up. "So... that's an interesting thing to think about, isn't it? This hypertree sapling, brought here from Grendium to sector forty-nine."
Atlas nodded. "Expensive, I'm sure."
"But it's nice. This park is nice and this tree is nice," Jarzyl said. "Anyway, anyway, that wasn't what I was getting at. Just... think about this tree--it's so far from home, far from the Grendium Forest. That's lonely. And because it's in this park, it's roots won't grow too deep and we'll trim its branches, stunting its development--it'll never grow truly, spectacularly tall like the other hypertrees."
"You are, I presume, aware that trees do not have feelings," Atlas drily replied. He contemplated Jarzyl's words, then said, "Besides, seeds are dispersed by wind or water or animals. Plants spread. They don't just stick at one place forever. This tree is growing on a city sector, soon to join the City of Wings. All the other hypertrees grow in Grendium and are permanently stuck in one place, but this tree joins us on the city's eternal journey through the skies."
Jarzyl shivered, and she nodded. "That's a good point. I like it when you put it that way. This tree is going on a grand adventure."
Atlas thought more and added, "Also, yes it won't grow as tall as a normal hypertree, but it will be flying up in the sky. The other ironwood hypertrees grow tall and vast in the Grendium High Forest, but this tree will touch the sky like none other. Higher than any other."
"Ahh, that is a pleasant thought. Good point! I like the way you think."
"Is that why you always drag me along for your wild adventures?" Atlas asked.
"Yes." Jarzyl sighed happily, and she grinned warmly at him. "Yes, that is exactly why."
It took a few minutes, but the two fledglings climbed up into the tree's leafy canopy and sat down on a large, nearly horizontal tree bough, just after it forked into two thick branches. The tree was solid under their weight, though it did sway slightly as a breeze swept through and made the leaves rustle. Jarzyl flicked out her wings for stability, waving her right wing against the air, and with her left resting over Atlas's back as he sat on the adjacent branch beside her. When the wind subsided, she closed her right wing, but left her other wing casually draped over his back.
High up in this vantage point, they had an excellent view of the park all around and the two of them looked around, idly observing the surrounding area and the loose crowd. Dragons instinctively liked to perch on high spots and stare down at things.
Jarzyl gave a particularly wide-eyed stare at one drake who had a large neck frill which was riddled through with gold ring piercings. She gestured with a paw. "Ooh, Atlas, look at that drake. Ouch," she murmured. Her own neck frill drooped. "Imagine being so rich that you can afford all that gold, but then spending it on getting your frill poked."
Atlas looked out of the side of his eye, not wanting to stare too obviously. Up high in the tree they were probably far away enough for it not to matter, but still he didn't want to obviously stare. "A garish fashion statement, showing off all that gold."
Jarzyl shuddered. "No, I mean, yes, it's excessive to wear so much gold. But it must hurt to have so many frill piercings. I don't ever want to get my frill pierced--not even once, let alone so many times. Can you imagine flying with those in? It would be so heavy, and if those rings catch the wind and pull on the frill, ouch."
Atlas shrugged his wings. "I wouldn't know. I don't have a frill."
"True, but you can imagine." Jarzyl turned to him and gestured at his head. "Imagine if... if you pierced your horns? That would hurt, right?"
Atlas casually tapped the tip of his right horn. "Not really. Horns aren't sensitive. You're supposed to polish and use sandpaper on them if you want to look nice."
"Oh. Do you... do that?" Jarzyl asked. Now she was looking at _him_with her wide-eyed expression.
"No. I have a hard enough time affording schoolbooks and meals. And my horns are still half grown, so it's not like they would look nice even with any care," Atlas replied.
"Hmm. They might look... I think you would..." Jarzyl frowned at him. She reached out and lightly stroked one of his horns, then brushed her paw against his goggles strap where they sat at the back of his head. Still she didn't say anything more. "Hmm..."
Atlas glanced around the park again, then he looked at the thick storm clouds above the sector's shield grid--then when he looked back at Jarzyl, he found she was still staring at him with that odd frown on her face. "What?"
Jarzyl blinked, then she averted her gaze and pulled her wing back off his shoulders, furling it up again. "Nothing. I was just... just thinking about... nothing."
"You were thinking extremely intently about nothing," Atlas noted.
Jarzyl gestured at her own head. "Sometimes I just... get these weird new thoughts that pop into my head."
"Weird thoughts like, what was it you said earlier--we're alone in an empty sector, one of us could murder the other and get away with it?" Atlas drily asked.
Jarzyl laughed. "Haha, no, that's a normal thought. I've always had those sorts of thoughts. But now sometimes I get thoughts or feelings that are... uh... unnecessary." And then she stopped again, sort of staring at him but not making eye contact. "I don't know. Never mind. What were we talking about before?"
Atlas took a moment to rewind their conversation. "I believe you were saying you would never get your neck frill pierced."
Jarzyl nodded. "Right, yes! I'm never doing that. It looks super painful. And if I put rings or studs or something through my frill, it would hinder me from..." She flicked her neck frill up and down repeatedly, which made Atlas chuckle.
Suddenly feeling bold, he reached over and patted Jarzyl on the head, ruffling her neck frill.
"That tickles," Jarzyl murmured, but her frill twitched. With a careful movement, she shifted how she was sitting on the tree branch, moving as close towards him as was possible while still maintaining balance.
Atlas patted Jarzyl on the head again, and then without quite thinking about what he was doing, he stuck out his snout and gently licked her frill. Jarzyl shivered, and her gaze went distant. "Ooh, that really tickles... that tickles good." Abruptly she raised her head and looked around them.
The crowd was strolling around the park and the airship, with some dragons stopping to admire buildings around the park, while hatchlings scampered around in the grass under the watchful eye of their parents or guardians. Some of the families had come up the small hill, but no one else was attempting to climb the massive tree. Instead it was just the two fledglings, all alone high up in the tree canopy, sitting on adjacent tree branches.
Silently, Jarzyl flicked open her wing and then lowered it over Atlas's back again with a faintly possessive manner. She lay down on her tree branch and tilted her head towards Atlas again. "Continue..." she murmured in a soft voice.
He did. Again without really thinking, Atlas casually licked at Jarzyl's neck frill, cleaning her with his tongue. For a moment it felt just like they two young hatchlings again, resting after a long bout of adventurous play. Jarzyl's eyes slowly drooped closed, while her neck frill perked up even as Atlas continued to lick at it. When he began licking at her neck to clean the scales there too, a low, rumbly sound started rolling from her throat. "Hmmrrr..."
With eyes still closed, Jarzyl adjusted her wing to press down a little more on his back, in sort of a half hug. Atlas found himself idly wishing they were on the ground instead of sitting side by side on tree branches--they weren't really at risk of falling out of the tree, but their positions were fixed. They were close, but they could have been closer. Instead of just licking clean one side of her frill and her neck, he could have licked the other side too, and more--because suddenly Atlas had an odd desire to keep going and lick every scale on his friend's body--not just to clean, but to taste them all.
That was a weird new thought, and Atlas didn't vocalize it. Instead he just kept casually grooming Jarzyl's frill and her neck, and then a little of her wing as she left it over his back, as far as his neck and tongue could reach.
"Hmmmmmrr...." Jarzyl continued to let out a rumbly, contented purr with each slow exhale. This lasted for another minute or so, until her voice trailed off completely to the quiet, steady breathing of slumber.
Atlas didn't say anything. Everything just felt peaceful and_right_.
TO BE CONTINUED