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Falling

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Heavenly light pierced the brilliant white clouds from above me. Below, red, brown, and death waited.

The air whipped past me as I fell. How did it come to this? One second I was with him, my dragon who had whisked me away from my weary home into starry sky, and the next I was here, face to face with my end.

It wouldn't be boredom that would slay me. Nor loneliness. He had saved me from such a fate. But now, it would be heat and poison, the gases beneath me broiling and snapping like the maw of a great beast waiting to devour me.

It had been such a wonderful planet too, up until now. The entire planet was dotted with floating cities, linked in the upper atmosphere, and it was a premier vacation destination for winged creatures all around the universe.

That, of course, included my dragon. It was only possible for him to glide on his wings on Earth, but here the gravity was low and the air was dense. Thanks to that, he could fly around and carry me across the short hops where the cities hadn't built bridges to cross because the original design of the planet had been exclusively for the aerial-abled.

It had been a brilliant sight, all of it. It was kind of like CloudCity in Star Wars, except there was a whole bunch of them, and they weren't completely walkable.

The cities had been complete with their own artificial parks and forests and waterfalls and all that nature stuff. It was tourist trap stuff, yeah, but I was the ultimate tourist--a starry-eyed man from a world nobody in the universe had ever heard of.

That was where it had happened. We were in one of those artificial forests, but it wasn't what I'd expect from the word. The forest's design mimicked the cities floating above the world, and the tree roots made up the vast majority of the walkable paths. It was actually rather dangerous, now that I thought about it, but Zack had been near me the entire time.

It happened when we'd thought we were in a safe area. We'd hopped and glided over to a popular tourist spot where we'd walked right under one of the tallest artificial cliffs in known existence--a really daunting experience which really shows how small we really are, an experience just about as profound as seeing the Grand Canyon.

The cliff, naturally, was on a large plot of solid artificial ground, but there were gaps in it just as there were gaps nearly everywhere along the fake forest. Even though the giant rock was artificially made, the cliff was still normal stone: carved and designed by someone, but still as unpredictable as natural rock.

I'd been looking up and gaping at the giant cliff when I accidentally bumped into someone--some sort of peacock looking alien--and when I had looked up again, a substantial piece of rock was falling.

I had looked at its flight path and saw it would fall right on Zack.

He was busy being Zack. Some sort of bug or thing on the ground had fascinated him and drew all of his attention.

I hadn't thought at all. I had run at him instead of warning him, though I think I had managed to throat out a "watch out!" right as I tackled him.

His body touched mine for a second, scale against skin, and then he was gone, replaced by the wind.

It was actually rather peaceful for a while. The low gravity made the fall seem like a dream, and the cool air felt nice. But reality hit me quickly, and as the wind deafened me, I knew I wouldn't make it out of this.

At least I didn't die in vain. I was sure I'd pushed him out of the rock's path, and I found comfort in the fact that someone I loved would be safe.

The chill felt like it was close to piercing my clothes, which were bought from the intergalactic equivalent of a Walmart, but the air grew warm before I could feel uncomfortable.

I was lucky. I was so lucky. I got to experience something no human would experience for at least a few centuries. I was the first. Someone from Earth would find out later from the Intergalactic Directory, and they'd all be stupefied. First human to traverse the stars. Me, Anthony Deric, born in the year 1985, first human to travel in terms of light years.

It could've gone so differently. Instead of Zack, it could've just as easily been a Dalek or something to come out of that mysterious silver ship which had so inelegantly crashed into my metaphorical backyard. I could've been vaporized, and that would've been the end of that tragic life.

Instead, I got a life of marvel and wonder. It'd been almost a year since I left Earth, and I've seen so much I couldn't have even imagined before. There'd been aliens of all shapes and sizes, more extraterrestrials than every creature Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg have put together. I've seen worlds made of diamonds and gold, a true-to-life Pandora, real Atlantises, and the stars of a bunch of Earth's constellations, the faraway lights which had been my night sky. I've ridden on flying buses through sprawling metropolises, gotten lost on unpopulated jungle worlds, and jumped a hundred feet on low-gravity planets like the one I was about to die on. There was so very much more to see, but no time left now to spend.

The blood red clouds beneath me roiled. I could hear them rumbling through the rushing wind. I'd die now, but I'd have lived more than any other human ever had, and it was worth it to save his life. I only regret that I didn't manage to keep myself alive long enough to hear him mutter those words I wanted him to say so badly.

I mentally kicked myself for not asking for a jetpack. They had rentals on the planet for people not equipped with wings or other mechanism for flight, and Zack had asked me if I'd wanted one. I didn't want to be a burden, so I made him go without getting one for me.

Bah. Stupid hindsight being 20/20 and all that. Now I'd be an even greater burden.

My heart sank. I saved Zack's life, but I'd be leaving him with a wound that would never heal. He's never experienced something like losing someone he knew, maybe even loved, but now he'd know the pain, the hurt, that I had to go through.

The peaceful fall shattered. Self-loathing began. How could I do this to him? How could I be the one to force him to face a death in his life? I couldn't do this! I started to flail my arms, useless as it might've been, and tried to cling to life for him.

There was more red and darkness than light above now. Reason asserted itself in face of my own demise. There was no escape from my fate, so I might as well spend the rest of my life wishing my friend the best instead of thinking about how much pain I'd be causing him in a few minutes.

Take care of him for me, Mary. For me.

My eyes twitched. I passed through some sort of invisible web, and my crossing caused a distortion in air.

A synthetic voice seemed to speak right into my ear. "Warning, continued descent will result in death for the majority of organic organisms in the universe. You and your estate waive all right to legal restitution for injuries or death sustained by continued descent."

I reflexively asked for help, but there was no response. They could install a messaging system but no safety net. Great.

It became hotter. My thoughts strayed. Is this what skydivers live for? It would be cool if I caught up to an elvish sword right about now. A magic carpet would be great too. Maybe if I got distracted by something I'd miss the planet and fly.

My skin started to hurt from the heat, knocking me out of my random train of thought and switching me into panic mode. Only two thoughts remained coherent in my mind.

One, I would see my parents again. That brought a tear to one of my eyes.

Two, I'd miss Zack. I love him, that crazy dragon. That watered my other eye.

The tears evaporated from the intense heat. I shut my eyes and waited for the boiling clouds to take me away.

Something wrapped around my chest and legs.

It felt like the chokingly hot winds stopped.

My sense of motion was knocked the other way, and I opened my eyes in surprise. The light was in front of me, the light of the cities in the bright heavenly clouds. There was a sound of something mechanical, something loud and rumbling like an engine.

"I got you, oh gods I've got you!"

That voice. It was him.

"Zack!"

"It's me. I've got you."

I held on tight to those scaled arms clasped around my chest. The wind blew the other way, and it started getting colder again. I let go of a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

The cities quickly came back into view. Safety, salvation, another chance to keep on living. I wouldn't have wanted it just a year ago, not without him.

When my feet touched the firm ground in the skies, I started sniffling. The arms let me go, and a touch of fear nagged at me. There was a click, and the whirring sound faded. I immediately turned around and hugged Zack tightly, a few tears running down my face and hurting my slightly burned skin.

The grey-scaled dragon reciprocated the gesture with his arms and wings, holding me safe. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry. I almost lost you. I'm sorry I took so long. I had to find someone with a jetpack to be able to catch up to you and bring you back. I'm sorry I didn't get one for you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

His head was resting on my shoulder. I could hear him stammering, and my face rubbed up against his. There was also trail of water running along his cheek, making two with mine when our faces touched.

We spent several minutes trying to apologize to each other. It probably would've gone for a lot longer if the person who Zack had borrowed the jetpack from hadn't come and, in what was probably an extremely awkward moment for him, asked us in the nicest way possible if he could have the thing back.

Zack gave it back to the guy, an alien that looked like a blue-skinned cyclops, gave him all the money he had in his wallet, and thanked him several times. The one-eyed alien was nice enough to try and give back the money minus the cost of the fuel Zack had used, but he refused to take it back.

Afterwards, my dragon took me straight back to our ship. He never let me go the entire way. We went to a pharmacy afterwards for some burn ointment, and that concluded my brush with death.

In the end, we were just both happy I'd escaped with a few minor burns. His demeanor changed quite a bit after though. He hugged me a lot more often, held me a lot softer, and he'd wanted me to stop sleeping on the couch in the living space. Instead, I slept on the bed in the back of the ship with him, and that never changed afterwards.

I was even hopeful I'd hear those words from him soon, but I didn't want to feel like I was exploiting the whole situation, so I let nature take its course. I kept on waiting, just as I've done for nearly a year, but I was content with what I had.