What's this? A chapter in which Bering and Auster actually do something? :gasp: It's official my friends, we're out of the exposition. Hip hip hooray. This is a bridge chapter between the first and second parts, and things should begin to move quickly. Thank you to all who have stuck with me so far, and I hope you enjoy this latest installment. -MAG
The eastern wing of the palace was reserved for training, containing all the sparring grounds and flight towers within the grounds. There were general purpose yards available to the public for sparring practice, and walled off portions where the elite hired seasoned veterans to instruct their dragonets. The guards were strictly prohibited from entering the latter.
Most of the dragonets hatched in and around the palace learned to fly at the flight tower. Similar to the library, it was open to the public, though unlike the latter, dragons actually visited the flight tower. The tower consisted of many levels stacked on top of each other, with large, airy rooms and plenty of ledges for younglings to gain mastery of their wings.
Circling the structure, I saw Bering waving to me from the top level. Two wingbeats later I landed gracefully next to him. He had brought a large satchel and a small scroll, currently rolled out to reveal the map of our target region.
"Look here," he pointed. "The mountains are very high in elevation, but there is a river that carves a path through here and I think that's where we should head."
"You're the boss. I'm just following you." Truthfully, I had no idea what we were doing, where we were going, or why, but no matter, I had a job to do.
"Wonderful, then if that's the case, we can head out immediately." The scrawny dragon strapped his oversized luggage over his back and took off east unsteadily towards the sun, and I followed his lead.
As we flew south-east away from the palace, the temperature climbed steadily. With the sun beating down on us, I saw that Bering was struggling to stay in the air, the combination of the heavy pack and the heat taking its toll on the smaller IceWing.
For me, however, I had never enjoyed flying as much as this trip. The longer journey afforded me the opportunity to spread my wings wider and the heat generated nice thermals on which to soar, none of which were possible around the palace. I felt a certain kind of thrill from the air rushing past me and lifting me effortlessly upwards. Out here on the plains there was no one to judge my flying posture, critique every flap or chastise each stumble and imperfect movement.
-Lovely isn't it? Soaring above the clouds is one of the best feelings in life.
It is so much better than the guard courses at the palace. Here I can actually stretch out my wings fully and catch the wind.
-Indeed, you are doing marvelously for your first time. Someday, you should go across to the other side of these mountains. I heard the air currents are even more glorious.
But that's SkyWing territory!
-You are technically on SkyWing territory already.
That much was true. We had exited the frozen tundra a while ago and now traversed over flat grassland with only hints of snow. As we headed further east, the steppe gave way to scrublands, then to forests, luscious green forests. Unlike the spindly pines of the tundra, the trees grew closely together, packed in with alarming density.
-Yes, but we're on the far side of the mountains, and Bering planned this well. I'm sure he wouldn't take us into dangerous territory. He is smarter than that.
If you have faith in him then I suppose I should too. He's still flapping like maniac though.
After several hours of wobbly incessant flapping, Bering finally reached his limit and descended into a dense forest below. We thumped down in a small meadow where upon landing, he promptly cast off his pack and flopped over in exhaustion.
"Auster," he panted. "I'm just going to rest awhile, I forgot how heavy this pack is, and how far away the mountains are."
"If I could be of any assistance," I said, sitting down next to him, "then you should make use of me. Why don't I carry the pack?"
Bering's eyes widened, "No no no no no, I can carry the pack myself." He staggered to his feet and attempted to swing the strap over his shoulders but after three consecutive failures, he flopped back down in defeat.
I picked up the pack and wrapped it securely to myself. "See? Your equipment is perfectly safe with me. I will carry this for the rest of the journey because you are clearly exhausted and incapable of flying and transporting this simultaneously."
He eyed me suspiciously before conceding. "Fine, be very careful with it."
"What is in here anyways?" The pack was full of small hard objects that clinked when jostled. It wasn't a large bag, but whatever was in it was dense.
"It is confidential, and I would appreciate it staying that way. Let's continue. We want to reach the site before nightfall." Bering shook out his wings and took a running start, launching himself into the sky, considerably steadier without the pack weighing him down.
Eventually, when the sun neared the horizon behind us, Bering pointed towards a narrow valley in the rugged mountain range below us. We descended and followed the valley upstream, and the closer we got to the surface, the lesser the wind and the glorious sensation of soaring.
The winds in the valley were fierce and fast, roaring and clawing at me trying to rip me out of the sky. The ground was barren and empty, eroded by the vicious gusts, and what little plant matter remained clung tenaciously to the gaps between rocks.
I preferred the gentle climbing warm breezes that we soared over in the flat plains on the border of the ice kingdom because here the chill pierced my lungs with every breath and stung my wings with tiny ice crystals. To my surprise, my employer seemed to handle the drafts quite well, better than me despite his diminutive size. I had assumed that he would be thrown around erratically, but he was weaving his way through the valley gracefully, like a seal swimming in a current, whereas I was more akin to a fat whale being pushed around.
We continued through the valley as it climbed in elevation and narrowed, though we were still far lower than the towering peaks around us. About five leagues in, the valley ended abruptly at the slopes of a particularly tall and steep mountain. Bering landed in a small field sheltered by the mountain and I followed suit, breathing a sigh of relief as we settled down in a place where the wind couldn't reach.
"Bering," I said, "aren't you glad that I carried the pack? That was a nasty flight."
"Hmph," he replied. "I could've done it myself, I have flown this route many times. Besides, I wouldn't say you were exactly flying flawlessly. That's one of the reasons we're here by the way."
"Is this related to your proposal?"
"In a way, but while we wait for the sun to go down completely, we have some equipment to set up. I thought about this next step for a while, and I think you're trustworthy enough to come along. That is, if you want to come along."
"Are we going back out into the wind?"
"Nope," he smiled for the first time since we departed. "I arranged a meeting with some old friends."
Climbing the mountain slopes was much more enjoyable than enduring the bitter wind above. Being sheltered from the worst of the wind, we made our way up the barren slope, until Bering signaled for us to stop. We arrived at a small cavern.
The IceWing whistled and was greeted with a response. A small SeaWing came running excitedly towards us.
While Bering didn't seem alarmed, my senses were immediately put into alarm mode. I shoved Bering to the side and stood up, flaring my wings in front of the oncoming enemy, preparing to strike.
The SeaWing skidded to a halt, more surprised than frightened by my display. "Who are you?"
"I am your worst nightmare, slug. If you dare touch me or my partner here, I will rip your wings off and shove them down your throat."
"Ah, well don't worry about me, I'm not here to harm you or Bering." The SeaWing gave me a disarming smile, eerily similar to the infuriating grin that my employer always wore when trying to defuse a situation.
"Auster, please calm down. This is Manta, she's a friend of mine. I implore you to not rip her wings off and shove them down her throat, because one, that would be disgusting, and two, that would really dampen our meeting."
"She's a SeaWing," I spat. "A tribe of useless, conniving, worthless maggots. Have you forgotten the teachings of our tribe? If you won't silence her, I will."
Bering sighed and came in between me and the wide eyed SeaWing, using his wings to part a physical separation. "I am fully aware of the tribal teachings, and how scrolls from before the war described SeaWings as a potential ally, and how the authors changed them to enemies. I assure you Manta is not working with her tribe. She lives in these mountains along with her mate."
The SeaWing grinned again. "It seems we got off to a bad start. Let's try this again. I'm Manta, a nobody who poses zero threat to you. Who are you?"
I looked down at the puny dragon in front of me and sneered. "What makes you think you have the right to speak to me, you lout? I ought to kill you then stuff you full of seal entrails."
"If you touch her, you will find that it is you who is stuffed full of seal entrails," a quiet, deadly voice sounded from beside me.
I whirled around to find another IceWing standing by the cave entrance, spikes bristling with anger. Though he stood a head taller than me, his eyes radiated an intense fury that made me flinch. He carried a large spear, which I recognized as the ones from the elite imperial armory at the palace.
"Apologize to my mate, and treat her with respect. Then perhaps I won't poke a dozen holes in you. It's been a year since I've used this spear, don't tempt me."
I sat back on my haunches, intrigued and awed by this IceWing. A real praetorian was talking to me, addressing me directly, and I found it hard not to show my enthusiasm, even if he was threatening me. Praetorian guards were the elite upper echelon of palace society, ranking high in the hierarchy. They were assigned to guard royals and often ranked higher than military commanders. "Who are you?" I asked.
"Caspian, I'm a former praetorian guard. Impressed?"
"Definitely, but what are you doing out here, especially with this … SeaWing?"
"I had a few disagreements with the tribe. And that's not just any SeaWing, that's the loveliest, kindest, most wonderful dragon in the world. You will address her as Lady Manta otherwise the only maggots around here will be the ones on your rotting corpse." The IceWing trotted over to his mate and spread his wing over her, the SeaWing leaning in to cuddle.
"Lady Manta eh? Seems a bit rich for me." The SeaWing shot me the same persuasive smile. "Why don't you introduce yourself properly?"
Every single fiber of my body told me not to give in to the traitor, to the enemy. But yet Bering, Caspian and Manta looked on expectantly, leaving me no choice. It couldn't hurt if a praetorian guard was encouraging me to do it right? "Fine. I'm Auster of the third circle. I am here on a mission as Bering's partner."
"Wow, that must be really cool. Bering is always doing the neatest projects. He's really smart and I bet you must be too," said Manta.
Caspian yawned and scratched the back of his neck idly. "Bering old fellow, you didn't tell me you found a lady friend. You know, if you tame her, she could be a keeper."
Bering blushed brightly upon hearing this statement. "Auster is my apprentice, and she is here because of her talents. Besides, I am not seeking to establish a romantic relationship at this current moment."
"Sure," replied Caspian, unconvinced. "You brought the goods?"
"Yes, in fact I brought extra this time," replied Bering, eagerly shifting the topic of conversation. He gestured for me to hand over the satchel to Caspian's waiting claws.
"So you did. I'll take these to Osprey immediately." The praetorian secured the satchel over his torso and turned to leave. "Manta, you coming?"
"Nah, I really want to know what Bering's up too this time. I'll get the payment." The SeaWing sat down and beamed brightly at my employer.
"As you wish dear," and Caspian cast me a puzzled expression before departing into the quiet evening.
"Now then," Manta said, "I've got the payment. Osprey tells me that there's been a pear blight this season, and thus the production is stunted. He's taken the liberty of replacing the pears with a variety of different fruits if you don't mind."
The SeaWing dragged a large pouch and unbuckled the flap. Inside were a jumble of moderately sized fruits of exotic colors and shapes. There were green and red round objects, and several long yellow fruits shaped like a crescent moon.
Bering browsed through the bag hungrily, eventually picking out one of the long yellow fruits and admiring it. "These will definitely do. I haven't seen one of these in a long time."
"What are those?" I asked, curious about these colorful and fascinating objects.
"This one is called a banana," Bering said, giving me the yellow oblong fruit to inspect. "They have a really sweet flavor without being tart. Try it, just peel off the skin."
"But where do I peel?" I was confused by the smooth rubbery surface of the fruit. There didn't appear to be a single place to peel from, and I handed it back to Bering.
"Up here, you see this black dot? Just scrape it off and there's a hole from which you can peel." He demonstrated for me and unfurled part of the yellow skin before giving it to me again.
I prodded at the soft whiteish flesh below, then continued peeling from the top as Bering had done, and when I had discarded the peel, I popped the whole fruit in my mouth. It did taste sweet, and required little chewing.
"Auster!" Bering exclaimed, to the amusement of Manta, "You ate the entire banana."
"So what?" I replied, using my tongue to round up the mushy remains of the fruit stuck in my mouth. It was definitely more work than meat, though not as finicky as fish.
"Agh whatever, I'll just eat some later. Anyways, the sun just set and we should go prepare." Bering took a small metal apparatus out of his personal pack and stomped outside.
I followed and Manta brought up the rear, and we ascended the slopes until we arrived at a small point between two of the peaks, sheltering just below the crest.
Bering held up his apparatus over the crest and watched it intently. "Any moment now," he muttered. A few moments later, the apparatus began to spin as a slight breeze ran through the area. The breeze picked up pace and soon, a strong steady wind blew down the slope, causing the apparatus to spin so fast it became a blur and made a horrid buzzing sound.
Apparently satisfied by the whirling gadget, Bering brought it over to show us the results. "The wind is blowing very strongly here. I measure maybe fifty spins a second on my measuring vane. That is easily as fast as a SkyWing and we're only at the head of the valley. As we descend through the valley, the wind should pick and blow even faster."
I looked at him, perplexed. "We're not climbing back out the valley, are we?"
"Of course not," he answered like I should've known the answer. "We're flying down there. The wind will carry us through the valley."
"Don't jest with me, there is no way we are going back out into that horrendous windy place until day time. We'll crash!" Flying into the valley had been hard enough, now he wanted to fly back out with poor visibility conditions.
"You wanted to know how it was possible to fly faster than a SkyWing? Well, this is how you do it," Bering pointed out. "And the winds blow down the slopes of the mountains, so it will keep you centered, don't flail around and you will be fine."
"That's not reassuring at all." The wind howled in agreement.
"It will be fun. I promise you wont crash if you follow my instructions." Bering rolled out a map of the terrain. "We are going to follow the stream through the valley and we should exit the mountain range into a large meadow. Don't go this way though," he pointed at a particular junction. "The valley gets really narrow over here."
"I'm not leaving until the sun comes up," I said firmly, planting my feet on the solid ground below.
"Suits you I guess. I need to make these measurements for the council so just fly down in the morning when you feel ready." Bering shrugged like it was no big deal.
"You're going to leave me in SkyWing territory by myself?"
"Remember the council meeting? If I don't do this, we both lose our jobs. That would be disastrous wouldn't it?"
He made a fair point. His job, and by extension, my position relied on this one flight. Why was I so scared of flying in the valley anyways? If the wimpy IceWing was willing to do it…
But still, something about flying in such an enclosed space, it was claustrophobic. I wanted to go above the valley, above the whole mountain range and soar in the wide open sky.
I groaned uneasily at my next decision. "Fine. If you promise that we will be safe, then I'll follow you."
Bering grinned. "Good! I guarantee this will be the best flying you will ever experience."
"I doubt that."
Oblivious to my snide comment, he continued. "When you jump off into the current, angle your winds downwards and try not to spread your wings too wide."
"How am I supposed to fly if I don't spread my wings wide?"
"The wind will carry you."
"This is ridiculous. Let's just get it over with." I shook out my doubts and worries with a wing stretch.
"Well then, I suppose it's time we get going before the wind really gets going. Manta, you coming?"
The small SeaWing nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah! Definitely. I've flown through some ocean currents and it's really fun. You will really like it, Auster. Trust me." She put on her best charming smile and it gave me a small boost in confidence.
"Alright then, on my count, we'll take off. I'll go first, then Auster, then Manta." Bering counted down and leaped into the shrieking wind. A moment after, I did the same, casting myself to the gale.
I felt delirious. The wind rushed around me, sucking me along with it, violently carrying me with its gusts. It pushed me, pulled me, slapped me, caressed me. The wind punched my wings, buffeted my tail, and felt unbearably cold and hostile, screaming at me as if my presence offended its chaotic nature.
Up ahead, I barely made out Bering's silhouette, darting about and gliding along with the wind. A sudden gust of wind knocked me particularly roughly, and I fanned my wings out to try to balance and adjust, momentarily forgetting Bering's advice.
The wind caught my wings and billowed them out, snapping my wings into their widest extent, and suddenly, I began to accelerate, being pushed along by the full force of the wind. Within about ten seconds, I shot past a surprised Bering, entirely out of control.
"AUSTER," he shouted as I whizzed by. He made another shout but it was incomprehensible to me over the scream of the wind.
The wind continued to push me faster and faster, and I could feel massive pressure building up behind my wing membranes. I couldn't hold much longer, my wings were already exhausted from facing the full brunt of the wind behind me.
A small form came up beside me, and it took me several blinks to realize that Bering had caught up. He had his wings flared like mine, and I could see the panic in his eyes, mirroring my alarm.
"FOLD YOUR WINGS," he yelled. "YOU'RE GOING TOO FAST, YOU WONT MAKE THE TURN IN TIME. FOLD YOUR WINGS NOW."
A sudden spark of realization hit me. Fold my wings, that's what he was telling me, what I needed to do. Swiftly, I summoned the strength to call on my wing muscles one more time, pulling them in towards my body, and immediately, the pent up air behind me rushed past.
Gradually, my speed decreased, and I fell in line behind Bering. The thrill and terror subsided as I cruised along with the wind. I hadn't even comprehended the situation completely before Bering signaled with his tail that the turn was coming up.
The first left turn was a bit wobbly, but I made it without a scrape, and on the second turn, I even managed to ride with the wind a little, following the natural current through the twisting passage. It was less scary than I though before, and absolutely preferable to the turbulence flying up the valley.
The big turn was coming up. I could see a small slot in the mountain ahead of me where the gorge continued. The wind picked up speed and thrust me closer to the narrow gap and flat stone face ahead. At the last second, Bering pulled away from the wall and flared his wings slightly, tilting to coast alongside the mountains.
I must've pulled away a tad late, because my left wing claw barely scraped the harsh stone beside me. I hissed in pain, but pushed onwards, encouraged by the small speck of a dragon in front.
By my memory, I recalled that this large turn meant the valley would widen up soon into a broad expanse as the river below fanned out into the plains. The only thing left was a straight course, a beeline down the valley into a vast meadow, full of open air and unrestricted space. The very thought of exiting this cramped valley seemed to make the wind blow faster.
Then I had a thought. If extending my wings caught more air and caused me to fly faster, then why not try it if the only path left was completely straight? Bering had warned me not to do it, and I didn't forget the near death experience I had earlier, but I wanted to try it. My wings wanted to do it, my talons itched to do it, I wanted to do it.
Inching my wings out slowly, I felt the familiar pressure building up behind me. The wind accelerated me, increasing my speed as before, but this time, I was in control. I was the master of the wind, not the other way around.
The ground began to hurtle by, the rocky landscape becoming a blur as my speed picked up steadily. I shot past Bering again, this time flashing him a smirk.
He grinned back, opening up his wings as well to catch up. He chased me through the rest of the valley, never quite catching up, though to be fair, he had much smaller wings than me and thus couldn't get the same push that I did. It was a glorious feeling, rushing through the valley at rapid speed, faster than any guard ever flown, and perhaps, faster than any SkyWing ever.
Ahead of me, I saw the valley opening. Our course was coming to an end, and I felt some grief that the fun adventure was ending, but also a relief because the end of the valley meant open space, away from the imposing and dangerous mountain faces.
Seeing that the wind was slowing down, I extended my wings completely to catch the trickles and continue my relentless momentum out into the valley. I came out of the valley at high speed, hurtling into the vast expanse of trees and grassland with a delighted glee.
I craned my neck around to see where he was. He was about ten dragon lengths behind me, and from this distance, I could see him waving vigorously about something. His shouting was lost to the breeze but if I squinted, I saw an alarmed expression, and his incessant pointing at something ahead of me.
I turned around too late. Bering had been pointing a large oak tree in my path that in my carelessness, I hadn't noticed, and now I was on direct collision course. I flapped furiously and flared upwards, trying to avoid it, but to no avail. I crashed through the branches before being deposited with a mighty thump on the soil below, and the world faded into oblivion.