If anyone has a deviantart account I have a contest going on for a redesign for Athena from my fanfic, The Secrets She Keeps! Please check it out if you're interested in possibly designing her new look for the next story arc! :D Anyways... the creep factor is shooting up in this chapter! That's all I'll say! I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS!
(Ierena's POV)
Neither Aurora, or Harp would explain what the heck a striker was. After it first being mentioned the topic had been tossed aside, and no matter how much I asked neither would explain. They'd just change the subject and keep me busy with something else, like practicing moving all my limbs in conjunction with one another, and with more fluidity. If I was going to fly I needed to be able to flap my wings, and shift them to be able to change direction, and my tails would apparently help with directional changes both in the air, and when I was running.
It took a while to get the hang of having ten limbs, and being able to move them independently, and in sync when needed, but a few days of practice was enough to at least get the basics down. It kept me sufficiently distracted from asking about what I was, that neither Harp or Aurora wanted to talk about.
Whatever a striker was, it must be bad, because in my experiences people didn't mind talking about anything positive. If a striker wasn't something that was considered negative, they wouldn't have a problem explaining it. So that led me to believe that whatever I was… was something that was held in either fear, or contempt.
Was… being a striker really that bad…? Did she not want to tell me because she was ashamed of me?
I felt my wings droop with sadness, which would've seemed strange a few days ago when I wasn't used to them. But now it was almost normal, like a part of my body that had always been there. It felt natural now… I still felt like an octopus though…
With a sigh, I turned to look at where Harp was perched on a branch, carefully preening her light blue, metallic feathers. It was just the two of us for now, since Aurora had gone off for a flight a while ago and she hadn't come back yet.
I was supposed to learn how to fly soon… but I was worried about falling. Huh… my acrophobia kind of made me the equivalent of a cripple didn't it? I was a Titan that was petrified of flying or being high up in the air…
But at the same time I wanted to fly. It felt like I was being beckoned towards the sky, like a deep, instinctive urge to spread my wings and soar through the clouds. It was equally as overwhelming as my fear of heights was.
I'd never get over my fear if I kept inhibiting myself with it! But how could I get over an irrational fear that I had for as long as I could remember? "Hey Harp?"
She looked up from her preening. "Yes?"
"How… have you ever been… afraid of falling when you're flying?"
"Everyone is afraid of flying at first Ierena, but once you get used to it flying is the most liberating thing in the world. When you're soaring through the sky nothing can touch you, it's exhilarating."
I looked down at my paws with an aggravated huff. "I'm afraid of heights… and falling off of things. I have been for as long as I can remember, and I don't know why… But something inside me… wants to fly, and I want to know what it feels like… but this fear keeps making me terrified at the same time. I don't know what to do…"
"Well… when Ro was learning I just pushed her off a cliff, and that got her flight instincts going. That's normally the best way to learn, and it worked for her."
My wings shot up in alarm, as did I. "You want to push me off a cliff?!"
She cocked her head curiously. "Yes I did say that. That's the best way to teach you."
She wanted to push me off a fucking cliff! How the hell was that going to help anything? "You want to push me off a cliff? How the hell is that going to teach me how to do anything other than fall? Which I already know how to do!"
"Trust me, once you're falling all you have to do is spread your wings and gliding is simple. That's the first step that you'll learn, then after you've gotten the hang of that we can move onto actually trying to go up! But if you need to have some extra motivation, you should know that we have to fly back to Earth from here… so until you can fly we're stuck here. It's also quite a long flight as well, so you need to build up some stamina for the trip home."
My jaw dropped. "WHAT?! WE'RE STUCK HERE UNTIL I LEARN TO FLY?!"
"Yes."
Oh fuck… I… oh shit, we're screwed… They expected me, the most inept Titan in existence, to be able to fly all the way to Earth? How the fuck was I supposed to do that?
"You're doubting yourself again." Harp pointed out sternly. "You seem to do that a lot. Do you have any self-confidence to speak of?"
I flinched back and dropped my head shamefully. Normally I had some confidence to speak of, but I doubted myself a lot when it came to most of the things I did. I was always comparing myself to other people, demeaning myself because of my fighting skills or lack thereof, but most of all… I couldn't help comparing myself negatively to Aurora.
It wasn't like she demeaned me, or even put me down when she was trying to teach me anything. She was patient, and she took her time explaining things and correcting me if I did something wrong, or praised me if I did something right. But… it felt like I didn't know how to do anything in comparison… I was new to this, and I felt out of place sometimes, confused, and she was confident and poised all the time… like she had no doubts or fears.
Despite how people I knew perceived my actions, I was always doubting whether they were good enough. As I grew older it wasn't as bad, but from time to time I would find myself comparing myself negatively to one of the bots, or berating myself for not doing as well as I felt that I should've. I kept it to myself and acted like nothing was wrong for the most part, or when someone mentioned my sullen mood I'd make it out like it wasn't bothering me as much as it really was.
Nobot noticed.
But now it was worse than it had been in a long time… I mean… it took me three days just to learn how to move my limbs in sync, or independently, or even in conjunction with each other. I was more used to the weight and the feel of them, but sometimes I was still surprised when I felt one of them move without me consciously wanting to do it.
And once again I was talking to myself, and comparing myself to Aurora. What did she even really think of me? Did she see me as someone who was as inept as I felt?
I sighed. "Sometimes…"
She hummed and leapt off her perch to fly up and land on one of my horns. "Facing your fears is a great way to build up confidence. Even Ro was afraid to fly her first time you know?"
"Really?"
"Yes she was, so in the end she asked me to push her off the cliff because she was too afraid to jump on her own. But you know what? Her instincts took over and she spread her wings and glided… well she ended up crashing into a lake, but that was only because she got startled by something… Despite that, I was very proud of her that day."
"She crashed?"
"Yes but there's no need to be worried about that! The likelihood of you being seriously injured just from a fall is almost nonexistent."
I blinked as my previous fears came back and threatened to overwhelm me again. My chest felt tight, and I swallowed heavily to dispel the lump in my throat. "Umm… that's not really reassuring."
She sighed and swatted me in the head with her wing, surprisingly hard, and I yelped at the sharp stinging sensation. "Oh stop psyching yourself out Ierena! You can do this! Now let's go find a cliff to have you throw yourself off of!"
"NO!"
All of a sudden she shot down into my face, but this time she was in her bipedal form, wings beating furiously on her shoulders, and her servos were on her hips. She gave me a stern look and pointed at a cliff that was visible in the distance. "Yes! March missy!"
I yelped when she grabbed onto one of my feathers and tugged on it to get me to move forward, as she kept hold of it and moved forward, forcing me to keep in step with her otherwise she'd end up tugging on it. And they were super sensitive because they were directly linked to the brain, so tugging it felt like someone was trying to scalp you, or yank it right out of your head.
Which meant that I was helpless to pull away as she led me up the steep incline at the base of the cliff. "You know I'm going to die somehow right?" I whimpered as we ascended up it.
"I'll help you, so don't worry! You're not going to die!"
Oh shit! Oh shit! I was so dead! I didn't know the first thing about flying… gliding…! Fuck! Ok just be rational Clare… Ierena… Ascella… whoever the fuck I was! JUST BE RATIONAL ME! DON'T BE CRAZY RIGHT NOW! OH SHIT I WAS SO DEAD! SO VERY DEAD!
My internal panic only escalated when we reached the top of the plateau, where I was led to the edge directly overlooking a steep drop into a thicket of trees below. There was a clearing a ways off in the distance, and I might be able to glide to it and land if I was careful… BUT I WAS FREAKING PANICKING, AND I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO GLIDE AND NOW SHE WANTED ME TO JUMP OFF THIS CLIFF AND FUCKING GLIDE!
"Stop panicking!"
"NO! I'M NOT JUMPING OFF A CLIFF! ARE YOU INSANE?! I'LL FUCKING DIE!"
She slapped me in the eyelid, ripping another startled yelp from me at the slight sting. "You're not going to die! Just run, jump, and as you fall spread your wings and glide. It's simple Ierena! Just remember that you entered this world by gliding off your Sire's back, with only your legs and wings free from your egg! You had the makings of an excellent flier from the start!"
"I don't even remember that!"
"You don't have to! Flight is an instinctive part of who you are as a Titan! You were born to dominate the skies and the land! Now jump off this cliff!" She gave me a nice push, though it didn't get me to move an inch.
Instead I dug my claws into the ground and peered over the side at the steep drop below. One that seemed to be stretching farther, and farther down with each second I looked at it… I felt queasy… in my chest… like I was going to upchuck! I didn't even know if I could puke!
No! No way! I wasn't jumping!
At least that was my plan, but a sudden, decibel piercing screech rang out far too close to me, the sound startling me so much that I screeched and lunged forward without thinking better of it. I effectively threw myself off the cliff, screaming as I ended up in a freefall plummeting spiral towards the ground.
Wind rushed past me, breaking apart at my pointed maw and creating a slipstream around my body. The force whipping up to meet me resonated in my horns, creating a roaring sound as they processed it, nearly shattering my mind from the sheer volume. I wanted to slam my eyes shut, but a sudden flash of light blue beside me had me focusing in on Harp as she dove down and kept pace with me as I fell.
"Spread your wings and glide down on the updraft!" She yelled at me.
I fumbled, anxiety pulsating in my chest as I scrambled to spread my wings and catch the updraft of air that was rushing up to meet us. It was like a parachute effect! As soon as I spread them, the membranes expanded as air pooled against them, immediately slowing my descent and allowing me to slowly ride the current downwards.
My chest was still heaving with panic, but when I realized that this was in fact working and that I wasn't on a free fall of death anymore, it soothed me a bit. I could feel the wind gently caressing my body, enveloping me as I glided over the trees below, with Harp keeping pace with me the whole time.
It was actually… not as terrifying as I expected it to be. My wings were strong, easily able to support the strain of being in the air, much to my surprise. I was able to glide through the air with no resistance, easily surveying the forest below in awe. I'd never been so high up before, besides being in a plane, but that terrified me horribly, even up until the day my hybrid body… died…
But this was… kind of exhilarating, still kind of scary because I was petrified of falling, but I wasn't feeling in danger of my wings giving out. I looked around at the dark sky, illuminated by the soft glow of the artificial moons above, and for once I didn't feel so small and insignificant. Because one day, if I was able to completely get over my fears, I could fly higher than the moons and even the stars.
Maybe… it wasn't so scary…
"See? It's easy!" Harp praised me as we glided past the line of trees that surrounded the clearing we closed in on and landed in.
I instinctively moved my legs forward and grasped the ground with my claws to bring myself to a complete stop, my bones and muscles absorbing the slight impact made when I landed. Once I was back on solid ground I stood there for a moment contemplating the fact that I'd thrown myself off a cliff… and I wasn't currently a pancake waiting to be scraped off the forest floor…
It clicked into place: I just threw myself off a cliff and glided across a large section of forest, without fucking up or injuring myself…
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS! FOR ONCE I DIDN'T FUCK SOMETHING UP!" I yelled joyously, then I spun and started doing a happy jig, that was really only me shaking my butt and hopping around like an idiot! I couldn't help the elated whoops of joy that kept escaping me as I continued spinning, shaking from my head to my paws, and jumping up and down like a deranged Duracell bunny!
I was so into what I was doing, so overjoyed with my success, even if it was just a small one, that I wasn't paying attention to anything or anyone around me. That was why I was startled when I heard someone, who had a voice that was deeper than Harp or Aurora, laughing at me.
It was so sudden that I tripped and fell flat on my face. "Half pancake…" I muttered into the dirt sourly.
A deep, yet strangely soft, and lulling voice spoke up a moment later. "Young one, the dirt is hardly a place for your face at the moment, that is more a place that you would find yourself when pitted against an Earth element. Now stand up, we have much to discuss and very little time to do so."
When I shoved myself up and turned around I didn't know what I expected to see, but it was most definitely not a billowing cloud of black smoke. The only thing I could make out were two glowing white orbs higher up near the top of the smoke cloud, besides a few flashes of blue that lit off every few seconds. Other than that there no features that I could see.
I blinked, unsure of who that was, or what it was, then I turned to Harp who was perched up on a low hanging branch. "Harp… what is that?"
"What is what?"
I pointed at the cloud. "That…"
"That's your grandmother Ierena, not an it." She explained in amusement, before she turned to the cloud that was apparently my grandma. "Apologies Liara, she's a little out of touch with everything that's going on."
"I'm aware. Where's Sion?"
"She's off for a flight right now."
"A flight? But she's been grounded for six hundred years! She's not supposed to be in the air for another few months! That's why I had to bring her here myself!" My… grandma pointed out, her voice calm yet surprised at the same time. "How did that happen?"
"You can thank your granddaughter for that, she healed Aurora's wings."
I couldn't really gauge what was going on, since I couldn't see any discernible expressions on my grandma's face… since there wasn't anything to look at. I also found myself feeling self-conscious about looking at her, since I knew I probably wasn't the ideal granddaughter. Look at me; I didn't even know how to fly, or breathe fire, or even hunt yet… Those were all things that even baby Titans probably knew how to do!
"I see… it seems that she's taken after Hariun and our son… I wouldn't have it any other way…"
Those bright, glowing orbs drifted in my direction, and I instinctively ducked my head down into the grass because I was too afraid to actually look at her! I'd always wondered what it was like to have a grandparent, but now that my grandma was in front of me… I didn't feel worthy enough to look at her.
I'd never felt so… meek, or unworthy of doing something before… My grandma was the Queen of Shadows and Death for fuck's sake! How could anyone live up to what would be expected of them when they were related to someone like that?!
I wanted to bang my head into the ground… but then a sudden gust of wind whipped up the grass and allowed me to briefly catch a flash of familiar, dark blue paws.
"Auntie? What are you doing here? And… Ierena are you imitating an ostrich?"
"Because…" I stammered nervously.
She lightly poked me in the head. "Because of what? It's not like she's naked… wait… we kinda are all naked… we aren't exactly wearing coverings or armor…" I tried to ignore the sudden heat in my cheeks, thank… oh who knows who… for the fact there weren't any male Titans or males in general, this would be really awkward then…
"I don't care! I'm keeping my head down here!" I finally got out after banishing the thoughts Aurora's rambling had caused.
"You're being ridiculous."
"No I'm not!"
The grass parted in front of me, and a familiar light blue face slid between the strands, until we were less than a few inches apart. "Auntie can only be here for a few minutes you know. So get your head out of the grass and talk to her, she came all this way to meet you."
I did an awkward, backwards army crawl. "She's gonna be disappointed in me!" I whispered.
She gave me a confused look and crawled after me. "She's not going to be disappointed in you! I've known her my whole life, and there's no way she'd be disappointed in you. Your circumstances weren't the best and now you have to make up for lost time, but that's not your fault! We're all here to help you through this transition, but in order to do that you need to get your head out of the grass and say hello to your grandmother! Trust me, you need to be able to speak and interact with her, because she'll be one of the people that will help you most." She tried to reassure, her voice soft and soothing, dammit… she made me want to just curl up against her and stay like that… I couldn't place it, but there was just something about her that tried to put me at ease, like… an older sister offering reassurance or something…
"But I… I'm not…" I trailed off without finishing my sentence.
"Don't worry about what you aren't, and start focusing on what you can be. Now come on, we're running out of time for introductions." With that she slid forward and nuzzled me under the chin, pushing my head up in the process, much to my surprise.
I wasn't sure about this…
I was afraid of not measuring up to what I should be…
But I still reluctantly raised my head out of the grass and stood back up so that I wasn't hunched over anymore. The first thing I saw was Aurora's encouraging expression, then I slowly looked up at the black cloud directly in front of me.
Her glowing orbs slid shut slightly as they bobbed up and down once within the smog, before drawing closer, tilting left and right before resting just to my right, before I felt the smog envelope my head and upper neck. I didn't choke, but I did tense, as the eye I could see stared directly at me from beyond the thin wall of dense smog between us. "Do not worry yourself Ierena, I am as proud of you as I am of my own Son, and Ro along with her bunch of odd balls..." I heard Ro exclaim something, but the words were lost to me. "Have confidence, for you have the confidence of those around you, along with their support to help you. So long as the winds show their loyalty to you, and you respect its' power, your flights, no matter the length, shall always be a highlight to remember." She pulled back after she nuzzled the side of my face, but it felt like she passed through me slightly, a cold chill running through that side of my face and leaving me feeling a bit numb, before turning then to Aurora.
"You'll be glad to hear, that no one has been seriously injured or killed back at the Caverns. Razor is doing quite well with the help of some of your newer arrivals." She declared, leaving me both stumped and concerned.
Aurora however, sagged with relief. "Thank the ancients... wait... don't tell me he's...!"
"Pulling his weight? Yes, he is, and I think doing just part of your job is giving him reason to garner some respect for what you do to keep the peace... and now... my time is up. Good luck Ierena, I have faith that you will make me prouder yet, Ro, keep her safe, and Harp? Keep Ro sane if you would? You know how she gets." That garnered a grumble and a kick of the front leg from Ro along with a huff of blue tinted smoke. Wonder what grandma had meant by that?
Before I could ask she was gone, the smoke cloud dissipating within the blink of an eye. I was left standing there, feeling weak in the knees from such a nerve-racking encounter. But she… accepted me, and that made me feel a bit better about everything.
"You know… that introduction was a lot like my first run in with Auntie." Aurora's musing had me snapping to attention as she stepped back to my side, parallel with me. She was staring up at the sky as if reminiscing over something, which she probably was.
"Really?"
"Yes. I first met Auntie after my first gliding lesson, just like you. She scared me out of the sky and I ended up crashing into a lake!" She exclaimed, it was funny how her facial expressions worked, her horns and feathers acting like magnifiers of her emotions, the greater potency of her emotion, positive or negative, affected to what extent they would flare, it was taking a while, but I was finding reading her expressions easier and easier as the days rolled by.
"Bad timing?" I guessed, my anxiety giving way to amusement.
She huffed out a laugh, shaking her head from side to side as her feathers shook with mirth. "Yes! She's always had a habit of having really bad timing! I can't tell you how many times she's popped up in my room in the middle of the night and scared me witless!"
"Sounds like it can be… annoying…"
"Very." She shook her head and turned to face me. "Well let's work more on flying practice shall we? You really need to get up in the air fully!"
…That meant throwing myself off a cliff again….
Shit!
A few more days, and about half a dozen crash landings later, Aurora and I stood at the top of the same cliff I'd been throwing myself off of daily in order to learn how to fly. It was harder than I thought, but I was starting to get the basics of how to propel myself upwards with my wings. Now I just needed to be able to get myself stable so as not to crash into the ground again!
Apparently having four wings made it harder to learn how to fly, what with having to control all of them independently, but also having to use them in sync with each other. It was actually a lot harder than it looked, and in the two times that I'd actually gotten some lift, I hadn't adjusted them according to the wind currents, and the force of the wind buffeting me, and my lack of adjustment to it, had thrown me off balance and knocked me out of the sky.
Aurora seemed to be at a loss as to how to help me, since she only had two wings so she didn't have to do as many adjustments as I did. She was trying her best to help me, but her advice was kind of limited, so I was fumbling through this whole learning process clumsily.
Now I was standing on the cliff again, staring down over the steep drop that I'd ended up laying crumpled at the bottom of more times than I would've liked, and I had to throw myself over it and hope that I didn't end up as a lizard pancake… again…
Aurora nudged me when I just stood there, glaring at the ground below. "Come on... you've been practicing for days! This might be the time that you get it right!"
I huffed moodily. "I've been ending up as a pancake every time…"
"Everyone does when they're first learning Ierena! I crashed so many times that the landscape of New Zealand was permanently changed from all the times I slammed into the ground!"
"That's not very reassuring."
"I'm not the best at that." She admitted sheepishly.
I sighed, "Clearly…" then I stepped back and vaulted over the edge without a second thought. The familiar feeling of the wind rushing passed me assaulted my senses, and I spread my upper set of wings to allow it to pool under the membranes and slow my descent.
Step one: Complete.
Now that I was gliding, I pulled my front legs up against my underbelly and folded my hind legs against my tail. Then I flapped my wings in a downward motion, further slowing my descent as I hovered there in the air.
Aurora hovered down, effortlessly flying around me. "Now you need to maneuver your body vertically, then give a few powerful beats of your wings to get yourself moving. Come on! You've gotten this far without crashing, you can do this!"
I hesitated as the fear of weighing myself down if I dropped my lower half flashed through my mind, I'd fallen a few times because it'd happened. But I knew it was possible from watching how Aurora and Harp took off, though that didn't make me any less hesitant to do it. If I wanted to get passed this stage I'd have to face my fears, and if I fell again I'd just have to keep trying until I got it right!
With that thought in mind, I allowed my hind end to drop so that I was hovering vertically, the strain immediately making my shoulders ache as I beat my wings harder to keep myself from falling. The weight of gravity was pulling me down and I struggled against it, only to have my wings lock up from the strain, and just like that I plummeted down to the ground… again…
I slammed belly first into the bottom of the cliff wall with enough force to shatter the rocky ground. And it hurt… a lot…
"God… fucking… dammit…! Sonuva fucking bitch! I hate gravity! I fucking hate you! You mocking bastard! One of these fucking days I will put an end to your damn miserable existence! Then no one will ever have to worry about falling or goddamn tripping!"
I lay there cursing and growling up a storm as Aurora floated down like a graceful feather, and landed right in front of me. "That's some nasty language you're using. Oh and I'll let one of my friends know that they can shut off gravity around you if you still hold that opinion if you ever meet the rest of my family." She stated offhandedly.
"Shut… up…"
"Ok. Well there's still plenty of time for more practice today! Get up and let's get back at it!"
I death glared at her. "You're enjoying watching this aren't you?"
"Normally I would get enjoyment out of watching this but… wait… oh! I forgot to give you a useful bit of advice!" She suddenly exclaimed.
I pushed myself off the ground and stared at her as she lowered her neck down and smacked herself on the side of the head. "What?"
A silver blush was starting to become prominent on her features, feathers tucked back and horns stilled in embarrassment. "Well… you're supposed to run, build up momentum, then leap into the air… You've just been throwing yourself headfirst at the ground… I forgot to correct that…"
"Are you serious?" My head snapped up off the ground and I very nearly gave myself whiplash from the sudden movement.
"Unfortunately yes… Sorry! I've been distracted…"
"So distracted that you forgot to give me that helpful bit of advice, that would've prevented me from crashing face first into the ground a half dozen times at least?! What the hell could be that distracting?!" I snapped at her, the sound of my knife like fangs snapping together accenting my currently peeved off state.
She flinched back and ducked her head down, almost as far as mine had gone when granny was here. "I'm worried about my siblings… I know aunty said they were all alive and all that… but they tend to… maim each other when I'm not around to supervise them… and I can't stop fretting that I'll return home to find at least one of them in in a worse condition than I'm already thinking of…"
Huh… sounded like Sides and Sunny… Thinking about them made me sad, but it wasn't as bad as it was when I first became aware again after dying. I was going to be able to go back and see them, but I was worried that maybe they wouldn't accept me the same way… I was scared of that…
I shook the thoughts off and focused on Aurora again. She was obviously worrying… again… now that I thought about it, she'd been a bit more stressed with each passing day, she must really care for her family if she was getting this freaked out internally. "I'm sure they can behave themselves until you get back."
She cringed. "You wouldn't be saying that if you met them."
Shrugging, I turned and started back around the cliff so that I could climb to the top and probably crash again. "They don't sound that bad honestly. Mutilation happens on a daily basis on the Autobot base, because of our medic… I can't tell you how many times he's tried to murder somebot, or threatened to reformat them into a toilet… As if he wasn't bad enough Ironhide is constantly trying to shoot somebot with his leviathan cannons, and the twins are constantly trying to maim each other, or somebot else. I always have to act as a peace keeper… when I'm not raising hell myself." I could say that it was at least a good thing that the twins didn't go berserk on a daily basis… If that happened everything was doomed…
"Sounds like my family, only Emily harvested nuclear radiation from the local plant life surrounding Chernobyl, compressed it, and turned it into a concentrated organic, nuclear device that threatened to destroy an entire country. And not just the logging plant she was targeting…"
I almost tripped, just barely catching myself so that I could turn to look at her with wide eyes. "Seriously?"
"Yes." She simply stated no hint of joking anywhere.
For a second I couldn't think of anything to say to that, but for some reason the way she described Emily made me think of Aunt Judy. Only Aunt Judy couldn't make weapons of mass destruction out of harvested radiation. "How did she transport that nuclear stuff?"
"She stored it in a daffodil, and that's what she used as the husk for the bomb."
"You're fucking with me right now aren't you?"
She shook her head as we finally made it back to the top of the plateau. "I wish I was joking with you, sadly I'm not… I had to eat that damn thing."
I wisely chose not to ask, which was easy enough to do when I was being faced with the daunting prospect of more flight practice. At least this time I knew that I had to run, jump, and use my momentum to get aid in my ascent.
My wings were still aching a bit from my previous attempt, but it wasn't too bad. I spread them and beat them a few times just to limber them up in preparation for my next attempt, and they were still feeling pretty strong. This time, I gave myself a good run up, pushing off with all four and letting my momentum send me much further up. A whistle from Ro was her signal and my front two wings snapped out, pushing down with enough force for me to raise a good bit higher into the air, I just needed to avoid looking down... I hope…
The momentum with which I jumped made it easier to finally propel myself upwards and get myself fully airborne, not just hovering or gliding. I beat my wings and shot further upwards, soaring high above the ground without looking down, the wind gently ghosting over my body as I really flew for the first time. I expected to be afraid, but for some reason the exact opposite was true; I was exhilarated and elated at having finally succeeded after failing more than I wanted to admit.
I felt light, like nothing was weighing me down.
A feeling of giddiness settled in my chest, almost like when your heart was racing, only I felt pulsating waves of warmth emanating from my essence.
I felt happy, not scared for once.
My wings beat strongly, easily keeping me from falling, and filling me with a sense of reassurance and calm. I grew tired of the slow pace, and with a few strong beats of my wings I sped up and shot forward with speed that surprised me.
I shot up through the pale purple clouds decorating the night sky, feeling the cool moisture coat me as I flew above the canopy and soared above them. From here, I couldn't see the ground below, but I could watch the clouds drift by below me, or stare at the twinkling stars shining brightly up above. There were no words to describe the pure, unadulterated, elation I felt right now!
Aurora caught up with me quickly enough, letting off a happy trill as she dipped underneath my own flight path so that she could soar on my right, her own wings flapping every so often but she was mainly just gliding alongside me at present. "You did it! Yahoo!" She barrel rolled away from me, diving down a little ways before rocketing upwards with a single heavy and driven beat of her wings, becoming nothing more than a blue blur before passing into a mass of cloud which rose above the others, well, she was certainly in better spirits now.
She was through the clouds a moment later, looping backwards in a flip before vaulting into a corkscrew dive, the vapors which fell from her wings creating a sharp double helix, her tail scythe singing as she shot through the air, my own twin tail blades were doing something similar, but it was a more resonating sound than her own.
The thought that someday soon, I'd be able to do some of those tricks my cousin was able to do spurred me on, and throwing caution to the wind, I dived after her, four wings beating to keep moderate pace with my elated cousin. I could feel our emotions bleeding into one another, my elation at my successful flight spurring her on, and in turn doing the same to myself.
Once I broke the lower cloud cover, I spotted her shooting over the tops of trees, the force ripping the large organic structures from the ground. She seemed to spot me, as she banked right back towards me, reaching me a moment later with another powerful beat.
We both stopped, just beating our wings to stay in the air, facing one another scrap eating grins plastered on our faces. "I did it Aurora! I'm flying!" I exclaimed in elation. Finally, all those crashes were so worth it! It felt so right to be up here, with the only thing holding me being gravity, that was the only limit, and even then, I didn't give a damn about it. I knew I was hooked, the air was my new home, Ancients, the mere idea of being separated from this feeling as long as Ro had... yeah, I was never letting myself get crippled!
She chuckled. "I can see that!" I saw something shine in her optics then, and an even bigger, potentially devious smirk took hold of her.
"Err Aurora?"
She practically started vibrating, her feathers and crown of horns flared wide as the slits of her eyes grew wide, reminding me of an excited kitten.
Before I could react, she'd tackled me, letting off a string of happy chirps, whistles and trills as we plummeted to the ground.
I let off a startled cry when she did this, only to have it cut off as we crashed into the side of a large hill, crushing something in the process before tumbling down the hill in a tangled mess, before finally coming to a stop at the bottom, I let off a groan, Aurora, she was just doing this weird laugh like chortle.
Prying myself loose I shot her a look. "What was that all about?!"
She paused to stare up at me, before her face shifted to a paler blue in color. "Oh... oops, sorry about that Ier, got ahead of myself there... Oh well, first flight complete, we can work on your stamina whenever you want to."
Oh right… I needed to build up stamina and endurance so we could fly across who knows how many galaxies, to get back to Earth… My wings were already aching a bit from the strain of practicing all day, I could only imagine how bad it would be after the flight back home… "It's gonna take a while to build up the stamina needed for that flight isn't it?"
"Weeks, or maybe even months of almost constant practice. But we still have to fit other things in, so the time needed might be extended even further."
I sighed and flexed my aching wings to limber them up some. "Am I ever going to be able to get back home?"
"Hopefully, given time and practice, yes." She responded, rising back up and stretching in a way eerily familiar to a cat, I half wanted to give her a scratching post… she'd probably just rip it to shreds.
My chest suddenly rumbled loudly, and I grimaced when I realized that I hadn't eaten all day long. "Well I'll get back to work on that… after I find something to eat… and this time none of that weird fish!"
She rolled her eyes. "Ok fine. We'll see what else we can find."
Thank Pr… the Ancients…? Er… yeah… Oh screw it! I just wanted food!
(One week later)
I beat my wings and soared just below the cloud cover, feeling the wind gently washing over my body as I flew over the world below. Flying grew easier and less strenuous with each day that went by, most of my time being spent practicing. I wasn't able to maneuver as well as Aurora and Harp were yet, but I was getting better at being able to make changes in direction and descend and of gaining altitude when I was already airborne.
I was also getting better at not freaking out whenever I was able to see the ground when I looked down. After the elation of my first successful flight, the inherent fear had made itself known on my next attempt. It wasn't as bad, but I still felt queasy when I could see the earth below me while I was flying.
I did still love flying though, more than I imagined! Every second I wasn't doing something else, I was up in the air flying so that I could gain more stamina and endurance. It also helped me clear my mind when things were nagging at me, Harp spoke the truth in that regard, the air was a blissful escape from reality… one I embraced with open wings and a bellow to the shining stars above.
Speaking of, Harp and Aurora were asleep at the moment. I'd left them behind when I got bored with sitting and watching them snore like crazy, backfiring chainsaws for Aurora, never ending chirps and warbles from her mom, so I decided to go out for a bit. The winds were calm, and I was currently soaring high over a lake that was thankfully not dotted with the glowing white flowers that signaled that the waters were home to those Lake Guardians, I was really sick of those ugly fraggers, seriously, mother nature went too far with those bastards.
The air was warm, and the dull glow from the artificial moons high above cast an eerie glow on the world around me. The vibrantly colored flowers glowed in the night, a myriad of illuminations being cast across the surface of the lake. The strangely colored flesh trees with their blue leaves swayed in the gentle breeze, a sweet smell being beckoned into my nostrils as I passed by them, though whether it was from the flowers or them I wasn't sure. I still had trouble discerning different scents, and where they came from.
Humming quietly to myself, I sped up with a powerful beat of both sets of my wings, easily shooting forward with enough speed to cause a sonic boom to go off behind me. I smirked, though days ago when Aurora first explained that I was fast enough to easily break the sound barrier, it had shocked me beyond all belief. Now I easily created sonic booms whenever I flew or ran, and the shock was gradually wearing off as I learned more about the limits of what my body could do.
I angled my wings and quickly changed direction, shooting up towards the cloud cover and reveling in the sensation of flying, ignoring the fear trying to rise to the forefront of my mind. It was hard to shake, but I managed to enjoy flying most of the time. Maybe it was because it was apparently a very big thing to Titans, something that was very central to… our beings themselves… Whatever the case, despite how I was still scared sometimes, I couldn't resist the beckoning of the skies.
When I was up here though, my mind sometimes wandered to things I kept trying not to think about. Like my adoptive creators and the twins… and what they were going through right now. They were probably mourning my 'death'right now, and knowing them they were all taking it in very different ways.
Dad probably just threw himself into work to distract himself from it, but he would lack the drive that he once had for it. He'd just be doing it to get it done, and the normal satisfaction that he used to feel when he accomplished something would be gone. At least he still had Opi…
Opi was probably lacking the normal enthusiasm he had for everything. When he was upset, he used to hole himself up in his room and listen to music to try calming down… Was he doing that now? Was it even helping him? Hopefully Dad was comforting him…
The twins faces flashed through my mind, causing an intense burst of longing and sorrow to build up in my chest and tighten uncomfortably. What were they doing right now? I knew that I would meet them again… but they didn't know that I was going to come back… Were they wallowing in misery right now? Did they blame themselves for how I died? Had they given up? Or were they trying to push on and live regardless of the pain?
I sighed guiltily. If only there was some way to at least let them know that I was ok… If there was one, I sadly had no idea of what it was… And now I was depressed… great...
"There goes my plan of trying some maneuvering…" I mumbled as I sped up and turned my body so I could circle back around and head back to the cave we were living in at the moment. However, as I was doing that some kind of structure in the distance caught my attention.
There were what appeared to be mounds of rock in the distance, along with what looked to be stone structures resembling a town or something. I wasn't supposed to be running off on my own but… my curiosity got the better of me and I circled back around and headed straight for it.
It wasn't far off, tucked between two massive mountains that created a valley near the shores of the lake. As I descended and slowly glided over the relatively intact, yet still overrun with vegetation structures, I surveyed the ground below for anything that might be dangerous but there didn't appear to be anything that was going to try maiming me.
There was a strange type of plant, reminiscent of ivory, but just a more vibrant yellow instead of a deep forest green. It was growing all over the buildings, that were surprisingly still in decent shape, if not a little dirty. Rubble decorated the streets below, mounds of rock that were myriads of different colors clustered together in such a way that it would be impossible to walk through the streets without stomping on some of them.
I circled around until I found a nice, clear patch to land on, beating my wings to slow my descent as I gently dug my claws into the ground and sat down next to a mound of red and black rubble. My wings instinctively folded in and tucked up against my back as I looked around the eerily quiet, abandoned town.
Rubble crunched under my paws as I slowly plodded forward, through the empty streets… the only sound I could hear so far was the gentle howling of the winds brushing against the structures. Shadows pervaded all around me, dancing between buildings, and blanketing the world around in a deathly embrace. Strangely enough, the heavy darkness didn't really bother me, though I was still a little unsettled for some reason.
I couldn't quite place what it was, but I slowly ambled forward, under the eerie veil the shadows cast over this place. There was just this feeling that… something I couldn't see… watching me from the shadows… It kind of creeped me out, but I chalked it up to the fact that this was a ghost town for all intents and purposes.
Shaking it off, I looked around the remains of what I now realized was a market town. There were storage crates, and the remains of market stalls littering the streets, some smashed beyond recognition, but others were moderately intact.
It'd been so long since whatever happened went down, that there weren't any rotten remains of produce left, or any other goods… In fact, there weren't even any bodies left over either, not even skeletons which was strange…
"Where did all the bodies go…?"
All of a sudden, a soft, lilting giggle started up right behind me…
I whipped around, nearly tripping and in doing so stomping on several clusters of rock in my haste to see what it was. All I saw was the flash of a stubby tail racing around the corner of a building, something in me seizing up when a sinking feeling started up in my chest…
Then… I felt something rubbing against my front left paw…
"What the… fuck…?"
I snapped my head down, half expecting one of those creepy bugs I'd sworn to stay forever away from… only there wasn't anything there…
My horns and feathers twitched, my growing anxiety leading to their sensitivity spiking… something on the breeze… shooting past me in a single moment, from my left, my body twisted to it… eyes scanning the ghost town, the mounds, the empty crates… for the love of the Ancients if this place is haunted…
Another sound, my head snapped round, a slightly darker silhouette vanishing around the corner, I went to follow, when I caught something to my right, another shadow, bolting across the main square.
Then another, through the empty window on that buildings second floor, half of it having been torn away along with most of the building.
Another sound.
Another shadow.
Around. Around. Around.
Another mound crushed in my haste… a dark blue and royal purple… oddly shaped one… or had been.
Jolting at every sound, my breathing became more labored, furnace burning hotter and hotter within me.
My eyes snapped to every movement, even those which I realized where just the moons casting their ever creeping shadows.
Then… before I could turn towards another shadow… a feeling…
Pressing against my leg, up… down… something cold…. Deathly cold…. Smearing my leg… Seeping into it…
A purr… A chirp… A warble…
A voice… Broken… High pitched… Rasped…. Distorted…. Unnatural… Male… A child…
"Momma?"
Slowly I turned my head down, eyes growing wide in terror… furnace seeming to suddenly turn to ice, freezing me in place…
All except my voice… Which let off a ground shaking… Horrified…
Scream…
R&R! Cliffhanger! There are gonna be creepy moments from here on out sometimes! Some you might not expect even!