Jake slowly walked behind Fu while keeping both his hands over his nose in an effort to ward off the offending smell. Fu chuckled and picked up the pace a little bit. "Don't worry kid, you get used to it."
"It reeks," Jake told Fu pointedly.
"Not as bad as your Grandpa's attempts at scrambled eggs this morning," Fu said with his odd laugh.
Jake blankly started at Fu who frowned and sighed. "Sheesh, it was a joke kid. Lighten up."
"It was a bad joke," Jake replied.
Fu rolled his eyes and shook his head. "That's because you're a kid, kids don't appreciate real humor."
Jake grinned from behind his hands and said "Nah, Fu. I think anyone'd say that was bad."
Fu snorted and then stopped abruptly. "Okay, here we are."
Jake glanced upward and saw a blank wall. He glanced at Fu questioningly who simply grinned and stood up on his hind paws. He leaned into the wall and started to paw at it. Jake leaned in for a closer look and saw that the wall was covered in very fine cracks that spread all over the wall. Fu pushed on a few, almost as if they were buttons. Finally he dropped back down to all fours and grabbed part of Jake's sleeve between his teeth and pulled the young dragon back a few steps. "Best to stand out of the way, kid," Fu told him.
Jake stepped back obligingly while still staring at the wall. Finally, the last place where Fu had touched began to glow faintly. It crumbled away revealing a tiny hole. Then another part crumbled, and another until a large tunnel was exposed. Fu trotted in and jerked his head forward to get Jake to follow him. "This one smells better, I promise," he said with a smile.
Jake followed Fu, looking around in awe at the new tunnel that had been opened up. "Woah," he said simply.
"Yeah, it was a cover designed by the trolls. They're used to living underground and in caves so if you make the entrance look like everything else then it's more likely that the humans won't bug ya. This tunnel leads to a part of Central Park that humans can't get to, so we won't be bothered there," Fu explained as they walked forward.
A loud crashing sound was heard behind them and Jake turned around to see the small pebbles that were lying on the floor jump around and reassemble themselves in the hole until it looked like a solid wall again. Jake smiled and then turned back to follow Fu. "Cool," he said simply.
They continued to walk and Jake realized that Fu was right, this tunnel smelled way better. Then again this tunnel wasn't part of the sewer system so there really was no reason for it to smell bad. The tunnel began to lead uphill and by the time they had reached what Jake figured was the exit, Fu was gasping for breath.
"You need to work out more," Jake told Fu pointedly.
"Kid, when you're 600 years old, the last thing you want to do is exercise," Fu said pointedly. "I'm more into vegging in front of the TV with cheese-whiz and I have no problem with that."
Jake rolled his eyes and followed the panting Fu through the circular opening that Fu had pushed open with his paw. Jake pulled himself out after Fu and took a look around. It was a lot more empty then he thought a mystical field in Central Park would look like. "Where is everyone?" Jake asked.
Fu shrugged. "Who knows, underground somewhere probably. Magical creatures don't live here, they come here like humans do. To relax, picnic, play around. This place exists so that magical creatures can go to the park without having to disguise themselves so they can be among humans. Still, living above ground for most creatures is way too risky. Anyone who tries is either insane or very powerful."
"Oh," said Jake. "Powerful, how?"
Fu pondered the question for a bit before answering. "Well, like nymphs. In greek mythology they're considered a step below gods. In truth they're spirits of nature. Nymphs are magical creatures who help keep the balance of whatever part of nature they're born too. Tree nymphs take care of trees, river nymphs take care of rivers, flower nymphs take care of flowers and so on. But they are powerful because their magic is tied directly to nature, so they can just disguise themselves as trees, flowers and rivers and live above ground. Fairies are like that too, but their power level is far less than a nymph."
"Oh," said Jake. "What about wizards and witches?"
"They live among humans too, because they look like humans. Not always very powerful but they don't really need to hide, just not use magic around them. Like you," Fu told Jake. He glanced at Jake's wings and tail and grinned wryly. "Well, at least like you once you learn to control everything."
Jake shrugged and looked around again. "So, what're we gonna do?" he asked.
"Well, I figured you would probably want to learn how to fly," Fu said to Jake. "But if you're not interested…"
"Totally interested," Jake said quickly with a grin forming on his lips.
Fu laughed and shook his head. "Okay, but you can't go higher than the trees and try to be a quiet as possible. Trust me, learning to fly quietly will help you a lot once you start doing your job."
Jake shrugged, "yeah, okay," he said simply and spread his wings for the first time since his G had warned him not to try and do anything in his shop two nights ago.
Fu whistled slowly. "Wow, your wingspan is huge," he said while shaking his head. "No wonder your back hurt."
Jake laughed, "that was nothing compared to my wipe out at the skate park three months ago," he told Fu while testing out his wings by flapping them experimentally.
"I'm sure," Fu said dryly. "At least you won't complain when you fall," he said under his breath.
Jake stopped flapping his wings. "What?" he asked.
"Nothing," Fu said quickly. "Now, I can't actually help you fly, because in case you didn't notice, I have a lack of wings." Jake crossed his arms and shook his head, but he was smiling so Fu continued. "But, I do know how it works, so just keep in mind that the first few times you're probably not going to get off the ground. There's a lot more to flying then jumping in the air and flapping your wings."
"You can help, right?" Jake asked.
"I can explain things," Fu said.
"Easy enough," Jake said carelessly.
"Don't get too overconfident," Fu warned.
"That's not what I meant," Jake explained. "When you learn how to street dance you really can only watch the other guys and try to copy it. No one explains anything and that's way hard to learn."
Fu raised an eyebrow. "Oh," he said simply while watching Jake flap his wings again.
Jake took in a deep breath and closed his eyes only concentrating on his wings. His heart was beating very quickly but he knew from experience that it was from excitement, not fear. Heck, flying seemed to be the best part of this whole mess of the past few days. He heard Fu yell, "wait for the right moment, if you take off too fast you're just going to fall."
Jake waited and concentrated, after a few seconds he felt his feet lift lightly off the ground and when he felt the ground again he bent his knees and pushed off the ground, hard. He quickly opened his eyes while surging upwards, still flapping his wings, feeling his stomach twist but not in a bad way.
"Kid," Fu yelled so Jake could hear. "Stop flapping your wings and glide or you're going to stall!"
Jake stopped flapping and felt himself fall a little. "It's okay," Fu yelled and Jake resisted the urge to start flapping again. "Just try to find a comfortable position and stretch your wings."
Jake did and stretched his wings as much as he could. He felt almost like he was floating as he glided around the clearing, loosing altitude but at a steady rate.
"Okay, try to land," Fu suggested.
Jake tried to get to the ground slowly but he turned downwards too fast and landed face first into the ground with the grace of a rock. He groaned and pushed himself up, spitting out some grass that had managed to get into his mouth. Fu trotted over, chuckling. "Well, it was actually really good for a first try. Your landing could use some work though."
Jake glared at Fu while he wiped off his face on his sleeve. "Thanks for the advice," he said dryly.
"Are you going to try again?" Fu asked.
"Of course," Jake said and stood back up.
"Okay, but remember that we don't have a whole lot of time here," Fu reminded Jake. "Oh and next time you land, try landing on your feet. It might help a little bit."
Jake shrugged but he did take Fu's advice to heart. It was nice to actually have someone with him, explaining how things should go.
Jake readied himself again, this time concentrating on jumping before flapping his wings. It might be easier to get altitude if he wasn't already using up so much energy just to get into the air. He jumped once and tried to get into the air but he started too late and fell back to the ground, landing hard on his butt.
He heard Fu snort and stood up with as much dignity as he could muster and started to brush himself off. "It wasn't that funny," he muttered.
"No," Fu said while still chuckling. "You have the right idea, kid. That is how you should take off, but it did look funny."
Jake glared at Fu and got ready to try again. He bent his knees and took off again but this time he started to flap his wings too early and his body wasn't ready for the thrust. He fell out of balance in mid air and landed on his back.
Fu winced and trotted over to see if Jake was okay. Jake looked up at the dog who was looking down at him. He blinked stars from his eyes and coughed. He sat up and Fu backed off. "You okay?"
"I've had worse," Jake said again and stood up. "I'm gonna give that another go."
Fu stepped back and marveled at Jake's pain tolerance. It certainly was something when you could get up after falling three times and try what had made you fall again. Very impressive.
Jake tried the new way of taking off three more times before succeeding and actually making it into the air. He followed Fu's advice and glided down, this time tilting so that he landed on his feet. He slammed into the ground and landed on his butt, but this time it was far more controlled and didn't hurt anywhere near as much. Jake grinned at Fu who nodded. "Not bad, kid."
Jake stood up and brushed himself off. "Not bad?" he asked. "Fu, I am the mastah of flyin'," he said cockily. "No one's gonna be able to beat me once I practice more."
Fu sighed. He was wondering how long it was going to take Jake to become over confident. "Okay, kid. But now we need to get back."
"Okay, but lemme give this one more try," Jake asked.
"One more," Fu said.
Jake grinned and bent his knees. He jumped and took off, this time far more gracefully then he had done previously. He actually managed to get decent height before he began to glide and he was in far more control then he had been the first time. He smiled to himself, feeling very confident that he was entirely in control when a huge gust of wind came through the trees. He felt the wind pass underneath his wings and push him higher and further away from Fu.
"Kid, land!" Fu yelled.
Jake struggled to try and pull himself down but the wind was just too stiff. Finally he simply turned his wings downward and began to fall back to earth in a dive that Jake wasn't too sure he had as much control of as he would have liked. He came back down and saw that he was heading for a river of some kind and he tried to serve out of the way but by the time he had any semblance of control over his landing he was already a foot above diving head first into the water.
He shut his eyes and landed with a tremendous crash. The river was deep and he had to swim back up in order to get his head above water, which was difficult because his wings and tail were for flying, not swimming. He managed to break the surface and inhale before going back under, due to the face that he had no clue how to swim with his new body parts. The second time he broke the surface of the water, he felt someone grab his arm and pull him to the land. He felt his
feet touch ground and quickly crawled out of the river, coughing and dripping wet. He felt someone pat his back and he turned to see who was helping him.
An extremely beautiful woman with long white hair and piercing blue eyes was staring back with a wry smile on her face. "Nice landing," she said dryly.
Jake coughed and then grinned. "Thanks, I thought so too."
Okay, next chapter in not bad time. Oh Jake, your dialogue makes me cry. Ah well, hopefully his actions make him seem more in character because I seem to know little to nothing about real slang. Regardless, flying, wheeeee! This was so much fun to write. I always figured flying would be something that he would totally rock at, even at the beginning because he already is the kind of person who likes to skateboard and snowboard and the like. And a cliffhanger, oh noes!
Anyways, once again I'm back at updating once a month and I plan to keep it that way. College just started but at least it's fairly manageable. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Hugs and cookies to my reviewers, thanks so much for your support!