"Gliders." Shadow laughed. "Well, I did until I met the elves in Blue Mountain." She shrugged. "But they float rather than glide. They thought that me calling them Floaters was peculiar. Now these," Shadow gestured to the crafts, "these actually glide."
Skywise and Kimo took another look at the flying crafts. They had a piece of thin, cloth-like fabric laid out across the metal bars. Kimo had never seen metal crafted in such a way, and it had been a long time since Skywise had seen such perfection. The bars were perfectly cylindrical, and they formed the outline of a platform, about 3 feet wide by 5 ½ feet long. Along the longer side, about every ¾ of a foot there was a pole running across. Then the poles on all four corners of the platform went up about 3 ½ feet and made a platform for the deltoid shaped fabric. Attached to the fabric equally distanced from the center, were two strings. ***
"Wow! This is incredible. Did you make these?" Skywise went over too investigate. Shadow nodded. "Did the trolls make the metal for you?" He felt the metal, which was cool to the touch, but where the longer platform was, it was comfortable warm.
"Who do you think taught the trolls all they know? It's not like they started from scratch." Shadow laughed. Kimo was still keeping his distance.
"How do theses work? And how can you condense them so easily?" Kimo cautiously walked up to the one closest to him.
"Well, we'd need to travel on foot to an open field, but what you do is, hold these strings," Shadow grabbed the two dangling strings on the nearest glider, "and grab the two poles in front. It's okay if the back drags, it's not a problem. Then you just run, and the air does the rest. Once you feel it lift off jump up. The glider should angle upwards, and then you pull yourself up onto the platform. After that, it's pretty easy. You just use the strings to turn, and to land, it's probably the best idea to land in a body of water if you're newer. Or, and this is the ideal way to do it if you're in a rush or more experienced, you can flip yourself so you're back is laying on the platform. Then, you grab the strings and pull down, which forces the glider's nose to go up, and then you aren't gliding, and you descend. It's best to do that when you aren't too far above the ground. Oh, and to ascend, you use your feet and gently push on the back poles. To descend, but not land, push forward with your hands. Make sense?" Kimo nodded. Skywise was only half listening because he was still inspecting the glider. "And they way they fold up? Well, as the inventor, I have to keep some things a secret, don't I?" Kimo and Shadow both laughed.
"These are…" Kimo searched for the right word. "Intriguing. They are quite complicated as well."
"Actually, once you get used to it, they're quite easy. We should be going. Skywise!" Skywise snapped out of his trance. "Well, I'm going to have to re-explain everything, aren't I? I'll do it when we get to the field. It's about a day long journey to get there. But I think we'll be a bit quicker. I'll meet you guys just outside the enclosed grove, right over there. Lemme just fold these up quickly and then we can head on our way." Shadow turned to the gliders and began folding them up and placing them with the others. Kimo and Skywise fought their way out of the grove and waited for Shadow. Inside the grove, Shadow checked her bag. It had everything she needed: the gliders, the trinkets and the little preserver. The bag was quite small though. During her original Palace days, her had created the bag for her and put a size enchantment on it, making the inside ten times larger than the outside. Shadow left everything exactly as it was, and headed out to meet with her fellow questers.
Once all three of them were together, they shared a moment of silence, knowing it would be quite awhile before they would see this place. After a few moments, they silently walked off, not sending, but all of them felt like they knew the exact location where they were going. Eventually, they came to a part of the forest where trees were scarce. Dawn was approaching, but the elves continued on. They hoped they could reach a far off hill without being sighted.
The sun slowly crept into the dark blue sky, and Skywise broke the long endured silence by suggesting that they should rest for the day.
"If we continue on, now, we can reach the clearing faster, which will allow us to get where we need to go faster… But…" Shadow paused. "I suppose it wouldn't be such a bad idea to set up our plan of where we're going and when, and so that we can rest. Let's stop." So, when they stopped at a clearing about 6 feet by 4 feet, Kimo found a tree with a hollow base that was perfectly sized for him, and Skywise jumped up to the top of a tree and laid on the thick bed of leaves facing the sky. Shadow found a branch a few feet off the ground, and hung upside down on it. All three of them quickly drifted off to sleep.
When the sun began to set, all three of them woke up. They sat in a circle and began developing a plan of attack. They spoke for about an hour before everything became clear. They would go from the clearing to the Wavedancer's home, and from there, they would go to Ember's tribe, and by then, hopefully, Savah would have communicated to Rayek. If all went as planned, they would then go and meet up with Rayek and purify the Black Snake. However, there was a catch. They had no idea what the object connected to the Black Snake's spirit might be. It could be anything, and they all feared for their lives. Also, there was no guarantee Savah would be able to contact Rayek and Eukar, for they had traveled far from their home lands. And when the sun set, they jumped on the gliders and headed off for Wavedancer's cove.
*** Sorry, that was an attempt to describe an older form of a hang glider… haha
And sorry for the delayed chapter L Been crazy busy this past month! I'll try to update once every week from here on out.