The Aviation Pioneer

by DeltaDestroys01

A flight test gone wrong thrusts a young aeronautical engineer into a world far different from his own. Even with new hazards to navigate, he can't shake his longing for the sky. Resolving to be the first man in this new world to discover and pioneer heavier-than-air flight, the engineer goes about doing just that. But the world might be even bigger and stranger than he thought.

7. Chapter 7: First Flight

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Disclaimer: I don't own Monster Girl Encyclopedia or any other properties I make references to.

Chapter 7: First Flight

Allison chattered ceaselessly the next morning before anyone else showed up to Kitty Hawk. "If you're an engineer from another world, that definitely explains why you're so confident that this airplane can fly."

Jules wasn't complaining however. The open conversation of home actually proved surprisingly therapeutic. His face took on a far off look and then he smirked. Pointing to the XM-1, he said, "This thing that me and a dozen people built by hand is roughly comparable to something made about fifteen years after the first flight of an airplane on Earth. When I had my accident, it was about one hundred twenty years after that first flight and the technology had improved drastically. Just you wait. With time, experience, and a lot of experimentation, I'll be making planes that will blow your mind."

"Ooooohhhh," she drawled. She excitedly said, "And I can't wait."

"Me neither. But first things' first. We have to find out if this thing can fly. I've no doubt that an airplane can fly. The question will be if this airplane can fly today. If not… Well, then things in town are just gonna get a lot more awkward."

Allison calmed down and more confidently asserted, "If that happens, I'm gonna insist we make the contract tonight. Nobody's gonna mess with an elementalist. If they wanna call you a fraud, then they'll have to get through me."

"I really appreciate that," he said easily. "But I'm still hoping that it won't come to that. I really, really want this plane to fly today." A new thought occurred to him and he asked, "Speaking of timing, when do you want to make the contract final?"

"After the flight. But no later than tonight," she answered. "I can't wait any longer!"

Jules couldn't help but smile. "One way or another, huh?"

"Yeah!" she cheered. "I gotta get to work right away on convincing you to stay!"

Jules was a bit conflicted about that declaration, but he decided to take it as Allison just saying that she really cared about him. And for that, he was honored. A thought occurred to him, so he asked, "Just wondering, but what was it that made you believe me so easily when I said that I was from a whole other world?"

"Really?" Allison replied incredulously. "You really have to ask?"

"Well, yeah," he said with a shrug. "It's a pretty massive claim to be making. I know that someone saying something like that wouldn't be taken very seriously on Earth."

Allison answered, "When you go and make things nobody's ever dreamed of, you being from another world makes a lot of sense."

"Yeah. I guess that does reinforce my claim," he acknowledged.

Allison continued though by saying, "You're also just… different. I dunno. It's hard to describe. If you spoke Spiritish, you'd be a 'jan ken mute.' But way, way more than anyone I've ever heard of."

Jules was surprised by this knowledge that elementals had their own language. He remarked, "I didn't know that Spiritish was even a thing."

"Uh-huh! You'll have to speak it every time we cast a spell together!"

Jules couldn't help but think of all the anime he had watched where the characters had to specifically call out whatever move they were about to do. He smiled at that memory and wondered if one day he'd be able to stand among the mightiest of shounen anime protagonists. He dropped this line of thought and said, "That's very interesting. But what was is a 'jan ken mute?'"

"It depends," Allison said.

Jules raised an eyebrow which beckoned Allison to continue.

"Spiritish isn't like Common. Because elementals are limited in how we can interact with the world, our language is limited too. Some words are pretty solid though. 'jan' is just a person. But 'ken' is kinda tough because it has a lot of meanings. It's… 'can,' I guess? But it's also 'capable' or 'potential' or even 'free' or 'talented.' Then, 'mute' is either 'much' or 'many.'"

Jules let this new knowledge sink in for a few seconds and mulled it over. He said, "Even though you say your language is limited, it's definitely feeling pretty complex."

"You'll pick it up," assured Allison. "After all, we elementals and all our elementalists have been using it for thousands of years."

"…A very capable person," mused Jules aloud after a few seconds. The simple title of jan ken mute felt good. If there's anything that he wanted to be right now, it was someone who was capable. Because he's aiming pretty high all things considered. He said to her, "Thank you, Allison. That's actually a pretty big complement."

"It's like what you say every now and then," she said. "The sky's the limit, right?"

He smiled wider and cockily concluded, "You know it."

Not two seconds later, Allison's tone completely changed into something much more serious and she said, "Someone's coming."

Even though he was a little upset to have the conversation interrupted, Jules paid extra attention to his hearing. From outside the sawmill, he picked up the distinct clattering of wagon wheels. He stood from where he was sitting and started walking to the door. As he went, he said, "Yeah, I hear it. Let's hope that Gonzo, Horacio, and Aerin got everyone I asked for."

Jules pushed open the door to be greeted by the mid-morning sun. Sure enough, there were two clattering wagons coming towards the sawmill. The first was an open wagon full of barrels of fuel and lubricant being driven by Santiago. The second was a carriage that had its roof up, but its sides were open. Jules was able to clearly see that Countess Wilhelmina and two other official looking men were sitting in there with her.

Everyone else that Jules hoped to see was on foot around the two carriages. There were his friends, his workers, and the rest of Wilhelmina's house staff. Suddenly, one of the mamono, a lesser succubus named Carla, leaned over and pointed to the ground with a gaping mouth. It looks like the approaching people had just noticed the blood smear from Jules' late night duel with Raimundo Rana.

Those on foot noticeably picked up the pace towards Jules. As they came within earshot, Jules spoke with a raised voice. "It's not mine. I can assure you that I'm perfectly unharmed."

Horacio spoke first when they got close, "What happened?"

"I decided to stand guard last night and stopped a gang of thugs from burning the sawmill down. That blood over there is Raimundo Rana's."

"And the ear. Don't forget the ear," Allison added on.

"Yeah, that's his too," reinforced Jules.

Horacio looked at Jules a bit differently. And as Jules looked around, everyone was looking at him differently. Gonzo whistled and said, "Damn, Jules. Remind me not to mess with you."

Jules was quick to humility and informed, "They were all really drunk last night. Raimundo had a pretty big disadvantage."

"Ah. That makes sense," Horacio said with a tone that sounded as if he'd just cracked a difficult riddle. "If he was sober, Raimundo would've most likely killed you. Not to scare you or anything."

Jules nodded vigorously and said, "Yeah I believe it. The only reason I tried my luck with the navaja was when I noticed how drunk they all were." He cleared his throat awkwardly and confessed, "But I may have promised Édgar Lucero a good show today. So, I'm hoping to not disappoint."

The group snickered at that just in time for Santiago to roll up and ask Jules where he wanted to fuel barrels to go for this first flight. Jules pointed him towards a patch of grass a few dozen meters away. The stronger members of the group followed after to offload the barrels.

Then the carriage pulled up by where Jules was standing and came to a stop. The driver slid off his seat at the front, placed a step ladder on the ground, and pulled open the door to the carriage.

Jules stepped forward and offered a hand to Countess Wilhelmina to give the elderly woman some support as she carefully stepped down from the carriage. "It's wonderful to see you alive and well, Mr. Langley. Especially after just hearing what happened last night."

"I'm definitely fortunate that things turned out the way that they did," he said as she stepped onto the ground. Jules reached into the carriage and withdrew her cane and handed it to her. He continued, "The last thing I want is to be absent from a historic occasion like this."

"Indeed," she said.

Then they both looked to the carriage as the next passenger lowered himself to the ground. He was a man in his mid-to-late forties whose defining feature was a well-trimmed mustache.

Wilhelmina took it upon herself to introduce him. "Magistrate Alves, this is Jules Langley. I'm certain you've heard many things about him."

"So, this was the top official of Villa Hermosa," Jules thought to himself. Jules inspected him more closely. His red clothing was fine, but was most defined by the ruffled collar that poked out between his double-breasted waistcoat. Instead of having a sash with a navaja like most Andalusian men, a man of status like a town magistrate was gifted a rapier by the royal family. Its gilded hilt and single blue jewel on the bottom of its pommel shone in the sun. He approached and looked Jules up and down, but did not extend a hand for a handshake or even take it upon himself to greet Jules.

Jules wondered if Magistrate Alves was stuck-up, driven by the decorum of social status, didn't like Jules, or a combination of the three. Either way, it didn't matter. He'd come to witness history in the making, and that was good enough for Jules. The engineer said, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Magistrate Alves. I sincerely apologize for any trouble that I may have caused in Villa Hermosa."

Alves hummed somewhat accusingly before saying, "I never would have come had it not been for the personal invitation from Countess Wilhelmina. And as for trouble, I would have had you thrown out of Villa Hermosa for the slightest offense had I not heard what you confessed to doing last night."

He then looked to the side, back towards where Raimundo's blood decorated the ground a couple dozen paces away. Alves harrumphed and then continued, "Raimundo Rana, whose blood I've heard you confess that belongs too, has been a notorious troublemaker for years and has killed several good men in dubiously legal duels. I'll consider his present disfigurement an act of god using one man to punish another and turn a blind eye to this. But do not mistake my act of generosity for friendship. You are still on very thin ice in my town. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Magistrate. I understand perfectly," Jules said as levelly as he could muster. "I hope that after today's events, I can justify my presence to you and all the residents of the town."

The final man approached and Jules recognized him as the notary from the day that Jules placed the bulk order for cloth from the local weaver. He said nothing and Jules was fine with that.

In the time that they were speaking, the barrels had been unloaded and Santiago returned with the duo of horses that were pulling the cart he had been driving. Now that everything was ready, Jules said to the group, "Well, let's not dally any longer."

The group pulled open the sliding doors of the sawmill and Santiago hooked up the horse's harnesses to the front of the landing gear. Then under his direction, the airplane was slowly towed into the light for the first time.

The propeller led the way, followed by the streamlined metal cowling with an opening at the front above the propeller mount for the engine air intake and the oil cooler. The four cylinders on each side of the engine protruded slightly from the sides of the nose. The two banks of four cylinders had a shared exhaust manifold, meaning they would all vent their exhaust into the same pipe that trailed down the side of the aircraft. Next the wings came into the light. The lower wing had a slight dihedral, so they had a slight bend upwards. This would increase the airplane's roll stability. But the top wing was flat for ease of manufacturing and they were separated by wooden columns and stiffened by tautly strung wires. Below the bottom wing, fixed landing gear that was covered with streamlined fairings came into view. Jules really had to hand it to Gonzo, making tires with just the most basic explanation of rubber impressed to no end.

Witnesses saw that Jules had chosen an olive drab color to paint the airplane to cover up the ugly brown shade that the fabric-stiffening dope had left the canvas skin. Dope was a lacquer that tightened and stiffened the fabric skin along with making it more weather proof. The XM-1 was pulled further into the light, showing the open cockpit that had two-person tandem seating and a squared off fuselage that slowly tapered towards the center. At the end was a semi-flexible skid in place of a rear landing gear wheel and there was a sweeping empennage with rounded rudders and elevators.

Jules smiled widely. The XM-1 was beautiful if he said so himself. Now all it needed to do was fly as well as it looked. He looked to the side towards Magistrate Alves, his notary, and Countess Wilhelmina. They all looked impressed. Wilhelmina seemed twenty years younger and she seemed as giddy as could be. Alves looked towards Jules and admitted, "That's an impressive looking creation you have, Mr. Langley. But do you really believe that a man can fly in that 'airplane?'"

"Yes," Jules promised him with certainty in his voice.

He watched as Santiago guided the horses that towed it towards the stack of barrels. Horacio approached and said with barely contained excitement, "Me, Gonzo, and a couple others are gonna get started on fueling it up just like you showed us."

That was an unexpected act of kindness, but Jules would accept it gladly. "Sounds good to me. But please only fill the fuel up halfway. Fill the lubricant all the way though."

"You got it," he said as he patted Jules on the shoulder. He sent Jules a nod and a smile, and went off towards the airplane.

Jules looked back to the people beside him and gestured toward the XM-1 with an open palm and offered, "While it's being fueled up, would you like to walk around it and inspect it? I'll answer some questions if you have them. But there's some that I may not answer. Trade secrets."

Alves nodded and Wilhelmina gestured towards the airplane saying, "Yes please."

They took a few minutes walking around the aircraft. Jules explained the very basics of what different parts of the airplane did such as the propeller pushing air backwards which pulled the plane through the air, the wings being necessary for it to fly, and how the control surfaces worked. And when Alves looked into the cockpit, Jules explained how the controls worked and that the gauges were needed for Jules to make sure that the airplane was working properly and to help him pilot it.

The questions completed at about the same time that Gonzo shot Jules a thumbs up to show that the XM-1 was ready to fly. Just like with the engine test, the crowd gathered to one side of the airplane in a closely standing group. And also just like the engine test, only now was the time that Jules became nervous. He prayed that it would work. It had to.

Jules cleared his throat and addressed the group. "Thank you all for coming out today to see the first flight of an airplane on Erde. One way or another, history is about to be written. For those of you who were here for the engine test, you'll know that I'd like to discuss some safety and the plan for today's flight."

He gave a few seconds of silence, allowing anyone to speak. The magistrate did speak up. He asked, "Will you be flying this alone the first time? You told me it can take two people."

Jules answered easily and certainly. "For safety reasons, I plan to be taking this into the air alone for at least the first time. I have little idea how well it will fly. In the real possibility that it spins out of control and crashes, I'd rather it just be me who gets injured or dies. However, if it does fly well, I'm prepared to give all in attendance a ride in it." He decided to leave out the fact that vanity was another reason that he would fly alone. He didn't want to risk causing a stir about that admittance.

There were quiet whispers of excitement among the group. Good. It seemed that the offer of rides did the trick of placating everyone. He continued, "First, safety. This airplane needs space in order to takeoff from the ground and land back onto it. As long as the engine is powered on, I'm going to need all of you to stand next to the barrels right over there. That's the safest place. But the plan of the flight is simple. After I do a final inspection of the airplane, I will start it, takeoff, do a circuit of Kitty Hawk, fly to Villa Hermosa, do a few circuits around there just to make absolutely certain that anyone with eyes can see it, and then I'll return to Kitty Hawk. I'll fly one circuit so that I can visually see and be certain that all of you are standing next to the barrels. Then I'll land and we'll go from there. Are there any questions?"

Roman raised his hand a bit sheepishly. "What is it, Roman?" Jules invited.

"What about Allison?"

"That's actually a really good question," Jules replied. He thought for a few seconds and asked, "Hey, Allison."

"Yeah?" she asked from right beside him.

"Do you think you could stay next to Magistrate Alves and keep talking to him at least until I start flying for Villa Hermosa? The last thing I want is any accusation of fraud. I hope you understand that things have to be done legitimately today."

She sounded a bit disappointed, but accepted it. She said, "Okay. I'll stay here like you asked. But the moment you're going for Villa Hermosa, I'll be there right beside you."

Jules smiled towards the sound of her voice. "Thank you, Allison."

She giggled and ruffled his hair. She excitedly proclaimed, "I can't wait to meet you in the sky!"

He chuckled at that and turned his attention back to the crowd. He asked, "Are there any other questions?"

There were none, so Jules said, "Excellent. Could you all please go to the barrels? Let's get this going."

Before he could even turn away, he clearly heard Allison's voice loudly say, "Good luck, Jules!" There were echoes of good luck and well wishes from others present.

It was with a smile that Jules approached the XM-1 while the others walked away. First, he inspected the left elevator and wings. There were no obstructions to the aileron, the wing fabric was all in one piece, and none of the bracing wires were frayed. He walked to the nose of the airplane. All the panels were tightly fastened and there didn't appear to be any cracks or leaks anywhere. The propeller wasn't chipped anywhere and it was free from cracks. He checked that the front landing gear was in good working order. He repeated the same inspection for the right side wings and aileron. He went down the fuselage and unlatched a door on the side of the fuselage. He unfastened another latch and removed the lid to the fuel tank. He took out a dipstick that was strapped into the side of the cockpit and dipped it into the fuel tank. Even though he had a gauge in the cockpit that told him how much fuel he had, he couldn't be too careful. True to their word, Gonzo and Horacio had filled it up halfway. That's because Jules didn't need a full tank for a short flight. Plus, landing a heavier aircraft could potentially damage the airplane if Jules wasn't careful enough. Next he checked the oil and found it filled all the way as per his instructions. Jules closed and latched the door. Next he came to the rear of the plane. The landing skid was in one piece and the spring holding it downwards towards the ground was in good order. Jules carefully inspected the rudders and elevators, making sure that they were unobstructed in their movement and that the fabric covering them was in good order.

The inspection was complete. It was ready to fly. Jules approached the cockpit and put his foot into a metal stirrup that he built into the fuselage to serve as a step. Without stepping in, he hoisted himself upwards and reached into the left side of the cockpit to a smaller lever underneath the larger two-part throttle and pushed the fuel-mixture lever all the way forward to make the mixture as rich as it could be. He flipped the switch that turned on the spark plugs and stepped down, taking the inertial starter crank with him. He walked around the wings and stepped to the front. He carefully rotated the propeller five times, making sure not to rotate it fast enough to accidentally start the engine. He only wanted to prime the cylinders and pull lubricating oil through the engine. With that done, Jules stepped around the propeller but still in front of the wing and stood on the front wheel fairings. He unlatched another door that covered the controls of the inertial starter and inserted the crank handle into its designated hole.

He began to push and pull with his might, putting his whole body weight behind the first few turns of the crank. As the spinning flywheel gained speed, it became easier and easier, all the while the pitch of the sound it made grew higher and louder. He removed the crank handle and pushed a button beside its slot. The flywheel's clutch engaged and the propeller flipped once, then twice, and the engine roared to life just as it had during the engine test.

Making sure to not touch the spinning propeller, Jules closed and latched the door. He carefully stepped down from the wheel and quickly went around the wing to step up on the stirrup. With the cyclone of wind from the prop wash beating upon him, he leaned out the fuel mixture before the engine ran away from him. He finally began climbing in. A foot into the stirrup let him climb onto a reinforced area on the lower wing. He then stepped over the side of the fuselage into the cockpit and slid himself into his seat and strapped himself in with a five-point harness. He checked the gauges. Engine RPMs were good, the engine and oil temperatures looked great, the electrical voltage being sent to the spark plugs was within limits, and the fuel and oil pressures were as expected.

He took the control stick that pointed upwards from between his legs into his right hand. He pushed it forward, craning his head to look behind him at the elevators. The cables linking them to the control stick pulled them downwards. When he pulled the control stick backwards, the elevators were pulled upwards. Next, he stepped on the rudder pedals with both of his feet. Pushing the left pedal forward deflected the rudder to the left and the right pedal moved it right. Then he looked at the ailerons on both ends of the top wing. Even though it was totally possible to have ailerons on all four wings, Jules opted to only have two larger ailerons in a style similar to German fighters of World War I. When he pushed the stick to the left, the aileron on the left deflected upwards and the aileron on the right deflected downwards. The ailerons did the opposite when he pushed the stick to the right. Finally, Jules pushed and pulled the stick in a circle a few times in both directions, looking around as he did. He was making sure that all the cables to the control surfaces were tensioned properly and that the elevator and aileron control cables wouldn't interfere with each other. Jules retrieved one final thing from inside the cockpit. It was a pair of glass covered goggles that he'd specially ordered from the alchemy materials supplier that Gonzo worked with. He stretched them over his face and tightened them.

Jules took a deep breath and let it out. He was reminded of the fact that he never once had a single day of flight training. All he'd done was spend time sitting in the cockpit carefully imagining the procedures of how to operate it. He said a silent prayer for safety and put his hands on the controls. His right hand found the control stick while his left hand went to the second of three levers on his left.

The first lever had been for the fuel mixture and the other two levers were both throttles. This was a unique engineering choice, but Jules' design did have precedent and it represented a bizarre dance between technological limits and the quest for performance. Late in World War I, BMW developed an aircraft engine that used a relatively high for the time compression ratio to produce as much power as they could and they encountered two main problems that needed addressing.

The first was that when a piston compresses a fixed amount of fuel-air mixture inside a cylinder, it heats up on its own due to increasing pressure. But if it compresses too much, the heat might cause the mixture to prematurely detonate before the cylinder is in the proper position for the spark plug to ignite it. This premature detonation is called, "knock," for the sound it makes and it can destroy entire cylinders if left unaddressed. Knock typically only becomes a problem with high throttle settings when there's a higher amount of fuel and air in the cylinder. This is a problem for high performance engines like those used for aviation which will have the throttle at maximum for takeoff and then have it set to about three-quarters of maximum for much of the flight. However, at higher altitudes the thinner atmosphere provides less air which pulls less fuel from the carburetor, and knock becomes less of an issue.

However, the thinner atmosphere presents the second problem. Yes, the risk of engine knock is reduced, but by virtue of having a less dense atmosphere with increasing altitude, engine power diminishes quickly. Less air equals less fuel equals less power.

Each problem has an apparently mutually exclusive solution. There needs to be less fuel-air mixture at low altitudes to prevent knock and more for higher altitudes to increase power. The solution BMW found and Jules imitated was clever in his opinion. Make two throttles that control two different carburetors. The second throttle lever that Jules reached for was a smaller carburetor that would introduce a lot less of the fuel-air mixture into the engine, reducing the risk of knock while taking off, landing, and flying at low altitude. When the smaller throttle is fully open, Jules could manipulate the larger throttle to maintain and perhaps even increase his engine's power at higher altitude. There were limits to the design, after all it was a World War I solution, and aviation had far surpassed that, but for Jules' needs it would suit just fine.

His left hand found the smaller throttle and his stomach started doing somersaults and a wave of nausea washed over him. He was suddenly extremely scared to try and take this plane into the air when he was so untrained. He looked around, hoping to see an excuse to shut down the plane and chicken out of this test flight. He checked his cockpit instruments and they told him that the XM-1 was still ready to fly. Then he leaned to the side and looked around the nose of the airplane to see if there were any obstructions ahead of him that might prevent him from taking off. There were none. He looked to the side towards the eagerly watching crowd standing a ways off. When he looked, a number of them waved at him. He could only just make out their smiles but couldn't hear shouts of encouragement. Oh yeah. He couldn't let them down. Not after everything that had happened or what might happen if he didn't fly today.

His nausea passed him by and his stomach calmed. Jules started sniper breathing to calm his racing heart and he closed his eyes for a few seconds. He remembered something a test pilot had once told him. "The first step in any emergency is to keep control of the airplane." It was the same in life as it was in aviation. When an emergency rears its head, freezing or breaking down—losing control of the airplane—spells one's doom. But he wasn't doomed. Far from it. His name was Jules Langley and he was in control. His eyes opened, his hands gripped the control stick and throttle solidly, and he was ready to go.

Slowly, Jules eased the smaller throttle forward and the propeller arc sped up in front of him. The sound of the engine and the hurricane of wind produced by the propeller grew in volume and the XM-1 began to ease forward. It crawled and Jules saw grass start to go by him. The airplane reached walking speed and then running speed in seconds. He pushed the throttle forward more. Faster and faster it went across Kitty Hawk and the wind whipped by him and stung his face. He ignored it and pushed on. Finally, he pushed the smaller throttle all the way forward. In a moment, he felt the rear skid of the XM-1 lift off the ground. He waited another second and checked the airspeed indicator inside the cockpit. He was moving at about 90 kph. From his calculations, it was a good take-off speed. So, he gingerly pulled back on his control stick while giving just a bit of rudder compensation against the torque of the spinning propeller to keep it from flipping him over into the ground.

As if it yearned for the vast blue yonder, the airplane and her pilot left the bounds of Erde and gained altitude. Instantly, Jules' ecstasy and joy surpassed that of all other human experience. He pulled back more on the stick and gained altitude faster, letting his eyes point upwards towards the sky. He was free; freer than he'd ever thought possible. He was only about one hundred meters above the ground when he permitted himself to cheer. Just like with the engine test, he bellowed his happiness to the wind.

He was coming up on the edge of Kitty Hawk's clearing and he slowly pushed left on his control stick, feeling the airplane as it rolled to the left. Next, he pulled back slightly on his control stick and gave some left rudder. The G-forces upon his body grew but didn't reach an uncomfortable level. This feeling of being pushed into his seat remained with him as he turned in a steady bank of about 30-degrees. When he came around all the way, he began following the edge of the clearing, beginning the circuit that he'd spoken of. When he got close to the crowd standing by the barrels, he stretched his left hand out into the air and waved at them. All of them without exception waved back, many with both arms extended high above their heads. He passed them by at what must have been a blistering speed to them. He continued in his wide bank around the clearing and checked his cockpit instruments. If things looked amiss, now would be the ideal time to land.

To his pleasant relief, everything was working perfectly. He returned the control stick to the neutral position and the airplane leveled out. Then he banked to the right this time and flew for Villa Hermosa but didn't make it far before the voice of a familiar air elemental yelled into his ear, "I'm right behind you, Jules!"

"This is amazing!" he yelled back at Allison to be heard over the roar of the engine and the rush of the wind.

She replied, "Yeah! I knew you could do it! If anyone on Erde could do it, I knew it would be you!"

Those words filled him with happiness of a different kind to flying. Rather than the blazing ecstasy of flight, he was filled with warm contentment. He shouted, "Thanks!"

"Yeah no problem! At this speed, we'll get there in just a few minutes!"

"I can't wait!" Jules declared.

"Me neither!" she concurred.

Jules wondered how the townspeople reacted to the thrumming buzz of an approaching engine. He hoped that curiosity would compel them to crowd the streets and the town square so that they could see him prove that heavier-than-air flight was possible. The town came into view gradually. First he saw Clocktower Hall, then the other taller buildings, and finally the rest of the buildings. Then he was over the town. He rolled left and right, looking down at the ground all over the place.

It was just as he'd hoped. People dropped whatever they were doing and looked up at him in his airplane. Some pointed but many just stood there stupefied and gaped at the marvel before them. Immediately after Jules passed Clocktower Hall, he leaned over and waved at the people in the square. That broke the spell over them. Some people waved back at him and he watched some children running after him in a vain attempt to catch him. Many more pointed and craned their necks to track his flight path and some even ran to better watch him when buildings obscured their view of him.

Jules was immensely satisfied with this performance. He proved he was right and nobody could deny it. He crossed the town and banked to go over it again. He then circled it two times. He came over the square one final time and then directed his course back for Kitty Hawk. He shouted to Allison, "I think that does it."

"Oh yeah! It sure does!" she yelled back at him. "You literally flew over their heads and showed them how stupid a lot of them were!"

"My airplanes are only gonna get better from here! Higher, faster, further! I'm just getting warmed up!"

In minutes, they were back to Kitty Hawk. Jules did as he said and circled the clearing once. Just like he directed, the crowd were by the barrels. Now it was time for the treacherous act of landing. He lined up the nose of the XM-1 on the length of the grass nearby to the sawmill that he'd decided would be his runway. He pulled back on his smaller throttle, never once having touched the larger one for the flight, and the airplane slowed down just by the force of drag on it.

He paid special attention to two things. The runway and his airspeed. If he got too slow, the airplane would stall and he'd be a goner. And if he came in too steeply, he'd crash instead of land. Gently, he pushed forward on the stick. He edged over in a shallow dive for the ground. Fifty meters. Twenty meters. Ten meters. Five meters. Two meters. He pulled back just a bit on the stick and he arrested his dive while pulling all the way back on the smaller throttle. This "flared" his descent, and he floated down the last distance until he was back on the ground. When he felt the wheels of the landing gear touch the ground, he slowly pulled up on the stick and the tail skid met the ground. He pulled harder back on the stick, making the skid grip the ground harder, slowing him down. He was still a bit away from the crowd, so he eased forward on the stick and used his remaining speed to coast the rest of the way. When he was close enough to his satisfaction, he pulled back on the stick, braking again and coming to a stop. He cut the fuel and turned off the spark plugs and the propeller rapidly slowed. He undid the five-point harness haphazardly, overcome with excitement. But eventually, he was freed. He stood up in the cockpit, giving wordless yells of victory to the crowd as he raised his arms over his head with balled fists. He bounded over the side of the cockpit, taking a step on the wing, then the stirrup, and then to the ground. He noticed the crowd break ranks to rush him.

On account of already being with him, Jules was aggressively caressed this way and that by Allison's hug-like breeze. "I knew you were perfect!" she shouted to him. "I just knew it!"

Because he was still riding the high of his own victory, Jules laughed and was nearly overcome with an instinct to try and hug Allison. He didn't act on it because there wasn't any part of her to hug. But this didn't wear him down at all. He also managed to put aside his instincts to shout and instead he sincerely affirmed, "Thanks, Allison. Thanks for believing in me."

Allison didn't even get a chance to respond because the crowd was suddenly upon him. Few words were exchanged. Mostly, it was just amazed shouting. The hugs and cheers blurred together, but when Aerin latched to Jules who exclaimed, "You did it, Jules! You proved that it's possible!" They were scooped up into a bigger hug from Horacio, who had been overcome with emotion to the point that he couldn't speak. They were released and Aerin released him.

Finally, Jules turned to Gonzo. They shared a bro-hug that was equal parts body slam and actual hug. "We did it!" Jules shouted to him.

"I wish I could see the look on their faces!" he returned with equal vigor.

It felt like this was the time for Jules' offer to Gonzo, the person whose help was absolutely necessary to get anything off the ground. Jules loudly extended, "This is only the beginning! Are you with me for the long road ahead?"

"Say no more! I'm with you!" Gonzo exclaimed.

"Me too!" came from Horacio.

"Me too!" from Aerin.

There were more and more declarations of "Me too!" coming from other people. It seemed he had over half of the crowd promising to stick with him as he plowed ahead as a pioneer of aviation in Erde.

It took some time, but he managed to excuse himself from the crowd and he approached the slightly less excitable witnesses he had today. Wilhelmina practically bounced and she gleefully laughed proclaiming, "Splendid work, Jules Langley! That was the most marvelous thing I've ever seen!"

"Thank you, Ma'am," he said to her with a bowed head. Jules then turned to regard the magistrate and the notary. He attempted to conceal his almost overwhelming emotions when he asked, "Well, sirs. What do you think?"

Alves and the notary held tightly regulated expressions that betrayed little of what they thought. The magistrate looked to Jules, towards his airplane, and then towards Jules again. Finally, his mouth twitched into a slight smile and his right hand extended towards Jules for a handshake. It appeared as if Jules had just earned the magistrate's respect. Jules took the man's hand into his own and shook it. Alves said, "Well done, Mr. Langley. You have proven my skepticism incorrect. With this unequivocal proof of the validity of your claims, I suspect your presence will be less, shall we say, 'upsetting' here in Villa Hermosa."

"Thank you, sir," Jules answered. "If I can, I'd like to stay here and work out of Villa Hermosa. If things go as planned, I expect the town will be seeing a lot more commerce in the future."

The handshake broke and Alves said, "Good. See to it, then."

Now that business with Alves was taken care of, Jules spoke to Wilhelmina again. He said to her, "As the financier of this endeavor and the first person to encourage me to pursue this, I think that you are most deserving of all for a ride in the airplane. Would you please do me the honor of being the very first passenger of Gila Air Services?"

"The honor would be mine," she said to him with a deep nod. Slowly, Jules escorted the elderly lady towards his airplane.

On account of her age, she did require some assistance, but in only a few minutes, she was situated into the rear seat of the XM-1 and strapped in properly. Then as per tradition for every commercial flight, Jules gave her a basic explanation on how to egress the airplane in case of an emergency. Unfortunately, safety features were pretty lacking on the XM-1, but Jules at least showed her the proper procedure of undoing the five-point harness. He also explained the flight plan. They would take off, fly to the town, do a circuit, come back, and then land. It would take maybe fifteen minutes.

When Wilhelmina was ready, Jules did his preflight walkaround check again. Even though he'd just proved that his plane was in good working order, it had never been used, so he was just making sure that it was still working well. He imitated the startup procedure and the propeller began churning the air. He clambered into the cockpit and looked backwards towards his first passenger. He shot her a thumbs up. She tried to give a more dignified response, but couldn't shout loud enough to be heard. In only a few seconds, she returned the thumbs up gesture. Jules nodded, and he eased the smaller throttle forward. They sped down the meadow and took off into the sky.

Jules looked over his shoulder periodically to check on his passenger. Wilhelmina was smiling and laughing, with her eyes wandering everywhere she could see. She even returned the waves from the townspeople below when they flew above Villa Hermosa. Then they returned to Kitty Hawk and landed safely. When the XM-1 came to a stop and the engine powered down, Jules and Santiago assisted her from the aircraft. Her smile hadn't waned in the slightest. She pronounced upon Jules, "You have far, far exceeded my expectations and my wildest imaginations. I haven't the slightest doubt that you will change the world."

Jules was honored, and could only muster a simple "thank you," before he immediately moved onto the next rides. Next was Gonzo, then Aerin, and then Horacio. To his delight, all three were ecstatic from the experience. From there, it really formed into a line. One by one, Jules took them up into the air, showed them Villa Hermosa from the sky, and returned to Kitty Hawk for the next in line. It wasn't long before more people from the town arrived at Kitty Hawk to get a closer look of the airplane. The crowd became quite vast, but Jules only gave rides to those who had witnessed him take-off for that first one. Hours went by and the line of people that Jules promised rides shortened and shortened until it was completed by one of Wilhelmina's handmaids in the early evening.

After a few hours of watching, many of the townspeople returned to Villa Hermosa. A few lingered, probably to ask questions about what was next, but the flying was done for the day and Jules was exhausted and very hungry. But that didn't change the fact that the XM-1 had to be taken care of. All the teams of horses had long since departed, but Jules was able to taxi the plane right up to the entrance of the sawmill. Then with some help from Horacio, Gonzo, and a few other volunteers, they pushed the plane inside and shut the main door to the sawmill.

Horacio patted Jules on the back and said, "We gotta go celebrate in the town again! Nobody'll give you any trouble now that everyone knows you were right!"

Agreement came from both Aerin and Gonzo at that. Even though he was ravenously hungry and was tired enough to go to sleep despite there still being daylight, he had a feeling that now was a good time for something else important. "Just a second," he said to them, delaying his response to them. Rather than walk away, he spoke to the air. "Allison."

"What's up?" she asked with barely contained excitement. Even though she didn't know exactly what Jules was going to say, she had a feeling that the next thing on the agenda was something that she'd been looking forward to for a while.

"Are you cool with finalizing a contract now? Or do you want to wait for later? And are you fine if these three," he said gesturing to Horacio, Aerin, and Gonzo, "are there to see it happen?"

"Yeah they can watch!" she answered easily and instantly. Then she cheered, "And I want the contract now!"

Jules looked at his three friends and asked, "Willing to join us for a bit?"

"Absolutely," said Aerin who answered for Horacio and Gonzo. "Watching an elemental contract is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And you're both our friends. We want to support you."

"Well said, sweetheart," said Horacio while he wrapped his arm around his wife and felt her curves with that hand.

Both Jules and Gonzo opted to ignore the sudden groping session beside them and Gonzo added on, "Yeah and I'm really curious to see how this works. Not many elementalists write down what goes into being one and even less of what's written ends up in stuff that I find and read. I'd be interested to see what's true and what isn't."

Jules was about to ask what Gonzo had read, but Allison beat him to it. She asked, "What have you read about making contracts with elementals?"

Gonzo hadn't really become accustomed to talking to thin air when Allison was around. He vastly preferred it when there was some dust for her to pick up. It was easier to talk to something instead of just a disembodied voice. He looked around a bit awkwardly and offered, "Well, um, I've read that when pure elementals make contracts with non-mamono, they gain a human-like appearance but remain incorporeal."

"What does incorporeal mean?" Allison asked.

Jules picked up by saying, "It means that even though you'll have a form to look at and speak to instead of just being a voice or a ball of air, you won't be solid. You won't have a physical body."

"Oh," she said, sounding a bit disappointed. She tried to cheer herself up by saying, "Well, so long as it's easier to just hold myself together, then that's a pretty big improvement."

Jules tried to change the subject a bit and asked, "Is there anything else you read about contracting elementals?"

Gonzo brought his fist to his chin and hummed for a second while thinking. He dropped the fist and said, "Actually, yes. Pure, non-monsterized elementals don't have a gender. Normally, when a contract is formed, elementals' forms tend to look childish with an indeterminable gender. However, there's a legend of an elementalist from a thousand years ago who was so powerful that her contracted elemental looked like an adult man. It's mostly conjecture because a lot of things have been lost to time or have been altered, but apparently power, or at least the potential for power, plays a big part in how a contracted elemental's form will look."

Aerin chimed in, "And with Jules' essence like how it is…" she trailed off. She shrugged and said, "Who knows what's gonna happen?"

He said, "I suppose there's only one way to find out." Then to Allison, Jules asked, "So, Allison. Where do you want to finalize the contract?"

She hummed thoughtfully and said, "Can we do it closer to the middle of the meadow? There's the most air there."

"Sure thing," Jules said. "Let's get going for it."

The five of them moved out into the grass away from the sawmill. They progressed a couple hundred meters when Allison said, "Here is perfect."

The five of them stopped and Jules noted that there was a nice breeze going through the air. It cooled things down just a bit and brought a fresh scent. This coupled with the clear weather and moderate temperature made it quite pleasant. Normally, he would be perfectly content to enjoy the moment, but he was curious and a bit excited to get going with things. He asked Allison, "So, how do we do this?"

"It's easy!" asserted Allison, her excitement not contained in the slightest. "Casting elemental magic always includes an incantation in Spiritish This spell that I'm going to teach you goes by a couple names. In common it's "Spiritish Oath." But in Spiritish it's 'toki pi wan olin' which really translates to 'marriage proposal.'"

It was at that moment that Jules realized something that didn't work out in his favor. He had accidentally played himself. He was about to form a contract with Allison, which in reality was being treated like a marriage proposal, or so she had just said. He was also going to have Gonzo, Horacio, and Aerin serving as witnesses to this event. These things in isolation would be perfectly fine. Well, inasmuch as Jules was planning for this "marriage" to end in divorce despite Allison's intentions of winning him over with time. But there was something else that made this much more awkward, and that was Oath Ribbons. Horacio had explained to him how Oath Ribbons work and how they were especially applicable to marriage. A marriage could be done without Oath Ribbons, but like Horacio said that day, doing this came at the cost of others knowing that one had reservations. Fortunately for him, there was one thing that worked out in Jules' favor. Allison didn't know about how Oath Ribbons could be used for marriage. He was about to invite Allison to proceed when he was interrupted.

Aerin practically squealed with delight and she grinned widely. "It's like a wedding!" she announced. "I'm so happy for the both of you!"

Horacio gave Jules a thumbs up. "I'm proud of you, Jules," he said, reinforcing the sentiment voiced by his wife.

As was typical for the couple, Aerin was standing beside her husband and pressed herself against him. He felt her up and down in a continuation of their earlier groping session. But rather than practically melt into her husband's hands, Aerin said, "I can't believe this is the first wedding we've gone to and we've been married for three years."

"Wow it's been that long already?" Horacio reminisced with a far off look on his face. "Time sure flies."

Gonzo was being thankfully silent, having been caught out of his comfort zone. But this allowed Jules to try and get control of the wild imagination of two of his friends. He said, "Allison didn't tell me that a contract would be like a wedding."

Only then did the practical thinking alchemist speak up and he was playing the devil's advocate. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, if you think about it, marriage is just a contract between the couple getting married, right?"

With only a second of thought, Jules was able to see the logic of that. He really shouldn't have been surprised to hear that that was how Allison thought of a contract. It was just that by his standards, knowing someone for only a few months and then getting married was moving pretty fast. But on the other hand, he had announced his intentions for a contract with Allison the day he met her.

Caught between warring factions of logic, Jules suddenly didn't know what he believed anymore and tried to take a step back and attack this conundrum from a different angle. Was he really willing to go through with this? In a practical sense, he still needed the power that an elemental could give him. But on a personal level, he also enjoyed being around Allison. She was pleasant, upbeat, and perhaps most of all, he was loyal. He'd confessed to lying to her and she came back. For one as inexperienced with relationships as Jules was, he figured that a person like that wasn't one that should simply be passed by.

Jules nodded slowly to and verbally stated, "Alright. I guess I'm getting married today."

Allison began to cheer, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" over and over again while a stiff breeze whipped around Jules ruffling his hair and blowing his cloak every which way.

Aerin squealed again and asked a question that Jules was hoping against hope that she wouldn't ask. "Are you going to use an Oath Ribbon, Jules?"

Allison stopped her cheering and swirling around Jules. She asked, "What's that?"

The lone mamono among them explained, "In Andalus, men can use Oath Ribbons, which are blue ribbons that they can tie around their forearm to show that they're really serious about something. That can be for something like a task or an oath, as the name would suggest. Marriages can also be done with Oath Ribbons to show that the couple is really serious about making it last no matter what. It's the only time that women can wear them."

In an instant, Allison loudly recounted, "I saw Jules use an Oath Ribbon last night when he cut off Raimundo's ear! I could tell how serious it all was!" Then she proclaimed her intentions for the moment, "I want to use a ribbon! I want to show how serious I am about this contract!"

Both Horacio and Aerin looked extremely supportive of that idea for just a moment when they realized something. Aerin said, "I don't know where or how you'd tie your ribbon."

Jules knew the answer and found his mouth speaking almost automatically. He said, "We'll just tie it and then Allison can hold it up in the air. It's not like it weighs much." Why was he suggesting that? He didn't want a contract with ribbons. Or did he? Allison deserved the same loyalty that she'd given him. He screamed internally. He didn't know what he wanted.

"That could work," replied Gonzo. "Here, Allison. You can borrow mine." He took his own ribbon out from one side of his sash and tied a quick knot that held the ribbon into a loose ring.

"Thank you so much, Gonzo!" Allison chirped.

For once, Jules' hair remained unruffled while Gonzo's was tussled all over the place, but he was smiling widely. He held out the ribbon in his open palm and the wind wrapped around it, picking it up and taking it out of his reach and to right in front of Jules. It began a swirling horizontal orbit around Allison like it was a ring of Saturn.

Now it was finally time for Jules to decide if he would use his own Oath Ribbon for this. He thought for a few seconds and while logic was firing away on all cylinders, it was his conscience that was the true battle. It would be dishonest of him to don the ribbon because he planned on leaving her when he returned to Earth. But it would most certainly be unfair to Allison if he didn't give her the same loyalty that she had given him by coming back. It turned into a question of the soul. Was it better to break an oath or to take it half-heartedly to begin with?

It took a few more seconds for him to decide. When he did, he gingerly reached into the folds of his own sash and retrieved his Oath Ribbon. He tied it around his right forearm in a simple overhand knot and moderately tightened it with his free hand and his teeth.

He heard Allison whisper, "Thank you, Jules." She sounded as sincere as he'd ever heard her. He got the feeling that if she could, she would be crying.

He replied to her, "Thank you too, Allison. I really don't deserve having someone like you with me."

Now much more confidently, Allison said, "Then we'll earn each other."

He couldn't help but smile at that. He stood up straight and brought his right arm to his chest thus bringing his Oath Ribbon over his heart. He invited her by saying, "Alright. So, how do we do this?"

Allison drifted a bit closer to him until she was about two arms' length distances away from him. She said, "Hold out your hand, palm up, and then repeat after me."

He did as he was told, holding out his left hand like she instructed him. He kept his Oath Ribbon to his chest.

Then she switched her language to Spiritish and began, "mi tawa sina sama jan li wile pona sewi pi ma. mi li wile kama wan lon poka ona en wan lon poka sina. sina li awen e mi en sina li pana pona e mi sama mi li pana pona e sina? mi mute li ken alasa e piln pona lon ma en lon mi mute. sina li ken kama jo mi anu seme?" As Allison spoke, she broke up her sentences into shorter three or four word phrases so that it would be easier for Jules to parrot the words back to her. He managed this and only stumbled over the rhythm of the speech a few times.

When the Spiritish Oath was completed, Allison concluded by saying, "mi li kama jo e sina," heartfully and in one whole sentence. Then before Jules could repeat that back to her, she switched back to Common, and said, "I will accept you."

A circle of cyclonic wind centered itself on the ground around Jules and Allison that tore at the air and whipped at the grass before clawing sharply towards the heavens. Inside the storm, the gale kicked up blades of grass and bits of dirt and carried it in a pillar high into the sky. Despite the fact that Jules felt every bit of the tempest upon his skin, he was unmoved by it, as if he was a mountain more than a man. He knew that the amount of air swirling around him at that speed should have made him feel chilly. Instead, he felt a warmth. It began in his chest and spread to the other parts of his body, eventually warming his whole form, but then the warmth matured in a way that Jules couldn't describe with words. It was as if an immaterial part of him, his soul perhaps, was being warmed as well.

It was then that he saw something. Outside of his reach ahead of him just behind where Allison's Oath Ribbon swirled, a light without source began to glow, and then it grew until it shone enough to make observers shield their eyes. Jules squinted his eyes and was transfixed upon this magical light, for nothing else could possibly explain its presence, and he stood there frozen in astonishment at what happened next. At first transparently, a definite form gradually took shape around the light as if it were a heart from which it spread about forming what looked like a woman's body. A torso, a head, arms, and legs. Despite the storm's unrelenting gale, she was tranquil and floated in the air, unbothered by all of it; at once its source yet completely separate. This was Allison, the elemental with whom Jules would share his adventures. The light faded as the wind calmed and their surroundings returned to what it was before the contract had been forged. Jules noted the warmth leaving him at the same time as the wind dying down.

His eyes fully opened to better take in Allison as she floated in the air before him. He saw that her opaque, green-colored form was leaning towards him with an outstretched hand that was resting upon his own hand. He did not feel anything solid under her touch, however he felt a rush of air across his palm. His eyes traveled down her dainty hand and up her arm. Once his gaze reached her shoulder, he noticed that she had a swirling design on her skin that differentiated the darker green of her arm to the lighter green of the rest of her body. Then his eyes jumped to meet her own as he looked at her face for the very first time.

Her eyes were a wondrous blue like the clear sky and they met his own, immediately communicating happiness in a way that words could not. The rest of her features were illuminated with matured, but still youthful beauty. Her hair matched the darker green of her "sleeves" and had naturally styled itself and served to frame her face with bangs that covered her forehead and came down to her shoulders. But she also had swirling twin tails of hair that perched prominently off the sides of her head. That's when he noticed her broad smile. She glowed with joy and Jules found that it brought all the rest of her face together. Instantly, he knew that Allison's beauty was as clear as the sun on a clear day. Even in the face of mamono, who were created to be enticing and beautiful through the magic of a god-like succubus, Allison stood as an equal in every way.

His words failed him. He didn't know what to say to such a beautiful woman as she smiled his way. His arm finally fell to his side and his face must have communicated his amazement. Allison giggled, bringing up one of her hands to cover her mouth as she did so. He noticed that the Oath Ribbon that Gonzo loaned her swirled around the air that made up the arm she moved for the gesture. She briefly delayed further inspection of her when she spoke to him in that same womanly voice that he'd grown to know and enjoy. "Well, Jules, aren't you going to say something?"

Jules could only stammer as he gazed upon the rest of Allison's body. It had been foreshadowed before the contract that Allison's form might be more mature in response to Jules' essence and that proved to be the case. Allison was extremely hot. A quick glance told Jules that even though she appeared to be naked, she had neither nipples nor genitals, so she looked more like she was wearing a suit so perfectly form-fitting that it had to have been painted on, because she was hiding nothing. Her breasts were quite large by the standards of normal women, representing more than a handful for Jules' admittedly large hands. Below her bosom, her waist tapered inwards and then flared outwards in a gentle curve. Her midriff showed a trim tummy that had just enough definition in her abs to point towards fitness while still being subdued enough to be undeniably feminine. Her hips were wider than her shoulders, and they fed into lusciously thick thighs and long legs. All of this was highlighted by another dark green swirling design reminiscent of the wind that started at one of her knees, floated up her thigh, danced along the swell of her hip and the tapering of her waist, and went all the way up to caress one of her prominent breasts.

"Wow," was all that Jules could force out of his mouth after his brain rebooted.

Author's Note: In as many cases as I can, I plan to adhere to the rules of Monster Girl Encyclopedia as written by Kenkou Cross. In many cases, I'm simply filling in holes with my own lore and rules. However, I have opted to make a few strategic departures from what is considered canon. The exact functionality of pure elementals is one of those things. From how I understand the world of MGE, contracted pure elementals don't take on a human-like but still incorporeal form like we saw Allison do in this chapter. Rather, they stay as a floating ball of whatever element they are. This is what Allison was before finalizing her contract with Jules. But I think it'd be boring for Allison to just stay as a ball of air for the time being, so I've decided to give her some more to work with. I hope you like this small departure from what is canonical.

Also, just so that you know, I didn't make up an entire language for Spiritish. What I've decided to use for Spiritish is a real life language called "Toki Pona" created by the linguist Sonja Lang. I don't know the language very well, but the reference material is well put together and the language itself is simple enough that I'm willing to try using it for my story. If you speak Toki Pona and notice errors in my writing, please point them out. I'll research the validity of your recommendations and implement them as appropriate. And in case you were wondering, here's what my version of Spiritish Oath meant. "I come before you as one seeking nature's blessing. I want to become one with it and to become one with you. Will you stay with me to help me as I will help you? So that we may find happiness in the world around us and in each other. Will you accept me?"