[FWC 17] The Wings of Giants

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ClockworkPanda
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[FWC 17] The Wings of Giants

#1 Post by ClockworkPanda »

"But what if Master catches you?" Dave managed between pants. He wasn't in a particularly bad shape but Dog Keidran always had this panting thing going on. "You know he's forbidden you from taking anything from the carpenter!"

Juno rolled her eyes and hoisted her contraption higher into the air demonstratively. "He won't catch me, and if he does I'll just run. He's a bad runner."

"The guards will catch you!" Dave persisted and made a pained sound as the slope increased. "And you'll get your dinner suspended!"

Juno stopped abruptly and spun around, poking a striped finger into her friend's chest. "Only reason they'd catch me is if someone told them where I was hiding," she said with a pointed look, before spinning around again and continuing up the grassy hill. "Besides, I'll just bribe them. Captain Willis likes pastries and the baker's too busy fussing about that new oven thing to notice if a few are missing."

Before Dave could reply anything more she skipped up the hillside quickly. When she rounded the crest her face was suddenly hit by a strong gust of wind and the sound of screeching seabirds.

Hair flapping wildly behind her she took a deep breath and sighed happily. She'd always loved the smell of the sea. One day she'd work on one of those boats out there. Maybe go to the Basitin islands. Or see what was across that horizon no mapper had ever crossed.

A particularly strong gust of wind brought her back into the moment and she had to dig her claws into the dirt. Once it subsided she took a moment to look about.

Behind her the landscape stretched out in a large field all the way to Master's mansion. Quite beautiful, but she'd always found the view on the opposite side so much more appealing.

A sheer cliff on the far side of the hill dropped straight into the ocean below and was slowly being carved out by the crashing waves. In the small holes that time had carved into the rock face countless birds had made their homes and were constantly flitting about, screaming their disharmonies into the air.

Smiling to herself she made her way over to a flat rock she'd brought up for a previous test and gently placed the contraption on it. It was generally more easy to keep an eye on your stuff if they didn't get lost in the grass, she'd found. And on a windy day it was always seemingly calmer near the ground, though nobody seemed sure why. She made a mental note to figure that one out later.

But might as well do something while waiting for Dave to catch up. She broke off a couple of straws of grass and threw them into the air. While the wind in her face spoke its quite clear language it was always good to double check. Redundancy is key, she'd once heard one of Master's guests whisper.

At the time she hadn't know what "redundancy" was but a late night quest to Master's library had sorted that one out.

Redundancy: making a lot of the important stuff so it was sure to work when you needed it! Well, at least when you scaled away all that fancy mumbo-jumbo the humans liked to put in their explanations.

A sudden rhythmic breathing broke into the seaside soundscape and Juno turned to the gravel path, watching Dave climb over the final steps.

"Took you long enough!" she exclaimed and mimicked the stern look Master always shot them when they didn't bring his afternoon tea at exactly three o'clock.

"Ha ha, funny," Dave replied and frowned. "If you want my help you could at least wait for me."

"No time for waiting!" Juno chirped and sprung to her feet with a nimble move of her tail. "Let's get this party in the air!"

She lifted up the contraption again and held it out, leaning back with a practiced ease to combat the wind. "C'mon, what are you waiting for? It'll be fun!"

Dave groaned and moved over, grabbing the contraption and holding it out behind Juno, who slid her arms and legs into a couple of straps with a practiced ease.

After making sure they were firmly secured and a quick once-over of the small controls she's fitted into the handholds she threw her arms out and laughed.

A sudden burst of movement behind her saw the contraption unfurl into a huge pair of wings and complementary tail. The latter of which smacked into Dave with the suddenness of its appearance and sent him tumbling back onto the flat rock and into a somersault.

He managed to scramble back onto his feet just in time to see Juno running across the top of the hill. Toward the sea.

"No! Wait!" he yelled and set off after her. "You'll crash! You said we were taking the other side!"

Juno simply continued running and kept her gaze leveled at the hovering birds. "Life's an adventure, Dave! Besides, it'll work this time!"

With a rising feeling of dread in his chest Dave watched as his best friend flung herself out over the sheer drop and disappeared.

Time seemed to slow down as Dave ran up to the crest and looked down.

No sign of Juno. Oh no.

"Juno!" he yelled but was met by no sound but the crashing of the waves and the screeching of the birds.

Tears dimmed his vision as he scanned the shore in a frenzy. She had to be there somewhere! Juno wouldn't just disappear, Juno wouldn't leave him all alone!

But she wasn't there.

Dave sobbed as the realization set in. It hadn't worked.

"Of course it didn't work!" Dave snarled and gritted his teeth. Keidran can't fly! He hadn't stopped her, and now she was gone.

"Stupid, stupid stupid!" he yelled and tore at his hair.

In his stupor he would surely have missed the small orange streak across the ocean, if it wasn't for the fact that it had darted across a wave and upset a flock of birds, sending them screeching into the air.

The commotion it caused was enough to grab Dave's attention just in time to see the streak make a wide arc over the waves and reveal -

"Juno!" Dave exclaimed and jumped to his feet. He was shaking but he didn't care. Juno had made it! It worked!

Waving frantically he watched the streak grow closer, revealing the Tiger Keidran's face, beaming wider than he'd ever seen before.

Quick as a bolt of lightning she darted over his head, the wind from her passing enough to send him reeling again.

Yet this time when he got up he was met by a much more pleasant sight. Juno was coming in through a descending arc and settled down on the hill in front of him.

Her feet had barely touched the ground before she was wrapped in a tight hug.

"Easy!" she managed through excited gasps. "You'll break the equipment!"

Dave just hugged her harder. "I thought I lost you... b-but it worked!"

Juno recoiled in surprise. "Lost me?"

His face was wet with tears when he looked up at her. "When you jumped off the cliff and I couldn't find you, but you're okay, and don't ever scare me like that again! Okay?"

Juno's expression softened as she returned the hug. "Oh, Dave, I'm so sorry," she mumbled. "Didn't mean to spook you. Just got a bit..."

She grimaced as she tried to find a fitting word, but Dave interjected with something half between a smile and a scowl. "Too excited?"

"Yeah, that," Juno nodded and wiggled uncomfortably. "Again."

Dave sighed and slumped against her as he let out a drawn out breath.

Everything was fine. She was fine.

After quite a bit of time had passed Juno tried wiggling out of the vice grip. "Seriously though, you'll ruin the equipment."

Dave looked up again with a surprised expression. "O-oh, right," he stammered and let go gently.

Juno sat down and undid all the straps, letting the wings fall to the ground before lying down on them.

"You have no idea how heavy that gets after a while," she said as Dave lied down next to her. "But it's totally worth it."

She turned to face Dave and put her hand into his. "And I promise not to give you such a scare ever again."

Dave smiled at her and grabbed the hand gently. Well that was good enough for him.

With that they turned their gazes to the birds above and watched them paint arcs across the clouds. To imagine, they actually did it. Keidran do fly. Juno flies.

He glanced at her and shared in the broad smile that painted her face.

"So how was it?"

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