“You’re doing incredible!” Kirsty marvelled at Ethan, the teenage boy now flying with wings on his back. Kirsty thought he was taking to it like a duck to water.
Ethan felt like he was seeing the world with an entirely new perspective. He was now rather glad for the way the flying-gym was designed. It looked like such a mess before but when flying above, and having the full motion of flight, the layout made a lot of sense. Soft pads on each corners in case he overshot and of course lots of paddings on the ground… it was as safe as safe could be when learning to fly. Yet he felt restrained… this was fine but there was more… so much more to do with wings. “I want to go outside now!” Ethan quickly fluttered his wings down with a gentle flare of wind. “I only have a day with these!” There was so much to do. Heck what can he do with one day? For eight of those hours, he would be sleeping! He had maximise it to last as long as possible.
Kirsty nodded seeing the eagerness and smiled more. “Yeah, I guess you seem a natural at this… I think you’re ready. Though please don’t wonder off. We’ve had people just get lost at sea you know… or even end up in the middle of nowhere…”
Joshua simply floated on his personal cloud, watching and waiting for them to get ready to go out. “This thing hardly needs any skill,” he said admiring it. “I just walk, and it does its thing. It’s like I got something grabbing my feet or body whenever I need to go somewhere.” He demonstrated by starting to walk ‘up’, the cloud turning into a flight of stairs and regenerating at each spot. The cloud itself seemed to occupy about ten feet of distance but was only about one foot deep. “I don’t think I could fall, even if I wanted to.”
Kirsty looked a little concerned at that. She had learned many different kinds of flight, this fell under ‘assistive’ magic which had its own curiou nuances. “Josh, your transformation isn’t uh… on the ‘usual’ list of flying types. The thing is, I don’t know how it works completely. It might disappear with sunlight or something! You have to test it carefully-“
“Oh come on it’s fine! I never felt safer then ever!” He did a ‘trust’ fall as the cloud simply ‘caught’ him, letting him fall gently back taking the form of a bed. “See?”
Kirsty hummed trying to think of all the things she had heard of in Flight School. “Hm… well, I can see a few issues already. If this cloud is supporting your physical body, you are going to be using a lot less of your physical muscles... That can make you extremely lazy. I would suggest… treating it like playing a video game. Take a ten minute break every hour… move your physical body, you can turn it off right?”
“I feel fine!” Joshua insisted. “Come on Ethan, let’s go have some fun. We got a day with these to play with. You want to check out the flying school, right?”
Ethan nodded. “I do… but I think we should listen to Kirsty. She knows all about flying.” He glanced briefly again at his wings, flexing them. “Can we try it Kirsty?”
The winged Snake woman thought about it and nodded. “Normally I’d like you to do a few hours flying here… but you seem quite natural and at ease with it. I have to stay with plant-boy here though,” Kirsty sighed gesturing to Paul… who still had vines growing where his arms should be. “At least until the FAD wears off.”
“Eh I’ll be fine,” Paul insisted. “Maybe my hair will turn green now eh?” He laughed at the thought.
“I can take you to the school,” Natalie suddenly floated down to them using her fairy-wings. The heavy-set goth girl smiled a bit in delight. “I’ve been there a few times…”
Kirsty nodded again. “Yeah that’s fine thanks Nat. Just remember, you have only 24 hours… and frankly, you shouldn’t push it to the minute. Have fun with your wings…”
Josh grinned. “This is gonna be so much fun!”
Even Ethan had to laugh. This was going to be good…
Ethan flew now in the open air with his angelic wings, marvelling at the sensation of the wind upon them. It was… better now. A lot better… he was climbing higher… high enough now that cars looked like toys. There were moments he just felt so lost in the joy of flight. it was a nice feeling. The winged teen was floating so high that he thought he could almost touch the clouds… maybe he should try flying higher.
“You shouldn’t go much higher…” Natalie quickly advised. “The air gets surprisingly thin… at least until we know how much your lungs adapted but.. FADs don’t give that much adaption there.”
Josh on the other hand, was just holding onto the cloud. He had debated various poses, standing on it like a surfboard, or lying flat.. even just lying back and letting the cloud keep up with the others. It seemed the cloud knew what he wanted almost like it had its own intelligence. “It’s rather peaceful up here…” He let a little window appear in the magic cloud to peer down at the ground. The small lights of the town could be seen… and beyond that an entire world. He looked down at the ocean too.. thinking of his past FAD entering that domain. “…if only there was a way to go anywhere,” He mused in thought.
“You seem very quiet,” Natalie suddenly asked Ethan. “Is She talking to you?”
“She?”
“The goddess.” Natallie queried. “Your first time in the air.. you have Her attention you know.”
“Uh- no-“ Ethan bit his lip not quite sure how to respond to that. She respected Natalie’s beliefs… but he wasn’t the religious type. Perhaps an odd thing coming from someone that looked like a literal angel. “I was just… thinking about how flying with these wings feel…”
“How is it?” Joshua asked while floating on his bed-like cloud. “This is a pretty chill form if you ask me. I like it.” He was lying back… just letting the cloud do all the work again.
Ethan wondered how best to explain it. He didn’t want to sound like there was a sense of disappointment- he had got ‘exactly’ what he desired… yet there was something ‘missing’… and he wasn’t sure what it was. “Well… It feels… I feel a bit… detached? I can’t explain it…” He gestured to his floating body. “I feel like I’m being held by a hang-glider… strapped to my back. It feels like my wings are another part of me, separate doing their own thing…”
“Kinda like my cloud,” Joshua observed. “Yeah…”
Natalie tilted her head. “I understand. You wish to feel closer to the wind… to have what you have be ‘more’ part of you?”
Ethan blinked. Was… wait- was that really it? Ethan thought carefully at Natalie’s insight. “Well- maybe? I don’t know… I love this don’t get me wrong… but it just feels like I’m playing a video game and…”
“You want more…? The goddess has given you just one step. These wings are simply training you… perhaps to give you a taste of flight without that full commitment…” Natallie smiled.
Ethan sighed again at the idea of some ‘divine force’ doing this… but maybe it was right to see this simply as an opportunity. He was able to fly... but why did it feel ‘wrong’? it just seemed ‘strange’ that his legs dangled without any place to be, still drawn by gravity. His arms similarly not too sure on what to be doing. His wings beat gently, and he could feel their motions… the wind fluttering the wings as they flew towards the ‘runway’ of the flying school.
“Just wait for the lights,” Natalie explained as they approached aligned to it.
There was a flicker of light on the runway as they turned green.
“Traffic lights?” Asked Joshua as he started the cloud once more.
“It’s not as bad as what planes have to do… but we do still have to guard against mid air collisions. Some changed folk are actual robots and stuff…”
Ethan nodded. Now they could visit the flying school! Yet time… time was ticking away. “Only… eighteen hours left…” He sighed.
