| Plans can be made for every type of emergency. However, when the emergency arrives, the plans become useless. -Rules of Life, pg. 78 Part 42 Vanel began to fly around the room as she waited. Zipping past the others, they neither ducked or yelled at her. She did it too much for them to care anymore. She was a dragon, for crying out loud. A Master of the Sky. Finally landing on the floor, she tipped forward from overbalancing, too used to having four legs to land on instead of two. Without looking, Zidane put a hand on her head, effectively keeping her on her feet. � I�d rather us stay together. Kiti and I are the only ones who know our way around well enough to look everywhere.� � That�s wasted strength.� � Not really. If one of you misses something somehow, the others may just catch it.� � You have a point.� � Of course I do.� � Fine then. I agree.� � Kiti?� I shook my head. � I don�t care.� � Okay then. Let�s go.� Vanel took off toward the lift, wings working laboriously. She turned around to make a face and her long purple hair slapped her in the face. She dropped to the floor as if swatted and began to twitch. Tiovex paused to pick her up and continued to the lift as though this happened all the time. Zidane stretched his wings out, waving them back and forth experimentally. He looked up at me. � Do these things really work?� � They don�t look very supportive, do they? Yes, they work.� We went down to the air cab station and took off from there. Zidane was quite shaky, but Tiovex waited in the air and I waited on the ground. He got the hang of staying in one place, which is a tad less difficult than actual flying. I took to the air and held out a hand for him to take if he wanted it. He placed his fingers on my palm, but only to be sure I was there. � Envision yourself flying,� I instructed. Abruptly, he took off. � I never meant as though you were racing, Zidane!� Tiovex, Vanel, and I chased after him and easily caught him. � You�re going to wear yourself out,� I warned, � and then you�ll have to walk everywhere!� � How do I slow down?!� � Control your wings!� � How do I do that?!� � Use your shoulders!� He tried, but obviously he didn�t understand what I meant. � What am I doing wrong?� he demanded, frustrated. � Turn back,� I instructed. � We shouldn�t go too far from Lindblum.� He did so and again tried to put a tighter rein on his wings. They suddenly gave out and he fell. I caught him and hovered. � Man,� he grumbled, � this is harder than I thought.� � Don�t worry about it,� I soothed. � I know I wasn�t being very helpful.� I rubbed around the base of his wings, untensing the weary muscles there. � All I can say is that you will have to be patient. Your wings are connected to your shoulders, which don�t have the development necessary for controlled flight. Even dragon hatchlings can�t fly correctly when they get their wings because they don�t possess the muscle they need.� I shifted him around (he had gone limp from my rubbing and looked half asleep) and continued to work. � You�re going to have to learn to incorporate your pectoral muscles into the control or else you�ll never fly.� � Pectoral muscles?� So he was listening after all. I rolled him onto his back and he lifted his head to watch me trace the muscles under his shirt. � Your chest muscles.� � Oh!� He paused. � How would I do that?� I explained as best I could. � When you breathe heavily, your whole upper body rises, right?� � Yeah.� � To go anywhere, you have to consciously rotate your shoulders in circles. Just moving them will take you where the wings want to go, straight up into the air, or nowhere at all. This slight rotation forces your pectoral muscles to pull down as your shoulders come forward, thus restraining your wings and keeping them from going wild. Eventually, you will do it automatically.� Considering his observation skills, I figured the maximum would be a day. � Are dragon wings the same way?� � Dragon wings are connected directly to the pectoral muscles, which allows us longer flights because we don�t get tired so easily. We do not have that problem. It�s the main reason I don�t like being human.� � Can I try again?� I felt his shoulders. They were relaxed, so I decided it couldn�t hurt. � If you feel like it.� � Yeah!� � First, I want to show it to you. Stay there and watch my shoulders.� I made sure he was securely settled in the air, then flew around, always making sure he could see one shoulder or the other. When I stopped, I asked, � Did you take notice?� � Yes.� � Let�s see what you can do.� I watched him dart back and forth. He was a bit slow and shaky, only to be expected from a new flyer, but he was flying. Under his own power. He returned, ecstatic. � I did it!� � You did.� He rolled his eyes. � Just a little less enthusiastic there, Kiti.� I laughed. � What did you expect? That I would go leaping around screaming in joy?� He made a face. � I think I�d run away screaming. But definitely not in joy.� He glanced around. � Hey . . . Where did Tiovex and Vanel go?� � I believe they mentioned something about an aerial survey of Lindblum.� � I told them not to wander off!� � Calm yourself, Ziaden. As long as they stay in the sky, they�ll be fine.� <--Part 41 Part 43--> |