The Cloudy Cliff

The path by foot was a painful one. Cloudfire hovered over the path with his little wings, making it look effortless, while Tony, who was trailing behind him, was exhausted from the seemingly endless road. The piece of meat he held by a protruded bone was starting to get heavy, even though he switched arm every ten minutes or so. What if it led to nowhere? He still had the doubt that he was going to get eaten at the end of all this, so his motivation wasn’t so strong either. The towering rock formation from before was still in sight, but it never seemed to approach, even as they kept on hiking in its direction.

“Can’t we stop a sec? Sheesh, my legs are gonna fall off if I go on!” Tony complained.

 “This here is the wilderness, boy. There’s no one to cover you. And I’m not waiting for you. I’m hungry, I’m going home. If keeping up is too much of an effort for you, then give up and stay right where you are.”

“How can you say that? You’ve got wings. So unfair…” He groaned to himself.

The route was very demanding for the boy. While the little dragon, about the height of a three year old earthling, could fly and fit in any little place, Tony had to climb rocks, crawl through tree branches and fall in mud holes. He was about to give up and curl up like a ball on the ground until Jesus would come and save him, but then he saw it.

“That’s it. We’re here.” Cloudfire revealed, pointing to a rocky formation that was so high that Tony couldn’t even see the top. They were there. It was the huge cliff from before, just that from up close it just looked like an extremely wide and endlessly high wall of stone. He was relieved to finally arrive at the finish line of this agonizingly long journey. He let the peace of meat fall on the grass, and then dropped to the floor, ready to celebrate with a nap.  Water would also be good.

“We’ve now finished the path by foot. My home is up there,” He said, pointing up the cliff wall, “So we’ll be climbing this afterwards.” Cloudfire said.

“But, that’s impossible.”

“First, sit down, rest up, and I’ll be right back. I’m going to go cook and prepare this meat, and I’ll bring water. So don’t get kidnapped or eaten there while I’m gone. And don’t run away either.” He then started up the cliff.

Tony watched him flying up, slowly becoming a blue dot, until he disappeared once arrived on top of the cliff .He sighed, lifted himself up from the cliff wall he was leaning on, and looked behind him to see the giant, towering structure that he was supposed to climb. On top lay a dragon’s nest. Now he was sure.

He took off his shirt, carefully placed it on the grass, and then lay down on it. He looked at the sun, the clouds, and the top of the trees, thinking over everything again. This creature that he saw in the Basket-ball Area at school was the same that brought him here. Actually, he dropped him on this island by accident because Cloudfire stopped him. That creature fled, and sent another one to capture him, on this very island. So at the moment, while Cloudfire was “cooking a meal”, a barbaric alien sent to kidnap him is searching every corner of the island. In the meantime, he has to wait patiently down below, alone, without running away. And he’s an alien. He’s like Cloudfire, like the creature at school, and like that other guy, Pascal. A bunch of aliens. If what he heard is true, spitfires and nemusians are the good people, while lizaards are the enemy. Both the creature at school and the creature sent to this island are lizaards. Things were starting to make sense. He’s supposed to be the Hero and be powerful enough to destroy those lizaards? Was that what saving the universe meant?

There was a thump. This is it, Tony thought, this is the end. I’m gonna die.

“Now don’t say it’s disgusting, please.” Cloudfire gave him part of the cooked meat. It was skewered through a piece of wood.

He took a bite out of it, and it felt like chewing on greasy rubber, but once he sank his teeth deeper, the inside revealed itself to be juicy and tender. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad. He could live through this if that was what he had to eat for a couple of days. Cloudfire then handed him a small cup carved out of stone and filled it with water from a small vase built with clay.

They ate and drank silently, without uttering a word. Tony mercilessly stared at the spitfire, from his pointy tail to his small, spiky ears. A live dragon was right there in front of him, and no one would ever believe him. Ever. He would at least remember, and keep the truth to himself.

“Finished?”

“Huh?”

“Very well.” Cloudfire stood up, walked up to the rocky wall, and tapped it. “This is where you should start. Pascal always starts with this corner; he says it’s the best grip.”

“What? Are you expecting me to climb this? I don’t have claws or anything to hold on to that wall. You have wings! And Pascal’s been doing this since he was small. I can’t do that. I’m not doing it.”

“Stop crying, Pascal got it in three tries. And he was six.”

“Serious?”

“Yes, and you can do it too. If you don’t, you’ll die. And if you fall, you’ll probably also die.”

“Wow…”

“Look, once you get up there, I assure you everything will be easier. It’s not that high, don’t freak out. You’ll make it, believe me. Tell me you believe me! Come on.”

“…I believe you?”

“That’s right. Now meet ya at the top!” He said, with that same face that Tony’s friends do when they dare him to do stupid s**t in class. Cloudfire flew up and away to the top of the precipice.

Tony slowly started by pulling himself up from crack to crack, stepping on and pushing himself from rocks that stuck out of the stone wall. Eventually, he gained some little height. It wasn’t as hard as he’d imagined at first. A couple of minutes later though, it was becoming hot and the exhaustion from the big trail from earlier was catching up on him. He went on up, struggling to pull himself up with the little strength left in his poor little scrawny arms. “The worst thing I could possibly do right now would be to look down...” He thought.

After what looked like hours to him, Tony was too tired to drag up to another crevice, so he decided to drop down on a small rocky platform he discovered below and rested his feeble arms. He wondered: How far could I have gone up? Tony kneeled and went on his four legs, where he peaked down the edge of his little scaffolding. “Mother of god!” He was so startled that he nearly lost balance. He got up, backed off quickly and bumped his back on the rock wall behind him. He sat down, staying leaned on the wall, with his arms over his head. “No no, no. This is too high. At least… five school buses in length. I’ll fall and I’m gonna die!” He bawled. Tony was terribly frightened and couldn’t help but cry.

He looked up to check what he had left to climb, and noticed that he actually had more than half of it done. “The only way is up.” He stated to reassure himself. He couldn’t bare standing on the rocky platform any longer, fearing it could break and fall down. He continued his ascension of the big bad cliff.

Moments later, Cloudfire looked down below and saw a small spec climbing up the cliff, actually making progress. “Come on, Tony! You’re making it! I told you that you could succeed. Just a little more perseverance!” He shouted from the top, producing echoes. “He’s really slow... but I’m surprised he’s actually doing it.” He told himself.

“This isn’t perseverance anymore… it’s more like instinct of surviva--“ As Tony mumbled to himself, his foot slipped off from the rock he was climbing on, and he fell a couple of meters down before luckily grabbing hold of another overhung rock with his right hand. His right arm immediately started to weaken and his fingers were slipping off the stone at a very slow rate. Tony’s stress and adrenaline made his heartbeat feel like it would pop out of his chest. His voice was whimpering like an old injured dog, and his eyes were red with tears and fears as he looked down below, where he would fall. His lips were quivering and his face grew white when suddenly, his fingers slipped off.

“Tony, no!” Cloudfire screamed, uselessly diving for him. It was too late, he was going down way too fast, and Cloudfire wasn’t strong enough to catch him anyways. Tony’s body was dancing through the wind, and down to the five-school-buses-far-away ground like a doll being dropped off a ledge. Tony closed his eyes, waiting for this to be all over, repeating over and over: “It’s just a dream.” He was seconds away from finally splatting to the floor when he caught a glimpse of his hands. They were radiating with blue light again. “What the--“ was the only thing he had time to say before his face was an inch away from the gravel ground, and then a big flash of green appeared. Nothing was to be seen in the big green flash, and when it gradually faded away, Tony was not on the ground or any close to it either.

“What the hell just happened?” Cloudfire asked himself as he came to a halt in mid-air. He was hovering beside the cliff wall where Tony fell, about half way up the cliff, looking everywhere to find the boy. He looked up, down, left… and when he looked to the right, he only had time to see a big blur of colour dashing up right past him, aiming for the top of the mountain at a rocket’s speed. The blur’s sonic waves jerked Cloudfire aside, making him plunk off the cliff’s rock wall.  “So he really could be the Hero…” He breathed out. He sped up to the top, eager to see the powerful transformation of the Hero. He arrived on top of the cliff, where he settled close to the flying blur. It was Tony alright. “Tony, what happened?” he asked.

Tony was upraised, back first to Cloudfire, and turned around slowly with a serious, almost angry face. Tony’s eyes weren’t brown anymore, they were green. His hands were still glowing blue, and the boy didn’t look like he had any sort of injury from the fall. His serious face turned into a confident grin. “I did it.” He said.

 Cloudfire stood there, looking at the new confident boy. He was amazed by the power and the aura that the kid projected.

“You did it…” The spitfire said, relieved. And in a moment, Tony’s eyes changed back to their chestnut color and his hands stopped glowing. The child dropped to his four legs, looking on the ground, panting.

“Tony, you finally did it. You transformed into your true form!” Cloudfire exclaimed.

Tony was still on his four legs, confused and exhausted. He dropped to the floor and fainted. Enough of this forest hiking already, he thought to himself.

“You really earn that nap, kid.” Cloudfire said. The sun was going down and the orange sky was getting darker and darker. Cloudfire resolved to take rest for the night too, and wait for tomorrow to start a fresh day. Tony had still much to learn from the spitfire, and it was planned to be shown tomorrow.