A Lesson in Flying (and Dying)

Angel listened with reverence as Vitaly explained the basics of medical science to the boy. He handed the boy a pair of large books, every now and then taking one back to flip to a memorized page and refer to something written on it. While the physician was going over the most recent discoveries on the purpose of blood in the body, Angel threw his hand in the air to ask a question.

“Uh, yes, Angel?” Vitaly said.

“Why are you wearing your visor?”

“Physicians are required by law to wear reflective visors so they are less concerned with others watching them during procedures.”

“I know why you wear them,” said the Avian, “but why are you wearing it right now? You don’t have any patients right now.”

Vitaly’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. Angel could just see part of his face reddening under the visor. “I just like wearing it,” he finally managed. “I’m just so accustomed to it, I prefer to wear it on the ship. And you never know when you’ll have an emergency procedure.”

There was a knock on the door, and Sten poked his head inside. “Is now a good time?” he asked.

Vitaly nodded. “Yes, now is fine. Angel, you take those books and study up. Now off you go. You’ve surely got work to do.”

He didn’t, but nonetheless Angel held the pair of texts to his chest and slid off the operating table to leave. He gave Sten a reassuring pat on the back as he left.

Vitaly gestured to the table, and Sten seated himself. The physician noted that the worker seemed to be showing no discomfort in his abdomen. “How are we today?” he asked as he pulled out a small folder to write a couple things down.

“Perfect, Vitaly. The burn’s entirely gone.”

Vitaly stopped writing, looking up at Sten. “What?”

“The burn is gone.”

“No, that’s not right. You had some deep burns; it should take weeks for that to heal up.”

Sten chuckled. “Well there must be something in that salve of yours, because my skin is soft as a baby’s bottom.”

A deep frown etched itself in Vitaly’s face. “Uhuh. Do you still have that feather from yesterday?”

“Oh, is that when I got that thing? I don’t remember where it came from, but I woke up this morning and it was in my hand. I was going to give it to Angel, but I must have accidentally broken it. I don’t think he would have wanted it back after that, so I just threw it away.” Sten scratched his perfectly healed abdomen.

*

Angel was in such a rush to reach his room and drop off Vitaly’s books that he didn’t see the girl coming towards him until he’d already run her over. The boy cried out and fell backwards, dropping the texts.

“Whoops! So sorry!” he cried, putting his books down to give the girl a hand up. She looked to be about ten or eleven, and had long dark hair that fell all bout her. “Up you go, little lady.”

“Who are you calling little?” she bit back, refusing the offered help.

“I’m not sure. Who am I calling little?” Angel laughed. “I’m Angel. Karp didn’t introduce me to you.” He put his hands on his knees and leaned closer to her, treating her like he would treat Ella.

The girl had a look of extreme confusion on her face. “You’ve already met me. How could you forget!”

Angel reeled back at the girl’s bitter tone. “Gosh, you’re angry for a little girl. How old are you?”

The girl pointed a threatening finger at the Avian. “I’ll have you know I’m fifty-three years old!” She leaned back to put her hands on her hips.

The boys’ face scrunched in consternation before he laughed and a smile broke out on his lips. He leaned forward again, this time pick her small figure up. “Oh, aren’t you cute. Well If you’re fifty, then I’m a hundred years old.” He laughed at his joke.

The girl’s face brunt bright red. “How dare you! I will curse you with a thousand nightmares-”

“Zinaida!”

Zinaida looked over her shoulder to see Karp. “Yes, Daddy?” she called innocently.

“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” Angel said, putting Zinaida down. “She’s a feisty one. How old is she?”

“Twelve,” Karp answered flatly to the Avian. Then to his daughter, “What have I told you about lying? It’s wrong, Zinaida. Now go on down to Ingrid and find out what her meal plan for today is. And if she asks if we can cook birds we catch up here, tell her I said ‘no.’”

Zinaida made a face before marching off to the ladder with a grumble. When she was out of sight, Karp turned back to Angel. “Good morning to you, Angel. I heard you gave Radomir what for yesterday.”

Angel’s smile dropped, and he fought to keep his wings from pulling inwards. “Yeah… Look, I’m sorry about that, Karp. I should go apologize to him-” The Avian stopped when the captain broke into a laugh.

“Don’t be sorry! It’s about time someone put him in his place. I need him to be as friendly as possible when he get to the Floating Islands. Everyone needs to be presentable.”

Angel’s discomfort eased, and his shoulders relaxed. When he caught Karp peering at the cover of the books in his arms, he held them out so the man could see their covers more clearly. “Oh, these are some medical texts Vitaly leant me. I really wanted to learn how to practice medicine, so we spent the morning talking about… well, there was just so much. We talked about how pain works, and how to treat basic injuries, like scratches and burns and sprains.”

Karp nodded, a small frown on his face. “Hm. That was very… nice of him. Say, Angel, have you had a chance to properly stretch your wings since you’ve been here?”

“Oh yeah, there’s plenty of room to stretch them on the Cloud Breaker.” As if to prove his point, Angel stretched his wings as far out as they would go, his farthest feathers bending just a bit against the parallel walls.

The captain chuckled as if this was a joke. “No, I mean have you had a chance to fly?”

“Oh!” Angel pulled his wings towards himself. “I can’t actually fly.”

There was a beat of silence from Karp. “You’re kidding, right? What Avian doesn’t know how to fly?”

Angel ducked his head self-consciously, and his wings mimicked the motion. “Well I never had anyone to teach me. I’m actually a little scared of heights.”

“Well let’s go fix that!”

“What?”

“Let’s go up to the surface deck and show you how to fly,” Karp suggested, hiking a thumb over his shoulder at the ladder leading to the crow’s nest.

“Karp, that sounds like a terrible idea,” Angel replied. “I can’t just jump off the ship. That’s dangerous.”

Karp shook his head. “No, no, that’s exactly how Avian children learn to fly. Their parents just toss them off the edge of the Floating Islands and let them figure it out. They’ve got a bit of time to figure it out because the drop is really big,” the captain said with a laugh.

“I don’t know, Karp…”

“It’ll be fun. Come on.”

*

Angel and Karp were standing on the top of the ship, under the crow’s nest. the older man was gradually pushing closer to the edge of the ship and encouraging him verbally, Angel whimpering quietly, when Vitaly appeared at the lookout.

“Oh, Karp, there you are! I’ve been looking for… What the hell are you doing?”

Angel dug his heels into the wooden deck in an attempt to slow his approach to the open sky. He leaned heavily against the hands at his back. His heart thumped aggressively against his ribcage in a fear that Angel had never known. It was one thing to know your greatest fear; it was something else entirely to face it. He muttered encouragingly to himself, because he didn’t have the nerve to argue with Karp, nor did he have the sense of mind to listen to the advice Karp was feeding him.

“Now when you’re out, expand your wings to slow your descent. Then-” Suddenly the pushing stopped. “Oh, Vitaly! I was just about to teach Angel how to fly. Come down; you can give him some tips.”

Angel yelped as one of his feet slipped and he scooted ever closer to the end of the deck. One of his arms flailed back to grab at Karp, but the taller man had forced the boy’s wings out and served as a barrier between the two.

“Karp!” Vitaly called, hurdling over the rail of the crow’s nest towards the twenty foot drop. With a loud thump, the physician landed next to the Avian and captain. He quickly took a step to block Angel from the edge of the deck. The Avian seemed to take no notice, simply staring past Vitaly into the baby blue void beyond.

“Karp, just look at him! The kid’s going to wet his pants.”

The captain’s lips tugged downwards. “He’s an Avian, Vitaly! He can fly, and he’ll love it once he figures out how.”

“But he’s not an Avian - not really.” Vitaly placed his hands on Angel’s shoulders to keep him still when Karp attempted to continue pushing Angel past him. “He’s only half Avian. And for all we know, his wings aren’t developed to fly. Maybe they’re too weak. What if they’re vestigial - you know, just for show?”

Karp growled in response. “If he can’t fly, then how do we prove he’s full-blooded to Ludmilla. Otherwise, he’s useless!”

“He’s of even less use if he’s dead, Karp,” the physician reasoned. “We’ll tell them he didn’t have the space in the city. We’ll find a solution, but this isn’t it.” The two continued to push Angel back and forth, and the boy was starting to become aware of a sensation of nausea.

The dark-haired man bore his teeth to the calmer man at first, then he relented, relieving the pressure he was applying to Angel. “Maybe you’re right,” he agreed, pulling Angel away from the edge of the deck and wrapping a comforting arm around his shoulder. He turned the boy and started guiding him to the ladder that led to the crow’s nest.

Angel’s body still shook in fear, and his eyes remained glued directly in front of him. But his feet finally began to work, and he took deep, steadying breaths. Vitaly’s shoulders relaxed and a heavy sigh escaped him. “Thank you, Karp-”

“Or maybe you’re wrong!” Karp cried, all at once scooping Angel up and tossing the Avian overboard.

“Karp!” Vitaly cried, hurrying to the edge of the deck to see Angel plummeting towards the earth. “What have you done?” the light-haired man muttered.

The captain joined the physician at his side, laughing victoriously. “You’ll see. Any second now, he’ll fly.” Vitaly counted to five, and slowly Karp’s manic grin dropped. “Any second now.”

“I’m going after him.”

“Excuse me?” Karp said, turning to face Vitaly as the older man ripped his jacket off.

“I’m going after him!”

And with that, the physician jumped the deck, straightening himself to maker a quicker descent than his target.

*

After his initial bout of screaming, Angel remained silent - more because he couldn’t quite breath. He wasn’t sure if it was the wind rushing past his face or his fear, but oxygen refused to enter the Avian’s lungs. He attempted to remember what Karp had told him, unfurling his wings to slow down.

He spread his wings with excess force, and was surprised with how much he slowed. The boy was still falling downwards much too quickly, but now maybe he could catch his breath and think. He fought his urge to reach out for something to grab. Now he knew when birds flew, they flapped their wings. And that was all there was to it. Right?

Angel pulled his limbs towards his body so he was more less a ball. With all of the effort he could muster, the Avian attempted to flap his wings. But the wind pushing up against his wings just seemed too strong. He gave it another try, and this time he managed to flap just one of his feathered appendages, sending his body into a barrel roll.

He cried out again, gasping for breath. He realized tears were blurring his vision when buildings below him began to take shape. His heart plummeted with the realization that he was going to die, and he began the process of accepting his fate within seconds: desperation, sadness, anger, acceptance, and then another bout of desperation. Before the stage of ethereal enlightenment could hit him, something tackled him from above and he squeezed his eyes shut.

Angel yelped as his body flipped so his back was to the quickly approaching ground (a.k.a. death). He forced his eyes open to see Vitaly, his medical visor missing to reveal a pair of yellow, slitted eyes. Before Angel could get any words out, he felt the process of falling suddenly stop. The pair hung in mid-air, the young boy clinging desperately to Vitaly.

As the Avian gasped for breath, he listened to his heart beating furiously. He felt their bodies start to rise, and he looked down to confirm that the ground was indeed gradually getting farther away. Angel looked to Vitaly for an explanation, but remained silent when he looked over the man’s shoulder to see what looked a lot like a pair of wings flapping gracefully - except the wings weren’t made of feathers; they seemed to be made of a blue light.

“Vitaly?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“Yeah, kid?” Vitaly refused to meet his gaze, only staring upwards.

“Are you an Avian?”

“Not anymore.”

Author's Note

I hate chapters that are made up of little, irrelevant sections. I'm a hypocrite like that.

2,333 words