Copyright 2019 Bone Bear Press
Written by Anastasia Bolinder
Edited by Anastasia Bolinder, John Bolinder, Meagan Johnson and Carlee Beth Josephson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored or transmitted by any means – whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic – without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews.
Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.
ISBN: 9781719811095
Cover Art by:
Niken Anindita (2019) / https://www.instagram.com/megatruhart/
Intrtior illustrations by:
Anastasia Bolinder (2018) / https://astarabriarart.wixsite.com/astarart
Published by Bone Bear Press
https://astarabriarart.wixsite.com/bonebearpress
SkyJump
By Anastasia Bolinder
“The height is easy, the climb is hard; the thought is consuming. The jump, is soul.”
To my mother who was the first to read, love and care for these characters I love.
I will never forget that moment you gasped because of this story.
I will always love and miss you.
Chapter 1
“Into the City”
The horizon loomed before us with a grayish dot of a city gracing the white desert landscape, as if to make you believe it was nothing more than a mirage.
My legs ached from sitting atop them in our old beat up truck for hours.
“Is that it?” I asked pointing to the dot that was ever becoming bigger and starting to take form as skyscrapers and freeways.
Glancing to my father he nodded, his cheeks and chin lined with a beard but his lips taunt as he looked ahead.
“Yes, but we’re not staying long.” he said, his voice rough but with a soft way about it that only I knew after years of traveling and moving all the time.
Leaning into the window I huffed out a soft sigh as I put my head against the glass with my dirty blond hair falling about my shoulders.
If I was honest with myself I knew I loved traveling, but the fact that we never stopped and enjoyed any place we went always made it feel like half of a photograph.
I could only ever have a second before the frame changed and my life was new and different. For some people maybe that was ok, but for me I was starting to become tired of it.
“When we get into the city we are going to the capital building to get your paper work transferred for school.” My father said, his tone softer but his eyes still glanced behind us as if someone was tracking us again.
I sat up from leaning on the window and cast a glance at the city, it’s tall buildings and defined edgeds sat atop spiriling freeways.
“Do I really have to go to a prep school? All my life you never let me go to any school at all and now suddenly you want me to get excited about being left?” I asked, my question was not cruel but pleading.
I had lived my whole life with just me and my father, and now he wanted to drop me off after so many years of never stopping or leaving me alone with anyone.
He took a hard sigh into his lungs and I knew it meant I was in for a lecture but I didn’t care, I was tired of how he acted like now he was just going to send me away.
“Quil, It’s not a prep school. Just a school like any other for learning and has a very good class in defense.” He said as he scanned the city not even glancing over to me as I sat up, my vest swaying as I looked to him.
“So that should make it better? How am I going to be protected if they come? Even if the school teaches me how to defend myself without you there, what am I going to do until I can fight well enough to hold my own?” I asked folding my arms across my chest as my hair swayed and the old beat up blue truck drove onward unaffected by its passenger’s quarrel.
Turning his head to me I saw his jaw tighten in anger but when he caught the scowl on my lips the soft glint in his eyes changed as he looked back from me losing all the anger he had moments before.
It made my chest feel like I had stabled myself, he always told me when I scowled I looked like the spitting image of my mother.
I had never known her but I had shadowy recollections of some one long ago, like a blur in the recesses of one’s mind.
Seeing how it hurt him slowed my own anger, but only for a moment.
Turning from him I looked back out the window at the horizon that went out for thousands of miles, with the floor a white salt like sand until jagged cliffs dotted the horizon in almost a full circle.
“The place you will be going can keep you safer than I can while I work.” He said.
My eyes darted to the side at his words, every other time I was dragged and taken all over. Now he was just going to send me to some prep school where I could not escape? It felt like a punishment, not an act of grace.
The rest of the ride was silent. I had rarely been angry with my father but now he seemed like a cop taking his prisoner to jail.
I traced the landscape with my eyes, taking my camera out only once to capture the beauty of the land before we started into the thriving metropolis that stood in the barren landscape we traversed.
This might be my last time on an incredibly long drive with nothing more to do than read, write or take pictures with no electronics.
I had grown up seeing children all over play with the latest hand-held robot animals and watch movies on glass screens that fit in the palm of your hand. While I was forced to read books about every subject imaginable and never to touch technology besides the camera my father let me keep.
It was an old model thats picture would develop on the spot so you could hold it in your hands with a small chip on the side so it could be copied by a computer, tablet or glass phone and shown bigger.
I loved the simplicity of the old camera even if I disagreed with why I could not be around technology.
A shadow passed over me and I looked up realizing we had entered the city. Skyscrapers rose above our car as hundreds of other drivers raced by. Our truck felt old and forgotten compared to the sleek automobiles of the century that slightly hovered.
Very few cars still rolled across the ground. There was only two ground running cars for every twenty hover cars.
Looking to the left, passed my father, who seemed unimpressed by the large city with silver and copper buildings, I looked up in awe of the structures. We had passed through many little cities and once a large city like this when I was very young, but now being older I was stunned by the glinting power of such structures as they reached for the clouds above.
“What’s this city called again?” I asked dreamily.
I grabbed for my camera and took a photo of one large copper building that looked half green, half orange as if still deciding to stay new or become tarnished.
My father huffed as we turned off the main highway and started towards a Capitol building that had a grey concrete exterior which looked deformed with objects dotting its smooth face.
“It’s called Zeppelin after the air ships that failed many years ago.” He said, though I could tell he considered not telling me as the air still felt harsh from our spat.
“Zeppelin.” I repeated softly as my face nearly held against the glass in awe, with the picture lazily held in my palm.
As we approached the Capitol building of Zeppelin I noticed a crowd, a smile caught my lips as I sat forward while the truck slowed into the parking lot before the tall crystal-like structure of a building that had three points touching the clouds.
“Quil...” my father warned.
I glanced over to him as I watched the crowd of onlookers gaze up at the building, that now closer, could be se
en covered with thousands of items. From bottles to doorknobs and anything in-between, like an art project gone wrong.
The crowd was what made my lips move upward as I watched them move towards the building. There must be a SkyJump competition about to happen.
“Quil.” My father’s voice was strong and final.
I broke my gaze as he pulled into a parking spot. The onlookers, moving to the building passed by our truck as they hurried towards the stage.
Looking to my father, he shook his head firmly as he turned the keys back and the truck softly clattered to a hissing stop.
“I have to go in to get you registered but you are not to go anywhere near the competition, is that clear?” he asked, his jaw set and his voice like the strongest bear I had never met.
I opened my mouth trying to find words as I moved my arms back in front of me.
“Can’t I even get out and watch?” I asked, looking to him and glancing back at the building as more people gathered before a stage on the main wall.
He considered it and looked at me with dark rings under his eyes as he rubbed his brown hair that was longer than it had been in some time with it almost crossing in front of his eyes.
“Heaven give me strength.” he said softly with his gold and black family bracelet catching the light.
Waiting, I prayed internally with every fiber of my soul that he would let me even stand at the back of the crowd and watch.
Turning his head, he put a hand slowly down his cheek and looked at me with his light green eyes.
“Fine, but only this once and don’t you dare get close to the wall. Do you understand Quil?” He asked sharply, his eyes cold emeralds.
Nodding as a smile expanded across my lips, I rushed over at him and hugged him tightly around the shoulders.
“Thank you, daddy.” I said, like a child, pulling back and kissing his bristly cheek.
He tried to hide his soft smile that I rarely saw. He pulled back and looked to me once again fiercely as he held my hand.
“No going near the wall.” he repeated, his eyes trying to pierce me.
I nodded and kissed him on the cheek again as I grabbed my camera and my trusty cloth bag and I got out of the truck.
“I won’t!” I called back and in seconds I was free of the stifled air of the truck and into the open air that felt dry and hot as the sun was close to leaving the horizon.
Looking back only once as I raced, I saw my father shake his head softly as he started for the door into the building the Skyjumping competition would be held on.
I rushed into the fray of people, enjoying being out and feeling as if a spark of hope caught in my soul if only to heal the thought of being sent away.
Chapter 2
“SkyJump”
The crowd moved and swayed as if one large mass, rather than individuals.
Children ran about and mothers called to their children as families looked up to the stage waiting for the announcer to speak.
The stage rose above the crowd; from my view I could see an older man wearing a striking white suit, who I assumed was the announcer that talked with a woman wearing a head phone.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes taking in the noise and movement. When you rarely stop or are able to be in such a crowd you take in even the smell of air as a sweet present, though this felt like a dream.
I glanced towards the side of the building again knowing that my father must truly hate the idea of me going to a prep school as much as I did for him to let me go near a Skyjump competition. The last one I had been to was when I was six and that was nine years ago now.
A sudden buzz came over the microphone that hushed the crowd as the older plump man walked forward to the podium; his beard was curly and made him look much older than he was.
“Good after noon my fellow Zeplenains.” He said and the children even stopped their talking as they became excited in the hush that had fallen over the crowd.
I had gotten closer to the stage than my father would think safe but I feared this might be my last time seeing a competition for years. So, I chanced it.
I looked around the crowd as he continued,
“Today looks to be like a fine day for our competition of the younger leagues and teen leagues…” I glanced to my right as he talked and saw a girl conversing with a friend.
She wore gloves that held a gold crest of a horse with antlers, the sign of a Skyjumping champion. She spoke with a boy who had a Mohawk that was tinted silver and he too had a black pair on his hands, “…today is the first of the thousand year celebration of Skyjumping and with it the past lives on through our new competitors.” The man said his words strong and true as they rippled over the crowd via amplified sounds waves.
I looked to the wall behind him with a soft pang of longing in my heart of as he continued.
“Before I tell of the history let us have our competitors come to the stage.” he motioned to the crowd and I glanced around to see families push children forward encouragingly while the older teens moved to the stage with confidence.
The girl I had seen wearing the winning gloves walked up conversing with the boy who had the silver mohawk as he smiled sharply like an all too confident cat.
Three others stepped onto the stage, one boy and two more girls all dressed in something similar to the copper style of their city. The younger children only numbered four with three boys and one little girl.
The announcer looked at all of them with a smile and nodded.
“These are they who will hold and pass down this tradition of these competitions.” he said and turned back to the audience.
He was going to tell the story behind the competitions as all the announcers did before any SkyJumping competition.
“For this competition is in remembrance of the beginning when three groups of people, the Mages, the Earthen brethren and the Skyjump’s held together as one unit of a vast land. Each governed not as one, but as many voices.” The man said in a very convincing story weaver’s way,
“The three groups were one for many years never coming under one succinct code, but when it came time to create a better nation, the Earthen brethren could no longer continue such common ground. They despised the likes of the Skyjump people who were skilled in many things and were considered almost higher than the Mages who made the rules for the land long ago. The Earthen brethren hated the Skyjump’s with passion built up over many years even though they were a peaceful race.” The announcer spoke with zeal I had not heard ar a competition in years.
I stood transfixed as he continued,
“When the time came for decisions to be made the Earthen Brethren raged in fury at the idea of a nation ruled in part with the Skyjump’s and the idea of the first real battle was threatened. When the Earthen brethren left they vowed war in the coming sunrise, the Mages court of ten being the most intelligent of all the race deliberated with the Skyjump people and they made a pact to protect the Mages, as the Mages had been kind to their people for longer than time knew.” The announcer moved his hands with passion, “As we all know the Skyjump’s left in the morning, battle ready to face the Earthen brethren who mastered the elements of fire, lava and destructive powers using the earth where the Skyjump’s were peaceable in all they did. The Earthen brethren hid atop a vast mountain and set the land shaking with their power combined as the Skyjump army set out.” His words played in my mind like I could see the story unfold as the crowd was hushed but a babe crying softly.
“The Mages watched from the towering city of long ago and saw the army of Skyjump’s forced to a stop. The rage of the shaking lands could not be tread to reach the mountain and stop the Earthen brethren from tearing the world asunder from their hatred of the Skyjump’s. When the council of Mages saw this, though they knew nothing of battle they could use the powers of magic they had mastered to help the Skyjump’s in their time of need. Gathering together all the Mages, they waved a spell to aid the Skyjump’s and let their feet cross the l
and and their way be safe as the Earthen Brethren sent golems to destroy the Skyjump army.” The announcer paused and pulled a flag from the side of the podium and placed it upon the corner.
The flag billowed a horse with antlers rearing as the cloth wavers in the breeze.
“They were transformed into beasts that could run like wind and were unaffected by the tremors. They became creatures that were a mix of elk and horse to create the noble breed known as Skyjump beasts. Gaining their new forms, the army destroyed the golems and raced to the mountain, but when they reached it, they could not climb the sheer rock in their beast form and they learned they could transform back to their prior state as humans. When this was done, they knew they could not stop as the land split and lava threatened atop the mountain, they tried to climb even when there was barely a hole or place to stand; but they climbed and the Mages knew why they were called Skyjump’s that day, as they scaled cliffs no ordinary man was capable of climbing and they did it with speed and vigor. Their victory that day over the Earthen brethren when they reached the top to save all of the world is what this legacy is passed down from.” he said, looking to the younger children who now knew he was coming to a close and the competition would soon begin.
“The Skyjump’s are all but gone from the face of our land now, but we honor their sacrifice in the legacy they have left us. May we never forget those of the past.” The announcer said and the crowd erupted in hurrah’s and clapping.
I clapped too but it felt hollow. It was sad to think that the Skyjump people were almost gone, that my people were almost gone.
Though the announcer had done a very good job of telling the story, as he continued on reading the names of the sponsors for the competition, I knew he left out the end of the story I had heard many times from my father.
Sky Jump Page 1