Reincarnation

by Timothy McGowen

  “We don’t live long, and there aren’t that many of us.”

  I stopped in my tracks and faced her, she was no longer smiling and had cast her eyes downward.

  “How many are there?” I asked, avoiding the announcement of my quite likely early demise.

  “I’ve only met three,” she said, looking up, “well four now. But Narth’l said last month that there are only a dozen of us left and I know one of the older ones died fighting off some flying fiend to the south. Narth’l said after he died, the village fell as well, hundreds dead. There aren’t enough of us being hatched.”

  “Are the villagers so weak that they can’t help in the fight?” I asked, clenching my fist at the idea of hundreds dying because one fell, “They must have some kind of weapons or defense?”

  “They are weak,” In’ah spat in a surprising display of venom, “They refuse to leave their circles of life and choose to die instead of fleeing the protected zone.”

  “Why,” I asked in a whisper more to myself than In’ah.

  “Enough of that!” She called out in a quick change of emotion, “We are almost to the canyons, and you will love this part of being an Erusha!”

  I almost asked her what a canyon was when the mist cleared before us, and I knew. Ahead of us in the pale light of the twin suns trying to cut through thick clouds was a network of grooves cut into the ground. It was as if a giant had clawed at the ground with talons.

  “This is where I will teach you to fly!” In’ah declared as she approached the edge of the cliff and jumped off, leaving her swords lying at the edge.

  “In’ah!” I shouted, rushing to the edge. Ten feet down the mist hung thick and I couldn’t see anything. Had she just jumped to her death, or could she really fly? I didn’t have to ponder long as a small form zipped out of the fog and raced towards the edge closest to me. She wasn’t going to make it, I realized.

  Her face was pinched in concentration, but she was slowing down, and it didn’t look like she had enough momentum to make it all the way to the edge. Grabbing her discarded swords and length of rope, I quickly wrapped the rope around my good forearm and braced a foot against a small outcrop at the edge and tossed down her swords just as she approached.

  Her face shifted from concentration to surprise, but she was quick and grabbed hold of the swords just as she began to drift backward into the fog. My forearm screamed in pain as the ropes dug deep from the sudden jerk of weight on the other end, and I nearly lost my footing but was able to steady myself.

  Then just as I decided she was too heavy to lift by myself, she grew extremely light and ran up the face of the cliff as I watched dumbfounded.

  “Thanks for the help!” she said through heavy breathing. She collapsed at the edge of the cliff with her feet dangling over and cheered and hooted.

  “You aren’t a very good flyer,” I commented while unraveling the rope from my arm.

  “I am too!” She snapped back, looking offended, “I would have made it up without your help, it would have just taken me a few tries. It isn’t as easy as I made it look. Sure, Mesh’el and Narth’l zip around in the sky like its as easy as walking, but it takes a crazy amount of concentration to fly.”

  “Did you use your manipulation to push yourself around?” I asked, curious if projectors could even fly.

  “No, it’s different than that,” she said, “Although I have tried that before, it doesn’t work like you’d imagine, I can’t move living flesh, so I nearly ripped all my clothes off trying.”

  “Well, then how do you do it,” I asked, trying to keep myself from picturing her ripping her clothes off to float.

  “You know the feeling you get when you begin to channel your Sri?” She asked, waving her hands about, “The feeling of warmth right before a release? It’s like that but you have to push it out of you in one big rush through your entire body. I can’t actually do that yet, so I focus on the way down. It allows me to shoot off a bit of Sri and it shoots me off in a particular direction. But the reason why I like the cliffs so much is as you fall you can apply a light amount to your legs and do bursts of power from your hands to do a controlled fall and when you are ready to come up you just blast as much power from your feet as you can handle, or you drift to the cliffside and climb back up. I have done a lot of climbing.”

  “That sounds a lot like when I shoot my energy,” I said rubbing my chin, “How do I know I won’t just send out blasts of energy?”

  “Hmm,” she said in response, “Well, I don’t know. Narth’l told me it has to do with how you think of using the energy, if you want it to be expelled with ill intent it will carry that, so just think happy thoughts?”

  “Happy thoughts?” I said laughing, why did that sound oddly familiar.

  “Are you ready to try?” She asked, standing.

  I stood as well and peered down the cliff. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, it wasn’t that I was afraid of heights, more afraid of not being able to fly and smash into the ground below. A ground that, no matter how hard I stared, remained a mist-filled unknown.

  I watched In’ah pick her swords up and tie them across her back. They looked like two large spears poking to either side of her head.

  “I’m ready,” I said, meeting her eyes.

  In’ah nodded and ran forward, much to my surprise, and slammed into me. We fell off the side in a swirling mess of giggles and screams. Her giggles. My screams.

  Sri Blessed Core Ability Unlocked. Sri Vibration, you are able to manipulate the air around you by focusing a combination of Willpower and Sri into your skin.

  Chapter Twelve

  The world around me fell away, and I struggled to focus. Everything came to a crawl and I saw In’ah beside me, holding fast to my chest belt, her face wore a wide smile and her eyes didn’t show a care in the world.

  Seconds passed, and I noted with surprise that my overlay had switched on, it was showing my current rate of decent and time until I would hit bottom.

  -5463 feet, 33.39 s/ till impact-

  In’ah pushed away from me and I watched in slow motion as she moved away and then shot upward. I might have been a trick of the light, but I could have sworn that she waved just before she lifted away.

  I don’t know what to do. I said into my head. An answer came in the same instant.

  -29.12 s/ till impact-

  Force as much power as you can towards your feet, don’t worry about intent, we need to slow down. Might as well use your hands because we have no time to figure this out!

  It was odd, it didn’t feel like Sumahon talking, but both of us speaking, thinking, being the same mind.

  I pulled deep and forced energy to evenly shoot from my legs downward. I felt an almost unmeasurable change in the speed at which I fell.

  -27.01 s/ till impact-

  Again!

  This time I pointed my hands downward and repeated the processes. I shot upward, but not nearly as fast or as much as In’ah had.

  -31.31 s/ till impact-

  I was unable to sustain the burst of power, and I noted that my hands had fired off several long beams of power and the mist below cleared around them as they plunged downwards.

  There was a large river flowing down there, but it frothed white and didn’t seem like it would be a suitable landing place.

  Again!

  I pulled deeper than I had ever before and pulled from my base of my power. I let it accumulate before immediately releasing it. I could feel my limbs and hands begin to burn from the collection of power, but still, I waited. Time began to speed up and whatever was keeping my mind sharp began to wane, but still, I waited.

  -9.10 s/ until impact-

  I could feel the cool air from the river below. The roar of the air around me was filled with another roar from the rapids below.

  NOW!

 
I let the power release. It felt as if my limbs might explode from the force, and I suddenly felt my vision blur as I sped upward. Fog, water, air, everything split before me and after only a moment the side of the cliffs faded from view and I found myself much higher than expected.

  Looking down, I saw everything. As far as the eye could see was yellow, brown, and black. I could see a dozen small spots of green, but they seemed like insignificant drops of water in a vast ocean.

  My arms, legs, and head fuzzed and pulsed.

  -50.31 /s until impact-

  I began to fall again. This time I knew what to do, and I did it. Pointing my head downwards and using a small burst of power to steer me I aimed downward towards the canyon below.

  I found that I was able to spread my energy all around my body and slow my descent. It all made sense from this high up. I could almost work out how to negate my weight completely, but not quite. So, I used my limited power to slow myself.

  -165.15 /s until impact-

  With a quick mental command, my overlay switched off and I focused on my task. I dipped below the canyon and glided down closer to the water before doing a few controlled bursts upward.

  I spotted a figure sitting on the edge of the canyon, her feet hanging over the edge. Doing a few bursts of power to get me above the cliff face, I drifted towards her. I overshot my landing and slammed hard against the ground a dozen yards past her, but quickly made it to my feet.

  “How did you get so high?” Her voice pierced the thumping in my ears.

  “I did what you said, focused power, and released it.” I walked past her, my head bowed slightly and my steps uneven. I got to the edge and laid down, my own feet dangling down.

  “You are a natural at utilizing Sri,” She said her voice in awe, “I thought I was going to have to grab hold of you. You got so close to that water! No matter. Wow. You think you can do a guided glide downward? After a little rest, we can fly the canyon and make it most the way back to Aetex.”

  “Sure,” Is all I managed to say before I shut my eyes and enjoyed the sunlight breaking through the clouds. I fell asleep feeling more alive than I could ever remember.

  I watched In’ah ready herself by securing her swords tightly on her back and stepped forward to join her on the ledge.

  “Hold my hand,” I said, reaching out.

  “You think that’ll be safe?” She asked, clasping my hand and taking a deep breath.

  “Just focus your energies in your chest, legs, and the hand I’m not holding,” I said, “I am pretty sure we can balance off each other, for a while at least.”

  “Look at you,” She shot back, “You fly once, and you are an expert.”

  I blushed but took a step forward getting ready to fly.

  “Here we go,” I said, and we jumped. This time we fell together without being a ball of limps and screams.

  I could hear In’ah laugh out loud, and I joined her. We had fallen only moments before I squeezed her hand and we began to level off. I was exerting more energy than her and began to push us to the left, but quickly adjusted my power.

  The wind whipped at our clothes, and the air rushed past my ears as we shot down the canyon, slowly descending. We would have to break hands soon, as I didn’t see a way to regain much height while linked together. Our flying was little more than a slow fall and the control wasn’t what I’d like it to be, but I gave it another ten seconds before squeezing her hand again and letting go.

  I watched as she easily adjusted her decent and then shot upward before leveling out again.

  I spun, making several fast turns before I was able to use my other hand to steady myself. Then just as the rush of the water-filled my ears, I forced more power to my hands to get my legs under me and then exploded upwards.

  My ears ached from the sudden increase in sound and pressure. I closed my eyes against the rush of air and felt the dizzy wash of nausea as I had before but pushed through it until I had reached a decent height.

  Opening my eyes, I noted that I hadn’t reached the same height as before, but I was still above the distance In’ah had reached. It took a moment but I was able to locate her and I adjusted my fall to point in her direction.

  With my feet under me, I shot downward faster than would be normal in a deadfall. Just as I reached her I adjusted my direction and pushed into a glide beside her, or at least that is what I tried to do.

  I was hit with a rush of pain in my head, and my vision danced with blackness. The sudden change of fast, free fall to slow glide physically hurt me.

  My mind snapped back to focus, and I pushed myself into a steady decline.

  In’ah appeared beside me, her face a mask of worry. She reached out her hand, and I grabbed it while shutting down the power flow to it as we grasped hands.

  “Are you okay!” I could barely make out her yell over the rush of air.

  “Yes,” I called back, not sure if she could hear me, “I didn’t expect that changing speed to hurt so badly.”

  She nodded and pointed upwards. I didn’t need to check; I could already hear the water below us. I had fallen much faster after leveling out, and we already needed to shoot upward.

  She released my hand, and we both leveled off. I used less power trying to gauge her distance from before. I leveled out just below her and we continued our flying down the misty canyons.

  We had traveled no more than ten minutes when I heard the first loud swish of air above us. I let more power flow into one hand, and I did a slow spin, we were low enough that I saw nearly all of the high cliffs stretching out on either side.

  What I didn’t expect to see was the giant thing with leathery wings twice as wide as two of me descending on us with large talons open.

  “Watch out!” I screamed against the rush of wind; I couldn’t wait to see if In’ah had heard I had to shoot upwards. With a quick gliding movement, I positioned myself headfirst and shot upward.

  The large Taraycle, a quick prompt displayed its name, must not have expected my quick maneuver because I shot right past its deathly sharp claws and got a good look at its foot-long beak as I shot upward above the cliff walls.

  I focused my eyes and let my power cut off. The Sri stopped flowing and I let all the strands of power go out. I might need as much power as I could get so it would be best to recharge as much as possible.

  I heard a horrid squawking sound and then saw In’ah, large swords strapped to her back shoot above the canyons as well. Her head swung back and forth, she must be looking for me. I stopped my free fall by adding several lines of power, and I fell in her direction. I had gained substantially more height than she had so it didn’t take long before I was gliding beside her again.

  “Are you okay?” I asked as the wind rushed against my ears, making my own words barely audible.

  “We have to find a cave to hide!” In’ah yelled back, her hair blowing wildly in the wind.

  She pointed down towards the cliffs, and I saw the dark form of the Taraycle flapping wildly, presumably to get some height and have us for a midday snack.

  In’ah began to dive, and I redirected my flows to follow behind her a good distance. A part of me didn’t want to hamper her ability to maneuver quickly, but another part didn’t envy the idea of being the closest one to the giant death bird. I wasn’t afraid to admit that I was scared out of my mind.

  The large dark shape gave up its climb and wild flapping. It soon disappeared into the mist below the cliff. If it was down there, maybe he should tell her it would be better to just land on the flat ground and try to escape on foot?

  But it was too late; she had already dove between the canyons and into the mist. I clenched my teeth from the cold and the fear that was beginning to well up inside of me. My moment of indecision saved my life. Instead of trying to level off right as I hit the canyon, I freedived straight down headfirst and I f
elt something huge swipe just behind me, followed by another loud squawk.

  Fear gripped me harder, and every pour on my body puckered as I shot power into my body and evened out. The quick-change hit with the familiar splash of dark in my vision, but I was able to stay conscious.

  I pushed with my body and guided with my hands, staying just above the water as low as I could for as long as I could. I didn’t dare look up.

  When I had gone as low as I could maintain, I redirected my power and shot upwards as fast as I could. Fighting off the splashes of black in my vision again so soon was difficult and I felt myself almost slip into unconsciousness.

  I cut off all power as I cut above the canyons and looked down just in time to see the Taraycle swoop down on a dark figure just breaking from the mist.

  “Nooo!” I screamed as the thing wrapped itself around In’ah. I shot power into my feet and bulleted towards the two forms that struggled to stay afloat now that they were a tangled mess.

  Before I got to them, I felt my power begin to wane, and the thoughts came. What was I going to do? What could I do? Be smart! You can’t help her now!

  Despite the cowardice that swelled in me, I wanted to do something. As I fell, I touched my finger to my shoulder and then aimed towards the Taraycle.

  “Finger cannon!”

  A good chunk of my remaining Sri shot from me as fast as light and struck the Taraycle. I wasn’t able to see if my attack had done any damage or freed In’ah. An instant after I attacked, I had to throw the remaining power I had into leveling off in hopes of being able to land.

  I overshot my landing area and smashed into the ground hundreds of feet from the edge of the canyon. Pain pulsed through me in waves, but I hadn’t heard any crunches, so I was fairly confident I hadn’t broken any bones.

  Well, you’ve just about killed us once more, Sumahon said as I stared up into the sky waiting for the pain to pass, how about we stay on the ground for a while?

  “I hope she is okay,” I said, ignoring Sumahon’s gabs, “She is okay right?”