by Jason Letts
Next to Clank, another form stood lifelessly on the table. Almost two feet tall, it looked like an egg with two legs protruding from the bottom. The egg’s surface was uneven.
Mira held the feet in her hands. They were webbed, like a duck’s, but hollow in the middle. She put her hands through the space, gripping the webbed toes with her fingers like a handlebar. Squeezing her right index finger, she found and clicked a button between the toes.
She looked up and stared breathlessly at the egg to see if it would work. A nearly invisible line separated the top three-quarters of the egg from the bottom quarter. The top part started to spin, slowly at first, but gradually with more speed. She had drawn a circle with a marker on one side, and she watched to see how frequently that side showed. Reaching for a notebook, she counted and calculated. After a while, the egg spun so quickly that the bright red circle never seemed to disappear.
Watching the uneven metal rotate around, Mira gave it an angry look and shook her head, tossing the notebook on the table.
“It’s still too slow…must be too heavy or dragging on something,” she mused to herself. She looked at the banged up and twisted pieces of metal strewn about the room, and they reminded her of another problem. She picked up one piece and ran her fingers over the dents and dings.
A rusty hammer lay on the floor. The temptation came over her to pick it up and keep trying, but she remembered her parents had gone to bed and no amount of banging might produce what she wanted. She needed help.
Mira had her eye on Rowland all day at school the next day. She watched him draw in his notebook, eat a chicken sandwich for lunch, and engage in a conversation with Sophie after Fortst released them for the day. Fearing they would leave together, as they often did, Mira decided she had to interrupt. She stood near them and waited for a break in the conversation.
“Hey, I’m sorry. Do you think I could speak with you for a minute?” she said to him.
She had never really approached him before like this, and Rowland looked suspicious. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he walked with Mira outside where they could have some space, while Sophie crossed her arms and waited for him to come back.
Mira addressed Rowland when she thought they were a safe distance away. “I’ve got a job to do. Can you help me?”
Rowland lowered his head and flashed a wry smile.
“Need some help, do you? Now what’s this all about?”
“Oh, it’s just for fun. I’m just making this sculpture and I was hoping you could help me with the metal wings,” she said, the discussion she’d had with Yannick about bartering suddenly in her mind.
“Just for fun? Got nothing better to do?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Well then I can’t help you. Everybody knows that nobody’s doing nothing now but thinking about the Final. So tell me what this is really about or I’ve got to go.”
His sudden shift, turning on her with his last comment, caught her off guard. He turned to walk away, but she scrambled to hold him back.
“OK, wait. Can I trust you?” she looked squarely at him. He put his hand to his chin and looked thoughtful.
“Trust is an expensive thing to come by. The only way you can really be sure is if you know it’s in my best interest to help you. So let me ask you, how is doing what you need in my best interest?”
“I don’t know. What can I give you in exchange?” Mira asked.
“There’s nothing you can give me, but there is one thing you can do for me. When we’re out there during the Final Trial, that’s when you pay back my help. Not only will you not do anything to hurt me, you’ll come help me if it looks like I’m in trouble. How about that for a deal?”
A look of wonder and trepidation swept over Mira’s face. “You’re saying you want me to protect you? Isn’t that against the rules?”
“Look,” he began, laughing, “I’m going to give this one away as a freebee. If you don’t think every other student in this class is working their own chain of secret alliances, then you got another thing coming. You’re jumping in at the end of it, but we’ve been preparing for this for our entire lives. Now, I’m happy to help you, if I can count on you when the time comes.”
After the initial shock of this arrangement faded, Mira started to think that living up to an agreement would not be so difficult. Since fifteen of them would be out there, what were the odds she would be in a situation where she would need to act on his behalf? Even then, taking someone on with Rowland could be better than doing so alone. The service she requested would make her drastically more formidable, too.
“Alright. You’ve got a deal, but I’ll need you for the rest of the afternoon, depending on how fast you can work. And if we make it to the end of the Trial, you have to know the only person I’ll be defending is me,” she said, growing more serious.
“Of course, of course,” he grinned.
Mira watched Rowland approach Sophie, who still stood in the doorway. The girl had grown impatient, and Rowland’s news that he would not be coming with her made it worse. He tried to lean in and kiss her, but she stormed away. Picking up his bag, he returned to Mira.
“Don’t worry about her,” he said, but his insecure tone made Mira think he questioned his agreement. Without saying any more, she led him home and instructed him to wait in the backyard.
She emerged from the house with several sheets of irregularly shaped and dented metal. She set them on the ground in front of him, and he picked them up and ran his hands over them. He felt the cracks and the jagged edges in the metal.
“How does it work, the bending?” she asked. Rowland looked up at her, squinting at the sun in his eyes.
“It all just feels like putty in my hands, but that’s only the beginning. It took me a long time to learn how to touch. You’ve got to be soft and gentle, like with a newborn baby. Getting impatient and rushing will make it snap or break. Even these solid objects have a flow inside of them, and that’s what I can tap into and use.”
Exerting a slow, constant pressure, he took the metal sheet and folded it in half. He pressed it against itself, and soon the fold disappeared and the sheet became half as long and twice as wide.
“So what is it you need me to do?”
“I need two wings, like the wings of a hawk. They need to be identical, they need to be this long, solid, and they need to have a hinge at the top joint. And this piece has the right oval shape, but it just needs to be smoothed out. Can you handle that?”
“How long did you spend abusing this poor piece of metal?” he asked, picking up another sheet. “Yes, I can do it.”
“Let’s get to work then.”
Mira directed Rowland’s every move. She watched him as he measured the sheets to the appropriate length. She told him how many indentations to make for the feathers. Most importantly, she helped him construct a hinge at the top that would allow the wing to rise and fall. Rowland listened carefully to her directions and peppered her with questions. Mira could understand why he wanted to gain some insight into the mechanical creations she’d devised.
Without a clue of what these wings were for, he saw that their complexity far outstripped any of the tools he had made. As he molded and carved, a smile of excitement and wonder appeared on his face.
By the time he finished, he started asking Mira about some of his own ideas for new creations. “I’ve never had to think so hard about this stuff before. I always thought it was just using my hands. I’ve got to know, Mira, what’s this for? What aren’t you telling me? I can’t put it together.”
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” she said. She knew he wanted to pry for better answers, but he said nothing more. He accepted her thanks and set off for home as soon as his work was finished.
Soon Mira found herself alone with her metal pieces. She hauled them to the basement.
“What’ve you got there?” Kevin asked.
“I’ll show you soon. I’m almost finished.”
&
nbsp; Setting the pieces down on her basement table, Mira got down to work putting the finishing touches on her machine. Taking the smooth shell, she covered the egg’s internal motors, circuits, and batteries. She attached the wings’ hinges to the outside of the shell, near the top. They hung around the egg’s curves, and Mira tested them by lifting them up until they stuck out straight.
Finally, she attached two large circles for eyes, making the final product look like a baby chick had broken through the egg shell with its limbs.
All of this took some time, but Kevin was still in the same spot upstairs when she dragged her creation up. He looked at the thing in her hands and scrunched up his face.
“We didn’t mean this when we told you to make friends.”
“Very funny, but you won’t be making jokes for long,” she said, gesturing for him to follow her outside.
Kevin took his place out in the yard under the budding trees. Mira set her chick on the green grass and took several steps back. She held the metal feet in her hands.
“OK, you know what to do,” she shouted to him. “Try to attack me, but beware that you do so at your own risk.”
Kevin looked down at the metal hunk of junk on his lawn, and nodded. He directed his eyes to a nearby puddle, and Mira watched him salivate with likely thoughts of dunking her in it.
He took a step forward and Mira clicked the button on her control. Kevin stopped abruptly when the top of the machine began to spin. It gradually picked up speed, and Mira watched with breathless anticipation as the force of the spinning began to lift the wings.
“What’s wrong? You don’t want to give it a taste of your boot?”
“I’m not going anywhere near that thing!” Kevin said, unnerved yet engrossed. They both watched the spinning wings and listened to the steady whir. The wings reached the highest point the hinge would allow and stuck out straight, curving downward slightly at the back.
Time stopped for Mira as the sight of the rapidly spinning wings absorbed her. The machine started to totter, and then it gradually left the ground, hovering a few inches above ground. Kevin clapped his hands and laughed, and Mira raised her arms in success. The machine continued to gain altitude, climbing up to their waists, chests, and just over their heads.
Mira walked underneath the flying contraption and looked up at the sky through the spinning wings. A hawk soared above them, gliding beautifully and majestically, just like on the day Mira had first been exposed to the wide world.
Collecting both feet in one hand, she reached up for the stumpy legs above her. Without much effort, she pulled the machine down a few inches. Letting it go, she shook her head and came out from under it. Pressing a button, the machine began to slow down and sink. A few inches above the ground, it dropped suddenly and fell on its side.
“It’s still not good enough,” she said with a pained look. Kevin came up beside her and put his arm around her.
“You’ve still got some time. And besides, this can’t be your only form of defense. As cool as this is, it’s not going to knock anyone over. Only you can do that. You’ve got to think about what you’re up against and what you’ll need up your sleeve to come out on top.”
“I know,” Mira said. “You have to knock people out to win, and I still need to figure out how I’m going to do that.”
“Just put your mind to it. The answers will come to you. Haven’t they always?”
Chapter 12: Dustfalls
After peering at the clear mucus caught in a rag, Vern once again brought the rag to his nose to unleash a powerful sneeze. He wiped his face and tried to sneak a glance back at the row of students following him. Though they marched along in unison directly behind, he barked at them to catch up.
Blossoming trees hung overhead, offering some shade from the hot sun. The outpost shrunk behind them in the distance. It disappeared just as the mountains before them grew taller and more threatening.
They had started before the sun came up and wouldn’t reach their destination until it had risen to its peak.
Fortst walked impatiently alongside his students, frequently passing them and then stopping so they could catch up. His head twitched back and forth, trying to look in all directions at once. He kept vigilant, and they all muttered about the trouble Mr. Bogger had alluded to.
Will swatted at the mosquitoes. He had slapped his right cheek so many times that it had taken on a distinctive red color. To retaliate, Will stuck his foot out to trip Jeremy, who walked in front of him. Will felt something tickle the back of his neck. He reached back to slap it, then grumbled when he found some blood and a dead mosquito in the palm of his hand.
“You’d think you would care a little more about your flies, Jeremy, and not send them off to their death one by one.”
“If they can provide me with a little amusement, their lives were well worth it,” he said.
Roselyn and Mary chatted incessantly. If they had to spend all this time walking along, they might as well entertain themselves while doing it. Fortunately for them, they never seemed to run out of things to talk about. From people in town, to their hair, to stories from the capitol, the girls’ conversation shifted fluidly without the slightest interruption.
“If you don’t stop that idiotic gossip right now, I’m going to reach down your throats and make sure you never speak again,” Aoi said.
Having been so absorbed in their conversation, it startled them to find they weren’t alone. They looked at Aoi’s bloodthirsty glare and clenched fists. She wanted to make good on her threat.
“You know, you might have better luck if you weren’t so mean all the time,” Roselyn said to her. Aoi blinked and scrunched her brow.
“Better luck at what?”
“Boys, people in general, life, being happy,” Roselyn said.
“You do realize we’re going off to war, right?” Aoi asked, strands of her black hair hanging over her hard eyes.
“What better place to meet boys than a war,” Mira said.
“That doesn’t mean you have to be miserable and angry about everything. Don’t you think it’s better to let minor irritations roll off your back rather than kicking up a fuss every time things aren’t quite how you want them? You might find it’s possible to actually enjoy things that way,” Roselyn said, her curls rolling over her shoulder.
“I’m not miserable…” Aoi whispered to herself after a time.
They left the forest behind, and ventured into rockier territory. The barren stone mountains wrapped around their point of view, and a cool breeze swept down into their faces. The path inclined gradually, and they struggled to walk over loose gravel. Fortst now led the group by several paces. He tried to scout ahead for signs that they were headed in the right direction. He looked down every diverging trail for the narrow chasm. They walked through the maze of fissures, caverns, and craters between the two mountains, trying not to get lost.
The group wound through the passageways while the sun beat down overhead. A few began to complain of being tired, which only served to make the rest feel tired. They arrived at an indentation in the rock that would shield them from the sun and decided to take a break. They settled down to catch their breath while Fortst dashed around the rocks in an attempt to figure out where they needed to go.
“I heard at Cypress Mill Academy last year they all agreed upon their final rank beforehand, and all the students just laid down in that order without any kind of a fight,” Rowland said.
“Sounds good to me,” Vern said. “I know you all won’t mind letting me have the top spot.” All of the more competitive students laughed, and the sound echoed a quarter mile away.
After an impressive leap, Fortst caught a ledge and pulled himself up a steep rock face. His chafed hands and strong arms had no trouble scaling to the top. The students watched him from the shade, waiting for him to give them some kind of signal.
“I don’t think we could do something like that. Do you know how they performed when they came back from The
Shadowing and went off to fight?” Will asked.
“I guess they just worked like clockwork, everyone doing exactly what they were supposed to, and they’re all still alive and fighting,” Rowland said.
It painted a grim picture of their future.
Pulling himself over the top onto a flat ledge, Fortst got to his feet and surveyed the wide expanse around him. Between the two mountains, the outpost appeared to be nothing more than a tiny speck. Underneath him were natural stone pillars, boulders, and the mountains’ roots.
Around a bend to the left, a breathtaking sight stopped him cold. Behind the mountain, another peak in the chain rose, one he had not seen before. Unlike the other stone behemoths, worn into strange shapes by water and wind, this one looked like a giant anthill, and about as solid. It took a perfect cone shape all the way down to its base, right above a basin and a narrow chasm.
“We’ll be fine,” Vern said. “You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Why do you always assume it’ll be you leading us?” Aoi sniped. “Do you think if you just insinuate it often enough we’ll all forget how terribly that would work out?”
“It’ll work out a whole lot better than if we all had to follow every crazy impulse that crosses your mind. If it couldn’t be me, I’d much rather see someone like Rowland get it, at least he has some idea about strategy.”
“Crazy? I can’t believe you just said that. At least I wouldn’t just be looking out for myself!” she said, jumping to her feet. Jeremy watched from the corner, smiling, shaking his head, and playing with his flies.
“We’re going to decide this the same way it was always decided,” Roselyn interjected. “We’ll have the Final Trial on the Vernal Equinox, and whoever wins will be our leader, for better or worse. Getting into shouting matches now won’t do anything.”
Mira peeked out and caught a glimpse of the sun’s location high in the sky.