Falling

{Kaire’s perspective immediately after being sent from Adelia’s mansion}

Kaire started to separate herself from the field since she was still closer to the outside and unable to get through.

A blue spirit approached and stopped facing her inside the tunnel, “Um, excuse me miss, it’s not safe to be out there. Could you please come back in?”

“Um sorry, but how would you suggest that I do that?” Kaire asked.

“Ah thank goodness, I thought you were a jumper.” The blue said with the tension leaving its voice. “The hatch on the end of the valve along here will allow you to get back into the tunnel.”

“Oh, thanks so much,” Kaire said as she started shuffling along the outside of the tunnel.

“I’m Krie,” the blue introduced himself. “I’m not sure if I’m more curious about how you got out there or why you have such lovely wings.”

“Oh thanks,” Kaire said. “It’s a bit of a story…” she said as she continued to shuffle.

Then she saw a silver skeleton run around a corner and charge towards her with an intense stare.

“Oh,” Kaire said

Krie looked over his shoulder in the direction Kaire was staring.

[Please move and jump onto the sparkly path again, otherwise ‘helping push’ will be activated.] Gift System notification.

“Oh no,” said Kaire.

[Please move immediately or push will be activated.] Gift System notification

“What’s going…” Krie started.

“Ahhhhhh,” Kaire screamed as she was boosted away from the tunnel. She wasn’t close to the sparkly line and was battered by the hidden movement and forces till she got close again. The silver skeleton arrived by Krie. He stared at her one more time before he moved away, suddenly very focused on where he was heading.

[Please follow the displayed route before the window of opportunity closes.] Gift System notification

Reluctantly, Kaire turned and flew away quickly. She followed the sparkly path once more as it shakily held its position, wriggling to guide her through the unseen forces.

The sparkly wings that projected from Kaire were not as powerful as her old wings had been. But they were much better at manoeuvring tightly and smoothing the turbulence as she went.

Ahead of Kaire, there was one final sharp turn before a straight path towards a planet. It was the planet Veilon. Gravity would kick in once she was in the planet’s field, but there should be buffers to slow her down along the way.

She must have delayed following the sparkle path too long because she could feel turbulence crashing behind her like a wave chasing her down. She twisted and flew as close as she could to the edge of her sparkly path that was furthest from the planet. Then, with a strong flick of her wings, she pulled herself sharply around the tight corner.

The strong flick of Kaire’s wings had given her the speed she needed to start out running the collapse of the path behind her. Unfortunately, her speed made smooth flight difficult and she was jolted a few times when she got too close to the edge of the sparkly path.

She had barely aligned her course before she entered the planet’s field and she was pulled faster towards Veilon’s large mass.

Kaire was reasonably calm until she realised that she could start to make out more details of the ground below, but had yet to hit a buffer ring. This can’t be happening. Is this an archaic ladder chamber or a maintenance shaft? How did I even get here?

Tucking her wings and legs, Kaire quickly spun. She kicked out her legs and thankfully just missed scraping against the side of the tube. Her wings were hugging her. She opened them just enough to stabilise her fall. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m not slowing down and I’mnot going to be able to open my wings more without shredding them.

“I want my strong wings back,” Kaire yelled as she fell.

[Please switch to flame mode.] Gift System notification

Oh, I guess Zhaundo was able to zip around well. Kaire recalled the feeling of condensing and bursting into flame. She shrank into a little flame.

She continued to hurtle toward a couple of islands. She could even see the details of a forest by a mountain range where she was going to crash.

Kaire imagined trying to fly up and to her relief, her flame form generated upward thrust. She couldn’t maintain a full-powered thrust, but even with the spluttering bursts, she was slowing fast. In fact, she was slowing very fast.

Is that the surface tower of a monster dungeon? Kaire wondered. It didn’t matter, because Kaire didn’t have any focus to spare on manoeuvring. She could probably survive passing through buildings in this form, but she needed to stop before she got beyond the planet’s crust.

Kaire started to calm as she hurtled through the roof of the tower. Despite her spluttering thrust, she would soon stop her fall. Still slowing, she passed through stone floors. She startled armour-wearing humans and stone monsters as they felt her speed by.

The levels below the ground became more spacious and Kaire slowed as she passed through each one. She passed through the roof into a cavern and for the second time the sparkly trail came to an end. There was a cloaked figure on the bridge. Was it him?

Still struggling to come to a stop Kaire looked to see what was going on. Jono seemed trapped by two guys who were looking at him. Great, he’s still alive. I guess I can just do the settle thing and take things from there.

Wind energy blasted Jono off the bridge.

Kaire stopped focusing on flying up and dived to catch up with the falling guy. You’ve got to be kidding me. How can this be happening?

She caught up to Jono. The a couple of splutters of thrust later, she was falling at the same rate as him. If this doesn’t work, Adelia is going to make days miserable.

Kaire used her display and selected the settle option.

Just after she did this, Kaire was disoriented and flooded with notifications.

[Warning, human you are assisting is in an emergency situation.]

[Warning: this human cannot fly.]

[Warning conserve energy as enter recharge mode as soon as possible.] Gift System notification

Kaire tried to use what focus she could muster to fly up.

[Warning action blocked, flying in flame mode will incinerate the human.] Gift System notification

Cautiously, Kaire focused on her green form and the sparkly wings.

[Error]

[Error]

[Error]

[Sync failed]

[‘Adelia’s energy return’ and ‘Gift System’ have been incorporated by sync manager]

[This package is only thirty-two percent decontaminated. Would you like to temporarily apply the packages to this human (Yes / No) ?] Gift System notification

“Yes,” yelled Kaire.

An explosion of warmth came from where the orb had been resting in Kaire while she moved. There were a couple of other startled noises near her.

[Partial sync now available]

[Warning: this human is still in an emergency situation] Gift System notification

Thanks for stating the obvious, Kaire thought as they continued to plummet. She refocused on her green form and spreading her wings.

[Emergency thought clutch takeover approved]

[Engaging wings] Gift System notification

Kaire found herself in what must have been the shadow feed area of the kids brain. She was locked down in a thought clutch sealed with iron-like hatches between large grooved pillars. There was a glowing red light around her that was almost mist-like.

Usually this area would just provide a secondary movement feed, to help smooth out the humans actions. At the moment, Kaire was connected straight into Jono’s nervous system and her wings were linked to the sparkling ones extending from his shoulder blades.

Suspended in the pymle field projected by a claw in the middle of the area. Kaire gave three strong sweeps with her wings. The wings on Jono’s back responded, fighting the downward descent. Unsure of how far away she was from the next level she had used full strength.

She pushed hard with the wings a couple more times and slowed a little. The cavern was narrowing as they continued to fall and she could just about reach out and touch the wall.

[System override can be used with feather step. Using this will leave you shut down in critical recharge mode. Activate override (Yes/No) ?] Gift System notification

“Yes, Activate,” Kaire yelled.

With that the sparkle spread through the shadow feed area and surrounded Jono. Now the gift system programming was directing Jono’s actions.

Jono’s body twisted with a subtle flick of the wings. This movement left his feet facing the wall.

The system pushed Jono’s feet to skim against the cavern wall. He slowed a little and his body levelled out so that he was running down the wall and braking with the now fully extended wings at the same time.

But it was too little, too late. He ran straight through the roof of a crystalline structure, shattering it and smashing into the ground below in a pile of shards.

Then the sparkle faded from Jono and the area around returned to darkness.