Once Mory reached his home in Stork village, he entered his hut and dropped off his craftsack. Most families in stork owned about half an acre of land which would have about two or three stone huts with grass roofs. Mory went to his mother’s hut to greet her. He didn’t find her in there but he heard a repeated thunk noise behind it. He went back there saw that she was chopping wood.
“Hey, Mom.”
She paused the wood hacking and looked up. She wiped some sweat from her eyes with the back of her hand and smiled. Mory got most of his looks from her. She had the same wild brown hair but just longer. Her light brown eyes and tan skin were identical to his. It seemed like the only feature he got from his father was his round, mid-size nose. She wore a dress made of buckskin, which was a common clothing material for Stork villagers.
“Hi, Momo. Are you here to finish chopping the firewood for me?”
“Nope. I’m heading to Marlon’s hut.”
“Uh-huh. I had a feeling you’d say that.” She placed a block of wood on a tree stump and split it with an ax. “Just make sure you’re back by sundown so you can eat dinner and finish your homework.”
“Got it, Mom. See ya.”
He briskly walked away, eager to tell Marlon about his new skill. Marlon was Mory’s best and only friend. They’ve known each other since they were both seven years old. Marlon was kind-hearted and did not care at all that Mory was a spora. Mory trusted him completely. That’s why Marlon was the first person that he chose to talk to about his gliding incident. It didn’t take him very long to reach Marlon’s hut since he lived less than a kilometer away.
“Marlon, you home?” he yelled just outside of his hut.
Marlon stepped outside. He was a tall and lean boy with brown skin. He kept his course-textured hair short. Like Mory, he was still wearing his school uniform.
“What’s up, Mory? I heard you and Terias were ready to throw hands in class. All the kids were talking about it after school.”
Mory was shaking his head slowly. “Yeah. He pissed me off. I know that’s what he wanted.”
“Don’t sweat it, man. Somebody needs to slap some sense into that guy, but he’s got almost everybody at school thinking he’s the shit.”
“Yep,” Mory replied. “They think he’ll look out for them when he becomes the feudal lord, but it should be obvious that he only cares about himself.”
Marlon nodded in agreement. “So what happened after the showdown? Did you get in trouble?”
“That’s actually why I came to talk to you. I wasn’t in any trouble, but Terias did come after me when I was walking home. Basically, him and Reni wanted to scare me by flying me into the sky and dropping me. When I got dropped my arms grew these air resistant flaps and next thing I knew, I was flying.”
Marlon raised an eyebrow. “Say what?”
“Well maybe it was more like gliding but the point is I’m not just some ordinary squirrel. I’ve got some kind of special flight ability.”
“Bruh, have you been eating those pico seeds? You’re telling me that after all of these years, you can fly now? Whip those air flaps out. I gotta see this.”
“You got it,” Mory said happily. He closed his eyes and stood with his arms rested at his sides and feet shoulder-width apart. Within seconds his manek was fully activated. The air flaps didn’t appear though. “Now that I think about it, I don’t really know how to get the flaps to show up.”
Marlon placed a hand on his forehead and laughed.
“You’ve got to believe me. I was flying. I’m just not sure how I did it.”
“I believe it, but you should’ve seen the look on your face.”
Mory sighed in frustration. “I guess that was a bust. It might not even happen again.”
“Hold on a sec. You were falling when the flaps popped out, right?”
“Yeah.”
Marlon pointed at a white oak tree behind Mory. “There. Climb to the top of that tree and jump off.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“You want to try out this new power, don’t you? Maybe you have to already be airborne for it to work.”
“Maybe that’s the case, but what happens if it doesn’t work?”
“You’ll be fine. If it doesn’t kick in then I’ll catch you before you hit the ground.”
Mory took a moment to think it over. Then he said, “Fine. I’ll do it.”
They walked to the tree.
“I should go into manek mode before we start,” said Marlon. He changed into the form of a northern cardinal. His manek gave him a Mohawk of red feathers. His light red beak was short and thick. The wings he produced were the color of a rose that was highlighted by a thin layer of dust. “All right. Ready when you are.”
Mory stared at the tree and took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”
He began climbing up. His manek made the climb almost effortless as his sharp claws gave him a solid grip on the tree. In less than a minute, he was at the top of the tree which was roughly thirty meters tall. As he looked down at Marlon, the thought of jumping froze him in place. In his mind, he questioned if this was the right decision.
I already survived the fall from earlier. Why am I putting myself through this again?
“Just jump already. You’ll be fine,” Marlon yelled.
Those words gave Mory the confidence that he needed. He remembered that Marlon was his best friend who would never lie to him. He released his claws from the tree and launched himself outward by pushing off with his legs. As he burst through the green haze of leaves and branches, he was no longer thinking. Air and gravity were all that mattered. His air flaps jetted out right away. He began cruising through the air just like before.
Mory yelled, “I’m doing it, Marlon! This is what I was talking about!”
Marlon stood there smiling as if he were a proud brother. It was rare for him to see Mory in such a good mood. His smile remained until he noticed something odd. It looked like Mory was going to crash into his parents’ hut.
“Yo, Mory. Watch out for the hut!”
“Huh.”
Mory soon realized that he was headed straight for the hard clay structure. He tried flapping his arms like a bird with wings, but it didn’t change his direction. He started wiggling frantically, which only got him closer to the hut faster. Next thing he knew, the hut was right in front of his face.
“Crap!”
Marlon swooped in and grabbed Mory just in time. Off-balance, they both landed oddly on their sides. Marlon groaned as he sat up.
“You all right, man?” he asked Mory.
Mory sat up slowly. “Yeah, I’m good. That was close. Thanks for the save.”
“Don’t mention it. It’s what homies are for. Besides, my parents would’ve killed me if I’d let you destroy their hut.”
Marlon stood up and helped Mory to his feet.
“So, what did you think about my new trick?” Mory asked.
“It’s pretty dope. How do those air flap things wrap around your vest, and how do they stay stuck on there?”
“I have no idea.”
Marlon deactivated his manek. “Hold on for a minute. I wanna check something out real quick.”
He walked over to his hut and went inside. After a few minutes, he came back out with a thick book in his hands. It was the fourth volume of ‘The Ancient World Bestiary’. Near the beginning of the fifth century, Keanoans began forming a collection of books that kept records of all known animal species that existed in the past and the present. The Bestiary was constantly being updated over time and a new edition was produced every fifty years. The fourth volume was the book for the mammalian animal class. Marlon opened the book and turned the pages until he found the squirrel section.
“The healers told you that your manek was from a fox squirrel, right?”
“Yeah,” Mory replied.
Marlon slid his finger across the page, reading each word carefully.
“I think they were wrong about you.” He switched his sights from the book to Mory. “Your manek isn’t from the fox squirrel. It’s from the flying squirrel. Look here,” he said as he held the book out so Mory could view it.
There was a drawing of a flabby looking squirrel that had each of its legs stretched out far and it appeared to be flying. Above the drawing was the title ‘Flying Squirrel’ Below it, there was a description which was a few sentences long. Mory read it out loud.
“There are fifty recorded species of flying squirrels. These creatures specialize in gliding through the air with the use of a membrane that is around their front and hind legs. The membrane is air resistant which allows the squirrel to have a slow and controlled descent towards the ground. Their primary method of travel is by gliding from one tree to another.”
“Well, what do you think?” Marlon asked.
Mory placed his hands on Marlon’s shoulders. He had a wide grin on his face.
“Marlon, you’re a genius. I didn’t think about checking the Bestiary. Thanks to you, I know the truth now. I’m a flying squirrel.”
“Glad I could help.”
Mory dropped his hands and took a step back. Full of joy, he looked up at the evening sky.
“Oh crap! It’s almost sundown. I gotta get back home before my mom comes looking for me. Thanks again. For everything.”
“I should be thanking you. The gliding was pretty cool to see. Now get out of here. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“All right. See ya,” Mory said as he turned away from Marlon and began to jog home.
Fantasy
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Another engaging installment of the Born To Fly series does not disappoint in delivering answers to the last chapter’s questions. It’s playing out like a serial novel, in short story form.
Once again, if I were editing this story I would like to know why this society lacks formal authority connections within Mory’s family and society. It may be a realistic medieval society or village social structure in parts outside the first world, but the vibe of these teens seems very modern and first-world. That leaves me with a disconnect. In this one chapter, I was fully expecting Mory to relay his near-death experience to his family first, and I was distracted when he simply blew off his mother after such a trauma.
This isn’t saying the story is wrong, but it creates a confusing picture of where family and adults stand in the social structure of young kids in the Land of Birds. That confusion can get in the way of readers trying to identify with the characters, and ultimately distract from the message you’re trying to send.
It is still a very engaging story of discovery, and you’ve met the important goal of making readers want to read more.