Matthiel
It seemed to take much longer than he expected, to rise from
his home within the earth to the surface of the water. He was more grateful than he would’ve imagined
for the cocoon he was contained within because, though they were protected by a
pocket of air, as they were rising from their home he could
feel the cold seeping into the air around them from the deep waters through
which they were rising.
Dio was very still.
He dared not move for fear of puncturing their pocket of air before the correct
time. As they continued their
journey upward, Matt realized he had no idea how to determine when it was time
to begin upward navigation. He’d never
been taught the timing of the journey.
He paused a moment to prepare the question and then sent it directly to
Dio’s mind.
“This is one of the reasons you are mentored, my
friend. You must travel with me or
another experienced spotter for many journey’s before you will have the timing
correct and sense the changes which occur in the propulsion and environment around us just before surface
is reached. The surface of these large
waters change based on moon position and weather, to name only two considerations.”
Matt was silenced by the awe he felt. How did he not realize there was so much more
to these expeditions than he thought?
Why hadn’t anyone told him there was so much more to learn? After a few moments reflection, he realized
he had been told! His mother, father,
Dio, and all the other mentors had communicated regularly that the training
they went through on the learning field and in the theory school. In fact, they had declared that their training was only beginning when they teamed with a specific mentor to make surface
journeys. He simply hadn't consciously remembered those conversations because he simply discounted them. Matt realized how big-headed
and overconfident he’d been in thinking he could handle these journeys himself
just because he was able to shift more quickly and with greater ease than his
peers.
Dio’s thought was jumbled.
Matt could not determine what Dio was trying to say. “Emergency.
Mon….” Dio was losing altitude.
Matt knew that if they lost too much air, Dio would be spotted by the
surface dwellers and the results for both of them would almost certainly be horrific. Not able to calm his mind sufficiently to attempt communication, Matt
made a spur of the moment decision. Dio
was still losing altitude, and fast, so Matt quickly climbed out of his cocoon and smoothly
shifted. He immediately began flapping
while holding firmly to Dio’s wings nearest his body. Dio was almost completely asleep, it seemed. Matt knew
he was a strong flyer, but he also knew he would not be able to carry
Dio to their planned observation point.
Thankfully all of the youth in training were taught how to locate the
emergency hide-stations that dotted the surface.
Matt calmed himself as much as possible and quieted his
mind. He began to search his senses so that he could locate the point on the surface from which he would feel a greater sense of Peace to which he might orient himself. The internal guidance system had been one of
his weaker areas in practice, even though he’d been practicing it with his parents since his earliest years –
long before he began his official training time.
He knew how to feel the points of greater Peace, which would guide him
to the hide-station nearest where he was, but it took far longer than he expected. He was sure the additional focus time was, at least in part, due to the intense focus he had to maintain to hold somewhere near the correct altitude while also trying not to feel too
worried about the whole situation.
Just when Matt was
beginning to feel fear almost overwhelm him, he began to sing the seeking
song. Without even thinking about beginning to sing, he found himself singing it. It came from his beak and he immediately felt the nearest
hide-station. Matt immediately re-oriented himself to the location and as he did so a map with areal pictures seemed to appeared before his eyes until he knew he would recognize the spot from his current height. Thankfully the direction he'd originally been flying was almost exactly the correct one. Matt felt a heart surge of
gratitude and allowed it to explode from his true-self into the world.
In less time than he thought it require, Matt saw the key
identifiers on the land below him and began to dive toward his
destination. All signs indicated that
Dio was still sleeping. Matt was so
relieved at their imminent arrival that he almost lost his balance in the air. He righted himself and felt Dio’s mind still
closed in sleep. Matt knew there must be
something terribly wrong with his mentor for sleep to have overcome him this
way.
Once he was almost nearly directly above his destination, about 6 feet from the ground, Matt fell
the rest of the way into what looked like a solid rock. He
let go of Dio just before he, himself, tumbled and rolled into the rock and fell through the ground onto the smooth
ground of the hidden cave. Dio fell and
rolled and stopped in a horribly uncomfortable-looking position a few feet from
Matt.
© 2008-2012 Tori Gollihugh All Rights Reserved
next installment: June 22nd, 10am
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