Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades

by Makitk

17

Oval led the way back to the common room, which was literally buzzing with the amount of Changelings flying about through it.

I had forgotten how loud it was, but the sound quickly disappeared to the back of my mind like the first time I had visited. Much like white noise or other such background sounds.

I warranted a guess that it had something to do with me being a Changeling now as well; my own wings made that sound, so it was easier to tune out than back when I was a human. Back then it would have just been a nuisance.

We made our way back to one of the three-alcoved cubicles again, although I could not for the life of me figure out if it was the same one I'd woken up in or not, and Oval all-but rolled into an alcove at seemingly random.

I chuckled at seeing her lay down like a lazy mule, and moved to follow her example. The hard resin around my leg made it a bit tricky, but I managed to slip into an alcove as well and lay down in a comfortable position with my head near one of the veins.

"You know how to do this, right?" Oval wondered, but I poked my fangs into a vein instead of giving her an answer.

I did a quick taste of the resin paste as it poured out of the holes I'd made, spat out a mouthful or two to get to the fresher stuff, and then drank from the vein as I had done for breakfast.

Oval and I drank our dinner in silence, and as I plugged the vein for the second time that day, I realized I was feeling utterly comfortable where I was.

My life before my arrest had been mainly a collection of fast food, lonely days at my computers, and barely any interaction with others except of through forums and chat programs. I made my money off of advertisements and occasional donations from others, and spent it on frivolous things I really didn't need; like the dozens of little statues littering my home.

Life was much different here, and it was a breath of fresh air to me. I had walked more in the past two days than I must have in the year before that, but I did not feel overly tired from it.

My new body was much better equipped for the long walks I'd done, and I looked down at my four legs with a light smile.

"What's cooking in that brain of yours, little sister?" Oval wondered, and I glanced her way.

"I'm actually happy," I returned.

"About what?" I was asked as Oval wandered on over.

"This new life. It has its downsides, like anything, but I think I'm going to enjoy exploring everything that's still ahead of me," I spoke with a smile. "The downsides don't weigh as heavily upon me as this cast, for one."

Oval bumped her hoof against the resin cast a moment, then looked up at the ceiling far above us. "Yeah, that's going to drag you down a bit when you try to fly."

"Still want me to?" I wondered, looking up as well. "I'm not sure I can get up that high on my first try."

"Hey, I already said I'd catch you if you'd come falling down, didn't I? Maybe we should wait for Breeze to get back, though?" Oval suggested, rubbing her chin thoughtfully with her left elbow.

"I can at least try to hover in this cubicle here, right?" I offered up, climbing out of the alcove and standing next to Oval. "I already hovered a little during my fight with brother."

"Hmm, yes. That could work; you'll get a decent feel of how much the cast drags you down that way," Oval mused, her own wings starting to buzz as she lifted herself up from the ground a few inches. "Show me what you know, okay? We can do some prep work until Breeze gets here."

I set my own wings in motion, feeling the air displacement going down along my flank. "Well, I already tried to get some lift back when you were teaching me about how to take on different guises, so that part is easy," I started.

Oval just hovered a little higher herself, watching as I started to create enough lift for my legs to lose grip on the ground.

I wobbled a little sideways, definitely feeling that resin cast weighing my right foreleg down. I tried to compensate by pushing off faster with my right wing than my left, but that just made me go sideways toward the wall, so then I had to correct that again.

I stumbled a little in that fashion until I managed to hover in the same spot, barely an inch above the ground.

"There you go," Oval remarked from her position above me. "Now just push off a little more from the ground; keep in mind that you get less lift the higher you go, so compensate for drift."

I peered up a little and started floating backwards. Not wanting to lose my balance again, I dropped the idea of looking at Oval and instead focused on my flying again.

As instructed, I pushed off from the ground a little more, feeling the change in lift and how the air moved around my body, and I tried to compensate for it which led to more wobbling and swaying about.

It was a little tricky, especially with the gusts of wind from other Changelings passing by overhead, but I felt like I was still mostly in control of my own body. I was flying up a good foot or two and was starting to see the top of the cubicle's walls.

"Okay, now you've noticed the winds hitting you, right? It's only going to get worse once you get up over the walls," Oval warned me as I started to reach that point. "Forget about compensating for that; you'll be tossed aside if you try. The trick is to face them headfirst instead."

I dared to peer up at Oval, who smiled back at me.

"Or you can let yourself drop down into the room again and catch a breather?" she suggested, but I shook my head at that. I had come this far, and I felt the drive to push on.

I lifted myself up out of the cubicle for real and immediately got hit by a gust from a passing Changeling, who slowed down halfway past me and then stopped to look at me with a raised eyebrow.

I stumbled to correct my position in the air from that rush, but then had to correct myself again from another gust coming from a different direction.

I started to look around me more and more, trying to judge which Changelings around me were on their way to cause another problem for me, and turned myself to face them as good as I could.

Oval kept her distance, and as I looked around I noticed several other Changelings having stopped what they had been doing to watch me take my first true flight... I was starting to get a bit nervous under the watchful gaze of all those siblings of mine.

"Okay, you're just going to keep going up, I guess," Oval chuckled, and waved a hoof at me. "Okay, you recognize me, right? So come and follow me."

I raised an eyebrow at that, but she turned her tail on me and started off at a leisurely speed away from me. I realized she was going to fly off whether I followed her or not, and moved to follow her.

While Oval's path was straight as an arrow, mine was going all over the place as I was overthinking the corrections I had to make every time a gust of wind struck me. My head was turning far more than hers as I was still trying to catch our oncoming siblings as they came flying by so I could anticipate on how to compensate for it.

With some effort we made it to a group of alcoves about halfway up to the cavern's ceiling, hewn in a large stalagmite which reached up higher still. The alcoves were set all around the stone pillar like terraces, with the green resin veins snaking through between them all.

Oval led me over to an empty one and hovered nearby while I just about crashed straight into it, then moved to sit on the edge of it next to me and gave me a soft poke with her left forehoof.

I could only lay there panting, having exerted myself far more than I had imagined.

"You look around too much, little sister," Oval told me in a soft tone, half looking at me and half waving away the curious gazes from our siblings with her right forehoof.

I just groaned at that.

"I told you not to worry about compensating for the wind, right?" Oval wondered, stroking her left hoof over my headfin. I felt it fold down a little until her hoof left it, at which point it flopped back up again.

"You also told me to turn into the wind," I offered up, "so I tried to see where the wind was coming from before it hit me so I could turn into it."

Another Changeling lowered their head from the alcove above to look at me from their upside-down position. I noticed them focusing on me first, then on my legs, and then frown a little.

"Yes, I'm a hatchling, is anything wrong?" I threw back at them, getting a little annoyed by their judging looks.

"You can't anticipate on every gust of wind, hatchling," the upside-down one offered in a raw voice which made him sound like a long-time smoker.

"I've got this, brother. Thanks for your input," Oval offered up with a smile, and the other peered at her a moment.

"I had expected a different sister to give flying lessons," he remarked, but then pulled his head back up again.

"Breeze is a bit busy," Oval called after him.

"What about me?" Breeze wondered, flying towards us. "Scoot over, will you?"

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Haha, everyone's like, "WTF? "