Chapter 6: A young chick leaving its nest.
"Aww a young chick leaving its nest??" A teasing voice from a guy suddenly spoke besides Arteus as he was wiping the tears that fell on his face.
"Shut up" Arteus sniffles as he glared at the middle age man besides him who laughs at him.
"Don't worry kiddo. I know how that felt, I've left my old man's place when I was young to find some work.. but you're definitely younger than even back then" The man laughed and smach him from the back hitting him at his 'white cape'
"..??.. oh? Carrying a bag under your cape? Good idea.. you will be less likely to be Target by some morons when you're traveling." The man spoke mistaking the solid muscle and bones of the wings as a bag underneath the cape.
Arteus didn't correct him and instead let the dude be.. and with that.. the open platform elevator came to a stop and a gate that leads outside the elevator opened up. Letting the bright sunlight through.
Many people on the platform flinched from the sudden changes in the brightness.. some even hissed and sucked in breath in a pained groan.
'hiss...so this is the morning sky huh?' Arteus wonders as he looks up in the sky and followed the other people as they stepped off the platform.
Like the night sky and the stars.. this was his first time seeing the clear sunny sky in its full glory.. all his life he only got a glimpse of the sun from small gaps in specific parts of the under city or the slum Umbrian which was the place he grew up on.
"It kinda hurts.. But it's not bad" he said as he makes a strange face with his eyes squinting despite him trying his best to keep it open while looking at the sun like a moron.
Looking around he realizes hes not alone on this endeavor.. another older lady was doing the same.. and like him she have a pale skin..
'an Umbrianian huh?' he thought before looking up in the sun again with his face scrunch up like an idiot. 'This is it.. my turning point! I'll do my best and make Carter and Abigail proud!'
And with that he began walking only to walk into a pole. '..I...I CANT SEE!'
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30 minutes later Arteus is walking besides a dirt trail.. while walking he would run his hands through the tall grass on his right side. While looking around in the horizon.
'Beautiful.. there's no walls.. no ceiling.. No darkness... So this is what they call the surface huh?.. this is..'
"Freedom" he said out loud as he hums while walking.
His memories went back to the time when he was right outside the platform elevator.. after getting out a guard asked him to show a token. Which he did.
Just like from the entrance of the Platform elevator you can only get in when you have the tokken.. and to get out you also had to show the tokken.. and a single tokken we're 3k$ which almost took most of his shavings. The good thing was.. this was a permanent tokken and this will allow you entrance and exit to both the surface Lumens and Umbrian layer as long as you have it with you.
"This should be far enough right?" He said to himself as he turned back. The kingdom walls of Ambrosias were far in the distance.. he turned to his right and began walking towards the forest which was only a few minutes of walk. Away from the open clearing of the dirt road.
In the forest..surrounded by the trees and vegetation.. he stretch his wings wide.. as he shudders as a pleasant sensation ran through his body like a morning stretch when you woke up. Even his wings was shuddering.
"hnnggGg~~.. ah.. keeping it tightly folded felt so suffocating.. I'm glad I can finally stretch it out" he yawns.
"Now.. that I'm away from the frying eyes of others I think I can now learn how to fly!" He said pleased.
He have been holding himself back ever since he got the wings. Even in the under city Umbrian he couldn't practice.. even if it's night.. simply because his wings crates too much noise.. and it produces too much wind and force that it causes a disturbance throughout the slums since most of the houses in there are from light material..
He recalled the first night after the ordeal with Derek was done.. it was dark and pitch black night. The slum is still busy but not as busy as the morning.. he even went to the far corner's of the slum where there's not much house around and a single flap of his wings caused a large dust storm to spread..and the sound of flapping echoed through the slum making it audible from the other side of the canyon..
Because of the structure of the canyon the sound was carried far and wide.. making it impossible to practice.
The only time he managed to practice was when he rescued Abigail.. and the flap of his wings didn't produced much affect because it was already up in the air and was far from the ground.. whats more he doesn't really have to flapped it strongly because he was already being carried by the wind. And he mostly just glided that time.. it doesn't really count as flying.
Now.. there's no canyon around him.. no paranoid slum dweller that he needs to keep an eye out for.. nothing is stopping him from flying!
Since he's not really carrying anything with him other than a waterskin and the money he saved up. He doesn't have to worry about leaving something behind.
With no more hesitation in mind he began running.. slowly and hesitantly he began flapping his wings behind him as he runs.. doing a few test flap and slightly jumping.
"Hohooo!" He lively laughs as he jumps again and did a final test flap his jump getting boosted from the weak flap of his wings and when he landed he followed it through with a squat before jumping hard and at the same time he raised his wings up and swung it down without holding back.
*WHOOOOSSHH!!!* a thunderous beat boomed throughout the forest.. a massively dust was blew away and the tree creak and bent with the wind as a powerful gust of wind explodes from his wings
"WOOOHOOOO!!!!!" He excitedly yelled as he soar up in the sky.. taller than any trees around him. His heart was beating loudly, his mind whirling. It felt so.. liberating.
And with a thought, he folded his wings in and the raised it up and swung it down. And he once again soared even higher.
He kept doing this, again and again.. at first his rhythm was a little off.. But with each beat of his wings the next was more on point. And soon his wings are flapping in a natural pace. Now, he's hundred's of meter's in the sky.
Soon a thousands.. and the next thing he know was..he was amongst the cloud.. he .... He.....
Suddenly everything started becoming blurry.. he was struggling the breath.. and his wings stopped flapping and he flumets down. Rolling around in the air.
He was panicking but he kept breathing and as he falls he too started being able to breathe in the air.. the ground is quickly approaching but he's not in the right orientation to fly.. he look at his wing and tilted the two in two different directions.
And just as he was about to hit the top of a tree spun in midair and swung his wings down and soared up in the sky.
"YAAAHOOO!! I'M FLYING!!" He screamed the close call made him enter in adrenaline. He felt ALIVE he couldn't help but laugh out loud. He couldn't help but think that he really feels like a literal chick that just jumped out of its nest to learn how to fly with that thought he giggled.
His cackle echoing through the forest as a sound of beating wings slowly fade nthe distance together with his laugh.
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