The Wind-Trials
[Work incomplete]
The first of the star-rains came with a calamitous, thundering roar, to forever mark the eve of Cal’s first wind-trial ceremony.
The walls of tree homes shook, and the white bark that formed their hanging foundations rattled and groaned. So fierce, loud, and sudden was the resulting cacophony that all the many inhabitants of this quaint, sleepy town – young or old, large or small, man or animal – startled in near unison. Parents roused their drowsy children from their beds and hoisted still-sleeping infants in their slings, clambering down spiral staircases onto starlit streets. Traveling merchants climbed hastily aboard the decks of anchored wind-ships to peer at the sight, eager to bask in a sight unbelievable in all their years of travel, and a new story to tell. Pious men ran onto the streets in a flurry of billowing robes and gasps of awe.
As one they turned, enraptured, to greet a sight that filled a dark, cloudless sky in rich, beautiful color: thousands of falling stars, innumerable, dropping from the heavens in a swirling rainbow of colors, brief streaks of luminescent green and deep indigo, before their inevitable demise in the lower reaches of the stratosphere, burnt up into ash. They fell and fell, immeasurable, uncountable, like fiery droplets of interstellar dew – if the stars could rain.
There were shouts and cries: at first of panic and fear, that morphed slowly as more and more of the meteors extinguished harmlessly in the atmosphere in dreamlike incandescent streaks, to oohs and aahs of the most stupendous wonder. The growing group of watchers marveled at the rippling sky above their heads – and the heavens which had become awash with a spectrum of colors.
The rowdiest children jumped and ran and laughed as they ventured onto a hilly, dimly lit field, eyes trained on the shooting, arcing stars. Resembling falling rainbows more than stellar dust, the stars had, by slim chance, found their way into the night sky and the shining exuberance of all their young, boundless imaginations.
“Look,” Cal shouted suddenly, from the group’s tail. He pointed a long arm squarely at the sky as they ran between grassy, gently sloping hills, “do you see that huge red one over there? It’s heading towards the forest!”
“What?” gasped another squat boy as they ran, “which one? There are so many of them.”
“It’s right there, Ascan,” a girl yelled in response, “it’s falling away from the others!” The lone falling star began to separate from its kin, tumbling ever downwards. Further shouts of wonder and excitement rang out from their group as they threw themselves into a wild, rapid chase through the swaying reeds. Far beyond the fields, a wide expanse of trees beckoned as they came ever closer, now brightly lit under the raining stars. Rainbows danced across leaves and bark. “Woah,” she gasped, her eyes wide and riveted by the falling star soaring low over their heads. She held her glider-staff tightly in both hands. “I think it’s gonna crash into the forest! It’s getting really, really close!”
“Are you sure, Greta?” came the enthusiastic shout from Ascan between rapid, heaving breaths. She frantically nodded behind him as they ran.
“I can’t believe we’ll finally catch a falling star!” he said, laughing in delight.
[By now they had reached the crest of a high, gently rolling hill, and...
Cal, [brief description]
(editing this section)
pulled far, far ahead of the others in his sheer excitement. In his hand he held his apprentice’s glider staff half-unfurled, still –
(editing this section)
...as he had yet to fully master his form, which billowed as he ran.
(editing this section)
]
“Cal!” they shouted, “Cal, wait!”
Wordlessly he moved, and in a few short steps he had completely unfurled the long, slender white wings of his glider. The others yelled as he did so, moving in closer.
“Cal,” shouted [the lanky one] in between gasps, “where are you…”
He trailed off, as in one fluid motion – done with the grace of one who has practiced the same movement countless times – Cal threw his glider high, and with a deep, even breath took a great leap of faith into the cold night air. There was a momentary pause before the shouts came.
“He’s flying!” yelled Ascan. “He just flew away!”
“Oh come on!” said another. “Why’d you leave us behind again, Cal?”
“I guess that’s Cal for you,” lamented a third.
(Greta says something like “Well I’m going with Cal!” and leaps off onto her own glider to follow him into the forest as the other kids shout after her.)
The group, who by now were slowly catching their breaths standing at the very top of the hill – at the point where it sloped dangerously downward – were, as one, ready to voice their myriad complaints when they were interrupted. It was difficult, but if they strained their ears, they could hear the faint sounds of tinkling laughter floating down from above them – from a bright white pinprick in the sky.
“Hey! He’s laughing at us!”
The grin on Cal’s face could not have been wider. He kicked...
(editing this section)
Below him...
* * *
In the clearing in the forest…
[There was a statue at its centre, rigid and imposing, that stood with bare feet sunken in grass, its stalwart gaze pointed eternally heavenward, frozen in whatever moment of cognisance led it to stare at a sky it could no longer see.
(conversation between the kids)
They would have gazed in wonder as kaleidoscopic beams of light sparked from skyward eyes, which lit the hanging branches in the deepest of reds and most verdant of greens, and the bronze of its skin in blinding gold – piercing the foliage and shooting onwards to scatter among the raining stars in the sky with a graceful fervour, never to return. In those ancient eyes, came the glow of life.]
(moves its head a bit, make it dramatic)
(shouts of surprise from kids, maybe somebody is particularly daring and pokes the statue?)]
Work in progress - to be continued/completed...
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