Sky Flying Kingdom

Majestic streets of ivory, towers of pearl, glorious wonders I can only dream about as I lay in the great field by my little hut, gazing at the wondrous kingdom of legend, hanging there in the sky.

Oh, the sight of it is unbearable, I want to glimpse these wonders for myself, but alas, I have no wings.

I have long dreamt of venturing up there, to the great kingdom in the sky. In fact, my fruitless dreams had brought me to where I now reside

I finally had just about had enough, and was about to return to my hut, when I heard the strangest sounds coming from the forest behind me.

I rushed over to see what the fuss was, and to my surprise, there was a wrinkly old wizard shouting for help.

His robes were somewhat of a muted purple with green stars all over it. His long beard, which extended to the ground, flopped around as he desperately tried to escape the bear trap he was caught in.

I obviously ran to help him as soon as I saw his predicament.

When he was finally free, he gave a sigh of relief and thanked me as he picked up his hat from the ground.

"*phew* Thanks a bunch son, what can I call you?"

"Well, my name's Peter Widjit, but you can call me Peter."

"Nice to meet you Pete, the name's Julius K. Argozant. As you can see, I'm a wizard."

I tilted my head to the side and probed for specifics.

"What kind of magic can you use?"

"All sorts!"

"Why couldn't you use your magic to free yourself?"

"Well, it doesn't work like that. I can do lots of things, but I am unfortunately without a spell that frees people from bear traps..."

Argozant gazed up at the trees around them.

"I know, how about I give you a reward for saving me?"

As I'm not the kind of person that rejects something free, I readily accepted his offer.

"Certainly! What did you have in mind?"

"I can cast a spell on you that lets you fly like a bird for a whole day!"

Stars flew around in my eyes when I pictured the joys I could have with such an endowment.

"I would be honored."

"Ohoho! the pleasure's all mine! You saved me, after all."

We stepped out of the forest and he started waving his hands around, chanting things that sounded like nonsense, but I recognized them from fairy tales about wizards my mom read to me when I was young.

"Bazow!"

A bolt of lightning struck me, yet I was not hurt at all.

"Well? Try it out."

I leapt as high as I could, and suddenly I found myself unable to land.

"Haha, this is great!"

"Glad you like it. Welp, I'll be off."

And he scurried off into the forest to do who knows what. But I didn't care, I had my ticket to the wondrous kingdom of my dreams.

I stopped off back home first, and loaded my backpack with fruits and a small pitchfork I dug out of the closet. I needed snacks, and having something to defend myself with was only sensible.

With my backpack full, and my 24 hours already ticking away, I had my sights set on the kingdom!

Without further ado, I took off towards the sky. It was surprisingly easy to control my flight, so I had no real problems, besides the occasional bird or two.

As I had suspected, it was much further away than it looked from my hut. I flew for almost half an hour before I realized I could accelerate my speed. So only a few minutes later, I arrived at the glorious kingdom in the sky.

The only problem I faced now, was that my increase in speed was quite difficult to stop. I realized this a little too late, as I ended up crashing through the side of a building, and then through the other side.

I brushed myself off, coughing from the dust I had kicked up, but then I noticed where I was.

It was a central courtyard to some sort of royal execution site. An important looking bird man in silvery robes was tied up next to a few other people that looked similarly dressed. A scary looking man with the head of a dragon was dragging another person towards the side of the kingdom. It looked like a girl.

From my years of reading mystery novels, I deduced that this man was trying to take over the kingdom and was beginning to execute the royalty. So I decided to act on behalf of the side that didn't terrify me.

Of course, as you might expect, my entrance was hardly unnoticed, the 'minions' of the dragon man surrounded me with tall, two-pronged spears pointed at me.

Timidly, I squeaked, "U-um, excuse me..." and left the way I came.

I flew out near the underside of the place to observe the proceedings, that way I could swoop in if necessary.

The dragon man stood the girl up, and pushed her onto a plank of wood leading off the side of the kingdom. She timidly walked towards the edge. I could see him yelling something at her, but I was too far to hear it.

With a final shove, she fell off the side and I knew it was my turn to help.

I swooped in and caught her in more than enough time.

I flew underneath the kingdom to the opposite side, just to be safe. And we landed in what appeared to be a garbage dump of sorts.

I set her down and untied her. She shook her feathers out and stretched her wing-like arms.

Upon further inspection, she was quite bird-like, but had no beak. Though her face did have feathers on it, it was more human in build.

"W-who are you?" She said.

"I'm just a man... who can fly for today."

She looked at me with great confusion, and inspected my appearance.

"Aren't you a grounder?"

"Grounder?"

"Someone from the ground."

"Oh. Yes, I am."

"How in the world did you get up here? No grounders can fly."

"I just said I can fly for today."

"Oh, that's right. How did that happen?"

"I saved a wizard, and he gave me this power for today."

"Oh, how nice of him!"

The room was quiet for 3 minutes.

"S-so, what was up back there?"

"The revolutionaries, headed by Holbeak Gallow, the man who made me walk the plank, are trying to take over Floatilla! In celebration of his victory, he decided to execute one of the royal family a day, so he chose me first. I don't know what I'm going to do, I have to save my family!"

I thought about it, and came to the only right conclusion.

"I know, I'll help you!"

"You will?"

"Why, certainly! I can't just let a pretty girl and her family get executed by a dragon man!"

"Oh, thank you!"

She jumped up and gave me a big hug.

"So what's your name?"

"Misty Cumulonimbus. Princess of Floatilla. And you?"

"I'm Peter Widjit. Normal human grounder."

We talked for a while about possible ways to stop Holbeak from killing the king's family, and came up with a simple plot that should work out for us.

We flew over to the sky castle and landed on the roof softly. We quietly tiptoed over to a skylight and peered in to see if Holbeak was there.

There he was, sitting in the royal throne meant for Misty's dad, laughing while sipping a cup that looked like it was filled with wine of some sort.

"Okay, you remember the plan?" I whispered to her.

Misty nodded.

"I'll do my best!"

She glided down to the front door, as although they have wings, they cannot exactly fly, at least, not until they are fully mature.

As loud as she could, she crashed through the door and proclaimed loudly:

"Holbeak Gallow, I have returned to claim what is rightfully mine!"

The revolutionaries in the castle were stunned to see her again.

Holbeak spat his wine all over the floor, exclaiming "Egad, how in the heavens are you still alive?!"

"I have powers beyond your understanding! Come and face me outside so we can finish this once and for all!"

"Guards, seize her!"

The guards were terrified of her return, they didn't know what kind of powers she had obtained, and didn't want to risk their lives.

"You morons! I guess I'll have to take care of this myself."

He got up and threw his cape to the side, which hurt Misty, as it was her father's.

He walked the distance of the humongous room and met up with her at the door.

"I'll have you know I was trained by the queen's bodyguard himself."

"I know. I was never going to fight you."

"Hm?"

I swooped down and grabbed Holbeak as they exited the castle.

"Wha- what is this?!"

"You've lost, Holbeak Gallow!"

"Hmph, trying to kill me, are you?"

"I don't approve of killing, so I'm taking you to a place you'll never hurt these people again."

While we were conversing about strategies to stop him earlier, Misty brought up a serious weakness of Holbeak's race, the dracos. They had no flight capabilities at all.

This meant my next stop was, of course, the ground.

I dropped him face first on the ground and made a u-turn back towards Floatilla.

In the evening, they had an extravagant party in celebration of their hero. But sadly, it wouldn't last forever.

"Are you sure you have to go?" Misty said with a tear in her eye.

"It's where I belong. You know, you could come with me."

"But I have my duties up here..."

I gave her a hug, and said, "You could always come visit me sometime. It doesn't need to be for long. Here."

I pulled out a small map I'd written up earlier.

"So you can always find me."

She smiled and replied softly, "I promise to visit you."

And so we parted ways, and I returned to my hut on the ground.

The next day, at around noon, I flew around for the last few minutes before it wore off. Which came quite suddenly, as I fell face first onto the ground and got a mouthful of dirt.

Satisfied with my adventure, I returned to my hut to fix up some lunch.

But outside, there lurked a shadowy figure bent on my destruction.

"Whoever you are, I found you and I will destroy you!"

Holbeak Gallow had found my home and was preparing to attack me with a primitive spear he'd constructed.

"Diiiieeee!"

*Poof*

"W-what's this? What happened to me? Why am I so short? What's this shell on my back?"

"Hohoho, I think you've done enough killing, Mr. Gallow."

Julius K. Argozant, the wizard who started this whole mess, stepped out from behind a tree. He had turned the terrible Holbeak Gallow into a turtle to prevent him from slaying Peter.

"And now," He said, picking up Holbeak and putting him in his pocket, "You're coming with me. No more mischief for you."

And he headed off into the forest to do who knows what.

END