LostBrotherGrimm

Wings Askew

Eli Wyn

Since Eli was alone, no one to talk to and quickly growing bored with talking to himself, it was hard not to notice a bloodcurdling scream that had erupted from the skies above. The sheer surprise froze him in spot, not quite sure whether he wants to look up and see what was making all that noise. Slowly, though, he composed himself and looked up. What was... it? A bird? A glider?

No... it was a - oh, definitely a glider. A glider without wings. "That's new," Eli mumbled to himself as he moved slightly to the side so that the person crashing down wouldn't exactly crash straight into him. Luckily, he observed, there was a bit of a clearance, so whomever it was, they probably wouldn't kill themselves.

Luckily, they did not. And they ended up being a girl - one he had seen before in the village. She struck him as a really familiar person, although he wasn't able to pinpoint the exact source of that familiarity. As if someone talked to him about her? Maybe Blin? After a few moments, Eli shook his head, shrugging as he watched the girl sit up and go straight for her bag. And she pulled out... a lute of all things?

Of course, a lute. That's who she was. The musician of the village. He never good to talk to her, but he heard stories about her music being really good. What was her name again... Theme? Teemo? Something like that. Probably.

"So I guessed right, Eli replied, "We both came from the same place. Didn't see you on the cliff, but then again, it was such a ruckus that I didn't have the time to scan my surroundings. Nice screamo notes, though." He grinned as he noted her comment about her arms being tired. She was probably in pain over the fall. Eli decided on asking about it, but before he was able to, he thought how painful was just watching her crash. He was literally feeling the pain.

Wait.

Literally?

"Literally," he clutched his chest as the words came out of his mouth, stumbling backwards to the floor,"Woah... woa- old ticker, chill." In all the years he was crashing down, and up, and all over the island, this kind of pain was something completely new. And not necessarily a desired type of a new experience. It felt as if his heart would pop out of his chest any second.

For a split second, Eli saw the light. Was it the horrid light at the end of a tunnel he was hearing about in school? What an irony would be if his adventure ended on such a sour note. He traced the light and as he became more focused on it, Eli realized it wasn't as grand as the end of a tunnel light was said to be, but rather a small ball of flickering energy. One that situated itself near Eli, before latching onto his forearm. In a few more nightmareish moments, Eli was able to breathe out again. The pain slowly subsided.

When he got back to his senses, Eli opened his mouth to ask the girl about it, but he was once again cut off by someone yelling. This time a mushroom like creature that rushed out of the forest and tried to dig itself a shelter in the girl's bag? To make the matter even stranger, the girl started either mimicking the panicked tone of the shroom or was actually panicking. The latter wouldn't really be the best thing to happen right now.

Ehm, Eli coughed to try and grab attention of both the girl and the shroom in hiding, "Sir? I mean, Mushroom? Er- Sir Shroom, is there any problem here?" Why in the world was he talking to a talking mushroom?

@Pacha

Wings Askew

@texDon't eat your familiar!

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Eli is a very peculiar little snowflake. Plus being half blind helped with that.

Yeah, I don't think he is close enough for her to see.

Wings Askew

Eli Wyn

Being the only one left standing on the cliff, as all others tackled the fear of the unknown, wasn't one of the most motivational moments. He saw gliders slowly fading out of his sight. That was his cue. Wind blew hair from his face, even more so when he put one of his feet forward, touching the air. One moment and Eli was gone, his body and glider falling towards a new world.

He allowed himself a bit more freefalling before fully extending his glider's wings and soaring toward the star full force, wind hitting his face with extreme power. It was going to be a challenge stopping the glider this time, more than usual. He was steadily picking the pace up. Yes, "steadily".

In almost no time, Eli reached Rahna, just to see her suddenly changing the direction. With wind hitting his face, Eli was unable to hear a lot, but his body instinctively tried to move the glider in Rahna's direction. First thought that fell on Eli's mind was that Rahna possibly had problems with her glider. Which would be his fault again, since he was modifying it just yesterday. "Crap," Eli muttered out as a second thought popped into his head.

Trying to change his direction at this speed wasn't only highly unlikely, but with his glider - it was a suicide mission.

He chuckled as he spotted more familiar faces in the distancr, recognizing Blin's glider. Then Nikki's. Then Eli's.

Wait.

Eli's glider?

The boy looked up to see the ground, then down to see the sky. "Since when was it..." Eli tried asking himself but quickly shut his mouth. This was not the time, nor the place. The momentum from his unexpected turn to the left allowed wind to flip his right wing and turn him first sideways and then upside down. How he didn't notice before was a miracle by itself, combined with him not being dead yet.

"Calm down," Eli thought to himself as Nikki's image briefly flashed in his head. Turns and twists were the sort of things she was doing. Her vision of stunts. Surely then... Maybe he would be able to replicate her movements, at least to stabilize himself.

No.

Of course he could. He was, in the end, the king of stunts. "Undisputed," he grumbled as he tried moving his weight to the right, then to the left, looking like a local drunk trying to fly. In a brief moment of insanity, he let go of the left hook, hanging only onto the right, before grabbing a hold of it again.

That seemed to help, but at a cost. Due to the weight, the right hook felt a bit loose under his grip. Deciding against risking it, Eli looked around, finally stabilized - he would be able to land somewhere. With any luck, it would be near his friends.

Friends?

He frantically looked around, not seeing them anywhere in sight. How long did he wrestle with his glider? But even worse - where the hell was he? Eli wasn't good with directions to start with. This didn't help.

Steadily he was reaching the ground, trying to locate any clear area to land without killing himself on some tree. Upon noticing one small patch of clear ground, thankfully in front of him, pushed his glider slightly downwards.

Two minutes later, his feet were on the ground, the tip of his glider impaled into the ground. "What now?" he scratched the back of his head.

Wings Askew

I'll be posting in ten hours. Sorry for the delay. College and job drained my life force.

Eli still didn't even jump (well, haven't posted that yet), and I don't know whether he'd split or not.

Wings Askew

@Ebonsquire Good luck with graduation, real life comes first. Lurk away! :)

Wings Askew

Eli Wyn

"You crazy woman!" Eli yelled after Nikki as she rushed towards the clouds. Without even saying sorry or something to that degree. He brushed the dirt from his clothes, before clearing his throat and seemingly getting his cool back together. For the time being. He ain't going to forget this. "Eh.. thanks for helping me out, Rahna. That girl is nothing but trouble, I tell you," Eli grinned as he realized exactly what he was saying, "Coming from someone like me, that's telling you a lot." He let out a small laugh before his face stiffened as his eyes traced Rahna's finger. Then it turned to a confused expression, before an even wider grin appeared on his face. "Blin? My bro?! You sure about that, Rahn?!" He was practically jumping from excitement. Of course Blin wouldn't pass out on this opportunity. Eli had taught him well.

The crowd slowly became nothing more than a few people standing on the cliff. He knew couple of those that had remained, not yet plunging themselves into the abyss below. This was it... the moment of truth. If there was any doubt left in Eli's mind, all of it faded out in the matter of seconds. People that he knew. Nikki, Blin, probably Blank too - amongst others, all disappeared from the sight. What was the point in staying back now?

"Hey Rahna," Eli said as he put his hand on her shoulder, "Be careful, alright? No injuries this early on." The more he waited, the farther other people had moved towards the surface. And that was fine, with Eli's glider and technique, he'd have no real trouble catching up to some of them. Maybe even catching up to Blin, he didn't have the fastest of gliders. Stable sure, but far from a racing type.

"So... yeah, wanna go? Not getting cold feet, are you?" Eli joked around although on the inside, he wasn't as calm as it had appeared. His entire body was tense. Was it fear? Possibly.

Excitement?

"Hell yeah."

@Rekaigan

Wings Askew

@shylarah Lies and witchcraft.

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Nikki is so evil :P

Wings Askew

Eli Wyn

Night before The Dive

That night was a hard one - too much energy, too much excitement to fall asleep. Too much unknowns. "It's going to be okay..." Words that Eli said to Rahna slightly prior to them parting ways echoed in his head. The question remained... was it really? It's not as if he was getting cold feet, but all of his stunts combined couldn't get close to the magnitude of this endeavor. This was the real deal. Full of elements and parameters he wasn't able to wrap his head around. Objectively, the worst that could've happened to Eli so far was to hurt himself in the process of being a jackass. But no one can tell what is the worst thing that could happen to him on the surface.

To make the matter worse, it wasn't just him. Something could happen to Rahna as well. In a way, he felt obligated to go, whether he liked it or not. The fact that he actually wanted to go was a minor detail in the train of thought that was currently on the tracks of his mind. Eli felt that a part of Rahna's eagerness to go, besides being a curious girl, was because of his influence. He did get that before, people telling him to steer clear of their children, as they knew one was more probably going to end up in trouble if one was hanging out around Eli. Whether that was truly the case with Rahna or just a figment of Eli's imagination, was up for debate, but he still felt responsible. Thus, it was as if fate decided that Eli would go by default.

"Huh," Eli proclaimed, as his gaze traced the night sky. He was sitting on the steps in front of his house, trying to clear his mind. Unsurprisingly, his sister was both the first one to find out about his intentions and the first one to object. She really did think that Eli was about to do it just for the kick. As did his parents, too. As did every single person that probably knew Eli. Knowing that, however, they also knew that there was no way to stop him from going. Not a sane way, anyways.

For the most part, people were right, yes - the adventure would be exciting as hell. But there was more to it. The promised reward.

His family may have been in an okay place for a while now, but that didn't mean that okay place would last. One day his sister will have a family of her own. If there was any luck, he would be an uncle. Eli's family would prosper from the reward, but that wasn't all. Should he really become royalty, he would be able to provide for a better life of his friends as well. What was the point of him reaching the sky if he wouldn't be able to pull other people along?

"... and the kick is going to be the best one yet," he grinned before closing his eyes. Only for a second. Or two.

Three.

Morning before The Dive

A light bump prompted Eli to open his eyes. The bright sky was shining above him, clouds cheerfully playing with the wind. ".. Wha?" he barely muttered out before someone pushed him off the steps and onto his feet. It took him a few more moments to realize what was happening, where he was and who he was, "Eli Wyn, check. My house, check." He turned around to face his house, meeting a dumbfounded expression on his sister's face. One would think that his family had gotten used to his antics by now.

One would be wrong.

The two stood there, neither one breaking the ice. He had said goodbye to his parents last night, but his sister refused to do it. She was definitely against it, but knew there was nothing to be done about it. After all, Eli was her little brother. She felt compelled to protect him. After a few moments, she sighed and pointed towards his glider, "You do realize you're going to be late?" Then it finally dawned on Eli, what he was supposed to do today. "Look, sis..." he begun, but she cut him off by approaching him and giving him a hug. Only did then Eli notice a backpack on her back. She took it off and handed it to him. "I packed you something to eat and drink. I knew you wouldn't pack yourself on time. Or at all." She rolled her eyes, before they settled on the backpack again. "There is one more thing in it, consider it an early birthday gift."

Eli felt her eyes tearing up a bit and, to be completely honest, he was not far from it either. Opening the backpack, Eli notice a pair of aviator goggles. They didn't look brand new, but they were polished and seemed sturdy. Now he definitely wasn't far from tearing up. "You shouldn't have," Eli said, but she just smiled at him. It lasted for a mere moment, but it was more than enough to convince Eli that she was going to be alright with the fact that her little brother was growing up. "Go, before I change my mind!"

The Meeting Point

The glide towards the meeting point was one of the swiftest ever. Mostly due to the new goggles he had on his head, they helped Eli so much when getting to those crazy speeds his glider was capable off. Although, as a black bird crossed his path, a thought popped into his mind. If this was the swiftest glide ever - was it a possibility that the glide to the surface was going to be the worst one?

He shook his head as he landed - prompting a group of people to move away and make room for him and his glider. He got there on time, but landed with the elegance of a rhino. "It's alright, I'm alright! No need to worry." he spoked as he folded his glider and looked around the crowd, hoping to spot Rahna.

Hoping not to spot Nikki.

He also didn't see Blin anywhere, which imediatelly stung him. Eli hoped that, since Blin didn't meet with them yesterday, he got around to seeing that event himself and decided to go too. That is, if he didn't sleep over the meteor shower. That would be vintage Blin, but would also majestically suck.