Misfits of Aquila (Aquila's Originals 1)

Chapter 15: Testing Times, Part 2

Kaskad

"ARE YOU NERVOUS?"

It wasn't an unexpected question to be asked, Zett thought, as he sat on the edge of a sheer drop, staring at the jagged, ramshackle mess that was the Kaskad base five hundred feet below. At least he was sitting down.

Caelo, the asker of the question, was balancing on one leg on a tiny spur just off the main cliff, trying to see if she could touch the back of her head with her toes. Since she was struggling to raise her foot above her waist, Zett didn't think much of her chances.

Many people would have been nervous to see their best friend in all the Overworld wobbling on the edge a five hundred foot drop on a patch of loose ground barely larger than her foot. But this was Caelo. If there was one thing Zett had learned over the last six months it was not to worry about Caelo. She always knew how to take care of herself.

Besides, that wasn't what she was asking.

Zett shook his head. "I'm not nervous."

He'd taken exams before. The Havian education system was very fond of exams. Entrance exams, mid-term exams, end of term exams, mid-year exams, mock exams, end of year exams, not to mention the various grades and levels he had taken for music, dance and dramatic arts. There were times when Zett thought he'd spent more time in exams than he had in lessons.

"Are you?" He only asked to be polite.

Predictably, Caelo laughed, releasing her foot and hopping back to the somewhat more stable ledge where Zett was sitting. "Of course not! If we fail, we fail with style." She threw out her arms and he half-expected her to jump clean off the drop. It wouldn't surprise him. Nothing surprised him with Caelo.

She dropped down beside him with a huff instead, nudging his shoulder with her own. "I bet you have your outfit picked out already, don't you?"

He eyed her sideways. "Don't start." Perhaps at home he might have spent a few days deciding what to wear, but only if it had been a practical exam. The right outfit was very important for those. Up here in Etheria, his choices were limited. There was a uniform he had to wear and only five jackets and three pairs of boots he could choose from to go with them. He sometimes missed his old wardrobe, especially when he remembered a favourite piece of clothing he'd had to leave behind, but mostly he was too busy. Some of them might not even fit anymore.

Constant training and the restricted Kaskad diet meant his body wasn't quite the same as it used to be. He'd thought himself fit back home, thanks to all his sword dancing and occasional climbing activities, but Kaskad and Lieutenant Clayn had swiftly set him straight. He was stronger and closer to the ideal of a fine young Havian gentleman than ever before, and yet his roommates still teased him for wearing dresses.

Zett sighed. He missed wearing real dresses. His coats were wonderful and all, but they weren't the same. He'd been stuck in breeches and trousers for too long.

"What's up?" Caelo asked, nudging him with her shoulder again.

Zett looked at their dangling feet and grinned. "Us, by the looks of things."

A couple of miryhls were spiralling upwards from the eyries below, wings spread wide, glossy brown perfection in the summer sun. Quite the contrast to the ramshackle buildings below them.

Kaskad would never be a beautiful place, no matter the weather, no matter the season, but Zett had grown surprisingly fond of it. With the harsh sun pointing out all its glaring imperfections, he could almost admire its jagged edges and the way it clung to existence in such a precarious place. It would never be beautiful, but it did feel almost like home.