Draq

Chapter Ten

They were more persistent than he’d originally suspected. As he flew on, they followed, all throughout the city until he wasn’t even sure that he was going the right way anymore. Their thick, whirling mechanical blades beat the air with such a racket that soon he thought his ears might burst. Sometimes they drew close enough that he caught a glimpse of their yellow, black-marked rounded shapes pulling up close to his sides, and he would desperately flap higher. We’re both determined. It’ll just come down to which one of us is more determined than the other!

He tried veering away from any skyscrapers, and the mechanical monsters seemed perfectly accepting of his choice; the more room he kept around himself, the more of them that could squeeze into the airspace behind him. Even worse, they didn’t ever get tired, but he didn’t have much energy left as it was. He began to falter. This is the end of the chase. How much farther do I have to go before I escape the city, or they give up? But they wouldn’t give up. The humans would track him down until they could capture or kill him, whichever came first—He certainly wouldn’t lie down without a fight, after all.

He swerved around another building, and for a moment the sounds of the machines faded behind him. But then his attention was drawn to a place directly ahead, where the thick, oozy smog in the atmosphere was swirling as if in a strong wind. He wondered if it might be windy enough to throw the humans off his tail. That would be a relief! Yet, as he drew closer, he saw that dark shapes loomed in the misty air. More machines. Their overbearing racket renewed as he neared, and he almost roared with frustration.

As the smog parted before him, he saw that these ones were mostly green, not yellow, and were cut slightly sleeker than their companions. To go faster, perhaps? Or maybe they could fit more humans inside. Either possibility made him shudder. He’d come so far, and now this!

But he wasn’t about to give up. As the humans spotted him and directed their machines to converge, he saw that he had one, final shot at escape. After all, the machines didn’t seem to have any means of propulsion on the ground …

When the green mechanical creations closed in front of him, and he felt the yellow ones flank his back, he folded his wings along his spine.

He plummeted.

For a moment, he felt sheer peace. The chopping thunder of the blades was left far behind as he rocketed downward, nothing but the wind to touch all around, its softness caressing him as he fell. Buildings whizzed by, pale human faces in windows, all blurry as he shot past.

Below him was a tiny beige square, longer and wider than several of the other structures, but not the biggest. Certainly not the tallest. It loomed closer and closer as he came nearer, Draq staring at it in wonder as his weightless body drifted through the air. The simplicity of the speed mesmerized him. What had once been tiny specks on the paths turned into people, and little squares suddenly transformed into whole groups of buildings, and then bloomed into individual buildings as he further approached.

He forcefully snapped out of his reverie, reminding himself that he was in danger if he didn’t do this right. Not that he hadn’t done it a dozen times before, but that had been over thick forests or soft lakes. This was concrete, waiting to meet his solid presence with its own, and any error could hurt or kill him.

Judging the distance with trained eyes, he tentatively lifted his wings a little ways from his back, and then with more determination as he felt them catch the air. His fall slowed a little, but not enough for him to fully extend his wings without risking a serious strain. He parted his wings just a little more, and then turned his body forward so that it was level with the ground. He hadn’t slowed down as much as he would have liked, but the ground was fast approaching. There was little more he could do in the dead city air.