Airborne Wings

Chapter three- Milo

My name is Milo. This is my life-book. My father gave it to me as a present. I might have a lot of gaps in this book— I mean, in our fishing village, we are pretty busy- working, fishing, buying, selling, feeding, sleeping, and doing chores. My life may sound simple, I mean, I'm 4, so of course I'm not gonna be the one who's busy...! Nope. Incorrect. My life was really hard back then- We would carry buckets of water, fetch water from the mountain above our town, help plant plants and fruit for the winter, help catch fish, help do the math for some food or things that need a proper price. What I mean by 'we' is me and my sister, Twirl. We lead strong lives, but it was destroyed about a year or two ago (read on to find out what I mean by that) .

"Pops! What else can I help with—" I started to say.

A few screams erupted and a few people came running over to me. "Master Milo! Omigosh, help us! Our houses, they- they...!" A woman slurred. In case you didn't notice yet, I am the town's Chief's nephew, so they call me Master Milo. I can't say I was too fond of it; I didn't want to be anyone's master; I wanted to be their friend.

"What is it? Are you okay?" My father, Joseph, asked, rushing up to the woman. She sputtered helplessly, not able to form any words. By that point, it was already too late, and, by that, I mean already almost half of the village was being destroyed. I looked up and squeaked with terror. "P-Pops... Look...." Flames had enveloped our hut, along with almost all of the other houses. Our once-peaceful village was surrounded by the smell of smoke and screams, nobody able to escape because the Gifted hadn't made any portals out yet; that's right, the only way out is magic.

"Where's Twirl? Maybe we could all...!" I noticed my father's body, choking all of a sudden on the dirt below my shoes. Wha....wha....wha.... All of the villagers from what I could see had collapsed or died just like Pops had. Twirl was nowhere to be seen. I panicked and checked everywhere I could, but by that point my eyes stung, and my lungs weren't doing so well either. I lost my breath, collapsing right then and there.

When I awoke, Twirl was panicking, trying to blow something out. I coughed and sat up, and immediately wished I didn't. The whole town was burning, and the only part of the village that wasn't scorched was where me and Twirl were. "Oh, you're awake! Oh, my goodness, we have to get out of here! This isn't going to last very long! I don't have anywhere to take us to that would save us! Can you think of a way to- *cough cough*- get us out of here?" Her voice was getting worse and worse, probably because of the smoke. "Yes... Imagine somewhere you want to go as clearly as you can and try not to talk- the more you talk the more smoke is going into your lungs." Twirl nodded and closed her eyes. She held out her left hand and supported it with her right. Honestly, I had no idea what I was saying, I was just producing stupid ideas to make her like me a little more like a smart good big brother she could depend on. Surprisingly, a portal opened up, and Twirl grabbed my hand and we entered it together. It felt gross, like slime or water sticking to us as we came out the other side.

We were greeted by cold wind whipping our faces as we reached our destination. Snow crunched under our feet as Twirl closed the portal and skipped back up to me. Snow blew past us in a blur and the wind knocked our hoods off of our heads. I should have known she would pick the arctic... That's what she's always going on about, snow, snow, snow. All day long. Oh, and polar bears.... OK, you know what? This isn't a good time to be goofing off... Twirl looked at me with her deep blue eyes. I could feel my eyes go wide as I realized something... She looked much older than before. She was almost 4 and now she looked like she was at least 5 or 6. Her short shoulder-length chestnut hair was now down to her waist, tied up in two braids. She wore a pretty teal dress that went down to her knees that had a black ribbon around the middle. She had on thick black leggings. She wore fluffy snow boots that gave her an Eskimo-like look. She wore a fluffy hat that wasn't there before they went through the portal.

"You look different," I say with a smile. She nodded, "you too... You have wire-things with glass in them on your nose and you look older." She said.

Me and my sister both know that we shouldn't spend too much time wandering around villages and towns for too long, but sometimes that rule's got to be broken. And besides- there was a REASON we were even in the town in the first place. My slingshot broke so we couldn't catch any squirrels or any other meat.

We were currently in a small fishing town— fish, Fishing Poles, coats, hiking gear, pamphlets on how to fish, etc.— Twirl paused to look at almost every pretty thing in sight, oohing at every similar thing related to Earth, although we weren't in Earth at all- we actually have no clue where we are.

"Twirl, come on, we don't want to waste too much time here, we're just going to be looking for a new slingshot and leave," Milo whispered in her ear as she oohed at a pretty butterfly pendant.

"Aw... I kinda like it here, it's so peaceful, and it seriously, in some ways, reminds me of Gillir." Gillir is our town that got burned down. To be perfectly honest, I agreed with Twirl, but this wasn't the time to be worrying about these kinds of things. What mattered was our safety.

"I thought I was the pessimistic one, but here you are, switching roles with me, huh...?"

Twirl went deep in thought. "Anyway, you're right. I think I saw a weapons shop over there somewhere a few minutes ago," she said with a grin.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" I questioned.

"What do you mean? I'm only 5, I didn't know!" Twirl whined in her cutesy-annoying way.

"Oh fine, if you're gonna take my place as being the jokester, go back to your pessimistic self..."

We turned around until we saw the shop that Twirl saw. When we did, we realized it was called Misty Mountain-Side Weapons Shop. When we opened the door, we were greeted by a person in his late forties-or-so. "What might we be able to help you guys along with, you two?" He asked with a wrinkly smile. I don't know why, but I felt shivers run down my spine when he smiled. "Uhm, we're just looking for a slingshot, sir..." I say as kindly as I could muster.

"Okay then... Right this way, please..." Twirl and I slowly followed him. The shop was small and wooded, and there were cobwebs everywhere. Dead carcass skins hung on the walls, making a rather not-so-welcome welcoming. The air was cold and musty, making my nose sting irritably.

He led us down a hall with bloodstains staining the walls, making Twirl inch closer to me. "Here we are, right in this room..." He led us inside a huge room, and right when we entered, we knew that we had made a mistake by coming here. "Guards! Lock them up for the location of Terrarian!"