Solivagency - Empires SMP

bonus oneshot: fly high, high, high

A/N: I've had this oneshot on Ao3 for a solid year. It was only tonight procrastinating revising for my final German exam that I remembered to post it on Wattpad lmfao. Unedited and formatted a bit weirdly cos copying and pasting from ao3 is funky lol

The pair of elytra stared at them teasingly. Great big, shimmering wings of grey, gleaming with an enchantment they didn't know the name of. It was strangely mesmerising, but when they looked at it they only felt a dull hollowness.

It was only natural that Xornoth was more than a little bit hesitant.

Joey held them out a little closer, giving them an unmatched view of their curve and shape. They looked weird.

"I got you an elytra." He beamed, as if it wasn't obvious already. Then he noticed their uneasy look and lowered them. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Xornoth smiled at him, trailing off. "I just…"

"Is it the colour? Is it not your size? Is it-"

"No no no, I just- I'm-" They bit their lip. "I don't… remember how to fly."

"Oh." Joey placed them gently on the tabletop and sat down next to them, running a hand through their hair. His wings draped themselves around their shoulder. "I'm sure I could teach you - afterall, it won't be impossible, will it?"

"I guess not." They shrugged, then squawked as he ruffled their hair into their face again. "Joey!"

He laughed before helping them up.

-

"Okay, first of all you want to keep your arms to the side."

They were both standing on the roof of the palace. It was incredibly flat and provided a perfect clearing of jungle foliage to be able to fly up without accidentally hitting a stray branch or tree.

Xornoth straigtened, doing what Joey said from where he was leaned next to them, and looked at him expectantly.

"You've got your rockets right?"

"Yep."

"Okay, so now you want to do a small run about four or five steps, jump, and launch the firework." Joey demonstrated with his own wings, sandals slapping against the concrete, and mimed the action of the firework. He launched himself into the air with a steady beat of his wings and hovered, only a few metres ul. "When you're up there, you want to spread your arms out with your elytra and glide. I'll catch you."

They somehow doubted that he would be very good at catching them, considering they were a good two inches taller than him and slightly larger, but they also didn't want to plummit into the ground. Because that would suck.

They took a deep breath and ran forwards, gripping the firework so tightly that their knuckles turned white and fired it.

The momentum was dizzying. Intoxicating. Every cell of their body lunged forwards, but their eyes somehow didn't get the memo and stared at the ground before they snapped them forwards and into the open air. They were going up incredibly fast, faster than they had thought possible, and they couldn't tell if oxygen was heading in or out of their lungs.

With a frantic urgency they flung their arms outwards and felt the eyltra yank open, firmly stopping their fall. Though they were still flying very fast and they couldn't remember how to swerve and they were definitely going to fly into that tree-