Air Born | Generation Icarus #1

Kestrel - Flight Camp

By the end of the day, the whole Flight had completed multiple laps around the plateau. Hawk and Miguel managed more than the rest of us, having had those few extra days of training in the forest, but even they were visibly exhausted as we slowly climbed back down to camp.

"This is crazy," Falcon said as his butt hit his rolled-up sleeping bag. "I'd have thought it'd take much longer to learn to fly."

"I'm knackered," Tui said, sitting down next to him. "But it's bloody amazing."

I smiled and stretched my aching muscles. "Our wings are already big enough for a short flight with a lot of effort. Imagine how easy it will be when they're full size, and we're not only fitter but actually know what we're doing!"

Falcon opened his dark-brown wings out wide, almost knocking Raven over. "Sorry, Raven. How big would you say my wings are now?"

Hawk called her over. "There's room here, Rave, out of Falcon's way." When she edged over to sit next to him he totally failed to hide his surprised-but-pleased look. I turned away, ashamed to admit that I actually felt ... jealous. But when I looked back I saw something different in the way Hawk was talking to the small, mute Chinese girl. I suddenly remembered the way he'd talked about his little sister that night in the car. How protective he'd been of her. And my heart ached for him. Unlike Hawk, I was actually enjoying being away from my family.

Miguel cheerfully stretched his black wings against Falcon's dark feathers, and an intense discussion about size and length occupied the next half hour. Finally we agreed that, on average, the boys' wingspans were roughly fourteen feet from tip to tip, with each segment being about a quarter of the overall length. When their wings were in what Hawk was semi-jokingly calling the 'angel fold', their longest feathers nearly touched the ground behind them. In the 'full fold', the tips tickled the back of their necks.

We girls were all much smaller in frame, so our wings measured about twelve feet (or about three and half metres, as Tui and I grumbled) but our primary feathers still nearly touched the ground when in the relaxed fold. It still felt a little weird allowing my wings to be so free, instead of hiding them away as tightly as possible.

As night fell, we still couldn't rest, because we had to clear the ground for our campsite. After moving dozens of stones and pebbles, there was enough dust and sand to sweep into a thin carpet on the bedrock. There was some scrubby vegetation around the place that we could use as firewood. A deep crack in the rock, far downstream and protected by several big boulders, was appointed as a latrine. After spotting a few creepy crawlies, we shoved some of the surrounding rocks out of the way so they had fewer hiding spots within stinging range when we literally had our pants around our ankles.

The entire Flight was feeling the strain as we came down off our high, but that didn't stop the excited chatter and eager discussion about how to improve our flying technique, which continued as we set up camp.

"My eyes are dried out," Tui complained eventually. She was rewarded with a chorus of agreement.

Scrambling up, I dug through the supplies. "It had crossed my mind, but I forgot about it this morning. Hopefully these will work." I handed out the sports sunglasses I'd insisted on taking, goggle straps and all.

I blushed as the Flight, including Miguel, congratulated me on my stroke of genius. We'd now be able to fly faster and teach ourselves to dive without worrying about desiccated eyeballs or, as Hawk pointed out, bug strike.

As I glanced around the Flight, I saw that Raven's pale features were very pink. Marcus was burnt as well. Hawk, Tui, Falcon and Miguel, with their darker skin, were fine. Using the front-facing camera in my phone to check my face, I groaned. "I wondered why I was still feeling so hot."

"It doesn't look too bad," Miguel said comfortingly.

"At least I also grabbed the sunscreen. I'll have to remember to actually apply it, though!"

Tui peered closely at my pink face. "Nah, it's not bad. If we were in New Zealand, you'd be a crayfish by now."

"Crayfish?"

"You call them lobsters." She grinned, her teeth white against her brown Polynesian skin. "You'd be red as, mate!"

Marcus and Raven were fascinated by the new colour of their faces, and discreetly checked themselves in their shared phone more times than seemed necessary. I wondered if they'd ever been sunburned before.

Then someone's phone beeped, sounding like a radar ping. It was just a novelty tone but it still made me flinch from the sudden flash of the obvious. The GPS in my satphone was theoretically protected from being hacked, but I had no idea what sort of security — if any — Marcus and Raven, Falcon, Miguel, and Tui had on their devices. Hawk was still phoneless, but didn't seem to mind.

"Hey guys," I said, casually. "Just thinking about our phones. Shouldn't we put them into—" I paused to grin in anticipation of the pun, "flight mode?"

I was rewarded with a muddle of groans and chuckles, but after I explained why, everyone quickly agreed it was a good idea. Hawk pointed out that it would not only avoid inadvertently giving away our position, but also would help conserve battery.

As Hawk and Tui swapped stories about phones going off at awkward times, Falcon kicked a trash-stuffed plastic bag towards Miguel. "Come on, show me what you got, Mexico!"

I could see Miguel was caught between following through on his promise to help Tui with dinner and his obvious desire to have some fun.

"Go on, I'll help Tui," I said, taking the can of stove fuel from him. "Just don't expect the girls to do all the cooking all the time!"

With increasing skill and confidence, Miguel fielded every kick Falcon sent his way.

"You're going to have to do better than that to get past me," Miguel said as Falcon groaned at his fifth failed goal attempt.

"Hawk, help a brother out!" Falcon called.

Miguel laughed. "That's not fair!"

"Marcus, how about you?" Hawk beckoned the big quiet guy. "Want to join Miguel's team?"

Marcus looked at the 'ball'. "Raven is better," he said, twitching a pale gold wing.

"Go on, Raven, represent the girls," I said, cheering.

The Flight whooped as Raven got up shyly, and took her place behind Miguel. With the boys taunting each other, the game resumed.