The Gear, The Curse, and the Five Bit Coin

Part A1

I have copywrite over this whole book. Please do not plagiarize. However, if you know someone who is in the buisness of making video-games and may be interested in using my plot, please email or pm me!

Elizabeth Thunderhead smiled up at her Mommy, excitedly bobbing up and down, her wispy dark hair forming a flailing black halo of snakes around her head in the biting wind. "I'm going to ride an air-bike, I'm going to be a grown up! I'm so grown up I will ride an air-bike, Momma!" Her green eyes shown with light as her parents led her toward the edge of the Hub zeppelin floor, where the high-speed wind blasted through the open bay doors.

"Now, we're going to stay above Cloudrider's Marketplace, just incase, remember Ezzie?" Poppa reminded her. "That way if you fall off, you'll land on one of the shop tents instead of falling into the Infinite Down." Ezzie gulped and looked down at the swirling clouds far, far below them. She tightened her grip on her new air-bike, its propellers rotating ever-so-slightly in the strong breeze.

"I won't fall into the Infinite Down, Daddy," she promised. "I'll stay right above Mr. Cloudrider's balloons and all the shops!" She gave him a big smile, missing one tooth that the tooth fairy had recently bought.

"Good girl. Now, watch what I do, and Poppa will help you take off, ok?" Momma lifted her air-bike up and prepared to get onto it. "Now, watch what I do. I'm going to run and jump and then get onto my bike now," Momma instructed Elizabeth. She backed up a bit, holding the air-bike by her side with one hand. She took off at a sprint and leaped off of the floor of the Hub, swinging her right foot over the side of her bike as she went. A moment passed, and then Momma drifted back up into view, about ten feet away and pedaling, light shining off of her goggles,  wind tugging on her wide-brimmed sunhat. "Ok, Ezzie, now you can come to me!"

"Here, trouble, let's get you on this bike," Poppa smiled and took the bike from her so she could get on. "Ooh, your getting so big! I can't believe my little troublemaker is learning to ride an air-bike now! Just remember, the harder you pedal, the faster the pedals will turn and you'll go up. Don't forget to pedal." Elizabeth turned the pedals and watched in fascination as the two propellers below her spun, and the bike lifted in her father's hands. "Whoa, there, trouble, don't start pedaling now. You're not even out of the Hub, yet! I'm going to throw you, now. Ready? Three, two, one!"

The air-bike launched forward out of the Hub zeppelin and began to free-fall towards Cloudrider's Marketplace. For a brief second, panic seized her, but then Elizabeth remembered to pedal. A huge grin spread onto her face as the bike stopped falling, then rose up towards her Momma until they were at the same height. She pulled the wide, round, blue-tinted goggles down over her eyes to shield them from the wind, and waved cheerily to her mother.

"Now, tip your handle-bars forward, then the back propeller will tip back, and then you'll start coming forwards towards me," instructed Momma. Ezzie did as she was told, and the air-bike eased forward. Momma gave her a proud smile. "Turn the handle-bars side-to-side to steer your bike. Peddle harder or softer to go up or down, and tip the handle-bars forward and back to move. See if you can keep up with me," she called over her shoulder, racing away from her daughter and laughing happily.

Elizabeth dove, lurching awkwardly on the bike. Laughing as the wind blew her hair to flail all around. Momma swooped low, racing over Cloudrider's Marketplace, a huge wooden platform suspended by four balloons in the corners and a huge balloon in the middle, brightly colored cloth tent shops and shopping mothers rushing beneath her. Elizabeth had never felt so fast. Momma spun her bike around and whooshed past Elizabeth, waving as she went. Ezzie looked up at the sound of a bike bell ringing to see her father, pedaling down from the Hub zeppelin on his air-bike. He stood up on his pedals and waved a hand toward his daughter.

"Come fly up here, troublemaker, the view is the most spectacular you've ever seen!" Pedaling swiftly, Ezzie made her way to where his bike hung in the air. She reached him, giggling.

Her eyes caught movement, spinning,  falling, the drop of a single five-bit coin from above, and for just a split second, she was mesmerized. Time seemed to freeze. The coin slipped just past her fingers and dropped out of reach, then clinked once as it bounced off of her left pedal, twice as it hit the chain, and a third and final clank, as the chain caught. The pedals ceased to turn.  A scream never came from Ezzie, for it was caught, trapped by surprise, in the back of her throat. It seemed, in the shock, the fear of the moment, that the world rose up, and the bike turned beneath her, and Ezzie knew that she was going to fall.

She jerked the pedals once, twice, and the coin came loose, ricocheted up, and fell with her as she fell away from the air bike, while everything churned around her.

Time regained its usual speed as Elizabeth fell, tearing through cloth of a shop awning, and there came a terrible smash and she crashed through a table, splinters flying, the airbike slamming into her. Then there was only pain, and sound. Her entire body ached from the fall. She could feel her pusle beating frantic agony in her left arm. Her right hand felt as though it were on fire. Her ears rang with a ferocity that brought black into the edges of her vision, and her eye throbbed with a pain like no other, resisting the darkness.

Turn to Part A0 (a-zero) to continue.