SkyEarth (Reborn) Book 1: Stratos Rising

Chapter 2: Test Flight

     Midnight blue, dark indigo, and swirling purple. Night of the early morning provided a backdrop to the bright white stars scattered like fireflies, and anyone with knowledge of stars can find their patterns and see the constellations. In the green valley of Uvas in East Agrotika, a young boy of fourteen named Shaun Ingary sat atop Windmill Hill, and he liked to wake up early to see the beautiful morning sunrise of late Augustine.

     From his vantage point, he could see all of Uvas Valley, all the farms and vineyards, the neighboring small towns in the distance, fragments (broken pieces of what was once been the Earth floating in the air) floating nearby, the orange roofs of his little hometown of Easthaven sitting at the very edge of the continent (a large fragment that can fit mountain ranges, vast plains, forests, deserts etc.), a bridge connecting his town to a fragment where his family lived. Beyond the edge of the continent, a vast expanse of sky stretched out seemingly endlessly; fittingly called Endless East. Endless because the locals were not sure if there's anything beyond there, except for the glorious morning sunrise. Shaun eagerly waited for morning to come, to watch the colors of night blend into the warmer colors of morning, to bask in the sun's radiant light, and feel the warm and gentle breeze on his skin.

     Shaun checked his watch, an old beat-up but functioning timepiece on a strip of leather strapped around his left wrist. The short arrow pointed almost directly at six and the long arrow pointing at the gap between eleven and twelve. Only two-three minutes till six, so Shaun decided to kill time by sketching the town below him.

     He took out a pencil and a mini sketchpad from the pockets of his aviator vest. He flipped through the pages till he stopped at the half-finished drawing of his hometown. Only a few buildings, the clock tower, and the towering spires of a church hadn't been drawn yet, and few of the buildings needed shading. Shaun started sketching the church spires. They looked like towering jewel-encrusted stalagmites due to its Modernisme style architecture. Next were the houses and businesses along Leana Avenue, and before he could start sketching the clock tower, the bells from the real clock tower rang six-times.

     DING! DONG! DING! DONG! DING! DONG!

     The sky and valley started getting brighter. Slowly and surely, he could see the sky in the horizon go paler and warmer by the minute. Pastel shades of pink and orange of dawn pushed the dark blue and purple of night. Warm gentle winds blew from the East, bending the grass and flowers of the valley and brushing Shaun's skin. Behind him the creaking of the old windmill grew louder as the sails caught the wind and spin in earnest. He stood up and he breathed in the air around him. It smelled of grass and dew and pine trees. Shaun let out a relaxed sigh. Now the dark and cool colors of the night and the pale and warm colors of morn blended and formed into a horizon of colors: indigo and purple, lilac and pink, orange and gold.

     It was absolutely stunning.

     "Ah... Breathtaking as always." said Shaun as he took in the warmth and beauty of the sunrise. He felt himself filled with feelings of happiness and serene bliss. He felt glad. He felt thankful. He felt like life is great and worth living it. And he owed it all to his father for showing him the late summer sunrise.

     "I'm glad that dad showed me this sunrise before he left. I could just imagine him sitting next to me, watching the sunrise." And he almost did, but he checked the time. Shaun's almost late for breakfast. "Time to get going, I suppose."

     Shaun pocketed his pencil and sketchpad back in his vest pocket. Below the hill he could see a steep ledge. He would use it to jump and gain air. A leather belt hung loosely from both side of the backpack, so Shaun wrapped them through the belt loops of his pants and buckled them into place. He planted his right foot back facing sideways, and his left foot forward. He bent his knees and his hands firmly gripped the straps of his backpack. Shaun looked ready to run a marathon, and he planned to do exactly that, except the track is a few feet of steep grassy hill and a jump off the ledge would be a jump to the finish line. Not wasting a second, he started to run.