The Adventures of Creech and her Friends Part 1

Chapter 8: Training for the Race

    At 5:00 sharp the next morning, Creech, Dusty, Pocahontas, Cinderella, Kopa, Kovu, and Junior were up and flying over the cornfields. Skipper, who was an old World War 2 veteran, Mufasa, and the others were gathered near the runway to watch their progress from the ground. "Alright, guys. You ready to start?" Mufasa asked through his own radio headset.

    "As ready as we'll ever be," Creech's voice said through the other side of the radio.

    "Well, alright. But remember," Skipper reminded them, "it ain't how fast you fly. It's how you fly fast."

    "Roger that," Dusty responded.

    "Show us what you got then," Mufasa said.

    "Alright guys. Remember-just like we practiced," Creech days as she readied her sailcraft.

    They soon began to do what they'd been doing before the qualifiers. For some reason, though, Skipper and Mufasa weren't exactly impressed. Training was going to be harder than they'd thought it'd be. "Cone on, guys!" Skipper said at one point. "Try to keep your speed up!"

    "Hey, Skip-," Dusty began.

    But before he could continue, Mufasa cut him off. An idea had flown right into his head. "You guys want speed, right?" he asked. "Serious, wind-blowing speed?"

    "Oh yeah!" Dusty replied at once.

    "Then look up," Skipper responded. "See those clouds up there?"

    "Y-yeah," Creech said, rather nervously. "What about them?"

    "They're called "The Highway in the Sky," Mufasa answered. "Tailwinds like you've never flown before."

    After hesitating for a moment, they pulled up and began climbing towards the clouds. But then, trouble began-not only did Dusty look down to see how high up he was (only to get really dizzy and had to get help from Pocahontas and Cinderella to get him down to his comfort zone), but Creech's sailcraft engine began stalling. "Oh, come on! Seriously?! At a time like this?!" she grumbled as it stated to fall.

    Luckily, she managed to get it restarted so she could land back on the runway. While Kopa, Kovu, and Junior were trying to catch their breath, she was busy checking the engine to make sure that there wasn't anything that was somehow stuck in there when Mufasa showed up. "Hey, Creech. Mind if I talk to you for a bit?"

    "Sure, Mufasa," Creech said, never taking her eyes off of her work. "I really don't mind at all."

    Sitting next to Creech, Mufasa watched as she got the engine checked. "So is it true that Dusty's afraid of heights?" he asked.

    Creech speed what she was doing, a surprised look on her face. "Afraid of...what?" she asked, her voice filled with disbelief.

    "Heights," Mufasa repeated. "I overheard Dusty tell Skipper that. I was just feeling doubtful and wanted to make sure it was true. So I thought I'd ask you."

    "Well," said Creech with a sigh, "in this case-yes he is. But I don't know why. He's a Mechanid."

    "I'm a crop duster," they heard Dusty say. "The truth is-I've never flown over 1,000 ft."

    "Are you kidding?" Skipper asked in complete disbelief. "Scared of heights and you wanna race around the world?"

    Mufasa sighed heavily. This is going to be harder than I thought, he thought while running a paw through his mane in stress.

    "Although I don't mind heights," Creech cut in, "this engine keeps on giving me problems. Every time I try to go above the clouds, it sputters and stalls out on me. I'd have to get way below the clouds for it to work properly."