Magic in the Air: The Turbine and the Sprite

Chapter 1: Into the Green

Everything around him was green. The trees were clad in leaves. The ground was covered in grasses and rushes. The vines between tree and ground looked like the strings of emeralds that his father told stories about seeing in Hemmark's market place during his rare trips to the capital.

All that green was blurring past him.

Dean raced through the grass and vines, his legs pumping as fast as his heart. She was almost upon him. He could feel her breath on his neck and imagined that he felt some of her drool hitting his arms when she snarled. He waved them through the air to his sides, could see droplets falling in his peripheral vision. But he wouldn't let her catch him, not this time. This would be the time he would finally outrun her while she was in her tigress form, the time all of their practice together would pay off.

And that was when his feet had nothing left to run on. So he carried through his stride and sprang from the cliff edge, where some stones dropped off along its face.

For seconds that felt like minutes Dean saw the trees below him. The canopy was still. Peaceful. He could see all the farms of the valley below him ― Dooley's, Pritchett's, Willis', their own, the Matuckets'. And he could see what they were building on theirs and Matucket's land, that strange stout cylindrical tower with the giant "U" on top that just weeks ago was a bare frame over the old quarry. And he could see beyond the farms and market that made up Selene to the unknown Wilds that he would one day explore and map as a Venturer.

But breaking in on Dean's sense of purposefulness was the realization that the horizon was starting to rise out of his view. He felt the blood starting to rush to his head and knew that as soon as he could see the cliff behind him, he'd have spun too far in the air; it would be too late. He'd be through the forest canopy that looked so much greener now. He saw a shadow pass under him. He could hear his shirt flapping in the wind and then he hit something ― hard.

Hard, but padded with rows of feathers.

Dean covered his ears as the giant eagle he'd landed on screamed at the sky. It wheeled around and dipped so that Dean could see the sun glint off of the leaves as they rushed just over top of them. I did it!

Dean gripped the back of the bird's neck, pulling himself low to its feathered body. His hands fit the familiar spot perfectly. He shouted through the rushing wind, "Great chase as always, Artemis! All that practice! I finally outran you and made a smooth jump!"

The bird just screeched in reply, turning so that Dean felt himself begin to slide off once they'd passed a clearing.

Dean could see his sister getting bigger and bigger as the bird lowered for a landing. He was careful to pull himself as close to Artemis' back as possible when she flapped to slow herself before hitting ground.

Agnes planted her hands on her hips. "You shouldn't make a habit of this, Dean. She won't always come to save you, you know." She was glaring at him when he looked up from the ground to her.

Dean stepped off of the bird and walked over to Agnes. He ruffled her hair. "What!? Of course she will! It's part of the jump ― today it was part of the chase!" Dean looked over his shoulder. "Isn't that right, Artemis?"

Where the bird had been stood a woman in a dress of leaves with hair of ivy. "Yes. I am bound to protect this land and, as they are caretakers of it, your family as well. If master Dean is convinced that his adventuring will involve leaping onto enormous birds, I must make sure he can do so safely. Protecting him also ensures that there is one more person here to protect you, Agnes Greenthumb."

Agnes blushed. She looked into Artemis' eyes as the sprite came to stand beside her. "But you need to watch out for yourself, too ― you're the closest person to me."

Dean smiled to see his sister and the familial sprite so close. I don't think anything but skin could be closer all the time.

Dean remembered that Agnes had always been worried. Even as a baby the midwife told them ― all three, his parents and him ― that Agnes wouldn't last more than a few days because of all her worries. He didn't think the rest of them would last half as long given the way Agnes wailed whenever she wasn't asleep. But the old woman's words meant nothing to him then and somehow even less now. How could worrying kill you? What's a baby got to worry about? But since her first encounter with Artemis at her dedication ceremony, Agnes calmed down and was as silent awake as when she slept. Dean could still hear Agnes' giggling ― the first time she'd done anything but cry and sleep ― as Artemis came out of the wood with his baby sister in her arms. Is whatever Artemis did to calm her why Agnes is so good with plants, or does her skill just help make her close with Artemis? Whatever the answer was, since Agnes' birth, the Greenthumbs' farm had prospered.

Dean could feel his head start to throb as his heartbeat finally slowed down from his adrenaline rush.

Dean spun towards a sound too big to be close, but even far off he knew was trouble. It rolled like thunder and crashed like a bundle of sticks being snapped.

"Come on, we should get going home." Dean walked past Artemis and Agnes, shooting his sister a sly look. "If you're jealous of our training time, I'm sure you could talk Artemis into riding her home."

Artemis turned to Agnes, whose face was like a cloudless sunset. "I'm not jealous! Come on Artemis!" Agnes gestured and faster than a swallow flies the sprite had become a mountain lion. Agnes sang her farewell just as Artemis leapt away: "We'll see you there, brother!" Calling back before the two of them vanished into the green, she added: "in all those stories you read the adventurers are always walking. You need to practice that, too!"

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Thanks for reading Chapter 1 of Magic in the Air: The Turbine and the Sprite! I'll be posting a chapter every Wednesday until the complete five book, fifty-part story is finished.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on this chapter and the entire ongoing story in the comments. I'll try to read and respond to them as soon as I can.

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