Rigor Mortis

The Art of Flying

"How you will treat Life." That were words he couldn't get rid of. How he would treat Life. He understood that she meant how he behaved towards the Living. But there was something that raised a question. He wasn't part of the Living. Just like the Grim Reapers he wasn't allowed to be with them. And Rigor wasn't even allowed to be with wolves. Because he was part dog. That meant he wasn't allowed to be with dogs either because he was mainly a wolf. And there was the fact he was also an eagle, which made things even harder. But Rigor didn't find any problems with it yet, so he was good for now. 

Maybe the stranger meant how he treated strangers that entered his territory? She couldn't mean the animals on call outs that weren't physically dead yet. Their soul didn't call out for nothing. They were dead, but not physically. Simple as that. 

Rigor could understand what she meant, but at the same time it raised questions. When trespassers saw him, they knew they had to get out fast. There were still lots of characters that made a problem out of it, but he always got them out. Wether it was the easy way or the hard way, he never had to hurt them too bad. The worst types got out with a few scratches and in the rarest cases with a bite, but it had never been worse. He also wasn't planning to help the Living with their problems. He got nothing to do with them.

"What are you doing here?" he asked a wolf puppy. It had a scared look on his face, but he had the courage to ask him a question.

"I lost my mother. Can you help me find her?" the young wolf asked. His tail between his legs.

"No. Now get out." he said with a simple intonation. But when he saw the pup still wasn't moving to get away, he showed his teeth.

"But sir, I don't know where to go. Can you please help me?" the desparate voice of the scared puppy said. Rigor growled at him.

"I said no. Get. Out!" he growled. The pup took a step back. 

"Why not? I will tell my dad. He is the Salom and he will be angry with you when he hears." the pup lied. Rigor saw it immediatly. It was a very big lie for something that was maybe 4 months old. To say your dad was the Salom, the ruler or 'king' of the wolves, wasn't just something to say. He wanted to impress him. He wanted him to help him, but he wasn't allowed to blend himself in with the Living and their problems.

"First of all: don't lie to me. Second of all: I told you to leave. Third of all: even if your father WAS the Salom, he couldn't do me anything because I am not part of his kingdom. And fourth of all: if you're not out of my sight very soon, I'm going to get rid of you my own way." he explained calm, but his anger wasn't something to miss easily. The confusion of the pup was big. He didn't understand why Rigor wasn't part of the Salom kingdom, but he didn't have the courage to ask him anything anymore. He turned around and ran. 

Rigor woke up from the memory. It was something that happened like a year ago. He wasn't planning to harm it, but he did have to show him who was boss. Not all pups were like him. Fortunately. He strongly disliked those characters, but you never knew what kind of person crossed the borders next time. 

Rigor still had his doubts about the meaning of 'how you will treat Life'. He decided to think about it more after practising. A flying practice. As Icarus he still had to improve his flying. Taking off and landing weren't a problem at all, but his dives and other tricks that could come in handy, were far from perfect. Even after five years. He didn't practice very much and sometimes his dad even had to encourage him to go and practice before he could convince Rigor to change into Icarus. He didn't really like to transform into a huge bird. He had the same size of a wolf with all proportions that came with it. That resulted in a very big eagle.

He started his way to the ravine where he first learned how to fly. It was a great place for practice. Only downside was that it was outside of his territory. 

When the ravine came in sight Rigor started to run. At the edge he jumped of and let himself fall. It was a peaceful moment to just fall down. Lower, lower, lower. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The falling took forever. Or it actually seemed like it took forever. He was one with the moment. Then he opened his eyes on the critical point. He couldn't fall any longer since he would hit the ground. When he was fifteen metres away from the ground, he opened his wings, caught the wind, beat the air and flew back up. He used the speed from falling to steer his way up and beat the air with his heavy wings to reach the edge of the ravine again, but he went higher. From the air he searched for a rock to practice his diving on. He wasn't too sure about how he should do it, but he had done it before a few times so he would get the hang of it. 

He spotted a big stone and closed his wings half and his tail entirely. He saw the stone grow as he got closer to it and threw his claws out when he could reach it. But he did it wrong. He forgot to fold his wings and tail out and that resulted in a crash. At least he didn't crash too bad. He got back on his feet and jumped of the edge again. Maybe he should practice something else first?