Path of Earth

The Fall

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Clouds were sifting fast by him and he was starting to see the ground. "Sweet mother of Jesus. I'm gonna make it." Beli thought as he was free-falling.
The clouds spread out and opened the view on his dream: land, greens, life in its origin, rooted and wild.
A glimpse, but enough to make his heart sing, while his mind was busy planing the landing and making sure not to crash.
With breaking the cloud height level he opened the parachute and felt the pull of air slow him down.
But as it was, Beli was doing this for the first time. And the air was dry and cold. He noticed himself dropping a bit faster, and the parachute started twirling and his ropes felt soft to the pull of his hands. "Oh no, this is not gonna be good." thought passed through him as the chute lost the sustenance in the air and started falling. In a panic he thought of pulling the backup he put in if the main chute failed, as they did in the past. He learned that in Historic Engineering and Aviation class. Although, getting a plan for the parachute was a challenge on its own. 

The backup opened but did not do much, slowed his descent but closed in on him as did the main. His mind was preoccupied thinking of how to survive, to deduct why this was happening. 
In the middle of the sky, with no options to land, falling like a rock with a paper pinned on it, twirling around... He looked for trees, for water, something to land in so he could at least break just a bone or two.
Nothing. Just bare ground. 

 All this happened in seconds while he was falling from 500 m height to 50 m. So close to the ground he gave up. "I'm done," he thought with acceptance "I'm done." 
Letting go of the ropes and he spread his arms and decided to fall onto the planet as if he was running into mothers' embrace. "I'm gonna touch you!" he screamed out loud and closed his eyes as he blasted with the ground.

The dust and dirt rose and covered the landing spot, making it unable to see what is going on. The parachutes flew out of it, torn and burned. All you could see through the dust was a little bit of white blue sparkles that died out with the receding dust. 
Beli was there, on the ground, blanked out, but whole. Just his clothes were torn and singed, like the chutes. 

Sun shone on him, and the wind blew over. But the boy-man, he laid there, unharmed, unconscious, his white hair and white face smeared with dirt, his devices broken and fried and breath shallow.
On his face though, you could see a smile. A smile of a child, holding his mother after a long summer away.

======2======

The path was bright, the sun shone directly in the middle of the forest path, embracing her in her daily task. She was carrying a basket full of mushrooms and berries and vegetables that grew on the edge of Salun-sha. It was a peaceful day, she was saying to herself while singing the tune of Sol-shi, the tune of creation. The festivities came soon and it was on her to open the veil of transit. Sol-shi and Nyn-ba meet at this time and joined hands, for a swift moment, before passing the crown to the other. It was a moment her grandmother prepared her for, like a Shaman she was meant to be.

The air bent around her and a squirrel stopped on a branch, observing her while she hummed the melody to herself, feeling the familiar itch under her skin, the red and white strains of energy that went from the ground to her heart and back, flowing in and around her, making every color brighter, every plant more alive. 
Getting to the energetic part, she stopped and laid down her basket, tapped her barefoot on the ground and danced the gracefully ending with a bow to the ground, on her knees. 

Green went greener and the sun shone brighter for that moment and then the song fell silent and Triss rose from the ground, with a strange glimmer in her eyes, and the expectation of something adventurous to happen.