Gates to Infinity The Novel Series Ash and The Night Fury

chapter 8 Testing flight

After they finished putting the saddle and tail fin, they flew out of the Cove and walked to a nearby cliff that had a broken tree stump on it. Cynthia tied one end of the rope to the stump while Ash tied the other end on the lower part of the saddle, "Alright, Shadow." Ash said as he climbed on his dragon brother, "The wind here is strong so you can lift off the ground easily without having to flap your wings, I need you to unfold your wings and let the wind lifted you so I can try out the positions of the tail fin, the rope will help us stay in place".

Shadow crooned in understanding before unfolding his wings as soon as he felt a strong wind blowing against them, the wind lifted them off the ground and the rope kept them in place, making Shadow looked like a big kite. Ash then changed the position of the stir-up with a click and the tail fin's position changed as well, Shadow landed and Ash wrote it down on the paper he called as instruction sheet. They did this a few more times before Cynthia, who was watching them on the sideway, noticed that the rope would snap soon. Before she could warn Ash about it however, the wind lifted Shadow off the ground and the rope snapped as it couldn't stand the strain anymore.

Cynthia called out Ash's name in worry while Ash and Shadow yelled in surprise as the wind threw them backwards into the row of trees, Cynthia ran as fast as she could towards the crashing site before stopping dead on her track at the sight in front of her.

When they crashed against one of the tree, Ash got stuck on one of the lower branches by the back of his collar while one of his safety harnesses, since the other one had unclasped during the crash, stuck on Shadow's saddle. The grimace on Ash's face as he hang on a branch with his arms hanging limply on his side, like a kitten being carried by his mother, and the matching grimace on Shadow's face as he was forced to sit awkwardly like a human would, else Ash was pulled down along with him and got strangled, were enough to send Cynthia into a fit of laughter.

Both Runner and Dragon stared unhappily at the girl with their own version of a scowl as she leaned on the tree while laughing at them, Shadow let out a low growl to show his annoyance while Ash crossed his arms. "Yeah, brother, she's being sarcastic." Ash said in agreement with his dragon, even though he didn't really know what Shadow was saying, he clearly caught the annoyance in Shadow's tone, "She just stand there and laughing at us instead of helping us out of this situation".

"Okay, sorry. I'm sorry!" Cynthia apologized but was still laughing as she walked over to them, "It's just your expression was so funny." She said with a grin before pulling her axe out and cut off the branch which holding Ash collar. She watched as Ash landed and noticed that Shadow dropped back on all four at the same time as Ash's feet touched the ground, her eyebrows raised in surprise when Ash and Shadow moved in sync towards each other. Ash took a step and Shadow would do the same at the exact same time, Ash would move towards the saddle and Shadow would move so Ash would reach the saddle easier. Huh, it's like they know exactly what the other is thinking, she thought as she observed them.

"Oh, great." Ash groaned as he tried to unclasp the harness and failed, "We're stuck".

"Why don't I just cut it with my knife?" Cynthia suggested as she walked over to them.

"No, don't." Ash immediately stopped her, "It took some time making a strong and good harness like this, I don't want to waste anymore time. I could just make a new one, but Nick keep a close eye on me lately, I think he got suspicious that I stayed up working at the forge at night, I don't want to take the risk. Also, my Mentor would come back anytime now, I have to hurry and help Shadow fly again before he did, or it would be troublesome".

Cynthia let out a long breath through her nose and crossed her arms, "What should we do then?" She asked thoughtfully, wondering how they could get out of this situation with as less time needed as possible.