Skyfall

Ok'ravi Ais Isra

The air was warm tonight, as it always was, the sky dotted with pale stars, scattered across the velvety darkness. Each tree, as dear to me as my heart, was comfortingly tall and easy to climb.

And climb I did. Well, not climb so much as flap upwards and grab branches along the way. Masli weren't made for mundane things like climbing. The mahogany I clung to, a rare sight so close to the city, was damp from the rainforest's mists and gave off a heady, earthy scent as my nails dug into its flesh.

The climb was easy - I'd done it hundreds of times - and I soon arrived at my favourite spot in the jungle. Nearly two hundred feet in the air, with the boughs swaying slightly in the wind, and spread below me was the City.

The City was like nothing any Masli had seen. Our Lik'ma forbade us from looking at it, but like many fledglings I could not stay away. I always thought the Lik'ma was afraid of this place, the lights and screeching noises, the closeness of the stone buildings and the spiderweb of wire strung between them. Maybe she didn't like the nests that the humans made here.

I got into a comfortable crouch and prepared myself for the show. It was incredible, the ingenuity of humans, their ability to create such perfectly controlled habitats and such a large population in this small place. The complexity of the City could amuse me for hours, as I tried to trace the details of it and count the buildings, stacked one above another like a child's balance game.

But I wasn't here tonight for the City - no, something much more interesting was about to happen.

It started with all of the humans coming out of their nests and walking towards the centre of the city. I was fascinated with them. Humans were so strange, what with their short, thick bodies and tailless behinds, their lack of wings that made this sprawl necessary. And the fact that they had to WALK everywhere. How boring their lives must be.

The lights of the city were all on, creating a glare. I rubbed my eyes, and looked back at the congregation. There they were, in a large clump, looking up expectantly. I looked up, too.

There it was, the first pop. It was jolting, as always, as the small box was shot into the air. The cloud of smoke behind it obscured a thin line of the stars.

Then, the bang. The box exploded - there is no other word for it - into a thousand glittering pieces of light, in a myriad of colours. Green, red, orange, even a white that could have rivaled the Sun, if it was up. The flash obliterated anything else in the sky, the stars hiding in the wake of the box's brilliance.

I sighed contentedly, sitting back against the trunk of the tree, and watched the humans revel in their created chaos.

.:***:.

The next morning, it was hard to leave my perch. The City's inhabitants were up and about, scurrying around in droves and entering and exiting their nests in great numbers. I sat for a moment, watching them, then lifted myself to my feet. Crawling out to the end of a branch, I flexed my wings once, then fell into empty space.

This was the best part of being Masli, the absolute freedom from everything around you. Even as the thick forest came dizzyingly closer and closer, I relaxed into a state of near sleep, every muscle becoming soft.

Then I snapped open my wings, and soared up again into the great blue sky.

Being Masli is what I was made for. I could not imagine being cooped up on the ground, never being able to flex a few muscles and gain height in the sky. Never drinking in the thin air found above the clouds that made my head spin. Never having the closeness created by the flock, the sense of belonging and acceptance.