Human Curiosity - A Storm Hawks Story

Two

I woke up the next morning as Dark Ace hit me around the head.
“Get up. Master Cyclonis wants me to take you on a tour.” I got up immediately, curious about his words. What was a tour? Was he taking me somewhere? Showing me something? I couldn’t get the thought out of my head as I showered and re-dressed into the uniform I received yesterday. I brushed out my hair afterwards, and then made my way to Dark Ace, looking up at him to prove I was ready for the day. He hummed and turned on his heel, expecting me to follow as he made his way through the building. We eventually came to a large room made of metal, and I looked around nosily. The room was wide and tall, and was open at one point. It was full of… ah, what did Master Cyclonis call them? Oh, yes. Skimmers. The room was full of skimmers, all shiny and looking ready to ride. They all had the same red symbol on them, which I guessed to be the Cyclonian symbol.

“Dark Ace? What are we doing?” He looked back at me as I spoke up, but did not reply. He led me to his own skimmer, and got on. I frowned, pausing and looking around. Was I meant to get on one of the other skimmers?
“Well? Get on.” He scowled at me and I hissed in return, but eventually got on his skimmer, sitting behind him. I was unsure what to do, and was surprised as he started the skimmer up and we moved towards the edge of the room. We dropped off the edge, and then the skimmer’s wings came out and we levelled off. By this point, I’d wrapped my arms tightly around Dark Ace’s waist and had hidden my face into his shoulders in surprise. He nudged me off him, and I looked around as we flew.

We passed several Terras’, and I looked over them all. Dark Ace, despite being frustrated with me, put up with my constant questions and answered all of them.
“What is that Terra called, Dark Ace?”

“Terra Atmosia.” He answered, “Essentially the capital of the Atmos.”

“What is a capital?” I frowned, resting my chin on his shoulder as we passed the Terra.
“A capital is a place which is considered the center of a region. In this case, Terra Atmosia is considered the center of the Atmos.” He explained. I nodded, turning my head to look around once more. After exploring a few more terras, we headed back to Terra Cyclonia and set down for the day. I returned to my room to brush out my hair once more, since it had gotten tangled during the flight with Dark Ace – and found two crystals on my desk. I picked them up carefully, and took them to Dark Ace. He frowned at me, but knew how inquisitive I was. He also knew that if he didn’t answer me, I would go and ask Cyclonis.

He took me outside, to where we fought yesterday, and we sat down. He took one of the crystals from my hand and held it up to the light.

“This is a firebolt crystal.” He handed it back to me, taking out his sword from yesterday. I looked at the crystal in my hand, and the crystal in the end of his sword and nodded.

“Oh, I see. Do all Cyclonians use them?” Dark Ace nodded. I looked at the dark red crystal in my hand, and gripped it gently. “Can I keep it?” He shrugged.

“Perhaps.” He took the next crystal from me. “This is a levitation crystal.”
“Levitation?” I frowned, and he looked over at me and nodded.

“Holds objects and people in the air.” He took the firebolt crystal from me again, and hid the two in his hands. He suddenly swapped the crystals and then held them back out to me. “How do you tell the difference?” My eyes widened. The levitation crystal looked exactly like the firebolt crystal. How was I meant to tell the difference?

“Uhm… Trial and error?” I guessed. Dark Ace shook his head, and pointed out to me that the levitation crystal was slightly thicker than the firebolt crystal, and that if you placed it on the floor, it would roll onto the more weighted side, whereas a firebolt crystal was shaped more specifically. I became engrossed in the knowledge Dark Ace was giving me, and was shocked when a Talon stood a few metres away and called for Dark Ace.