Even if racing a valuable quad bike running on limited fuel again wasn’t the best idea, it had been a blast. Tom had never raced something that flew before, let alone a person going under their own power. Jackalope had taken the victory most graciously, meaning she had launched into a series of celebratory acrobatics and come down looking like a football fan whose team had just scored. She had started shouting what Tom believed were obscenities and gloating. ‘Well deserved,’ Tom thought to himself. He would be over the moon too if he had just outrun a quad bike on foot, and he couldn’t stop himself from getting carried away in her celebrations, sitting on his bike laughing his ass off. Despite losing, he still felt like a winner…
Sapphire had been on the edge of her seat. It had been a close race, much closer than any of them had anticipated. That something on the ground could move like that and still be able to pull such a heavy trailer was astounding.
It was like it was half oxen and half deer. Jackalope had done it though, and was celebrating in the usual fashion. She had pulled quite the victory maneuver this time around, though it was nothing like what Sapphire could do, of course. Sapphire was the finest flyer on the whole damned island; well, she had been… She felt a little disheartened as she remembered she would not be up there on her own wings for weeks. When Jackalope finally set down, she walked around strutting like she owned the place. “Sooo? Who is still the fastest thing around? I am, I am, oh yes I am!” The celebratory dance, was seemingly too much for Tom, as he broke out laughing.
He seemingly hadn’t taken the loss too badly, then he set off again? Apparently, he thought he should try and copy Jackaslope. They all turned to look, and even Jackalope fell silent, if only for a little bit. “What is he doing?” Jackalope’s question was met with quite a few tilted heads.
“Is he trying to dance with it?” Fengi had questioned.
“I think he is trying to copy you Jacky,” Dakota said cheerily.
Sapphire sat on her perch with her head tilted too. The magic cart couldn’t just go fast, it could do acrobatics on the ground too. Groundobatics? No, that sounded stupid. Fengi was right: dancing. Yes, he was dancing with it. Spinning it around, kicking up dirt, and making a lot of noise. It was clear that the moving came from the wheels turning, not some kind of force pushing it along? Tom got the thing up onto two wheels too, both the back ones and the side! It looked both brutish and graceful at the same time. It was clearly a kind of celebration like Jackalope had performed. When he returned he seemed extremely pleased with himself too, letting out a hew of weird words, probably still trying to copy Jackalope.
He had gotten off and walked over to Jackalope, giving her his hand to shake and patting her on the shoulder. She had shaken his hand then picked him up and ruffled his hair. “Oh, so you think you can show off when I win, huh?” This prompted a little yelp from Tom, his gut clearly not enjoying the treatment. Jackalope quickly put him back down again. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly, before going back to ruffle his hair. “Oh my gods, it’s so soft!” Tom seemed to take it in good spirits, taking a deep breath and straightening up again. The smile returned to his face as Fengi came over to touch too. “But it’s so thin and airy!”
After his little celebration, Jackolope had clearly decided she had a new friend and picked him up in a hug, giving him a nuggie. His gut protested loudly at the squeeze. It had already gotten quite sore from the racing and showing off. She had put him down quickly, though, when he had let out a little yelp. She said something that sounded like an apology. She had then gone back to touching his hair almost immediately though. It was apparently very interesting too. Well, they didn’t have hair, so that sort of made sense? Come to think of it, if he was the only human here, what kind of animals had hair like humans? Horses and maybe some apes, huh?
Fengi too had come over to touch, and Esmeralda had followed close behind. This was weird; he felt like a dog being petted. At least Dakota had held her curiosity at bay, and well, Sapphire couldn’t walk by herself. The little exchange had been brought to an end when Dakota said something. The others had seemingly agreed and begun taking to the sky. Tom guessed it was time to get moving again.
“Will you stop fiddling with him? We should get moving now that you had your little race.”
“Yeah yeah, but I wanna ride on the cart this time,” Jackalope was already getting on, prompting Tom to hastily make his way over, probably scared she would set off without him. ‘A valid point,’ Sapphire thought. Dakota and Esmeralda had helped hook up the rear part of the cart again.
They hadn’t been going for long before Jackalope decided this was not as much fun as she had hoped. They weren’t going nearly as fast as during the race. So she set about making her own fun because, of course, she had to. Sapphire sighed as Jackalope began experimenting with folding out her wings, feeling the air flowing over them.
Tom had seemed alarmed at first, then seemingly started smiling. He was apparently familiar with the concept of rapid boredom. He had pointed to the piece of rope Fengi had taken down earlier and the to some metal pipe on the backend of the front cart? Jackalope figured out the meaning before Sapphire and quickly snatched the rope before Sapphire could stop her. This wasn’t gonna end well she was sure of it.
With the rope tied in place, she had folded out her wings and taken to the air while they were moving with a single wingbeat. Jackalope was holding on to the other end of the rope and was now flying like a kite.
“This is bloody brilliant,” had come down from the now airborne Jackalope, as she began letting out rope and climbing higher.
“What are you doing?” Dakota had come over, demanding.
“Gliding, isn’t that obvious? No need to do anything. I can just hang here forever.”
“That is actually kinda smart,” Dakota had to admit.
“I wanna try,” Fengi had piped up, already grabbing on further down the rope.
“This is nice,” Esmeralda added, quick to join the flying circus they had become.
Tom had to admit it was kinda hilarious to have a string of living kits dragging along after him.
Sapphire had just shaken her head at the display. She didn’t seem pleased. Perhaps she was jealous? Well, it was probably annoying to see her friends having fun where she couldn’t. That was when a gust of wind hit from the left.
So, with the rear of his quad bike now being lifted into the air by 4 dragonettes that hadn’t sensed a need to let go, Tom wondered if perhaps this was what Sapphire had been thinking about. With the wind blowing them to the right, they lifted the rear wheels clean off the ground and jackknifed the quad and the trailer, causing it to roll over. Well shit.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Sapphire shouted at the others, now in considerable pain from having landed on her broken wing. At least she hadn’t got caught underneath. Tom had jumped off and landed in a roll, almost as if by instinct. It looked like this wasn’t the first time he had tried something like this.
“Whoops,” was all Jackalope had gotten out.
“Sorry,” Fengi had followed up sheepishly, with Esmeralda and Dakota diving down to help.
“Anyone hurt?” Dakota had questioned, clearly worried.
“Landed on my damn wing again, but otherwise no,” Sapphire had answered, biting in the pain.
Tom had quickly gotten back to the cart, and it stopped the noise it was making. He had then gone over to Sapphire to try and help. He had gotten her back up and sat her down. Her wing would need to be reset, but the leg splint had held.
“Well, it was a good idea,” Jackalope had said, clearly trying to defend her actions.
“But badly executed,” Dakota had snarled back. “What if she had gotten caught underneath?”
“Well, how was I supposed to know we could lift that thing? It looks so heavy.”
“Yeah, but you were four pulling,” Sapphire interjected.
Tom had given her another of the strange beads. She graciously accepted. They seemed to work wonders for the pain. Jackalope and Fengi helped Tom get the cart back on its wheels; it seemed undamaged by the tumble, and the cargo was mostly where it should be.
“Hey, at least this thing is tougher than you are, Saph,” Jackalope had let out, seeming to realize her mistake as she turned to look at Sapphire sitting on the ground glaring at her with the kind of look reserved for people who just never seemed to known when to shut the fuck up!
“Ehhh heh, sorry Saph,” she let out sheepishly.
After the accident, Jackalope had been banned from further experimentation and would be flying for the rest of the way. Jackolope didn’t seem to think this was fair, but Fengi and Esmeralda weren’t about to start an argument with a furious Sapphire, and Dakota seemed to be on her side too. Besides, they were being let off the hook easy. So they might as well not draw any unwanted attention.
With Sapphire back on the cart, they had continued the journey home, and with the speed they were setting it wouldn’t be long. They could already see the keep clearly in the distance.
Hunter or Huntress 
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