Russty's Flying School Book 6 - Chapter 12

Russty's Flying School Book 6 "The Littlest Aeronauts"
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Character Aria belongs to

Characters Tyxamous and Ignis belong to

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Transdimensional mail to Roxanne from Tyxamous- aka Blake Indigo

Report on a day with flying school , field work phase:

So far our class of teenage dragons is faring remarkably well. A surprise aerial confrontation was won without problems which turned out to be simulated, the first of many preplanned challenges.

We made a stop at midday for lunch and rest. Ignis and I opened our packaged food to find a sealed letter was taped to each of our sandwiche bags. Opening his, Ignis read that he could confide with me, so opening mine the directive had me read along with Ignis. His card instructed him to leave the picnic area near the Grand Canyon early to proceed north to a rendezvous with a Dragon named Caltsaur, who would accompany him for his safety , plus move him to a semi hidden location. My card read that I should quietly prepare an area near our picnic site showing signs of a struggle. We would give the young dragons a detective puzzle. Terry, DM and Vokun would be aware of the plan.

I took Ignis aside at some twenty minutes until we were to resume.

“Ok, a good way for you to do this but not be seen would be to quietly walk to the Canyon edge then leap over, gliding down to near the River while following west. See that Arroyo over there? You can turn right to follow the arm of the river to the north where you can exit after the fourth turn in the river. You will be at the old Yavapai village where Caltsaur will join you. If he is not there, return here just the same way but in reverse,” I said. He nodded then slipped into the bushes and trees. I prepared the area with a few of his items then stepped away to a clearing by the Park Ranger’s office.

As the group began gathering for takeoff, I started feigning looking about the area calling for Ignis. Soon the group was in front of me as I noted that he was only here minutes ago.

“Ok, what do we do for a missing dragon, we’ll start with his two buddies who should have kept an eye on him from time to time!” said Terry

“I saw him twenty minutes ago,” said Negadrake.

“Lost track of him the last half hour,” said Bryce, looking down in shame.

DM put a paw on Bryce’s shoulder, saying “We’re not pointing fingers, no time for that- what should we do?”

“I’ll fly up to 2000 feet to scan the immediate area for him and return, Negadrake, you report him missing to the Park Rangers over there. The rest to look for him or signs of him in this immediate area, all will meet back here in 5 minutes,” said Bryce, vaulting into the air.

Terry said, “You heard him, lets scour this picnic area.”

I was impressed at how well everyone remembered what to do. If Ignis was anywhere within one mile, we would have found him very quickly. As it was we were soon back at the spot very worried.

“I found his backpack and Dravicom,” said DM, noting we would be unable to track him (later we found out his (Ignis) shirt was a marvel of spy technology as was everyone else who wore the DG404 shirts!).

“Ideas?” called out DM.

“If he were taken by humans, it would likely be by road, 50 miles away would be the furthest, so looking at our map, 4 roads out of here.” Said Crazikc.

“Good, lets have Crazikc with Sturalkhe take the first , Zorath, Abria the next, Aria and Tyxamous the third road, with the last road covered by Negadrake and Bryce,” said Terry, who followed with “What else, before we begin?”

“He could have been taken by other dragons, by air,” said Zorath.

“Good, Vokun and I with DM will cover that out to 100 miles. You dragons covering the highway cannot stop cars to search but your sense of smell should be well enough. Everyone stay online by radio,” said Terry.

Everyone took off to begin thier sweeps but of course found nothing. At the end of their search everyone coordinated then agreed to cover everything inside the circle. They even overflew then walked through the Yavapai old village. Ignis was not there but they could smell him having been there plus left a trail back to the Grand Canyon. By then Caltsaur had dropped Ignis by the park Rangers and had departed. We all gathered at our starting spot as the Ranger brought Ignis over saying a tourist dragon had found him wandering alone after becoming lost while exploring. As the Ranger walked away, Ignis began snickering while I joined in.

“Another test!?” said Crazikc

The instructors with Vokun and I all nodded.

Terry then addressed Crazikc “Does it matter? we were missing a dragon either way.”

“How did we do?” asked Abria.

DM said “Well, Negadrake and Bryce learned a hard lesson today about the buddy system, you know - with our range of vision, we can keep each other in view without clinging to or annoying them!”

Terry said “You quickly set a good plan that you learned into motion then actually located his path within 3 hours, following it to him back here. You also alerted the authorities early so had them covering the area. If the exercise had been real, the Civil air patrol would have had humans up in aircraft along with dragon volunteers also covering the skies. All in all, passing grade. Lets get going, as we have to make it to Zion National park and Moab by nightfall, boys and girls.”

Our camp site was lively and talkative, despite the very tiring schedule of the day.

By the campfire, Vokun joined me, after most of the ‘kids’ were asleep.

“Tyxamous, I have to say that I’m having a change of mind about this school thing. At first it looked like games, but these instructors mean what they say. Besides getting Krilzeymah and Fenbriinah to fly so well, then they cover challenges that are so realistic. I’m becoming very impressed.” Vokun said to me.

“I am as well, it looks like much thought by a lot of dragons and humans went into this. Ignis really learns a lot and he’s having fun while at it. Tomorrow we’ll even test him in combat dragon to dragon. I hope he does well.” I said.

“As do I. By the time we return to the airport, Rex said that Krilzeymah should be capable of flying 6 or more hours, Fenbriinah as well.” said Vokun, smiling for the first time since we met five days ago.

Here in the woods, we two were at home, unlike so many of the urban dragons we had in class, but they also seemed to have no fear of the wilds. With what they had learned, their lives as dragons were improving.

A little later I was the only one awake, my needs for sleep a bit less than the rest. I quietly pulled out the device to begin downloading my thoughts of the day which took a few seconds. With plenty of free space left, I composed a letter to Roxanne and others at the ‘foundation’ about this time line. The period has always been of interest to scholars as the rise of the modern dragon forms.

Roxanne:

From this time of the Earth’s history a key era happened that was a conflux of so many time lines. The Earth had just dipped its big toe into the vast ocean of Trans-Species possibilities. A society that just a few decades before had advanced forward to deal with differences in skin color plus was just barely able to understand gender types with their possibilities was suddenly thrust into a much wider plane of possibilities. All of this coinciding with an Information Technology revolution.

They were truly courageous, many of them, trying to put together what was being uncovered every day, using basic mental process and methods. You or I in the time era that we know would likely balk if given a task proportioned as what is before the earthlings of 2013. In a few years, they will barely be ready for communication and collaboration with off-world civilizations when that arrives also upon their doorstep.

Yet somehow, they the people and dragons of that era found time to do as I am right now, sitting beside a warm fire while looking up at the night sky. They wonder what is up there yet soon their curiousity will be engaged so fully, but for now its just a fun thing on a warm springtime evening. Ignis is with me and he has found the whole trip enlightening while not revealing our own time period. He has learned to stop then experience each moment as its own simple truth and quantity. I think he is ready for trips further to the past and future, beyond the basic 1000 year window proposed for youngsters his age. We shall see.

We will return after the end of the flying school session. A few days from now was a Major pivotal node, a single action by a single human that set the path for the species gaining acceptance of this era. We will observe at a distance without interfering of course, who wants to spawn thousands of derivative lines without reason? I owe Ignis a look at why he, as a dragon is both special yet typical, that it was then, but always is what we make of our days versus simply ‘being’ a species only.

The dragons of this era shared a unique experience of still having much of their lives spent as human first , so they have a special window on it, but yet they are so quiet about it all. They enjoyed becoming a new life form with all of its properties and abilities (and they have barely scratched the surface for arcane abilities!) but just want to keep some footing of what they were before. They really were pioneers. We’ll be home next week and look forward to seeing all of you at the ‘Industries’ real soon. Love: Blake Tyxamous Shadowfaller Indigo 5/21/13