Chapter 103: Tight Turns
Sapphire had to give it to Dakota, she tended to be right on these kinds of things. When Saph found out Moldovi was still around, and that she wasn’t booked for any actual racing today, the plan quickly came together. They would just go out for a bit of friendly competition, for old times' sake. Sapphire would likely lose due to being a little out of shape and not having been on a course for over 15 years. Moldovi would go easy as to not to make Sapphire look too bad, not to mention it meant next to no risk for her. It would be a nice little payout for both of them, even if it was mostly Sapphire’s name that would carry the race.
They had been put in at near the end of the day’s events, giving Sapphire a bit of time to watch some actual races with the others. There was a lot of good young talent on display today. Hopefully, some of them would be willing to entertain their offer. You couldn’t ask for a better place to start with a huntress than someone who could play around the skies like a kid in a sandpit.
Now though it was showtime, as she walked out onto the ledge of the central tower raised far above the area below. The stands were laid out in an oval around her. There were a fair few people here today, though it wasn’t a particularly big event, just a regular race day.
On the gong, both she and Moldovi leaned forward, dropping off the ledge and going into a dive, heading for the first obstacle far below. Today that was the roll rings. With the wind screaming in her ears she hurtled towards the ground, pulling up as late as possible, leaving only centimeters to spare. As she skimmed across the sand she let her tail drag ever so slightly, kicking up a streak of sand for the spectators. She wasn't called the 'streak for' nothing after all. Holding the skim for a bit, she pulled up hard for a split second before rolling over onto her back, heading for the first ring. She passed straight through the center of it, wings outstretched and perfectly level like a proper pro. The next three rings were a matter of rolling back and forth as quickly as she could possibly manage to ensure she was in the right position as she entered the next ring. She drifted slightly off-center, but not too badly, as she came hurtling out the last ring.
Moldovi had pulled ahead a little already, much like Sapphire had expected. Moldovi had been a steady performer and apparently still was. So while she might not be champion material she could give Sapphire a run for her money in her current state.
Next up was the return leg around the wall of the stadium as the two racers split off, going their separate ways, trying to be first to the vertical climb. Sapphire beat her wings throughout the run, hoping to beat Moldovi to the start bar of the climb. She did need to at least win some of the challenges after all. With her heart pounding and breath already growing ragged, she made it to the straight line leading to the horizontal bar which signaled the start of the climb. She could see Moldovi come around the other side, seemingly neck and neck with Sapphire. Then they both put on all the speed they could manage before skimming under the bar by the narrowest of margins, pulling up to vertical on locked wings and letting the momentum carry them upwards. Sapphire had always been on the lighter side, which didn’t serve her well on this one. As they both shot skywards Moldovi had apparently not managed quite the same speed as Sapphire, though her greater mass carried her to nearly the same altitude.
As Saph felt the speed bleed off, going weightless, she glanced at the board. 73.5 meters. ‘Not bad,’ she mused as she let her wings fold around her, falling over backward into a dive with a smile on her face, the crowds cheering the closely run match. God, this was good fun. She let the dive give her back most of the speed, the howling winds returning as she made straight for the ground before pulling up again, heading for the slalom course.
She loved the slalom, and she was gonna show everyone just why that was as she came screaming through the entrance gate without slowing one bit. Straining her wings for all that they were worth, she banked into the series of sharp turns. On the third pylon she felt a sharp tug on her head as one of her horns brushed it. She gave the next pylon a bit more room as she let out a sigh of relief after that little scare.
‘Don’t get cocky now,’ she cursed herself, as she again tried to cut in as close as possible. It was no easy feat when you had to do half a roll for every single turn. For max points, you had to pass the pylon as closely as possible and with wings parallel to it. As she rounded the final pylon she had opened up a lead on Moldovi, much to her delight. Now though, it was time for the stone run.
She pulled up to scrub speed, grabbing a stone from the platform at the end of the slalom course. Kicking off back into the air, she headed for the center of the arena.
Her target was a small basket which she had to hit from as high up as possible. Sapphire remembered just how pissed she used to be that Jokuni, or ‘the Joke’ as they used to call her, could guide the rock on target. Now though, it was her turn to pull that stunt. As Moldovi swung into a dive to line up her shot, Sapphire kept climbing. She beat hard to gain altitude until she was finally happy with the height. She could hear the crowds go quiet as she climbed, hushed in anticipation.
She rolled into the vertical dive, letting the stonefly. As she pulled away from it to show she wasn’t touching it, she guided it to its target. The crowd held their breath as the speeding wind drowned them back out, Sapphire watching the stone accelerate away from her in the dive heading straight for the target. It was a rather heavy thing to steer like this, but as she pulled up the stone went straight in, breaking through the bottom of the basket. Even over the screaming wind, she could hear the crowd cheer for her as she did her best to catch back up with Maldovi. She knew she had just lost the points for being first to the last two obstacles. But that shot had to be worth more anyway.
Next up was the Loop, an old favorite of Sapphire’s since she could use her wings throughout this one. That combined with her rather light frame meant that she tended to beat most people on the climb when it wasn't on locked wings. Moldovi was already well into the loop when Sapphire passed under the bar that marked the start. She was panting like a maniac by now, but there wasn’t long to go now. She pulled up nice and gently to ensure the loop was as round as possible, beating as hard as she could on the climb. She was making good time as she passed over the top bar and went into the dive, heading for the letterbox down on the ground that marked the end of the loop.
She had always hated that one after she managed to get her tail broken by having it still slightly raised after doing the loop. Getting the tip of your tail smacked at these speeds hurt like absolute hell and she really didn’t appreciate the short tunnel either. Somehow it was much worse than the rings. Today though she made it through nice and level, if perhaps a little cautiously, keeping her arms tight to her sides as she passed through the narrow opening. ‘Right. One left.’
The swing rings were probably her favorite and often where she had managed to steal the win in the past. Loads of very tight maneuvers in quick succession, with no time for someone stronger than her to pull ahead in a straight line. She had caught up a little with Moldovi as she made it to the first ring, though she was still a fair ways behind. The obstacle got its name from the opening part, five rings swinging back and forth like pendulums, which added a random element to it which could sometimes make or break a race on luck alone.
As always, Sapphire managed to deftly worm her way through the challenge, not losing any time or even touching any of them. Now though came the real deal. It took everything she had left to keep pulling the needle-sharp turns as she forged on through the tight corridors of rings. But she was in the groove now. She knew this course like the back of her hand and she could fly it blind. She Let her instincts and training guide her through the course, too tired to think properly by now. She pushed harder to try and match the speed she knew she could do. She was faster than this, she could go faster than this.
The platforms for reversing direction did at least take a little of the strain off her overstressed wings, putting some on her legs instead. She kicked off blindly into where she knew the next ring would be, sailing through the air like it was her personal playground. She was born to win, she was built to win, and she was going to win.
When she finally threw herself through the last ring, she was heaving for breath to the point she honestly wondered if she was gonna pass out, the world starting to go a little gray at the edges. It had been fun as hell though. She didn't realize just how much she had missed doing that. Sure, hunting was exciting and she loved archery, but this was what she had been born to do and goddammit did she love it. Throwing herself through the air, daring the world to tell her she couldn’t. She knew Dakota would have unkind things to say about going that hard, but she didn't care. ‘So worth it.’
Sapphire and Moldovi had both come down to land in the sand in the center of the arena. Moldovi was actually not the first to touch down. Sapphire hadn't seen whether she had just loitered a bit longer in the air or if she had actually beaten her. Saph was not doing victory laps though, that was for damn sure. She was completely spent after that as she flopped down onto her hands and knees rather ungracefully.
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“Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Sapphire Rayland and Moldovi Yldringer!” the announcer shouted out from his booth, voice magically carrying across the arena. Moldovi did look slightly better off, standing there leaning on her knees heaving for breath as well. After a bit, she did come walking over slowly to Sapphire.
“You told me you had gotten slow?”
“I… Have,” Sapphire replied, struggling for air but with a wide grin on her face.
“You can be really annoying, you know that, right?” Moldovi replied jokingly before sitting down in the sand. "I honestly thought I had you there. But no. You haven't changed a shade. You just couldn’t stand not winning, could you?”
“You know how it is,” was all Sapphire had to say to that as she too sat to look at the scores. “I still think you won though.”
It would take a little before they knew the winner as the points for each obstacle were put onto the huge scoreboard. Sapphire cursed a little at only getting six for the slalom following that little fuck up, and a seven for the loop wasn’t brilliant either. Otherwise, it was eights, nines, and tens across the board. To her amazement they had actually tied on the vertical climb, both getting an eight.
“You went easy on that one, didn’t you?” Sapphire questioned with a chuckle.
“That was the deal.”
“In that case, I did too,” Saph replied with a laugh, getting one in return from Moldovi. They had agreed to be paid the same either way, so it really didn’t matter much who won.
Next came the points from the panel of judges' opinions on style and consistency as well as the points for being first to an obstacle and first out of an obstacle. To Sapphire’s amazement, she got first to complete the course, apparently having caught up inside the swing rings, gaining her five points.
The judges hadn’t been too kind to her though. But she had been sloppy on a few things, so it made sense. She would have liked a bit more from them on that beauty of a stone shot though. She had gotten a full ten points for it already though, so meh.
“I think that concludes our point-scoring. No penalties being given, all in all, a most marvelous performance from the two veterans. Though tonight's winner is... Sapphire ‘The Streak’ Rayland! The girl who refused to lose!”
The crowd let out quite the cheer for her, a sensation she hadn't felt in years, and this time she had time to savor it. And it felt good. Even if it was a slightly hollow victory, it was still one hell of a sensation.
“That’s the last time I’m going easy on you… I should have known,” Moldovi went with a snicker, giving Sapphire a hand to get to her feet. Both of them waved to the spectators as they walked off the field to let the next two take to the sky to prove themselves.
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After a lengthy discussion on everything that had happened and just what they were gonna do to respond, people had gotten to work. Jarix needed to be unloaded and have his armor removed. They needed to dismantle all the barricades and traps Rachuck had ordered constructed, and Tom was promptly assigned to help Apuma and Fengi figure out what to do with the five new kids.
Kiran utterly refused to leave Tom’s side throughout the day. Curling up around his neck like a scarf, at times wrapping himself just a tad too tightly. Tom didn’t get asked to do any real work, since well... he mostly couldn’t right now.
His task was trying to figure out how to fit in five recently traumatised kids with the current group. Luckily, the worst of the shock had worn off and the time spent with the kids at Deriva Keep had loosened the five of them up quite a bit. The baby was placed into Apuma’s care, for the time being, Fengi helping Tom out with the rest of them.
Lothal once again proved to be very useful too. Mainly on account of his knowledge of his siblings and having wholeheartedly embraced the leadership role by now. In fact, he embraced it to the point he started ordering the Bizmati kids around. He seemed to care so deeply though, there was no malice or powerplay in him whatsoever. He needed to have everyone be happy and he was doing his damndest to make it happen. Though trying to order Kiran to play with the twins did result in a minor diplomatic incident as Kiran refused to leave Tom. Apart from that he almost made Tom’s work trivial. Tom didn’t mind that in the slightest though as he sat down to watch the proceedings. Kiran crawled down into his lap to get a few belly scratches.
“Why took you so long?” Kiran finally asked after he had stopped giggling.
“There was too much to do,” Tom replied truthfully. “We came back as quickly as we could.”
“Next time I go too.” The little guy protested, clearly not happy with that reasoning.
“No Kiran. It was a bad trip. If we are lucky there won’t be a next time.”
“Fingers crossed. That's it, right?” Fengi added as she tried to distribute the building blocks evenly to those who wanted to play with them.
“Yeah, that’s for sure.”
“No, we fight!” Kiran let out in English, the statement being echoed by all the other Bizmati kids, “We fight, we fight, we fight.” Tom looked to Fengi, who suddenly looked slightly uncomfortable.
“Kiran ask him, you said you'd ask him,” Turinia let out, expectantly, as she stood looking at the two of them.
“Ask me what?” Tom questioned, looking back down to Kiran.
“Your blood red, we want red tails too!” Kiran replied excitedly, clearly trying his best to be as cute as possible. “Please?”
“Fengi?” Tom let out, sounding as disappointed as he possibly could. “Did Essy show them war movies?”
“Might have done… They liked the flying one a lot by the way,” Fengi replied, clearly trying to defend their actions.
Tom rubbed his eyes for a second before looking down to Kiran. “No, you may not. Besides, my blood goes brown when it dries, not red. Sorry.”
“Awww,” more than one of the kids let out, clearly disappointed.
“What’s a movie?” Lothal had to question.
“Best thing ever, it’s like watching a memory,” Vigon replied, taking a little wooden figure which was supposed to represent a dragon and flying it through the air, making the best engine noises he could manage.
Tom couldn’t decide whether that was sad or sweet to watch… They had dragons here, hell there was one in the greeting hall, and here they were playing with fighter planes… like some sort of fantasy beast.
He hadn’t been any different growing up though, so he decided it was sweet. He doubted he could do anything about it anyway now. And if they were gonna take after anyone, the Redtails were about as good as it was gonna get. Even if he felt a chat with Esmeralda was in order.
“We will try and get some red paint, I promise,” Tom relented, looking to the rather disappointed Kiran.
“Yay!”
Tom had gone to see Esmeralda after the kids had gotten into the groove playing with each other, Fengi staying behind to sort out any problems that might arise.
He knocked on the door a few times and was answered by Kokashi, who wearily opened it.
“Come in, come in. She’s just woken up again. Hey sweety pie, look who it is.”
“Oh hi, you're back! Wait, it’s afternoon already, why didn’t you wake me? And I missed the welcome party? Oh, come on!” Esmeralda protested from her bed, trying to get up. Tom jogged over to give her a hug so she didn’t have to get up.
“You didn’t sleep all night, so you needed it,” Kokashi replied, standing off in a corner.
“I know, but still I could have gotten up for that,” she protested again, before turning her attention to Tom. “How have you been?”
“Been better I’m afraid. We made it though,” Tom replied with a smile.
“I heard you ended up poisoned too?”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Tom replied, holding up his hand showing how the thing just still wouldn't stop shaking.
“Oh, you poor thing,” Essy went, taking his hand.
“Now, now, don’t get too handsy,” Jackalope added with a chuckle, walking in through the door. “You can’t just run off like that, I need to know where you are, also Hi” she continued, while leaning on Kokashi a bit giving Essy a wave.
“I can walk around just fine, I’m not that broken. If you aren't careful I’m gonna have you carry me everywhere,” Tom replied jokingly.
“That can be arranged. We just need you back in shape for the good of the keep. Who knows what’s gonna be coming next after all… Actually, you go outside the door for this,” Jacky replied, before pushing Kokashi outside. The guard just accepted there was little he could do about it. “And no listening… Right, you are not gonna believe what that dude can do,” Jacky continued, turning her attention to Esmeralda.
“Uhm, should I be here for this?” Tom questioned, having a guess at where this was going.
“Oh come on, have a little pride,” Jacky retorted before looking back to Esmeralda who was seemingly all ears by now.
The following tale went into more detail than Tom was in any way comfortable with. He could hardly complain though, after having sorta started that trend without Jacky’s consent, and it was very flattering indeed. It seemingly even reached the point of making Esmeralda a tad uncomfortable as she looked at Tom rather worried at the part about sorta fainting multiple times.
“That’s great Jacky… Are you sure that’s uhm… safe?”
“Who cares? I need to know something though, and Nunuk won't tell me. How quick does that medicine stuff they are giving you work?”
“Not quick. And it hurts a lot, I’m afraid.”
“Aww beans… Does it hurt a lot, like really a lot?” Jacky replied, voice growing concerned.
“I’m afraid so, it’s kinda random at times. I didn't get an hour of sleep tonight. I’m doing good right now though.” Essy answered, sounding cautiously optimistic. Tom didn’t really like the sound of that.
“As long as it works. Apparently, we are getting a shipment by dragon any day now, to help speed it up,” Tom added, hoping his optimism wasn’t misplaced.
“Wait, what?” Essy replied, clearly quite surprised
“Oh yeah... Uhm right, so the Flaxens tried to kidnap Balethon, right? But without the rest of the family knowing it. They fucked up and got caught. The family was very sorry, embarrassed, or just got bullied into giving us a lot of money. I'm not quite sure which, don’t give a fuck either, and they are paying for your medical bills! So we got the good stuff from your sister’s. We snuck in Tom’s too because Dakota is great with that stuff. Clever, hey?”
The loud “What the fuck!” from outside the door betrayed that Kokashi clearly hadn’t kept his promise to not be listening. Esmeralda sat there looking rather shocked. "Wait, from. Ignis?”
“Aww yeah, only the best, and we aren’t paying a copper for it. And I know you're listening out there, I'm gonna steal your breakfast if you don’t shut those ears!” In Tom’s opinion you didn’t really need fancy hearing to hear every word Jacky was saying outside the door, but hey. It was the thought that counted.
“Huh, well that ought to help quite a bit,” Essy replied, seemingly not bothered by the threat to her husband's food situation.
“I hope so. I also need to ask you something else. If you wanted to embarrass an ex, like really embarrass him, how would you do that exactly?”
“I do not like where this is going,” Tom had to interject. It felt like the right thing to do, even though he was fairly certain it would be about as effective as farting to cover up thunder.