Ch6 : one step off the past

Mirak stood up, all sweat and huffs. His worried face turning into a grimace, pointed at whatever ill-willed fate that brought him to this place. Everything which he experienced so far has ruined his composure, they say when you are endangered you get to see a slight glimpse of what lays dormant within your subconscious and he saw a lot.

“I didn’t want to remember that”

And some memories were something he couldn’t adapt to. He did his best to suppress them.

“I don’t want to relive that pain again.”

And that’s especially why.

“I have to start soon”

Even though what he had seen so far was unreasonable at best. He still had to march forward.

He was tired of getting comfortable with things.

“.....”

After managing to calm himself and gets his thoughts back in order. it downed into him.

An idea to get out of here.

He started rummaging through the remains of beasts scattered within the cave.

Be it torn hides or broken bones, he got his hand on anything which could fit into his idea.

It didn’t have to be something complicated, he thought.

“Anything that could get me out of this predicament”

He heeded outside the cave and stood near the cliff. Within his grasp, an aircraft as wide as he was tall, made from the rib cage of some beast.

“A glider. Breaking the bones could have been an obstacle, thankfully that was cleanly taken care of”

'and the hide felt like it would endure the extra weight'

It wasn’t that hard, making such a thing. It appeared the creatures on this planet were tough, But they were easily taken care of by the falcon.

“What lays ahead is just as dangerous”

But it’s better than being holed up for the rest of the trial's period.

“Who knows when that bird would be the prey instead of the predator? If at that time I was comfortable and narrow-minded to think of taking this kind of risk ..... I would have died in waste” if he kept believing all he had to do was to stay alive for the set time of the trial, he might just end up subconsciously falling into a state of inaction.

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“I am worried about what lies ahead “

Mirak peeked at the valley on the other side, it was a foggy evening and he hadn’t taken a good glimpse of what lays down when he almost fell the previous day.

“I just hope I would be able to maneuver my slide through the dark. It barely was enough to make one other thing besides the beast skeleton's glider”

Finally brushing the fear off his chest, it’s was his time to tread the thorny path.

“Time to dive deeper than ever !”

Stepping back to give a propelling force to his dive with a steady run, hands clutching at the shoulder blades firmly to change the direction of the glider when necessary. Heavy and deep breaths ... “Let’s go !”

He ran as if his life depended on it, which was true, the cold air was slapping at his face, the moisture from the weather's dewdrops was making it into his eyes, but he made sure to not close them so he won’t trip over. It won't save him like last time.

He was almost at the edge.

And with an arced jump, he finally was in the air, this time eyes closed. It’s not that he fainted, he was rather savoring the feeling that came with the jump. He was finally able to grant himself the freedom he always looked up for, for unlike eventually coming of age and being old enough to be free from the orphanage system, something he had no saying in, so was able to grant himself that freedom he always longed for. Certainly for Mirak, the frustration of not being in control of his life was replaced by a great amount of satisfaction, his previous life was empty. Mirak felt like the shackles placed on him were gone.

He opened his eyes, what greeted him were the whistles of him cutting through the air, face reddened from the cold, blood vessels almost bursting from the pressure put on his veins, so far the glider could bear all of him and that. Dusk was almost fazing away and the day was transitioning into the darkness of the night. The slide would be taking a while and Mirak would be using that time to mark all possible landing spots.

He would prefer landing on something that can cushion his descent.

For a short duration it was all smooth, was the case until a high pitched noise caught his attention.

Then came another and another.

“Everywhere… !” The more he dived within the fog the more he felt like the sounds were converging toward him and all of a sudden everything started spinning around. The dizziness that accompanied it left his body in a swirl of spasms.

“ What…” even his grasps started loosening.

The moment he lost his holding came a strong burst of air that hit his glider spot on, inches away from hitting him alongside it, what accompanied that was a muffled sound of something crashing into his prided creation, the last thing he heard was that of tearing at the hide. That soon too started to be less and less audible until even his body’s friction with the air was nowhere to be heard. Again deafened, but this time he couldn’t even think straight for if Mirak couldn’t get a hold of himself he will sooner than later meet his end.

‘no..’

‘NO!’

Blood started seeping from his mouth, but unlike his eardrums, this one was self-inflicted.

“Ugh, noth zis thime” he couldn’t speak properly but at least he was sober again, to Mirak that was a fair exchange.

‘time for plan B’

‘It’s sooner than scheduled since it's not perfect’

He flipped his body in the air thanks to his now athletic strength. The position he was maintaining was that of a skydive, arms aligned with the rest of his body and legs stuck together.

*FEEE*

‘something is coming from above !’ he was desperate to survive, and now he was ‘angry’ for if that was the culprit behind the previous assault he will have to consume his last card.

‘But it's not the time to use it! from the moment I was made to bail out my glider I haven’t even reached half the distance to the ground’

“Am I going to die ….” With a wash of frustration, he forgot his pain, Hearing his own thoughts was what he needed, in hope that it will help in making him figure out a solution but the realization of imminent death was the first thing that came out from his dry throat.

He felt like he was being wronged, he survived and prepared for his next encounters beforehand, and now once again it wasn’t enough.

Yet he had to come up with something.

From the moment he felt the nearing danger, not even a second had passed, save for what he had said. And again with only two seconds until he might be dead for sure, Mirak had to think fast.

‘I have to analyze the situation,I assume the dizziness came from a sound attack …. Since it was similar to what I experienced in the cave …. No, wait! If it was a sound attack then why there were so many? it doesn't make sense unless .. !! They were echolocation sound waves!’

Time was up.

Mirak brandished the sharpened bone spike that was strapped behind his back, once again flipped his body with his chest facing upward, spike adjusted to hit whatever came at him.

“!?” but he was wrong, what came at him was nothing with skin and flesh to stab, it wasn’t something to be killed. Since it wasn’t alive to begin with, given that it was dead.

The bone spike slid in between the bones, the only thing not utterly damaged on his glider.

“ UCKK !? “ a drop from a kind of liquified substance somehow stained his arms and started to eat at his muscles after it already took care of skin, but it easily got repressed by the moisture that covered his body.

“UGH I can’t believe this !!” it appeared his tongue has recovered.

*FEE*

*FEE*

The echolocation sounds emerged from far above and were closing in faster than before.

‘Now that I have got my glider back ...’ He had a better idea.

Both Mirak and his glider were diving to the ground. He decided to use it again but this time not for sliding over the air.

“Since fate returned you to me I can use the extra weight to get over the air friction”

He straddled his glider and stapled it as his life depended on it,

it reminded him of a story he heard back on his original world, where sailors would bind the caught up deserters with a rock and throw them into the sea. The only difference was that he would die, be it being tied or not.

He could tell they weren't able to close in anymore.

‘Why does it sound like there are more than one?’