All around them, movement caught Emmeline’s eye.
Machines and people flitted about, rushing from one place to another, different tasks laid out neatly before them.
All the men wore uniforms, and all the machines were stamped with the Finchale’s Air Navy’s seal.
The lone building sat at the other end of the enclosure, and several other members of the male gender were walking towards it, varying distances away from the main house.
Also, throughout the compound, young men were training, running across the grounds, dangling above the earth attached to only a rope, a cable, a harness.
Emmeline watched in fascination as they climbed up completely vertical structures, rappelled down from them, and then ran a couple miles through mud.
Well, this was going to be fun.
Maxwell didn’t seem as enthusiastic about all the exercises, which was permissible to a point since he wanted to be an engineer. But for Emmeline, this was it. She would be topside, climbing across the skin of a mighty airship and singlehandedly saving her crew and her country from some madman with a weird fetish for bombs. Or so she hoped. Was there even a job like that?
They hurried toward the main building, which wasn’t near as impressive as all the towering construction projects and training apparatuses around her. There was also a mysterious building that lurked at the edge of the grounds, closer to the fence than the others.
And the only people who seemed to be going in or out looked rather jumpy and green-faced.
Oh, yes. This would be just marvelous.
“Don’t smile,” the old man commanded.
Emmeline was tempted to smile just to be rebellious, but controlled herself. She was joining a branch of the military. And they believed in discipline.
…And incomplete sentences. But who had time for proper language skills while they were running for their life or saving the world? No one. She was truly beginning to see the appeal.
The old man snapped the photograph, and Emmeline made sure to look straight into the lens. That’s what you were supposed to do, right?
The man grunted in approval as the photograph was revealed, sliding smoothly out of the camera with a soft ding!
“All right,” he grunted, handing her the picture and a stack of papers. “Fill these out. And be quick about it, lad!”
She nodded, wondering if she should salute. Just to be safe, she did, snapping her heels together and bringing her hand up to her forehead in the Finchalen salute.
The old man rolled his eyes, looking annoyed but acting as if he’d been expecting it. Did he get uncalled-for salutes often, then?
Emmeline brought her hand down sheepishly, shifting from foot to foot. “Sorry, sir.”
“Just fill out the papers.”
Emmeline nodded, and took the papers and the photograph with an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach.
As she filled out the papers, she tried to place exactly what it could be.
YOU ARE READING
Fledged
Teen Fiction"There was not a thing in the world that could keep Emmeline Pyne from living her dream." Emmeline Pyne is a seventeen-year-old young lady of society. But no matter how sweet her smile may be, that's only to keep up appearances. Her rebellious and p...
