Stories of the Woods

The Day Trip

Helios could barely contain his excitement as the royal party made their way down to the gates. He was finally being allowed to go down to Earth! He'd been pleading with his nurse, Abaya, since he could talk, but she kept telling him over and over that it wasn't safe for someone as delicate as him.

He rolled his eyes as he thought of it. Delicate? Him? As if. At seven years old, he was the best in the royal class at the palace. Although Pyos, son of one of the advisors, told him snidely that it was only because he was a spoiled prince that he had good grades, Helios knew it was because he was the only one who excelled. If anyone was spoiled, he thought to himself with his nose in the air, it was Pyos, and all those other kids!

The soldiers around him were much taller, so Helios couldn't see a lot of the commoners that roamed the Diamond Square at the center of the city. However, he could hear the excited murmurings of the crowd as they craned their necks in vain to see him. He puffed his chest out proudly anyways. It wasn't everyday that the prince of the solstae walked out among commoners!

The royal party ground to a halt at the middle gate. The word "gate" was used arbitrarily; as Helios peeked around Abaya's skinny legs, he  saw that the gate was nothing more than a wide circle cut into the square. Through it, he could see nothing but blue sky and wispy looking clouds that meander lazily. His excitement tripled at the sight.

"Now Helios, child." Abaya's wavery voice sounded in his ear, and he looked up to meet her huge, indigo eyes. "You remember everything you were taught?"

"Yes, Abaya."

"You are not to go any faster than the guards or the servants, or else you'll get no sky cake today."

"Yes, Abaya."

"And no running ahead once we're on the ground! There are dangerous creatures that live down there with earth walkers, and your father would have my head if I let you get eaten by a lion or whatever."

"Yes, Abaya!"

"Good boy." She smiled her mousy smile at him and held out her hand. Helios sighed but put his smaller hand in hers. She liked holding his hand. He remembered Jevos, his manservant, telling him one time that all of Abaya's children had died from dredd cough when they were little. He said she missed them very much, and it made her feel better that she was allowed to raise Helios. Helios felt sad for Abaya; she would be a very nice mum if her children had lived.

"At the ready?" Jevos called out now.

"Ready!" The guards called back in unison. They pressed in closer around Helios and Abaya, and then suddenly they were falling down to earth.

Falling wasn't really how Helios would describe it. Like all solstae, he'd had the ability to fly since birth, but it was curious how his people did it. He heard a scholar say once that the radiation they absorbed from the sun helped them fly; as they moved, air moved slower around them. Now, as Helios hurtled toward earth, it felt more like the sky was falling up passed him, instead of him flying down. In fact, he felt curiously still. The atmosphere was moving, and he was actually just in the same place.

Suddenly, he could made out the shape of little towns, and little green and brown squares where humans farmed their trade. He looked down passed his and Abaya's feet in wonder. Where were they going for his first time on earth? He'd forgotten to ask Abaya in all of his excitement.

At last, their feet touched down on a sandy beach. Helios immediately pushed through the line of guards so he could see his surroundings. Abaya huffed behind him, but he ignored her.

Earth was beautiful!

Around him, swaying palm trees stretched up to the sky, and leafy green vegetation exploded just beyond the line of the beach. The ruins of some kind of building sat just beyond the sand, and ivy creeped up the crumbled marble beautifully. Helios turned around again. There, just a few metres away, was the ocean.