Ava
Loviatar looms over me.
I try to get away, but he claws at me, sending me sprawling to the ground. He drags me toward the surgical table where there is the image of a brain overhead.
Help!
***
"Scourge," I cry.
Where am I? Kayla is in the arms of a scourge. Oh no!
Hands unbuckle me. Rigel lifts me out of my seat and pulls me into his lap. His wings drape over me, blocking my view of Kayla and the scourge.
My sleepy mind starts to remember. It was only a nightmare. Loviatar is no longer with me. Now, I am in a spacecraft with the human Kayla, the scourge Tarak, and the angel Rigel.
Tiny paws press into my palms, and my eyes go to Glow Ball, the little animal (the rahoni) Kayla told me to watch.
The rahoni glows like a luminous yellow candle, lighting up everything in this dark pocket under Rigel's wings: my shirt; Rigel's arms, which wrap around my waist; and every part of Glow Ball, including his eyes.
Glow Ball's large eyes gaze up at me. I hug the little animal against me, whispering. "Don't be scared, Glow Ball."
The rahoni kneads his tiny paws on my shirt, curls into my lap, and purrs contentedly. Before my eyes, Glow Ball's color changes from a bright yellow to green.
Glow Ball can change colors?
"What are you," I ask the little animal.
Rigel runs his hands up and down my arms. "Shh, Ava, Rigel protects Ava. You are safe."
Enveloped in this mini world with a glowing rahoni in my lap, strong arms embracing me, and warmth and softness from Rigel's feathers, I lean into Rigel's promise, letting myself trust him. Just like the little rahoni who yawns and closes his eyes, I do the same.
I'm floating, lulled to sleep by a rumbling sound.
My mind holds onto the promise whispered to me: You are safe.
***
We are not safe! My stomach flip-flops like I am in freefall.
I pop my head out between Rigel's wings. Through the viewport, the ground races toward us.
Tarak shouts at the wall, Rigel's arms tighten around me, and we slam into the ground. The overhead lights go dark.
We are not in darkness for long. Glow Ball casts light, and minutes later, emergency lights illuminate the ship's floor.
Kayla disappears down a hallway and when she returns, she drops bags near each of us. "These backpacks contain food rations, water, a blanket, and a battery-powered communicator. We should return to the Firefly at the end of each day, so we shouldn't depend on the supplies, but keep it with you as you explore planet X044 as a precaution."
Kayla doesn't need to tell me twice and I immediately strap mine onto me.
Tarak opens the hatch, and he is the first to leave the ship.
Kayla goes toward the open hatch door next. All the science fiction shows my little sister Hannah has watched—Body Snatchers, Village of the Damned, Aliens—dance in my mind.
Has Kayla ever seen those science fiction shows? Apparently not because she does not tell the computer to scan the environment or distribute weapons. No, she just disembarks.
Now it is just me, the rahoni, and Rigel near the exit. Rigel smiles at me and offers me his hand like he wants to escort me.
I do not take it. "Um, my little sister watches lots of sci-fi documentaries. Going outside is dangerous. There might be aliens, and they can take over your mind, or..."
Even though Rigel's eyes are on my lips—the wall with the voice is off and Rigel is not wearing his wrist translator—so I doubt Rigel understands anything I'm saying.
"...Some aliens can infect you and explode from your stomach or chest, so we should stay on the ship," I say, grasping Rigel's hand to hold him back when he steps closer to the door.
Rigel lifts me, carrying me off the ship.
"No!" I hide my head against Rigel's shoulder, not wanting to see whatever aliens might destroy us.
Once we are outside, Rigel puts me on the ground, pats me on the head, and walks toward Tarak.
Deep breath. No worms are here and for the most part, everyone looks intact.
In fact, everyone looks relaxed. Kayla is kneeling on the ground. babbling excitedly about plant life.
How can Kayla be so excited about dirt when over our heads are three moons and a luminous blue star? Not only that but she must have discovered the tiniest plant in the universe because from where I stand, it looks like nothing but dirt.
Glow Ball leaps from my arms, casting a long red shadow. He toddles and I gasp when I realize where he is going—straight toward a cliff edge.
I run and scoop up the small animal. "Glow Ball, no."
Kayla calls out to me. "You don't need to worry about Glow Ball here. Rahonis can fly."
I peer over the edge of the cliff and upon seeing the Grand Canyon-like drop, I hug Glow Ball to my chest. On the opposite side of the canyon are darker blue cliff walls. Far below us is an S-shaped purple river.
I carefully examine the little rahoni's paper-thin wings, which look so fragile they might tear. Has Kayla lost her mind?
"Glow Ball is too little and cannot fly on his own," I say, hugging the squirming rahoni tighter.
"Do you know the rahonis, including Glow Ball, helped save me from Loviatar?"
A chill runs down my spine. Loviatar.
I take several deep breaths, reminding myself... Loviatar is not here.
I had meant to tell Kayla something about that entire incident. Maybe instead of being afraid, I should talk about it with her. "I never had a chance to say... Thank you for helping me that day. Saving me. S-sorry I didn't say that until now."
"You don't need to apologize, I didn't thank you, either, so thank you, Ava."
"Wait—why are you thanking me?"
"I was told you led scourges to my location. That was very brave of you, so... thank you."
I look down at Glow Ball, and now I'm curious. "And the rahonis? How did they help?"
"Looks can be deceptive, often making us underestimate those with the biggest hearts and smarts," says Kayla, stepping away from her dirt and petting Glow Ball who mews. "At the time, I'd been leaving breadcrumbs, writing computer programs with alerts for Tarak and Rigel, hoping that they might figure it out and follow. Neither of them did. Tarak told me later that it was only when the rahonis were in the same room that they gave an alert and even physically led them to me."
"Does that mean rahonis can understand what we say?"
"Maybe. To accomplish what they did, the rahonis had to understand languages and computer code, at minimum."
I hold the rahoni up in my hands, so we are eye-to-eye. "Don't go close to the edge," I say, and Glow Ball makes several peeps at me. If I didn't know better, I might think he is arguing.
Kayla gives me a look similar to one I have often given my younger sister—like I don't understand.
I don't care. The little rahoni is too small to wander to the edge of the cliff.
"Let me show you how to collect plant samples," says Kayla.
Kayla wants to give me directions, but I need Glow Ball to stay safe and not wander off the canyon. I open my backpack. Fortunately, even with the emergency supplies, there is enough space to fit the small rahoni. Glow Ball peeps quite a bit, probably not liking this, but he lets me put him inside and zip the backpack so that his head can stick out. I readjust my backpack so that it is on the front of my body where I can see the rahoni. I pat Glow Ball on the head.
Once again, Kayla makes an expression like she thinks I've lost it. Whatever. At least Glow Ball will be safe.
"What did you want to show me?" I ask.
Kayla holds up a machine that is the size of a small book. What she does seems rather simple. She clips one of the tiny blades of grass from the minuscule plant in the ground and drops it into one of the tiny jars at the base of the machine.
"Do we need to do anything else?" I ask.
"That's it. Once the little indicator light flashes," she says, tapping the light on the side of the machine. "You can collect another sample. Do you want to try?"
Everything about this looks boring but it is not like I have other things to do. I clip a tiny sample, drop it into the jar, watch it light up, and then on to the next one.
"You are picking this up fast. Have you ever done something like this on Earth?" she asks.
I shrug. "Not really."
"What was your job on Earth? You might have a skill that could help us in our work."
I don't think Kayla wants to know about my part-time job, so I give her the abbreviated version. "I was going to flight school."
"Flight school?"
"I was working toward my personal pilot's license. Any spare time beyond that, I helped my younger brother and sister, Oliver and Hannah." Breathe. Even mentioning their names makes me sad. If Hannah were with me right now, she would be excited by all of this, from being in space with aliens to this job. Hannah is so curious she would probably ask five hundred questions from why scourges have tails to how the machines analyzing the plants work.
"Flight school... Interesting... If we could cover more terrain, I could learn more about the types of plants and animals this planet might support ..." She smiles at me. "How do you feel about you and Rigel flying together on an exploratory mission?"
"Sure... I love everything about flying," I say, lost in thought as I think about what flying means to me. Flying for me is about control, steering the plane, making the motor hum, and determining my destiny.
Kayla gets a determined look on her face. "I'll be back," she says, walking toward Rigel.
Kayla and Rigel both look very animated while they are in conversation. Kayla goes back onto the Firefly, and returns to me a moment later, carrying something in her hands. I don't quite recognize what it is, other than it has lots of straps.
"If you are still okay with flying... Here is the plan. Rigel and you will conduct an exploratory mission, but as a precaution, Rigel wants you to wear this rappelling harness."
I take the harness from her, wondering how wearing it will help me if I slip and fall from thousands of feet in the air.
I put my body into the harness, but it is gigantic, probably able to fit three or four more humans in addition to me. Scourges probably made this harness for other scourges, not humans.
Rigel joins us, pointing at the huge loops around my legs and my waist. Then Rigel goes back onto the ship and returns with what looks like a giant sleeping bag.
I might not yet have my pilot's license, but I know some things about flying. One is that parachutes are useful safety equipment on a plane, while gigantic pillows or sleeping bags would probably do nothing. Rigel seems so sincere as he wraps the sleeping bag around me, moving me back into the harness.
I feel like a mummy.
Kayla gazes between the sleeping bag, the harness, and the cliff's edge and then rolls her eyes. "Rigel wants you to have sufficient cushioning," she explains while Rigel rips holes in the sleeping bag so that my arms, as well as my head, poke out.
Encompassed in a sleeping bag from head to toe, I can't really move. There is one good feature to this ridiculous setup; the rahoni is in my backpack with the emergency supplies and strapped to the front of my body, which means that provided I don't fall, the rahoni should be safe.
I assume we are ready to take off, but Rigel is saying something in his language to Kayla. She jogs into the Firefly and returns with what looks like more straps.
Rigel and Kayla work together.
Kayla reappears in front of me. "While you are out there, would you be okay with..." Kayla shows me a camera with a headband that she fastens to me. "If you encounter anything interesting, hit the button, and later we can evaluate any interesting data you capture."
I nod. I feel like a child with Rigel and Kayla dressing me.
"Good luck," says Kayla, which I guess means they are done.
The way that they have strapped me in, my back is to Rigel's frontside, and my head is chest level with him, meaning my feet are not even on the ground. So, when Rigel walks to the edge of the cliff, like a rag doll, I go with him, carried along by this sleeping bag-harness apparatus.
The wind blows, hitting the exposed skin of my face. Ribbons fall alongside me.
"Ava," says Rigel, tapping me and putting one of the ribbons into my left hand. "Pull."
How did Rigel learn a word like pull, I wonder.
I must not respond fast enough because Rigel wraps his hand around mine, and he gently bends my fingers around a ribbon. Together, we pull it, and–
He stretches one of his wings out so that I can see the tip and he dips his wing.
On my opposite side, another ribbon comes down.
"Pull."
I wrap the ribbon on the other side of me, tug, and his other wing dips.
I let go of the two straps. Once his wings return to their former position, I pull both the left and right straps at the same time, and just as I predict, both his wings snap out.
I can barely contain my excitement. Rigel is showing me how to control our flight! He adds more ribbons and I quickly test and figure out the general idea as to how to use them to angle his wings forward or back.
His deep voice is in my ear. "Say ready."
I laugh. How many words from my language does he know? But when my eyes swoop downward, realizing that I am going to launch from a cliff with only a sleeping bag wrapped around me, I feel dizzy.
Does Rigel sense my emotions? Because his strong arms grip me tighter, even with the sleeping bag bundled around me.
"Keep Ava safe," he murmurs in my ear.
Breathe, Ava. "Ready!"
He leaps.
***
We dive downward, and I tug so that we swoop over the water. Then I yank the ropes. We climb upward.
The strap system is simple, but I cannot help feeling as if Rigel and I are connected. All I need to do is think about the flight maneuver, pull, and Rigel will do my bidding. I feel powerful as Rigel flaps his wings, taking us higher into the sky. Another tug. We soar over the canyon.
I'm free.