Now, here she was, on the roof, looking down at the empty night scene below. Just a little ways off was the park, slightly illuminated by all the lamps that lined the many paths that weaved through all the forestry. Between the park and the building there was a very large hill heading downwards towards the apartments. The rather steep slope was the reason behind the abandonment of the building. About seven years ago or so, a huge storm had hit the city and flooded the lower ground, ruining the two basement levels and the first three floors above ground. In retrospect, it wasn't very smart of anyone to build something on such low ground, not to mention the hill must have been a pain for people to climb every day when heading into the city.

Purple tipped fingers gripping the railing tightly, Chiuld leaned back once and took a deep breath, stretching out her wings out as she did so. The green shoyru had climbed to the top of this place for a reason, and it was time she got on with it. This was somewhat like a moment of truth for her, and she wanted to get it done as soon as possible. Moving swiftly for the first time that night, she climbed onto the roof ledge and gave her wings a small flap. Two weeks from now she would be entering the upper level school with her elder brother and she still could not fly well. It had never been a very big issue- her brother was a gelert and could not fly, so there was really no reason for her to learn, since they walked everywhere anyways. However, most winged neopets learned how to properly make use of their appendages in their first years of life, and Chiuld was actually a little embarrassed that she had never bothered.

Of course, when she expressed her need to take to the skies to her brother, he was rather sympathetic, and even felt a little guilty for not pushing her to learn at a younger age. The fact that he had now wings led to a problem, though, as there was really no way for him to teach her. Her brother had tried to take out a few books from the library on flying for her, but it just wasn't the same. Flying was something that should have come natural to her at a young age, like learning to speak or walk, and since she had ignored it for so long, Chiuld was now fearful she might never learn. Plus, lately she had been finding she had a slight fear of heights, which wasn't helpful at all.

However, Chiuld was struck with a bit of inspiration when her brother told her the story of how he had learned to swim. Apparently, when he was younger, no matter how many lessons he took or how hard he tried, he just could never learn to swim. Then, one day, he was playing in the large willow tree that was located next to the lake in the park, and had several branches hanging over the water. He had played on the tree a million times before, so when his spyder climbed out onto one of the far branches, he though nothing of following the petpet to retrieve it. Things didn't work out so well though, and he slipped and tumbled into the deep (and dirty) water below. He had been sure he was going to sink and drown, but surprisingly enough, all his failed attempts in the past seemed to pay off and he swam out without much of a problem. The way he explained it, when it came time to sink or swim, his body magically knew how to swim.

Thus, Chiuld's plan was born. She would jump from this building, and when she did, she would either fly, or go tumbling to her doom. If it went like her brother's story (and it should, right?) her brain would tell her body to fly, or something like that. Actually, she hadn't even thought about what would happen if she couldn't fly, and she really didn't want to. This was going to work. It had to.

Giving another small flap, she ran her finger tips along the bottom of the purple band that went across her eyes, the placed her index and middle fingers on the two small spots that were dotted on each side of her face, just below the tattoo across here eyes. Finally, she placed her purple finger tips against each other, and the flattened her palms together. When she was younger, her brother told her that her tattoos were good luck charms and had taught her this little ritual for whenever she needed to be brave, and it had just stuck through the years. She was older now, and knew that there wasn't such a thing of luck, but doing her little routine was still rather comforting.

And then, she jumped. In her mind, she had imagined this moment would be slow and dramatic, but really, it wasn't. One moment she was on the ledge of the roof, the next, she wasn't. As soon as she pushed off, she gave her outstretched wings a hard flap, and felt herself rise a bit as she moved forward- she was doing it!

This victory was short lived, sadly. Another beat of her wings and she felt herself starting to loose balance and fall to the side some. Immediately, she began to panic and through her arms out a bit, beginning to flail, which didn't help the situation at all. As she nearly rolled over in the air, her panic heightened. Jumping off that stupid roof was probably the dumbest thing she had done in a long time, and what she did next came in as a close second. In her fear, she retracted her wings and with that, she started to fall.

Chiuld's mind raced. What had happened? What should she do? She wanted scream, but no sound would come. All she could do is retract her wings more, cross her arms across her chest, scrunch her eyes close, and wait to hit the ground. How high was she? Was the fall high enough to be… fatal? How long would it take someone to find her?

Her panic was only increased when she felt something- or, more likely, someone- grab her from above. Had she been thinking clearly (and not falling from a ten story building) she most likely would have realized that someone grabbing her was actually kind of a good thing, as it could prevent the imminent doom that was awaiting her on the ground below. However, she was not exactly in the most rational state of mind, so when what felt like two hands grabbed her shoulders, she immediately opened her wings and began to flail, as if trying to escape whoever had taken hold of her.

Chiuld kept her eyes closed, so she couldn't see what was happening, but she could feel the person pull her upwards rather forcefully and wrap their arms around her. This caused them both to go through a rather odd, jerky motion as this newcomer pulled against the force of her fall, and Chiuld panicked more, throwing her arms and bit and hitting whoever held her several times. Where she hit the person, she had no idea as she had no intention of opening her eyes any time soon.

The rescuer attempted to move upwards again and succeeding in getting them up a few feet, but Chiuld's flailing made it too difficult and soon the two began to fall together. Chiuld felt her would-be savior squeeze tight against her and push to the side, causing them to roll in the air and switch positions so that they were on the bottom and Chiuld was on top. A moment later, the two hit the ground with a rather sickening thud. With the pull upwards before, the fall had temporarily been stopped and they hadn't fallen nearly as far or as fast as before, but it still wasn't a very pleasant landing.

The endeavor wasn't over yet, either. Before Chiuld knew what was happening, she felt herself beginning to roll. They had landed on the slope! The person who had grabbed her still had their arms around her and was squeezing tightly, and as they tumbled down the hill, Chiuld felt as though she might be crushed, either by the person smothering her with their iron grip, or from the force she felt every time she hit the ground and they rolled on top of her. When they finally landed on flat ground at the bottom of the steep slope, they did so with another hard thud and rolled a few more times before coming to a stop. As their movement slowed, Chiuld could feel the grip on her being loosened, and when their rolling ceased, she was released and fell to the side, flopping down on her back.

When it was all over, the young girl didn't know what to do. Eyes closed tight, wings aching from hitting the ground so hard while she fell, and arms stinging from being gripped so hard, Chiuld felt her heart racing at what she swore was a million beats a minute. What seemed liked ages (it was actually probably two, maybe three minutes) went by and neither she nor her rescuer moved.

As more time passed and she began to calm down, Chiuld gently lifted herself up onto her elbows and slowly opened her eyes, looking over to the side. Beside her lay a male purple buzz, with short, darker purple hair and what appeared to be black tattoos circling his currently closed eyes. He wore a pair of baggy, worn out looking pants that were now ripped in a few places and a black tank top. His exposed arms seemed pretty cut up and Chiuld guess they would most likely be bruised from hitting the ground so hard. A decent size cut was visible above the boy's right eye, causing a small trickle of blood to run down the side of his face.

Chiuld rose to her knees and turned herself to face him, then leaned back and sat with her legs tucked beneath her. Before she could open her mouth to say anything though, the buzz's eyes snapped open and he immediately rolled over and rose to a crouching position. The speed at which he moved shocked Chiuld, and she gaped a bit- he had appeared to switch positions in the blink of the eye, and she was torn between being impressed, or a bit creeped out.

The buzz looked over at her, and Chiuld's own eyes widened a bit as she stared at his. At first glance, they appeared to be solid black, blending into the dark rings on his face, and making it look almost as if he had no eyes, just two gaps in his face. Closer inspection showed that his eyes weren't actually black, but a very, very dark green, but the dramatic effect from the first glance stuck. His face was very sharp, almost architectural in way with the shape, and despite his overall small size (he looked like he wouldn't be much taller than her, and she was barely five feet), he gave off a very intimidating vibe. The way crouched with his shoulders up and his head low, and his almost-black eyes gave him a rather dark look, while his small yet muscular arms that had almost crushed her earlier along with the impressive speed he had shown just a moment ago gave off a feeling of power.

Ummm…. For the first time that night, a sound escaped her lips. It wasn't an intelligent sound, but it was something. The boy next to her had pretty much saved her from falling off a ten story building, and had taken quite a blow for her when he switched their positions before hitting the ground. Even though he had almost crushed her when they went down the slope, he had kept her pretty well covered and had most likely taken a lot of damage for her while they were rolling downhill. She defiantly owed this guy a huge "thank you" but, how did she say that? 'Thank you for saving my life,' just sounded so awkward…

The problem seemed to solve itself, however. After a moment of staring, the dark eyed creature's wings shot out and he pushed off the ground and headed upwards. He moved just as quickly as before, and by the time it had even registered with Chiuld that he was flying off, he was already hovering above, his position in the air looking to be level with the top of the building the shoyru had leapt off of earlier. Looking up at him looking down on her, Chiuld began to rise to her feet, eyes glued on the buzz above her. Before she was even fully standing however, he zipped off.

Oh… Chiuld's mouth formed a firm frown, and her vision was still locked on the spot in the air where the boy had been just a few seconds back. She stood there for a good five minutes, staring blankly into the sky with her head titled back. A rather strong breeze swept by, lifting the ends of the long jacket she was wearing and pushing her hair into her face. Something about this seemed to snap her out of the daze she was in, and she lowered her gaze. The purple marked girl stood there a moment longer, and then turned towards the park, ready to start the climb up the steep hill and the long walk back home.


{TBC}
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