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Chapter 12: An Irrational Ancient
At near dusk, on day two, Bjorn encountered an odd phenomenon; an Ancient perched alone in Center Square of the Pacer’s marketplace. Hunched over and dried out as processed eel skin, the old fellow’s wrinkles folded into his face like wedges of crusted tree bark. He spanned thirty feet plus from tip to tip of his pectorals, his sunken veins coal-black beneath his flesh.
He was naked save for a thin cloth covering his clasper, and whether too poor or too stubborn, he wore no HB mantle. His gills sagged down one over the next, heaving in and out like dog-eared bellows in a damaged ship’s bilge. It was a wonder that the Old One could draw sufficient air for life, much less voice.
Bjorn searched for Crystellia, but his success rate remained zip. He had even engaged in a few games of Fins’Feet, hoping she would pass through. No luck.
The Old One spoke in a mumble, his dry eyes active in a gaze that swept from passenger to passenger. T
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Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 13: Fact or Fiction
For two days, a mighty western gale pushed the Pacer miles off course. Damage to the vessel exceeded expectations, and the captain closed access to the forecastle and the sports deck. Only the restaurant and the main and lower promenade decks remained open to passengers. Through it all, Bjorn battled boredom, motion sickness, and frustration. He wanted to see Crystellia.He considered contacting an officer. Maybe something or someone had harmed her. But perhaps she didn’t want to be found? He was tired, nervous, and starting to feel like a fool. His imagination carried the mental distraction of a soft pectoral tracing his rear spiracle.Then came a knock on the door of his cabin. He almost tripped on the bed while rushing to answer.Crystellia hovered in the gangway, her scent intoxicating. Clad this time in a greenish-yellow netted weave of living kept, she stunned his breath away.“Down at Glory Activities,” she said without p
Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 14: Panic
The following day Bjorn awoke to the long rumbling bellows of the ship’s horns as a smaller vessel moored to the Pacer.He rushed out half-fit for public attendance, planning to catch Crystellia before she went on her way. But when he reached the lowered loading ramps, she was not in the line. Either she had already crossed to the other vessel or was still making ready to leave. He lifted high and flew through the ramp tunnel, passing above several families but knowing none of them. The switchover involved too many people.He decided to search the other vessel, but an angry ship's officer compelled him to land as he exited the tunnel. He explained himself, and when the officer lifted his boarding list and offered to check names, Bjorn faltered. He had forgotten Crystellia’s last name.“Sorry, young lord,” the officer said. “Without more details, I can’t help you. Neither can I permit you to ramble over here.”
Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 15: The Failed Hero Meets Aunt Sumia
With Crystellia gone, Bjorn scanned the net for information on his incident with the surface dwellers. To his surprise, an obscure Theo-Arborist chat board contained much detail regarding the event, including a shared video taken by someone on the Amera’s crow’s nest.Bjorn’s name stood prominently in all the conversations. His many followers believed a failed intervention sufficient cause for a strong hurrah. Wow! How strange to be known not as the son of Captain Radoon Gydlin but as Bjorn Gydlin, the one who stood up for the Walkers.He tried joining the website, but they refused him membership. The administrators considered him a scammer, trying to pass himself off as the lead protagonist of the surface world adventure, and the harder he pushed for acceptance, the smaller became his online world.They blocked his access and locked him out. He reached into the fanbase, doing searches according to remembered pseudonyms, seeking to
Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 16: Secrets
On the final leg of her home-bound journey, while perched on a deck-rail beneath the Rand Solar shielding’s outer edge, Crystellia pondered her relationship with Bjorn. What had begun as a duty was now something physically and emotionally intense. She’d been tasked with motivating Bjorn into thinking about history, possibilities, and dreams—the first leg toward his awakening. But teasing him had come too easy, natural, and pleasurable. Like a fly to honey, she’d stepped into a sticky mess; her nostrils still tingled with the scent of his excitement. Her mentors wouldn’t be pleased, or maybe they would; they kept many clandestine goals in motion.“Got that boy on your mind, don’t you?” said Rebchelia.Crystellia’s rear spiracle shaded red as her head jerked toward her sister. “I didn’t see you come out here.”“I’m sneaky like that.”“Yea and you also jump to con
Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 17: A Different Nest
Bjorn stared down a narrow under-construction corridor of OI floaters stretching outward and away from Ulou. It was a wonder in the works, the likes of which he had never seen.As per the brochure in Bjorn’s hand, at each edge of the living platform, workers dressed in HB-cloaks operated closed-in cranes and installed transparent Rand Solar shielded piping systems along the passage. Bjorn assumed the crew would stock the connected pipes with the latest breed of genetically altered grass carp, thus limiting plant growth, reducing the load on natural Cloud resources, and ensuring a solid and tight access strip. However, how well the system worked was yet to be tested.Off in the distance, Nargis looked like a gray moth floating in blue crab soup. On the Ulou side, within the completed sections of the protected bridge-tunnel, other workers installed expansion links for the RS screen. Remote-controlled water tankers traveled to the unfinished end of the corridor and
Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 18: What Lies Beneath?
Back through the tunnel, they came out on the east side of Cloud, on the edge where the shadows had gathered. Nearby and hanging partway over the outer limbs of Mother Tree sat a small open-air enclosure with twisted branch flooring and grassy walls. Bjorn noted multiple rectangular gaps in the footing. Beneath them gapped a series of open-air drop chutes.The proprietor, a short, stumpy young fellow with huge ears, a long face, and a malformed internasal flap, hustled to greet them. “Welcome, Lady Achwood. How may I help you on this wet, messy day?” A nasty scar ran the length of his tail, leaving it twisted into a strange crescent moon fold.Bjorn scanned the cabin. Various climbing equipment hung from upturned stump growths: belays, harnesses, ropes, carabiners, and many other items of which he had no experience. It was all kind of surprising. Of course, workers used such tools for repairs in the upper branches of Mother Tree, but here at the base of Clo
Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 19: Origins
As Jamison and Cupun walked side by side, the village in the trees by the solar farm faded behind. Open fields and a thick, red-hazed sky marked their way, but hints of sunshine and blue still peeked above the far northern ranges. So, they flowed north, just as the Airborne, called an angel by Cupun and his people, had warned everyone to do.Healing now, not well but getting along rather nicely, Tulugaak traveled across the open ground that lay ahead. His parents and their youngest daughter remained near to his side. The other hanumans enclosed the originals in a moving circle. Many mutant types remained hostile to humans, and the urge to slaughter the makers corrupted their nature as it had once been in Jamison and all other mutants.But that was long seasons in the past before mutants first modified their behavior patterns. The war of wars had lasted for over a quarter-century. Most of the originals died out because of manufactured viruses, devastating weapons, or th
Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 20: A Learning Experience
Bjorn spent much time with Iloy Ivan. Although soft-spoken, the squat mentor with thin skin, a glint in his eyes, and sparse growth of white bristle-like fuzz on his snout provided a wealth of knowledge. He kept a cluttered but distinguished biology laboratory rich in samples and class selections but focused on waterborne vines that originated from Below. His growth tanks included various cross-pollination experiments, some doing well and others rather sickly.Bjorn enjoyed Ivan’s classes and avoided giving the teacher a nickname—too much chance of speaking it out loud at the wrong time. Instead, he studied hard and accumulated a clear understanding of anatomy, behavior and origins, soil composition, moisture, and the many more specifics behind the why and how of living organisms. And that was in the beginning.Ivan also taught Bjorn the unique characteristics of the vines most critical to the base construction of all the nests. To Bjorn, such research was
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- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 30: Two as One
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 29 Two Worlds Healing
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 28 The Landing Party
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 27: A Battle In The Sky
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 26: Nests Come Down
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 25: Walkers
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 24: Mother Below
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 23: Escape
- Airbornes: Bjorn and the Floating Nest Chapter 22: A Spy in The Midst
