End of line

My choice was there: Climbing up the wall trying to glide and call for help with my mobile phone that still works but it's like giving up chlacks and eggs... And cut off Mother permanently and who knows if she'll come back for the eggs... they're still my little brothers who are innocent in all this.

And I have no intention of losing another family member...

The doctor adjusted his glasses.

We'll ration and keep the eggs warm with our body heat.

We can last 3-4 days.

You have to learn to fly now.

You once managed to get back up here... You can do this by flapping your wings and walking against the wall. You're stronger than you think!

He put cloth around the recharged mobile phone to protect it from shocks.

Spread your wings as far apart as possible and always face the wind.

Spread your tail vents. Practice. Practice.

He put my tail in the reverse curved position to get up and in the opposite position to get down.

The tail on the left to turn left and the tail on the right to turn right.

You have to see for yourself. Focus and keep your wings open. You fold and fall. Look at where you want to go and trust your instincts. Practice and watch for predators. Do not approach any humans. Your mother mentioned hunters.

I have 50 meters of rope. We'll tie you up.

Stress.

I got to the edge of the precipice and this time I didn't want to die.

I opened my wings wide and let the wind slide on my membrane

A unique feeling of feeling light, like a leaf.

I would get up a few centimetres and try to tame the wind, to feel it like water, as if I was swimming.

Then came a gust of wind that sent me to the ceiling.

I adjusted my wings to counterbalance and the doctor told me which side I should lower or raise to stabilize myself. He held the rope, wrapped around a stone and pulled me so I wouldn't tip over.

After many efforts to stabilize myself, I was beginning to understand the trick.

Here I was a bird... Nothing to do with human beings. I had to practically unlearn how to walk. An evidence that I should rather use my hind legs as hands than but arm wings... a little as if you should use your toes instead of hands and your hands as feet.

I was twisted in my head. Too bad I'm still human," I shouted in my head.

And, in rage, I will know in the void and spread my wings and I started to glide.

I tried to face the wind and stabilize myself.

The doctor was screaming for me to correct my posture and he was right.

I managed to get back on the edge and not crash too hard.

Not bad for a first try.

For the first time I felt Rudia's absence, I wanted to show her my success. It is very important the first congratulations of a dragon mother for the first flight.

Then I shouted to the void, "Mom, you see, I did it."

I was hoping for a word back, a compliment, but she wasn't there! Where was she? Where was she? A pinch in my heart invades me.

She wouldn't have shot herself, would she?

No, not that!

We shared some candy.

Doctor: "You have succeeded in the hardest part... But you're gonna have to flap your wings to get back up. Try to find a platform higher than here.

Sit on it and try to take off with the strength of your arms alone! Without momentum.

You're going to have to hunt and catch prey. You'll be on the ground and you'll have to take off again with your prey. There is no possible ground momentum.

I sorely missed the encouragement of my mother. I was waiting for her dragon lessons, but I crossed the red line with her.

I'm sure she's looking at me, but I hope she doesn't hate me.

Then Chlaks said to me, "If you see humans, ESPECIALLY, you better hide!"

I then went to the edge of the precipice and started to glide. I was one with the wind and silence.

He explained to me that the dark areas made me go down, the downdrafts and the light areas made me go up, the updraft.

I put myself slightly in a spiral in an ascending zone and I started to climb, climb and I passed the opening of my cave which was super well hidden in a valley between two mountain plates.

I saw a promontory and landed on it. Brrr, it was freezing...

Wow, it was hard to take off without wind and momentum. I had to strengthen my wings...

I'll walk around after when I have a little more control.

I took a rock of the same weight as a rabbit and trained to take off.

Rah, how hard it is.

I finally entered the cave and saw no one. But the eggs were warm under blankets. I was dying of heat with the efforts and I put myself close to them to share our warmth. and, with sore wings, I took a nap.

----

Chlaks had descended into the structure and entered a huge delta wing structure.

The access hatch was open and he entered the structure, climbed a kind of staircase or unloading dock. There were like nests for several dragons and another room in front separated by a huge door that opened into a control room with a strange shaped seat.

Rudia was lying in it, tapping the buttons but nothing lit up and she was crying.

She was surprised to see the doctor and she had an unhealthy grin that scared the man who immediately got down on his belly, in submission.

"I risk my life every time I talk to you, but I love the girl and I want to help her... Mistress Rudia."

She rallied and knocked on the armrests.!

Mistress, this is not a spaceship...... It's a survival pod... He's not cut out to travel far.

I looked at and read the inscriptions in old Sanskrit. This ship is a survival boat...part of a larger, larger ship.

It was intended to arrive at the nearest habitable planet and maintain the conditions for your survival and a new beginning, stranded here in this world...

There's no more fuel. It takes an atomic battery to restart it, but even so, I doubt the engines will work again. You can just review the dashboard and messages.

You can't do it alone, even with all the knowledge in the world and all the writing.

The writings explain how to maintain and use the ship, but not how to restore or repair it.

And if he takes off again, where will you go? How long will you last?

And if it breaks down again and falls towards the sun or into an infinite void or worse a black hole...

You will be frozen for eternity! But before that you will be cut down by hunger and you will be eating each other's flesh..."

Rudia made a complaint that echoed in the cave.

"Whoaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, what have I done.... I want my dad and my mommy!"

Chlaks went near Rudia and stroked one of her claws as big as him.

"You have a beautiful daughter waiting for you! She starts flying...... She is already high and has managed to get to the promontory above.

Your eggs are warm, I covered them.

Come back now and try to make up....

You've had your time and so has she. One day it has to stop! She needs you more than you can imagine."

Rudia was lying on her chair in the ship.

"MOM, GET THAT DAMN THING OFF THE GROUND! I've studied everything, all my lessons and all your magic... Help me change the past............"

Mommyyyyyyyyy

I woke up, thinking I heard my mother dragon...

But it was the doctor who came up with a torch in one hand and a cane in the other.

"It's a dead end."

Your mommy's in the back!

Go find her. Tell her you're flying and you need her.... I finished my mission here. I will not betray you and I will keep it a secret. I love you like my own daughter, Emilie, and I have your phone number. I'll help you with speech therapy and classes... But you'll drop me off in a few days?

I hugged him and signalled that I did, in sign language.

Doctor :" I will try to find a way for people to protect you from hunters. Monks could protect you and act as an intermediary to keep you free.

There are not enough laws here to defend your species from hunters. You would have to go to Europe in a nature reserve... If you were born in Europe, it's a sign. The area was at peace for you.

Here, there was peace for your mother before China invaded Tibet. The border guards are aware of this and your mother has done too many massacres. People will take revenge on her and on you..."

I then went down the stairs and I had no problem seeing in the dark.

I saw the ship for the first time and entered it.

Then I heard sobbing at the bottom, in what was then a cockpit.

I could hear her moaning after her mother.

I saw a paw hanging and I jump on it, using my wings and I climb on her paw.

"Sorry, Mom...?" Then I rubbed my head against her paw.

She sighed...

"Sorry, Emily..." she said to me, without looking at me. "I don't... it's too hard..."

Me: "I'm Ruby! I managed to fly but I'm scared all by myself and I don't want to lose my mom and my little brothers again...

I only have you... and Chlaks, spare him - please save him for me..."

She thought about it and I fell asleep between her legs: "Mom..."

She shed tears, swords of guilt in her heart...

She gently took me between her teeth and slowly walked up the path to the den. She put me in the nest and brooded me and looked at Chlaks with her eyes shining.

A maelstrom of decisions had to be made.

What to do about it? Thought Rudia who turned her head towards the precipice.

Then, addressing Chlaks: "Thank you for taking care of her and my eggs. Have nothing to fear anymore. You did an impossible job for a biped."

I'm going to leave this too dangerous place as soon as she can fly properly.

Chlaks approached Rudia: I made with what I could, a bag that I sewed so that you could put your eggs in and keep them warm.

"Thank you, human. Tonight, I'll drop you off at your hospital. "

"Thank you, Goddess, for sparing me."