It had been a terrible night for sleep; a storm full of lightning and thunder had shaken the skies. Agatha hardly slept in her cave, holding her little friend Bracchius, who was utterly terrified. The next morning, the rain was still falling, but with a tender and gentle touch, Agatha woke with red, tired eyes, let out a long, wide yawn, and started thinking about what to eat for breakfast..Her eyes then moved to her grandpa's mitami* and could not help but feel angry and envious: her grandpa was snoring like usual, a cross between a monkey and a hippogrif. How could he always sleep so well? It was unfair.
Agatha stood up while still holding Bracchius and walked over to her grandpa, who kept snoring. She leaned in close to his face, hoping her presence would wake him, but he didn’t stir. Determined, Agatha started to blow air directly into his face, her cheeks flushing red from the effort. Suddenly, she stopped as her grandpa opened his mouth and let out a small burp.
"Oh Lord! This is unfair!" Agatha thought, now on the ground, frustrated and pounding her fists against the floor.
Bracchius did not fall off because he has wings. Though he’s not bigger than a cat or a medium-sized dog, he feels surprisingly light when held. Bracchius resembles a lizard with wings, like a miniature dragon, though he is already fully grown. In other worlds he’d be called a whelp, though here whelps do not exist. Bracchius’s back is white like clouds, while his belly is sky blue. When it rains, his upper side changes to grey or even black, helping him camouflage in the rain. Agatha first found him on a tiny rock high in the skies while searching for lightning mushrooms; instead, she spotted Bracchius playing with butterflies. When they met, Bracchius looked serious for a while as if judging Agatha, but once he saw her bag of lightning mushrooms, he relaxed and began to play, clearly eager for a snack.
Lighting mushrooms are an exquisite delicacy in the Sky. When you bite into them fresh, they bring a bit of wind to your mouth, and a spark of small electricity makes them feel like pepper. If you cook them, they will lose the wind property, but the pepper-like feeling will be stronger. Some merchants in the skies are used to putting them in oil to make a very special condiment that not only tastes good but also brings a bitter-sour flavor.
Since their meeting a few years ago, Bracchius has always stayed with Agatha. Agatha is a passionate girl, around the age of 18. She has never been interested in boys, as her passions were sailing and cooking. She loves to sail around the sky mountains in search of specialties to sell to merchants and restaurants around. Her grandpa is a bit disappointed in her "invented" job, as he recalls it; he would prefer her to help him in his workshop, where he builds boats, or maybe study something to become a professional in another field. But Agatha has a dream; she wants to open her own restaurant one day. Saving money from all her food hunting will eventually bring her dream to reality in 7 years' time.
Agatha is blonde, with bronze skin due to the sun. Her eyes are deep blue like the sky during the earth season* and her body type is quite skinny. She always travels with a big smile, full of energy, and happiness. Once home, she mostly makes fun of her grandpa and dreams of where to open her fancy restaurant. Agatha is also a good fighter, as her grandpa worried about her safety, given that she had no brothers around or parents. In order to help her, on the day he would no longer be around, he paid for her training with Master Karayosa. The training is based on the principles of survival in the skies, which are: do not hesitate, do not conquer, do not die. It consists into traps built, usage of ingredients of the islands in battle, safe escape from peril, usage of the awakened stones*, arrow fight with wind and water bracelets* and fighting style of the wings.
Agatha's boat is called the "Lighting Cloud"; she made it herself with her grandpa's guidance and teachings. It is a very swift and agile boat, capable of traveling up to 35 miles on an average wind, up to 50 miles for a turn, and 75 miles in a dive. Of course, you need to be an expert sailor, or you won't be able to arrive at its maximum potential. Her boat has up to three sails, all of which must be set with ropes from the commander of the boat with one hand while the other hand gives directions to the helm. Sometimes, on longer travels, you can actually sail with both hands and leave the helm locked into position, or you can also tie the ropes alongside the boat if you are expert enough to understand the wind won't change.
Every famous company of merchants has its own fleet of commanders. They are highly respected by people, and merchants pay them well to prevent any accidents to their goods. They are trained differently from average sailors on smaller boats; they sail with bigger ships, and you need to receive a special degree for it, which is called "The Duonor passport".
Agatha's grandpa often recalls his past, telling Agatha what a marvellous commander he had been. But stories were quite weird and made up, so it was very hard to tell if Grandpa Humeliam was actually a commander or not. The only certainty could have been the flying passport, but every time Agatha mocked her grandpa, asking during his stories where the passport was..Humeliam always changed the topic to food, trying to distract Agatha, since in reality, he did not remember if he had it, and honestly, he was not even sure if he was a commander at all in his old days.
Agatha was quite annoyed by the terrible night. She looked briefly at her cave and then went to the stone balcony to see the view, in search of a change in the weather. She had plans that day to search for a starlight libellula. A very rare insect that emerges during that particular season, stories say that animals from the earth are eager to empower themselves during the earth season. In fact, it is the season of love for them. So, most probably, it is just a myth made up since they mate during those three months.
The year is very different from yours on Earth. Different from your planet, the seasons here are 5: the season of the earth, the season of wind, the season of fire, the season of water, and the season of stars. In ancient times, the seasons were six instead of five, but the calendar was changed, likely due to its usefulness. Each month has 35 days, and each season has about 3 months in total, making the year long 15 months with a total of 525 days. Every 1,000 years, they worship a god of the seasons as the chief of that age, changing the chief god to worship from age to age. We are at the moment in the year 21.998 of the sun under the worship of God Maugru, the creator of earth. In only two years' time, we will enter a new era, worshiping God Kloud, the creator of the skies and winds. So basically everyone is very excited for the upcoming festival to worship their favorite god, finally, after 5000 years, he seems to be the favorite one once again. It is fortunate to be born in this period of time, as people look forward to a millennium of prosperity.
Even if the people of the skies only know about the skies, they continued to worship all the gods as tradition. In the old scripts, there are written stories about land and oceans, cities and kingdoms, tales of heroes and epic battles. However, unfortunately, all the scripts about traveling from the sky lands to the earth and back have been lost in a huge fire of the year 18.999. Most clouds at the end of the sky mountains are solid, even if you can jump on them, since they are quite elastic. The only way to fly out of the sky lands is by jumping off the edges. The problem is that the ships and technology Skymen have are not sufficiently developed to make that jump. The air in the skylands is soft and windy; ships can easily float and be used for travel there, but once you make the jump, you just fall. Fall where? Nobody knows because no one who has ever jumped has ever come back to tell what they found downstairs. Some scientists have attempted to utilize the awakened stones to facilitate a safe landing, but still, how do you return?
Sky men have tried to tame hippogriffs, gryphons, and other magical creatures, but it is quite difficult since they are very difficult to tame, and if you direct them to the edges of the skylands to make the jump, they would prefer to make you fall downstairs alone instead of landing you safely. Today, the very intelligent artist and sculptor Ardoleon Darvian is attempting to create a flying machine that will finally make this jump happen and bring the sky mountains back into the sky. People are very skeptical, but they do respect Ardoleon as a fantastic artist.
The wind is quite cold this morning; it feels like a wave of ice in the air. Agatha goes back to her kitchen and starts to cook for her and her grandpa.
"Today, eggs with onions!" says Agatha.
While she started to cook, she couldn't stop thinking about how it was possible that chickens lived in the sky mountains. They are practically the only birds there that cannot fly. How did they arrive there? Then she actually thought, 'Well, what about us instead?' We are totally not air creatures! She continues to make her eggs with onions; meanwhile, Bracchius plays around with cutlery and jumps from one piece of furniture to another.
Skymen caves are not caves like you think they are. These caves are neither dirty nor smelly, nor are they humid and dark, unlike those on your planet, Earth. These caves always have fresh air, thanks to the winds, and their rocks shine in certain parts or veins, depending on the wind direction. Some artisans in the Sky Mountains are experts in these cuts; they can create sculptures that transform into light using the force of wind within. You might think that slowly cutting stones from mountains will destroy the sky mountains once and for all, but you are mistaken. Sky mountains grow from the clouds, it seems strange, I know, quite absurd, but if these men still do not know how to fly, imagine how to explain how their mountains grow?
Inside these caves, there is everything one needs to have. From living rooms to study rooms, libraries to garages for boats, kitchens, and also terraces to take in the sunlight. Typical of skymen is the stone balcony. Each cave is excavated in the mountains, but the balcony is the only part of the house built with precisely cut rocks. It is actually their signature. Every Skymen is proud of his stone balcony, it is like a holy place for all of them, the place where you touch the skies. All of them try to keep it as clean as possible and decorate it with flowers or sculptures in honor of the gods. Some places are not like the caves. Caves are the typical traditional homes for skymen, but over the ages, they have constructed many other places, including some castles on top of the mountains, some theaters or arenas, but mostly Archanet, the capital of the Sky Mountains, which shines white from its walls and blue from its roofs.
Agatha lives quite far away from Archanet; she probably should fly for up to 3 days to reach it and has never been there. But she always listens to the capital stories from "The Drunken Archenaut", a very famous flying restaurant that goes around all the sky mountains. They should be back in a couple of days. They have promised her a poster with the capital on it, and she is so excited to receive it!
Grandpa finally wakes up with a huge yawn.
Agatha looks at him, envious of his long, restful sleep, and tells him, "Commander Humeeeliaaan.."
Grandpa looks at Agatha as if she were part of the furniture.
"If you would please me to come to eat, your lovely niece has made eggs for all!"
Humeliam wakes up, does not even go wash his face, and sits at the table: "Yaaaawnn..uh ha! Your special omelette with onions! Cannot wait to eat it!"
Agatha watches Humelian with a grimace. He is eating like a pig.
"At least a thank you, Commander! I am not at your service, right?!"
"Oh! mmhmh..brbrbr..thank..gluluuu, you.." says Humelian while still eating..
“What a pain”, thought Agatha. She felt tired. No sleep, waking up early, red eyes, cooking for two, and an old relative who just eats without even thanking you. What have I done? She moved to the stone balcony. There it is! Up east in the middle of that dark grey cloud, the sun has just cut through it and touched her face. Warm and calm like a mother's touch, the drops of rain in the middle looked like precious gems just found. Agatha was an expert in the winds, like most skymen. That day it was to be sunny, that day was a hunt day!
