by Katie Pottle
“Humff!” Lep let out as he plopped down, surprising Cadin. “Why do you always get up soooo early?” Lep yawned as he leaned against the slightly crooked crane at the back of the docks.
“Hey, there,” Cadin said, ignoring his friend’s usual morning rant. “I wasn’t sure you were going to come down.”
“I said I’d come. Though I doubt they are going to show up today, just like they didn’t get here yesterday.”
“Ferris said that they would all be back in a week. I think that exchange of goods is important for many fringelanders.”
“Yeah, but apparently, punctuality is not.” Lep sat up and started wiping off the black grime his feathers had accumulated from leaning up against the dirty crane.
“Oh, look!”
“Yeah, that could be a fringeland airship.”
They stood up and watched as a well-worn airship pulled into one of the docking stations. A dock guard with a yellow vest and hat waved his clip-board at the tall angel flying the airship. Everyone got off and flashed their credentials. There was some arguing between the guard and the pilot before they started unloading gear and heading up the path.
“Even if they are fringelanders, there are only adults,” Lep observed.
“Yeah. Oh well. Maybe they will arrive later today. We better head back and meet up with my mom.” The adults had become more laid back as the summer progressed about giving them permission to visit places alone as long as they checked in regularly.
“Okay.”
Cadin and Lep followed the last of the crew from the airship out of the docks and into town. The men veered off the main path towards a construction site. Barriers were being placed around an open area of cloud, and some small pacificators were being mounted around the perimeter.
“Cool! Wonder what they are tapping into the Thunder Channel for,” Lep said as he followed Cadin’s gaze.
“Looks like a building,” Cadin said.
“Not just any building,” A deep voice said from behind them.
Cadin and Lep both jumped and quickly turned to find an angel with a barrel-sized chest carrying ten rolled up blueprints. The man continued talking to them as he scrutinized the crew mounting the pacificators. “This is going to be the Condor Palace! The Core commissioned it over a year ago, after they had some issues in other cloud-lands. We are finally breaking cloud!”
“That sounds cool,” Cadin said, trying to keep his tone straight. He didn’t want to be known all the way in Condor as one of the kids that broke into the Glade Palace. “How long should it take you to complete?”
“Normally a project of this magnitude with this level of on-site cloud-shifting needs about six months.” The man smiled and Cadin noticed that he had the tiniest mustache rolling with his upper lip. “But I managed to secure the budget to hire shifting specialists to reduce that time-frame by a third!”
“Is that what the fringelanders are for?”
“Yes and no,” the man said as he shifted a couple of blueprints around. “The specialists I hired are from Central Cloud, and they outsource a lot of the weaving work to fringelanders. I asked them about that too—but the specialist assured me that there are no better cloud-weavers than fringelanders. Well, for the price at least.” He gazed up at the sun. “Gotta get going. It was nice talking to you gents. Come back and see how the project is going in a day or two. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.” He winked and then hurried off.
“There you are,” Sara said from outside of the bakery. “And you brought help too.” She smiled at Lep.
“Yes, ma’am, how can we help?” Lep asked cheerfully, finishing off a caramel pop. Cadin had learned after many years, that all his friend needed to break out of a morning funk was a piece of candy.
“Follow me.” They crossed the threshold of the bakery where the scent of fresh bread saturated the air. Sara walked to the corner where five medium boxes were stacked up. “We need to get these over to the Competitors’ Village before it opens.”
“Is this all buka cake?” Cadin asked as he picked up one of the surprisingly heavy boxes. Lep stacked a second box on top of his first and Cadin staggered a bit.
“Don’t drop those,” Sara cried, grabbing onto his shoulders. “Should we do two trips?”
“No, no,” Lep chimed in. “We got these four, if you can grab that one.”
“Done!” Sara said.
The walk through the mist to the Competitors’ Village was peaceful. They thought about flying, but there was no way to do so with the heavy boxes. How do Guardians manage?
“You boys should work on filling up those requirements bars today,” Sara said. “You never know how much time you will have once the Games start up.”
“Yeah, I guess. But we have a week in-between the First and Second Round—assuming we win,” Cadin said. His shoulders started burning, but he was not going to be the first one to suggest a rest.
“Yes, but you will need a lot of that time for training. With half of the teams eliminated after the First Round, the availability of the Arena should double for you.”
“Awesome,” Lep said. He was switching the position of the boxes but said nothing about them. “I want to work with that Anger Cube more!”
“What is an Anger Cube?” Sara asked.
“That’s what Sun named the Energy Cube—the main flag in the Game. It kept shooting ice and lightning at her.”
“Oh, my,” Sara said. “Let’s set these boxes down for a minute.”
Cadin shook the blood back into his numb arms.
“This is a good warm up,” Lep said, flexing his arms.
“Thank you for the help, boys. I may have to rent a transport or at least a cart for the rest of the summer.”
“It looks as though you should be able to afford one,” Cadin said. “You must be selling a ton of these things!”
“That’s true, I haven’t even gone over the numbers yet. Your father has been keeping the books.”
“I’m glad you are doing something fun this summer,” Cadin said as he picked the boxes back up. “Although, more energy for our competition is a downfall.”
“Being here to cheer you guys on would have been enough. But, yes, the buka cakes are a nice challenge for me. As for your competitors, they must pay for them. You guys can have all the free ones you want.”
The sound of wings cut through the air and the mist swirled as the newcomer’s landed.
“Good morning, team!” Sun said, the mist softening the yellow glow of her Aura. Bart and Talvarian landed next to her.
“Want some help?” Bart asked.
“Yes, please.” Cadin unloaded one of his boxes to Bart while Sun grabbed one of Lep’s over his protests.
Tal grabbed Sara’s box after stealing a kiss.
“I thought you guys headed over to the C.V. earlier.” Cadin said.
Sun shook her head. “We wanted to, but Araina and Gregor got in a fight over breakfast, and Instructor Kade made us all stay until they ‘worked it out.’”
He was about to ask what they were fighting over before he decided that he didn’t really care.
“So, the Fringies didn’t show again?” Sun asked.
Cadin smiled at her knack for nicknames. “Naw, but we did get to see the start of the Condor Palace being built.”
“Oh, cool! I want to check that out later,” Bart said. “If I don’t stick with the Warrior Path, I am going to go into engineering.”
“I didn’t know that,” Cadin said. “We will take you over later. I wonder how much they can get done in a day.”
“It depends on if they have successfully tapped into the Thunder Channel yet,” Tal said. “I wonder what they are going to be using the Condor Palace for. I don’t know of any other Bridgestones to protect.”
“Maybe they are making more,” Cadin said.
“Or moving the one from Glade.”
“That could hurt the Glade economy,” Sara said. “It is already a small cloud-land. Without the c
ommerce of the Guardians, our trade would drop, especially for your father’s armor.”
They crested the hill and the Competitors’ Village sprawled out below them. The sun was higher and the mist had mostly dissipated.
With one box each, they flew down the hill—Cadin reveling in the breeze rolling across his face and down his back.
Cadin gratefully set the package down on the table at his parents’ stall.
“Hi!” a girl popped up from behind the booth.
“Whoa!” Cadin stepped back in shock, and stumbled over Sun. He landed hard on his butt, while a boy caught Sun under her arms.
“Here you are,” Tal said as he helped Cadin to his feet. “You guys have all met our helpers for the summer, right?” Tal waved towards the girl and then the boy, who was slow to release Sun.
“Oh, ah…yeah, right,” Cadin said, struggling to remember their names.
“I’m Ali. Sorry I surprised you there!”
“That’s okay,” he said as he dusted himself off. “Glad you can help run the booth.”
“Our pleasure,” Ali said, flipping her hair. “Oh, and that’s my brother, Aaron.”
The tall boy with brown hair nodded to Cadin and then turned to Sun. “So, you must be one heck of a competitor to have Qualified for the Games.” His voice was smooth and he was standing far too close to Sun, in Cadin’s opinion.
“Oh, well—I have a great team,” Sun said, blushing. “It was nice to see you both again, but we must go earn some credits.” She took a step back and let out a breath.
“I look forward to seeing all of you compete,” Aaron said, eyes never leaving Sun.
“Yes, well, we should get going,” Cadin said, grabbing Lep’s hand that was in the middle of reaching for a buka cake.
“Do you guys want to stay together or do our own things?” Sun asked after they filled up their weekly aros at a red tent kiosk. Cadin still had most of his competitor aros unspent. In addition, Sara had taken him to Town Hall to collect the bounty on Lady Chala. He had never had so much money in his entire life. His mom had offered to hold onto the bounty for him, which he agreed to.
“Well, I was thinking of going over to the Condor Cultural tents to start with,” Cadin said. “Does anyone want to come with?”
“Naw,” Lep said, shaking his head. “I want to go get some roshi balls and then sign up for a race.”
“I’ll race with you,” Bart said to Lep.
“I would like to see what they have going on in the Cultural Tents,” Sun said.
“Great, do want to meet up for lunch?”
“Sure, by the roshi ball cart?” Lep asked.
“Man, you are going to get fat eating too many of those,” Cadin said.
“I’ll take that as a yes!” Lep shouted as he ran towards the roshi ball stand.
“See you later,” Bart said, walking after Lep.
They were close to the red-topped tents, and wove their way through some displays. There was an information booth in the center and Sun veered towards it. Cadin was fine with just wandering around until they found something cool, but followed Sun anyway. She smiled at the man in the red vest.
“How can I help,” he asked.
“My friend and I would like to earn some credits. What do you have in the Cultural Center today?”
“Excellent,” he said handing over a brochure. “We have several tours today. Each tour for credit an hour long. In twenty minutes, we have a botanical tour of the Fineman Gardens. In one hour, there is a tour of Grante Town which includes the Town Hall. Other than tours, there is a Condor history class at the tables over there,” the man swept his hands to their left where a class was currently in session. One kid had fallen asleep at the table during the class. “This week we also host the Condor Creatures tent where our local rehabilitation center brings a variety of cloud creatures for you to help take care of and learn about.”
“Ha ha, I know you want to do that one, Cadin!” Sun said. Then she turned back to the man. “Can you point out that tent, please.”
“I love getting credit for stuff like this,” Cadin mentioned to Sun on their walk over.
“Yeah, there is so much to do beyond the Calvarian Games. I’m really glad we qualified to come here. It gives us a big advantage over Vincent and the others who didn’t Qualify, since the credits will transfer over to school badges.”
“Yeah, that’s true. I wonder how far ahead we will progress.”
They reached a huge enclosed tent and ducked through the flaps.
“Whoa, is your dragon well behaved, boy?” A booming voice asked as they entered.
“Yes, he is pretty good,” Cadin called back, hoping Gur didn’t spit fire in response.
“Do you have a leash for him, just in case?” A short, barrel-chested man approached them from behind a dark cage.
“Oh, I do own one, but I left it in my room. I can fly and retrieve it.”
“No need, no need.” The man pushed past them to the entrance and reached for one of the many straps of leather hanging from a pole. “You can borrow this one while you’re here.” He handed the small leash to Cadin, who quickly secured it on his struggling dragon. “Are you just lookie loos or are you here for credit?”
“Credit,” they both said at the same time.
The man squinted at them, as if determining whether they were serious or not. “Alright then. My name’s Henry. I’ll give ya a quick tour and then let you decide what you want to do for your credit. Follow me.”
Cadin’s eyes adjusted to the interior and he was shocked at how immense the tent was. It was tall and open, with some stacked cages along the long edge, and several open environments taking up the center.
“Today we have archy dragonlets, roseate spoonbills, and assorted insects.” Henry had a slight limp as he led them to the first environment that took up nearly a third of the floor space. “All of the species here are native to the Contra Quad and fairly rare in other cloud-lands. This section is where I have the archy dragonlets today. Careful, their breath is noxious.”
Cadin leaned over the edge of a cloud-scape with a pool of water at the top splashing down into a larger pool below. The lower section had many burrows back from the water a bit. Several dragons about the size of Cadin’s foot, though far wider, scurried in and out of the holes and into the water. Their tan coloring contrasted with deep red spikes that lined their backs.
Gur let out a sharp squeak before Cadin got his hand over him. Several of the fat, tan dragons zipped back into the burrows while the remainders turned towards Gur and opened their mouths wide. Cadin expected to find rows of teeth, but instead was met by more of a beak-like structure. Black tongues slipped out and a yellow gas rolled out of their mouths.
“You’ll wanna back away before the gas reaches you,” Henry warned.
Sun started coughing next to him and stepping back quickly.
Cadin rushed to stand next to her while an odor like rotting eggs wafted through the air.
“For credit, I need them fed, cleaned and counted,” Henry said as they stepped away from the dragons. “They are not the best fliers, but I have a suspicion that a couple of them got loose with the last helpers.”
“Do you have any hyperion dragons here?” Cadin remembered that the special dragons from Lynn’s Dragon Ranch were native to the Contra Quad.
Henry eyed Cadin. “Not a lot of students know about hyperion dragons. Not the most social of breeds. But they have some useful properties. I don’t have any of ‘em here for you today, though. You may want to check around the forests to observe ‘em in their natural habitat. There are some active colonies now.”
“Okay, thanks!” Cadin said.
A pair of lovely big pink birds waded in a small pond in the middle of the tent. One had a wing wrapped, while the other looked perfectly healthy. Their bills were a funny shape with an end that was both flattened and rounded.
“These two got lost up here during their migration on Earth. It happens e
very year; but usually we are just able to send them back on their way. However, the female there had a run in with a baby dire dragon. Her mate hasn’t left her side.”
“What kind of bird are they again?” Sun asked.
“Roseate spoonbills,” Henry answered.
“A spoon! That’s the shape I was after.,” Cadin exclaimed.
The birds hopped away and both Sun and Henry turned to him.
“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about the funny shape of their bills,” Cadin said in a quieter voice.
“Right,” Henry said, his eyebrows arched. “For credit for these two, I could use help re-wrapping her wing.” Doesn’t sound too bad, Cadin thought. “And then their entire wading pond needs to be scrubbed down.” Or maybe not.
Henry turned to the back of the tent where several terrariums were set up for display. “Condor has many insect and spider species that you won’t find anywhere else save for our neighboring cloud, Carpathia.”
“They’re huge!” Sun said, peering into the tanks.
Henry glanced at the cage she was looking in. “Oh, those are stick insects, and yes, they can grow quite big here. Where did you’ll say you were from?”
“Glade,” Cadin said.
“Lance and more recently Glade,” Sun answered.
“Oh, yes, the Northerners. Well, here in the Contra Quad we have warmer weather throughout the year, allowing for some beautiful year-round foliage, thus the large insects.”
Cadin squatted down next to Sun. He couldn’t find the creature right away until it started to crawl from one branch to another. It was camouflaged beautifully with the branches in the cage.
The terrarium next to the stick insects was filled with mist that swirled constantly. Cadin could make out fast moving dots that were either flying or hopping around.
“Oh, here,” Henry said, reaching behind the rounded enclosure. He flipped a switch and the mist slowed and settled.
Small white and gray plump insects jumped high, opened their asymmetrical wings and whirled back down into the mist.
“Ha ha, how cute. Sun, check these funny guys out.”
Sun tore her gaze from the stick insects to watch the twirling. Gur had climbed down from Cadin’s shoulder and was raising and lowering his head as he followed the insects.
