Cloud Lands Saga Box Set Books 1-3

by Katie Pottle

  “These are cloud whirly-gigs,” Henry said.

  “That’s really their name?” Cadin asked. Henry nodded. “That’s awesome.”

  “They pollinate some of our rare plants that are only found on the edge of the cloud-lands and on the fringelands.”

  “What are the plants called?” Cadin asked.

  Henry let a smile raise his lips slightly. “You know you are the first student to ask about the plants. Most of you young’uns just like to focus on creatures that move.” He limped quickly behind a big black divider and came back holding two medium-sized pots with wispy light green plants.

  “Wow!” Cadin said.

  He and Sun hurried over to the table where Henry reverently set the plants down. The pots had two layers. After getting a better look, Cadin figured they must somehow filter and cycle the potting material which appeared to be more cloud than soil. The plant leaves were frayed and feathery, moving gently through the air as if floating in water. Minute bright pink flowers budded at the apex of each branch.

  “These are fantastic!” Sun said.

  “Truly amazing,” Cadin agreed. “No touching, Gur,” he added to his dragon. Gur stayed put but watched the plant with as much interest as the cloud whirly-gigs. “Please tell me these have a cool name too.” He looked up at Henry who gazed at them with a smile on his face.

  “These precious plants are called cloud-wisps. They produce a nectar much sought after for its medicinal properties. The light golden liquid has pain relief and feather and follicle knitting properties for both bird and angel wings.”

  “I could use some help harvesting the nectar if you’d like to do that for credit?”

  Sun turned to Cadin. He smiled and nodded.

  “Let’s do it!” Sun said.

  “I’ll get you set up and then start those three working on the spoonbill pond,” Henry said, gesturing towards a small group of students who had just entered the tent.

  “That was interesting,” Cadin said, wiping his sticky hands off for the third time since leaving the tent. Henry had activated a full credit light on each of their I.D. cards before telling them that they were welcome to come back for more credit later in the week.

  “Yeah, I’m glad we went.”

  They circled around towards the food court and found Bart and Lep already at the roshi ball cart.

  “Hey, guys,” Lep said after he finished his mouth-full. “You finally got a credit light, I see.” He flicked Cadin’s I.D. card.

  “Yep. It was interesting. How’d you guys do?”

  “We each raced three times. Got another half credit and participation points. You should race. It’s fun.”

  “Yeah, I will give it a go. At least to meet our C.V. minimums for the summer. But mostly I want to focus on getting through the First Round of the Games.”

  “So where should we eat?” Bart asked, swiping one of Lep’s roshi balls.

  “Why don’t we try that taco cart?” Sun said, pointing across the Food Corner. “We passed it the other day and they claim to use authentic Condor flavors, whatever that means.”

  “Sounds good.”

  They waited in line for a few minutes, paid for their tacos and sat at an empty table near the Cloud-Chess tournaments.

  “Authentic Condor flavors means spicy!” Lep whined, fanning his tongue after downing an entire taco in less than a minute.

  “I think you’ll want to put some of this on your second taco,” Cadin said, handing him a small cup full of smooth white cream. “It calms down the spices and tastes tangy.”

  Lep eyed it cautiously before sticking his pinky in to sample a small portion. “Nice,” he said before globing the whole cup on top of his taco.

  “So, what do you guys want to do next?” Bart asked, trying not to laugh at Lep.

  “There you guys are!” a nearby voice shouted. Cadin turned and smiled at the incoming fringelanders.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Fringelanders

  “Hi, guys,” Cadin said, scooting over so there was space at their table for the four newcomers. Cinna and Crow sat next to Cadin and Bart on one side, while Devin and Lana sank in next to Sun and Lep. “You made it. We were worried that you weren’t actually going to come back.”

  “Yeah, sorry we be later than we said. Time is not a firm guideline on the fringelands,” Devin said with his fast-paced speech. “We usually don’t visit the mainlands more than once every month, either.”

  “Are you guys hungry,” Sun asked. “You look tired.”

  She was right. Dark bags hung under their eyes and their hair and clothes were slightly disheveled.

  “Starving, thanks!” Devin said, accepting Sun’s leftover taco and splitting it with Lana.

  “I’ll grab a couple more,” Cadin offered. He hurried over to the taco cart and filled up on condiments, not knowing how they preferred their food. On the walk back, he saw Devin swinging his arms in dramatic fashion. Cadin rushed to take his seat again.

  “They were so mad that we docked on their nesting cloud, but we didn’t have any other option!” Devin said.

  “What was mad?” Cadin asked, handing over the tacos.

  “The wraths,” Lana said quietly with a far off look in her eyes.

  “You guys camped out on a wrath nest cloud?”

  Devin nodded. “Yep. We all had to take shifts between wrath-watch, fuel synthesis, and solar harvesting before we could leave.”

  “Wow,” Sun said.

  “Yeah, it’s a relief not having to deal with wraths once we get to the main-clouds,” Cinna added, swiping her shadowy hair from her face.

  “Do you have to mess with them often?” Cadin asked, shivering at the memory of his single encounter.

  “Yes,” Crow said.

  “They are one of the most common creatures around the fringelands,” Devin added.

  “No wonder you guys look so tired,” Sun said. “We should find something relaxing to do together today. How long are you in Condor for this time?”

  “Oh, we brought a lot of material with us this round. Uncle James figured with the Games going and the new building they flagged us about, we can make some good money. He paid docking fees for a week when we landed,” Devin said.

  “I think we will stay for two weeks this time round,” Cinna added.

  “That’d be great. You will get to see the First Round of the Games,” Lep said.

  “Yes!” Devin cheered.

  “I still think it is so wrong that they wouldn’t even let you guys try to qualify last year!” Cadin said.

  “I think it’s because they didn’t want us taking a qualifying spot away from their red prodigies,” Crow said. “That would look bad, if us lowly fringelanders swiped away a spot or two from them the year they hosted.”

  “What’s done is done,” Cinna said, nudging her solemn brother. “Let’s find something fun to do while we are here.

  “Yeah!” Sun said. “Where’s your older brother…”

  “Ferris,” Devin said. “He is trying to get hired as a weaver on the new building in town.

  “We saw that building site,” Cadin said. “It is going to be the Condor Palace.”

  “Yeah, I think they will probably need to hire a lot of people to work on it,” Lep added. “It looks like it is going to be big.”

  “In that case, he probably won’t be joining us,” Devin said.

  “Oh, I have an idea of something we might be able to do,” Cadin said. “We just need to find a local.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Devin asked.

  Cadin folded his wings and bounced a little at the thought. “How do you guys like swimming?”

  After visiting booths and asking students around the C.V., they learned the location of a nearby swimming pond.

  “Why is the water green?” Lep said, peering into the wide, shallow-looking pool.

  “I don’t know,” Cadin said as he stripped his outer clothes. Cadin missed swimming at Mist Lake. The green lake coul
d be bubbling for all he cared and he would still want to try it out. “Splash time!” he shouted as he careened into the water.

  “Hey, watch it!” Lep cried. He wiped the drops from his face. “So, how is it?”

  “Really warm.” Cadin swam a lap as the others loitered by the shore. “Oh, come on guys, have a little fun.” He spread his wings, closed his eyes and relaxed into a back-float.

  A wave rolled over him, and he turned to find Lep smiling.

  “Got you back,” Lep said.

  “It’s nice in here, huh?”

  “Yeah, way warmer than anything on Glade.”

  “I think because we are farther south and it is shallower. Look, I can touch the bottom on this side.”

  “Nice! We can play totem!” Lep exclaimed. He turned to Sun and Bart who entered at a leisurely pace. The fringelanders took even longer at the edge. “Guys, it is shallow enough over here for totem battles. Who’s up for it?”

  “Where is it shallow?” Cinna asked.

  “Over here,” Cadin said. He swam over to where he could stand.

  The fringelanders all walked around the bank and slowly waded into water.

  “I’m down to play,” Sun said.

  “Me too,” Devin said as he joined them. “I just want to steer clear of the deep end. We don’t have many opportunities to swim on the fringe.”

  “You don’t know how to swim?” Cadin asked.

  “Not well,” Devin admitted. “Probably enough to make it over to the shore if I had to.”

  “I can teach you some today if you want,” Sun said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Cadin said. “I love to swim.”

  Lana shivered from the edge of the water. “Even with wings?”

  Cadin rushed over to help the slight girl when she wobbled.

  “Thanks,” she said through chatting teeth.

  “You should sit all the way in the water and move around a bit. You will be warmer,” he said gently.

  “Okay.”

  Her muscles visibly relaxed as she sank into the warm depths.

  “So, totem battle?” Lep asked.

  “Right. Who wants to play again?”

  After some scrambling, they managed to form three teams of two, with Bart and Lana wadding off to the side to judge.

  Cadin shivered as he climbed up on Lep’s shoulders, trying to avoid his wings. “Let’s do this!”

  “Ready?” Bart asked, nodding towards the Sun-Devin totem and the Cinna-Crow duo.

  “It’s chilly out of the water,” Sun said. “Say go.”

  “Okay, go!”

  “We will warm you up!” Cadin said as Lep marched through the water towards them. Devin was fast and stepped back before Cadin could reach out and try to pull Sun down. Cadin flapped his wings to help propel them forward a bit and felt Lep wobble.

  “Whoa, man! I can’t keep us upright if you do that!”

  “Sorry. Oh, look out to your right!” Cadin called. Cinna and Crow were sneaking up on them, perhaps trying to get behind them.

  “Got it,” Lep said, maneuvering to avoid getting caught between the two other teams.

  “Got ya!” Sun said.

  Small, strong fingers wrapped around Cadin’s upper arm and attempted to pull him down. He leaned back and flapped one wing to spin just enough for Sun to lose her leverage. He smiled as they got close and used their arms and wings to pull and push each other. Cadin tried not to smile when Cinna and Crow snuck up behind Sun, and he feinted falling back to keep her engaged.

  “Ohh!” Sun exclaimed, followed by a loud splash.

  “Out!” Cried Bart and Lana at the same time.

  Cadin wanted to say something witty to the remaining two, but they advanced too quickly. Lep stepped to the side, and Cadin turned and pushed the quickly approaching girl.

  Cinna tried to flap her wings to keep from falling, but failed and crashed forward. Crow awkwardly caught her before setting her down in the water.

  “Winners!” Lana announced, waving at Cadin and Lep.

  “Yes!” Lep exclaimed, leaning back so they both tumbled into the warm water.

  “Not cool!” Cadin said, splashing his friend. “What was the point of winning if you just dunk us both anyway?”

  “Bragging rights,” Lep said before he ducked under the water.

  Several local kids had made their way over to the pond. For the next hour, they all engaged in the best water games they could think of. Two of the guys who were also a part of the Games showed them a weak spot at the deep end of the pond. They helped Cadin and Lep cloud-shift the spot to allow wind from the cloud through to produce a geyser.

  “Only about ten minutes before we should seal it back up or it becomes unstable,” the boy with orange hair said.

  The water surged up through the center of the deep end.

  “What can you do with it?” Cadin asked.

  The boy smiled, ducked under the water and swam toward the geyser. The rushing air and water shot him up into the air where he performed a perfect flip before opening his wings and flapping back down into the water.

  “Me next!” Lep said.

  They all got several turns being spewed into the air before they resealed the hole.

  “I’m exhausted.” Sun pulled herself out of the water to lay in the grass.

  “Yeah, we should go find something to eat,” Cadin said. He was nearly dry after laying out in the sun for ten minutes.

  “There is a market in town by the docks,” Devin said, shaking his hair out.

  “Good idea,” Cadin said. Lep, Bart and Lana splashed in the water with the locals. “Lep, food!” was all he said, knowing that would be enough to get his friend out.

  They bought enough at the local market to make sandwiches for everyone for about a quarter of the price it would have cost them all to eat at the Competitors’ Village.

  “Want to go try and find uncle James and Ferris?” Devin said.

  “Yeah, sounds good.” Cadin took his last bite and wiped off his hands before helping Sun and Cinna up. Lana was already racing back and forth between their make-shift picnic spot and the path to the docks.

  “I don’t think they are at the airships, Lana,” Devin said, once his sister stopped moving. “Let’s check out that new construction site first to see if they got jobs.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “How does she still have so much energy?” Sun asked.

  “Well, she sleeps like ten hours a night sooo.”

  “Do not!” Lana defended.

  Cadin whistled and Gur popped up out of the tall grass and flew to Cadin’s shoulder.

  “Guuur,” the dragon grumbled in his ear.

  “Not my fault if you are a slow hunter,” Cadin said.

  “Can you really understand him?” Lana asked, glancing up Gur.

  “Not in terms of words. But he certainly communicates. Like if he is angry or upset about something, he will not hesitate to growl, nibble on you a bit…”

  “Spit a fire ball at you,” Lep interrupted.

  “Oh.” Her small face furrowed in thought. “There are no pet-like animals around us. Mostly what we have, we eat.”

  “Lana,” Devin said, exaggerating her name. “You don’t need to be so—descriptive.”

  Color rose to her cheeks and she gazed down at her scuffed shoes. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

  “Don’t be. I like learning about your life,” Cadin said.

  They rounded a cloud-peak and the construction site came into view. It was much busier this time with workers running back and forth, though there was not much more building than before.

  “There, there!” Lana said, hoping up and down.

  On the far side of the site, Ferris and a wiry-framed man knelt by a pacificator.

  They skirted the perimeter that was clearly marked by red lines and orange cones.

  “Oye, Ferris!” Devin called.

  The young man turned around and waved—his light hair pulled back out of his face. He
nudged the man next him and gestured toward where they stood.

  “Hi there,” the man said as he and Ferris approached. “I’m James, and you must be the Glade crew we have heard so much about.”

  “Yep,” Lep said. “Nice to meet you.”

  They all shook hands after introducing themselves.

  “So, you got hired?” Devin asked.

  “They are in serious need of weavers. The giru illness hit the fringelands to the east of us pretty hard and several of the weavers they had already contracted with had to withdraw. They have been scrambling for the last few days to get enough help and were actually happy to see us!” His voice rose and a smile lit his weathered face. “Yep, they have quite a random collection of cloud-shifters for this job.”

  “Nice,” Cadin said. He had no idea what a giru illness was, but was happy James and Ferris were able to get work.

  “Oh, back for more I see!”

  Cadin turned to see the rotund angel that they had met the previous week stroll up to them. “Hi, sir,” Cadin said, not remembering if he ever caught the man’s name in the first place.

  “Call me Roli! And I see that you just can’t get enough of the construction business, eh?” He lifted his wings and did not wait for an answer. “Well, I was just contacted by the Games Commission asking if I would allow competitors to help out for credit!” He puffed out his chest. “Though I didn’t think they would send you so swiftly.” His tiny mustache twitched.

  “But, uh…” Sun started to say before they all got swept away in his chubby arms.

  “Never say I’m not one to roll with things, eh?” He giggled at his own joke. Roli looked back at where James and Ferris were staring at them. “Back to work you two.”

  Roli ushered them, fringelanders and all, to a small building that had thin, uneven cloud-walls, and rough steps.

  “Temporary office,” Roli said. “Wait here while I get one of the workers to give you all a job. Then you can come back here when you are done and I will stick your I.D. cards in the light machine they gave me!”

  “Oh, my,” Sun said after the door closed behind him.