Rem World

by Rodman Philbrick

  “You must run before you can fly,” said the Cloud Master. “Run, the both of you. As far and as fast as you can go.”

  “But, Father!”

  “You heard me,” the Cloud Master said. “Run!”

  “But I hate running!” Arthur protested.

  “Even better,” said the Cloud Master. “Run until you don’t hate it anymore.”

  Arthur was determined not to run—running was so stupid—but when Leela started chasing him with the feather, what choice did he have? He lumbered along, puffing and panting, and each time she touched him with the feather, he went a little faster. He hated being tickled even more than he hated running.

  “Take that!” Leela squealed, tickling him on the back of his neck. “And that!” Her feather found a most sensitive spot behind his left ear.

  She chased him clear around the precipice, and then up a trail carved into the rock. They ran down another trail, and after a while Arthur decided it was sort of fun being chased by a wild, beautiful girl creature. Once, he managed to pull away from her, running for all he was worth, but she opened her wings and swooped high up into the sky. He lost sight of her in the sun, and then when he looked again, there she was, blocking his way.

  “Gotcha!” she shrieked, and tickled his nose.

  Arthur ran in the opposite direction, and it took Leela a long time to catch up. “Slow down!” she called out, sounding disappointed.

  “No way!” he shouted back. He raced down the trail, back to the flat area of the precipice. He was running so hard that at first he didn’t notice all the Cloud People gathered there. And when they began to applaud, he was really mystified.

  “Hurrah for Arthur! Hurrah for the boy from the World Below!”

  They were cheering for him.

  · · ·

  The Cloud Master held up Arthur’s hand. “No one has ever outrun Leela,” he explained. “You have proven your strength and your speed, and now it is time to see if you can fly.”

  “But how can I fly without wings?” Arthur wanted to know.

  “Close your eyes,” the Cloud Master commanded. Such was the power of his voice that Arthur instantly obeyed.

  With his eyes closed, Arthur felt something touch his back, just between his shoulder blades.

  “Hold up your arms,” the Cloud Master said. “Now open your eyes.”

  When Arthur opened his eyes he saw that wings were now attached from his wrists to his shoulder blades. The wings had been cleverly fashioned out of the blanket he’d slept in, and he held them up for the crowd to admire.

  “What beautiful wings! They’re as good as real!”

  Arthur had always thought of himself as fat and ugly, but the blanket-wings made him feel handsome for the first time in his life. Even Morf looked impressed.

  “Not bad,” said the little creature, looking him over. “Not bad at all.”

  Eager to take flight, Arthur flapped his new wings. He flapped very hard, but nothing happened.

  Leela laughed. “You’ll never fly that way,” she said. “Cloud People don’t flap. We’re not birds. We glide and soar.”

  Arthur was mortified. He had wanted to take off like an eagle and impress everyone with his strength and skill. And here he was flapping his arms like a doodlebrain. Looking, no doubt, like a tubby boy with a blanket pinned to his shoulders. He wanted to crawl under a rock and disappear, but everyone was watching him, and there was no escape.

  “Come with me,” the Cloud Master commanded.

  He took Arthur’s hand and led him to the very edge of the steepest cliff. Far below, the clouds looked like puffy waves on a sea of air. A warm wind ruffled Arthur’s hair, and despite the warmth, he shivered.

  “I’m afraid,” he whispered.

  “And so you should be,” said the Cloud Master. “Flying is the second most dangerous thing in the world.”

  “What’s the first most dangerous thing?”

  “Falling.”

  “I can’t fly,” Arthur said, and his voice trembled with fear. “I’m just a boy with a blanket.”

  The Cloud Master gave him a solemn look. “You are not just anything. You are whatever you think you are. What you believe yourself to be. Are you a boy with a blanket? Or are you a boy who can save the universe?”

  Arthur gulped.

  Behind him, Leela piped up. “Let me show him, Father! Let me show Arthur how to fly!”

  The Cloud Master was about to tell his daughter to hush, but then he thought better of it. “Good idea,” he said.

  Leela took Arthur’s hand. “Hold your arms out like this,” she said. “The wind will lift you.”

  With Leela holding his hand, Arthur felt less afraid. “I’m ready,” he said.

  And he stepped off the edge of the cliff, into the air.

  HE FELL LIKE a rock. Headfirst, straight down the face of the steepest cliff. He fell so fast that his stomach was left behind. The wind brought tears to his eyes.

  Beside him, Leela fell, too.

  “When I say, ‘NOW!’ lift up your arms and arch your back!” she yelled, shouting above the wind.

  They fell so far and so fast that before Arthur could even think about it, they plunged into the layer of fluffy clouds that had seemed miles below.

  Arthur had hoped the clouds would be thick enough to slow them down, but it wasn’t like that. If anything, falling through the mist was more horrifying because he couldn’t tell where the ground was, or how soon he would get there.

  Beside him Leela yelled, “Wait! Wait!” Then she shouted, “NOW!” As soon as the word was out of her mouth, she popped her wings and shot up, as if yanked by a string.

  Arthur knew it was hopeless, but he did as she’d told him. He lifted his arms and arched his back.

  Suddenly he wasn’t falling quite so fast. His blanket-wings filled with rushing air, and he could feel himself slowing down.

  “MORE!” Leela shouted from above. “MORE!” So he arched his back some more and lifted his arms as far as they would go.

  He was still falling, but not as fast as before.

  Leela swooped below him and turned over on her back. “Like this!” she yelled, and then she tilted her wings and rose, soaring on an updraft.

  As best he could, Arthur tried to mimic what she’d done. It wasn’t easy, but when he turned his wrist and tightened the blanket-wings, he could feel the air trying to lift him.

  “You’re flying!” Leela yelled from directly above him.

  Arthur tightened the blanket-wings even more. He swooped upward uncertainly and bumped into Leela, who laughed with delight. “That’s it!” she cried. “You’ve got it!”

  Playfully she pulled away from him. Arthur followed.

  “This is so cool!” he cried. “Flying is the coolest thing in the whole wide world!”

  “This way!” Leela called out, and she disappeared into the mist.

  Arthur turned his arms and banked, blanket-wings fluttering. Leela was there, waiting, her eyes shining with excitement. “Follow me!” she said.

  Slowly Arthur and Leela rose up out of the layer of clouds, but they were still far below the World Above. “There’s an updraft at the face of the cliff!” Leela told him. “We need to find it!”

  She swooped away again, her pale wings glowing in the sunlight. Arthur struggled a bit, but he managed to keep up with her.

  All of a sudden the face of the steepest mountain was right before them, and Arthur had to raise his arms to prevent himself from crashing into it.

  “Here it is!” Leela announced. “Lift your head and fly!”

  And with that, she was lifted straight up the face of the cliff.

  “Wait for me!” Arthur called out, and at that very moment he felt the warm updraft under his blanket wings. He shot up the side of the mountain, craning his neck to catch sight of Leela, who kept urging him upward.

  “Fly!” she kept shouting. “Lift your head and fly!”

  The warm wind raced straight up the side
of the mountain, and so did he. Up! Going up! And, still, he flew, higher and higher.

  Suddenly Arthur was above the edge of the cliff where he had jumped into the abyss. The Cloud People waved up at him, lifting their beautiful wings in a silent greeting.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Leela exclaimed.

  “Oh yes! But how do I get down?”

  “Tip your head like this,” Leela said, demonstrating. In an instant she was swooping down, heading for the precipice where the Cloud People waited.

  Arthur did as he was told. At the last possible moment, a gust of warm wind sent him spinning, head over heels. His blanket-wings got tangled up, and he closed his eyes, certain he was about to crash.

  That’s when the Cloud People joined their wings together and made a soft place for him to land. He bumped to a stop, a little bruised, but much to his amazement he was all in one piece.

  Before he could stand up, Morf reached out a paw and shook his hand. “Let me be the first to congratulate you.”

  “Thanks,” said Arthur, rising to his feet.

  Before he could say anything else, the Cloud Master was there, helping him straighten out his blanket-wings. “We thank the wind that brought you back,” he said. “We thank the sky for holding you up. We thank Leela, for showing you the way.”

  “It was nothing,” Arthur said modestly.

  “Nothing had nothing to do with it,” the Cloud Master said. “You took the leap of faith and flew from the heart. Yours is a brave heart. From this moment forward, the Cloud People will know you as Courage. Arthur Courage.”

  “Courage!” the Cloud People sang. “Arthur Courage!”

  And that’s how the boy once known as Biscuit Butt got a brand-new name.

  Now all he had to do was live up to it.

  FOR THE NEXT THREE days, Arthur practiced flying.

  With Leela showing the way, he learned the Six Ways of Soaring, and the Rising Flutter, and the Three Close Turns. The technique that gave him the most trouble was the Falling Dive, because the first part was plummeting straight down for at least a mile before you gradually opened your wings—not too fast or they’d tear off—and slowly, ever so slowly, pulled up.

  “But what if I wait too long?” Arthur asked Leela before he tried it.

  “That’s easy. Don’t.”

  “Don’t? That’s all you’ve got to say? Don’t?” Arthur stood with his hands on his hips, glowering.

  “The Falling Dive can’t be explained,” Leela said. “You learn by doing.”

  “Yes, but if I don’t learn fast enough, I’ll end up smashed like a bug on a windshield.”

  “What’s a windshield?”

  “Oh, never mind,” Arthur said with a sigh. “Show me the Falling Dive.”

  He survived the Falling Dive—actually, it was great fun—and he practiced his Close Turns until he could do all three with his eyes closed. Amazing how easy it was to fly, once you got the hang of it.

  Meanwhile Morf hung out on the very edge of the highest cliff, as comfortable as if he were perched on the side of his bed. “Nice turn, kid!” he would call out, encouraging Arthur. “Lovely flutter! I’ve never seen a better soar!” and so on. If Leela was the coach, Morf was the whole cheerleading squad.

  Arthur was having so much fun that it was easy to forget why he’d been given the gift of flight in the first place. The truth is, he didn’t want to think about Vydel’s Mouth or the Nothing that was rising like a forgotten tide and would soon drown his Other Self.

  When he did think about it, he felt less like Arthur Courage and more like Arthur-Scared-To-Death.

  Once, while they were resting on a narrow cliff beneath the clouds, Leela told him he was, in her opinion, the luckiest person ever to live.

  “Really? Why is that? You mean because I learned to fly?”

  “No, Arthur. Lots of people learn to fly. You’re lucky because you’ve been given a chance to make a difference. If you succeed, you save REM World, and every other world, and all the stars in the sky. What could be more important than that?”

  “Yeah,” Arthur said morosely. “But if I fail, then I die, and everything disappears as if it never existed.”

  “See?” Leela exclaimed with delight. “You can’t lose! If you fail, nobody knows because nobody exists!”

  “I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

  “It’s the only way,” Leela assured him. “The answer is, don’t fail.”

  “But suppose I manage to fly to Vydel’s Mouth. What do I do when I get there?” The question had been plaguing him, and he was hoping the Cloud People knew the answer.

  Leela shrugged. “You’ll have to figure that out when the time comes.”

  “Isn’t there a legend that explains what happens next?”

  “Sorry, no. There’s no legend. Because once you go through Vydel’s Mouth, you can’t come back.”

  “But you came back!”

  “I flew above it,” Leela said. “Not through it.”

  Arthur became very quiet. “What did you see? Besides the Nothing, I mean.”

  Leela’s voice changed to a whisper. “Terrible things. Things out of my worst nightmares.”

  And she would speak no more of it.

  · · ·

  Each evening the Cloud people gathered for the Ceremony of the Dying Sun. It was a beautiful ceremony—all those wings blossoming like huge flowers—but there was something sad about it, too—a kind of enchanting melancholy that made Arthur’s heart ache, ever so slightly.

  One evening—Arthur’s fifth day in the World Above—the Cloud Master was especially formal and solemn. After the song faded with the setting of the sun, he asked Arthur to step forward and take his place in the inner circle, surrounded and protected by all the Cloud People.

  When Arthur had done this, the Cloud Master raised his wings until the very tips pointed at the highest stars. “Let us give strength to Arthur Courage,” he said. “He will take with him our strength and our love and our best wishes for the future.”

  “Strength!” the Cloud People sang. “Arthur Courage!”

  Their wings touched his wings, and even though his wings had been made from a blanket, he felt it, anyway. A kind of electrical spark that made him feel warm on the inside, and maybe a little stronger, too.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for all you’ve done for me.”

  “We thank you, Arthur Courage, for what you are about to do,” said the Cloud Master. “Now it is time for everyone to get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day. The biggest day ever. Tomorrow is either the start of a new beginning, or the beginning of the end.”

  When Arthur finally got to sleep that night, his very last night with the Cloud People, he did not dream of clouds that tasted like pancakes. He dreamed of things that flew out of shadows.

  Things with furious wings, and terrible, sharp talons.

  THEY WERE AWAKENED an hour before dawn.

  At first Arthur yawned and tried to roll over, but Morf reminded him that today was the day. There were promises to keep, and Arthur would be leaving a few moments after sunrise.

  Arthur sat up as if he’d been jolted with electricity. “I wish it wasn’t today,” he said. “I wish it was tomorrow instead, or even yesterday.” But he knew he was wishing for the impossible, and so he dragged himself from bed and put on his blanket-wings.

  Leela and her father had been up for some time, making preparations.

  “Your breakfast awaits,” the Cloud Master announced with a smile.

  On the steaming platter was a selection of food that Arthur never could have imagined. Cool melons cut out of rain clouds. Fluffy Sun flour waffles drenched in a dewdrop syrup. Bowls of porridge that glowed with the light of distant stars. Slices of toast so light, they floated above the plate, and plenty of moonberry jam.

  “Eat up,” the Cloud Master told him. “You’re going to need all of your strength.”

  They ate until there was only one waffle left.
/>   “You have it,” said Leela.

  “Oh, I couldn’t,” Arthur said.

  “I insist,” said Leela.

  But it was too late. Morf polished it off, and he sat there licking the nearly invisible waffle crumbs and looking very pleased with himself.

  “Time to go,” the Cloud Master said, wrapping himself up in his wings.

  · · ·

  The sunrise celebration was by now familiar to Arthur, and he sang along with the others, welcoming the dawn. He was beginning to feel very much at home in the World Above, and he hated to leave. But as Morf reminded him, a promise is a promise.

  Leela took his hand, and they walked to the edge of the highest cliff. Far below, the clouds seemed to beckon, as if they knew that something very important was about to happen.

  “What will you do?” Arthur asked Morf.

  “What do you mean, ‘What will I do?’” Morf looked startled. “I’m coming with you, of course.”

  And with that, Morf jumped up and tucked himself inside Arthur’s shirt. His small, furry head poked out. “Ready when you are,” he said, grinning. “Off we go into the wild green yonder!”

  Arthur was flooded with relief. It was selfish, he knew, but he’d been sick at the thought of leaving Morf behind. Besides, he was terrified to face the ordeal of Vydel’s Mouth alone.

  It was Leela’s mission to guide him as far below as she possibly dared. She took the responsibility very seriously. “Remember,” she said, “wings out, head back. And let the wind do the work.”

  Together they stepped off the edge of the cliff and fell toward the World Below.

  · · ·

  In the beginning, Arthur felt only exhilaration. The thrill of wind in his face.

  The brilliant sun was warm on his back, and his blanket-wings thrummed with air.

  It was glorious!

  “This is the coolest,” said Morf. His head poked out from under Arthur’s chin.

  They followed Leela, who was flying in great, slow spirals. Gradually she glided down toward the thick layer of clouds. All around them, and far into the distance, mountain peaks emerged like steep, jagged islands in a fluffy white sea.