Adrift IV
The launch pulled the horror from Jorey’s face. She turned her attention skyward and reveled in the rush of air. Sputter shrieked in delight next to her, but she heard none of it. She was a flier at heart, a soarer, and when she was aloft, the entirety of the world was hers.
She released Sputter and the youngster flapped open his sails and spiraled into lazy loops. Jorey rode higher on the cannon’s push and opened her own sails at the apex of her ascent. She drifted in that moment of perfection, her eyes finding Sputter and picking out Gorm’s big frame further ahead on the drift.
The first float was short and their time on that earthen respite only momentary. The mapped course replayed in her memory, a clear hopscotch journey of wind and satellites. She would push them into the last three jumps, buying a few critical seconds on the last glide. Timing was life among the islands, and every native learned the pathing and memory skills to survive among the changing orbitals. The calculations became reflexive, with only the anomalies striking chords.
Jorey performed her own slow spiral and watched Lim-Tim and Barrik blast into the sky. No difficulties there, and she returned her attention to the course ahead. Closing her eyes, she afforded herself a few moments of blissful wind caress. Then the memories of Windfall pawed their way in. She knew they would be fighting to the forefront.
She had died there after all.