I Am A Flyer

The First Day

Jett jerked awake, goosebumps prickling all over his skin.  He blinked rapidly, blood pounding in his ears as fingers curled tight around handfuls of blanket.

 Then he rolled over to see what had disturbed his nap. In the next set of bunks over, a stocky boy curled up on a bed, eyes squeezed shut in pain. The boy had a fresh bruising forming on his cheek, right on top of the jagged triangle that had been tattooed on his face.

Jett blinked again, finally noticing what only could be the source of the poor boy's discomfort – a huge flyer stood at the boy's bunk, his strange armor tainted with jagged blue lines.

Jett sat bolt upright with a gasp, suddenly realizing where he was. Unfortunately, all this earned him a rather hard knock on the head, as there was a bunk bed above his. With a light moan, he lay back down.

"You're going to have to be more alert," the flyer was saying to the bruised boy. "What if you were travelling in enemy territory? A whole band of them could party right into your camp, and you wouldn't even notice..."

Jett curled up on his bed, trying to cover his ears. He squeezed his eyes shut, and wished that this was all just a dream. He tried to imagine that he was back home, making dried meat while Ravia croaked gently from her perch on his head.

It didn't work very well. Flyers were coming in and dragging the boys off. Their departures were usually accompanied with cries of pain and agonized groans as the boys were manhandled out of their bunks.  Each sound made Jett flinch.

"Hello, kid."

His blood turned to ice. That was Gray's voice.

"Come on, get up. I have things to do."

Jett just curled up tighter, refusing to move from his little safe haven. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be allowed his peace. Gray made an irritated sound, and the next thing Jett knew, he was dragged from his bed by the scruff of his clothing.

Gray held Jett in front of him, the boy's feet dangling a clear foot off the ground. Jett stared with wide eyes, all color draining from his face as he was held face to face with the most frightening man he had ever met.

"Really," Gray sighed. "Please don't be so troublesome." Then he smiled. "Let's get on with our day, shall we, kid?"

And without further ado, he slammed a gloved fist into Jett's gut. The impact shook the boy's entire body. If Gray hadn't been holding onto him, Jett would have flown across the room. Coal black eyes widened briefly before rolling upwards. The small body grew limp.

Gray threw Jett over an armored shoulder and walked out of the room,  whistling a happy tune.

xxx

Consciousness returned slowly, a little bit at a time. Something creaked above him, an almost rhythmic sound that matched with a gentle swaying motion. It was quiet. Hot breaths of air blew gently across his hot face, awakening him to a painful dryness in his throat.

He shifted, eyelids starting to slide open. A horrible burn exploded across his chest and back and rocketed through his shoulders and arms. Jett snapped into full consciousness, a hoarse cry tearing from his throat as tears sprang to his eyes.

He jerked, kicking nothing but air. Coal-colored eyes snapped downwards, only to widen as nothing but a dark chasm met his gaze. At once, he stilled, staring down into the dark emptiness below.

What . . .?

A sense of disbelief came over him, and for a long while, he just stared, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. And why he was seeing it. Maybe it wasn't real. Maybe he was just dreaming weird stuff due to being punched out by Gray.