I Am A Flyer

II: Front Line Arrival

The Front, as everyone called it, consisted of a series of large, dirt-colored tents clustered together and one gigantic tent set a little ways of from the others. The fact that this one tent had a large square hole in the center of its roof clearly portrayed that it was the gather place of the flyers. This compound was situated on the border between Troit and the Kairg, and it was a short twenty-three miles from the the Troit Headquarters.

Jett was so tired that he hardly noticed when Raven began to descend toward the tents. However, when Raven pulled in his wings and landed heavily on the ground, Jett was jarred into wide-eyed wonder. At first, he saw nothing but huge tents that blended right into the ground. Then the people came.

Dozens of men in clothing similar to Jett's came out of the tents, and gathered around. They raised quite a commotion as they came to greet Raven, however, as soon as they noticed Jett, they quieted.

"Raven, what's this?" One guy asked. Jett stared at him; the man had a huge, ugly scar splitting his face in half horizontally.

"Ask him yourself." Raven finished releasing the straps, and pushed Jett off of his feet. Jett stumbled, trying to regain his footing. After nearly two days of flight, his legs were trembling. He stood there, surrounded by a large group of people. He stared at them, dark eyes wide behind his helmet. These people. . .weren't flyers. Did that mean they were soldiers, then?

Raven smacked the back of Jett's helmet, nearly knocking the boy off his feet. "Don't just stand there, kid. Introduce yourself – you'll be staying with these guys from now on."

Huh? Staying with - ? These people were all staring at him – these big, scarred, battle-worn soldiers were looking at him...! Jett wanted to run away.

Gulping, he raised his hands, and pushed the center of his helmet, right above his forehead. With a click, the helmet released itself, allowing him to pull it off. He blinked, and warily watched them. "I – I'm Jett," he softly said.

The soldiers didn't say anything. They just watched him. Then the guy with the scar splitting his face moved his gaze over to the Talon flyer. "Raven, you better explain why a kid is standing there." He jerked a thumb at Jett, who flinched.

Raven smiled. "There's nothing really to explain, Scares. The kid's my dear student, and he is here to learn. Isn't that right, kid?" Raven's smile became menacing as he directed this last part at his dear student.

"Um. . .yeah?" Jett suppressed a shudder.

"See?" The Talond flyer said. "Hey kid, go with Scares. He'll show you where you're staying, while I go report in. I'll see you later." With a last careless gesture, Raven turned, and began walking towards the flyers' tent.

"Ravennn," Scares let out an annoyed growl. The flyer didn't seem to hear. Jett swallowed. He didn't think this was going to be very fun. The group began to disperse, some of the soldiers giving Jett a friendly grin, while others just gave him a flat stare. Finally, it was just Scares and Jett.

The scarred man heaved out a sigh. "How'd you get to be Raven's student?"

Good question. Jett thought about that, remembering how the nightmare began. It wasn't too hard to answer. "Gray," he said.

"Gray?" Scares laughed. "That guy. . .you've got some kind of rotten luck, kid. C'mon, I'll show you where you can stay and get some food, and then I want to hear about it." He rested a friendly hand on Jett's shoulder and led the way to one of the smaller tents.

Jett exhaled wearily. Perhaps. . .this wouldn't be so bad, after all.

XXX

Each tent had about two hundred men. Scares told him that there were roughly two thousand soldiers and twenty flyers at each compound; apparently, there were other compounds all along the Front lines, each within a half-day's march or an forty-five minute flight from each other.