250 word drabble: Long Way Down

Written for avatar_500 prompt #24, Contest.

Summary: Ty Bao is gracious in defeat.


Long Way Down

Ty Bao sat on the edge of the platform and swung her feet in the empty sky.  One-handed, she twirled the glider, letting it open, and the pink wings flutter on the breeze, and letting lit close again.  Against the clouds, a tiny speck rode the winds.  She spun the glider open again and dropped off the edge.

The air currents held her up, and she sliced through them, spinning them around herself.  Every breath called the air.  Every movement of the air felt like it was breathing with her, calling her the way she was calling it.  It played with her like a friend.

As she got closer, the speck against the clouds resolved itself into a boy.  She took one hand off her glider and crooked her finger at him.  His eyes lit up behind his goggles.  “Hey!” he shouted over the sound of all the air.

“Hey back!” she yelled.  “You coming in?  They have dinner ready.”

Teo laughed and flitted through the air, letting the wind buffet him up and down, and back and forth, not like an airbender.  He rolled to a stop on the platform as her feet touched down.  “Any idea what we’re having?”

She didn’t answer.  She looked back at the sky.  “I couldn’t do it.”

“What?” he asked, pushing his goggles up.

“Fly like that.”

“Are you kidding?  You’re way better than-”

“If I couldn’t airbend, if the air didn’t talk to me, I don’t think I could leave the ground.”