“Ah, a beautiful day.” Luvi was in a good mood and was really enjoying the weather in the late afternoon. Sure the season was getting hot, especially when she wore her armor, but the sky was amazing and there was little that could make her think negative thoughts. The clouds looked so inviting that Luvi wished she could fly up that high and experience what it was like to pass through them. She had heard that it was an exhilarating thing to do on a warm day.
She laid under a tree and stared up to really get into her day dreaming and thinking about what it must be like to fly like a bird. She closed her eyes and dreamed a dream of a reality where she had been born with wings.
Her dream began in the very spot where she was. She stretched out her newfound wings and held out her hands to feel her brown feathers. They were hot and begged for a nice breeze, if the wind would be so nice as to provide one. “That’s it,” she said as she rolled over and got onto her feet, “enough lounging around, let’s get to it!”
Luvi offered a smile to the heavens then got a running start before jumping up and letting her wings do what they did best. They flapped around like a fish out of water for a couple seconds then finally stabilized and realized that they were actually trying to fly. She rose up over the tree and just kept flapping to see how high she could go. Up and up she went and soon the pull of fatigue started to come down on her.
She was starting to realize that she was going to have to push her wings to the limit if she was ever going to reach the clouds. She could barely make it over the trees with her current power. Only with the aid of a gush of hot air was she able to rise any higher and from there all she could do was glide slowly back down. She circled all the way back to the tree and did her best to make a soft landing by flapping extra hard once she reached ground level. She ended up skidding to a halt which was as good as she could have hoped for and now she was drenched in sweat.
She had to search around for water and ended up paying for some at a nearby eatery. She hadn’t the coin to actually eat anything, but water was well within her budget. She was offered alcohol which was typical in this part of town but she wasn’t in the mood. She’d pick water over booze any day if she was parched. Soon enough she had gotten her fill and her wings wanted to spread out and lay back on the ground. She found that once she actually used them, they wanted to start flapping about and stretching since they were usually kept so tightly folded.
“Fine you bloody wings, if you want to go back outside then so be it.”
She made her way back over to the tree and sat against the sturdy plant so that she could catch her breath in some shade. She wasn’t going to be a flying extraordinaire anytime soon but this was certainly a good start.
“Not so great at flying are you,” a voice came out from the other side of the tree. Luvi craned her head to see who was trying to talk to her while she was taking a break. “I’m out of practice,” she said as she saw an old lady carrying a large basket, “I’ll get better.” She ended with a smile to show that she was confident in what she had just said.
“You wouldn’t mind using your wings a couple more times would you? See I can’t reach higher than the first couple branches.” The old lady reached up and grabbed a ripe apple and yanked it off the tree and dropped it in the basket. Luvi hadn’t even noticed that this was an apple tree. She snatched one of her own and tore into it with her teeth. Her body craved the nutrition and moisture from the supple fruit. When she’d had her fill of the literal low hanging fruit, she remembered that the old lady needed help. This was her time to shine.
“Don’t worry,” Luvi said as she jumped up and grabbed two apples at once that were out of reach for the old lady, “It would be my pleasure to help you out.” Luvi used her legs that were about the only things not tired from the flying to jump as high as she could and grab apples and dropped them in the lady’s bucket. She was only able to do so much though on her own.
The large basket was only half filled when they had scoured the lowest branches and taken the ones worth taken. There were plenty higher up in the tree but there wasn’t any way of getting up there without climbing. Her wings were large and she didn’t want to get them tangled up in a branch or dirty her feathers. She definitely didn’t’ want bugs getting in them because that would be a nightmare. If she was meant to climb then she would have been born a tunawa instead of a woman with wings.
“Sorry we couldn’t fill up your basket,” Luvi said disappointedly as they wrapped up. “I would climb up, but I’m scared I would fall. The old lady waved her hand and said, “climb? Why climb when you can fly? Use those wings of yours to boost your jumps!”
It wasn’t a bad idea. It was actually a great idea. Luvi had never thought to use her wings to help her gain height for her jumps, not that she ever thought she needed to jump higher. She spread her wings out and gave a couple good flaps and jumped at the same time. She definitely got higher and was able to grab onto another apple, but it sure took a lot of energy to do. Trying again, she went even higher by a couple feet and gently glided to the ground.
Had she not spent all that time flying around and flapping like crazy then she probably could have picked the whole tree clean of apples. She had to make do with the energy she had left though so she was unable to do much more than fill the basket to seventy five percent. Still, it was better than only being able to get a couple of apples that the old lady was able to get herself. Luvi thought she did a relatively good job given the circumstances. The old lady seemed pleased as well and commented that Luvi had made her day.
“Anything else I can do for you ma’am,” Luvi asked politely. “Now that you mention it, would you like to come inside and make some pie? You can have some if you’d like as a reward.” Luvi’s eyes lit up. A reward? Out of all the favors she did for people she rarely got any sort of reward. She nodded furiously and even carried the basket of applies all the way to the old lady’s house which was a couple miles away.
Once they got inside she was put to taking the skin off the apples which was easier said than done for someone who didn’t use any cooking knives on a day to day basis. Luvi ended up wasting a lot of the apple ‘meat’ in her attempts to take the peels off which was frustrating to say the least. The old lady was happy to show the proper technique, but Luvi just wasn’t used to cooking. She was lucky she didn’t end up hurting herself somehow. Nonetheless the apples were cut and sliced and then the old lady took over with the actual pie making part. Luvi watched hungrily throughout the whole process, wishing she had the capacity to learn a little more but she had learned as much as she was allowed to for the day.
Hours passed and the pie was finally finished. Luvi could have devoured the whole thing by herself, but she restrained herself to one piece and thanked the old lady for letting her help and watch.
“Oh don’t worry about it. Old timers like us have to find some way to pass the time. Why don’t you take the rest of the pie home?” Luvi was too hungry to object and happily took half a pie home with her that day. Well, she was going to take it home but hunger overtook her on the way back and she ended up scarfing it down in the middle of the street like some kind of barbarian. Full and happy with what she had accomplished, Luvi headed home and cleaned up her hands before her dream finally came to its natural conclusion.
