Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Author:Kenneth Oppel [Oppel, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: SteamPunk, Fantasy
ISBN: 9780340878569
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Published: 2008-08-10T14:00:00+00:00

We couldn’t stop talking, our words piling up one atop another. Talking about the creature, about what we should do next. Kate wanted to keep going, to see if we could find its nest, but the terrain was too steep here, and we were out of time. We had to start back. I was going to be late as it was. As we walked, our words spilled out to fill the humid air.

“He fell and survived somehow,” she said.

“It’s incredible. That the fall didn’t kill him. That he could slow himself down enough to land.”

“But he never learned to fly.”

“I think one of his wings might be deformed,” I said.

“But would that stop him from flying?”

“Or maybe after the fall he just never had the confidence,” I said.

“They never came looking for him.”

“They just left him. The mother abandoned her own baby.”

“Nothing she could have done,” Kate said. “She couldn’t carry him.”

“They can lift big fish out of the water, your grandfather said as much.”

“Maybe they just assumed he’d be dead, or that he was so unfit there was no point of rescuing him—he couldn’t survive if he couldn’t fly.”

“Seems a bit harsh,” I said. “Maybe it just needed some extra time. To heal or to learn. Then it would’ve been a fine flier.”

“They’re animals,” she said. “They don’t think like us. It’s all survival of the fittest with them.”

“Even animals feel love for their offspring,” I objected.

“True,” she said. “I’ve seen chimps much friendlier than my parents.”

We laughed and then walked on in silence for a bit, our minds churning.

Kate spoke slowly, her brow furrowed, thinking things through. “He fell down and landed in a tree or somewhere soft. He had no mother to nurse him. Somehow he stayed alive eating birds and bugs and all sorts of little things here. Berries, fruit. It’s an incredible tale of survival.”

“There was nothing here to hunt him,” I pointed out, wanting to be clever and methodical too. “There was luck thrown into it as well.”

“Yes,” Kate agreed. “But he’s adapted to his environment so well—the way he leaps from tree to tree. Did you see his legs, the way they pushed off from the branches? Very strong. They’d have no need to be that strong in the air. He’s gotten stronger in different ways here, so he can survive.”

“He doesn’t fit in though. His fur, it’s the wrong color for here. He stands out. He’d be easy to catch if there were predators.” I sighed. “He should be flying, not leapfrogging around the forest. He was built to fly.”

“But he wasn’t, not this one. Maybe he has a deformity, like you said. Maybe his wings don’t really work. This is all he’s got.”

I felt sorry for him, landlocked. At least he had never known flight. He had nothing to miss, nothing to yearn for. I wondered if he remembered the terrifying plunge that started his life.

We reached the tree and Kate repacked her camera in its case. I picked up the carpetbag filled with bones.

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