"It's hard to fly high, even harder to fall, but to hover. Hovering is where a bird's true abilities are put to the test." Our flying instructor, Sir Stu began his pre-class inspirational speech.
He did this every morning, long lectures to help bolster our spirits before the main lecture of the day came.
"To stay in one position on the air is what determines if you're a true master of the skies, or just an apprentice." My wings shook at the thought of having to sustain my heavy body at a specific height.
"Are you the owner of the skies or a visitor like Shelly over there?" He says pointing at the flying squirrel Shelly who was teaching us gliding.
All eyes turned to the out of place squirrel who was in a bird's flying school.
She waved nervously at the unexpected surge of attention she was having.
She had a quiet and shy personality so such attention might have felt like an attack to her, pointing to the fact that she didn't belong here, if so, she felt right.
It was no secret that the teachers didn't like her, nor did they like the fact that all the students liked her class, they hated the fact that all students excelled in it. In our defense, it was easier to understand her more than the harsh screaming of Miss Eagley and Mister Hawkins, and it was easier to be at ease way better than the eerie class of Mr Hooter who was in charge of stealth flight.
The one who hated her the most was Mr Stu, in fact the other teachers just seemed unnerved by her, while Mr Stu really hated her.
I remembered the incident I walked into last week regarding this class.
I was about to ask Mr Stu a question and heard him shouting through the door from his office.
"Honey, can you imagine she's coming to help students participate in my class today?" Mr Stu said to his wife.
"I asked Principal Rock already. He claimed it was to help the students glide into a hover." He said in reply to whatever his wife asked.
"The problem is she's a SQUIRREL!! In fact she's a squirrel who can fly, that's not a squirrel, that's a misfit." He said with his tongue filled with venom.
"What're you doing here?" I heard from behind me, I turned to see Miss Shelly.
My eyes strayed to the door I was peeping through and wondered what the odds was that she would come at this instance.
"Having second thoughts about going in too, huh?" She asked, chuckling nervously as she led me away from the door.
Looking at her walking back to knock on the door, something told me I wasn't the only one eavesdropping.
As she entered, the shouting silenced and no sound was heard, ten minutes later Miss Shelly walked out, a hunch in her back and tiredness reading from her posture. She looked beaten down.
The bell rang and she checked her watch, cursed, took a deep breath and walked on.
It was break time and the next class I had after break was gliding, taught by her.
I waited for some minutes before walking into my class and saw her with a smile plastered on her face and her normal joyful vibe that brought warmth to the room.
She looked nothing like how she did a few minutes before when she left Mr Stu's office.
"For today's class, we would be going out to the field so we can fully grasp and understand the true essence of flying and hovering." Mr Stu said out loud breaking me out from my memory daze.
"We're going to be using the spring Forest which Mr Robin is in charge of." He pointed at the grounds keeper, Mr Robin.
"The reason being that the forest has natural wind and easy elements to help ease you into hovering."
Mr Robin led us to where our practice would take place. It was an open valley with trees and a stream.
"The exercise would be simple." Mr Robin began, having a pretty deep voice for his stature.
"Hovering is used by birds as a way of hunting prey, although it can also be used to collect food on air, it can be used to rescue birds too." He explained.
"I'm sure Mr Stu has explained it already but I'll still say it, hovering is the ability of staying in a single point in the air by the continuous flapping of your wings. As Mr Stu would please demonstrate."
On cue, Mr Stu began flapping his wings and rose above the ground, staying just like that, flapping and staying without rising higher or going lower.
Everyone was in awe, even Miss Shelly looked surprised.
He eventually came down, after doing a spin mid-air while hovering.
"Now we don't expect you to hover like him due to him being a hummingbird which are masters at it and all, yet every bird can hover and every bird would if they want to pass the class." He said with an even deeper commanding voice that made all of us stand upright ready to fly.
"The test for today would be to fly up, hover a bit and pluck a grape from that tree over there". He pointed at a tree with its branch over a flowing stream. On the branch was a grape stalk.
"If the grape falls into the river, you fail. Slowly, rise up to the tree, softly move towards the grapes, hover and pluck one with your beak, then land."
He flew and perched on top of the branch
He called out names to line in an order and take off to start the exercise.
The first was Ben the kingfisher. He carried the exercise out brilliantly with almost as much skill as Mr Stu.
Next up was Annie the Pigeon, although clumsy she managed to get the grape.
I as an owl was scared of how good I'll be at hovering, but no one was more obviously nervous than Victor the vulture.
His wingspan was enormous, and he wasn't full grown either.
I looked at the branch Mr Robin perched on as he looked on at our exercise, it seemed to be wobbly.
"Victor?" Mr Robin called.
"Y-y-yes sir!" He shouted nervously and spread out his wings and flapped, rising to the height of the tree in less than 5 seconds.
He flapped again, trying to stabilize himself, the breeze from his wing, blowin up dust on the ground.
As he neared the tree, the grapes and the branch began shaking.
"Stabilize yourself Victor!" Mr Robin shouted which made Victor freak out even more.
He flapped his wings harder and rose up suddenly knocking the grapes, the branch and Mr Robin into the river.
It was a commotion, Mr Robin began flapping his wings in the water, trying to fly away but becoming more wet as he began floating down the river.
Mr Stu tried carrying him out but he was picking up speed, moving at a distance that's too fast to be hovered and carried yet too slow for the eagles or me the owl to glide in and swoop him without injuries.
Victor suddenly came down.
"I'm so sorry!" He began crying, Mr Stu paid him no mind, trying to save Mr Robin.
"We need to get him out of there!" Victor said, crying. "There's a waterfall."
When everyone was confused, Mr Stu called Jack the hawk to fly and get some help while we followed and tried rescuing Mr Robin before he reached the waterfall.
"Help!!" Mr Robin shouted again and we looked on as the current pulling him became faster.
He was moving quickly and we all flew after him, each trying their best to glide and catch him without falling in ourselves.
We could hear and see the waterfall by now, the despair on our face was showing. The acceptance in Robin's was saddening.
He had accepted the end and stopped thrashing about. Robins weren't one of the longest living birds, that was common fact in the bird world and he must've thought this was how he would go.
I had begun to think this was how he would go.
He hit a rock and tumbled over the edge.
"Children don't look!" Mr Stu shouted at us, trying to spare us from seeing how our teacher would go.
I stood over the edge, not looking but listening.
I didn't hear a splash.
I was very confident of my ears as an owl, so I flew over to take a look.
"Conner!" Mr Stu shouted at me, but I had already flown over and I saw the sight that made me hoot in shock and delight.
Miss Shelly held a wounded shivering Mr Robin on a branch that was growing from a tree at the side of the waterfall.
There was another tree opposite the waterfall and it looked like she must have glided from there.
The other birds flew over to see what I was looking at and everyone cheered, everyone but Mr Stu who looked on silent and confused.
The class was cancelled and we were taken back to the school while Mr Robin was taken to the sick bay to be looked on.
The next week, a ceremony was held for Miss Shelly to help congratulate her on her heroic actions. She was given a raise, some other presents and even invited to give a speech.
Mr Stu didn't come for the ceremony but no one seemed to care. As I looked at her climbing the podium to deliver my speech. I was just shocked at how high she had flown in the school.
The first squirrel to fly higher than a bird.
- Image by haim charbit from Pixabay
- Wanted to point out that this is a work of fiction hence some facts have been twisted or simply ignored so the characters can easily participate in the story. (◠‿◕)
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