Leech

Leech’s feet felt so light that it almost seemed as if they had turned into balloons as he began to rise unsteadily. “Hey!” He spread his arms to keep his balance.

“Whoa,” Koko said as his mouth dropped open.

Leech had always been shorter than his friend but suddenly he was gaping down at the top of Koko’s head. And then everyone was looking up at him as he floated eight feet in the air.

Suddenly his legs crossed and he began to spin madly like a top. “What’s … what’s happening?” he yelled as the cellar seemed to whip round and round.

“Oops. The disks must be on the wrong ankles,” Bayang said. “They’re like shoes with a left one and a right one.” She gripped his ankles so that he stopped whirling.

“I feel sort of dizzy,” the boy said, feeling almost at the point of throwing up.

She pulled him down until she could hold him by the shoulders. “Lift your legs against your chest,” Bayang told him. He obeyed, feeling like a human beach ball. With Koko and Scirye’s help, he made the switch.

“Ready?” Bayang asked.

When he nodded, she let go. This time he shot up into the air until he almost bumped against the ceiling, ten feet up. It was scary being that high without a ladder or anything, but also thrilling. He gave a whoop.

Inside his head, he heard a voice exult, Yes!

As the fierce joy washed through him, he did not stop to wonder where that came from.

With a kick, he sent himself zooming across the cellar into the darkness. It was like skating on an invisible rubber sheet because he felt how the air bounced beneath his feet occasionally, making him dip a few inches or rise up a foot. It didn’t matter. He knew his body would adjust and keep him upright—knew with every fiber of his being, knew as certainly as the sun rising in the east—because this was where he was meant to be: flying through the air.

The next moment, he whizzed back toward his friends, outstretched, hair flying behind him. He let out a joyous yell for the sheer pleasure of being alive.

The boy’s delight was so infectious that Kles rose into the air and darted beside him. Boy and griffin looked at one another and laughed at the ecstasy of it all.

“Race you!” Leech challenged.

“You’re on!” Kles brought his wings down in a sudden slap and shot forward, but not for long.

With another kick, Leech shot after him. Bending his knees, he crouched in a more aerodynamic shape. He caught up with the griffin. “Bye-bye.” He grinned, and with another kick left Kles behind.

Leech almost ran into disaster as he reached the far wall. He tilted so that he could bank to the right, but at that speed he found himself capsizing. As he swung upside down, he saw the cellar’s right side looming ahead.

Somehow he managed to get himself turned, and as he headed back, the chagrined boy thought, I guess I’m not automatically going to stay upright after all.

“How do I stop?” he shouted as he flailed his arms at the air.

Bayang ran forward on her hind legs to meet him, her forelegs raised. “Say ‘change’ again,” she ordered. “But wait until you start to slow—”

But Leech was so panicky that he misjudged the timing. The landing was abrupt but not particularly violent except for a few bruises. As the boy lay on his stomach, the flying disks shrank and hovered over him.

Bayang stopped in mid-stride and lowered her forelegs. “Oops. Sorry.”

Koko was almost immediately by his side. “You okay, buddy?”

“My body felt so light, like I was the wind,” Leech enthused as his friend helped him to sit up. “I bet you could ride on my back.”

“You were flying as if you were made for that.” Scirye beamed.

Leech’s face was pure joy as he took the flying disks and attached them to his armbands again. “I was, wasn’t I? I knew it. I just knew it. This is better than wings.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Kles said indignantly as he settled on his mistress’s shoulder. “I won, after all.”

Leech conceded defeat with a dip of his head, but that didn’t lessen his pleasure any. “I never thought I could do anything like that! I can fly anywhere!”

“Don’t get a swelled head, boy. You need more practice or you could wind up diving right into the sea.” Pele tapped Leech’s forehead in warning and then jerked her chin at Bayang. “Now will you tell him the rest, mo-o, or I will I have to? You weren’t hunting Badik originally. You had another target in mind.”

“What else are you hiding?” Koko asked the dragon suspiciously.