Soar, Part 8 - Free

Skye walked to where the others were sitting at the library and slammed the book to the table. The others looked up at her, confused.

"What do you know about animorphs?" she asked as she sat down.

"They can change into animals," Alex said.

"They have a particular animal they change into," Roxie said.

"They are born with the ability?" Olivia asked, though the actual question clearly was why Skye was asking the question, not if animorphs were born with the skill.

"Did your mom say anything about how all the people are doing?" Skye asked Roxie, getting weird looks from the other girls for the sudden change of subject they never actually got into.

"Uh... No," Roxie said, "They're all still in the hospital. They haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with them. Why are you asking what we know about animorphs?"

"Because I realised we don't know much about them, so I did some research", Skye said.

"Because you think Anka has something to do with this?" Alex asked.

"You think Anka has something to do with this", Skye corrected her. "I don't know if he does, because I don't know anything about animorphs. So I went to find out something about them, so I could figure out if he had something to do with it. And honestly, we don't even know it was him back there. We don't even know if it was an animorph back there."

"What else could it have been? There aren't birds that size around here. Or anywhere," Roxie said.

"Actually, about that you're wrong", Skye said. "There are enormous birds, living far off in the South. Birds, that look more or less like that. Of course I can't know any better than more or less, because we didn't exactly get a good look, at the bird, and even if we had I doubt we'd remember. We were all busy concentrating on something else."

"Get to the point, would you?" Alex hurried her.

"Ok, since we saw a bird, I first took a look if there are any birds like that," Skye said, "I found the birds I just explained. But they've never been seen this far West, and there doesn't seem to be a reason for them to be anywhere near here. And besides, I could find anything about them that would have anything to do with turning people to statues. Basilisks can do that, though, another thing I found out, but that has nothing to do with the birds. So I decided there's probably nothing to the birds."

"So you came to tell us you found nothing?" Alex said, irritated.

"I'm not done yet," Skye frowned at her friend, "So, since there was nothing to the birds, and you thought Anka might be an animorph that turns into a bird and was there and has something to do with it, I started looking into animorphs. To figure out if that kind of thing would make any sense."

"And what did you find out?" Roxie asked.

"Well, the first animorphs appeared in the wild, old forests in the North. They lived off the forest, with the forest and everything that lived there. And they learned to understand the forest and every living thing, and they learned how to be a part of the nature, free from their humanity in a way. And the more time passed, and the more time learned, the more they learned about the world, and the more one they became with the nature around them.
"And then one day, they learned how to free themselves of the physical restrictions their human bodies bound them with, and fully become a part of the nature they lived with. They learned how to become nature, how to become animals. And they taught their young. And in time, the ability became so deeply a part of them, that it stuck, and it became a part of them so permanently it was passed on to their offspring, even now when the children aren't anywhere nearly as connected to the nature as their ancestors were."

Skye fell silent and let her words hang in the air. For a moment no one said anything.

"Well, that certainly proves you're a story teller," Alex said, breaking the silence. "But how is that relevant to anything?"

"I don't know," Skye said after a moment of hesitation. "I just thought it was interesting."

"Maybe it means their deep understanding of the world gives them some kind of ability to also change the way the world works. Like freeze a bunch of people in place. Stop other people's time," Roxie said, her face brightening with the idea.

"Or maybe it means that they are immune to some spells, knowing exactly how they work so they can get off free from their affect. Which would mean that if the bird was an animorph maybe they saw something", Skye said. "Or maybe it means nothing. Maybe this has nothing to do with any of it, and animorphs don't have any powers like this. They might once have had, which I'm not saying they did, because I don't know, but it doesn't mean they are capable of turning people into statues with a thought anymore."

"Even if it is nothing," Alex said, "We have nothing to lose looking into this. I think we should talk to our new animorph friend. See if he knows something. He showed up at the scene quite conveniently."

"Agreed," Olivia said, smiling, "Let's go talk to him. And I think he's kinda cute. Though a very weird-looking cute."

"Agreed," said Roxie too, "That we should go talk to him. Not that he's cute."

"Fine," Skye said and stood up, "Though I want you to remember we still don't know nearly enough to make any kind of conclusions, ok, guys?"

The others grumbled an agreement as they stood up and packed their things.
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The not liking this story has nothing to do with my attitude. It's got to do with the fact that I think people should write stories that speak to them, and this story gives me absolutely nothing. I can't get anything at all out of it. Every time I'm supposed to start writing I have absolutely no idea what should of could or will happen next, because this story doesn't speak to me at all. I realise that it's about coming up with the next thing yourself, but a really good story writes itself. All you have to do is sit down and start typing, and then it just happens, and you're like "oh, okay so that happened."
You know what I mean. Of course writing isn't that easy all the time. Or ever. But a story you're writing should still give you something to work with, something to inspire what happens next and give the writing a certain ease that this story just doesn't give me. The point is: this story isn't a pain to write, because it doesn't give me anything to work on.

Your topic for tomorrow is Fruit.

~matu