After replacing the bar that held the doors closed, Rook led the trotting kingeagle over to some grass a short distance from the building. Then he gave the eagle two taps on the head. That made the bird fold up its legs and drop into a crouching position. It complied as easily as an obedient dog being told to sit. He must have trained it well.
“Lift up your arms a moment,” Rook said to me.
I put both arms up in the air. He fastened a belt attached to several metal rings around my waist and tightened it so much that it hurt. Then, he grabbed my waist to lift me up.
“Here you go.” Rook placed me on the saddle like he was putting something on a shelf.
“Whoa.”
Once Rook had put on a similar belt, he climbed onto the saddle too. It was easy for someone of my height to sit on the saddle with my legs at either side, but Rook had to sit with his legs bent. It looked a little cramped.
Unlike horses, this creature had wings that the rider couldn’t obstruct with their legs. One solution would be for them to sit with their ankles raised up alongside their hips, but that’d be bad for their pelvis. It explained why the saddle was a little elevated—to improve the rider’s sitting posture.
Rook connected the belt around his waist to the saddle using leather straps, anchoring his body in place. I gathered that the waist belt worked as a safety harness. With that done, he turned to where I was sitting between his legs. My body was held securely against the saddle once he’d finished using straps to secure my belt in the same way. Now, whatever orientation the kingeagle might take during flight, there was no chance of me falling off.
Rook took up the reins.
✧✧✧
As the eagle was beating its wings and preparing to take flight, Rook gave me some advice that he must have forgotten to mention until now: “Whatever you do, never open your mouth while flying.”
The g-force hit me like nothing I’d ever felt before as the eagle left the ground behind. It wasn’t the constant acceleration of an aircraft, it was more like waves of acceleration that came on with each beat of its wings. After gaining some height, the kingeagle increased its speed with several powerful wingbeats, and then it was flying for real.
The view below changed at a dizzying pace. In no time at all, we crossed the hills and a small river. We charged through a dense pocket of air while almost grazing the tops of the conifers below. Then the angle of the bird’s wings suddenly changed, sending us soaring directly upward, higher into the air.
We rushed up to the altitude of a high-rise building. Unobstructed by tall trees or the planet’s curvature, the view opened up and the world was spread out before us. It was as though the clouds had absorbed all of the moisture from the sky. The air was clear as far as the eye could see, and even the distant scenery looked sharp. It was beautiful.
It wasn’t like seeing the world from a tiny aircraft window, or from the lookout point of a mountain top. This was an ever-changing panorama, unobstructed in all directions. Everywhere I looked, my view was clear, and the world was breathtaking.
After we’d flown in circles for a short while, Rook manipulated the reins again, and the eagle began performing aerial maneuvers with graceful movements. It rolled over in midair, flipping the world upside down. With my body weight no longer holding me against the saddle, I felt myself instead supported by the safety harness around my waist.
A moment later, my weight was no longer supported by the harness as we transitioned into a free fall. I lost sight of the sky and horizon. Soon, the ground filled my view. We were falling, and soon we’d crash into the ground. A primal fear filled my mind, sending me into a panic.
But the free fall lasted only a few seconds. The eagle’s wings changed angle to once again catch the wind, gently shifting the bird into a horizontal path of flight. We were still a good height above the ground by the time we’d fully leveled off.
We must have been flying for around twenty minutes when familiar-looking buildings came into view below us—it was the ranch we’d set out from. I’d completely lost track of where we were, but Rook must have known precisely.
The eagle descended so quickly that I thought we might crash. Just before landing, it beat its wings several times to apply the emergency brake, and then it finally touched down gently upon the ground.
“Phew,” Rook sighed from his position above my head. He began removing his safety harness.
There was the sound of fittings clattering. Rook had himself free in under a minute, and then he immediately started removing my harness too.
Rook got off the kingeagle first and said, “Your dad’s here to catch you, so just jump down.”
I hesitated for a moment, but then I leaped down from the saddle. True to his word, Rook caught me and put me on the ground.
“How was that?” Rook asked, his eyes filled with anticipation.
“Awesome,” I replied, telling him my honest feelings. “It was an incredible experience. I really mean it.”
“Glad to hear it,” Rook said, sounding relieved. “Looks like you’ll be all right.”
“What do you mean?”
“With eagles. Some people just can’t get used to riding a kingeagle no matter what they do. They need both feet firmly on the ground.”
Ah. When children turn three... That’s when they’re tested to see how they’ll handle it. Someone with a fear of heights would have no chance.
“I think I can handle flying. I don’t know whether I’ll be a skilled rider though.”
“Don’t worry, I can see you’ve got potential,” Rook reassured me. “And if I say so, you know it’s true.”
“Really?”
When a family member said something like that, I was filled with a sense of happiness and embarrassment that felt wrong for someone my age. During my life in Japan, my parents hadn’t been the sort of people who’d given their son that type of praise. I hadn’t even known the whereabouts of one of my parents. As for the other, we’d eventually broken contact and never spoke again. Now it felt like my mental age had been dragged down to match my body. Rook’s praise moved me, and I had to react quickly to hold back the rising tears.
“Does everyone start training at this young age?”
“You didn’t like it?”
“That’s not what I meant at all. It’s just hard to imagine everyone doing this.”
“Well, the three-years-old thing is just our family tradition, but everyone has to start when they’re small. You’ll never be a sky knight unless you learn to ride solo before you’re fully grown.”
Is he saying that you can’t ride a kingeagle unless you train as a child? That’s a sad thought. These kingeagles must be valuable creatures. They eat meat, so they must cost even more than horses. If you have to start training as a child, only people from the wealthiest families will ever get a chance to ride one.
“Why’s that? Why can’t someone decide to learn after growing up?” I asked.
Kind of like how you can fly light aircraft as a hobby.
“Because a kingeagle can’t fly with two adults on its back. It’s too much weight.”
Seriously? That sounds like a harsh weight restriction.
“Then what about fat people?”
“Ha ha,” Rook laughed. “There are no fat sky knights.”
You can’t ride them if you get fat? Then I’m guessing Rook’s slim, muscular build is ideal.
“There are those who grow up and then want to ride a kingeagle, just like you say—merchants, for example, who get rich through some lucky business deal. And, um...let’s just say it doesn’t go so well.”
He must be choosing his words carefully so he doesn’t scare me. I bet they crash and die.
“You mustn’t ever ride one alone until you’ve got permission,” Rook warned. His expression had gone from the face of someone talking about their favorite topic to the face of an adult worried for their child.
“I understand. I won’t forget it.”
We were finished for the day, so we rode back home on a plainrunner. I spent the whole journey with thoughts of only one thing: kingeagles.