"Nea, could you help me out? It's the last time I'll ever ask, I promise!"

The blonde-haired boy eagerly batted his green eyes at his cousin, hoping to get her to help him for the zillionth time. Every time he'd told her it'd be the last time and, every single time, she helped him out. This time, just as he had wished, she agreed to help him out. She whisked the parcel from his hold and safely packed away the package in her flight-safe back pocket. The package had to be delivered to the receiving centres, which were located at the highest height from the ground level that she could reach.

She was perfect for the job and always delivered the parcels safe and intact, having never been reported for either misconduct or for malfunctioning in terms of her duties.

"You owe me so many combs worth, CuCu!" she jokingly chided the boy and ruffled his hair before setting out to the point of taking off.

Many of the people that Castanea knew approached her for help in delivering the parcels they had to and, while she always pretended to be offended and eventually agreed, she loved delivering the packages and would get excited everytime someone approached her about it. She was certainly well-equipped with her resistant gear and powerful equipment while several of the others who were employed similarly didn't even have half-decent rides that could reach half the height required. Yet they were all employed in the exact same field, making her wonder why.

While she wouldn't ever willingly accept it out loud, she felt her cousin Cucumis, called by her affectionately as CuCu, lay smack dab in the middle of that category and hence, she helped out all she could. He was one of her closest relatives and yet he was unbelievably weak when it came to their duties.

Shaking her head at the impossible mental image of Cucumis flying as high as she did routinely, Castanea flashed her identification badge at the security personnel stationed at the entrance to the takeoff-safe area. They didn't need to see her badge as she'd been there so many times that it'd be hard to forget her and a few of them even smiled at her, one of them tilting his camouflage print cap at her. Smiling and waving back, she ran to gain momentum as she neared her designated spot, the orange-tinted scarlet sky catching her eye with its breathtaking beauty that she always took a moment to appreciate while her gear warmed up for takeoff.

A green spotlight landed on the white-lined spot she usually took off from seconds later, giving her the signal to depart as she smiled, itching to get off the ground. Her back shuddered as her wings sprouted out through the slots in the black suit draped in golden yellow stripes, every single feather bearing the same colour combination as the suit. Her feet made it into the ovoid and her wings swung out to their full range as she did a final check to ensure the package was securely strapped in before she let her instincts take over.

A feeling of pure joy interspersed with satisfaction rushed through her body as she lifted off the ground, her wings beating powerfully against the air to move upwards. She could feel pure excitement, joy and another feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on pulsing through her veins. Her laughter rang in her ears, the sound of the air whooshing around her but backdrop instrumentals to the melody that was her laughter.

She was seconds away from reaching the delivery gate when an itchy sensation sprouted on either side of her ribcage. While her effort went into trying to ensure she didn't get distracted, she lost control of her wings. They didn't slow down like they normally would and instead began to beat faster.

She thought of signalling the personnel at the delivery area to switch on the vacuum machinery that would pull her in and keep her wings from pulling her too high. Her eyes scanned the area with their high-definition mode on. Had she been told she'd be in such a situation earlier, she would've laughed at the speaker. She never would've even dreamed that she would have to make use of the vacuum system that was put in place to aid the junior and weaker messengers considering how she was often called one of the best in all of Skep. It would've hurt her ego to even consider the option but her heart sunk as she realized it would be ineffective as the gates were firmly latched and there was no way she could signal them.

She tried to beat about in the same spot but it seemed her wings had a mind of their own. She steadily rose higher and higher, the itchy sensation intensifying as she fought to keep from exceeding the limit set. Every single thing she'd been told about the repercussions of flying too high came rushing to her head as she began to panic.

"Alright, Sativa, you need to listen properly first," a much younger Castanea gazed intently at the instructor who taught all the newcomers to the job.

She had been daydreaming about finally getting to fly properly when she was accosted by the teacher, who asked her to focus as she reminded her what would happen if she surpassed the set height, "If you're flying and you can see a bright red patch directly at eye level, you're in big trouble. This patch is stuck a few inches above the delivery gate to indicate the level upto which it's safe because some can't stop their wings at exactly the gate, and that's what the vacuum is for. Above it, you won't be able to breathe properly due to the severe decrease in oxygen levels and the velocity of the winds would be too much for your wings to bear. The building protects you until that height but, after that, it's a miracle if you make it out alive. It's too dangerous and that's why it's illegal to fly even a millimetre above it."

"But what if I can't control my wings and the vacuum thing doesn't work?" she asked eagerly, fear being the last thing on her mind as she immediately wanted to know all about it.

"Then you'll be dead, Sativa," The response was bleak and cold.

Shocked by the tone of her voice, the normally talkative girl spoke very little for the rest of the day. Her guardians and her cousin CuCu had never been more surprised that the girl who was full of life and always had questions hadn't asked them one question since the training session. She eventually faded to considerable normalcy but kept almost all the questions she had to herself in fear of being reprimanded.

The winds around her drastically whipped up their speed, pulling her attention back to the present as she desperately tried to cling on to the side of the building but there were no rough surfaces for her to hold onto. All of the awards she'd won flashed by in her mind as she realized none of them mattered in the moment that could very well be close to her last few moments. Tears sprung to her eyes when she spotted the red patch directly ahead and she soared higher and higher until she couldn't spot it anymore through the sparse cloud layer.

The only thing that kept her from screaming out at the sight of a few red- and blue-coloured beings approaching her while seated on broomsticks was the fact that she could see much better. The clarity of her vision was nothing like ever before as she observed hues of colours so lush that she couldn't even begin to describe. Her lungs breathed in deeply the air that felt much better than down at ground level and her wings were steadily expanding far beyond they had all her life.

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Here's the next chapter and be sure to let me know what you think of this story! Big reveals in the next chapter but what do you think they are? Also, I kind of get the feeling that some of my descriptions are too confusing. Do you think so?

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