Jasper Jaquin's Arc

Chapter 4 of 6

Jasper woke in the dark. His shoulders had gone hard as stone. He tried to shift on the swept floor and a cramp shot down his back, locking the muscle above his folded wing. He hissed through his teeth. Across the chamber, Azure lifted his head. "Bad?" the blue macaw asked. "I can't lift them," Jasper said. He tried. The wing twitched and seized. Pain ran to his tail. Dawn was coming. He would not be able to jump. Azure stood. "Stay flat." He walked over and pressed one small hand against the knot below Jasper's shoulder. "Here?" "Yes." "I can't fix that. My hands are wrong for it." Azure looked at the doorway. The winged jaguar sat there, gold and blue, wings high, watching the trees. "Sora. He has the same shoulders." Jasper did not want to ask. Sora had been posted to keep them inside. But the muscle would not release, and the sky was already softening at the doorframe. "Sora," Jasper said. The guard turned his head. "My wings won't move." Sora studied him a moment. Then he stood, stepped inside, and lay down beside Jasper on the stone. He did not call for the serpent. He did not call for the sage. "Roll onto your side," he said. "Wing out. Not all the way. Halfway." Jasper obeyed. The cramp burned. Sora set one heavy paw high on Jasper's back, found the locked cord of muscle, and pressed slow and hard. "Breathe out." Jasper breathed out. Sora pushed. Something in the shoulder gave with a hot, sick jolt, and then the muscle went soft. Sora moved to the next knot. Then the next. He worked both sides. It took a long time. Jasper's eyes watered. "I did this every morning for a year," Sora said. "New muscles do not know how to rest. They only know how to seize." When Sora sat back, Jasper opened the wing. It moved. Slow, sore, but it moved through the full arc. He folded it. He opened it again. The other one answered. A scarlet macaw stepped into the doorway then, robe brushing the stone. The old sage looked at the three of them on the floor and said nothing for a moment. "He called dawn," the sage said. "Both students on the platform." Azure went first. Jasper stood. His legs held. His wings held. He walked out past the sage onto the top of the pyramid. The sky serpent was already coiled at the platform's edge, tail plumage bright against the gray sky. He looked at Jasper's shoulders, at how the wings sat, and gave one small nod. "Good," the serpent said. "Now jump." Jasper walked to the edge. The jungle dropped away below him. Behind him, Sora sat down at the doorway again, watching. Jasper set his paws on the stone and looked out over the trees.