About a drone who failed his nuptial flight. A glimpse into the start of his lonely adventure in the wild.
Asturen lies down on the earth. Not dead, but he’s lying still enough as if he were. Above him towers a giant tree, and he stares at the branch where he once flew towards. If you knew one or a few things about Asturen, you would consider this scenario quite pathetic, in a way. Here we have a young winged man in armour and yet he’s made himself out to be lower than dirt. We can only assume something rather bad must’ve happened to him just then – aside from him crashing and falling from that tree – and whatever it was, it’s resulted in him waiting for nature to just eat him up… To swallow him whole like the soil to an earthworm.
In complete juxtaposition to whatever it was he was feeling, the sky was as blue as it could get and the sun was equally as bright. Not a single cloud in the sky. Bliss! It was all that and nothing else, except for the occasional zooming of other winged figures in armour – drones and princesses – that flew right over him, likely chasing after their future lovers. That was the exact thing that Asturen was doing just a minute ago and it kind of hurt him to see that all again. Not only because of envy, but also pity knowing that a good fraction of those drones will have to undergo the same, sorry situation as him – lying totally purposeless on the earth.
It was only a matter of time before Asturen decided he was bored of staring at the sky. He no longer enjoyed his game of trying to calculate the intervals between each time a fallen leaf would pass by above him - as if he ever did - which was near impossible due to how mockingly pleasant the weather conditions were. After some moments, Asturen finally set off on his walk to a place only the Keepers knew where. He’s got no home to return back to. At least, not anymore. It’s not like he was invited back to the one place he spent his life - you fail at your one and only job, you get a free pass for eternal banishment. To make matters worse for Asturen, finding a new place to call home is practically impossible. His home colony – the Eurvai colony – didn’t have the best of reputations, especially due to its history of invading countless other populated places, which always ended in a vicious, bloody resolution. Asturen was never part of that action, however he still held his old clan’s scent.
Asturen was told once, “The world outside is vast. It’s heaven for an adventurer,” which was true all the way. Unfortunately, it was today Asturen learned that he was not one for travelling and adventuring all on foot. He did find the outside beautiful, however. If only he could just drift in the wind without any effort at all… Even so, he continued his journey, optimistic that he’ll eventually stumble upon, if not a lone princess, then someone else familiar. If anything, that was the one thing poor Asturen was ever optimistic about at this moment.
It was not easy for Asturen, trying to find another fellow life-form such as himself. He had been walking for such an incomprehensible amount of time since his fall and he has not yet met - or even seen - anyone that he could spend at least some meaningful amount of time with. Of course, there was always the usual stray beast that would curiously take a glance at the young man, but that was all. Regretfully, Asturen began to wonder if approaching any of them would have been worth his time. His life was only getting shorter by the second and he knows he doesn’t have much time left to go before he starves. Unlike his sisters, he knew nothing about survival out in the wilderness, so all he could afford was to guess and hope for the best. Despite everything, on he marched.
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