First of Flight
There once was a couple full of love and life. They traveled frequently and could often be found dancing together in forest glades or even city squares. They brought smiles to the faces of those around them. Even as they grew older and had children, three in total, they continued to laugh while working and exploring the wilderness.
Tragedy struck the family. On their way back from an evening of listening to the music of the mountains one of the parents fell from a cliff side and perished. The remaining parent stayed on the mountain for three days huddled and weeping until found by a search party. It was many days before the parent resumed alir life. But al was not the same. Al never smiled, never laughed.
The parent was worried about the safety of alir children above everyting else. Nothing else mattered. Al had decided to be a responsible adult and playing games was not part of that plan.
This confused the children. They yearned for the joy that existed before. They played games while their parent was working, but it wasn't enough. Their play moved from the imaginary to the real. Instead of pretending to fight monsters, they snuck out of the house to look for monsters. They built defenses in their yard.
Their parent discovered this and became furious. They were doing dangerous things. Their lives were more important than some stupid game. Al insisted that they stop, making the children cry.
It was several days before the children started their play again. This time they played at flying, thinking that they could leave their problems behind. They hid their play from their parent, feeling sorry that they had to do so. The youngest of the children grew up playing at flight. This child was clever where alir siblings were creative.
For that youngest child, who could have been any child, flight became a real dream, a goal. The child harbored that dream and, without knowing it, formed alir life around that dream. As al grew al became an engineer, hoping to figure out how to fly. But it was the elder child that provided the inspiration. That child was a musician. Watching alir elder play the tolimar al suddenly realized that flight might be possible.
From that inspiration the youngest child invented a device that used air forced through pipes. The child brought the device to alir parents house to show it to alir sibling and parent.
When the child showed the device to the parent, the parent grew angry. Al insisted that the child remove the device and that the risk was too great. But the child started the device there in front of the parent's house. As the child lifted from the ground al started to laugh. The siblings laughed. Their joy was unbound as it has once been when they were very young.
The parent was frantic with worry, rushing up to try to grab the child and bring ali safely back to the ground. But as al jumped the downdraft from the device washed over al, giving al a wonderful sensation of movement and lightness. The parent stopped, the frown slowly leaving alir face. Soon, all four were laughing and dancing in front of the house.
Joy had returned to the family through the dreams of their youngest. Joy can be found in the creation of great things, the things of dreams.