You can do this, man! You've spent days, nay, weeks training for this! Will you chicken out at the last minute just because of some pointy rock?"

A very large pointy rock.

Wimp.

The mental battle spanned the course of an hour and thrity minutes but it felt like decades. Finally Theo took the plunge. As his wings curled around his body and he dropped through the air at a high speed his mind was free to wander.

His thoughts centered around how bat**** crazy what he was doing was. As the cold air burned his cheeks and the rush of excitement that only free-fall could give welled up inside him his thoughts turned to what he was doing.

After several days of diving and pulling out of them Theo recognized his limits and then began the process of raising them. He found the easiest way to measure the distance from dive point to ground was to find the height of a mountain then dive from the peak of it. He was now in the process of making his biggest dive.

Everything was going according to plan until a large flock of birds decided to get themselves killed. Theo smashed through the birds, ripping them apart with sheer speed. The remainder of the birds chased after Theo, pecking at as much of him as possible. They pierced his skin and blood began to pour out.

He wished he didn't have to but he knew he'd have to kill the birds. He opened his wings out and his joints ached from the strain of going from terminal velocity to a hover in seconds. He spun several times and the angry birds scattered away. With low morale and weak joints all Theo could do was summon his armor and hope for the best.

He slowly slipped out of conciousness and flew straight into the side of a mounatain. He rolled down the side of the mountain with a chorus of bangs and clangs from his armor that would likely attract the local wildlife.

__________________