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Opportunity of the Meek

Kim Té-Hel let her wings carry her for a few hours of gentle gliding, hoping to take the time to meditate and collect her thoughts.

Though she wasn't there herself, she had already heard about the embarrassing failure that was Rey's advance on Agria just a few hours before. Knowing the General, it was only a matter of time before they tried again, and likely not much of it. 

Kim had, honestly, not gotten to know the General as well as she should. She respected him immensely, and it's not like he was unapproachable, but he was beyond intimidation- and she couldn't seem to knock out the perception she had of 'The General.' A military leader, too far above her to associate. That dissonance made Kim laugh at herself. She didn't have any of these anxieties sleeping with the crown prince of her nation. About a week into knowing him, he was just Men. Sweet, stupid, arrogant, perfect Men.

Gods, he must be a wreck right now, she thought. She had only heard his name too many times recently. Too many soldiers had given her dirty looks in the last couple hours for him to have not had anything to do with whatever happened with Agria. Hopefully he was handling it well, and not like… him. If he's having one of his tantrums, maybe it's finally time for her to start roping him in, and putting him in place as his wife. His wife.

That was another thing. She was still getting used to this name. Kim Té-Hel. It's not that she didn't like it, but it doesn't quite have that ring, does it? Maybe she just needed to say it more? You'd think the district's most renowned surname would look good on anyone. Just another thing she somehow managed to mess up, against all odds. Not… that this was the most pressing issue at the moment.

Kim's wandering thoughts shook apart when another Aarakocra nearly slammed into her mid-flight. The stranger, who was about to cross over Kim, suddenly dropped a few feet, and would have knocked her out of the sky had she not rolled out of the way. The Aarakocra corrected itself after the short misstep, and Kim stopped to curse at him while he glided off.

But when she came upright and got a good look at him, she realized that this wasn't an Aarakocra at all. No, on the contrary- this was a Kenku! A short, flightless bird person with no wings to speak of. Doing a double take, Kim examined the Kenku's outfit and realized that he was wearing a pair of leather wings… or, wing-like attachments sewn onto the back of his shirt. He was gliding with them- and, by the shakes and tiny drops on his course- not well.

Kim stared, dumbfounded, at this Kenku, and almost let him get away, before the wings failed him once again, and he started dropping even further than last time. She snapped to attention, decided she'd spent long enough thinking about Men, and swooped in to catch the Kenku.

The Kenku, caught off guard by Kim tackling him from behind, yelped and tried to push Kim's arms off of him.

"What are you d- stop, get- trill- off me!" He shouted.

"Yeah, you're welcome! What is this thing- hey- hold still" Kim pleaded, the Kenku still struggling to force himself out of her bear hug.

The Kenku struggled against Kim's clearly superior strength, not so much as moving a finger of hers while she carried him higher into the air. "Let go of me, I'm fine! I have it under control!"

"You're losing altitude fast, bud, and you almost took me down with you! You're a safety hazard- and don't try to tell me that was intentional!"

"I was doing well enough to land, you don't need to carry me!"

"I'll take your word for it. What island are you trying to get to?"

The Kenku did not respond. Kim repeated herself, sternly.

"Where are you going?"

"...Drop me off at Xen’turk. My friends are waiting for me."

Kim nodded, and carried the now compliant Kenku by the shoulders up to the cliffs of Xen'turk, where- sure enough, three more Flightless with similar wing contraptions were standing in a group. There was an Elf, a Goliath, and an Tuan-ti; all of whom were giving a disappointed look to the embarrassed Kenku as they made landing.

"Alright." Kim said, finally letting the Kenku go. "Are any of you gonna tell me what you're doing?"

"We're artificers!" The Kenku explained. "Inventors. We're figuring out a way to fly without needing magic or dragons."

"Uh… huh." Kim nodded, awkwardly. "...Why?"

"Accessibility!" The Goliath jumped in. "Not everyone has th’ time ta study magic, and there aren't enough dragons fer everyone- even assuming they all have what it takes to own one."

"But that's… that's what we're here for." Kim responded, pointing at herself. "There's a whole branch of the militia designated to escorting flightless. This is…" Kim pinched one of the wings on the Kenku's back, "Dangerous. Why bother?"

"Because we're sick of being escorted!" The Elf shouted. "We're tired of having to be a burden just to keep living! We're tired of wasting our time seeking you out!"

"You're not burdens!" Kim assured them. "The Sky District is proud to assist its people when they're unable to-"

"Well we're not!" The Yuan-ti interrupted. "We're not okay with it! It's humiliating, and inconvenient, and exhausting! We want to be like you!"

"You are like us!"

"No!" The Yuan-ti shouted. "No, we're not! God, no one listens! You're all like this"

"Excuse me?" Kim squinted.

"Look, we're-" the Elf stuttered, "We think it would benefit the state if the money and manpower it's spending giving transport to its Flightless could be better spent in other places. And it would give us a chance to be less… dependent."

"Are we not dependable?" Kim asked. "I'm sorry- it just seems like you're looking for a worse solution to a problem we've already solved for you-"

"You are dependable!" The goliath assured. "We just don't have to- gah, ferget this."

Kim took another glance at the wing mechanism, her brow furrowed, and thought for a few moments. Finally, she shrugged, and turned away.

"Those things are gonna get you killed. And we're not just gonna stand here and let you kill yourselves. So, they're definitely getting outlawed- but have fun until then. Keep… innovating, I guess."

Kim flew off, leaving the four of them alone together, defeated.

Kim kept flying for a few more minutes, before passing over something she had been dreading that she might. Not far below her, on a small island, were two Aarakocra in the middle of a sparring match.

Men was mercilessly beating the soldier he was sparring with, deaf and blind to the state he was in. Kim landed next to the pair, and watched as Men held the Aarakocra up by his chest.

"Men?" She asked, trying to get his attention.

Men either ignored her or didn't hear her- because instead of acknowledging her landing, he grunted, and slammed his fist across his opponent's jaw, splattering a bit of blood into the grass.

Kim walked closer to Men, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey- you won, let off him."

Men spread his wings out over the Aarakocra and hissed, before going to swing at him again. Kim grabbed him by the wrist before he could, and pulled him off of his opponent, forcing eye contact.

"Easy, soldier!" She shouted. Panting, Men finally stopped fighting.

Kim tugged him away from the other soldier, and let him go. She looked down at the battered stranger, who was already sitting up.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked. Feeling his beak with one hand, he responded with a thumbs up from the other. Kim was about to offer to carry him to a healing ward, but before she could, he got on his feet, and flew off.

Kim turned back around to face Men. "You gonna tell me what that was about?"

"He was losing." He huffed. "I pinned him, so I kept going."

"Right. And cracking his skull open is par for the course now?" She responded. "I saw what you were doing. You were intimidating him after he was down. You were bullying him."

"I'm not a child." Men brushed her off. "He agreed to the fight- I'm stronger than him, so he got hurt. It happens."

"Not with you." Kim argued. "You let go."

"Men…" She took his hand. "What happened?"

Men sighed. "I got cold feet during the deployment. Agria said he was innocent."

"And you believe him?"

"I don't know." Men groaned. "But it was enough to make me freeze up. If there was a chance that we were gonna lose who knows how many soldiers, for the sake of killing Agria? And we find out it's all for nothing? I… I wouldn't be able to live with that."

"Did you want to protect Agria until you were sure?"

Men shook his head. "No. I don't care about him, or what he really did. I care about the people he would take down with him. That's why I… I tried to tell everyone to leave. But Rey kept pushing."

"And people died because they ignored you?"

"They died because of me! I stopped my father from attacking Agria- put us both in danger. We lost five soldiers just keeping the two of us safe."

Men looked at his hands. Kim focused on the blood staining his knuckles.

"That makes me responsible- I know that. But what should I have done!? If I did nothing, I had every reason to believe lives would be lost. I wanted to save their lives, but- but I took them! No matter what, I couldn't do anything to help. I'm not strong enough, not important enough to do anything!"

Kim paused, took a step towards Men, and pulled him into her arms. Quietly, she trilled and nuzzled his cheek while he clutched onto her back, burying his head into her shoulder.

"Shh…" She lulled. "It's okay, Men… you're doing your best. No one blames you for that."

Men's breath shook as she continued to cuddle him.

"You just can't save everyone every time, you self-important bastard."

Men pulled away, and looked at her confusedly. Suddenly, Kim slapped him across the face, tightening her stance and raising her voice.

"You aren't the general, whelp. So stop pretending! You're just a soldier, prince moniker be put to shit. A citizen. You don't get to make your father's calls, and we aren't going to listen to you if you try! Being that delusional is only gonna get people hurt, like it just did."

"So what do I do!?" He pleaded. "Do I just sit here and let innocent people die!?"

"No!" Kim shouted. "For God's sake, Za-Hel, don't weigh everything on a title you don't have yet. You're a citizen. So go help as a citizen. Go feed a starving pauper- help a lost child get home- go save an Elf from a pack of bandits! Go make people's lives better- not as the Soldier Prince- as Men. That's what you can do! That's how you save lives!"

Men pondered Kim's words, staring off with a look of uncertainty and anxiety. But eventually, he looked back at her, and nodded.

"Alright." He said. "I'll try it. Any idea where I should start?"

"I? I'm not letting you have all that fun yourself, Men! Actually, I have a place in mind I've already been thinking of visiting. A certain village full of hurting, needy people who just lost everything."

Men smiled, and nodded. Without another word, the two turned, jumped off the island's cliff, and took flight towards the city of Clearbrooke.