Chapter Text
When Ludmilla was a little girl, she knew for a fact that she wanted to fly. Aunty Zuzu regularly had to confiscate makeshift gliders from her before she climbed too high up a scrap heap and jumped. Aunty was constantly checking in on Mila to make sure she “didn't break her neck trying to fly". When Ludmila was eight she got so frustrated with not being able to test her inventions that she stormed off into the scrap heaps.
As her anger cooled off, she just wandered both looking and not looking for good parts for her inventions. She'd been looking for good scrap for her gliders for so long that she couldn't help check everything she saw, but Ludmila also knew there was no point. Every time she tried to fly she’d just get reprimanded for “being unsafe” and it would just get taken away again. She sat down on a crate with a huff.
Ludmila just wanted to fly. She laid down on the crate with her head hanging off the edge and her arms draped down the sides. Mila closed her eyes and breathed deeply before slowly opening them and gazing at the upside down world.
She saw a flash of sunlight reflecting off something on an adjacent heap. Most things didn’t really shine by the time they got to Scrapsylvania. Ludmilla narrowed her eyes to try and see what was glinting but she couldn’t quite make it out. The fact that her head was still upside down did not help. Mila sighed and slowly rolled her way up. She let the heaviness from being upside down fade from her head before getting up and making her way towards whatever was reflecting the sun.
Never in a million years would Ludmilla have guessed that a book could be shiny. The cover was solid, not floppy like her leather journal, and the letters were raised and glinted in the sun. The letters that weren’t worn away, that is.
Mila carefully opened the book to find an anthology of fairytales. Most of the story titles listed were ones Ludmila had never heard before. The story that caught her eye was called “The Princess Who Wished to Fly”. She quickly flipped to that page and became enthralled with the story of the Princess Elster.
Princess Elster was forbidden from leaving the palace and would watch the birds flying from the grounds past the walls to the horizon. Each day she saw them soar, she felt the bone deep longing for wings of her own so that she might fly away. Ludmila certainly understood that feeling.
Princess Elster’s desire grew each day until she finally said, “I wish for wings so that I might fly beyond the palace walls and find where I’m truly meant to be”. There was a flash of light and the Princess was transformed.
Mila’s fingers traced the illustration of the newly Winged Princess. If only she could magically grow wings. Aunty Zuzu wouldn’t be able to stop her from gliding off the junk heaps if her “glider” was growing out of her. Ludmila thought about it a moment further. Aunty Zuzu would probably stop her regardless. Ludmilla did now want to hear the Soroka lecture again.
“You’re not ready, Mila! You’re a child, Mila! Don’t you remember what happens to people who abandon the earth and the scrap before they are ready, Mila? They get taken to the domain of Straka. You don’t want to get taken to the domain of Straka, do you Mila?” Ludmila recreated mockingly to herself.
It was a good thing she was on a scrap heap and not somewhere Aunty Zuzu could see. Ludmila did like the story of Soroka when she ignored the ending. Soroka was a winged orphan from Scrapsylvania. She had to hide her wings from outsiders and could never fly because it wasn't safe. Then one day there was a winged adventurer traveling through her village. The adventurer could fly and Soroka worked up the courage to ask them to teach her. Eventually the adventurer, a woman named Marta, agreed. The Marta in the story of Soroka was implied to be Marta, bringer of Spring, and as such Soroka would have to agree to leave her village. Marta had important responsibilites and could not stay in one place for too long. They stayed in Soroka's village just long enough for her to get the hang of flying before they had to leave. Soroka loved traveling the world with Marta.
The ending of the story of Soroka was that she and Marta got caught in a terrible storm caused by the Straka, and while Marta was strong enough to pass through, Soroka was not and became trapped. Straka came for those who abandoned and those that were abandoned, and Soroka was both. She had abandoned the scrap of her home for the skies and she had been abandoned as a baby because of her wings. The Straka would not rest until it had truly captured Soroka, but the other creatures in its realm took pity on her and hid her away. They spelled her to sleep until the day Marta, Spring, came and Straka was finally put to rest. The stories say that Soroka is still there, waiting for Marta to bring Spring to Straka.
Ludmila liked the story of Soroka up until it argued that Ludmila shouldn't try to fly. That seemed unfair. She wasn't Soroka. Mila looked back to the illustration of Princess Elster. Maybe she could fly like Elster instead of Soroka. She flipped to the next page. Princess Elster also had many adventures around the world, but Ludmila wasn't worried about that. She wanted to know Elster's ending.
She flipped over page after page until she got to the ending. Princess Elster had been blown off course in a storm and crash landed. When she woke up, Elster found that she had been helped by tiny worms and in order to repay them she wished for them to be helped the way they had helped her. Her wish formed a flash of light and the worms were transformed from their cursed state to that of beautiful faeries. They brought her to their land's capital and made her Queen as thanks for breaking their curse, and they all lived happily ever after.
Ludmila relaxed with the last words of the story. She didn't have to be Soroka who flew too soon, she could be Princess Elster. She closed the heavy book and hugged it to her chest. Someday, Ludmila promised to herself, Someday I will fly.