[hr][center][color=808B96][color=00AEFF][h2][b]Akaeyla[/b][/h2][/color]Mir [b]-[/b] The Fall[/color][/center]
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It had been a quiet day in The Fall, which was exactly how Akaeyla preferred it. No violent storms, none of the more dangerous creatures of the forest deciding to go on a rampage, no tremors and best of all, not a trace of another person in the entire forest. Though, when she'd first come to live out in The Fall Akaeyla had wondered how she'd survive the life, she now more often found herself wondering how she'd lived any other way. Here life went at its own pace, untroubled by the escalating tensions between Novan and Miran- the trees continued to grow, the birds and beasts went about their daily routines, the seasons came and went, and migratory species made their annual pilgrimages to other parts of the world. Once you knew your way around, and were accustomed to the daily exercise of travelling through the expansive forest, you could live off the land with little difficulty, and almost forget the rest of the world existed beyond the dreaming borders of The Fall. However, in the late afternoon, the 'almost' had made itself felt; the rest of the world had invaded the tranquility of The Fall, in a most unexpected way.

It had begun with a sound- a series of sounds actually. At first no more than a whining, droning buzz, it had grown to the constant din of aircraft travelling at speed, somewhat muted by the forest canopy, and by distance. Almost as soon as she had heard the noise, Akaeyla remembered why it was not simply uncommon, but almost unheard-of for any aircraft to fly over The Fall- because it was impossible: Any aircraft that flew over The Fall inexplicably failed and plunged into it's depths, along with the many other wrecks and ruins that were reputed to decorate its interior. Even as her ears detected the change in engine tone, along with the staccato bursts of weapons fire and scented the oily smoke borne her direction on the breeze, Akaeyla realised two things. Firstly, that there was an aerial skirmish going on overhead and secondly that all involved were in danger! As though her thinking it had caused it to come to be, the sounds from the aircraft engines dwindled to erratic chugs and clunks, before cutting out completely. As that realisation sank in, on top of the previous two, Akaeyla dashed to the nearest tree, before swiftly scaling the trunk to the higher branches, the world unfolding around her as she made her way up past the dense autumnal foliage to the vantage-point that awaited her above, the canopy expanding in all directions around her like an ocean as she emerged.

Overhead, the suddenly disabled aircraft plunged in gradual, almost graceful swan-dives towards the seemingly endless expanse of forest, before sharp, brittle cracks and crashes echoed across the landscape, causing Akaeyla to wince. Branches breaking and shearing off, metal colliding with living wood- how long had it been since she'd heard anything like those kinds of sounds? Two years, maybe three.. possibly more? Though the thuds that marked the final descent of each plane were muffled by the forest they landed in, and the crashes distant, Akaeyla could nevertheless pick out with near pinpoint accuracy what had happened, for she had an... ability... that set her apart from others, both figuratively and literally. An ability that seemed almost to have been born of a disability.

Blind since birth, Akaeyla had, at eight years old, mysteriously begun to see.. only she didn't see with her eyes. At first both she and her parents had believed it to be a Codus, but just as swiftly realised it couldn't be, because her new sight remained constantly on- an impossibility for a Codus, given the amount of metabolic energy it required to use one at all. Though she had no points of reference for the matter, she knew the form of vision she possessed was vastly different from the regular. 

For a start, she saw before her, behind her, above her and beneath her all in a continuous 'sphere' of 20/20 vision. Since her sight didn't depend upon her eyes, neither daylight or darkness affected it. As far as Akaeyla could determine, her sight somehow derived from reality or truth- in short she saw what was really there.. which unfortunately, as she had swiftly discovered, came with its own complications. One complication was, since she saw what was real, she saw the supernatural as readily as the natural. That would be fine if all that was supernatural was auras around people but, as Akaeyla was only too aware, the supernatural was far more than that... and some of it could be dangerous, even lethal, if you could see it. The second complication, far more problematic than the first, was that her capacity to see truth had sharpened markedly over time. Instead of simply seeing natural and supernatural realities, just as clearly whether day or night, Akaeyla had begun to see all the truth that was to a thing. Whether the thing in question was an inanimate object, plant or animal... and most particularly people... Akaeyla saw the truths that were to them. If not for that, she might still be living back home instead of in The Fall.

Putting her musings to the side, Akaeyla observed the locations the planes had crashed... and that a parachute was slowly drifting down close to one- that was good, one pilot at least, had survived- for now. That left the pilot of the other plane unaccounted for so, Akaeyla reasoned, that was the crash site she should check first. Stepping carefully out along the branch she was perched upon, Akaeyla took a deep breath, before opening out her wings and leaping into wide blue yonder, gaining height with each beat of her wings. Even though she travelled swiftly once airborne, far faster than she could have travelled on foot, the shadows were beginning to lengthen by the time she arrived at the crash site. Whilst that didn't affect her greatly, it did mean that the creatures that roamed The Fall during the hours of darkness would very soon begin to stir. Not good for a crashed pilot and stranger to the forest. Ruffling her leathery wings a bit, before folding them smoothly as she landed, Akeyla took in the crash site.

The plane had become more ensnarled in the trees than the ground, sizeable sections shearing off as it did so- it was still about recognisable, but even if it hadn't crashed into The Fall, its flying days were over beyond recall. Twisted shards and stumps of metal were everywhere, the cockpit was a caricature of its former self, fuel and oil were spilling everywhere, and the sparks crackling here and there made it all the more dangerous. There was, Akaeyla observed though, a significant absence of a pilot.. or a body. Most likely that meant they had survived. The emblem on the hull of the plane caught her attention- it was a Sky Pirate craft. More importantly than that, she realised, there were tracks in the disturbed earth... tracks made by a person. The pilot had survived and was on the move. Not simply on the move, Akaeyla realised, on a bearing that would take them straight towards the other crash... plane or not, the pirate meant to finish the battle begun in the sky. That was bad news for the other pilot... bad news they would need warned about. It would take some time to fly to the second crash sight but, Akaeyla believed, if she did so she could out-pace the grounded pirate and reach the second pilot in time to warn them, and whilst there was still enough light she wouldn't be mistaken for a beast or monster and shot on sight. Spreading her wings, Akaeyla rose gracefully into the air again, getting her bearing before heading in a straight line towards the other downed plane...