Flying a Nyorus

"So, what is the favour you want from me?"
Titan didn't respond immediately. He seemed to be captivated by the Nyorus-fliers.
"Hmm? What do you want?" Titan was allowed one special favour by the recipient of the delivery.
"Could you... I don't think it's possible for me... would it be possible for me to... fly a Nyorus?"
Wren eyed Titan carefully.
"I mean, I know I'm not very muscular and all. I'm actually rather weak."
"Flying a Nyorus is not about strength... Titannakos... is it?" Wren said, looking at Titan's name tag.
"Yes, but you can call me Titan."
"It's not about strength, Titan, it's about skill. And you won't acquire the skill unless you really want to. Are you sure you don't want anything else? Food? Money? A place to stay? Learning to fly a Nyorus can take an incredibly long time, and I'm sure that you have other deliveries to make."
"Not really, no."
Silence.
"It could take years."
"Let me just try, why don't you."
Wren shrugged his shoulders. "Fine," he said. "But I won't give you anything else, even if you aren't able to learn how to do this. Is that okay?"
"Sure."

The Nyorus were these fantastic creatures, long and slender like snakes, with small wings, and they would swim through the air, gracefully. The smaller ones were one or two metres long, and the larger ones were gigantic. Some of them were a kilometre long.

Wren threw a bundle of thin, silvery ropes at Titan's feet.
"You'll need those," he said, "Reya ropes. Its what we use to catch the Nyorus."
Titan picked up the ropes and hung them over his shoulder, like Wren had done.
"What you need to understand, is that flying the Nyorus isn't the hard part. In fact there's nothing to flying a Nyorus. It's catching one that's the big deal."
Wren pulled out a small device from his pocket. He raised it to his mouth.
"What's that?" asked Titan.
"Didn't you notice? All the Nyorus-fliers use this."
"I did, but what is it?"
"It's a Wan."
"And?"
"And what?"
"What's it used for?"
"We use it to lure the Nyorus. Each Nyorus is lured by a specific tune. You have to know how to play the tunes of the Nyorus you want to catch."
"How would I know?"
"That," Wren said, "comes from practice."

Wren closed his eyes, and began to play the Wan. The music drove strange sensations through Titan.
Titan watched the skies. At first, nothing happened. None of the Nyorus moved towards them. Then Titan noticed a silvery streak in the distance moving, moving in step with Wren's music. It danced in the air, as it came closer and closer to Titan and Wren.

Wren had not opened his eyes, not even when the Nyorus hovered over his head. It was a fairly large one. It could have been two hundred metres long. The Nyorus gazed at Wren, its body and tail still dancing to the music. Suddenly Wren stopped playing. The Nyorus stopped dancing. It continued to remain near them for a moment, confused, unsure, afraid.
Wren yelled.
"Titan! Throw the Reya around the Nyorus!"
Titan gathered the bundle of ropes, and flung them at the Nyorus. The ropes, on touching the Nyorus's scales, grew into cloth, and both ends of the ropes grew downwards from the Nyorus. Then all the ropes slid off, falling in a heap on the ground.

"Not like that, you fool!"
The Nyorus began to flee. Wren, grabbing his bundle of ropes, pulled out one rope. The rope was thin, as thin as a strand of hair. He threw one end of the rope at the Nyorus, gripping the other end in his right hand. The rope slid over the body of the Nyorus, and began to grow, the other end of the rope growing down from the Nyorus's body. Wren ran forward, and grabbed the other end. He held both ends of the rope firmly, and planted his knees in the ground. The fleeing Nyorus was jerked back towards Wren. Now holding both ends of the rope in the same hand, he put the bundle of ropes on the ground with his free hand. Then he picked out another rope from the bundle, and threw it at the Nyorus. He caught its other end as it came down.
One by one, he threw individual ropes at the Nyorus. Then he began transferring rope ends from one hand to the other, pulling on some, letting others go, knotting up some others. It looked as if he was weaving some silver cloth in the air. The Nyorus was now draped in the silver material. It no longer struggled, it simply floated in the air, its body making wave-like movements. Wren began to pull on the ropes. The rope ends gathered on the ground below his fists. He brought the Nyorus closer to himself, and then, grabbing only one of the ropes, let all the others go. The Nyorus flew back like a sail suddenly hit by winds. It remained in Wren's control from only one of the ropes, the others having formed the cloth over the Nyorus. Then, he flew it. He flew it like one would fly a kite, tugging, releasing, changing the length of rope. The Nyorus swam around gracefully in the space it was allowed. And then something flowed from the Nyorus through the ropes to Wren. It lifted him into the air for a moment, a brief moment, but then he looked fuller, stronger.

"Now I don't know how to teach you to do that, Titan."

Titan the Postman - coming up.

I have decided that I shall use Koze as a sort of testing ground for story ideas and non-serious stories. By non-serious stories I do not mean funny stories, I mean stories that I do not take seriously enough to work on. What you shall see shortly is Titan the Postman. Serious, not non-serious. I have a general idea for a story... I shall be trying out various approaches to it.

It is about a postman, Titannakos Spannakos. Thanks to Rohith for the name. He is not of our world. Postmen are a little different where he lives, and so are the people, as you shall see.

Thank you for your patience, if you happen to have any.