We started down the mountain switching back and forth as we descended. When we finally reached the bottom, my legs burned, and my pace was lacking. I nearly fell flat on my face when we finally reached the bottom and my feet hit the level ground. I looked back up the steep cliff and couldn’t make out the cave entrance over the face of the many switchbacks. My eye caught the planet again and I nearly gasped in awe.

“What is that place?” I asked Hawk pointing to the planet.

“That is our twin planet, it is identical to our planet in physical composition, but spins in the opposite direction. I often wonder what the effects of such a large planet that close are on our own planet.” He said as we walked.

“Do the oceans here swell and retreat for a long distance?” I asked wondering myself. I am pretty sure the moon causes the tide on Earth.

“Yeah it does, but what does that have to do with the other planet?” He asked as we walked.

“Have you ever wondered why you don’t just float away, why you and everything else are attracted to the ground at a constant force? Do you wonder why things tend to fall at the same speed all of the time?” He stopped and looked at me.

“Not really.” He replied. Should have joined the guard.

“What if I told you that the shear size and physical mass of the planet that you are standing on attracts object to its surface with a force that has a constant acceleration and the force exerted downward is caused by the mass of the object, or the amount of material it holds.” I said.

“What is mass?” He asked.

“It is the amount of raw substance that makes up an object. It is independent of size and depends largely on density. A good example is when you pick up a wooden sword and then a metal one the same size, which one is heavier?” He looked perplexed.

“The metal one?” He asked.

“Yeah, the metal one because it has a higher density. Look we can continue talking about this sort of thing until I am blue in the face, but I don’t think you are getting it so let’s talk about something simpler.” I said wondering if his name shouldn’t be Rock.

“I think I get it. So, no matter the physical size of an object the density is more important. All objects are drawn to the earth at a constant rate of acceleration until they reach the maximum rate, or until something else acts on them like a leaf floating on the wind. When there is no wind the leaf would fall almost straight down, when there's lots of wind it would just float on the wind, because it lacks mass.” I stopped and looked up at the large brute, wondering if I shouldn’t award him with an “ing” after his name.

“That about has it, but what you are failing to realize is that the very air itself has mass and density.” I stated, and he nodded his understanding. “The air above you actually exert pressure down on you in a straight column, it doesn’t weigh a lot, but there is a lot of it. Have you ever dived into water?” I asked looking over at him, he nodded so I continued. “Did you notice as you got deeper that the water seemed to press in on you as you sank?” He nodded. “Have you also noticed that when you drop an object into water it falls slower like the leaf through the air?” I asked him, and he nodded again. “Well that is because water is denser than air and therefore has more resistance than air, but things still tend to fall at the same rate minus what the water itself does to slow it down. If the object has a density less than the water though it will float.” He stopped, and a light bulb went off above his head, not a figure of speech an actual lightbulb the size of my head completed with filament and all appeared and turned on above his head, then disappeared.

“I am now a scholar.” He stated in disbelief.

“Congratulations! That didn’t take long.” I said looking up at him with a large smile on my face.

“Yeah, normally people study for years, most of their life and then they come up with a new original concept and they are awarded with the talent. I just talked to you for a few minutes and now I have it. I thought I would have to go to the university or something.” He looked like he might cry.

“What was your idea?” I asked staring up at him.

“Well you said that the reason some things don’t sink in water is because they are less dense.” He paused and looked at me, then I nodded for him to continue. “Well then if you can make a ship out of material that would normally sink by filling it with air that is obviously not as dense as water, you should be able to do the same with the air. You said that air does have mass and density, and that it pushes down on us, so we should be able to float something in it just like we float a ship in water. You wouldn’t even have to use magic.” He looked at me waiting on confirmation.

“You got that from our short conversation? Why would you ever waist your mind on being a guard?” I asked incredulously.

“It is what is expected of me, but now that I am a professed scholar, they can’t possibly force me to become a guard. So, what do you think of my idea will it work?” He asked excited.

“Yeah, sure will. There is also something else you need to learn though, regarding lift.” I said as we continued down the mountain trail toward the forest that spread out before us.

We continued to talk the entire walk completely oblivious of our surroundings. We discussed everything from aerodynamics, to thermal dynamics, and internal combustion. We also discussed how electricity could be harnessed and different material properties. I told him about basic electrical theory and got into more advanced theory. He just absorbed everything like a sponge, he never stopped me or made me repeat myself he only asked questions about his own assumptions. This must be what it was like to teach Einstein, or Rickover.

We slept at night under the trees; we ate when we found easy prey, which just happened to be when we got hungry.

“I like traveling with you.” Hawk said breaking an hour long silence as we just enjoyed the calm forest.

I think I may have blushed a little, and Andrea nuzzled my neck in response to the slight increase in temperature, then I responded with a smile, “I like traveling with you too Hawk, never had an easier time teaching someone. You are quite remarkable.”

He looked confused then went silent, looking a little embarrassed.

“You mean because easy prey animals seem to turn up around meal times with either a gimpy leg or a mind of mush.” I looked over to check.

He blushed, looked down, then finally up at me. “Yeah, sorry you are good company, but things just sort of fall in place with you. I am beginning to wonder how much my own life has been shaped by luck. When I wake up late for breakfast and just miss the last of the eggs, was that bad luck, or just bad planning?” He looked over at me, clearly looking for answers.

Andrea shrilled on my neck and said “You wake up late for breakfast, and that is on you.” Then she decided that lifting her head had required too much energy and laid it back down seemingly falling asleep instantly.

“Why can’t it be both? Some random event probably lead to you being extra tired, but with enough planning you can always overcome a spout of bad luck. If you had made a conscious effort to wake up, you probably would have woken up. You basically left it up to fate, and then you have like a 50/50 shot.” This had me wondering myself.

“60/40 when it comes to life skill related efforts that are left to fate. Each point in luck adds a 1% chance of success until luck 99 where it is capped at 99%, but for the next 100 points you receive the additional 1% causing you to be 100% lucky, or have a virtual 0 failure rate.” Andrea said without moving. I found no reason to explain this to Hawk who seemed to not hear Andrea.

“Don’t be surprised if the elder council rejects you, or asks you to do something, either option is as likely as the other. They are a strange group.” We walked through an open field surrounded on all sides by thick forest with massive trees, but going forward the trees were truly massive. They had red bark that looked a little furry, and were massively wide at the base lacking any limbs until the top. They looked like sequoias. Maybe 350’ tall and nearly 50’ in diameter at the base, they stood with large areas of cleared earth between them covered in large amounts of needles that had fallen over the years. Simply put it was amazing.

“These trees are amazing we have these where I am from too, but they have almost all been cut down.”

“My ancestors cut one down, but the wood is brittle and they are a pain to cut and process because of the massive size. Why did your people cut them, what did they do with the wood?” Hawk asked reaching out and running his hand over a nearby tree.

“I don’t really know, I think we just cut them down to prove we could to be honest. There is a similar tree that grew close by these that had great wood, nearly fireproof, and strong. Those trees grew even taller than these.” I told him as we passed beneath the giants, and a limb audibly started to crack in the distance. I jumped then started looking for the source, not wanting to be crushed by a hundred foot long eight foot thick limb.

“It was a long way off, don’t worry unless you see me run. I didn’t know trees could grow taller, the tops die on these when they get old.”

“Actually the top dies because the root structure that provides the water for the top dies. The roots spread out far from the base and not down like most smaller trees.”

“You know some strange facts. Why is the sky blue big shot?” Hawk smiled and smirked.

“The light is reflected by the oceans and since the planet is mostly water it then is reflected back down by the ozone layer. You have noticed that it is clear at night and then you can see into space.” I smirked and punched him lightly on the arm.

“Very strange facts” He chuckled and hit me back sending me off of the path and into a nearby tree causing my hit points to take a dive.

“Sorry, forgot about how light you are.”

“I am fine, but you better be careful Andrea doesn’t like being distur…” I trailed off as a shot of electricity took Hawk square in the chest locking him up and causing him to shake violently momentarily until the flow of current cut off and he fell straight back to the ground.

“He kind of deserved that one.” I said. Andrea then stood, stretched walked a full circle around my shoulders passing her butt right in front of my face, and then she settled right back into the same spot. We waited a couple minutes for Hawk to gather himself and continued down the path. At this point we had traveled for days constantly south and rising in elevation constantly. Each morning my legs would be stiff and take several minutes to stretch and massage before I could get going.

“You have any horses in your village?”

“Yeah, but we never take them to the cave for fear of the dragon eating them.” Hawk replied.

“Makes sense, how much farther is it?”

“Just up ahead maybe a mile or so, we will crest a hill and you will see a large clearing surrounded by the largest trees in the forest. We have been here for centuries living off of the abundant wildlife of the forest.” Hawk was obviously proud and smiled wide.

We kept walking and the elevation continued to climb. The air seemed clean and crisp, but not thin like I would expect, I guess it would be cleaner than what I am used to. The forest began to rustle and stir with life as we got closer. There were birds, and rodents everywhere and signs of deer rubbings and other large animals. The needles that covered the rest of the forest were thinner here showing obvious evidence of both human and animal occupation. The trees showed signs of a long ago fire up to around thirty foot up the trunks and there was little to no underbrush as the canopy swallowed nearly all of the light and the fallen needles blocked the rest. We stopped and rested and ate the last of our dry rations and Hawk prepared me to meet his people.

“We are a rough group.” Hawk began looking weary for the first time during our long journey. “We live primarily from killing animals in the forest, we also gather anything that grows near the village as you can tell.” He indicated the cleared forest around us. “The elders were the biggest and strongest of our people that gained the most respect when they were young. Their rank on the council is based on the amount of meat they gathered. Several of them are suspected of killing other more capable hunters that weren’t as strong and used trapping and intelligence instead of speed and power. Some of them went into the woods with other hunters with more kills and more meat, but came out alone claiming that the other was lost when they went off on their own. We found several with brutal looking tears, but they looked different than what we normally see from known animal attacks. There was just less blood, and the ground wasn’t as disturbed. The council hasn’t changed in quite some time as they serve for the rest of their life. They don’t trust outsiders, or other tribes, so you may not be able get them to listen to you. I thank you for coming all this way to help me, and for helping me to gain a profession.” He bowed his head in respect.

“You were good company, and to be honest I didn’t have a lot of options. I would have been stranded and alone without you.