[Francesca ducks into an empty building and removes her gown, and folds
it carefully. She then puts her flight suit back on. Once she is
properly attired she seeks out the Elder.]
Thank you, sir, for being such kind, generous hosts. This has been a
very memorable Jellicle Ball.
Before I leave, may I offer you an excursion in my catacopter? Would you
like to fly over your village and view it and the surrounding villages
from the air? Or perhaps pay a visit somewhere?
[The Elder ponders the offer for a bit, then asks if it would be
possible to also bring along the various Masters. Francesca quickly
agrees. Assorted journeymen set off to ask the Masters if they would
like to go, and soon a small procession of kitties and a couple humans
are gathering outside Frannie's copter. She and Benni quickly configure
the read area with comfortable seats. Francesca invites the Elder to
ride up front in the co-pilot seat. Frannie and Benni circulate throuh
the cockpit and the cabin, making sure that everybody is strapped in,
everybody has a headset on, and everybody is comfortable. Everybody is
soon arranged, so Francesca starts the engine and lets it warm up.
Everybody is quite impressed with the engine's purring sound.
Once the engine is warm, Francesca takes off gently and climbs to an
altitude of 2000 feet. She circles the village from a distance of a mile
or so, allowing all on board to get a good view of the village and how
it is laid out. The Elder is quite impressed.]
Elder: Oh my! I have lived in this village my entire life, but I have
never pictured in my mind just how the village layout really looks.
Seeing it this way is very different from seeing it on a map.
[From the rear area the Master of fabric making and dyeing speaks next.]
Master: I see the river where we get the water for our dyeing operation.
Could we fly along the river a bit? [Francesca gently banks the chopper
and brings them parallel to the river.]
Ah, there are the waterfalls! And there is the manual pump, and the
channel to the dyeing pit, and the pit. My, that's spectacular. It's so
easy to forget how beautiful something like a waterfall is when you see
it every day. I think when we retire the current pit we will dig the
new one much farther from the river. I can see that if the soil around
the pit eroded we could leak dyestuff into the river. That would be bad!
Thank you for showing me this.
[The other masters request areas they would like to see, so the copter
criss-crosses the sky, allowing those aboard to see all of their
surrounding area. The ELder takes off his headset and leans over to
whisper in Francesca's ear. She smiles and nods her head.]
Francesca: Ok, folks please double check that your seatbelts are
securely fastened. The Elder has asked for a little bit of excitement,
so we are going to get a little bit more active in our manuevers.
[Francesca dips the nose of the chopper and allows it to lose altitued,
then applies power and makes a dramatic turning climb, pressing
everybody back into their seats. The view out the noise of the chopper
is of jungle flashing by very quickly. She then pulls the nose of the
chopper up, and they rapidly gain altitude. She allows the chopper to
lose momentum at the peak of it's climb, then snaps the nose around into
a steep dive. The Elder cackles gleefully into his headset. Franny
levels the chopper just above tree top height, then shows them
nap-of-the-earth flying, popping up over hilly peaks and diving down
into vine-filled canyons. She gives the Elder and the other passengers a
wonderfully exciting ride.
Once everybody has absorbed all the thrills they want for the day, she
heads back to the village. As the passengers disembark they all exclaim
over how much fun the ride was. The ELder gives Francesca a big hug in
thanks.
Francesca and Benni climb into the chopper, climb to altitude, then the
chopper disappears as Benni activates the onboard teleporter. Moments
later they are flying over Iowa corfields. ]
--
Francesca the Fierce
Walk of Remembrance: http://www.clowdercat.org/walk/walkofremembranz.html