espher crashes.

"Espher, don't!" Yelled out Jagee, flying as fast as she could to keep up.

"I have to get Scarlet back!" Espher said, beating her wings as hard as she could, "She can't fly back here on her own!"

"Espher! Please! Stop! We're less than a mile from corotation! You'll go down!" Jagee flared her wings and stopped.

"I'll just catch her and fly right back!"

"Dammit Espher, you'll never get back up!" Jagee said, but Espher was already too far away to hear. Jagee stopped, watching Espher fly further away from her. "Damnit. She's gonna go down." Jagee watched as Espher passed through a cloud and disappeared. Muttering expletives, she flew back up to try to find help.

Espher managed to catch up with her falling pet bird, a red raven named Scarlet. She was flailing her wings and was altogether unsuited for the task of high speed flight. "Found you!" Espher said.

"CAW!" said Scarlet.

"Let's get you back up, the land isn't a place for birds to be. Or me, for that matter." But as Espher tried to gain altitude, she realized she was not climbing as fast as she thought. Her barometer barely climbed at all. She kept flying, Scarlet strapped to her chest, and found that she couldn't keep rising. She slowly began to sank. "Shit!" said Espher, panting and sweating, "Jagee was right!"

She fought for what seemed like a fortnight, but she couldn't keep it up. She let her forearms loose and, barely conscious, she fell out of the sky.

----------------

Espher woke up in a bed. The sheets felt like they were crushing her. She was in some kind of vehicle, accelerating forwards, she felt it. When would it stop? She just kept going faster and faster. She tried to sit up, but she didn't have the strength.

A short man came into the room with a bowl, walking on his hind arms, and took a seat in a chair.

"What's happening? Why are we going so fast?" Espher said.

"Fast?" said the man.

"We're still speeding up. Where are we going?"

"We're not going anywhere, what are you talking about?"

"The..." Espher took a deep breath, "Pressure."

The man stood up and put the bowl on the table.

"See, that right there. Things are sticking to the wall."

"The... wall? You mean the floor?"

"I've never heard of a floor, but if that's what you call it, then yes."

"Do things not usually stick to the floor?" Said the man.

"Who are you? Where are you taking me? And why so fast?" Said Espher.

"I'm Nopherd. I found you lying in the farm. And I'm not taking you anywhere at any speed." Nopherd said, and opened the curtains on the window next to the bed. "See?"

"See what?"

"Look out the window." Espher tried to push her head up enough to see, and managed to see a glimpse of the miles of corn outside before her head was pulled back to the bed.

"How am I stuck to the wall?" Said Espher.

"I don't understand, do things not fall where you're from?" Said Nopherd.

"Since I don't know what that word means, I can only assume that they do not," said Espher. She tilted her head and looked at the man standing sideways on the wall beside her. "What's wrong with your hands?"

Nopherd looked at his hands, puzzled.

"No, the other ones."

"What, my feet?"

"Again with the gibberish," said Espher, "your fingers are so short and your palms are so long."

"They're not hands, they're--oh, you have hands on your legs, right. I forgot. I was going to ask you about that," said Nopherd.

"Clearly," Espher paused to gasp for air, "we have many differences."

"Are you from the sky?" Nopherd asked.

"Oh my god, is this what the ground is like?" Asked Espher.