Doomed to Fall

Doomed to Fall

Months of hard work it had cost him, making sketches and calculations during his waking hours, and often skipping sleep. Blood, sweat and tears had been the price, though he was not certain if it'd work. It had been quite the struggle, yet, at last he got to see if his ideas were right.

With no one else in sight he stood on the edge of a rocky cliff, about seven meters above the water level. The sea before him stretched far beyond his limited reach, and while he stared at it he wondered what would be beyond this horizontal line that separated the sea from the sky. What could be on the other side, he wondered. Perchance there was another fool there who also tried mimicking the birds.

He realized that his thoughts were drifting off. Perhaps it was the excitement that took hold of him, or perhaps he was simply afraid to fail. Whatever it was, with a will of iron he changed his focus back to his experiment.

Once he had rewon his self, he checked the machine strapped on his back for the last time. The artificial wings seemed to be still intact, as were the ropes, tubes and pipes. Then, after he had thought it all through one last time, he took a deep breath in, bent through his knees, and jumped in one movement off the cliff, sighing out all the remaining air inside his lungs. For a sole second, he flew, he really flew! However, it was over before it had begun, and soon he found his body clashing onto the water's surface.

As he swam back to the shoreline, a voice inside of him said, “I told you it wouldn't work.”

Yet, Leonardo's mind was already busy thinking of a solution.

Word Count: 299