The Starflower
You open your eyes slowly.
Your ears are ringing and your limbs are slung out in an almost comical fashion from where you've sprawled face-first into the grass. You sit up, rolling your shoulders and stretching your joints - nothing hurts and you can't find any cuts or scrapes. Miraculously, you seem to have made it to land unharmed. The sailplane is lying on its side just behind you, one propellor still spinning slowly, as if in shock. It's gotten a bit banged up, but aside from a gash in the fabric of one wing and a large dent in one side of the hull, it also seems largely intact.
You sit quietly for a long moment, taking in deep breaths, mystified by the incredibly sweet scent on the air. You gaze across the small field you've landed in, with crumbling stone columns and soft grasses billowing in the breeze. Dotted throughout the clearing around you are patches of light blue flowers with glossy dark green leaves, so beautiful you rub your eyes to make sure you aren't dreaming. They glow with a faint light - they must be magic of some kind. You look towards the edge of the field, then your heart drops the way it did as the plane flew out of control beneath you. You realize you're not looking at the edge of the field... you're looking at the edge of the land itself! You're on a floating island!
Feeling alarmed, you start to get up, then pause when you hear the sound of something rustling. Turning around, you find a comparment on the plane beneath the pilot's visor has popped open. A few items are strewn on the ground beneath it, including what looks like a change of clothes, a bar of soap, a gardening trowel, a flowerpot - which has survived the journey with only a small crack - and a leatherbound journal, its pages flipping with the direction of the wind.
It feels a little wrong to snoop through someone else's things. But you have to find answers, so with a silent apology, you pick up the journal and thumb through it, skimming the entries for anything that might help you. Almost right away you learn that the flower is called a Starflower, and it's the reason you can breathe at all so high in the sky, easing the strain of the thin air on your lungs with its gentle aroma. The sailplane's owner - someone who seems to be an arcane researcher - makes regular trips to the island and the plane is programed to follow a specific route; that's how you got here instead of crashing into the sea, never to be seen again. There's even some basic operation instructions for the plane written in the front cover of the book.
Well, you've been rather irresponsible up to this point. Maybe it's about time to make some amends.
Keeping a cluster of Starflowers in view at all times, you set to work. You start by finding some tools in another compartment of the plane, and use a mallet to knock the dent out of the hull. You use a fabric scrap and a crude needle to stitch the wing of the plane, and the trowel and flowerpot to house a Starflower that you can take with you on the way back.
When you get the sailplane upright again and properly buckle yourself in this time, you nestle the potted Starflower carefully in the back of the craft to provide the magic you need to make the flight. Taking a deep breath, you prop the journal up on the plane's dash, find the indicated controls, and extend the wings before you reach to start the propellors.
You're really quite lucky to have made it here and found what you needed to get back. First and foremost you'll be returning the sailplane to its rightful place, and then perhaps if you look around, you can find the owner and ask the rest of your questions. But for now, at least you know you're going to get home.
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