Chapter 23 "The Changing Plane" Excerpt 5 Flying Man (1)

Flying gia are very similar to people on our plane, except that they don't have hair, instead they have feathers.The baby's head is covered with fine down, which gradually develops dark brown spots during childhood, and turns into actual feathers during puberty.Most men have hard feathers on the nape of their necks, short common feathers on their heads, and a tall crown on the top of their heads.The male's head feathers are usually black or brown with spots of different colors, including bronze, red, green and blue.Females often have very long feathers, some with head feathers that reach the floor, with soft, curly ends like an ostrich's tail.Female head feathers come in a variety of colors, including purple, red, coral, emerald green, gold, and more.

Ghia men and women have downy hair on the pubic area and underarms, and short body feathers all over the body.The light-feathered Ghia are beautiful naked, but they are often plagued by lice. Molting is an ongoing process, not a seasonal one, for the Ghia.With age, the feathers that have fallen off may not grow back. People over the age of forty, both men and women, have alopecia areata.As a result, many people, as they shed their best-looking head feathers, collect them and fashion them into wigs for later use. People with ugly head feathers can also buy pre-made wigs in some special stores.It is considered fashionable to bleach the head feathers, spray them with gold dye, or curl them.Every wig shop in the city, while selling a variety of headgear, can also bleach, dye or curl the customer's head feathers according to the fashion.

Women with particularly beautiful long head feathers also sold their head feathers to these shops at a considerable price in times of poverty. Ghia write with a quill.When a child starts to learn to write, his father will follow the tradition and give his feather as a pen to the child.Lovers exchange feathers and write love letters to each other with each other's feathers.This romantic custom was mentioned in Inui Nui's famous play Misunderstanding: O feather of my betrayal, wrote his love but to her!His love - my feathers, my blood!Quiet, peaceful, and traditional, the Gia are not interested in innovation and appear shy around strangers.They are resistant to technological inventions and other novelties.Someone tried to sell them a ballpoint pen or an airplane, someone else tried to introduce them to the magical world of electronics, but all of them failed.

Ghia still write letters to each other with quills; use their heads to count; travel on foot or in carts drawn by a large dog-like animal called Ugnunu; only when absolutely necessary I only learn a little foreign language when I have time; I watch classical stage plays written according to traditional rhythms.Although I have heard and seen many advanced technological achievements, surprising gadgets, and advanced scientific knowledge from other planes-this is because Gia is a plane favored by travelers-all of these cannot be found in Gia. The slightest bit of jealousy, greed, or inferiority complex aroused in the heart of the Asian.

Their behavior was still exactly the same as before: it wasn't exactly rigid, but it was clearly dull, a polite indifference, and no one could tell what they were thinking. Beneath this veneer lurks perhaps a preternatural complacency, but it could also be something else entirely.Of course, the vulgar travelers gave the Ghia some ugly nicknames, such as: Birdman, Featherhead, Chicken Brain, and so on.Many visitors from the more active planes visit quiet towns, drive through the fields on Ugnunura's four-wheeled carts, or attend quiet and glamorous dances (the Gian are fond of dancing). , or a classical evening at the theatre, but that won't make them lose their disdain for the locals.Generally speaking, outsiders' evaluation of the Giyas is "feathers but no wings".These self-important travelers might spend a whole week in Gia, but they won't see a single winged native, or know that the occasional black dot in the sky they see isn't A bird or a jet, but a woman in flight.Ghia do not speak of their winged brethren unless an outsider asks the corresponding question.They don't deliberately withhold information about flying people, but they also don't volunteer information.

In order to write the following description, I had to ask many questions.Wings don't develop, or even show signs of, until the end of puberty.Until the age of eighteen in girls and nineteen in boys, some of them will develop a low-grade fever accompanied by pain in the shoulder blades.This is followed by severe pain that lasts a full year, or longer. During this time, the newborn trapeze must be kept warm, well fed, and away from any noise.There is nothing to keep them comfortable except food - newborn fliers are very hungry most of the time.They must be covered with thick quilts or blankets, and wait for their bodies to grow according to the new structure.Their bones became lighter and more porous, and the muscular structure of their entire upper body changed.Huge bony tumors rapidly growing from the shoulder blades became broad wings.In the final stage, the feathers will grow on the wings, and at this time there will be no more pain.

The main wing itself is so huge that it can even reach a meter in length.The wingspan of a male trapeze is about four meters, and that of a female trapeze is about three and a half meters.At the same time, hard feathers grow on the back of the calf and the heel, and these feathers can help control the direction in flight.Any attempt to interfere with or prevent the growth of wings is useless and harmful to the human body, even fatal.If the process of wing growth is hindered, those bones and muscles twist and wither, causing excruciating and unrelieved pain.Amputation of wings or flight feathers at any time causes a slow and painful death.For the most conservative Ghia, this weakness of the winged man is associated with religious practice.Among the tribes that live on the icy shores near the North Pole, once a young man shows such fatal signs, he is immediately bound and sent to the elders of the tribe.