Child's Play

The wood of the wheel was rough under his slender fingers. He let it remind him of tree-bark. The feeling of climbing trees in the forests of his homeworld. He let the memories of the movement echo through his arms, his chest. 

Rand watched as the elf slipped into trance. He looked over his shoulder to check the sail; it was taught, slicing and dragging through the invisible etheric winds. The rudder on the arcanium drive twitched back and forth as Drake's hands gently shifted the wheel one way then another. 

Drake's memories carried him back through battles against goblins, perched in the trees, firing arrows down upon the savage enemies. The tension of draw and release rippling through his arms.  

Rand saw the rudder shake, the ship tilting slightly. He glanced at his long-time partner and friend, hoping the trance took him where he needed to get to soon. 

Farther back still, the long years and years of an elfin life, the swirling fugue of memories, ebbing and flowing in his mind and his body, streaming from the feel of his hands on the wood. Before the battles, play. Childhood games in the treetops with his kin. Running along branches and throwing... yes, the movement surging in his arms... throwing and catching a dagger... A game, a test of skill.

The right memory of balance and precision and focus. 

Rand saw Drake's eyes snap open.  

In the vast sky of stars and darkness and shimmering waves, Drake focused on the three bright stars, shining like the glint of a blade spinning through the air. He grasped the wheel and let the memories of ancient movements run through his arms. And steered the ship towards the place she should be falling...