Learning to fly

The next morning Lacey was up bright and early and headed up to the edge of the mountain where Silvia said she was going to be teaching Lilly how to fly.

As she walked along the path, she was humming a happy little tune. "Hey Lacey, wait up." She heard Tim shout, she stopped and waited still humming her tune. "Well good morning." She said cheerily as Tim came up beside her, breathless from running to ketchup.

"This is so exciting. It will be so neat to see that bird fly. Maybe we will be able to use it to get off this island." Lacey stopped humming. "That is an interesting thought. We will have to see what Silvia thinks about that." They continued up the path towards the mountain with Tim rattling on and Lacey only half listening.

As they got closer to the side of the mountain, they saw Silvia and the bird up on a ledge about as high as a three story building feet up. Silvia had a piece of something in her hand holding it out to the bird coaxing her out onto the ledge a little further.

As they got even closer and started climbing, they saw her trying to get it to jump off the ledge. Lacey could see that Lilly did not want to do it.

Lacey and Tim quickly hiked up to the ledge where Silvia and Lilly were. Lacey could see that Lilly was scared and did not want to jump. "She hasn't seen anything fly before she is used to being like us and just walking." Said Lacey.

"What are we going to do?" "She probably would if you did." Said Tim. "Well this is too high for me to jump from." Replied Silvia. "We could just push her off." Replied Tim, Silvia turned to him quickly. "Don't you dare!" She said.

"Just giving suggestions." He replied defensively. "How else is she going to know she can fly?" He continued. "I have a suggestion." Lacey chimed in.

"What if we go down lower where we can jump from, starting at little rocks and then getting to the bigger boulders? What do you think about that?"

"That sounds like a better idea than the other one." Replied Silvia. "Come on let's go." They headed back down the side of the mountain. When they got to the bottom, they each stood on a rock and jumped off.

The bird just watched. After about fifteen minutes of jumping off rocks, Silvia coaxed Lilly up onto a good-sized rock that she and the bird could both fit on. She jumped off, then turned around and showed the bird a treat. Lilly gave a squawk and jumped.

Silvia quickly rolled out of the way as Lilly came crashing down onto the ground. Lacey and Tim began clapping. "Well I guess that was a start." Said Silvia as she brushed dust off her clothes.

"Come on Lilly, that was fairly good. Let us try again." Said Silvia, as she climbed up on the rock. Again, they jumped. After three more times of Lilly crashing to the ground Silvia got up dusting herself off again.

"Now what should we do?" She asked Lacey. "She jumps off now, but she keeps landing on her face." "Maybe if she spread her wings, when she jumped then she would land softer." Suggested Lacey.

"That's a good idea." Exclaimed Silvia and she and the bird headed back up onto the rock.

Tim yawned, getting bored with watching the same thing over and over again.

"I'm going to go do some hunting for a while." He said as he wandered off. Lacey watched him go for a little bit and then turned back to Silvia and Lilly, encouraging them on and giving suggestions on how Silvia could get Lilly to do it even better.

As the sun got higher in the sky the girls began to get tired and soon Lacey suggested they take a break for lunch. "She really is doing a lot better." Silvia said as she sat on a stone beside Lacey.

"She definitely doesn't face plant anymore, but she still isn't very graceful." Replied Lacey. They found a shady spot under the trees on the edge of the forest and slowly ate their food.

After eating, Lacey climbed up into one of the trees. Finding a good spot, she used some large leaves as a blanket on the limb and lay down, quickly drifting into a deep slumber.

As she drifted off, she glanced over where Silvia and Lilly were on the ground, Silvia had climbed onto Lilly's back and was curled up getting ready to take a nap also. Lilly tucked her head under her wing and they were soon asleep.

Lacey woke and stretched, she looked around her then down at where Silvia and Lilly still slept. As she climbed down the tree Lilly lifted her head and looked at Lacey with her red eyes.

Silvia sat up and stretched. "That was a good rest after all that jumping, I feel refreshed. Should we do some more?" Lacey smiled up at Silvia up on the bird. "I feel refreshed too. Let's get back to it. Come on Lilly." With Silvia still on her back Lilly started following Lacey.

"Oh, Wow, uhh..." Silvia stammered as she quickly grabbed ahold of some feathers so she would not fall off. "Hey, this is fun!" Silvia exclaimed. "We should get her to where she can just be ridden without following someone."

"I guess that is what you can work on this afternoon." Replied Lacey. For the afternoon they worked on teaching Lilly how to be ridden.

After a couple of hours both girls were riding on the bird with Silvia guiding her with her kind voice. "Now let's see if we can get her to jump off some rocks with us on her back." Said Silvia.

"That sounds like a great idea," Said Lacey. Soon they had Lilly jumping off rocks as the girls held on. As the sun started to go down and the beautiful colors of the sunset began to become a brilliant color of reds, oranges, purples and blue.

TO be Continued!-