Flying lessons

I knew that I had grown over my time with grandfather, I was now twelve feet in length, my wings spanned to an impressive twenty five feet, and I stood at a height of seven feet.

But I had never even given a thought to flight, Now that the opportunity presented itself I could feel my instincts screaming at me that I should jump. As I stood there looking over the edge with a worried expression, mother said "It was a command. Not a suggestion. Jump."

Mothers words stirred something within me and before I knew what had happened I was already falling. I quickly built up speed and knew that if I did nothing then I would die in a few seconds. But just as I was approaching the ground, I regained my calm and threw open my wings as wide as I could.

Still moving quite fast the wind caught on my wings propelling me forward, I was flying! Well more like gliding I hadn't actually flapped my wings at all yet. As I continued to glide of the rocky mountainous terrain I felt the cool wind on my scales, it was a feeling that I wished would never end. My deep red scales glinted in the sun light and the warmth soaked into my body as I glided along.

Without me realizing mother had taken to flying beside me, looking to my right I saw her nod in approval then say "Now climb, you need to fly not just glide on the wind." I quickly began to flap my wings and slowly after flapping about they eventually settled into a rhythm, and I began to climb.

'This feels amazing, the freedom, the scenery, I wish that this moment would never end.'

Once mother saw that I was settling into my own rhythm she made her way to over to me and beckoned me to follow her. Turning towards the volcano that stood in the distance, we began flying in its direction.

Upon approaching the top other folded her wings inward and dived straight into the mouth of the volcano, I assumed she expected me to follow so I did the same. Only once we exited the steam that occupied the mouth of the volcano did I see the bridge that grandfather had given me my lessons on.

Seeing the ground approaching rapidly I realized that I had no experience in landing, I started to frantically flap my wings to slow myself down, but only managed to reduce my speed so that when I hit the ground only a dull thud was heard and I would be left with some bruises. Obviously I needed more practice, but for now I slowly got off of the ground and began to follow mother who had landed gracefully down the path to my sisters.

we walked for a while but soon enough I picked up their scents, and rushed into the cave. Seeing my return Apollonia rushed over to me and bombarded me with questions with Corentine following behind.

"How was it brother? What did Grandfather teach you? why do you look hurt? ect."

"You will have to find out for yourself sister." I said looking over at her, then said to them both "I am sure you will be able to do better than myself. I did not make all that much progress."

Hearing this my mother scoffed "The rambling of a hatchling. It is unheard of for a brood as young as yourselves to present such talent in mana manipulation. Do not look down on your achievements."

'I guess we have been making rather large amounts of progress.'

I bowed my head along with my sisters before telling them about how mother had taken me flying, obviously leaving out the part where she ordered me to jump off a cliff. They had been practicing their runes while I was gone and had made some progress as well. As we finally got caught up again and finished talking mother came to get Apollonia and they left for her turn with grandfather.

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Weeks went by before Apollonia returned, after Mother took her to grandfather she returned and told me that I was now responsible for feeding myself as I could fly now. So in the weeks that Apollonia was gone I had gone out every other day to hunt food mainly in the form of small goats that climbed the mountain tops then returned and practiced my mana control as grandfather had taught me.

Once Apollonia finally returned and it was Corentine's turn she too got to learn how to fly with mother, and when she returned she made sure to tell me that I could have warned her. I had never actually seen her that angry, I found it quite amusing and planned to do something similar again.

Though my progress was extremely slow paced every day that I trained I could tell my control would get better.

Finally it was Corentines turn for a flying lesson, and apparently mother had to save her once from falling to her death. But she got it on her second try. She made sure to tell me and for some reason not Apollonia how I should have warned her.

'Being the oldest can sure be difficult.'

Now that we all knew how to fly we where expected to feed our self's, but on this day now that all three of us had learned to fly but still needed to practice I made the suggestion we go hunting together.