Tessa’s POV:

  The sun was starting to rise! And we certainly weren’t about to miss it! Gathering my courage, I spread my wings wide as I dropped off the end table. It slowed my fall by a lot, and I landed on the carpet without too much of a bump. Now that Dirk saw I had survived the landing, he jumped down in the same fashion.

  We raced over to the windowsill. I jumped high and beat my wings as fast as I could. The first wingbeat was easy, but the second one was harder. I wasn’t sure I could manage the third one, but my wings almost seemed to come up on their own.

  I made it up! All of my practicing last night had been worth it! Dirk whined below; he hadn’t used his wings at all while we were playing last night.

  “I’m coming, Dirk,” Aeria said, coming out of the kitchen. “I didn’t expect you two to be up so early. The sun isn’t going to rise for at least five minutes. Even Tasha and Keegan just went outside.”

  Aeria picked up my brother and put him on the windowsill beside me. We both stared at the spot where the sun would be appearing.

  I stood up on my back legs, using my hands against the glass to help me balance. The extra height let me see a bit more of the backyard. Mom and Dad were sitting on a big piece of driftwood in the middle of the yard as they also watched the sky brighten.

  The faintest stirring of the sun’s call meant that the Morning Song was approaching. I unfolded my wings in growing excitement. I could hardly wait! Dirk also eagerly watched the horizon, shifting his weight restlessly. Mom and Dad were almost motionless; apparently, they had more patience than we did.

  The sun began to peek over the horizon, and I paced on the spot in anticipation as I felt the call building. The first sliver of light spilled over the horizon and shone on us, making the faint whisper rapidly intensify.

  The time for the Morning Song had come!

  Dirk was just as eager as me, and he began flapping his wings enthusiastically. I started singing as my own wings tried to match the sun’s rhythm. My wingbeats didn’t quite seem to fit the smooth flowing cues, but they were the best I could do.

  Mom and Dad flew in complex patterns through the air, perfectly following the Morning Song’s guidance. I was envious, but it didn’t stop my attempts to dance and sing. Even if it wasn’t quite right, it was my contribution as I welcomed the sun.

  Eventually, the song ended, and I slowly folded my wings. I was tired, but not as tired as I had been yesterday. Dirk had even managed to beat his wings the entire time, although he had flopped down as soon as it ended, panting hard and looking exhausted.

  I tilted my head as I asked him, “Are you that tired?”

  He flicked an ear tuft at me, and his mindvoice reflected that he was as tired as he looked. “Yeah… Using our wings for this long is hard—but I would do it again. It was worth it. Make sure I don’t ever sleep through the sunrise.”

  “I promise,” I replied, “and don’t let me sleep in either.”

  He sent back a wordless confirmation. Outside, I saw Mom glide over to Taureen’s lap to get her scales oiled. Dad flew to the table near them and picked some fruit out of a bowl. I shook myself off and looked around the room as I walked up to the edge of the windowsill.

  Now that I knew my wings could slow my fall, the height no longer bothered me. As Aeria got to her feet, I eyed up the floor before scanning the distance between me and the coffee table.

  If I could use more than one wingbeat to jump farther up, could it also make me go farther? I didn’t see why not. It had worked when I had been hopping around on the floor yesterday. One wingbeat let me go farther then. I wondered how many wingbeats it might take to get to the coffee table.

  I stretched my neck forward as I examined the distance. If a jump up to the coffee table took two wingbeats, then getting from the windowsill to the coffee table was going to take lots more. I thought hard and decided to try. If it was too far, I would just land on the carpet.

  My head bobbed as I lined up my flight path. With a deep breath, I jumped high in the air and beat my wings down. Yesterday, I had practiced jumping up to the end table, so I knew how to lift my wings and get them ready for the next wingbeat. I just had to do it quickly enough, even when my wings got tired.

  On my third wingbeat, I noticed I was getting too high. I struggled as I tried to fix my flight. Slowing my wingbeats made me come down faster. With a sudden inspiration, I spread my wings like I had done when jumping down from the end table, only angling to get to the table instead of dropping straight down.

  It worked! I was gliding!

  But I was also falling faster since I stopped beating my wings. I beat them once more so I still had enough height to get to the coffee table. My ear tufts pinned back in growing alarm; the wingbeat gave me more height, but it also made me go faster. The speed was starting to scare me.

  To my relief, I saw that the table was much closer—I was almost there! I angled my flight a bit lower as lowered my feet, still gliding fast.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Just before my feet touched the table, I realized that I was moving forward and not down like I had always done before. I didn’t know how to land like this! My feet hit the table and simply skidded along the slippery wooden surface as I squealed in alarm, fanning my wings frantically.

  I could hear Mom and Dad’s fierce screams in the background when they heard my panicked cry. The wood grain patterns whizzed by me as I struggled to slow down. But it wasn’t enough. I slipped right off the end of the coffee table, barrelling toward the couch.

  Aeria’s hand intercepted my collision course at the last second. Her hand swung up and over the couch seat. I clutched onto her fingers as she exhaled in relief.

  A gold flash streaked past us. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  Aeria answered for me, “Her first flight came before her first landing, and I now suspect that backwinging is a trick that takes the youngsters a bit of time to learn. She tried to land on the table, but just slid right off.”

  I felt Mom’s relief over the mindlink, and she landed on Aeria’s shoulder pads as she gazed down at me.

  “Next time you want to try flying, talk to us first,” she told me somewhat sternly. “I was planning on laying down the rules at breakfast, but, apparently, that plan literally just flew away.”

  I ducked my head in embarrassment and whispered, “Okay.”

  It hadn’t occurred to me to ask if I could try flapping to the coffee table. I hadn’t even realized that it was flying and not just a jump with lots of wing assists. No one had said anything when I had jumped up to the end table several times yesterday.

  And no one had told me that flying was much harder than it looked.

  ***

  Tasha’s POV:

  I sighed before gliding down to the end table. “Come get some breakfast.”

  They had been so excited about the Morning Song that they hadn’t even stopped to grab a bite to eat. Keegan had landed beside Dirk on the windowsill and jumped down to the floor with him as they came over.

  I backwinged to a gentle landing on the end table, making it an example for the still somewhat-embarrassed red fledgling in Aeria’s hands. The word stuck in my mind.

  It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it didn’t occur to me that Tessa would have tried to fly so soon. Usually, youngsters built up to a larger flight, not just pulling it out of a hat.

  On that note, I mindlinked Drake. “Liar.”

  The blue dragonet’s sleepy confusion came through clearly, so he must already be sunbathing. “Huh?”

  “You told me that fledglings always glided at least once or twice from higher places before attempting actual flight.”

  “They do. So far every single-” He paused as my words finally penetrated his thoughts. “Oh. I take it that one of yours did something different?”

  I snorted. “Tessa just flew clear across the room—and only avoided a nasty impact thanks to Aeria’s intervention. Until now, she has never done anything besides jump up to the end table using her wings or skip around with a single wingbeat on each bound.”

  Drake was silent for a moment before asking, “She didn’t previously glide or use more than one wing beat when playing? No smaller test flights from low locations?”

  “No, no, and no.”

  He sent a sudden surge of amusement across the mindlink. “Then she is just as full of mischief as you had feared. You teased me about how much trouble my kids gave me, so now it’s your turn. Have fun!”

  He dropped the mindlink and raised his mental shields to prevent me from hurling some unfortunate insults at him. Ohhh! Just wait until I get ahold of him! I will have to dunk him in the pond for that one!

  If Tessa really was going to be as much of a handful as I feared, then I was in far greater trouble than Drake could possibly imagine. I could easily visualize that far-too-curious youngster somehow managing to get past all of the security features on the windows and doors—a stunt that I had never managed to pull off, even before the locks and systems had been upgraded.

  Taureen entered the room and put down more bowls of fruit since the current ones were almost empty from the youngsters’ unending appetites.

  I saw his leg and pinned my ears back in guilt, apologizing to Taureen, “Sorry about your leg…”

  When Tessa had squealed in true fear, I had launched myself toward the house at full speed—temporarily forgetting that I had been on Taureen’s lap. My back feet had propelled me into the air, but my claws had dug in. He had already bandaged up the lacerations. Thankfully, the bandages didn’t look too serious, but I knew how sharp my claws were and how much damage they could cause, even unintentionally.

  Taureen shrugged without concern. “Don’t worry about it. The scratches weren’t too deep.”

  I reluctantly let the subject drop. It wasn’t as if arguing or pressing him for details would change the injury. I made a mental note to quietly follow him when he went to change the bandage so I could see the true extent of the damage.

  It was on very rare occasions like this that I knew I couldn’t really trust him to tell me the truth. It only involved him, and he didn’t want me to feel bad, especially when he knew it had been an accident on my part. He would play down his injury to make me feel better. Much like an ornament I had accidentally broken, he wasn’t about to get upset over it.

  In fact, with him being my handler, I doubted that he would ever get angry with me, or at least, he wouldn’t show it. Bond animal handlers were… different. And their patience was nearly endless when it came to their companion animal.

  That didn’t mean he didn’t have a temper; he just never let me see it. I had caught a few glimpses over the years, mostly if something impacted my welfare. Back when Taureen still assumed I was just an animal, Drake had helped me cut my original tracking bead out of my flank—and the small cut had left Taureen livid when he saw it, assuming that someone had intentionally harmed me.

  Like most male Kymari, he was a fighter. He didn’t train nearly as much anymore, although he still spent several hours each week keeping his fighting abilities up to par. He had even added a basement under the house so he had somewhere to practice without constantly worrying if I had remained on the chair he left me on.

  Sitting on the sidelines of a training arena was boring, at least for me, and I had a high tendency to wander around a bit. With so many weapons being used in the area, by older seasoned fighters as well as adolescents just learning, Taureen didn’t really like it when I left the spot he had deemed safe.

  How he never got exasperated with me was a mystery that I had never figured out.