How did I get stuck doing this? I just had to be responsible, I thought. I was about to push Dylan off the roof, when he suddenly spoke up. "No, wait! Not yet!" he said
"What?" I snapped.
"Is there a possibility I could die if I don't, uh, fly?" Dylan asked. Well, that was just too bad. If he wanted to be a part of the flock, he'd have to get used near death experiences.
"God, just go!" I said. "I'll push you off the roof and we'll move on from there."
Stupid Frankenhunk…
"Okay, on three," I said. "One…" I pushed him. You remember in book one that count of three means one, right? That completely applied here.
"Aaahhh!" Dylan yelped. He started flapping after his feet left the roof, but it was a short drop so his attempts were pretty much pointless. "Crap," he grumbled. "What happened?"
"You fell," I said mockingly. "Now, get back up here." I gestured to the ladder.
When Dylan was finally back on the roof, I decided to give him some actual advice. Not that I didn't love watching Dylan fall, but I had other things I had to do. "Okay, let's try again. This time when you fall, dig deep with your wings. Plunge off the roof, going down like a nose dive, and then pull up."
Dylan nodded. "Dig, plunge, pull. Got it," he said, sounding sure of himself. Instead of waiting for me to push him, he jumped off by himself, falling face-first towards the earth. Dig, check. Plunge, check. Pull? No check. Before Dylan could pull up his wings, his head hit the ground. Yay my favorite part, telling Frankenhunk what he did wrong! "Problem number one: you didn't pull your wings up fast enough and problem number two: you still need to find a way to get more speed."
Then he replied, "Okay, so pull up more and speed up when I pull. Did I get that right?" I nodded. "All right. Let's try this again…. One, two, three!" He dug, plunged, pulled up, and then it was smooth sailing. "Good Job Dylan, now land." "Aw Crap! Just when I thought I was doing well. Let's try this." He, for some stupid reason, just stopped in mid air and dropped just like a rock. "Nice job, now we are back to square one."
"Alright Dylan, now landing is the easy part. All you have to do is glide down and find a nice spot to land." "Okay, I can do this." He took off perfectly and then glided down and almost hit his head but he caught his fall. "Good work today Dylan. Just keep practicing and you might get as good as the rest of the flock. "Thanks Max for teaching me. I couldn't of done it without you." Okay just when I started to like him he had to make my turn into puppy dog Max didn't he. Stupid Frankenhunk!