Flying Lessons
Kiki woke early, the sun had only just dawned and it was shining directly into the cave. She stood up and trotted over to her mother, poking her gently with her snout, waking her from her slumber. "Wake up, today's my first flying lesson, I don't want to be late!" she complained, poking her mother with her paw so she would not fall back asleep.
Star opened her eyes and glared at her daughter, "Lessons do not start for another half an hour," she protested closing her eyes again. The past eight moons had gone by so fast that it felt like only yesterday Kiki was but a babe.
"Fine," Kiki snorted leaving her mother's side and padding off toward the entrance of the cave and laying down. She stared out the window longingly, wishing the time would speed up so she could be practicing flying, rather than lazing about.
After a further twenty minutes Star awoke again, standing up and walking to where Kiki lay, half asleep. "Come on, let's get a move on for breakfast," she stated.
Kiki near enough jumped to her feet, grinning up at her mother with her teeth still retracted, gaining an amused chuckle for her.
The two were interrupted by Kinkz, he had just finished his hunting trip and had returned triumphantly with a large buck and a small rabbit. He placed down the rabbit for Kiki before laying the buck down for his mate. He had already eaten and so simply sat down and watched as Kiki devoured her meal as fast as possible and began waiting for Star to finish.
When Star had finished she led her child out from the cave and down the rocky mountain side to the center of the valley where the other younglings were all gathered for their first flying lessons.
Kiki recognized all of the dragons; There was Bloodfang, son of the alpha, Lync, son of the clan's best hunter, Plasma, daughter of the fastest flyer in the clan, and Toothless, son of the stealthiest dragon in the clan. Then there was Kiki, daughter of Kinkz, second in command of the clan.
When she arrived Bloodfang trotted up to her, "Morning Kiki, ready to loose?" he asked.
"Loose what?" Star inquired,
"The bet, that Bloodfang would learn to fly before me," Kiki replied, rolling her eyes as though the answer were obvious.
"You didn't answer my question, are you ready to loose?"
"Are you?" Kiki replied, leaping at Bloodfang and tackling him to the ground.
Kiki dodged as Bloodfang tried to kick her and in return nipped at his neck in his sensitive spot, "How do you like that you little…" she started, but was silenced when something landed behind her. She slowly slid off from Bloodfang and turned around, spotting Cinderpaw glaring at her.
Cinderpaw was the top warrior in the clan and also the teacher for all the younglings, and she was glaring directly at Kiki, "This is flying lessons, we are not doing combat," she growled to the youngling. She had; a light yellow underbelly, wing tips, spines, legs and tail flaps, but what was most disturbing was her lack of an eye, a black hole where it had one been and a long wide red scar.
"Sorry." Kiki said, lowering her head to the adult, hearing a snigger from Bloodfang.
"Then let us begin," Cinderpaw began, "Firstly, all of you find your own personal space, large enough to spread your wings out to their full extent," she started as watched as all the dragons follow her instructions. "Now, test out your tail flaps, they are your most important tool when flying," she added and watched as they all tested their tail flaps.
"Right, now I want you to all flap your wings as hard as possible, hover above the ground for a few moments and then land back down," Cinderpaw instructed.
Kiki flapped her wings as hard as she could, focusing on keeping her tail flaps straight so she could lift off the ground, she was about the lift off the ground when she heard, "I win!" from Bloodfang, who was hovering in the air. "Your not 'flying' flying," she objected, flapping her wings harder and also taking to the skies as few inches from the ground and landing.
She glanced over and spotted Plasma, a full metre from the ground, hovering. She had a single purple stripe running the length of her body and on her snout, along with striped wings.
"Woah," Kiki commented as Plasma lowered herself to the ground, landing silently as she had taken off. Cinderpaw gave a nod of approval gesture for them to do it again.
After a long and tedious hour of learning to hover and stay airborne for up to several minutes all the young dragons were exhausted, "You all have a ten minute break, then we move onto gliding, then actual flying and man oeuvres." Cinderpaw stated as she trotted off toward the central lake for a drink.
"Good job there Kiki," said a soft voice. Kiki turned around and saw Lync, sat back on his haunches and smiling at her.
"Thanks," she replied happily.
"You weren't that good," Bloodfang objected, moving over to join them.
"We will see about that," Kiki growled leaping at Bloodfang and knocking him over. "I can still beat you at fighting though," she teased. That was when she looked up, and gazing down on her was the alpha, Bloodfang's father Bosko.
Rather than frowning he was smiling, "I see you have taught my son that just because he is my son he can still be beaten," he said watching Bloodfang's expression dim and become embarrassed. When Kiki nodded in return his smile broadened, "Good." he replied, turning and walking away calmly, still smiling.
"Get off Kiki!" Bloodfang groaned as soon as the alpha was out of earshot,
"You heard him, I need to teach you," she replied sitting down on him and making all the air go out of his lungs in a whimper.
"Please Kiki," he pleaded.
"Fine, because you asked so nicely," she said standing up and walking away from Bloodfang and sitting down.
They all then walked over to the lake and all had a long drink, and when finished lay down by the bank of the water and waited until their break was over.
"Alright, everyone meet me by the cliff that over looks the ocean," Cinderpaw instructed before she took the sky and flew over to the allocated area and landing, watching as the others all raced over to join her.
"Now everyone, one at a time you will all leap off the cliff edge and glide down onto the small island of land over there," she instructed, pointing to the small land mass. "If you fall you will land in the water and I will fish you out," she assured them before she herself glided over to the island and landed.
Plasma, being at the front, went first, flawlessly leading and gliding down to the island and hovering a moment before landing. She was followed by, Lync, Toothless and Bloodfang.
When it came to Kiki's turn she swallowed hard before leaping off the edge and gliding down. She turned her tail flaps slightly to the left before dropping and landing on top of Bloodfang, "Got you again!" she squeaked happily.
"Good, though I think we need to work on the landing," Cinderpaw said, focusing her words on Kiki and raising an eyebrow as she climbed off Bloodfang.
"Now, we need to get back up there, so I want you all to hover as high as you can, higher than the cliff and then glide down to the cliff," she instructed, lifting up into the air and only stopping once higher than the cliff before gliding down it an landing softly.
All the young dragons followed her lead and all made it, except for Lync, who fell into the ocean, twice. They continued doing the same exercise, becoming increasingly more difficult, adding in turns, dives and finally learning how to fly straight and be airborne. It was important for them all to learn how to fly in only one or two days as they needed the skill for them to begin other training and be sorted into their future ranks.
By the end of the day they could all fly reasonably well, and were all happy about it they knew they would need further training, but at least they knew the basics, and that evening they all flew home.
Thanks for reading my chapter, If you want to see images of each of the characters I have link to them all;
Kiki - /r/14obxa0/8
Bloodfang - /r/123be6o/8
Lync - /r/xaq4oj/8
Plasma - /r/1zvea9d/8
Cinderpaw - /r/28m1v29/8
Star - /r/2lbj57m/8
Kinkz - /r/29x89dj/8
Bosko - /r/308xmr9/8
What do you think of the chapter so far? I will be making it more interesting and having more action happening, but what do you think about the characters so far? But anyway, Enjoy!