Time seemed to pass quickly, and didn't seem like very long until Nyra had all of the young Tytos assembled outside, ready for the final trial. Ginger silently marveled at the size of the Pure One palace; it was taller than any manmade building she'd ever seen in the city she passed by as she left her old home. And standing at its very base made it look all the more gigantic. It was astounding.

"Alright, young ones," the Ablah General announced, snapping the young Alba out of her amazed trance. "Are we ready for the final competition?"

"Ready and set, General Ma'am!" Vaygar announced with a quick salute of his wing.

"Excellent. The final test will be fairly straight forward...A simple race, along the circumference of the spire. Whoever completes a lap first is the winner."

The Grass Owl held back a smirk. He was the best flyer on the team, and he knew it.

"A few rules, though, before we begin," Nyra added. "First off, there is to be no physical skirmish among racers in order to gain an advantage. Any owl that I catch doing this will have points subtracted, and in turn, given to the owl on the receiving side of the conflict. And second, you can fly low if you wish, but keep in mind that the lower you fly, the wider the spire will be, and the longer it will take to complete the lap. I will only allow owls to fly as high as the halfway point, and shortcutting through the palace by means of entryways is prohibited. Owls will be disqualified if they try this. And trust me; they will not get away with it if they try. I just so happen to have put guards at these openings in order to prevent this...Everybody get all that?"

She was met with a series of nods.

"Then let us begin...Line up beside each other, now, owlets. And give each other enough room to spread your wings."

They obeyed, lining up beside each other and stretching their wings out, ready to begin. While they sorted that out, Nyra took the opportunity to gather up several clawfuls of small rocks scattered across the barren ground and place them in a row. This line of rocks marked where the trainees had to both begin and end the lap.

"That's settled, then. I'll depart to a place to watch from. Wait until you hear the signal. It will also sound once everyone has completed the lap."

"What's the signal?" Kludd asked her.

"You'll know it when you hear it, soldier," she answered him, spreading her own wings. "In the mean time, you all best be on your marks."

As the Ablah General took to the air, Ginger drew in the deep breath, then took a quick glance at each of the other competitors. Kludd was still exercising his wings, Uklah was acting fidgety, tapping her claws against the stony ground and also scanning over the rest of the group, Phillip seemed to be clearing his mind in preparation for when the signal to begin was given, and Vaygar just stood where he was, casually preening himself a bit. He didn't seem too concerned with the outcome of this race.

Ginger readied her wings and got into a springing position, looking ahead to determine how she should go about this. It wouldn't be long before Nyra sounded off the...

An ear-piercing screech rang across the Beaks, coming from the apex of the Pure One palace itself.

That was the signal.

And with that, the five were off.

Vaygar was off to the best start, gaining the lead right from the takeoff. Phillip attempted to pass him by from right behind, but the Grass Owl's deep wing beats were too far stretched and too swift to pass him from quite so close. Uklah tried to usurp him by flying over top of him, but he countered this by making a sharp and sudden bank to port side, making the young leia stagger, then ultimately fall behind.

Ginger and Kludd weren't far behind the other three, and were about neck and neck. Kludd was a strong flyer, but Ginger noted that he struggled to gain momentum. He was a bulky owl, especially for one his age, and the added muscle weight served as a curse as much as it did a blessing; it slowed his flight. Ginger saw the opportunity to pass him by when he was busy flapping harder. They were all fairly high off the ground at this point, and now that she had the speed and height, she knew how she could increase her speed.

She folded her wings about halfway, stooping down and shooting towards the earth like an arrow, then tilted back up and spread them back out. The speed at which she flew had increased threefold, and her swiftness was maintained through smaller flaps. She didn't want to wear herself out, now that she was going at a more than decent pace.

Vaygar had been focusing on the positions of Uklah and Phillip especially, since he last saw the other two owls falling a ways behind, so when the newbie passed him up from not far below, he was fairly shocked.

There was no way she could be flying so effortlessly unless she'd taken advantage of a dive at some point. Now seeing that his competition was smarter than he thought, he took the opportunity to do the same, momentarily falling behind Phillip and Uklah, who were now too concentrated on each other to notice what was going on below. Vaygar spread his wings again, and a smirk formed across his dusky facial disc when he saw that he was gaining on the young leia that's gotten past him.

He tried to sneak past her from the port side, but Ginger caught him out of the corner of her eye, and stooped into a milder dive to not only gain a bit more speed, but also a greater lead. The Grass Owl emitted a frustrated growl. He was the most adept flyer on the force. Losing a meager race to a rookie owl would be an absolute disgrace!

Not gonna let that happen... he decided.

He pumped his wings even harder. He and Ginger had passed the halfway mark by now, and they were approaching the final stretch. The others had all fallen behind; all three of them had already determined that they weren't going to win first place, but they at least tried to pass up each other. Ginger combated this strategy by doing the same; they'd almost completed the lap, and if she was going to wear herself out at all, now was the time to do it. She and Vaygar were tied for first, each struggling to get a big enough lead against the other. Finally, the Grass Owl decided that he'd had enough of this nonsense.

He barreled off to the starboard side, colliding with his rival flyer and sending her spiraling off to the side. He recovered from the impact by spreading and tilting his wings to re-even his flight pattern.

...Now it was Ginger's turn to become angry.

Still spiraling, she tried to figure out which way she was going, and noted that she was going ever faster towards the earth, spinning like a corkscrew...

...A corkscrew.

She spread her wings again, and kept them just slightly bent as she flapped them; the spiral might have knocked her back, but now it had doubled...Tripled...Quadrupled her speed, and she locked her eyes on Vaygar. He was nearing the end of the lap, but she was gaining fast.

But was she fast enough?

She wasn't about to wait to find out, and she tilted her wings one way, then used the force of her entire body to spin as she flew, cutting through the air like an arrow. The Grass Owl was oblivious to her coming up from behind, only focusing on his target.

She got beneath him, and just when they crossed over the point at which they started, she whizzed ahead of him, sending a gust of air beneath him and throwing his lower half forward, finally slowing his flight. He watched in utter disbelief as Ginger lowered herself to the ground, tilted her wings forward, then skidded to a halt along the stony earth as she staggered to keep from falling forward, her black claws scraping across the dark rock and leaving uneven white marks in their trail.

Ginger's fatigue caught up to her, and she stood there, huffing and puffing, unaware of half of the things going on around her. All she wanted to do was just look down at her talons planted on the grey, rocky ground.

She was so out of it that she didn't notice the tall figure coming towards her until it was standing right in front of her, and Ginger noticed she was staring down at TWO sets of owls' talons now, instead of just one. She looked up to face the white-feathered figure before her.

"That..." Nyra began. "...Was some of the finest flying I've ever seen from any owl your age. The corkscrew is one of the most difficult maneuvers to execute properly, and you did so with flying colors. And using it to recover from a mid-flight collision? Truly an astounding accomplishment."

"So..." she panted. "...Who...who won?"

"Who do you think?"

"What...Me...Where's Vaygar...? I'd like to...I wanna give him...a piece or two of my...my mind, you know."

"I have you covered in that department," the queen smirked. "Vaygar! Front and center!"

The Grass Owl, also breathless, approached.

"Yeah, yeah, your Pureness?" he wheezed. "Who won...? I won, right...?"

"It was too close to call, soldier."

"So...So then both...both of us won, then..."

"I should say not," she reprimanded him, and Vaygar shrunk back when he saw that she was annoyed. "Having witness the incident myself, I say it doesn't matter who crossed the line first, or by how much. I remember saying that physical interference among racers to gain an advantage is prohibited, and that any owl I caught in the act would have their points subtracted, and in turn, given to the owl on the receiving side of the conflict."

"What...You...But I still...I would have..." he stammered. "...Y-you can't do that!"

"As your trainer, as Ablah General of St. Aggies, and as the second highest authority over the ENTIRETY of Pure Ones, I can, and I very well WILL, Mr. Leader Buff, sir."

Vaygar just shook his head, waiting to scowl until he'd turned away from the two Tyto Albas, and joined the rest of the losers. Uklah found the whole situation very amusing.

"...So, did the flyer flop?"

"I'm not in the mood, Uklah."

"Hey, so much for your toutin,' eh, 'top of the pile,' buff?"

"Kludd, I swear to Glaux-"

"That you're a sore loser?"

"Oh, forget this!"

He stormed away to give himself solitude for a while, and the other three owls went to congratulate Ginger for her accomplishment. As they praised her maneuver and asked her if she could somehow teach them how to pull it off, Nyra went back to the scoreboard. Vaygar had taken a blow in this last round, and she had a mind to put him in last place...But he would have likely come in second if he hadn't did what he did, so she decided to give him two points instead of just the one, Kludd taking up that spot, as he'd actually proven to be the slowest flyer of all of them. Nyra tallied up the last round of points, and the owl with the highest score would be awarded the position as leader.

She wrote down the final results and looked over everything, once twice, thrice...Her eyes narrowed, then grew wider, and she read over everything one more time, still not convinced of what that this could be possible.

-Kludd: 9
-Vaygar: 15
-Ginger: 20

-Phillip: 15

-Uklah: 16