Prowl was playing with his mother when he heard it. Turning up his audio receptors, he got so focused on the strange noise that the small ball Swiftstrike tossed to him bounced by without him noticing.

"What's the matter, Prowl?" Swiftstrike asked, surprised to see her sparkling so alert. "What is it?"

Prowl didn't answer. He simply pushed himself to his feet and hurried to the window.

He felt his optics widening when he realised that that noise was coming from the sky. He looked up and – how strange! – he could easily see something glinting up there, moving in circles, going up and down, even doing loop-de-loops.

Prowl couldn't understand it. What was that thing, and how could it stay up in the air like that? As far as he knew, everything fell down, just like the ball his mother kept tossing during their games.

A chuckle reached his audios, making little Prowl understand that his mother was right beside him.

"That's a turbo-duck," his mother said. "You heard it quacking, didn't you?"

Oh, that was right. Prowl had heard about turbo-ducks before. He always liked looking at them in his holopad and just staring at their pretty colours. But he had never expected them to sound so strange, and he certainly didn't know that they could… well, do that.

"Why is it up?" he asked, looking at his mother.

"It's flying," Swiftstrike said with a smile.

"Oh." Prowl processed the new information, committing it to his vocabulary databanks. "How?"

She patted his helm with a smile. "With its wings. Everything that has wings flies. Do you understand?"

Prowl nodded enthusiastically, happy to acquire that new knowledge. That certainly made his mother happy too, because she laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'll go prepare your midday ration," she declared. "Are you coming?"

"All right," Prowl answered. He was getting hungry, after all, so the prospect of a meal seemed perfect right now. He followed his mother, his steps eager and rapid as he tried to keep up with her.

Just then, another thought occurred to him. If everything that had wings flew, could that mean…?

He froze, thought about it for a minute, and then turned around at once. He had to find out.

---------------------------

The first thing that warned Swiftstrike that something didn't feel right was when she didn't register Prowl's pattering feet behind her. She spun around, only to verify that Prowl really wasn't following her.

"Prowl?"

She didn't get an answer. She waited for a moment, hoping that the little one would show up eventually.

He didn't.

"Prowl?" Deciding to get to the bottom of this, Swiftstrike retraced her steps and went back into Prowl's room.

She entered just in time to see her sparkling on the top of the large datacase in his room… and about to jump.

"Prowl!" she exclaimed in horror, but it was too late. The sparkling leapt forward, his arms outstretched and his optics closed. It took all of the femme's speed to lunge and catch the little one before he hit the floor.

A minute passed, then two, yet neither of them moved. Swiftstrike still held Prowl in her arms, frozen, resembling some sort of a strange statue.

Five minutes later, both femme and sparkling dared to open their optics and look at each other. They blinked just for a moment and, finally, Swiftstrike found the power to speak.

"Prowl… will you please, for the love of Primus, tell me what were you thinking?" She did her best not to let any of her anger seep into her words, but it proved hard. She had to believe that there was a good reason behind Prowl's recklessness, or she would lose her temper for sure.

Prowl hung his head in shame, clearly sensing that Swiftstrike was upset. "Wanted to fly," he said, his tone barely a mumble.

Swiftstrike frowned. "What are you talking about? You can't--"

She never finished her sentence, because it was then that she made the connection. She groaned in mild frustration, scarcely believing that she had made such a blunder.

Well, since she had caused that mess, it was high time she corrected it, too.

"Prowl…" she said, cupping the little one's chin in calming reassurance. "We need to talk about the difference between wings and doors."