“Girls! I have a guest coming over in an hour!” Penny shouts from the kitchen.

I have no idea why that’s important to shout, but Zia groans and wipes her snout and eyes for imaginary eye sleep.

“I bet it’s the cat diplomat. It’s fine to join them for lunch, but sticking around afterward would be a mistake.”

“I thought you said she was nice?”

“She is, but that’s not the point. They don’t see each other often, and they . . . try to make up for lost time.”

Ah, loud sex. I could see how that would be awkward. “Does that mean I get to walk around Lake Street today?” Zia groans again. “Are you banned there or something?”

“No, I just don’t like being a spectacle. Yes, I’m a Draconid, but I still don’t like it.”

“That’s okay, I can come back on another visit to see it.” I pout a bit, but I do want to do stuff with my girlfriend. I understand, of course, but we’re going to have to come up with solutions, especially since I refuse to have any kind of sex behavior while she’s scaly and talon-ey.

“No, no. I want to take you, but I don’t want to feel pressured to be an Elf when I do stuff with you.” She nuzzles her heavy muzzle into my chest before she pauses. “We could do some flight training this morning. I could fly while you pilot a shuttle. And after that, I can shift and then we can spend the evening on Lake street, then go home and make out a lot.”

“That, my scaly beauty, sounds like a great day.” I roll away, squeeze the base of her tail on my way off the bed and giggle at her undignified squawk as I dash to the bathroom.

I’ve been trying to be a good girlfriend about it, making sure she knows I appreciate her draconid self with casual touches and what I think is playful teasing. It’s still guess work though, being only a few days since she showed me, and I want to cement in her mind that I like her for who she is and not the Elf wrapper that was a substitute for the Pixie wrapper she was born with.

I can’t criticize much, as I look completely different than I did when Marcella met me outside the Orphanage, but self-identity has to be even more of an issue for shapeshifters as I would probably lose myself in the personas and forget who I am. Hells, I still don’t really know who I am without someone to protect or work for, so I’m a bit adrift now, where Zia figured her shit out.

I think more about the nature of motivation and duty while I brush my teeth and wash my face. When I go back into the bedroom, Zia is missing so I wander out into the living room and spy my purple princess talking with her mom in the kitchen up a half-level from here.

“Kimber, my daughter is talking about the many adventures you two are planning. Are you delaying your departure tomorrow?” The hopeful look in Zia’s eyes punches my heart.

“Sorry, Zee. With the early abduction, and my new business responsibilities, I need to get back. I also have an idea for a project my mentor has, but I need to be present for it.” Her pout is crushing. “But hey,” I walk up and pull her into a hug, “I have the money for a shuttle, and with the fee reduction for the Gateway that I qualify for, I should be able to visit regularly.”

“If mom wasn’t so stingy about her long-range shuttles, you could visit whenever you wanted.” She glares at her mother.

“The girl has less than ten shuttle hours. No way I let her buy one that could destroy Earth’s atmosphere.” The fact that is possible drains the blood from my face.

“I’m fine with a local shuttle then, thanks though.” Zia pulls back from me, looking betrayed, or ready to bite my face—hard to tell when she has a dragon snout.

“If that makes you pout Zizi, the four of us are going to Guiseppi’s tonight for dinner.”

“But moooom, I wanted it to be a nice date about us.”

“Psh, you two can get handsy after dinner. Lashadi and I will be going to the Spa for the night.”

I have no idea what the Spa is, but I take it to mean that they’ll be gone for the evening. Penny is clearly done with the conversation and on her way by she hands me something and continues on mumbling to herself.

Any idea what she handed me Tova?

I believe it is an access fob. Presumably to the suite or to a shuttle for you to practice with.

That’s right, Zia wanted to fly with me. I ask my pouty Draconid if she wants to bail on family lunch and go flying now. She nods and leads me out to the vehicle area of the castle. With a pink key fob, I should have known that the shuttle would be garish.

“Did you choose this color?” I ask.

“Yeah, it matches nothing at the castle and I wanted to annoy my mother.”

Oh my gods, she is such a teen princess. I happen to like the color, but it’s funny that she chose it as an act of rebellion.

Zia coaches me through the liftoff procedure and inputs a waypoint to the harbor outside of Cottonton. During Founder’s week, there’s a demarcated air racecourse starting at the harbor, as well as a sea course, but few are willing to risk the sea monsters. I scoff at the idea of them, but Zia reinforces that the average level of monster found is between fifty and sixty, and the unreported highest is over a hundred. Even thinking of a monster near the same level as the Empress gives me the willies.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She coaches me through the controls, telling me that this is a traditional thruster shuttle with two on the bottom for loft and two in the back for speed. She reminds me again that the wings on the sides are stabilizers, not lift-producing wings. I tell her that I get the idea and that I would like a couple of times around the track before she starts racing me.

The control with the ailerons is instinctive. Left goes left, back tilts up and forward tilts down. At higher speeds, though, the traditional controls are laggy and it makes me wonder how this shuttle would handle space flight.

I check the manual and Tova confirms that the shuttle is space capable. We dive into how the shuttle turns in space and I find the fun extra thruster nuggets. I turn on the pressure override for space flight mode and I fall out of the sky. Tova reminds me that the bottom thruster controls are the foot pedals on the floor and the switch on the switch on the left joystick allows independent stereo control of the thrusters.

Since I’m already tipped forward, I flare the aft, bottom thruster until the shuttle rotates nose up and then I jam the rear thrusters to full with my thumb throttles. I start arcing around and before I tip over again, Tova instructs me to put the aft bottom thrust to low and the fore bottom thrust to medium to stabilize and then rely on the tilt of the propulsion thrusters for aft lift.

We have a turn coming up, as our airspeed has more than doubled since using atmospheric control, and Tova has a suggested maneuver using all four thrusters. Rotate top to turn, flare bottom thusters to start reversing course while the tilt of the propulsion turns us. As soon as the altitude drops significantly, twist again, lift thrusters down, heavy burn on all four thrusters.

All goes well until I start losing altitude quickly. I panic and tilt the propulsion thrusters for lift instead of flaring the bottom thrusters, spinning me end over end into the sea. The threat of sea monsters spikes my adrenaline over my spike less than a minute ago so I slam the autopilot function and find a sack to purge my feelings and fear into. What the hell was I thinking trying to be so fancy?

\ARE YOU OKAY!?\

/I’m fine, Zia. Feeling stupid, but fine. I’m headed back to the port for a breather./

I’ve calmed by the time the shuttle lands outside of town. Zia opens up the rear hatch and barges in to make sure. She picks me up and cradles me, I protest weakly, but definitely enjoy it. We snack and have refreshments as I recover from my foolishness.

Zia convinces me to go for at least one race lap, and Tova convinces me to try the complete acceleration turn again by having me practice the parts in a twisting slalom. Once I get the hang of using the bottom thrusters to turn on the slalom, and the propulsion thruster tilt to twist the aircraft, I agree to Zia’s race.

The Draconid is faster on takeoff than the shuttle, but I am faster on a straight away. The turn comes and I see Zia flex her wings to catch the air and use a flurry of wind magic to help her turn. I overshoot the first turn by half a kilometer because I am slow to execute and was distracted by the majestic purple lizard.

Pull the overdrive triggers on the joysticks after you straighten on the way out of the turn.

I shrug at the thought, focusing on the twist, arcing through the turn instead of flat stopping like the first time, twist back to level, re-stabilize the lift thrust, and pull triggers. Aether meters appear in my HUD and they start draining rapidly as I am pressed flat into my seat. Clenching my teeth and flexing everything I can flex, I manage to stay awake through the acceleration. As soon as we pass Zia, I release the triggers and coast on regular thrust as I hyperventilate after surviving the ridiculous boost the overdrive gave us.

I stumble out of the shuttle and lay on the ground to try and make my vision more stable and to make sure my heart doesn’t have to work any harder than it has to, the poor bastard has been through enough. Seconds later a frustrated purple girlfriend lands next to me and puffs smoke in my face.

It’s cool that she can probably breathe fire. Super petty to blow smoke at me while I’m recovering. I cough and curse my way to tolerably clear lungs. “That was uncalled for.”

Zia roared and spit fire into the sky. “Uncalled for? Did you get private lessons or something from my mom just to beat me?”

Oh fuck, mommy issues. Is this because of the cancelled plans?

“When would I have the time!? I was either with you or at business meetings. I asked if I could fly and the pilot and Penny both laughed me!”

Zia paces for a moment, the thump thump of her sturdy dragon toes hitting the grassy ground reverberates through my body.

“You say you’re a novice, but you fly like she does, Kimber.”

“She crashed into the sea and almost got eaten by a sea monster?”

Zia shakes her snout, “No, it was the desert and the shuttle disassembled around her. You were not almost eaten.”

“See? Totally different. If anything my AI coached me through some of the hard parts. Blame Tova.”

Zia spouts another gout of flame and stomps around some more before flying to the nearest tree to claw the crap out of. My girl has some rage issues surrounding her mother. Good to know. Perhaps competitive in an unhealthy way. I briefly think that this may be the only benefit of not having a mother and my heart hurts immediately, but the ridiculousness of the thought makes me laugh.

“Am I funny to you? Are my feelings a joke?”

“Nah, babe. I was just thinking that at least my ongoing parental trauma doesn’t reinvent itself because my parents are dead.” Shock and a little horror suffuse her face. She slumps down next to me and lies down.

“And here I am complaining about a loving mom that is too good at everything.”

I grab her hand in comfort, “It’s fine, Zee. I’ve come to terms with it, even though I’m not over it. I get triggered from phantom offenses I don’t even remember, so I won’t begrudge you a little envy.”

We lay there silently, holding hands and just being there for each other for half an hour before resuming flight practice.

For a few more hours, I exercise some more standard flight maneuvers and practice takeoff and landing—apparently the most hazardous maneuvers. After all of that time, Zia finally tires and spends the last of her energy shifting into an Elf for the rest of my stay. Her shift reinforces how much I adore her, willing to shift into a form she doesn’t love so she can be intimate with me.

I spend the remaining time before dinner feeding her aether and making out with my girlfriend. Since she’s been so good, and so understanding, I give her permission to wander with her hands and she does the same. I shamelessly hook an arm around her body, sneaking a hand around her waist to grab her butt. She rolls half on top of me and lazily massages my breast while we kiss.

At some point, her hand stills, merely resting on my boob, and as my arousal dies down to weighted comfort, I drift off to sleep under the Astorian sky.