Renna was both excited and nervous to start her lesson next morning and she suspected the beast was the excited one and she just worried. They were planning to practice flying but to make it safe, she would fly in human form in her harness saddle down to meadow in the mountains that had space for practice without risk of immediate capital punishment for failure.

Breakfast had never seemed to take this long and on top of that Arion spent ages untangling his flight harness. Both Renna and her beast were impatient to be out there and learning. When they finally landed at the meadow it was nearly noon. Arion had packed their lunch, so they would have all day.

Renna’s patience was further tested when Arion laid out the picnic blanket and insisted on a theory lesson before practice.

“So, how do you think flying works?” He asked her teasingly.

“You flap your wings and go?” Renna answered, knowing full well that since the question was asked, the obvious answer was probably not going to cut it.

He laughed. “Dragons are too big for that… On brute force alone they can fly just about as much as chicken can.”

Renna was surprised. He seemed to fly so effortlessly…

“Try it, if you want…” he suggested.

Renna stripped, transformed and let the beast have a go.

Lots of flapping, frustrated roars and one torched tree later Renna transformed back, pulled on a loosely fitting robe and sat down dejectedly.

Arion stopped laughing. He had been rolling on the ground in stitches watching her antics.

“Now I know how my mother felt trying to teach me.” He said with an ear to ear grin. “Don’t worry, Renna, I did no better on my first try.”

Renna perked up. “So what’s the trick?” She demanded.

“Magic obviously,” he said and levitated himself an inch off the ground.

“Dragons need magic to fly. They are the focus point of it, they draw it out of the world. Even this one, hostile to magic, has some for them to draw on, but as beasts they can’t consciously shape it… They need their human part to take care of the magic conversion for taking the weight off them. Then, the dragon will do the flying.” He explained.

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Renna understood… Magic was needed to make the beast light enough to fly. And she would need to learn to do that magic or she would not ever be able to fly. Her face fell.

“It’s all about cooperation between you and the beast… to fly you need to work together. The beast flies, you provide the lift. At first, it’s going to need full concentration, but with some practice it will become automatic. Just like when you learn to walk - at first it’s hard, but it will become second nature soon enough.”

Renna nodded.

“So - this is how my mother taught me. We transform. My beast puts its head against yours. This lets me give a bit of my magic so you know what you will be looking for. And then you will need to find its source within your beast. When you find it, you will need to guide it to run through you and transform into something that makes your beast lighter and lighter until she floats. I will stay connected and try to help you if you draw too much or lose control of the magic. You will need to keep doing this no matter what your beast does… or you two will crash. So please be careful…” he implored.

They got up and shifted. Renna was not entirely sure how she felt about magic, but she did want to fly. So there was no way around it. Soon there were two beasts standing with their foreheads touching seemingly doing nothing, but that was far from the truth.

Renna felt the magic when Arion pushed some towards her. It felt like hot tub water back home - pleasantly warm and kind of… clingy like water. But it had a yellowish-golden aura to it in Renna’s mind. Then it disappeared. So there must be a source of this somewhere… She went searching with her mind. Beast observed her curiously. She wasn’t finding anything. Then she remembered something Arion had said - that the beast is the focus that draws magic out of the world. She turned to it and tried to show her the feeling she had got from tasting Arion’s magic mixed with a sense of need, of longing. The beast seemed to understand… The next moment Renna was drowning in a powerful river of magic streaming from the beast. She felt swept away.

Seconds later she could feel Arion diverting some of the magic giving her a chance to try to communicate to the beast that yes, this was indeed what she needed, but could she try to limit it a bit… The beast understood and slowly the gushing river dwindled into something that she felt she could contain.

She started trying to absorb and convert the magic into a light yellow substance that would make the beast lighter. The beast seemed to fill up with light. Renna was concentrating hard and had totally forgotten about the outside world, but the beast had not. As it felt the lightness fill it, she just could not resist any more - she kicked off the ground and flew up. They didn’t get far. The sudden movement startled Renna and her concentration broke. The beast landed. It was not a crash, but it was quite close to being one. They had flown maybe a dragon’s length. But they had flown!

Arion shifted back and waited her to do the same

“Are you okay,” he demanded.

“Yes, yes I’m fine. Did you see that!? We flew!” She chirped happily.

Then she got serious “How much practice will it take to be able to really fly?” She asked.

“If you practice a lot, you might be able to hunt with me next month,” he said smiling.

Renna was determined to practice every day.