The next day Arion had Renna do some practice at home. They got started at the breakfast table.

“Your beast can give a bit of magic even in this form,” he explained, “It’s almost nothing compared to what the beast shape can give, but it's enough to do something with.”

Renna asked the beast about it and received a small stream of magic…

“And of course, it depends where you are … The cave is magical in itself, our beasts can draw more in here than they can outside in this form. It is at most enough to do a simple illusion or float an inch off the ground out there… But here, it's close to what it is in my world.“

Renna pondered how little it must be out there, if this was about the same as in his world.

”Just don’t try anything crazy… This place has a finite magic source and if you drain it, the cave will pack itself up and we get trapped in solid rock. Not what we want…”

Renna’s face must have shown some guilt when she snapped out of her thoughts - she had been pondering about floating herself to the ceiling. Floating was the only trick she knew…

Arion laughed.

“Now tell me what you were thinking of when I said that… I will tell you if it’s safe or not” He demanded.

Renna told him.

“Actually, this is what I want you to do today.” He said, “Just go about your day, always floating. To do this you need to do the same as when you float your dragon.”

“It's not too much?” She asked.

“No, too much would be for example trying to turn cabbages into gold.” He told her.

Renna nodded. The thought of trying something like that had of course never occurred to her… But now that it was forbidden, she could feel the appeal…

“You should be fine with most things that do not change the true nature of something.” He specified.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“So, no changing my hair color?” She asked.

“No changing yourself. I like you exactly the way you are anyway…” and kissed him.

Renna smiled.

“Now, please float yourself and have breakfast that way. I will wait. I will laugh. I hope you don’t have long grudges.” He instructed her with a charming smile.

Renna tried. First three times reaching for food was enough to drop her roughly on the chair. But she persisted. Breakfast took two hours. By the end of it she could maintain lift long enough to finish her tea and cookie dessert without incident, but she failed to notice that Arion had removed her chair from underneath her. When she eventually landed on the floor with a crash, Arion used the moment to lecture her on maintaining awareness of one's surroundings, or it would be impossible for her to hunt.

Renna swore to get back at him for this somehow and got up from the floor. She had intended to go to the weaving room to work on the rug but Arion insisted she’d go floating. Renna couldn’t figure out how she was supposed to propel herself forward until Arion handed him a broom and said “Push!”

Then he took a mop for himself, directed his own magic for a bit of lift and scooted off taunting Renna to chase. Renna could not resist the temptation. They engaged in this bizarre and very funny form of tag all over the cave until lunch.

Lunch went much faster than breakfast, an apple thrown unexpectedly was curtly dogged and Renna headed to the weaving room for mixing her practice with her work. The tall frame was now full two thirds of the way and she had been using a footstool but even that was soon not going to cut it.

Renna worked happily for three hours floating up and down the frame until she felt too tired to continue. Flight was a useful trick to have. But there was still a bit of revenge to plot. She floated to the tub room, acquired a bucket full of water and floated with it in hand to the great hall door. It took her a few tries to accomplish floating both herself and the bucket, but eventually she managed the feat. Then she put some more effort into it to float the heavy bucket above the door and place it so it could be easily dumped. Then she called Arion.

He came and was subsequently trenched in water. When he went to grab the miscreant she just floated up and away from his arm reach and taunted him from there.

“What did you say about staying aware of your surroundings?” She called out from above.

Arion was actually a bit floored for other reasons than being trenched. He couldn’t do either of the two things she had just done - float something separate from himself and move while floating. He had considered them to be in fact impossible. But it seems not knowing that the thing one was going to do is impossible helps. And he wasn’t going to let her know he could not do this either.

“Somebody has been practicing, I see…” he said a bit sourly.

He knew just the thing, that would bring her right down.

“Tomorrow, we will go try this outside.”

“Really!?” Renna chirped excitedly and lost focus.

Arion caught her with satisfaction and kissed her.