It only takes me a single day of running, with some short breaks, to reach the base of the mountain. I stare up at the imposing figure it cuts. It’s huge! There’s no way I’m getting anywhere even close to the top without flying, and I still don’t know how to do that. Then again, it’s not like I need to get to the top. I just need to find a cave that’s decently high up. I could probably look around and find something eventually, but it’s probably a better idea to use this opportunity to learn to fly. It seems like a really useful skill to know.

I should probably start learning and practicing as soon as possible. Then I can get to a good home sooner. Actually, why not start now? I look around. I’m surrounded by the tall trees and flowers that I’ve grown accustomed to. There isn’t much space, but there should be just enough to be able to fully unfurl my wings. This seems like a decent enough area. I slowly extend my wings to their full length. There's a decently large gap between my wings, and the trees surrounding me.

Now, how do I do this? … Maybe I can use something I’ve seen before as an example, like my father? I try to remember how my father rose into the air, but all I can remember is the exhilaration of flying and seeing the world for the first time. Maybe I can try flapping my wings the way that birds do it? I know they beat their wings really fast, but how do they start? I try to remember how birds take off, and actually succeed this time.

I think they lift their wings up, and then beat them down and up again really quickly. Yeah, that’s what they do. I lift my wings up a decent amount, and then beat them down and up again as fast as I can. I move upwards a little with each beat of my wings. I did it! I’m flying! I internally cheer, but that distracts me, and I stop beating my wings for a second. However, that’s all it takes to send me tumbling to the ground. Although, since I barely rose, I take next to no damage. Barely even a scratch on my scales. If I fell from that height at my previous evolution, I probably would have gotten a proper scratch at least. Now, it barely does anything.

Well, at least I was able to get off the ground, which means that I was right to follow the way birds do it. All I need is more practice, and then I should be able to actually fly! And then I can search the mountain for a cave. Welp, no better time to start than now.

. . .

I spread my wings as wide as they can go, and then start beating them up and down as fast as I can. I quickly rise up into the air. However, I’m already getting tired. This isn’t working. I may be rising, but I get tired too quickly. My wings are just too heavy for me to beat them this fast. I slow my beating, and gradually start to lower. It takes a few more seconds, but I’m back on the ground.

Stolen novel; please report.

Beating my wings this fast tires me far too quickly to actually work. But what other options are there? Could I glide? As in, beat my wings, glide, and then beat them each time I need more lift? But to do that, I would need some amount of wind to push me forward, right? Well, I should at least try and see if the gliding idea would work at all. I beat my wings a couple of times, until I’m a few feet in the air. And then I stop. I keep my wings extended at their full length, and stop beating them. I begin to fall, except it’s much slower than a normal fall. It takes me a few more seconds to land on the ground, where I retract my wings.

I don’t think I have the space to properly test this out, but it seems promising. I wonder; if I start flying from part way up the mountain, will I have enough space to properly test this out? I think I should, because If I go high enough, then I will be above the trees, and won’t have any of the interference I do now.

I turn around to face the mountain, then jog until I reach the edge of a large clearing. The side opposite to me borders the steep cliffs. However, these cliffs seem to be made of a different kind of rock than what I’ve seen elsewhere in the forest. The rocks are a sand red, kind of like the color of the walls in the cave I was born in.

Although, unlike the cave walls, these steep cliffs give off something akin to an aura. It feels ancient, and alive. As if the stone could peel off at any moment and do something. What’s happening? What’s this aura? Why do some random rocks even have an aura? I step closer, into the range of the aura. The moment I enter, the aura changes. It goes from what feels like a calm gaze, to a distressed, frantic feeling. Why is whatever’s making this aura so disturbed by me?

I’m distracted from my thoughts when I hear the sound of stone cracking. I refocus on the cliffs, and am shocked by what I see. Small parts of the cliff are breaking off and falling. When they reach the ground, and should stop moving, they don’t. They array themselves in the barebones shape of a spider. When the entire shape is complete, all the dust in the area starts moving. The dust from the broken rocks, and the dust in the surroundings, swirl towards the spider made of rocks. In the wave of dust, I spot a flash of glowing green. Before I can even begin to wonder what it is, it’s gone. The dust builds itself under and around the rocks, until there is no more.

The spider now looks much more alive. The rocks look like armor plating covering the exoskeleton of the spider. The dust seems to resemble that exoskeleton, and even though it’s constantly moving, it gives the impression of something solid, which surprises me even more. How can dust be solid? Wait, that’s not important. This thing is obviously what was giving off that aura, and it must be coming out here to fight me, and it’s probably too late for me to back off. But how do I fight it? Oh! I can use a vine to tear the rocks off! It’s even possible that I can crush them. Maybe that will hurt it more? I can even use my camouflage ability to make myself invisible while I do that!

I’m broken out of my thoughts when a sudden bright green light flashes over the clearing. I refocus on the spider, and only notice one thing different. Inside of the empty sockets of its eyes, there are small green flames. They look around, scanning the clearing, before one of them lands on me. The eye stops moving entirely, and all the others focus on me, stopping their seemingly aimless roaming.