Wind felt like a solid wall that we crashed through every moment as Jessy turned every surface of her body tight and streamlined with me dipping behind her head and the pike shouldered and pointed down.

Before I knew it, the beast was below us. I didn’t have to say a word to know Jessy readied the muscles in her tail and steadied her lineup in the steep fall. Perpendicular to the beast we flew. Eyes on that thin-skinned neck we fired. Hearts pounding as one, we crashed through air till at the last moment Jessy tucked into a ball and rolled her head down where I flipped vertically and swung the pike with an arcing swing that struck the beast across the neck and lifted it off the ground and threw it over, the strength of the attack throwing me back into Jessy’s shoulders as I rolled over with her straight and level and aligned with the tree tops to skim over leaves and even out in a breaking turn.

“Yeeah!” I screamed as Jessy let out a roar that put to flight birds in a mile radius.

With a slow spiral, we came about and hovered over the clearing formed when the beast fell on its side. I felt nothing from the creature and knew it was dead.

“Look Jessy,” I said and patted her neck. “We got it.”

“Ready yourself, Hednar the beast is…” Lia said as she appeared in a burst of white light near the beast. She stopped when the Red Prophet beside her leveled his glowing red dagger at the enormous body. “It’s, well—”

“It’s dead,” Hednar said, though he kept his dagger leveled.

“Or at least it looks as such. I am unfamiliar with the biology of these beasts and when one factors in the ever-changing mutations occurring in their reproductive cycles I could imagine that—”

“It’s dead. I killed it,” I called from above them. The two looked up, the Red aiming his dagger at me.

With the presence of a weapon aimed at her, Jessy thrust her wings to rise and bucked.

“Hey, hey, put that thing away you’re scaring Jessy!” I said.

“Hednar, I’m assured of the boy’s immediate safety and of mine so if you would kindly disarm yourself I’d like to bring the boy to a safer altitude,” Lia said.

Hednar sheathed his dagger.

“Much better,” Lia said as I sent enough calming emotions to Jessy to convince her we were safe. She still preferred to hover past throwing distance from the Prophets. “Mightn’t you come down and join us, dear Kagis?”

“Dear?” I called down. “How am I dear?”

“Merely a matter of expression, good Kagis.”

“Good?”

“Kagis, beast-slayer of Mother, if that is a formality more suitable to your tastes. I humbly request your presence at sea level if you would be so kind.”

“She wants us to go down, Jessy,” I whispered.

Jessy growled.

“I know,” I replied. “But we didn’t get beast steak last night and I’m hungry.”

Jessy grumbled.

“Oh, you’ve never had it? Then you’re in for a treat. Come on. Let’s go down and cut us some.”

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Jessy let out a low growl as she descended, slowly, as a leaf falls on the wind. We settled silently at the other end of the clearing of felled trees, Jessy extending her claws as she landed.

“Now that’s a good boy,” Lia said. “Such a brave warrior to have felled such a malevolent beast as this. Why, I’d say you’re making my partner very jealous in your combat skills, young man.”

“He tried to hurt Jessy,” I said to the Prophet, petting the soft white fur on Jessy’s chest. “So we killed him.”

“With a stick?” Hednar asked.

I posted the end of the tree branch into the ground. Its stout wood had survived the strike intact, due to its flexible, dense interior. Only a few layers of thin bark had chipped away along the spot where I’d struck the beast.

“It’s a pike,” I said.

“Pikes have points,” Hednar said.

“This one doesn’t.”

“Then it’s not a pike.”

“What do you care anyway?”

Jessy growled and spread her wings.

“Let us remain calm, dear boys, as we decipher the situation to a greater detail,” Lia said with a soft smile. “Now, Kagis, great beast slayer as you are, we grew ferociously concerned when you took to flight over the prior evening. Your parents grew less so, claiming expeditions of similar misdeeds occurred in the past. However, their worries and ours seemed to have been justified as we see this combat scene before us.”

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Truly. However, I must explain that we and a good deal of your village have grown concerned over your absence. To find you returning with a dead beast of this size would surely have a mother fainting with fright.”

“And pride.”

Hednar laughed.

“Perhaps,” Lia said. “Young beast slayer, do you know how many Mother-Dwellers can claim to have vested a creature of this size?”

“There’s a few stories,” I said.

“Stories and tales they are, and beasts such as this fall in only such places. In all my studies of this planet, you are the first I have witnessed, despite many foolish attempts.”

“It’s not really that big of a deal.”

“Oh, it is. Do you know of the many other planets full of individuals who would weep at the capacity to slay a creature with only the most basic of equipment?”

“Other planets?”

Jessy lowered her wings.

“Lia,” Hednar said, “we’ve only been here a few days. And he hasn’t even agreed.”

“The boy is full of wonder, Hednar, something I can see as though it were written across his scalp,” Lia said with a smile. “Tell me, oh great beast slayer, your mother and father divulged that you’ve quested for a crown to partner with since you grew the ability to catch them with your eyes. What will you do now that this quest is complete?”

I shrugged and said, “Ride her.”

Jessy let out a small yelp of joy in response and spread her wings.

“As such you should,” Lia said, and held out an arm to stop us, taking a slow step forward. “For to ride such a creature would fulfill all the dreams of youth and wonder. But to what end? Where will you fly to and for what reason?”

I shrugged. “She wants to fly. I do too.”

“Ah, the desire to soar, to greet the lofty heights. And when that is fulfilled? When the quest to reach the sky is achieved? What will you do? Can you really return to the life of the village knowing you have a crown of your own?”

“They’ll let me keep her.”

“And gaze with wonder as you soar, yes. Your life will be that of a superior from here till your fall. And this great beast will be your highest triumph. Tell me, beast slayer, does that thought please you?”

“I…” I looked at the beast. It was pretty big. It would be hard to find a bigger one, hard enough not to be worth the search.

I felt Jessy scan the sky, looking for a cloud of a particular shape. I didn’t know what type she was looking for but I could feel she didn’t find it.

“I guess it makes me feel sad,” I finally said.

“Sad over what?” Lia replied. “Sad that on your first day owning a crown you bested the greatest Mother has to offer?”

Jessy looked at the beast. She wasn’t afraid of it at all. For some reason, this knowledge made her sad as well.

“What would you say if I offered you endless challenge, boundless opportunity, and a dozen skies of a dozen hues all open and unique as they are enchanting? You have bested all that Mother has to offer. What say you to the rest of the universe?”

Jessy’s heart felt open as an ocean cave when a great storm pulled the sea back in anticipation of a mighty rush of water. She made me feel the same.

“If the crown can understand my words, I would express the same to her,” Lia said, and smiled, bowing slightly to me. “How would you, Kagis of Mother, like to join the Sevens Prophets?”