Eclipse hadn't bothered to put the barrier up. He didn't want Drake to try burning his room down again, and he didn't really care what he did for the next few days anyway.

In the end, he had to disguise himself as a girl with strange blue hair, and an even stranger accent to get past the odd hook-handed guards. There were several books in a hidden chest; they seemed to be mostly notebooks, written from some source that was not with the collection. Scattered among them were a few real books on various subjects.

Eclipse couldn't take the books without attracting attention, so he memorized a few choice parts, and flicked through them. They would have been an interesting read, if he'd had a few days to go over them. His curiosities about Terran technology would have to wait, for now.

He noticed a few references to an ‘orb that only Zidane can read’, and deducted that this was more proof that he needed the Terran still.

 

 

 

 

 

Drake was not happy as he walked up the tower. He did notice the barrier wasn't up, and took that as permission to go hunting.

He still wasn't happy, though. He went hunting all the time, Eclipse usually let him... but Eclipse wasn't around. He had three days, at least, to spend doing... anything.
Maybe he could go kill Pricilla, but the idea of being within fifty thousand feet of her made him gag.

Drake wasn't in the mood to go and be around his fan group, even though Eclipse didn't like them. It was a waste of time and he was too different from them to actually have any fun, not in the mood he was in.

He was about to give up and just go kill the stick and the shopkeeper, when he saw his winter coat hanging in the keep...

Drake walked over and saw Vanda bobbing her head and playing for attention, so he unlocked her cage and picked up his coat.
Vanda hopped onto his arm.

“... Vanda? Want to go play in the snow?”

Vanda puffed out and Drake headed out his door.
He noticed his footsteps were quiet, and had to remind himself that he was fairly safe for now, Eclipse was gone...

 

 

 

Severo was camped at the edge of a frozen lake, similar to the one where Drake, Ellipsis and Severo had seen the odd display of feather circles, and Drake had made his first kill.

He did not expect to see Drake this time. In fact, he spent very little of his time there in the cold arctic. The reason Severo was there this time being that he was on a short expedition to collect Yan horns for someone who had an interest in them on the Mist Continent.

 

For perhaps the first time ever, Drake found the opportunity to sneak up on Severo.
He usually made his presence be known with fire.

This time, he threw a well-aimed snowball.

 

Severo dropped the modestly sized Yan horn that he had been cleaning in shock, and spun around quickly. He was rather shocked when he spotted Drake there, so much so that he was unable to speak for a brief moment.

“Lad! What are you doing here?” He asked after the short pause. It was a somewhat pleasant surprise. Having a snowball hit him in the back of the head wasn't on his top list of pleasant things, though.

 

Drake laughed at the shocked reaction as he walked over. “Escaping… and yourself? Not the best season for hunting in the arctic.”

 

“Best... well, only place to find Yans at this time of the year I'm afraid.” Severo said, and crouched to pick up the horn he had dropped. He brushed off the snow and showed it to Drake, as if to prove his point.

 

“Ah. Got a buyer?” Drake looked at the horns, noticing they were larger than most would be. A very good catch, something only an experienced hunter like Severo would be able to find this time of year.

 

“Always a buyer for Yan horns, Lad.” Severo informed, eyeing the one in his hand with scrutiny. “But this guy wants high quality, and is willing to pay highly for them. Not sure what he wants them for so desperately, though.”

 

“Hm. I'm not sure what use they'd have. But I've never tried to sell them. Well, then, if you'd prefer I leave you to it I can. I need to go assassinate Pricilla anyways.” Drake mused, though in his head he knew he wouldn't do it... he'd have to get close enough to see her and that was too close.

 

“Is she really that bad?” Severo asked. He had heard Drake talk about the young empress before, but he had never met her himself. Barely ever went near her castle. So naturally, he was skeptical that she was really as bad as the boy claimed.

 

Drake shuddered involuntarily, “Yes. She is vile! She's not even regal, she married into it and killed her husband. Now she's after me. She does not understand 'back off' nor does she take 'hint's' like when I stood and watched her nearly drown... I loathe her, she is the exact opposite from anything I have ever been and she won't go away—...” Drake realized he was ranting so he quickly stopped.

 

“That's a 'yes' then,” Severo said after a short pause and a blink of his large yellow eyes. Then he continued as he put the horn into a basket with some others. “Well, I doubt she will find you out here. So you better stay.”

He turned and gave the prince a wink and a small smile.

 

Drake laughed and let Vanda out of her cage. She hopped onto his arm and looked around, then flapped her wings for a while though she wasn't trying to fly anywhere.

“... Done?” Drake asked after she stopped flapping her wings.

Vanda squawked and rubbed her head against his shoulder.

 

“Nice owl.” Severo commented, though he almost asked, “Another bird?”

Where Drake saw a potential hunting tool, Severo would probably wonder if it would make a good starter course. However, saying he wasn't impressed with the skill with which Drake had trained the birds, would be a lie.

Severo doubted that a bird would be much use for hunting Yan though. It was dangerous and difficult to hunt them normally. Their attacks were devastating if they got the first shot at you.

“Vanda was my first; she was almost dragon food from a hurt wing. I found her years ago and she, too, won't leave, but with her that's a good thing.” He said. “Usually Eclipse says I should take Celestina, but Vanda's more suited for the cold weather... she isn't the best hunter during the day, though. Usually I just use her to keep watch for beasts at night.”

 

“I can see where that would be useful, lad. You humans sleep so heavily!” Severo said. It might have been an insult if it hadn't been for Severo's tone suggesting that it was more that he couldn't imagine living in a way where he wasn't always aware of the world around him, and able to wake up if a monster even wandered too close.

Off the top of his head, he could remember no less than a dozen cases where his sensitive hearing alone had saved him from potential harm.

 

“Hm,” Drake was thinking over that... he'd learned he wasn't human, but he still wasn't exactly sure... what he was. He hadn't seen Severo since he'd found out. “Chaucer is human...” he stated, though it was actually a question.

 

Severo looked over to him questioningly, as if he was waiting for him to continue. For a moment, Severo had actually forgotten about the incident in the cave, with the dragon. Was the boy saying he wasn't human? True, that time in the cave he hadn't looked it... Severo had been wondering about that quite a bit… he’d seen many strange things in his life, but that had been a whole new level… he’d strongly debated going to Daguerreo to talk to Chaucer about it.

 

Drake turned his attention to Vanda, pretending to ignore his own question. The answer had been given, now.

 

Severo didn't say anything, and a silence fell for a moment as the wolf man contemplated it. Though he was quite sure that the boy had said he wasn't human, there were still the details on how, and why. The not being human part didn't bother Severo much. Maybe it was because he was an accepting person, or maybe just that he wasn't human either.

“So where have you been hunting recently?” Severo asked, eventually. Hunters like himself would work in an area a lot for a while, looking for specific prey. Sometimes even spending months there.

 

“Mostly in Daguerreo, but I've been in Alexandria quite a bit hunting something specific…” Drake replied.

 

Perhaps it was something in Drake's voice that made him curious, or perhaps it was that he knew that there weren't really any rare or special monsters around Alexandria, but he had to ask, all the same.

“Oh? What?” He asked simply, and the curiosity was obvious in his voice.

 

Drake just grinned in reply and started walking. “On my way over I saw some Yan's this way.”

 

“Really?” Severo asked, looking back over at Drake, obviously interested. It was clear that the thought of hours searching just to find a sign of Yan was not something that Severo was looking forward to. For a lack of a better word, he seemed a little bored.

 

Drake looked back and nodded. “A herd, at least seven.”

 

“Seven?!” Severo blurted out. His big, yellow, almost-haunting eyes shot wide-open. “That's very rare; they usually stay solitary at this time of year. Three at most… Could be dangerous...” He added after a moment, rubbing his furry chin with an equally furry finger. “Let's go!”

 

Drake laughed and Vanda flew off, understanding that her help was not needed. Vanda was used to that, now. Drake liked to go fast, and she knew she slowed him down at times. Vanda was perfectly happy to just perch on a tree branch and watch the camp.

Drake took off after the Yan herd.

 

Severo followed him after quickly putting his bow over his shoulder and grabbing his arrows. He had long and powerful legs, and even though Drake was fast and a lot younger than he was, he had no trouble keeping up with the young prince in this terrain.

“How far?” Severo asked, he had to call forward against the wind, but he tried to control his voice best he could, so as not to alert anything in the area to their presence.

 

Drake glanced back as he ran, “Not far. This way.” He turned, going around some trees.

It took very, very little time, but he went very, very fast.

Drake stopped by a tree on a hill overlooking a rocky valley.
Nearly hidden in the rocks, was the heard of Yans. There were four in plain sight, and another partly hidden, as well as three others that you had to really look to see.

 

“What the hell?” Severo murmured as he surveyed the situation from their secluded vantage point, “This looks like the annual meeting of the easy prey society.”

Why were there so many Yan together? This was virtually unheard of in any season. Nevertheless, the thing that bothered Severo the most was the number of them. It was easy to forget they were dangerous. So he began to think about how he would be able to get at any of them without alerting the others.

 

Drake's eyes were fixed on the Yans. He slunk forward a bit, getting lower to the ground.
The ones that were trying to hide interested him the most. They could be hurt, slow... anything.
The options for an attack were endless— even if these were dangerous beasts. He wasn't the one who needed to be afraid.
He stared at the one closest, hiding behind a pile of snow. Drake moved a bit closer, preparing to attack.

 

Severo hung back. He had thought about reminding the boy how dangerous the Yan were, but then he remembered that the boy was a seasoned hunter himself now. He knew what he was doing, surely. Besides, after what had happened last time they hunted together, he was sure the boy's powers must have grown.

So he just watched, and stayed back. If the boy had wanted him to help somehow, he would have given him some kind of signal.

 

Drake jumped up and leapt over to the Yan closest, the one partially hidden in the brush. If they worked at it, he was sure Severo and himself could get every Yan. He just wanted to split them up, get a few of them to follow him for a bit. He doubted they would all follow, and figured it would split them up— make them easier to take down.

Rather than begin an attack on this Yan, he simply kicked it into another Yan hiding nearby.
That didn't make them very happy, and Drake had to dodge a Comet spell. He then he jumped to the bottom of the little valley, and took off running.

 

Yan were funny looking things. Almost as comical in appearance as they were deadly in nature. Their appearance wasn't just that though, it also meant that their short legs and large head made them not the fastest monster in the world by far.

That being the case, Severo was confident that Drake could outrun the five that followed him. The other three milled about. One had darted a few meters before thinking better of it, and stopping. The other two were still watching that direction.

So, none of them saw anything until the first of the three fell from one of Severo's arrows. The two others span around at the cry the dying creature had given, but they were still searching for the attacker when the second was felled by another arrow.

The third charged toward the source of the arrow, and was preparing to cast Comet, but was prevented from doing to, forever, by the Shadow arrow.

 

Drake got rather far, and then he slid to a stop and waited.

A lot more Yan's followed him then he expected, but that was fine. He shifted to his TF and took out the first two that reached him with a single blast of his primal fire, aiming for it to go through them rather than around. Around would damage the horns and he didn't want that, the internal burn would eat away at anything that wasn't bone, helpful in the end.

The next one fired Comet, but with his wings, Drake could easily get out of the way. He landed behind the Yan and snapped its neck.

The last two fired Comet at the same time, and Drake had to work harder to avoid that. His wings were an advantage. They couldn't reach him, and he could attack them like his raptors attacked prey. He swooped down behind the Yans and raked his claws across the scalp of one Yan, slicing through the skull and killing it swiftly.

For the last one, Drake pulled the arrow back in his bowstring... and it was all over in seconds.

 

Severo missed the action, but he got there in the end. He surveyed the carnage. It looked like they hadn't stood a chance.

“Not bad, lad.” Severo complimented, as he nudged one of the Yan that seemed to be smoldering from the inside with his boot. Some smoke puffed out of its ears and nose in an amusing, if slightly grotesque fashion. He made an almost instant mental decision to not cook either of those two, though he was pleased that the horns weren’t damaged. He bent down to examine them more closely, and noticed that despite the lack of visible burning, the horns were radiating heat. Even though he knew how it had been done, it was still strange to see.

He straightened back up. One of the Yan looked as though it had been clawed by a dragon, or large predator. Another had an arrow stuck right in-between the eyes, an excellent shot. The last he guessed had a broken neck, though it was hard to tell.

 

Drake hadn't waited long for Severo to come, and had shifted out of his TF right after the hunt was over... He couldn't risk people seeing his TF— what would they think? … Severo had seen it about three years ago, but Drake didn’t need to give him a reminder…

Now he stood back and accepted the praise gladly, while pulling his coat tighter in a pretend effort to keep warm. Before he shifted he removed his coat, always did. He had altered his shirts to suit his wings, and used his vests and coats to cover the slits in the back of his shirts.
“Thank you,” he smiled. “You got here awful quick, checking up on me?”

 

“My instincts tell me to check up on any man that's chased by five Yans. Even you,” Severo told the Prince with another of his toothy grins. He took a length of rope off his waist and began to tie the Yan up. The horns were far too attached to remove unbroken without the tools he had left at the camp.

Once he was done, he hefted the bundled carcasses onto his shoulder. “Besides, I could smell cooked Yan from half a mile away.”

 

Drake laughed and followed Severo back to the camp where Vanda was waiting.

 

“You want to start a fire, lad?” Severo asked with a small chuckle as he tossed down the five Yans from his back, and pulled over the other three Drake had carried.

Once they were all in one heap, he started to untangle the ropes. It would be a long bit of boring work now to remove the horns.

 

Instantly, a fire exploded into an unoccupied area of the camp, vaporizing the surrounding snow.
“Yes,” Drake replied with a grin.

 

“And seeing as you're so good with that fire, how about you start something cooking?” Severo said with a smirk. He knew the boy just loved to set snow on fire to impress.

 

Drake rolled his eyes, “Fine. I warn you, everything I cook is Cajun.” With that warning, he walked over and got to work cooking.

 

For some unknown reason, Severo felt no surprise. In fact, he felt Drake would never undercook anything in his life. Even if he tried.

Cooking took a while, so the food was just starting to burn by the time Severo finished removing the horns, and added them to the considerable collection.

 

Drake tossed the meat he didn't roast to Vanda. He hadn't meant to burn the food, but he'd been distracted by his own thoughts...

He couldn't get caught. Not this time. He'd broken too many rules, and had greatly angered Eclipse already this week.
Now he figured it was best to just do something he enjoyed that wouldn't bother anyone for a while.

Ideally, he'd get back home before Eclipse and have a 90% chance of escaping any possible punishment. If Drake was late... that could be bad. Eclipse always seemed to know when Drake went hunting somewhere he wasn't supposed to be...
Drake often suspected the pilot. Perhaps he was telling Eclipse, or Eclipse was reading him.

It always annoyed him, but he wasn't sure what to do about it.
Drake just knew there was no way he could handle another trip to Shivel. Especially now, Pricilla was... awful, vile, terrible... and if he were left alone with her for more than ten seconds, he'd kill her, and that would get him in more trouble...

However, there had been a new pilot, this time... and he bet Eclipse would expect him to go hunting somewhere, or he'd have told Drake not to.
So... Drake was just hoping Eclipse would think he was out somewhere in Daguerreo. He had the... phone thing with him anyway... and he assumed it'd work out here.

 

Severo got up and walked over to Drake. His hands were still...'dirty', so he couldn't take the food off the fire himself.

“Hey,” Severo said to the boy to try and get his attention. He had noticed that he seemed a million miles away, and was not only seemingly oblivious to the burning food, but hadn't even seemed to notice the tall wolf man standing there.

 

Drake looked at Severo and then at the burning food.

“Oh!” The fire vanished instantly leaving... some of the food still edible. “… Oops. I’m sorry, Severo. I’ll go catch something else,” Drake apologized and got up.

He felt the need to apologize—not for the food, for the fact that he had completely dropped his guard. Losing focus was never permitted, ever.
He couldn’t remember a time when it had been, Eclipse said it would be dangerous with his fire power.

When Drake was younger and decided dropping stuffed toys off the balcony was a better idea than practicing his lessons, he’d gotten in trouble… he also lost a lot of toys and one yo-yo which had turned out to be a great disappointment. It yo’ed once and then never returned… a great disappointment.
He had an attention problem… that was apparent and not at all safe—no one likes an A.D.D Pyrokenetic.

When he was learning to fly, it had been especially apparent that his lack of attention would cause problems… but it was so hard to focus. Eclipse spoke, but all Drake could focus on was a dragon flying nearby, or the sound the water made, or the other sounds the darkness produced…

Or other things…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… I wonder what dinner was, Drake pondered to himself.
He’d gotten back from Shivel yesterday, now he was at the edge of Daguerreo, looking over a cliff. They were on a ledge on one of the highest mountains in the area. Above them, the top was hidden by clouds, and over the side was a steep drop. It was difficult to make out what was at the bottom, but if you fell that far, it wouldn't matter anyway.

Eclipse said he should learn to fly. Drake wasn’t too sure about this idea. He could fly all right if he was in the air already… and not falling. However, these lessons were the same as the lessons for controlling his fire and earthquakes— boring.

Eclipse had a way of sucking the fun out of any situation. Drake easily lost interest.

It tasted like chicken, but so many things do. It smelt like burnt vegetables, but it was meat. Wasn’t it? Hm. Maybe I should ask—oh, and while I’m there I should steal the chocolate Chocobo sculpture. Why would someone use candy for art and not let anyone eat it? I can see why you would want to show it off, but it has been hours. Everyone has seen it, and he plans on throwing it away? That’s just tragic.

 

“That’s why it is important to use thermals, they— Drake are you even listening?” Eclipse asked; his voice changing from a drone to a growl as the sentence had progressed.

Hm? What? “Yes, I’m listening, Eclipse.” What did he say? What did he say? Drake put his hands behind his back, a habit he’d picked up and used whenever he was unsure or nervous and trying to look like he was still in control.

He’d seen the birds fly, he’d taught Vanda to fly… how hard could it be? He wasn’t sure it required a two hour lecture…

 

Eclipse made a 'hmm' sound and stepped closer to Drake as if he was considering if Drake really had been listening, but Eclipse already knew.

“You must feel you’re ready to try, then?” Eclipse asked him, but there was that edge to his tone that made it clear he either didn't want or didn't expect an answer.

 

Drake took a few steps away from the cliff. “… I’m listening now,” he offered. “I don’t think this is going to work... In case you haven’t noticed, I can’t use my wings. They’re too big.”

 

Eclipse turned away and walked to the edge of the cliff, looking over at the terrifying drop. “Maybe you do need to grow into them a little... But you still managed to fly before.”

 

“That was different. I had to that time.” Drake clarified, trying to remember what he'd said he'd been doing when he shifted the first time.

 

“Yes, it would have been rather messy if you hadn't been able to.” Eclipse agreed easily, then he seemed to spot something. “You see that bird down there?” He asked, and pointed to something far below.

 

Drake tipped his head to the side, and then walked over to look at the bird. “Where?”

 

“There. That bird down there, see how it's doing it?” Eclipse asked, still pointing.

 

Drake looked at where he was pointing, but... “I don't see it.”

 

“Then let's take a closer look,” Eclipse announced, grabbing Drake's arm, and jumping off the cliff.

 

Making sure that he took the prince with him.

This all happened so fast that, behind them, Ellipsis, who had been watching, gasped in shock and ran forward to look down. Oddly enough, he’d been bored before this… he saw Drake’s wings and they were an impressive size, but Drake was right… they were too big. Pure Occultations got their wings as very young children and those wings grew with them; most of the annoyance was how long it took the wings to be big enough to allow for flight. Smaller wings allowed them to grow up learning how to use them until they actually could… it would be extremely difficult to start with such large wings; much like beginning a book with the last chapter and being expected to write a report on it, without reading the rest.

 

Of course, Ellipsis never had wings… but he had to imagine jumping off a cliff was a drastic way to practice.

 

Drake mentally yelled at himself for not seeing that coming. He should have, he kept telling himself that going anywhere near the cliff’s edge had been very, very stupid!

“Eclipse!” He yelped.

 

Eclipse appeared completely unconcerned as he plummeted. He had years upon years of practice, and was in absolutely no danger. Only his robes were reacting. They were caught so fiercely in the wind that they seemed to flap and thrash about as if they were the only thing about Eclipse that showed human emotion. Eclipse just barely heard Drake, the air rushing past them carried even the loud shout away.

“Fly!” Eclipse instructed loudly, though for some reason his voice wasn’t distorted by the wind.

 

“I don’t know how to fly!” Drake shouted back, trying to think of what to do.
He tried to grab the cliff wall, the rocks, a branch, anything! He was going too fast and he wasn’t close enough to the cliff. “This is the worst idea ever!”

 

“Use your wings!” Eclipse commanded; the same demanding voice with a hint of frustration in it this time. He was still calm, even though they were already half way down.

 

Drake grumbled a lot about how stupid this plan was and how this would be how he died.

He had no options, though, so he jerked his arm out of Eclipse’s grip, took a moment to notice he wasn’t falling as fast now… then shifted to his TF in a blast of fire.

Drake’s wings caught the wind and caused a jerky, awkward stop that knocked the air out of him for a moment… he then grabbed the cliff wall and hung on.

 

While Drake had been distracted, Eclipse had half-shifted, only allowing his wings to show. His descent had slowed more gracefully, and he even used his momentum to start an ascent.

“What are you doing?” Eclipse interrogated after he had rose back up to where Drake was hanging.

 

“I'm flying at an exceptionally slow speed.” Drake replied, climbing up the cliff. “Using my claws... and the wall.”

 

Eclipse sighed, “Use your wings.” he ordered calmly, crossing his arms. He decided then that Drake was only getting back to the top if he flew there.

 

“I did. I'm done,” Drake declared.

 

Eclipse glared and then used his powers to make the part of the cliff Drake was climbing crack, and start to fall away.

 

Drake yelped and jumped up, trying to get onto solid ground. “Stop it! I used my wings and now I am done! And since down is water, I'm going up.”

 

“Drake. Either you take this serious and get off that wall this instant, or I am going to tear you off myself.” Eclipse stated, simply. “You need to learn to fly as soon as possible in a way that does not just rely on instincts… So do as I say this time or next time I make sure there isn’t a wall around next time.”

 

Drake glared for a while and then he gave up and let go. He fell a few feet and then let his wings unfold. He stopped falling, but... wasn't go up, either. Drake tried to fly, he did, but when his wings rose for the next flap, it pushed him down. When he pushed his wings down, he went up, but only gained a few inches since he kept losing air.

 

Eclipse shook his head disapprovingly, but stayed silent. He had to let the boy try to learn by himself. So he just floated there, effortlessly, and watched.

 

Drake looked down for a bit… he could swim. Why not just forget the stupid lesson and fall? It was a long way, but he bet if he managed to avoid the rocks he’d survive.
How had he done this before? It was different when he had a big evil dragon trying to kill him—then again, Eclipse was right there…

Drake decided to take a different route. He did what usually worked, he focused on what he wanted, put desire into it, and figured out how to get it.
Fire erupted around him once more and he powered his wings against the blaze.

 

Drake was at the top of the cliff again nearly instantly.
Getting down was the major problem… he still had to let himself fall a few feet. “Blasted wings. Too big! Ghiolban!”

 

“Language,” Eclipse snapped halfheartedly as he came to a gentle landing on the edge of the cliff. Stepping onto the edge as if he was stepping onto the dock off an airship. The calmness of this graceful display was shattered, as his shadowy wings seemed to crawl back inside his body like evil parasites.

 

“... There was no bird.” Drake decided to point out, still mad about being tricked.

 

“Sure there was, would you like to take another look?” Eclipse asked Drake, a hint of a smirk on his face.

 

“No.” Drake answered, looking away.
He'd wanted to fly, he'd tried to fly, he'd jumped off his balcony... yet ironically, he did not want to learn to fly.
He'd just figured out how to kill the lift and wanted to go see how that was going. “Can I go back inside now?”

 

“Only if you fly back,” Eclipse replied.

 

The statement was false. He really didn't want Drake to fly near the castle. That would cause far too many questions. It just meant that he had to finish his lesson.

 

Drake looked at his wings, stretching one out as if judging just how long it was. Then he looked back at Eclipse. “Fine, I'm listening.”

 

Therefore, Eclipse went back to the tedious lesson. Explaining in great, though boring, detail the method of flight. It was doubtful Eclipse would ever make a good teacher… his students would either be scared, kill themselves, or die of boredom. He always had trouble with Drake, too. Drake lost focus so very easily—always distracted. It grated on Eclipse’s nerves; he didn’t know how the boy handled it. Even when Drake wanted to pay attention, it seemed difficult for him.

 

At three am, Drake gave up arguing and for the sole purpose of shutting Eclipse up; he flew.
It wasn't the best display in the world, and landings were still Hades, but he was flying.
“Now can I go home?” He demanded from the sky.

 

“Let's try one more landing,” Eclipse decided. He really didn't want Drake to fly into town... He’d need to set rules—strict rules on where the no-fly-zones were… Drake would grow into his wings, and knowing the boy he’d learn to like flying—he’d always wanted wings.

 

Drake groaned. “You just like watching me fall, I know it.”

 

“Less talking, more landing.” Eclipse snapped in way of response, while Ellipsis stood off to the side, eating an apple.

 

“That's a yes,” Drake grumbled.
He ungracefully dropped onto the cliff's edge.

 

“You will need more practice.” Eclipse said aloud, though it wasn't really a necessary comment. It was somewhat obvious the young prince needed to work on the landings. He seemed to be getting better though.
Then, without another word, he started toward the castle, walking at an even pace.

Ellipsis followed, tossing the apple core into the bushes. “Not bad,” he muttered quietly to Drake just before moving to catch up to Eclipse.

 

Drake smiled, slightly, and shifted out of his TF. He followed a ways back.

 

 

 

 

Without another thought, Drake took off away from the camp, in search of something to replace the meal he'd burnt.

 

Severo watched Drake go without a word. He did try some of the burned food, but coughed and spat it back out.

“Urgh, tastes like chicken...” He commented, and tossed it aside. Hopefully something in the wild would be able to stomach it.