Tyrei screamed as she plummeted towards the earth, frenzied feelings of betrayal racing through her mind. Why did she do this? she wondered. How could she? I thought Momma loved me! Tears of terror and despair flew from her eyes as she continued her downward plunge.

Suddenly, she came to a gentle halt not far above the ground. Tyrei looked around, confused, and saw that her mother had caught her at the last moment and was now raising them both back up into the sky. The little dragon breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, Momma! I was so scared! Please, please, Momma, don’t do that again!"

The elder dragon sighed. "I will, my dear. I have to. It’s time you learned the use of your wings, as all our kind must. Why, your brother has been flying for almost a year! But you needn’t fear so much... you should know that I would never let harm come to you. I’ll always be here to catch you."

"But Momma!" Tyrei protested, "What if I slip! What if you don’t catch me in time? What if-" In response, Tyrei’s mother simply sighed, shook her head, and once more opened her claws, releasing her daughter yet again. Tyrei screamed.

This went on for some time, Tyrei falling towards earth in a state of panicked terror, only to be caught at the last moment by her mother who would fly her back up to their starting altitude to begin again. After the fourth or fifth time, simple experience was beginning to wear away at the edges of her fear, and by the eighth time she was no longer panicking and instead consciously trying to figure out how to work her little wings.

"You’re trying too hard," chided her Mother after the tenth trip. "This is not something you think about so much as feel. Birds do it, and they’re not one thousandth as bright as us." The elder sighed. "I suppose this has been enough for today, dear. Come, we’ll return home to rest, and try again tomorrow."

Another day of this? Not if Tyrei could help it! "No, momma!" she protested. "One more time, please. I’m sure I’ve almost got it, but I feel like I’ll forget if we stop now!"

The larger dragon’s huge wings beat ponderously as they worked to keep her more or less steady, while at the same time her mind worked to process her daughter’s request. If she wanted to go now, they had better take the opportunity before the reluctant little dragon could change her mind again! "Very well," she answered, before dropping her daughter for the eleventh time.

This time, Tyrei didn’t even keep her eyes open. She spread her wings, but still she tumbled virtually uncontrolled. What was she doing wrong? Don’t think... don’t think... she told herself. And as she stopped worrying about how to right herself, she found her tail moving out almost of its own accord to counter-balance her fall. Less than a second later, she had steadied herself and then, less than a second after that, she was no longer moving straight down, but gliding!

Her mother roared with approval as she joined her daughter. "Very good, Tyrei! Very good! But now, try flapping your wings- slowly, not too quickly, don’t wear yourself- try moving yourself up, and not down."

Tyrei could hardly believe she was doing it. "I- I’ll try, momma!" She moved her wings a little too quickly at first, which unbalanced her a bit. Her tail automatically adjusted to compensate, however, and all she needed to do was slow down the beating just a bit, and there! She was rising! Now that she got down to it, it was all so easy! She could hardly believe she had spent the entire day trying to figure this out. It was absolutely, completely... "Momma!" she shouted, "Flying is wonderful!"

The elder rumbled a deep chuckle that would have shaken their home cavern, had they been in there. "I know, dear, I know. Let’s practice a little while, shall we? And then we’ll head home."

They flew on for a short time, Tyrei marveling the whole time at the incredible tapestry of green beneath her, sometimes shot through with glittering snakes of rivers, sometimes interrupted by patches of lighter green or of brown, and there, up ahead... "Look, Momma. Smoke! Is that another dragon down there?"

Her mother gasped as she looked down. "No, that’s no dragon, dear. That’s a patch of human hills! And so close to our caves, too... we’ll have to keep an eye on this infestation."

"Do they breathe fire like we do, Momma? Is that why there’s smoke?"

"Well, dear, they do seem to have some rudimentary ability to make fire, but it’s no where near as advanced as our own ability."

"What are they like? Can I go take a look?"

"No! No, dear, you mustn’t! Stay far, far away from the little wooden human caves. They are a most dangerous animal!"

"But they look so small from up here! I bet they’re not so dangerous to creatures like us!"

"Oh, they are small, this is true, but they are also one of the most cunning of the dumb beasts. They can co-ordinate their hunting, like the packs of wolves Uncle Elrys told you about, and some of them have very strong metal-like shells and long, sharp claws. A single one of these warrior-humans has been known to take out a full-grown dragon, all on their own!"

"Has no one tried talking to them?"

The elder dragon roared with laughter. "Talking to them? Oh, goodness, no! They don’t speak! They’re just animals, dear, much like the herd-beasts we thrive on. They’re clever animals, true enough, but they don’t have real feelings and they don’t think. Humans don’t love their children as we do, and they don’t have souls. Only we dragons are special in that way."

Tyrei looked down, and it never occurred to her to doubt her mother. After all, wasn’t Mother always right about everything? Even today, when she had dropped Tyrei several thousand feet towards the ground, repeatedly, she had shown she was right in the end. "Oh. Okay." She flew on in silence for a bit longer before looking back up at her mother. "Momma?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I think I’m getting tired."

The larger dragon smiled fondly at her child. "Then let’s go home."