I fold my wings around her gently, and grasp her forepaw tight. She's quivering, taking short, sharp breaths through now-slit nostrils. Her eyes - newly opened to a scintillating orange - are darting around, taking in the world, filled with a mixture of wonder and panic.
"Hey, hey, calm down" I whisper, squeezing her forepaw with my own. "You're safe. Deep breaths. You're free now."
She's sitting on the little cliff outside my lair, and she's staring at the sky.
It's been three days now since she came to me - yesterday, she had hiccuped and unleashed a little lightning bolt right into my hoard of mostly conductive metal, confirming my suspicions of her elemental nature in the most tail-singing way possible.
It seems like every hour she's more and more comfortable in her body - clambering up steep rocksides, curling up into a little ball of tail and wing to nap, making flap-assisted jumps to leap up small cliffs. She had caught a salmon out of the river this morning, snatching it straight out of the water with her fangs.
Now she was staring at white clouds gently moving across the blue sky, an eagle circling in the distance. Her tail sways gently. She's holding her wings out to her sides, but is stopping short of opening them fully. No doubt she thinks if she does that, the temptation would be irresistible.
She's agile, she's strong. Tougher than I was so soon after my flame lit, that's for certain. It's time.
I interrupt her enraptured gaze. "You're ready."
She glances over to me, startled.
"Go on. Like I told you last night. Just remember - keep your forward speed, and dive to come out of a stall. Trust your instincts, and if you feel yourself falling, just point yourself at the lake."
She smiles, and silently nods. She tenses up, readies to jump. She opens her wings to their full span - they're impressively big, even for a dragon.
She holds for a second. Feels the wind blow, as she waits for the right moment -
And then she leaps, the movement of her wings sending a breeze brushing across my snout. She rises higher and higher, her teal scales glimmering in the early-summer sun.
I watch her ascend, and smile with pride. She'll carry this moment with her for her whole life. Just like I remember, so clearly, the quiet autumn day when I first took to the sky. The freedom of seeing the world spread out below you, a thousand fascinating and interesting places only a gentle tilt of your wings away. The feeling of diving through a low cloud, feeling it's moisture coalesce on your scales. Just thinking of it, and watching her careen so happily through the sky, brings a tear to my eye.
She lets out a screech-roar that echoes thorough the valley below, and circles back around, diving once more to a gentle landing right in front of me, her wings flapping forward to halt her momentum. Her claws hit the rock with a gentle thud, and her wings fold behind her. Her eyes are absolutely filled with tears of joy. She's catching her breath - not because the flight was much exertion, but because she's so incredibly, overwhelmingly excited.
"OhmyGODSholySHITthatwasFUCKINGAMAZING" she babbles. She's tripping over her own words. Just absolutely lost in the rush of the sky. She cranes her head back and lets out a laugh that turns to a roar. "I was flying! I can fucking FLY! No magic spells, no air-balloon contraptions! I can just, fuckin, - lift myself right into the air! With my own damn wings!"
I just smile silently. I have no advice, no words of wisdom. The joy in her voice says more than I ever could.
