And indeed, Yanka turned out to be a strict, but wonderful teacher, and me and Sril made swift progress thanks to her. Sril very quickly caught the principles of using fire and I gladly practiced with him for a day, before Yanka decided to let us try it in flight.
"The key to it is perfect control over your wings," she said when we ascended above the lake. "They cannot disturb your concentration on anything else. They need to become something as natural as walking or running, they need to become an obvious reflex."
It sounded simple, but the situation quickly became more complicated than I anticipated.
When we went over from theory to practice, I was able to summon a flame so strong and beautiful that even Yank wouldn't be ashamed of it. I was all pleased only until I briefly looked down though. When I noticed the dangerously quickly approaching surface of the lake, I panicked slightly and started to beat my wings harder, the flames between my palms vanishing instantly. I glanced to my left and saw Sril having similar problems.
It was then that I realized how much of my concentration went into the movement of my wings, and that it became painfully irregular as soon as I started to focus on something else.
"As you can see it only sounds easy..." Yanka said after lowering herself a bit towards our level. "How about we just practice more flying for starters, so that you get used to it as much as possible? We can also train the endurance in long-distance flight at the same time. But I don't plan to chase you in circles around the lake or anything like that, don't worry. What would you say to... a little trip?"
"A trip?" I repeated, rising my eyebrows.
This time Yanka wasn't very eager to explain much though. When we returned to the mansion she asked us to organize some provisions and some clean clothing for ourselves and prepare for departure. To the question about the purpose of it all she answered only with a playful smile and went to the other part of the residence to have a word with Kaan.
After returning Yanka grabbed her bag from her room, the surprised Talia from one of the armchairs, which she just started occupying, and flew out to the lake again. She made a few circles around the mansion's premise, and when we finally joined her, she turned south.
Our sudden journey lasted two days. We knew it made no sense to interrogate Yanka about anything if she refused to give an answer once already, so we decided to just enjoy the trip and the calm winds.
The second day she directed our flight just slightly to the west, and it became even more clear that we weren't heading for the druid camp, like I initially suspected.
"Yanka!" I yelled after her at last, my patience burned out.
"Yes?" she slowed down a little to be able to talk to me more easily.
"I really think it's about time you told us..."
"And I'm really surprised that you were able to keep quiet all this time," she gave me an amused look. "But patience pays off..."
She looked straight ahead and my eyes just followed.
Beyond the already visible border of the Sevren Forest there was something glistening silverly, as if something really big was reflecting the sun's rays and was visible even from a fair distance. It took another few minutes of flight for us to see what it actually was though.
Sea...
A sea that spread towards the farthest verges of the horizon, its surface a crystalline turquoise, glimmering marvelously in the heavy-golden rays of early-summer sun...
Its calm, fine waves ran onto the bright sand of a slim band of beach at the feet of enormous cliffs, and then eluded like frightened fish back into the azure depths, where they belonged... The woods, hiding their secrets, their tranquility and their inhabitants in the silvery-green, accompanied the shore towards the west as far as the eye could reach.
My bewilderment brought me to a standstill in midair. I've never before seen the sea, despite having heard and read about it a lot of times during my captivity in the royal castle. I didn't even begin to imagine that it was something so breathtaking though...
"How do you like it?" Yanka's voice was quiet, as if she didn't want to disturb the melody of the waves.
"It's unbelievable," I finally managed. "It's..."
"Beautiful..." Sril finished for me. He sounded even more mesmerized than I was, which was unusual. "I grew up in the mountains and always thought they were magnificent, but this..."
Yanka smiled warmly and turned her gaze to the horizon again. "This is where I learned to fly. I spent countless hours catching the sea breezes and allowing the waves to catch me if something went wrong. We have excellent conditions for exercise here."
"So we stay for a while?" I was already excited, never even worrying about the exercise part.
"Until I give the allowance to return."
I set Talia down beneath one of the trees at the border of the forest and the three of us flew out above the endless water. There, in the water's reflection, I was able to observe myself in flight basically for the first time. I saw for myself how my wings looked like in all their glory, how they changed shape while gracefully catching the wind...
Unfortunately Yanka soon tore me away from admiring myself, deciding to show us the real magic of flying.
She taught us all possible maneuvers that we could possibly think of. Sometimes I felt like I could fly like this without end. In the air I felt boundlessly free, all my worries stayed on the ground somewhere. Above all else though, I delighted in the effect it had on Sril. The longer we played like this, the more lively he became.
At the beginning Yanka suggested a simple play of tag in order to improve our agility in air, of course making me and Sril the chasers. It sounded silly to me at first, but turned out to be one of the hardest games I've ever played. She was experienced, skilled and very fast, making it hard for even the both of us at once to catch her. With time though, observing her made us understand some subtle mechanics and develop a new kind of instinct as well and we set the games aside.
We trained the usage of fire in flight again and planned to bring swords for some lessons in midair with them in the near future. Yanka seemed very pleased with our quick progress and I felt more and more hope with every successful exercise. At the end of each day we sat down in the grass of the high shore and observed the clouds while eating. After dusk Talia always rested in the crown of a low willow, listening to our calm breaths, as if watching over our sleep and our safety, only to disappear in the middle of the night for a hunt.
Every now and then we visited the druid camp to replenish our provisions a little and check if Shaeth has decided to show himself again. Time passed though, and he was nowhere to be seen...