"That's true. I wonder if I will hate getting wet while furry. Cats certainly don't like it. Do you know a less - waterway-influenced hill we could use or is this it and I should just try real hard not to step in a puddle or fall over?"

"... Well. Trees," he points out, not unkindly. "I was trying to find a place without lots of trees to fly at and this was about the only thing that wasn't covered in greenery."

"Yeah, fair enough. I suppose if nothing else I can change a little at a time and fit okay in the human-intended tub if I become appallingly filthy. So here we are on this hill, what do I do?"

"I'll give you a demonstration, so you can see how my wings work and the general idea of what to do, but lots of this is going to be trial and error."

"Okay."

"How did you do the turning part and the landing part? I don't want my stopping procedure to be 'crash into a tree'."

"Tilting my wings in a direction to turn, with the wing that is in the direction you're turning in catching more wind. Similarly, to slow down you tilt them both so they catch more air."

"Okay..." Bella thinks through the underlying physics of this, and then points herself down the hill, and goes at - not really a run, but sort of a lope. She catches a little air, promptly decides to quit while she's ahead, brakes as instructed, and touches down with only a little scrambling to stay upright. Then she lopes back up the hill. "I am really enjoying the benefits of extra feet. If one of them spazzes out under me I'm still a perfectly serviceable tripod," she says merrily, turning to retry.

"Excellent!" says Darren, pleased. "I'm faster as a peryton, interestingly enough. Not just through flying, but running. Something about being a deer. I'm glad being a sphinx is agreeable to you!"

"Where does flapping come in? I bet it has something to do with getting altitude from flat surfaces or while already midair, am I right?"

"You are indeed. You should probably get a feel for gliding though, and how it works - then you can try flapping."

"Understood." She retries, and this time gets into the air earlier, stays up longer, and tries the turn, consequently landing farther up the hill and having less distance to hike to get back to the starting point.

Darren is happy with this! He says so. "Nicely done. I don't know if it would help or hurt if I was flying, too - on one hand, you can see my technique, on the other hand, it might be distracting."

"Mmm, give me another two goes alone and then you can join me?"

"Sure," he agrees. "Have fun!"

She takes her two goes. She seems to have the hang of both perambulating on all fours and gliding in tidy loops down by the end of her fourth time in the air.

"Cool. Teach me, sensei."

Bella copies him as best she can. She's picking up flying pretty quickly, especially considering what a disaster she is with the form of transportation she's been practicing for sixteen years. Flap flap! This way she can stay aloft much longer! Wheeee!

"I was worried too, but this isn't nearly as hard as walking!"

"More room for error," he agrees. "As long as you don't make a long string of mistakes it's more forgiving than the ground."

"Exactly. There's nothing to run into. Except you, and we're leaving room."