Chapter 17: Wing Bones
Kir slept until midmorning, when he started awake, looking around to make sure the carriage wasn't on fire. He'd dreamed he'd gotten into a fistfight with a flaming griffin that made sound effects from some movie with a giant lizard that breathed out his own nova blast.
He'd gone to sleep theorizing about how his flight actually worked. He'd guessed that his wings had more to do with steering than lift, since a body his weight needed something like a twenty-meter wingspan and hollow bones, according to his very basic calculations and half-memories of the problem.
Then he'd vaguely remembered having a very nice calculator and the rest was sleep.
Finding everything alright, Kir yawned and shook off the dream as being what many dreams are: weird.
He hopped off the wagon lightly, trying to circulate his mana in his whole body and focusing on the notion of "up," and to his surprise he felt slow before touching the ground, his wings flapping just enough on instinct to keep him upright.
Then, because he felt sorer than when he'd gone to sleep, he did some stretches, starting with his clawed toes and tail before he went to pull on his boots and finish the rest of his body.
Kir's feet were something between digitigrade and normal, with four front toes and one clawed heel, able to flex to a degree that he assumed was for holding onto surfaces like a bat. But at least he could fit them in boots, once he'd modified them to open along the sides.
Drawing mana into his eyes, he did a quick check of the carriage, including under it, to make sure everything was really alright. The only magic signatures were those in the hidden compartment that was covered by his stuff. It contained books and artifacts his moms hadn't felt safe leaving at home.
His check revealed nothing wrong, and so he flew off to the corral to collect Lulu and Eda, calming them with a bit of dried fruit before he hitched them up.
He decided he wanted to surprise his moms, and so he paid the innkeeper - a nice woman with blue hair - to go get them, while he flew up onto the roof.
Some of the villagers looked at him, their eyes going from his wings to his horns and then to his tail, and he could see their faces go from potential fascination to likely fear as they wondered what he was doing up there.