First Flight (Andrew age 5)

A short story about Andrew learning how to fly with his father.

-Dragonheart Kingdom, Hilton Household, No ones P.O.V-

Victor and Clare Hilton slept peacefully in their home until the door of their room opened. A small boy with blonde hair climbed onto the bed and started to nudge Victor. 

“Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?” the boy whispered excited 

“Victor your son is awake” Clare mumbles as she pats her husbands head 

Victor sighed a bit “Hey little buddy”

Andrew gave his father a wide smile “Yeah! Lets goooo I wanna try flying again” 

“Alright, alright let me get up and get dressed”  Victor yawned as he got out of bed 

His son sat on the bed next to his mother waiting for his dad’s return. Clare smiled tiredly at him and yawns a bit. 

“Are you ready to try flying again?” Clare asked 

“Yah! I can’t wait to be strong like daddy” Andrew’s tail moved happily causing the bed to move

“Keep your voice down sweetie, your sisters are still sleeping” 

“Oh yeah. Sorry momma” 

Victor came back into the room cleaned up and dressed, “Alright Andrew lets get going” 

Andrew gave a wide smile as he jumped off the bed and onto the floor. Victor chuckles at his enthusiasm and he goes to kiss his wife goodbye. 

“Have fun you two and please be careful” Clare says yawning and waving at them

“We will” they say in unison

Victor flew Andrew to a nice meadow filled with daisies, dahlias, and a few snapdragons in sight. A few red admirals butterflies fluttered by and landed on some flower. Victor opened the ground up and placed a bag in the new square space and closed it up again.

“Here we are. The perfect flight place” Victor says as he put Andrew down 

“Oooohhhhh pretty flowers “ Andrew says as he grabbed some 

“Yeah they’re nice to look at. How about this, after this we can take some home to mom.”

“Yeah! Mommy would love them!” 

“Alright then, let's get started shall we”  

Victor turned into a dragon and picked up Andrew in his right claw. He flew up into the sky. Soon they were in the clouds and Andrew looked down with excitement as the field now looked like a small patch of green and he could see plots of land where houses were. If he tried hard enough he could see the Dragonheart castle in the distance. 

“Alright this should be high enough. Andrew time to use your wings” Victor says as he flew in place

Andrew nods his head as he stood up and expanded his wings. He went to the edge of his palm and looked down. He took a step back afraid of the height and hugged one of his father’s fingers. 

“Dad I’m scared” Andrew hid his face into the finger he was holding on to

“Hey, hey don't worry bud. I’m not going to let you go until you’re ready” 

Andrew takes a deep breath and let's go on his finger again “Okay I think I can do this” 

“Give it your best shot buddy” Victor has Andrew hold on to his claw and has his other hand beneath him

Andrew started to flap his wings and tried his best to stay up by himself and Victor watched him. He knew his son was capable of doing this. 

“Come on Andrew, you're almost there!” 

When Victor thought he was ready to fly by himself he slowly started to let go but still kept his hand below Andrew as a precaution. Andrew was flying by himself for a minute or so until he noticed that his dad wasn't holding on to him and panicked a bit.  

“Woah woah! I got you Andrew. How about we take a little break for now” 

Andrew nods as he hugged his dad’s finger and Victor flew towards the ground. When he landed he put him down and returned to his humanoid form. Andrew sat on the ground as Victor stomped his foot to open the space from before and grabbed the bag out the hole. He handed Andrew a peanut butter and jelly and he grabbed himself an apple. 

“You almost had it that time” Victor says taking a bite out of the apple

“Dad?” 

“Hmm?” 

“How did you know where the bag was?” 

“Seismic sense. I make vibrations in the ground and it shows me where things are like my bag.” 

“Oh it's like playing hide and seek in the underwater caves with mama” 

“Yeah, its like that but on land” 

“Oooohhhhhhh, can i do that?” 

“Sure I’ll teach you when you get a bit older okay”

“Yaaaahhhh!!”

Victor ruffles Andrew’s hair before planting the apple core into the ground while Andrew looks at the butterflies that flew by. 

“Alright then. Are you ready to continue?” 

“Yup!” 

Victor puts the bag back into the space in the ground and turns back into a dragon. Andrew hops onto his hand and they went up into the sky again. When they were back at the original height from earlier, Victor opened his hand again for Andrew to have space.

“Okay buddy lets try this again” 

Andrew nods and extends his wings again. He started to flap them again and Victor did the same thing again and slowly let go of him again. Andrew had his eyes closed as he focused on trying to fly. 

“You’re almost there Andrew just a little more” 

Victor completely lets go of him and holds his hand below him just in case. Soon Andrew was flying without his support so Victor turned back into his humanoid form still flying with his wings. 

“Am I doing it?” Andrew asks with his eyes still closed 

“Open your eyes so you can see” Victor says smiling at him 

Andrew slowly opened one eye scared then opened them both in surprise “DAD! I DID IT! I’M FLYING!” 

“I told you you can do it,” Victor ruffled Andrew's hair “Now come on so you can fly around some more. Got to make sure that your wings are strong”

Andrew nods his head smiling at his dad. Victor flew towards some clouds with Andrew by his side in care of an emergency. Even though he was going that fast, Andrew still had a bit of trouble keeping up with his dad because he was still learning. When they entered the cloud, Victor looked to his right to check on Andrew but didn't see him there. 

“Andrew? ANDREWS!” Victor looked around panicking 

He was about to start flying towards the ground when he heard giggling from somewhere in the cloud. He sighed in relief and looked around him seeing nothing but cloud and patches of blue and green. 

“Hmmm i wonder where Andrew went?” he says outloud 

Andrew stifled his laughter as he hid from his father. Victor saw Andrew’s small tail on his left and grinned a bit before he disappeared into the clouds as well. Andrew poked his head out of his pocket of cloud and was surprised to see that his dad disappeared as well. He came out a bit scared that he left him and looked around the surrounding clouds. 

“Dad?” he looked around confused 

“Got you!” Victor yelled as he grabs Andrew from behind and raises his arms up 

“Awww no fair dad!” Andrew whined 

“Alright maybe I saw you hiding”

“But I thought you didn't see me?”

“I didn’t at first but i saw your tail” 

“Aw man”

“Come on buddy. How about we go get those flowers for your mom?” 

“Yahhhh!” 

Victor led Andrew to the ground and Andrew started to pick some daisies, some yellow snapdragons, and some dahlias. Andrew smiled and hummed while he gathered the flowers while Victor watched him yawning a bit. 

 “Hey dad?” 

“Whats up bud?”

“How did you learn to fly?” 

“Well grandpa took me here when I was your age to teach me. This used to be a dirt area about a hundred years ago but he made it a meadow to make it look nice. He then tossed me into the air and kept catching me until I got the hang of it.”

“Weren't you scared that he wouldn't catch you?”

“A little bit but I trusted him”

“That sounds scary” 

“It was but i learned how to fly and taught you how to fly as well” 

Andrew finished gathering flowers and turned around to show his father the now made bouquet, “Do you think mama would like it?”

“I think she’ll love it” he says smiling 

“YAAHHH!” 

“Come on let's go home” Victor gets up and stretches

Andrew nods his head and dusts himself off. Victor spreads his wings and picks up Andrew. Once they landed at home Andrew ran inside to show his mom the bouquet and he told her about their day while Victor picked up Cathy and Annabelle. 

-Two years later-

“Come on mom! I gotta teach Annie to fly too” Andrew says as he tugged on his mom's tail

Clare lifts her tail up, picking up her tail with Andrew, “I know you're excited Andrew but we’re almost there. I almost got lost from your grandpa’s directions” 

“This is the field!” he lets go of her tail and runs towards a young apple tree

Annabelle followed behind her brother while her twin, Cathy, stayed with her mother. Clare decided to make a small pond by the tree for her and Cathy to play in while Andrew teaches his sister to fly. 

“Dad brought me here to fly and now I gotta teach you the way grandpa did” Andrew says proudly 

“Yahhhhh!! Wait why not the way dad taught you?” Annabelle tilts her head 

“Well I’m not strong enough to carry you and mom wants us to stay in her eye sight” 

“Ohhhhh so how did grandpa do it?”

“He tossed dad up in the air and kept catching him until he learned how to fly so I’ll do that to you. Don’t worry I’ll catch you no matter what” he looks at his little sister smiling 

“But what if I can’t do it?” she looked at her brother scared 

“Then that’s fine. We can stop whenever you want and try again when you feel like you're ready” he puts his hand on her shoulder

She nods her head and balls up her fist in determination “Right, I can do this!” she shouts 

Andrew nodded his head and took a deep breath before he picked up Annabelle and tossed her up into the air. She flapped her wings a few times but fell back down. Andrew caught her, waited a few seconds, then tried again. They did this three more times until they took a break. 

“Do you want to continue or do you want to stop for now?” he asked 

“No! I want to try again!” she says stubbornly 

“Well be leaving in an hour you two so try your best” Clare says as she floats on the water with Cathy on her stomach. 

“Okay mom” they both say in unison

Andrew and Annabelle stood up and they repeated the same process as before. After three more times, Annabelle finally managed to fly a bit. Granted it wasn’t graceful and she almost fell back down but she managed to finally fly. 

“Momma! Andrew! I’m flying! I’M…. woah…. FLYING” she shouted as she nearly lost balance but stayed up in the air 

“Good job sweetie!” Clare shouted back

“Momma will I learn how to fly too?” Cathy asked 

“Unfortunately now Cathy. We don’t have wings to fly through the air” Clare looked at Cathy who was trying to walk on water but fell back in

“Awww” she says pouting “I wish i could fly too” 

Andrew flew up to join his sister and they flew around the pond so that Annie could get used to the feeling of using her wings. Clare smiled as she watched them fly around as Cathy started to sing underwater. Soon they traveled back home and Annabelle flew in front of her brother until she got tired halfway home. Their mother made dinner and put her children in their beds for the night. 

“Momma do you think Papa would be proud of me for teaching Annie to fly?” Andrew asked as he climbed into bed 

“I think you papa would be very proud of you Andrew. How could he not be proud of you.” Clare kissed his head “You focus on being a kid and doing well in school okay” 

Andrew nods his head and yawns a bit, “Will I ever be as strong as him momma?

“Hmmmm I think if you learn how to use and control your magic, you will be but you’re still too young to know.” Clare kisses his head “Now get some rest you have school tomorrow” 

Andrew nodded his head as he grabbed his cat plushie and put it next to him. Clare turned the light off and left the room.