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Orpheus gave a smile, "Not to bad for a first attempt." He told Paxton as he landed on the cushions then looked to who was up next, Gabby, "Lets see what our next student can do. And everyone keep a good watch. Best thing next to doing something is to watch others doing it."

Vivina looked up at Paxton as he went up for his attempt. She saw him gracefully flap his wings and fall after a second or two of floating. Amused, she wondered if the others would do the same. She decided to put her attention on the people going ahead of her. After all, this did take her mind off the owl, right?

Then Vivina wondered how she'd try out her first attempt. She wouldn't flap her arms as if they were wings. No, that's not how the membranes work. She was to stretch them out and let the air currents support her, like a plastic bag or a sheet or paper flying through the wind. Gliding wasn't like flying, it was completely different. She knew she could glide maybe a few feet, but how do sugar gliders land? She always ends up on her tush and this bothers her. She should be landing on her feet. The thing is, how to move her feet under her before landing without running out of space between her and the ground or falling from too high up. It's a matter of timing, something she hasn't learned all too well.

Vivina nearly let out a shriek as someone close to her spoke. She caught herself in time and merely jumped back. Realizing that it was only the girl with bat wings, she calmed down. Still slightly shaken, she spoke, quietly at first and then gradually getting louder until a suitable speaking volume. "Oh...um...hi. And no, I'm not a bird. I'm a sugar glider, and I don't fly. I glide." She forced a small smile out and pushed her glasses back up her nose. They must have slipped down while she jumped back in shock.

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As she had with the first person, Liang mentally noted not to do what this one had done either. Flapping your arms? That was silly when you had wings. Maybe wings didn't work without flapping your arms? Then she'd need to put down her fan. Oh no, she was next. First she'd have to inspect her wings, just to make sure they wouldn't make her seem stupid. With no regard to startling the people behind her, she suddenly shot her wings out to their full span. Vertically, they were about three times the size of her head, and horizontally, well it was a lot more, maybe four or five of her head. They were thick too, Mother had said that was because they were supposed to be able to displace a lot of air at once. She frowned, not really caring about the reason for their size. Why did she have to be the one with such huge clunky wings?

Oh well, now wasn't the time to be griping about herself.

After the other landed, she made her way up to the tree with her wings still fully spread. When she reached it, she tucked her fan closed into her waistband and tilted her head back to look up at the branches. The other two had skipped the branch that he had told them to start on, and they hadn't gone very far. Maybe she should try from higher? That'd give her longer to get it right. Now, if she'd been a bit older, and known about gravity, she would have known just how hard a fall from higher up would be. But of course, she didn't, so it seemed perfectly reasonable.

Deciding that it was a good idea to try from higher up, she climbed up the tree and stopped at the third branch. She walked out to the very edge of it, holding her arms out to help balance. "Here goes..." Escaped her lips as she took a deep breath. Before she jumped, she started beating her wings like she'd seen the birds on the nature channel doing. Most of her wanted to rush back and grab hold of the tree trunk, but the one little adventurous sliver of her told her to go for it. Closing her eyes, she gave her wings one hard beat instead of jumping and pushed herself into the air. For a few seconds, she was flying smoothly and doing just fine. Then she opened her eyes and noticed she was nearing the end of the pillows and tried to turn around. Unfortunately, she wasn't quite coordinated enough for that, so she ended up tangling herself up in her wings and dropping like a rock. She hit the edge of the pillows, cracking her right arm half on them and half off. It didn't feel like it was broken, but then again she was still on a bit of a rush. When she got up, she was clutching it to her chest, trying to hide it from the other people. If they knew she hurt herself then they'd make fun of her.

Watching the others between her conversation with Earako, Vivina giggled at how they prepared to jump. Flapping her own arms wouldn't help her either. And since she didn't have wings of her own, it's useless trying to flap anything else. Hopefully the air in the room is able to carry her. A small breeze or at least some air circulation would help greatly, but being in a room indoors made it seem unlikely that there would be such things. Almost her turn to go then...

"It's like floating. You don't have to flap anything. The wind or air current carries you. I don't think there are any winds blowing indoors though." With that she frowned. How was she going to attempt this? She hoped that the seemingly stagnant air would support her while she floats back down. Obviously, she did not finish reading the entire section on how sugar gliders fly. "You think you fly? If you got wings then you fly. I heard that dragons got wings with no feathers and they fly."

She looked over at the brightly colored girl with the unknown DNA now known to her as Liang. She had just landed, or rather crashed. Well, Earako's turn is next, and then hers. She noticed that all the others weren't listening to Orpheus when he said to start from the bottom branch first. She didn't want to get hurt too badly so she decided to take the lowest branch first. She guessed that she'd be the only one doing so, but that didn't bother her. Besides, she was the most different of everyone here. Another opportunity to show off her uniqueness. She nodded to Earako and whispered. "Good luck on your first try."

During the entire conversation, she had forgotten that Ligeia was still behind her. Guess it was for the better that she had forgotten. Now her attention was on Earako, the only person there that had wings, but not feathers.

((I'll volunteer Vivina to land on Ligeia! Wonder what will happen when she finds out that she crushed someone that she feared...

Vivina: Mum!

xD what?))

So, she did fly? Well, that was reassuring. And the girl's comment about dragons made sense too. Considering the fact that she'd been surrounded by dragon images every day at D-corp, it was silly of her to have forgotten that many of them were like her. No feathers. Just wings. Wow. She was like a dragon! That brought a hesitant little grin to her lips and she bounced enthusiastically toward the tree.

"Thank you." She murmured quietly to Vivina as she moved away from her, reassured that at least one person had wished her well. She wished some of the kids she knew were at the lessons. But none of them had wings. And it was nice to see other kids like her, even if none of them were exactly the same.

Eyeing the tree for a second, she streached out her wings and climbed up to the first branch. Let the other kids go higher! The last girl looked like she'd really hurt herself, and now the teacher had gone over to help her. A kid with big white feathered wings was watching instead. She liked the simplicity of his colouring, it made her feel less dull.

She hesitated as long as she could, flapping her wings a few time to make sure they were still working. But she couldn't wait forever and she finally had to launch herself into the air with the best jump she could manage. The sudden force of weight on her wings was a shock but she bit her lip and kept flapping, doing her best to keep herself airborn. It even seemed to be working... she hovered in the air neither losing nor gaining altitude...

And lost her sunglasses. She hadn't even thought of the danger when she jumped, but they fell from her face in the flurry, tumbling through the air and leaving her exposed to the bright sunlight that was so shocking to her dark adjusted eyes. With a ear piercing high pitched shriek, she brought her hands and wings to her face to shade herself, forgetting completely that she was attempting to keep herself airborn. Of course... she hit the cushions like a stone.

Shaken, but uninjured, she found her sunglasses (which she'd thankfully not fallen on top of), put them on, and stood up. Well, that hadn't been so bad. She wasn't dead at least. And for just a second, it'd really felt like she was flying.