The world was constantly in change. Time passed. Flowers bloomed. Young ones grew.
Honoka saw all of these things, but failed to notice the passage of time within herself, how with each new day, she became less of the young pup she was born as, longer and leaner and, most importantly, with larger wings.
Nevertheless, the malleability of her surroundings fascinated her, and more and more she would wander from her family, exploring the forests and the fields, and if only in her mind, the sky. She'd given up trying to fly at every turn, but the dream still haunted her, barely within grasp, and every so often you could catch the young one lifting her head to the skies with a wistful stare.
But that was not today. Today, she had her face mere inches from an encarved stone, peering with her brown eyes at the strange markings. The entire area was scattered with this broken ruin of what once must have been a temple, though some of the smaller stones had recently been disturbed, moved together to form the figures they had once been. Honoka had found this place the day before, and had taken it upon herself to reconstruct it.
However, an idea struck her, and she paused, her gaze moving to a rocky ledge of a fallen stone far too large to move. She could easily jump off of it, and if she didn't fly, then at least it wouldn't hurt to hit the ground...Before she'd even finished her thought, she was silently clambering to the top, nervously peering over the edge as her mane quivered in anticipation.
She jumped, spreading her wings.
She waited for her paws to hit ground.
They didn't.
Honoka looked below her in bewilderment, unable to believe that she swept through the air, about a foot above the ground. Her landing was shaky, but she failed to care: she had flown! She let out an excited cry, then crouched low, jumping up into the air again and exalting in the feeling of her feathers catching the air.
She was flying! She was really flying!
