<h4>Chapter 2:</h4>


    Sleep and eat in a repetitive cycle is the only thing I do for the next few days, under the cover of that little wooden structure, and mother would rarely leave me alone for long, her food being brought by some winged humanoid creatures while I was asleep, which was most of the time, baskets of fresh apple and some meat too.


    Only when I''m finally strong enough to walk more than a few steps without feeling tired or getting my small retractable ws stuck on the wooden boards and tripping all the time I''m allowed to walk further away from her and, not long after, to even go out for the first time.


    That day when I''m finally presented to the wonders of the world I''m living in mother raises her huge body, shaking her white furry body, and pping her perched ears as she looks down at me, making me realize just how big and beautiful she is, having two huge pair of white wings on her back and a double pair of tails twitching behind her.


    "Ready my love?"


    Chirp!


    She walks out first, barely fitting her body past the wooden door and reaching outside.


    This would be my first time outside and I''m as nervous as I''m excited, my mind a white canvas to be filled with the wonders of this world. I soon follow her, being careful not to get my ws stuck as the bright sun hits me in the face, the blinding light robbing me from my sight for a few moments until I get used to the environment.


    And what I see is... marvelously stunning.


    I''m struck by the fascinatingndscape that befalls in front of me, the greenery, the blue sky extending in front of us, crystal clear water rushing and drips of it reflect the orange sunlight, and yet the crucial point is the white clouds rushing pass us down bellow


    For we are on inds, actually floating inds!


    The big pieces of soil are floating about midair, big stgmites looking pieces of rock, all together like birds migrating, somehow attracted to one another so that the masses of inds stuck together, floating like a flock wherever the wind guided them.


    But what impressed me the most is that all creatures here have wings; from the tiny bunny hopping in front of me, to the humanoid winged creature that approaches us, following up a white stone path as he walks ever so slowly, with the grace only a winged creature could muster.


    "Alinda, I''m so d you and your child are healthy and in good spirits, but isn''t a little early to get out of the nest?"


    "Aaron, you worry too much, and my child is just as stubborn and strong-minded as his father, he would not have stayed still any longer."


    "Haha, true true, though I would say that part he got more from you than his father, and also how about-"


    As they start chit chattering about things that I did not understand and were mostly little jokes like that I end up distracting myself with the incredible environment we are at, with so many new things to explore, making me look up and down and around like a little baby owl just left out of the nest.


    I look behind me, to the nest we came from, finding a small wooden structure staying on top of a small hill, and what it did not have in size it had on a sturdy structure for pirs of stone supported it, as well as thick wooden boards made to protect from the snow and rain, seemly very reliable to stay with the newborns.


    There are other structures like this on the back, all in a private safe distance from each other, and all simrly built, probably for other creatures to have and care for their pups too.


    Analyzing my surroundings not only do I pay attention to thendscape but to the limits of my own senses as well, understanding quickly enough that I have great vision, being able to even zoom it in and out, which is a weirdly amazing thing to be able to do, as well as a great sense of smell, the amount of odor rivaling with the number of bright colors reaching my pupils, all strange and new.


    The inds moves slowly up and down, as if floating on a river of clouds, yet somehow they stay in the same cement from each other, all covered in differentndscapes, some with green trees and waterfalls, the water falling down of them like a tail being left behind in the wind, others with big mountains cutting the air like a sharp de.


    And the clouds, soft and white, cover everything under us and some even around, like a rushing white river, making me realize just how high we are.


    After looking for a while however I realize that all small inds are circting around a bigger one at the center, and many had some type of chain attached to the main one, flowing in the wind like a maiden''s hair, connecting the ces around.


    All in all, this ce seems like it has been directly taken out of a fantasy world, which should not surprise me in my current youngling griffin state, and yet it did.


    I wonder why... after all, this is my first time out of the nest and I have no way ofparing or finding anything weird if I haven''t had any experiences prior to this, so how is that I find this ce somewhat odd?


    I shake my head sideways, getting rid of the useless thoughts, and almost trip over the tip of a rock on the stone path because of it, making me lose face in front of aplete stranger as both he and my mother chuckled at me.


    I cough an embarrassed chirp out and straighten my back as if nothing has happened, walking down the stones with my tail held high.


    My pose, however, is not received as expected when they hear me chirp, looking down to observe as I try to look tough in front of them, but with such a small body and fluffy paws and tail, big eyes and puffy cheeks, all ends up adding to a childish look that is far from the coolness that I was trying to get with my confident walking.


    Unsatisfied yet aware when to give up I huff and puff and stroll away, beak and tall high still high as I walked down the path, knowing that my mother is following me close by, and d that this grey fur can hide my flushed cheeks.


    S-such a shameful sign!