Mibbet was dragged outside by an enthusiastic Hestia, being egged on by Song’s encouragement. “WOOHOOOO Princess, get your crown off the ground” she cheered. (Mibbet of course was embarrassed as all hell, which only seemed to encourage Song more, was she hazing her or something?)

“Wait here” Hes said before dashing back indoors, returning carrying an ancient looking broom with handlebars screwed to the shank, and what looked like small hearth brushes were slotted into the back.

“It’s your first time flying, so trust me you’re gonna need the stabilisers,” Hes said with a reassuring smile. “You’re not ready for a hog yet, so we’ll start you off on ol’ Bessie here. She’s about ten PP, don’t take it personal though grandma used her for her entire life, she’s a good broom. Hell I learned on her.”

The feeling Mibbet got from this broom was placid and easy going, Mibbet was fairly sure that if it was a horse it would have been chewing the lawn while calmly watching her. Mibbet gave Bessie an affectionate pat.

“Let me guess you keep her around to teach?” Mibbet asked. “Yeah that’s about right, we’re gonna start from the basics, but first tip is very important, never fly over a town, city, or castle, the lords get a little trigger happy with their crossbows, they have backup, and and they will treat you like an invader. Remember over twenty feet up nobody can hear you yell “I just popped in to buy some eggs,” so they settle for hearing you scream. When you go into such a place remember always use the gate, nobody wants to be hit by a bolt from the blue.”

If that was supposed to be reassuring Mibbet thought, maybe, just maybe they should have chosen a different lesson to start on, still it was a good tip, so she gave a nervous little nod.

“Okay now, second lesson, grip with your knees and your hands, the witches in the pictures with their legs dangling? Those pictures were probably taken ten seconds before they became pavement jam. Wrap your legs up close for extra grip, the only time your legs should be down will be on run-up or landing.

Mibbet nodded again while Hes gave her a lesson on checking the chinstrap of her pointy hat fit snug , they then carefully fastened a climbing clip to the broom and Mibbet. “First lesson” Hes said with a smile “when starting out safety first. Now there’s a communication charm on the hat, so we’ll be able to talk, so grip your broom tight, and start running.”

“Running” Mibbet asked, somewhat confused, she was pretty sure this was supposed to be a flying lesson.

“Yeah you need enough speed to get you off the ground, remember when the broom starts to ride up give a little hop, we call this jump starting.”

Mibbet started to run , holding to the broom for dear life, until a feeling like a wooden wedgie hit, then forgetting herself for a moment she jumped, Mibbet style. Suddenly she was ten feet up in the air, and not falling, until now she had been pretty sure the ground was an unmissable outcome. But now the gravity of her situation hit (by which I mean gravity did not hit) she was flying. WOOHOOOO this was amazing, like the worlds biggest hop.

“Nice jump kid, now GET THOSE LEGS UP UNLESS YOU WANNA GO SPLAT” Hes’s voice snapped over the spell, it seemed she was now in full on instructor mode. “ We’ll go over the basics of manoeuvring next, now in theory you can use the handlebars, but most of us don’t because they really change the look of the broom. Whether you do or not is your call, but for now we’ll get you through the basic lessons of balance so we can ditch the stabilisers. Just remember hovering takes a lot more juice than just moving forward, so keep up your speed and circle.”

Mibbet did as instructed and the lessons continued in earnest, until at last they got to the one lesson Mibbet was dreading.

“Before we lose the stabilisers we have a major safety lesson, learning to fly is not the most important part for your safety, learning to fall off is. So what I want you to do is, let go of ol’ Bessie, don’t worry though she’ll glide down under her own power. Then roll off your broom.”

“Y....y...you want me to fall off ON PURPOSE?” Mibbet asked terrified, looking down nervously at the teeny tiny dots that were the others far below. “T....th.... that’s a long way down.”

“Yeah, there’s a spell on your gear that slows your fall so you don’t hit terminal velocity, and the hat has barrier spells on it”

Hearing the word “terminal” attached to the word Velocity was not reassuring in the least, no matter the context nothing good followed words like terminal, it was not a good word to hear in most contexts, least of all one that involved plummeting.

“Ros, please, trust me on this.”

At that just for a moment Rosalind took over, muttering a curse under her breath as she did the last thing either of them wanted, let go and rolled.

Mibbet took back over as quickly as she could, quickly vowing to never trust Rosalind where a buff muscle girl was involved ever again, and oh my, that was the ground rushing up to meet her. Gravity was picking on her, in a panic she started to flail about, as if somehow the air was going to provide handholds, it of course did not. In her ear something screamed, but Mibbet was somewhat distracted by the whole PLUNGING TO HER DEATH thing.

“DO YOU WANNA DIE? The voice screeched, if not point your head towards the ground, feet up, and arms at your side DO NOT SHIELD YOUR HEAD UNLESS YOU WANT BROKEN ARMS.”

In the absence of any other options Mibbet realised that she couldn’t climb air, and followed the advice, the ground getting closer, and closer... She could see individual flowers in the field before she decided looking was no longer a good idea, she closed her eyes, and TWANGGGGGGGGG.