Flying over, around, and in some cases under the massive trees of the forest was an interesting experience, to say the least. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen on earth.

"Hey," I began as something on the ground caught my eye. "What's that?"

As we were only flying a hundred or so feet above the ground, I could easily see any animal that happened to pass under us. Which was the point of flying this low.

"High enough they can't reach us, low enough we can see them try." Or so C.R had said.

Cogi and Fen, Sonny's carrier team, both looked down while Sonny looked anywhere but down.

'That', happened to be a massive four-legged creature with shaggy black fur, four, long, ash-colored horns sticking out of the back of its head and a fifth on its nose. Each horn on the back if its head branched off into various twist and turns as if they were bolts of lightning.

The creature reminded me of a picture I'd seen in the hospital... Though the creature in the picture only had two horns, short brown fur, and was cute.

"Maybe it's a magical deer?"

The creature looked up at us... Its big, doe eyes glowed with an eerie blue light.

"Thundeer." Cogi replied as he looked away from the creature.

...

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

...

"Okay, if you say so."

"Best not to dwell on it too much." Fen said

"Why's that?"

"Because, if you any of you newbies get distracted and end up slamming into a tree. Who do you think has to save you, hmm?"

"Ahh,"

"Yeah." He finished with a wink.

"Enough chatter." C.R said.

I looked up and saw Captain Rogar... staring at me... While flying backwards.

...

"H—HOW!?"

"Experience." Was his succinct reply, as he continued to fly without looking where he was going.

But the most surprising part wasn't that he could fly backwards, no, it was that he could keep up with us while flying backwards. Here we were, busting our tail-feathers off to make good time to the training course, and he's casually keeping up with us, in reverse.

"Show off."

"H—How much further, sir?" Sonny said around chattering teeth.

C.R tilted his head to one side... Then bobbed his head.

"Pulse racing, pupils dilated, body shaking. You're afraid of heights."

"N—Not afraid, sir. Uncomfortable with."

"Semantics. Why'd you volunteer if you're afraid of heights? Loyalty? Revenge?" C.R glanced at me, then back to Sonny. "Love?"

"No, sir," Sonny said forcefully. "I volunteered because I didn't want my home destroyed."

...

"Interesting."

Something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, but I was too late.

"Captain, watch ou—"

The branch C.R was about to fly into, passed through him as if he were made of smoke... Then he was gone.

"Captain!?"

"Don't worry, C.R's fine." Fen said, though he was clearly uninterested in what just happened.

"No, Rage is right!" Sonny protested. "The captain, he—"

"Is fine. Whatever you saw wasn't real."

...

"What?" Sonny and I asked at the same time.

"C.R is mana-touched." Cogi said as if that would explain everything.

...

"Is that supposed to mean something?"

Fen and Cogi looked at each other, sighed, then shook their heads.

"Sorry, I forgot you guys are not only new, you're young. Being mana-touched means you can use magic, and C.R is... Well... He's one of the youngest birds to ever master his chosen magic."

"Which is?" Sonny prodded.

"Illusion. C.R can project an astral form of himself to anyone he chooses."

"So... The one just talking to us was—"

"An astral projection, yes. And before you ask, no, neither Fen nor I could see what you saw, but we heard your responses just fine."

I felt something incredibly light land on my head.

"And we will arrive at the training camp in two-hours, forty-six minutes, and twelve seconds." C.R finished.

"Also, yes, I am fine. Thank you for asking."

C.R pushed off my head, then he was suddenly at the front of the group again.

...

"Was that one real?" Sonny asked.

"Did you feel him land on you?" Fen asked me.

"Yeah..." I trailed off as I wondered at the sheer speed it must've taken to get from my head to the front of the group in the blink of an eye.

"Then yes, that was the real C.R." He told Sonny.

"That's so cool!" Sonny squeaked.

We continued to talk amongst ourselves for the rest of the trip. Fen and Cogi told anyone within earshot of their adventures under 'Captain 'the mad-bird' Rogar, and how they were two of his most trusted lieutenants... I wanted to believe them, truly, I did. But every story they told was so far fetched that I internally dismissed them as lies.

Eventually, as we passed through the final layers of trees, we laid eyes on the training camp. Twenty-seven wooden buildings with large, wooden planks connecting them awaited us. The buildings were entirely uniform in their make and model, with only a single dark, wooden door, and one wide window on the sides I could see. Otherwise, the buildings appeared bare of decoration.

...

"Okay, how, in the world, were these buildings built?"

"Squirrels." Cogi replied in a bored tone.

"Squirrels?"

"Yep. The crazy little buggers are surprisingly handy to keep around... Provided you keep any, and all nuts locked away behind several locks."

Fen snorted.

"As if a simple lock will keep those spawns of chaos from pilfering nuts."

"Is it true that squirrels can smell a nut from a mile away?" A cadet on the other side of Cogi asked.

"Guess they're eavesdropping..."

"Wouldn't surprise me if it was." Cogi replied.

"No lie, I've seen a squirrel kill a wolf over an acorn." Another cadet said.

"If you have to say 'no lie' before your statement, then you're probably lying..."

I sighed as the conversation strayed off topic and devolved into random squirrel myths.

Then I felt something land on my head.

"I heard—" Another cadet began.

"I once saw a squirrel rip out a bird's throat for trying to steal its food."

...

"Now that I've got your attention. Form up. We land in thirty seconds."

The cadets shakily nodded their head, then tightened the formation until our wings were almost touching.

"Fen, Cogi, bring them into platform three." C.R ordered.

"Right." "Understood" They said seriously.

They handed off Sonny to two other birds, then the two sped up considerably and quickly overtook the group with their much larger wings. Once there, they angled their bodies down and, one-by-one, guided each line into a covered platform on the edge of the tree-top compound.

I flew in with others in my row and 'gently' landed amongst the other birds.

"Haha... Sorry about that." I apologized to the two birds I'd landed on and quickly rolled off of them.

"Only crashed into two birds, you're getting better." Sonny said as he patted me on the back and helped me to my feet.