"A flying lesson? Well, being able to fly properly would definitely be useful!"

Dragon says "Glad you agree. Now come into my soulscape, we are wasting time!"

The dragon doesn't give me any chance to argue and just forcefully pulls me into his soulscape. Like last time I find myself atop a mountain and as far as the eye can see are more mountains. When the dragon appears he is about my size and he immediately starts talking about wings.

He goes over the complete anatomy of my wings and even teaches me about the different types of feathers. It is a real eye opener, I hadn't really thought about anything beyond the fact that I have wings now. He goes into great detail about how to angle my wings in different directions to change my flight path easily.

Before this I had never imagined that there would be so much to learn about flying. The dragon explains that most winged things know all this through instinct. Because I do not have those instincts I have to learn it the hard way.

As soon as he is done explaining, the dragon somehow takes control of my body. Before I realize what is going on he has me jump off the top of the mountain. He even lets me fall for a bit before spreading my wings which earns him a yelp of fear.

He keeps control of my body as he has me fly around the mountain several times. During this he demonstrates everything he told me about so that I can feel it and hopefully remember it. Again without warning, he returns control of my body to me and I almost crash before I realize what happened.

By the time I have recovered he is flying along beside me and starts giving me instructions. All in all, he is probably the harshest teacher I have ever had, and the scariest. He doesn't prevent mistakes, he just corrects me after they happen.

Luckily, it is the soulscape so my injuries from crash landings are gone with a thought. Unfortunately, it being his soulscape I can't cheat and make the terrain soft or teleport away from a crash. This stage of the training lasts for days, and the dragon says this is just the basics.

I am scared to find out what the next stage will be, but when I do it is even worse than I imagined. The second stage of training is aerial combat practice, against the dragon. In other words the dragon beats the crap out of me and then tells me what I did wrong.

Which is practically everything, I am barely able to fly normally, trying to dodge is impossible. There is just too much to think about when it comes to controlling my wings. It doesn't help that the dragon is a master of combat and I don't think I could dodge his attacks even on the ground.

Dragon says "No, no, no! When are you going to stop flying like a drunk bird?"

"I can't help it! It is too much to keep track of!"

Dragon says "Then stop thinking about it!"

"Huh?"

Dragon says "The point of all this training is so that your body reacts not your mind. Stop thinking about it and just do it!"

"I am trying!"

Dragon says "Do or do not! There is no try!"

"Ugh, now you are quoting Yoda at me?"

Dragon says "What can I say, your memories are full of interesting things!"

"That isn't really helpful!"

Dragon says "Actually, think of it like the force. Stop trying to think your way through it and just trust the force!"

"Alright, I'll try!"

We resume my training, and it kind of works, he has me thinking about the movies and my body moves on its own. Of course as soon as I realize that I start thinking about it and end up getting hit. After days of this abuse I finally manage to dodge one of his attacks.

Of course, I am so surprised that I dodged that I just freeze up and crash head first into a cliff. When I wake up I find the dragon floating in the air clutching his belly because he is laughing so hard. When he sees me pouting at him he shows me a replay of what happened.

Even I have to admit that the look on my face right before I hit the cliff was pretty amusing. I don't know that it calls for this level of laughter though. The dragon's laughter is echoing off the mountains so that it sounds like a huge crowd laughing.

Dragon says "Ash, I have to say that out of the many mortals I have met in my long life you are the most entertaining!"

"Thanks, I think?"

Dragon says "Now let's try it again. This time without the oops!"

After a few more days of intense and painful training I can dodge a lot better. I can dodge all the dragon's claw attacks and most of his bite attacks. The only one that still gets me is when he attacks with his tail, which surprises me almost every time.

Unfortunately, his tail is immensely strong and easily swats me out of the air like a fly. The mountain now looks like it has chicken pox due to all the craters I have left behind. Even with that I feel pretty good about my flying ability and the progress I have made.

Dragon says "Okay, I think you are ready for stage three."

"There's more?!"

Dragon says "Of course! Did you think you would only ever need to fly or fight in clear weather?"

As he talks I notice the sky darkening and when I look up I see storm clouds appearing out of nowhere. My first thought as I hear the rumble of thunder is to be glad I am immune to lightning. That positive thought quickly vanishes as I start learning how horrible storm winds can be.

Dragon says "What are you doing?! Feel the wind and move with it, not against it!"

"How am I supposed to feel the wind?!?"

Dragon says "As a lightning beast you are part of the wind domain. You should be able to sense the wind and know what it is going to do!"

"Seriously? This isn't another force metaphor is it?!"

Dragon says "Just do as I tell you!"

The storm training again lasts for days, although it feels more like an eternity. Luckily, any time I get hurt I can just get hit by lightning and I am fully healed. Unfortunately, that means the dragon doesn't need to give me any breaks and he just trains me non-stop.

Dragon says "Okay, good enough!"

Without any more warning than that I find myself ejected from the soulscape and back in my body. The suddenness of the return has me falling flat on my face which surprises everyone. Kechara and Asuna both rush over to me to see if I am okay.

Core says "Ash, are you alright?"

"Other than being abused for weeks I am just fine."

Core says "Weeks? You have only been standing there for about thirty minutes."

"What?! Thirty minutes?! How is that possible, it was at least a month!"

Dragon says "As you get more powerful it becomes easier to play with time. Each day in my soulscape is only a minute or so outside."

"When can I learn that trick?!"

Dragon says "When your soulscape ability is strong enough. Which brings us to lesson two."

"What? There's more?!"