Zanna awoke, opened one eye, yawned, then stretched, trying to get comfortable again under her blanket.

"Esta, come on, we are going to miss our flight ceremony! Get up, sleepyhead!" yelled Phaendara from the door of Esta's room.

It only took a moment for the words to penetrate her sleepy thoughts. She sat straight up in her bed, catching her feathery wings on the headboard. Ouch, that hurt. That's right. It is today, the day she graduates from child to young elfin acolyte! Where are her slippers? She needs to get dressed!

"I will be right there! " said Esta loudly as she pushed out from under her covers to find her slippers.

Zanna was confused as these thoughts and words came tumbling out of her. Did she die?

Esta ran around getting dressed in the new graduation outfit her mother had made for her. She did the last button on the tight-fitting single-piece jumper. She had to do the clasps over her shoulders where her wings poked out. Now she was ready.

Zanna watched herself as Esta, an Averraen child, one of the winged elvin races of the fey realms. As the child went out the door and hurried down the winding bridges to the tree center platform with another young Averraen girl who wore a similar outfit. The other girl's name was Phaendara, Zanna knew this because Esta knew this, and the girl was her best friend. Zanna experienced the thoughts of this young elvin girl as the girl herself experienced them. She tried to stop this Esta from walking forward, and there was no effect. She was trapped in a dream or memory and could not influence the non-physical realm it existed in.

Zanna watched herself move to a group of children, all similarly dressed, lining up in front of their instructor. They have been practicing for months for this one thing. Her parents were with the other parents already waiting down below on the large wide branch, looking upward. Esta had been in the school with her friends, and today once she succeeded here, she would be able to go to the school of choice. Where she would study and learn and find out what her strengths and future role would be in the tree community.

Esta looked out then at the other seven trees she could just barely see as an outline in the morning sun rising over the forests below. The Primal Trees were large and the center of all Averraen communities. They were also separated by several miles each. She wondered if those other trees were having their first flight graduations today?

She heard the instructor finish his short speech. This brought back her focus on the line of classmates ahead of her, "and once you succeed in flying through the five flight rings and this aerial course, you will land on that platform. Collect your certificate and broach indicating you have graduated from the School of Choice. I have great faith that all of you will do well, and may the Great Tree look over you and smile. "

The instructor's name was Hanna, and she had been their primary instructor for the last six months as the children housed in the dormitory branch trained in-flight acrobatics. All children must learn this to live in the tree. Those who fail three times are sent to the ground to farm. Those who succeeded got to live in the branches far above and continue with their training. In one of the several more advanced fields of elvish culture. Esta was hoping to learn life magic and work in The Branch of Kind aid, the medical branch. She had been there once two years ago when she had hurt her arm, and they had cast magic to heal her. It was a large structure on a branch with many beds lining its walls. She wanted to be assigned there when she got older.

Zanna was reliving these thoughts with Esta, and she tried not to roll her eyes. What a weakling, she will never survive, thought Zanna. Is this another form of hell she wasn't familiar with? The planes of the hells were varied and large, this could be one she hadn't heard of.

Zanna was thinking about this as Phaendara spoke, "You made us late, silly. We are the last in line now. "

Esta looked behind her to see someone else coming. It was Svak Fugl walking down the branch. She was a girl a year older than Esta. She was the only child in the group with midnight black hair, and her wings were not white or grey. They were also dark black like her hair. The older girl was very hard to be around. She seemed always to rub people the wrong way. Esta didn't dislike the other girl, but she found it hard sometimes to be around her. This was Svak's last attempt at flight training. If she failed this time, she would be going down to the farms below where her family lived and worked. Svak was a child of the farmer class. Not a bad thing, really, but many from the upper branches looked down on them, calling them dirt grubbers.

Phaendara spoke quitter, "See. Now we have to stand next to Svak."

Esta had never had any issue with Svak because her mother had always told her not to judge people that work. There is nothing wrong with hard labor and the people that do it. Esta smiled, "Phaendara, she needs our support. This is her last chance to make it to choosing school. "

Phaendara started to whisper again, then stopped as Svak got near.

Svak looked at the two younger girls with obvious distaste.

Zanna watched this behavior trapped inside Esta's thoughts. These children were all weak. She wished they would jump off and fall to their deaths right now so she could escape this hell.

Esta smiled and spoke in her cheeriest voice, "Svak, are you ready to fly today? "

Svak grimaced at Esta, "Why bother? I'm only here because my grandmother wanted one of her grandkids to live in the branches. I don't even want to be here. "

Esta frowned. "You fly as well as anyone. Why would you want to fail? " she asked.

Svak watched as the next girl in the front of the line jumped off and started her diving flight towards the first set of rings speaking as she watched. "Because I don't fit in, and nobody likes me. Why would I want to continue? Even your friend there was talking bad about me before I got in line. " She finished that statement by staring hard at Phaendara, who promptly looked away, suddenly interested in the other girls in line getting ready to make their fight.

Esta sighed and took a deep breath. She knew Svak had a gift. She could feel the girl's mind as she used her energia on others. Esta could do that, sensed other's use of magic. Svak was using it on Phaendara right now, watching how she felt.

She thought about this and what her mother had told her before she had joined flight school and lived in the dormitory. An image of her mother, who was now far below watching the other girls take their test, came to mind. "Esta, all people have good in them. It takes a strong person to find it and bring it out. Some will resist this, but if you persist, you will see. "

Esta took a deep breath then spoke in a serious tone, "Svak, I'll be your friend if you promise to try and pass your test. " Then she smiled her biggest smile, hoping it looked encouraging.

Svak looked at her with suspicion, "Why are you saying this? You have never talked to me. "

Esta smiled. She looked down at the crowd below, knowing her parents were looking up at all of them. "I think you can do it. You have been through this class three times. I've seen you fly better than some. I think you don't want to pass, and that isn't right. We all want to improve. I bet your grandmother is down there right now watching. "

Svak sighed, "No, she died before I came here. She was very old. I don't want to be here. "

Zanna was watching the interaction now. She still thought of them as weak, but clearly, more was going on that she should be paying attention to. Someone had trapped her here for a reason. She wanted to know why.

Esta said with a tint of sadness in her voice, "I'm sorry, Svak. "

Then Esta smiled as they continued to shuffle forward. Only a few remained in front now. She thought of something. "Svak, my parents are down there in the crowd. Your parents are too. Once we both pass, I'd like them to meet yours. So you have to pass."

Svak smirked like she was humoring an idiot but didn't say anything as the line grew shorter.

It was Phaendara's turn next, and Esta said loudly, "Good luck Phae. Let the wind carry you!" Then Phaendara smiled at her friend, took two steps, and leaped off the edge, taking her dive towards the first set of rings.

Esta watched as her best friend easily made the next two turns. Phaendara finished by swooping up through the last ring and then descending on the platform to receive her congratulations and certificate.

Esta looked back at Svak, who was looking dourly at the younger girl. She smiled and then walked up to the edge of the platform. She stopped.

Zanna had watched all of this interaction, and she could feel that Esta genuinely wanted to help this raven-haired girl. She thought she understood why.

Zanna spoke, "You should punch her." She was surprised when Esta stopped as if she had heard her.

Esta turned her head, thinking she had heard someone speak to her.

Zanna said very loudly while watching herself, "You should PUNCH HER!"

Esta frowned. Why did she want to punch Svak? She had never hit anyone. She turned and walked over to her instructor.

"Mistress Iarynore, what were the rules again? " asked Esta.

Iarynore sighed, "Esta, we have been over this a hundred times. You need to make it through all of the rings in sixty heartbeats without landing and without anyone helping you. "

"That's it? The student just has to make it through in sixty heartbeats? " asked Esta.

Iarynore nodded affirmatively.

Esta smiled a quirky smile, then turned to Svak, taking a step closer to the older girl. Then she punched the other girl as hard as she could in the nose. Esta wasn't very strong, and she had never hit anyone, ever. Her hand actually hurt now. "You know, dirt grubbers shouldn't be here."

She watched as she saw anger make its way onto Svak's face. Then she smiled her biggest smile, opening her eyes as big as she could, making that I dare you to face that all children seem to know. Then she turned and ran for the edge with Svak right behind and leaped off. She pumped her wings as she heard Svak yelling at her.

The older girl had lept off a second later and was coming in fast as Esta had stopped in the middle of the first ring to turn and stick her tongue out at the other girl. Then she tucked her wings, dropping just as Svak came at her, narrowly missing her. The two girls did some crazy aerial series of dives and fiats as they dodged one another, each time, Esta would hover in the center of a ring, taunting, waiting, for Svak to dive at her. At the last set of rings, Svak was losing energy, and Esta just hovered there in the center.

She shouted, "You know dirt grubbers always seem to run out of energy about now. Are you sure you don't want me to just strike you again and get it over with? "

Svak, who hadn't taken her eyes off Esta, gained energy from some inner reserve of anger and flew up, doing a quick dip, then back up at Esta. Esta feigned fright and flew off to the last ring. She had been counting heartbeats, and she only had a few now to make the final one. She wasn't going to stop and taunt Svak anymore. That wasn't needed, so she raced above, flapping hard. She was getting tired now too. Zanna smiled, watching the scene and feeling the emotions.

Then Esta swooped down and steered back up, flapping twice as she sailed through the last ring with Svak following like a raven-haired shadow. Esta dove down and landed right in front of the headmaster of the branch. Just as she landed both feet down, she curled up in a ball and covered herself with her wings. Svak slammed into her and started pummeling her. Svak could hit hard, and Esta was soon on her back, and the other girl was hitting her all over as Esta tried to block while pinned.

"You take that back. I'm not a dirt grubber, " screamed Svak striking the younger girl.

The head instructor cleared his throat loudly, really loudly. He was clearly using his speaking magic to enhance the sound.

"Do you two want me to deposit your certificates and emblems with your parents? " asked the old winged elf in a bored voice as he stood there in his ceremonial robes holding two certificates, one in each hand.

Svak stopped hitting Esta when the older elf spoke. She looked up at him, then down at the younger girl she had pinned under her body. She looked angrily at Esta.

Then she whispered, "You tricked me!" and punched Esta one last time and stood up.

Esta, with her wheat straw-colored hair all over and a few grey feathers lying around on the ground, smiled with her fat upper lip starting to bruise, "How can we be friends if you failed your test?"

***