Take off?

Flapping.

"THE" thing that makes a bird a bird.

Modern airplanes don't tend to flap - at least, not unless they are in the last of their death throes before their wings rip off and they drop out of the sky, wingless...

How difficult can it be?

Well, I have now dropped down onto at least three dozen ledges, broken each wing bone at least five times, and I still haven't figured out how to flap.

As luck would have it, the cliff had so many ledges that I could "safely" drop onto a lower one from whatever ledge I was on at the time.

The sun was getting close to noon, now. 

Maybe I should take some notes from how other birds move - but... there are no other birds up here.

What about in the forest?

I looked down - and yes, the forest below was full of fluttering bird beasties.

Just guessing wildly, but I was about sixty floors above the forest canopy - and yet I could make out the birds as if they were just a floor below me.

That must be the amazing eyesight "cheat" of a Phoenix!

Well, at least THAT was not at NULL level.

So I spent a while carefully spying on the various feathered friends far below to try and get a hint on how to flap.

Ah, so you move your wings this way, and angle them that way, and... 

After a while I started grasping the general idea, so I tried it again.

Oooo! I... I didn't fall!

And I was able to rise up above my ledge and then transition into a glide!

SUCCESS!!!

While the sun moved past noon and to around the 3 or 4 pm position I practiced diligently.

I was getting really thirsty, and finally decided to go land in the small clearing near the lake/pond I had found yesterday - the one where I had been killed by a huge predato... - ah never mind, I don't want to recall that!

Said and done.

I was keeping my flame armor now on all the time, even as I carefully sipped water from the very edge of the lake - I had decided the area covered by water was too big to be just a pond.

After slacking my thirst I looked around - at the edge of the forest a bit away I spotted some red berry bushes.

No idea what sort, but other birds were busy helping themselves, so probably edible for me, too.

I hopped over - that was faster than walking with my short stubby legs - and picked one of the lowest berries.

Before eating the berry, I optimistically attempted to use my skill "appraisal" on it.

{{An unknown item. Level not high enough for more information.}}

Seriously? Even I could tell it was a berry - at least show that!!!

Sigh - just the "amazing" power of a NULL level I suppose.

Since I broke out of my first shell, I've been sighing a lot lately - can't be helped, as I was stuck at NULL level.

Sigh......

Anyway, down the hatch this berry goes!

OH BLISS - OH JOY - WHAT AN EXPLOSIVE FLAVOUR!!!

Maybe it was because I was really hungry, but this berry tasted divine!

It reminded me of a blueberry - no, maybe more like a raspberry?

Whatever, there were a lot on the bushes here, so let's eat up!

After filling my belly to the max, I really started to wish I had an "item box" skill - I could have harvested a few bushels of these abundant berries for later.

Alas, I had not even a small pocket.

Guess I'll just come visit here every day, for now.

---

Status Review.

It has been a few days now, and I have "mastered" the art of landing and taking off.

"Status."

[[

Race: Immortal Phoenix

Name: NULL

Level: NULL

Experience: -997

Mana: -100

Strength: NULL

Dexterity: NULL

Wisdom: NULL

Specials: NULL

Skills: Appraisal level NULL, Gliding level NULL, Landing level NULL, Dry Take Off level NULL

]]

Other than "Dry Take Off" I haven't learned anything else, have I.

AND ALL MY SKILLS ARE STILL AT NULL LEVEL!

Siiiggghhhh......

So much for "mastering" - being at NULL level meant I could not even call myself a beginner. At best I could say "Oh, gliding? Yes, I've heard about that. Something to do with birds, right?"

Flapping was apparently not a skill, even though that was something I had practiced more than any of the actual skills.

And even though I had learned to "harvest" berries - well let's be honest, I was just gorging myself on berries - that was also not a skill.

Up to now I had only taken off from the ground or from a cliff ledge - I don't have webbed feet, but if I did, could I also get the "Wet Lift Off" skill?

Seems plausible, but I'm not a duck, so I very much doubt I will ever get that skill.

---

Sir, we are detecting lifeforms!

When I had first awoken in this world I had seen smoke rising from the forest not too far from the endless cliff.

Today I decided to go investigate - as I mentioned before, where there is smoke in the morning, there is bound to be breakfast, and thus civilization!

Well, I was being optimistic, of course - could also be some ogre or a camp of goblins for all I know.

Hmm, all I have seen up to now were other birds and some insects - for all I know neither goblins nor ogres existed in this world - which would be a GOOD things, really!

These last few nights I had overnighted on a random cliff ledge - for some reason I was not cold at night.

Maybe staying warm was a bonus side effect from my envelope of fire that I was constantly wasting 100 mana on - mana that I didn't even have.

How could a resource such as mana go into the negative, anyway? Isn't that the same as trying to drive with a vacuum in the gas tank???

As an experiment I had tried to decrease the amount of flames surrounding me, and was able to reduce mana consumption down to 25 while still having a visible envelope of flame.

And I was also able to increase the amount of flames - using up to minus five hundred mana!

Looking down at the lake in that state, I saw a second sun - me!

For now, I just left the default minus one hundred mana stay as is - I had to assume that is the Phoenix species default. Even if I am the only member of said species in this world.

It only took a bit of looking out over the forest from my high cliff ledge, and I quickly found white smoke rising above the forest canopy. It came from a clearing not too far from the cliff face.

So off I launched myself into the void, in the general direction of the smoke, curiosity filling me at what I'd find down there - civilization or - shudder - goblins?

---

I found a tiny hermit.

Surprisingly I found a quite large clearing, with a long solid looking log cabin on the north side - the length running east/west - and an extensive garden taking up the rest of the clearing. 

Thin white smoke snaked out of the chimney in the middle of the cabin roof, rising into the cool morning air.

Just south of the cabin a very tidy herb garden - from up here I could make out plants that reminded me of parsley and sage and various other herbs that I had never seen before.

Just south again of the small herb garden were various plots dedicated to at least three types of lettuce, carrot and beat like plants, and several rows of beans, peas, and even peppers.

To the east of the clearing, a tall and fearsome looking scarecrow had been planted, protecting a small plot of corn type plants.

As I circled for the forth time I noticed a tiny figure exit the cabin from a door on the narrow east end of the cabin.

The figure was not even half as tall as the door - a child, I suspected - and was wearing a comfy looking mouse gray felt cloak with the hood pulled up.

I had to look twice, but yes, the hood sported two pointy cat type ears!

The tiny figure meandered around the herb garden, every so often bending down to pick a leaf here or there from the various herbs.

Well, here goes nothing - I aimed for the top of the tall scarecrow's head, hoping I would stick the landing - if not, I'd end up beak first in the corn field.

Luck was with me today! I stuck the landing - although for a moment there I did teeter at the edge of my makeshift landing pad and threatened to unceremoniously fall  off... I caught myself at the last moment with some frantic flapping.

A quick glance back at the tiny figure reassured me that my embarrassing almost missed landing had not been witnessed - or if it had, the tiny figure was polite enough to pretend not to have noticed.

Oh wait, I'm still a ball of fire - better turn that off for now - a quick look up, then left, then right, then up again.

Great, there were no hunter type birds anywhere.

Concentrate... and I now was just a normal bird - well, as normal as I could be, anyways.

I relaxed and watched the mouse-gray cloaked figure for a bit, checking the sky above me occasionally.

Finally, after a bit more gathering, the tiny figure straightened up and looked around the garden.

"Ja? Nov embra tek nojao?" [Tiny Hermit]

A random leaf that had been floating down from the trees above froze in mid air as a bright golden very fancy blinking framed message appeared in front of me.

{{[[

Inherent skill transfer opportunity detected. Please wait a moment...

]]}}

This was WAY fancier than the normal status window I could call up - and did time just stop?

As an experiment I hopped a bit from side to side on the scarecrow's head - well, I was still able to move around but that leaf over there was frozen mid-air and the tiny figure was not moving at all, so....

Oh, an update!

{{[[

Thank you for your patience.

Primary language now replaced with "Ancient High Elvish" at native-level proficiency.

Extra Note: 6 of 7 languages can still be transferred.

]]}}

After a few heartbeats the imposing sign vanished and the leaf lazily continued its way down to the ground.

At the same time, the previously spoken words of the tiny figure echoed in my mind, translated.

"Oh? Seems I am being watched from somewhere?" [Tiny Hermit]

And I noticed I was now thinking in Ancient High Elvish instead of the mother tongue from my previous life.

Somehow I got the feeling from the language name that Ancient High Elvish may not have a very large demographic - luckily I still had six more language slots - hopefully I can fill them with more common languages in the future!

The tiny figure spotted me finally, and walked over - and as it got closer, I saw that the figure was less than half the size of the scarecrow.

Having reached the base of the scarecrow the tiny figure looked up, and as it did, the cat-eared hood fell away, revealing bright lime green hair tied up in two pony tails and irises the color of clear shining rubies.

Neither of these looked "normal" to me. 

But then, I was not even sure if this world's life was carbon based, nor if the air around us was a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen - I didn't have any way right now to test that.

The water occasionally drank seemed to be watery, but not having seen it freeze, I was not even sure about that...

And then I noticed the long pointy years - very elf like indeed!

If this had been a human, I would have guessed maybe six or seven years old - but did elves age that way, too?

"Oh hello little birdy! I've never seen one like you before..." [Tiny Hermit]

With that the small elf walked around the scarecrow, looking up at me.

"Hm, shaped a bit like a hummingbird, but three times larger, and the beak is more like a kingfisher, but the tail is too long, and the colors are too bright - do you catch insects, or eat fruit? In all the bird books I have, I've never noticed anything similar..." [Tiny Hermit]

The small elf stopped in front of me again.

"Well... it's breakfast time - would you like to join me? I've got some fresh berries and fruit - would that be all right?" [Tiny Hermit]

I nodded - I hope that means yes here, too.

"Oh, do you understand me? Here want a ride?" [Tiny Hermit]

With that the small elf stretched out a finger at me - hm, I was still a bit wonky on landing - after all my stats still put my landing level at NULL.

All I could really do is try, right?

The worst that could happen is that I miss and dive hilariously beak-first into the ground - and from this height I'd just bend my beak if I happened to land on an unexpected stone, at most.

Probably...

---