I had worried that Clara would be angry at me for lying to her. After all, she had thought we were the same. Clara really was Casteless, and I had always thought that was why she was so dead set on us being friends. But, when I landed a few minutes later and encouraged her to climb on my back, all she had were smiles and a little bit of fear. This would probably be her first time flying, and she wasn’t the one with the wings.
She clung to the scales around my neck, and felt her fingers digging in, but it didn’t hurt. And I was strangely happy to be able to give her this first. To show her what it was like to be up in the sky, the wind in her hair. I heard her breath catch more than once, and eventually, she even let go of my scales and spread her arms in the air.
When we finally landed,
