After a fairly short day filled with sleeping, meditation and contemplation, I was back on the frozen river, sitting near the edge of the waterfall. Down below, the valley opened into a basin with a fairly sizable open area in the middle, most likely a frozen lake, currently covered in snow. Thanks to the open geography of the basin and the far narrower one of the valley the river I was sitting in was winding itself through, the cliff I was sitting on was currently the target of some seriously cold wind, the temperature low enough to make even me shiver. Out of curiosity, I conjured a bit of water and launched it in the air, only for it to turn into a misty dust of snow and ice long before it could ever come near the ground. Impressive in its own right, to the point that I even tried spitting on the ground just to see if my spit would freeze before it hit. It sadly didn't work, at least not with a cartoonish 'clink'-sound of the spit hitting the ground but that was mostly because it never did. The wind was strong enough to carry the droplets off fast enough.

Laughing about my childish antics, I focused my thoughts back to the reason why I had come here and wasn't back at my tower with the kids, namely, project Wings, or how to become a dragon in five easy steps, or something like that.

One of the things I had realised over the day was that I'd need a way to directly incorporate my magic into them, essentially binding them into the magical analogue to my circulatory system, or even directly into the said system as magical energy was transported within the blood, as demonstrated by Blood Magic. However, that'd mean I'd have to cut into the place where I wanted my wings to sprout from, or even make them entirely biological, which would come with some serious challenges. I didn't want them to be flesh and blood, so I needed a different path to get that connection. Luckily, there was another part of me completely infused by my magic, already external to my primary body and circulatory system, meaning no blood had to be spilt to externally access my magic.

Namely, my hair was constantly infused by my magic, thanks to the Magical Hair trait I had selected almost three years of experienced time ago. My hair and its connection to my magic allowed some interesting things and hopefully, this would be yet another of those things.

Closing my eyes after taking yet another look into the valley, I stepped forward until I stood right at the edge of the waterfall, feeling the wind blow hard against my face and making my hair stream behind me, the added chill making my skin turn even bluer than it normally was. It was an interesting aspect of my biology that the cold turned my usually pale blue skin into a deeper, almost purplish hue. It was an interesting effect that I experienced far too rarely, as I liked it quite a bit, though part of that liking came from the enjoyment the cold brought me. Despite knowing that the cold, if it ever got extreme enough, would be harmful to me, I couldn't help but realise that my shivering wasn't just from the cold. A good part of it was pure pleasure, making me wonder about a few things within my physique. Maybe doing the entire thing completely naked was a silly idea but I didn't have enough clothes to risk any if things went differently than I hoped. Even if everything went right, having wings of magic sprout from my back could easily destroy any clothes I might want to wear.

And so, after pushing all those thoughts to the back of my mind, I let my mind be filled with memories, dreams and ideas. For once, I didn't try to structure my magic in a minute fashion; I simply gave direction and guidance while observing its effects as I let an absurd amount of power flow through me.

The valley I had chosen hadn't been completely on a whim or for the gorgeous environment, though I had a suspicion that the environment was a function of my actual reason. Or maybe my actual reason was a result of the environment; I couldn't be completely certain. Not that it truly mattered whether the chicken or the egg came first in this particular conundrum; the only thing that mattered was that I had a chicken, or, as it was in this case, an area filled with enough magic to almost push into wild magic territory.

The sheer amount of Ice, Wind and Darkness Magic in the air might have suffocated a lesser practitioner, or one without my affinity to those elements, but to me, the air was filled with nothing but power, tremendous amounts of it. I couldn't channel all of it, not all at once, but I could channel a lot of it and with every passing moment, more and more of that power was passing through me, funnelled into the conceptual magic I was channelling.

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At first, nothing much happened. I could feel some of the magic build up in my body, mostly around my shoulders, but the vast majority of it was coalescing behind me, somewhat similar to the process used when conjuring materials but not quite like it. Still, I could feel it start to take shape and connect the not-yet-corporeal structure behind me with the build-up within my body. Amusingly, I could also feel my hair start to move independently from the wind, some of it starting to lengthen just a little and wind into the magical construct behind me, some of it shortening but starting to curl into my shoulders in a distinctly weird way. It didn't hurt much, but it gave me an itch in my magic I wouldn't ever be able to scratch. Incredibly weird, but given that the entire situation was experimental, weird should be expected.

This was the reason why the next sensation wasn't able to shake my resolve or concentration, as I had been expecting something odd to happen. Maybe not to have my wings start to coalesce into reality starting at their tips, some two metres beyond the reach of my arm if I were to stretch it in that direction, but it wasn't enough to upset me. Neither was the itch that started at those two tips of sharp, almost claw-like ice or when the itch started to spread towards my back, slowly and through structures that weren't quite there yet. And if an itch in an appendage I didn't have yet wasn't enough to break my concentration, nothing would.

A small part of my mind started to wonder if that was something analogue to phantom pains or itches after somebody lost a limb, though I wasn't sure as I knew something beyond misfiring nerves were there, I could feel enough of my magic to know that. And now, focused on my magic as I was, I could even feel my hair stretch out, almost like a nervous system. It was an incredibly strange sensation to feel my hair like that, beyond its considerable weight hanging off my head, but, just like all the other oddities, it wasn't enough to stop me.

Neither were the continuing sensations when the magic started to take a physical shape, forming into matter composed of Ice, Wind and Darkness Astral Power, all meshed together to form something I couldn't name, let alone describe. Hard, yet brittle, parts made from Ice, somewhat pliable but sturdy parts made of Wind Magic and, last but not least, Darkness winding through the entire thing, binding it all together around the strands of hair stretched out behind my back.

Finally, the wings started to fuse to my back, curiously not breaking the skin in the slightest, simply connecting to it, the connection running down my naked side and ending just above my hip. Compared to the rest of the experience, this part felt almost mundane, at least after the strange itching sensation had died down, and I could focus on feeling the wind on my wings, quite literally.

Looking over my shoulder, I could take them in in their full glory. Their tips remained clawed, and their overall shape made me think of a bat's wing, but I faintly remembered that bat's wings were essentially their hands, just with skin stretched between the 'fingers', my wings didn't have those fingers; they were a solid whole and yet, despite that, they could flex and move in tune with my magic. Their colour was a curious one, somewhat translucent, with a cold, silvery light shining from their centre and illuminating countless thin, black tendrils running through them, most likely my hairs or an analogue to them. Around the edges, the silver came to the surface, making their scaly appearance quite obvious while also showing that the translucent area was in actuality, a very faint blue, nearly impossible to see in the darkness of the night. All in all, they looked quite beautiful, making me nod with approval. But, the most important thing had yet to be tested.

Experimentally beating them once, I felt myself lift off the ground far too easily, as if the wings had gripped the wind already present and made use of it. Sadly, I hadn't expected the movement, and with two fairly sizable wings spread in the wind and some additional magic helping them to get me aloft, I immediately started to make like a kite and soar.

At first, I wanted nothing but to get back down to the ground but with each beat of my wings, with each moment they caught the wind as I was gliding, I started to feel more and more at ease. With ease came comfort and enjoyment, and with enjoyment came a desire to continue.

And so I continued to soar, forgetting the world beneath me as I could finally take to the sky without the need for enchanted equipment. Before, I had been floating, but now, I am flying.

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