Griffin Bros

"Flight? Really?" Stanis raises an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah," I say, not understanding his confusion.

He just shakes his head. "And how are we supposed to fly?"

"With your wings? Duh."

"Wait, wings?" He cranes his neck to look over his shoulder. "HOLY SHIT! I have wings!"

Facehoofing, I deadpan, "Dammit, did you really not realize you're a griffon? Like that is probably the first thing I realized when I woke up." I look up at him. "Did you think you were some half-assed lion or something?"

"Uh, hehe... Just kidding! I knew that we had wings all along. Hehe..." My brother scratches the back of his head and grins sheepishly.

"Yeah sure. Let's just get this over with." Slipping on some aviators to an epic strum of my guitar, I look back at my brother. Why is he looking at me like that? I pull down my aviators slightly to glare at my brother. I knew I would win this staring contest.

"Bro, where did you get aviators and a guitar?" I smirk at him.

"Where did you get your knife?" With that I used my hind legs to propel myself into the air and started flapping my wings. I quickly became best friends with the ground once more and I heard Stanis snickering. "Shut up! I can't focus with your stupid face distracting me." Yep, master of insults.

"Honestly, we shouldn't even be able to fly. I mean our wings are way too small to lift our body. Also, as far as I can assume, since we have the body of a lion, we also don't have hollow bones. We really shouldn't even be able to eat because our digestive track is also most likely replaced by that of a lion without a guzzard." As I stared at him blankly, he continued. "Although, we may be lucky if our esophagus has something called a crop. A crop is a place where food can be stored for la-"

He was interrupted suddenly when I put a talon over his beak. "Shh, it's okay. It's just magic, let it happen." He just glares at me.

***

About an hour later, we were still unsuccessful in getting airborne for extended periods of time. My brother tried to give me tips multiple times, but I mostly ignored him. It was at his latest tips, though, that I got an idea.

"Wait, you were saying that eagles usually use thermals to gain altitude right?" He nods. "Well, a common fan theory about how pegasus in Equestria can fly is by using magical upwards winds to keep afloat." His eyes flash as he realizes what I'm suggesting. "So maybe we can use those to gain altitude and then fly like normal. So how do we fly?"

With his newly gained vigor at being allowed to explain things, Stanis starts, "Well, eagles fly in a circle in thermals to slowly gain altitude. They aren't flapping birds, they are soaring birds so they rarely actually flap to keep afloat. Once enough altitude is gained, they narrow their wings and shift their center of weight to move forward at high speeds. They often try to angle towards another updraft so they can rise up again once they glide. The air, or magic in this case, flow faster above than below the wing due to its shape, which causes low pressure above. That pulls the eagle upwards." I'm starting to think my brother knows conveniently way too much about birds.

"Dude, why do you know conveniently way to much about birds?" He just ignores me and walks around. I get the idea that he is basically trying to find stronger magical currents. Although, I'm pretty sure that they are pretty much present all throughout the world so it shouldn't be a problem.

"What if we just have to do what feels natural?" He looks at me in surprise, then in confusion as he tilts his head slightly. Adorabeetus! "I mean, we are trying to think about this too hard. What if it just comes included and pre-setup like instincts." Walking was something that I didn't think abo-"OOOF!" I stumble onto my face as soon as I start thinking about walking. Well shit, I guess all those fanfictions were pretty accurate about that.

Feeling a spark of new felt confidence, I prepare my legs to launch into the air. With a push, I'm off and am flying like I've been doing it all my life! This is actually, like wow. I never thought flying would be this good. The feeling of exhilaration and wind ruffling my feathers... It's, it's... Shit.

"AHHHH! GET ME DOWN! NONONONONONONONONO!" I feel my wings clamp to my sides as I start hyperventilating. A few moments pass and I feel myself collide violently with the ground. I spit out a mouthful of dirt and sit up.

I completely forgot about my fear of heights. I'm basically Flutter-goddamn-shy.