Unfortunately, the path to knowing how to properly adjust my height while using and properly make the sharp turns was paved with many, many mishaps. I already lost count of the number of times I went flying off course from the motions. Adjusting the motion was finicky, especially when it came to the sharp turns. I was struggling to properly land and adjust as I kept trying to maneuver sharply, where my legs kept slipping out from beneath me in the motion. I got back to my feet as I shook off the dust from tumbling over myself while I mulled over what I was doing wrong.

  My success rate with the sharp turns was maybe one out of ten currently. The idea was working as I could in theory at least make the necessary motions. Two consecutive turns I had yet to succeed in doing even once. My joints were hating me from how I was failing to make the motion; I did some light stretching to alleviate some of the discomfort and pain in them from my failures. Did I imagine that sharp turns were going to be easy when I moved that fast? The moving myself up and down was fairly trivial in comparison to the sharp turns because I didn’t change the general direction of my speed from what I could tell. What was the trick to this?

  There had to be some trick or adjustment I could make to how I was doing this. What? What was it? Why was it so hard to get my feet under me for the sharp turn? I tried again, attempting to sharply turn once more. I did a few bounds to make sure I was at full speed before trying to do the ninety-degree turn. I fanned out the tail on the side to turn my body sharply as I went to land where yet again, I messed up landing before tumbling and skipping across the plains for about two hundred feet. Ow. After that failure, I simply laid on the ground while I contemplated my latest failure.

  That approach was clearly not correct. Why was it so hard to land when I turned? I got back to my feet, shaking each one a bit. After a few moments, I tried running normally while attempting similarly rapid turns; I effortlessly ran the zig-zag pattern of hard turns while running at a non speed. I needed to stabilize the motion somehow or adjust how I landed. Was the answer my tails again? It was a starting guess and stood a chance at succeeding given it was the part that got the motion close. The only question I had now was how did I need to position my tails for this to succeed? Maybe make a wall of some sort for myself?

  Would that buffer work? Something that might keep me from flipping over when I changed the direction of movement? I stretched again, making sure I was healed up and good to run with yet again. Some minor stretching later, I began running with along the plains for the umpteenth time. This time whenever I went to start the zig-zag motion I positioned my one tail so my body would pivot while I fanned out the other two to make a kind of wall with them right after. There was some drag as the motion felt more solid as I felt myself land.

  To my joy, I didn’t flip over myself multiple times! I easily kicked off into the next bound while inversing the tail set up to turn the other way. Zig after zag after zig after zag I kept running with ! In general, I needed to think about how I used my tails a bit more, and this was simply a lesson that reinforced that fact. I stopped mid turning motion by applying the tilt and tail tricks I learned; amazingly the stop was smooth and didn’t even disturb the dirt. I did a few happy hops in celebration as I was ecstatic that it finally was working. Now it was time for me to practice the full lap around the Kniclad Mountains. I went to the easiest piece to start while stretching while mentally preparing for this.

  I took a composing breath, doing a few massive stretches as I readied myself for the challenge. I grabbed a stone off the ground and tossed it as hard as I could into the air. The instant the stone left my paw I tore off down the lap with . I paid attention to the position of my tails as I ran which made even more stable as I blitzed down the lap. I zipped through the mountains, clearing each stretch one after another in milliseconds. I hit the zig-zag section, wondering if I could do it. In series of sharp turns later, I was through it! Wow positioning my tails properly made a monstrous difference in how effectively I could move with and angling my body with .

  This was going fantastic! I kept my speed blitz of the lap, hoping this attempt got to see the stone land. Maintaining over this distance was putting some strain on my body that I needed to practice and train some more on, but for this initial attempt I was ecstatic. Yes! Yes! Swifter! Faster! I could feel my speed was steadily getting a bit faster as I reinforced my body a bit more. I channeled a bit more as my speed exploded; my tails were adjusting and fanning a bit to keep me on the path while my speed got faster. My legs kept moving as I fervently bounded along the trial path, adjusting myself with and tails to keep myself going forward. In mere moments I found that I was back at the starting spot where I had thrown the stone.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  My jaw fell in shock as I realized the stone was still going up. That was well beyond what I expected. Could I do another lap?! I wanted to try it. I kept running without slowing down, continuing another lap around the Kniclad Mountains. I tried using a bit more and reinforcing my body even further, adding in a bit of as well. My brain was starting to hurt from stacking so many augments while focusing on not launching myself in a direction. I grit my teeth, hunkering down to power through how much this was making my head hurt.

  I resumed my fueled sprint of the path, keeping my speed at the maximum. I learned I did not need to land as frequently with these bounds because I could cover quite a bit more distance with each bound from the speed, which also made the motion a bit smoother and even faster now that I wasn’t kicking off as frequently. The part I had to zig-zag around the cliffs slowed me down as the sharp turns were agonizing at the higher speed, but I persevered and adjusted my speed for the vertical adjusting section. Once the path straightened out or was gentler in the turning, I cranked my speed back up to the max. On the sections with more technical movement, I adjusted how fast I was going in order to lessen the strain while I learned how to maneuver more effectively.

  In no time flat I found myself back where the stone was tossed, beginning to fall finally. I decided to try yet another lap while throttling my speed for each section accordingly. It was getting even easier with the next attempt as I knew the path better and could pre-adjust my before being hit by the section. My feet kept bounding along as my tails were fanning how I needed them to. As much as I hated to admit it, I was glad Miril showed me this and gave me actually good advice on how to fix what I was doing wrong. That was odd to think about, and might honestly cause me some mental pain, but it would be the right thing to do. I completed my third lap, stopping beneath the stone I threw and catching it. It felt like it hadn’t moved as much as I’d thought it would between the two laps.

  I felt a rush of excitement coursing through my body as I began stretching and slowly making my way towards Ikol so I could nap without worry. Before I could do that, however, I noticed King Ilrymax flying rapidly towards me. Was he going to insist that I try the trial right now? My body was a bit sore and I wasn’t sure if I was up to the task right now. It didn’t matter what I was thinking as King Ilrymax landed next to me on the cliff.

  “May I help you, King Ilrymax?” I wondered, not really sure why he sought me out.

  “I came to inform you that you have passed your trial from me, but the rest of your

  is still working on theirs.” King Ilrymax informed me. His gaze seemed oddly intense at the moment; was it because he was being official currently?

  “But I haven’t had you toss the stone yet.” I pointed out. Did mine count? I had assumed it was him who had to toss the stone up.

  “I saw what you just did, I am confident you pass.” King Ilrymax insisted while moving his head side to side. What was he trying to figure out?

  “Did you have a question or something for me? You are staring kind of intensely at me.” I checked, not getting why he seemed so tense at the moment.

  “No, I just was a bit surprised to see you doing practice runs that quickly. I imagined the time table would be a few more days than it ended up being.” King Ilrymax stated. Something gave me the impression that there was a little more to the answer he wasn’t saying, but I was too tired to care at the moment.

  “Okay, I am going to find Ikol to nap.” I replied as I fought the urge to yawn.

  “If you tell him how to do it I will change his trial.” King Ilrymax threatened. Sheesh, he had such little faith.

  “I know, I know.” I yawned as I began moving towards Ikol. It didn’t take very long to reach him, and he was hard at work trying to carve spheres some more.

  “Chef!” Ikol cheered when he saw me.

  “I plan on napping now.” I informed him. Ikol didn’t care as he began doing happy little hops around me.

  “Okay! How goes your trial?” Ikol chimed after a moment, sitting near me as he attempted to carve the next sphere.

  “Already beat it, I am now just waiting on all of you.” I answered, trying to contain how smug I sounded for him.

  “I knew Chef would be first!” Ikol praised with zero hesitation.

  “I thank you for believing. Now I am napping.” I thanked him as I curled up by the cliff face.

  “Yes Chef!” Ikol said as he went back to attempting his trial.