A Running start. (by Farrel)

"So, they said you might be able to help." the wolf blushed, "I know I should be able to control my wings like I do with the rest of my size." she demonstrated, shrinking down to only two feet in height, more traditional for an imp, her diminutive wings shrinking with her. "But it doesn't work."
Embarrassed, she grew up to what most people considered to be a normal stature.
"Tell me," The tiger fox said, offering a bowl of tea to the newcomer patiently waiting for her to accept it before taking a sip from his own. "You have trouble with flying, don't you?"
The wolf flushed and nodded. "I just feel silly trying now; I'm nineteen, nearly twenty. All I can do is hop and bounce and flap looking like some kind of shire-horse with butterfly wings."
"I've seen this before, actually." He nodded in reply. "You'll be glad to know that as with all demon magic, it's more a matter of training and instinct than anything else." his green eyes regarded her over the top of his bowl. The girl's own eyes lit up.
"So I can do something about it?" She beamed, putting her own bowl down before she dropped it.
"If you get the hang of it and your wings are strong, you could probably fly home." He smiled.
"No." She grinned broadly. "Seriously?"
He nodded softly. "Just a question of teaching your wings what it feels like to have wind beneath them, more often than not, that's all the encouragement they need to resize."
"Sir, if you could teach me... That would be..." she giggled, bouncing excitedly.
"Sir..." he laughed, extending a hand."Call me Farrel, please."
"Nice to meet you." she giggled, taking it and shaking it "Most folks call me Softy." she said shyly.
"Much nicer than the names most people call me. Would you like to start now? I'm pretty sure all you need is a running start."
The first stage of the lesson turned out to take the form of a short walk from the house, discussing posture and making the wolf girl try out certain poses she would later come to rely on in flight. Before long, the lesson had taken a turn for the strange and interesting...
"That's it! You're getting the balance right now... See? Concentrate on your posture and they'll grow of their own accord!" Farrel was panting lightly as he went from jog to run, arms folded back, holding her ankles steady on his back. "Now, try and angle them to catch the wind, as though you were gliding!"
The wolf concentrated, steadying herself with a grip on his shoulder. Sure enough, just for a moment, her wings hit the perfect angle to provide lift, in response some reflex inside her wings kicked in, expanding the tiny limbs to a few inches longer than her arms. "It's working!" She grinned, flapping experimentally.
"Ready?" Called the fox, "Just like we planned!"

Softy felt the paws let go of her ankles, she wobbled as she released her grip on his shoulder. His arms were wide now, providing a little extra balance, his back staying a little more steady under her feet. "Go!" he shouted.
On cue, she made as good a sprint start as she could manage, toes catching his belt and pushing hard, foot finding his shoulder and shoving off that as she jumped, wings expanding further as she leapt into the air and flapped hard, rising up and managing to gain a little extra height as she worked before landing in a slightly disorganised heap on the ground.
Her wings shrank back down as she touched down, rolling with the fall. There was a thud as Farrel, so absorbed with watching her in flight lost his footing and made his own crash landing.
She was on her feet again in moments. "I flew! I really flew!" she giggled, bouncing.
Her jubilation ground to a halt, however as she saw the look on the face of her new friend. "What? ... I didn't fly?"
"Oh, you did, but that wasn't your full wing span... If it was, you would have been able to carry on until you got tired. We're not there yet. But before we do this for real, I want to launch you like that again."
"They get bigger?" She giggled, marvelling at this new found promise for her wings.
"They should, you're just not used to making them bigger. We need to go faster." Nodded the fox "That's why you're finding it so much more difficult than most. With a little more practice and a faster start, you'll see."
Farrel picked himself up and started instructing on posture once again. Softy's indignance at being corrected soon melted at the prospect of being given another chance to try it. She impatiently listened to the instruction the fox gave her... And then more patiently listened and paid attention when he explained that she wouldn't be getting another launch until she got it right.
The fox grinned, noticing the girls wings expand a little just on the thought of flying... She would be a quick learner.
"Why are we going this way?" Softy asked as she mounted his back a second time, "If we turned and launched the other way, we wouldn't have so far to go back."
"Because, in this direction, we have our real launch site, do you see where the path turns to do down to the city?" He asked. "This time I want you to land past the corner... If you can do that, you're ready for the real thing."
The wolf swallowed. "I'll never make it, it's up hill."
"We've got all afternoon." He grinned. "Or at least, until my legs give up, now, if I don't see another half foot of wingspan this time, you're buying the food and ale at the tavern tonight... So I want you to kick off my shoulder hard, try and stop me in my tracks."

"Okay." she smirked "Watch out, road sign, I'm coming for you."
"That's the spirit!" The fox shouted, walking a few steps and then breaking into a run. "Ready?"
"Ready!"
The run became a sprint, Softy set her wings against the wind, this time, it felt better, even just on the speed of the foxes running she could feel herself generating lift.
"GO!" Came the order.
Two powerful steps later and she was airborne once more, not even noticing the thud behind her. The headwind swept in, and this time, rather than forcing her downwards, she could feel it lifting her up, but not enough!
"Angle down! You'll stall! AIM DOWN!" bellowed a voice behind her.
Just for a second, her brain froze "How the hell do I aim down?" it asked her.
"Wait, we covered this." Her conscious mind told her. "Belly muscles..." Slowly but surely, her ungainly climb levelled out a little and her flapping wings propelled her forwards. As she picked up speed, she could feel her wings stretch out further and further. She gave a strangled scream as she stopped suddenly, crashing to the ground.
"Owww." She grunted, holding onto the, now broken road sign.
The fox panted up behind her...
"Are... Are you... Okay?" He gasped, breathlessly, helping to her feet.
"Landed on my tail" She groaned. "The sign took the worst of it though. I guess I owe you dinner and a drink."
"Nah," he grinned. "You'd have made it past if you got your angles right, and that time, I saw your full wingspan."
He dusted her down and gave her tail a cursory check. "Nothing broken, are you ready for the big one?"
"I broke the sign." she mumbled, swatting him away from her behind.
"Well, you told it to look out, it just didn't listen." Farrel admonished, catching his breath. "You want another practice run?"
She looked down the path towards town. "So the final test is over the city?" she swallowed. "That's a steep downhill, what if I don't manage?"
As she looked around, she could see the tired fox shake his head. She didn't like his grin.
"Nope, I've got a softer emergency landing in store."
She glanced back down the other path. "Back that way?"
Another shake of the head... This could only mean one other direction, her finger pointed, the fox nodded.
"No." She giggled, her eyes widening. "You're serious?"
"Best way to learn, there's a lake to land in if it goes wrong. I'll meet you down there. You'll get a good twenty, thirty minutes glide just from the thermals, after that kind of practice I'll bet you never have a problem figuring out your wing size again."
"The path takes almost three hours on foot." she pointed out, nudging him. "No way I'll be able to fly that long."
"Path." he chuckled. "Yeah..." he grinned. "I'll have a good view of you circling as I." he coughed "walk." Softy didn't notice the hint, distracted with the thought of her first long distance flight.
As Farrel caught his breath, Softy attempted to and then gave up on repairing the sign, arranging it as best she could so it was still visible. The pair walked a short way, the fox insisting she practice with her wings, trying to get a start with a short run and a quick jump.
To her surprise, she was starting to get the hang of it. As her wings remembered the feeling of air beneath them, it became much easier to enlarge them and lift off. She couldn't quite keep the movement going, but she could make very much longer jumps now, even bounding as she touched down.
The fox stopped walking and started stretching exercises, dropping down into a sprinter's crouch.
"Saddle up." He chuckled. "And make sure you've got a good foothold on my belt, we only get one shot at this."
Once more, the wolf stepped up onto his back, giggling. "You wouldn't manage this if I was full sized." she smirked, letting her stature revert to her full size, Dropping down and straddling the foxes back. "Giddy up!" she giggled, slapping his behind.
"Hey!" he chuckled, bucking. "There'll be time to play horsey later."
"Oooh, you promise?" She smirked.
He grinned. "If it'll encourage you to try harder? certainly." He chuckled, winking. She batted his ears playfully, stepping up onto his back, full sized, Surprised that he actually seemed quite comfortable with it.
"You'll need to be smaller to take best advantage." he noted, steadying himself.
Even as she shrunk down, he was already in motion, no preamble here, straight to a sprint.
"Do NOT go until the moment you hear me say." He shouted up to her, the edge of the grassed hill looming. "Ready? Give it all you've got this time! Kick back so hard it hurts me!"

"Yes Sir!" she shouted down to him over the wind, dropping into her own sprint start on his back. The realisation that he wasn't aiming to stop at the cliff edge dawning on her. "You're mad!"
"Yes! Done this four times before, if you foul this up, please go too early, or you'll push me back onto the rocks!”
He didn’t leave time for further protests, speeding up and sprinting full pelt towards the edge.
“Ready! Three... two..."
"Oh shit!" She shouted realising he was serious.
"...one!..." full tilt, the pair sped towards the cliff edge, the foxes hands snapped to his shoulders as he bellowed his next order.
"Go!"
They both took their penultimate step at the same time, the wolf pushing off as hard as possible as she stepped up onto the hand at his shoulder, not noticing the tearing sound under her foot. At the same time Farrel's toe claws curled over the cliff edge.
They both jumped as hard as possible, the fox pushing his arm out with all his might, throwing the wolf almost like a javelin as he leapt with only enough strength to clear the cliff edge, everything else being used to propel his passenger as hard as possible.
As the thermals hit her wings the feeling was exhilarating, Softy arced gracefully up and away, for a moment, all the lessons in the world didn't matter, instinct had taken over and she was as proud and as graceful as the most magnificent dragon in flight. As she soared up and away, someone else was 'flying' a little less gracefully.
The fox angled his body carefully, she had kicked back harder than he thought she would but thankfully the cliff had an overhang, his posture pulled him out further towards the deeper part of the lake. His back hurt where her claws had dug in, but looking up at her, it would seem the lesson had worked.
The lake raced up in front of him and he stretched out to dive. Something felt wrong at his belt suddenly. He reacted too slowly to stop it. "Oh hell." He thought, eyes widening...
"Wheeee!" Softy thought, with the extra speed from the take off, she had only had to flap after a whole minute of flight. The thermals were so strong here, that she could even gain height whilst gliding. The splash below her made her look down. After several minutes she could see a figure swimming to the edge. She giggled, turning wing over wing in the air and looking up at the sky before diving for some extra speed.
She experimented, climbing, diving, rolling acrobatics, flying fully sized, which made her wing span impressively large.
She understood it now... She dived and rose on a whim, even being so daring as to let her wings retract at the apex of an arc up into the air, duplicating the foxes earlier dive towards the lake before letting her wings snap out against the air, pulling upwards hard and into a loop.
"That's a funny looking bird" she mused as she saw something green fluttering towards the lake. Her teeth bared in a predatory grin. “Time to show you how to really dive.”
She angled down hard and beat her wings furiously, powering her descent towards the lake. Again, she whipped her wings out to control her dive the air screaming as she tore through it. The bird was big, and apparently stupid as it failed to react. Her clawed hands smashed into it. Finding it surprisingly light...
"Haha!", A victory roll as she pulled up out of the dive, gliding gracefully almost up to the height of the cliff once more...
... and boneless...
"This is easy now! Full sized wings, and gaining height is easy, just flap in the direction you're moving!..."
... and clothlike...
"What kind of a bird is made out of cloth?"
She allowed herself to glide, starting to tire anyhow and more than a little distracted by her catch.
Green cloth... She looked towards the lake and then back at her prey.
"Farrel's... Trousers?"
Sure enough, as she inspected them, she could see that the cloth of his belt had been torn right through.
She looked down, the figure sitting on the bank waved up at her, he did look rather more orange and less green than she had remembered it being. Her brow furrowed, he looked a little bit redder than he should too.
She sniffed at the garment. Blood.
"Oh no, he hit rocks on his way down." She groaned, pulling into a dive down towards him, eyes widening as she realised she would never survive a landing at this speed.
The fox cupped his paws to his mouth and shouted "WHAT’S WRONG? OVER THE LAKE! COME IN OVER THE LAKE!"
She pulled up hard, circling out over the water with so much speed that she couldn't resist flying low over it for fun. She pulled up and arced back now, slower, realising that he had suggested the lake for an approach as it was softer than the ground.
He was standing on the bank now, arms outstretched trying to demonstrate posture for slowing down. It worked well, but he couldn't feel the breeze that had caught her. "Don't fight it! Use it!" she heard on the wind... Too late.

A wingtip touched the water, pulling her left wing back hard, she panicked, trying to push off the water with her hand and foot, both dragged as well. Once again, she rolled with the fall, wings folding as she scooted across the surface of the lake and then plunged in.
She struggled against the fluid, disoriented by her fall, the mist of bubbles all around her confusing her further. She tried to cough as she realised she was under water and shouldn't be breathing it. Something caught her jaw.
A strong arm hauled her up to the surface once more. She could feel a hip against her back as Farrel swam with his legs and one hand back to shore. Straddling her back and rubbing it until she had coughed up all the water she swallowed.
"Ugh.. Thanks." she groaned, wheezing. "I was doing well up until that last part."
Above her, he nodded. "Even that wasn't so bad. Tomorrow, we work on landing then."
"Oh god, you bet... If your back is okay?"
"It'll be good enough for instruction, don't worry." He seemed distracted. "I've had worse. but..."
He was looking around now. "Any idea where my pants went?"
Softy flushed as she realised there was a naked knee either side of her shoulders. "I think they sank."
"Oh boy..." he chuckled, standing and helping her up.
It was three hours walk back to the top of the cliff and maybe another half hour back to his cabin.
They didn’t talk about flying much, preferring to discuss what ‘playing horsey’ actually entailed... And what they were going to have to eat.