I Applied for a Delivery Job and Got Turned Into a Flying Reindeer?!

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

(Three Weeks Later)

The spring-like wind trailed its crisp fingers through Justin's fur as he blasted through the air.

"There!" Lena shouted, thrusting her arm between his antlers.

Justin veered almost straight upwards, zipping between branches, and snatched the shining golden bell that had been hovering just above the treetops with both hands. It was round, about the size of a basketball, and when Justin grabbed it, it jingled with the clearest, most perfectly musical note he had ever heard.

Justin was in his two-legged form twenty feet above the forest floor, with Lena on his back. What he had originally taken for a backrest on his saddle had turned out to actually be an extension to the seat itself. They were designed so that a reindeer could be ridden no matter if they were in two- or four-legged form. Right now, even though Justin was essentially standing upright, Lena was perched on his back and gripping his antlers almost like he was giving her a piggyback ride.

"Good job!" Lena encouraged him, easing him into a gentle descent back to the forest floor. "Now let's get it to the score zone!"

Justin had noticed a remarkable improvement in his fear of heights over the past three weeks. He no longer became paralyzed at the mere thought of being more than ten feet off the ground, and he had even flown more than a hundred feet in the air yesterday without having a panic attack. Of course, that was only because he'd had Lena on his back, guiding him the whole time. And even she couldn't cure him of his phobia entirely. As impressed as she'd admitted to being with his progress, she had learned quickly that she still had to take their descents slowly or else risk him freezing up with fear.

Even so, Justin had never in his life imagined that flying could feel so freeing. Ironic, since being able to fly was pretty much how everyone else defined freedom, but after spending so much of his life puking any time he was up higher than he could physically jump, it really did feel like a revelation to him.

When they were only twenty feet above the ground, Lena pulled him out of his descent and then thrust his antlers forward, telling him to pick up speed. Within seconds, Justin was rocketing between the trees again, the world around him a hypnotizing collage of greens and browns. He kept the bell tucked under his arm, teeth clenched as he concentrated. Even with Lena guiding him, it took every ounce of focus he could muster to weave between the trees at this speed.

Every reindeer had their own preferred flight stance. Most would stretch their bodies out parallel to the ground, trying to make themselves as aerodynamic as possible. Some would point their hands out in front of them like superheroes, others would hold their arms out to the sides like wings, using them to "scoop" the air around them.

Justin had quickly discovered that he favored an upright stance while flying, almost as if he were skating on thin air. He was slower than he would have been in arrow-stance, as Vixen called it, but it did allow him a greater degree of control. His arms and legs still had their full range of movement in this position, and it never failed to amaze him how raising or lowering them even an inch could mean the difference between flying straight and true, and going into an uncontrollable death spiral.

And, he had been shocked to find out, even with his preferred stance slowing him down, he was still faster than anybody else in his class. Lena had said she'd never seen anyone with his natural gift for speed. Of course, speed meant nothing without skill. If he didn't know where he was flying, the only thing he would accomplish by going faster was ramming face first into a tree sooner rather than later. That, more than any other reason, was what made Lena such an indispensable asset.