This was fine. Everything was fine. This was a perfectly fine test flight so far...oh who was she kidding?

Leonie pulled on the reins, trying to get her mount to turn, but it just kept going forward. She sighed, and yelled out a verbal command in time with pulling on the reins. She had to raise her voice above the wind that whipped her short hair, but the combo worked and the bird banked to the right. She let out a sigh.

"About time." she muttered. "What are we gonna do with you, huh? We can't use you for deliveries if you can't learn to change course without someone yelling. Too much risk of the humans noticing."

Granted, fliers were supposed to keep their distance from humans as much as possible, but that wasn't always feasible. Even with those areas that were closed for 'maintenance' being used as drop off points or stables, sometimes you just couldn't avoid coming withing sights of human. There were too many guards around for that. Plus there was always the chance of a student or staff member coming by at just the wrong time.

Leonie took note of the position of the sun, and shook her head. She had to get to the drop off point, so she could get the nightly supply update from the Ubert family and then go help with borrowing. So more training would have to wait for another time. Maybe she could trade some duties with Marianne and get her to do it instead. Leonie was the best with a trained bird, but no one was as good at training them as Marianne. Plus it was her favorite chore, so convincing her shouldn't be hard. Leonie gave the signal for her bird to start flying lower, and was relieved when it did after only one repeat and no yelling. Maybe the little guy wasn't hopeless after all.

The bird suddenly let out a loud peep. Leonie had just enough time to wonder why before the bird was going off in a completely different direction.

"What? No!" She pulled hard, but the bird didn't even acknowledge it. Leonie looked around, trying to figure out what had changed. Was there a hawk or owl nearby? There were none that she could see, but what she did spot made her just as worried.

There was a human sitting on the grass by the dormitories. There were a bunch of other birds gathered around him, chirping and hoping around.

"Oh no. No, up! Up!" Leonie urged as she pulled desperately on the reins. "I don't care if he's giving out food! There will be food at the drop off stable! Up!"

But the bird would not be deterred. It swooped down and landed right beside the other birds and started looking around for crumbs. As soon as they got close to the ground, Leonie started working on her escape. The bird was clearly a lost cause at this point, so she'd have to try and make her way back on foot. Jeralt wouldn't let himself be caught over something like this, so neither would she!

She started unlacing her harness. It was more difficult than normal with her mount bouncing around, and she tried to get it to hold still, but it was no use. The noises weren't helping her concentrate either. She didn't have time to look, but the exaggerated chewing noises gave her the impression that the human wasn't giving the birds food on purpose. He was just eating that messily. Her stomach turned a bit when the human gulped down another bite. She'd never been near a human eating before, and now she knew she didn't want to be.

"Oh, hey!"

If the booming voice hadn't startled her, then the birds' sudden flight would have finished the job. She had just managed to get the last of the fastenings undone, and had been stepping out of the harness when the noise came. So when her bird flew off without her, she fell backward into the grass. She let out a grunt of pain as her back hit the ground, and streaks of green filled her vision.

"Woah, you okay, little guy?"

A shadow fell over Leonie, and her mouth fell open. 'Goddess, what do they feed these kids here?!'

She'd assumed the humans was a student, and based on what she could see of his clothes she was right. But she'd never seen a student with so much muscle before! She could see each one rippling as the boy's broad face shifted into a frown.

"Come on, say something. You didn't bump your head or anything did you?"

He leaned over more, trying to see her better, and Leonie's faculties returned to her. She jumped up and sprinted for the nearest cover, which happened to be an ornamental bush.

"Hey wait!"

Leonie did not wait. She didn't stop running until she got to the bush and had climbed into it. She clung to the branch in front of her, and tried to get her breathing under control. It wanted to come out in harsh pants after pushing herself to run as fast as she could, not to mention the shock of the human seeing her. She tried to remember the quiet breathing exercises Jeralt had taught her, but it was hard with how tense she was. The human saw her run over here, so he would be coming soon and she'd have to figure out how to deal with that and even if she got out of this she'd have to tell Jeralt what happened and...

And...he wasn't coming. He clearly saw where she ran, yet she didn't hear any signs of him chasing after her. She shifted a bit so she could peer at him through the twigs and leaves. By the looks of it, he hadn't even moved from where he was sitting.

'Just what is he playing at?'

"Hey."

Leonie braced herself, but only on instinct. It was only one word, but it was much softer and quieter than anything else he'd said so far.

"I'm sorry about your birds. I got a friend that keeps telling me I gotta be more careful with people smaller than me, and with critters, but I always forget. Sorry for scaring you, little guy."

"I'm a girl!" She shouted, then immediately pressed her face into the nearest branch. Stupid, just because other borrowers didn't get that didn't mean she should go around yelling it at humans! Who cared what this guy thought!?

"Oh, sorry for that too then. I'll just call you little servant then, since that works both ways, and here, you can have this."

The broad human shifted closer, and Leonie watched him warily. She was ready to bolt again when she saw his hand coming forward, but stopped herself when she saw what he was holding.

"Sorry I don't have any meat left from my sandwich, but I still have some bread. You can have it as an offering, little servant."

Leonie's face screwed up. She didn't like the new title much better; she'd never been a fan of pretending to be something she wasn't. Still, she knew those church stories helped protect her fellow borrowers, so she wasn't about to argue it.

"The Goddess is pleased that you know the stories so well, and is grateful for your offering." She recited dutifully.

"She is? That's good to hear." The human said cheerfully.

"Indeed. Now I humbly ask that you leave the offering for me to gather, and allow me to go on my way so I may continue her work."

"Aw, do you have to go so soon? I was hoping we could talk a little. Do you come around here often? I could start keeping some meat with me in case I see you again."

'We're definitely not touching the second question.' she thought, though something else sparked her curiosity. "Why do you keep bringing up meat? The servants have no particular preference for it." This was blatantly untrue for some borrowers she knew, but she was pretty sure none of the church's stories said anything about the little servants and meat.

"Because you're so small! You gotta eat plenty of meat if you wanna grow big and strong." He said confidently. Leonie tilted her head in confusion.

"You realize that we're supposed to be small, right?"

"Well yeah, but you can still get stronger. You gotta be strong if you're gonna be doing stuff for the Goddess, right?"

Leonie had to fight a small smile. She couldn't help it, he was just so earnest. She shook herself; she needed to focus and get out of here before more humans came along.

"The Goddess is touched by your thoughtfulness." She said, getting back into character. She couldn't help but add a little something though. "but she would like to remind you her servants can't fly on birds if they get too big."

"Huh, I didn't think about that. That's probably why most pegasus riders are smaller too huh?"

"I wouldn't know about such things, but I know I must get going. Her work calls to me. So please leave the offering so I may go on my way."

"Okay, I get it. You need help getting anywhere? I could give you a lift."

'This guy just doesn't give up does he?' "The work of the little servants is not to be seen or interfered with." she tried.

"I don't want to interfere in anything, I wanna help. It's the least I can do after I scared away your ride. You don't have to worry about being seen either, because most everyone is either working on homework or at the training grounds. I'm just out here because I had to get more food for my muscles."

'Looks like your muscles have been fed enough to me.' she thought. Then she thought on his proposal. It would be hard to make it back on her own, especially if she was carrying any food with her. Maybe she could just stash it somewhere and free up her hands for climbing and come back for it later. She wasn't exactly outfitted for a full borrowing mission right now. This was supposed to be just a training flight, after all. She'd have to get her bearings too, since she wasn't completely sure where along the dorm building they'd landed. She usually only flew over this spot so a higher vantage would help her figure all that out. Plus, despite how loud he'd been, this guy was being pretty nice, and really did seem to buy into the church stories so he wouldn't hurt her. Probably. Hopefully.

"I just don't want you to run into any cats, you know? They show up here more when people are away for a while."

Well, that settled it in Leonie's mind. The human might hurt her, but the cats definitely would. The monastery borrowers hadn't made many holes to the front of the dorms, because they didn't really have a need to go out there, so there wouldn't be many places for Leonie to hide from them.

"Very well. I'll consider it an additional offering if you help me get to a safer area."

"Great! Hop on!"

How had the human got so close so quickly? He was suddenly right in front of the bush and holding out his hands for her to climb onto, the piece of bread sitting in the middle of his palms. Leonie swallowed, trying to steel herself. She'd accepted the offer, but she'd never actually been held by a human before. But if Jeralt could do it when he was called upon by Lady Rhea, then she could do it with this boy. This boy...maybe that was part of the problem.

"May I know the name of my escort?" That sounded formal enough for a Goddess's servant right?

"Oh yeah! My name's Raphael. What's yours?"

"Um, Leonie." She said, surprised he'd thought to ask.

"Nice to meet you, Leonie. Let's get you somewhere safer." He held his hands a little closer.

Leonie took a deep breath, and stepped off the branch onto his palm. She almost lost her balance, but caught herself in time. She hadn't expected the skin to have so much give with such big muscles under it. She took smaller steps after that, and carefully made her way to the center of his hands. She picked up the bread, then sank down on her knees. She stayed still and waited a moment, but nothing happened. She looked up, and saw the boy was looking at her with parted lips and big eyes.

"What's that look for?" she demanded.

Raphael suddenly grinned. "I just always forget how cute you guys are!"

Leonie's mouth fell open. "What?! That's- I'm not cute!" She spluttered.

"You are! Does the Goddess make all the little servants cute on purpose?"

"I, that's not, I don't..." this had never been in any of the scripts Leonie had played out in training. "Let's just go."

"You got it."

Raphael stood slowly, but Leonie still had to resist the urge to drop the bread and brace herself more against the hands beneath her. This felt very different than flying on a bird. Though, in a strange way, the slight pulse of a heartbeat she could feel against her legs did make her think of the rhythmic beating of a bird's wings.

Thankfully, Raph was right, they didn't meet anyone as he walked down the path. After getting a sense of where she was, she directed him to the closest area that was 'undergoing maintenance'. She made him put her down before actually getting there though, no sense in giving him reason to associate those areas with her people.

It took some insisting on her part, but she convinced Raphael that she'd be safe from there and watched him walk away. Once he was out of sight, she ran for the barricade that blocked the area off and slipped through it. She breathed a little easier once she did, but kept running. All that talk had put her behind schedule, and she refused to be late on top of getting seen.

She thought about his 'cute' comment, and blushed. That was getting left out of the report. She wasn't a little kid anymore! She wasn't cute!

Wait...he'd talked about how cute 'you guys' are. Had he met other borrowers before? Could it have been someone from here? She'd have to ask around.

She'd try and keep Bernie out of it though. If someone even suggested the idea of getting caught by a human to Bernie she probably wouldn't leave her room for a week.

Raphael went back to his training with renewed vigor. He'd met one of the Goddess's little servants! He couldn't wait to tell Ignatz! Raphael couldn't help smiling at the thought of how happy his friend would be. Oh man, he was so excited that he might have to stop for another snack.

He'd keep a little jerky or something on him from now on too, in case he saw Leonie again. Even with what she said about the birds, he was still pretty sure she should be getting more meat. She'd been so light! Almost as light as Ignatz. So he figured she could do with a little bit of bulking up.