Eric was sitting in class, quite bored indeed. Not a unique story, in theory. But as common as being bored in class was, Eric was uncommonly bored. His mind had completely tuned out, though admittedly tuning out was quite common for him. He had been accused of having his head in the clouds in the past, but whenever he chose to answer that accusation, his answer was always the same: Not in the clouds, in space.

Indeed, though he had often been accused of being unable to stay focused, that was far from the truth. Rather, he was able to focus quite well, but his focus was on the planets and stars above. They, to him, felt like his true home. Being confined to a solitary planet, able only to view the rest of the universe from a distance, was maddening to him. And so, he would often dream, both in sleep and in the waking world, of flying through the universe on feathered wings.

But... Somehow, today felt different. It was more than merely a hunch or a gut feeling. He knew that today was different. And so, he rose from his seat. At first merely standing up, but soon starting to float upward. The teacher stood in awe, going from teaching about gravitational pull to watching a student start nonchalantly defying it.

Eric paid no mind to the reactions of his teacher or his classmates, instead spreading his arms as thick, dark blue plumage grew from them, turning his arms into beautiful blue wings which shimmered as if they were covered in glitter, or perhaps even like they were covered in miniature stars. With a single flap, he ascended further, phasing through the ceiling and out of the school as if it didn’t even exist, leaving the awestruck class behind.

At first he was slowly ascending, but his flight became faster and faster, straight upward. As he flew, a trail of blue fire formed behind him, which soon reshaped itself into long tailfeathers of flame. And though he knew those feathers had grown, he did not look back toward them, as his gaze was fixed toward the sky. He could, however, see a large, curved gray beak form on his face right before he pierced through the clouds.

The atmosphere around him was getting thinner and thinner around him as he continued his upward flight, now as fast as a rocket. It would have been a problem for most, but he found himself no longer needing to breathe, and his new wings were working just fine no matter how thin the air got. Some shimmering blue feathers started to grow around his beak, quickly spreading across his face, then his head, then further down to his torso, burning away his clothing along the way. His now-feathery belly was much more sparkly than the rest of his body, the shimmering lights taking on the patterns and colors of various galaxies.

His speed grew faster still, now far beyond the speed of even the fastest rocket. Feathers grew on his upper legs, before his lower legs began growing scales, turning into gray bird legs. His feet were last to change, his toes elongating as his feet became taloned bird feet, with three claws in front and one in the back. And with that, as he fully escaped the Earth’s atmosphere, there was not a shred of his prior human body left.

He was now what he was truly meant to be, where he was truly meant to be. Even with how fast he was going, he knew he could go much, much faster. Not even the speed of light could hold him back. The entirety of the universe was open for him to explore, and he intended to do exactly that.