The first few steps were the most trying, but Albert eventually got used to the slow and steady limp back to the village. He mostly concentrated on simply dragging his feet along, slowly regaining the strength to ease some of his weight off of Caesar's shoulders.

Now that he was moving, he found that his muscles complained much less than the initial stretch and pull. Like exercising injured limbs, the movement was very tiring, but not without its benefits. He was nowhere near walking under his own power, but it was good to know everything was functioning to some extent.

With his eyes closed, he could not tell how long the trek really was; part of his did not want to know. He spoke to Caesar, for lack of anything better to do as he walked. "The wings...," he began, stopping to try the sentence over again. "They broke my wings several times. To see if they had 'set' correctly."