---
Star lowered his shoulders, tail stiffening as he dug in.
Zephyr lifted one hand. "Three… two… one, pull!"
The young drake let out a guttural growl and lunged forward. His muscles surged beneath scaled shoulders, hindlegs shoving like pistons. The rope jerked taut. The tree groaned.
Roots split the earth with a sharp crack, soil spitting upward in chunks. A limb snapped overhead as bark peeled away from the force. The pine tilted, resisted, then with a rough heave, the entire root ball tore loose, snapping into the air behind Star.
"Now wings—stabilize!" Zephyr yelled.
Star's wings flared wide, catching the shift in weight just as the tree began toppling forward. The young drake half leapt, half skipped sideways, managing to redirect the fall into a thud beside the clearing.
Fenna, seated near the stacked supply crates, let out a low whistle. "By the ember gods… did he just uproot that thing?"
Zephyr grinned, chest heaving. "That's what I'm talking about."
Purr!
