"Moondrop, down."

The dog looked back at its master, whimpering as it took its front paws off the carriage seat.

"You gotta watch him," Figgal warned. "He just needs a second to steal all your food."

Mindy giggled as she unfolded the parchment paper from her sandwich, making Moondrop tilt his head. She took a little pinch of salami and tossed it to the dog.

"How much longer until the vineyard?"

Julienne shrugged. "An hour? Two? I've only been once, and that was when Uncle Julienne came to get me."

The carriage rumbled on, Mindy ate her sandwich, Yarrow and Oliver played cards, and Moondrop curled up on Julienne's feet and fell asleep. Julienne looked out the window and let the country air rejuvenate him. Toral was a city of great smells, but it had grown suffocating. He didn't realize how heavy the albatross of fame hung around his neck until he was out where there were more cows than people.

"Whoa!" the driver yelled. The carriage skidded as it slowed.

"What's going on?" Julienne asked as he stuck his head out of the window, immediately seeing the answer to his question.

Half a mile down the road, the back wheels of another carriage floated into the air, the front wheels bouncing along the road with splashes of dirt.

"Floater!" the driver yelled. He whipped the reins. "Comon, giddy, get there!"

The carriage lurched forward, sending Julienne stumbling back.

"Floater?" Yarrow asked.

"Someone got their weights wrong. The moondrop grapes are lifting the whole carriage up."

Moondrop's ears perked up at the mention of his name and favorite snack.

"Cool!" Oliver scrambled to the window to get a look.

"Can we help them?" Mindy asked.

Julienne rubbed his hands together, a noodle forming between them. It had been a while since he used essence outside the kitchen. He grinned. "Oh yeah."

He was out the door before the carriage even came to a complete stop, Moondrop nipping at his heels. Their driver pulled the carriage over to the side of the road—if they were successful in bringing the other carriage down, it wouldn't be at the cost of his own. The other carriage's driver struggled to stay in his seat, and the two guards had fallen and ran alongside the horses as they shuffled forward to stay grounded.

"Grab the carriage!" the driver yelled at the guards. They grabbed the spokes of the front wheels as they lifted off the ground.

Julienne's driver scrambled off his carriage if only just to hurl insults at the other carriage's crew. "Did you not think to weigh it?"

"We did! But we hit a bump and the back wheels never came back down!"

"Get some anchor in those horses or cut them loose!"

"We ran out of anchor! That's why we were going back!"

Julienne shot a long noodle through the spokes of one of the back wheels, but when he contracted, he started to lift off the ground. He thought of the elevator back at the Academy, trying to contract the noodle without pulling himself with it. It had been nearly two months since he last did the technique, and although he'd never admit it, he had never reached Archie's level with pastamancy. The noodle lifted Julienne up to his tiptoes as the carriage kept rising.

Yarrow was the first to help, catching Julienne just as he went airborne and hugging his legs. But then Julienne kept going up. Mindy grabbed his ankles. Oliver tried to summon his own noodle, but it turned to fizz halfway to the carriage. He grabbed onto Mindy, turning the group of students into a tangled knot of an anchor. But up, up, up they went, Julienne rising nearly twenty feet off the ground before he realized he should have let go a long time ago. Figgal caught Oliver's ankles, and Moondrop caught Figgal's, getting a mouthful of his pant leg and wriggling as he went up.

The carriage tilted as it rose, barrels of moondrop grapes and wine crashing into the wall with a crunch. The impact jarred the grip of one guard and he dropped to the ground, allowing the carriage to rise again. Julienne midsection burned as the weight of his friends stretched his body.

"It's a long drop!" Figgal yelled from below. "Please tell me one of you knows some marshmallow magic or something!"

"Julienne!" Oliver yelled. "Extend the noodle down!"

Julienne let out a groan that nearly became a scream as he tried to manipulate essence through his physical agony, extending the noodle down to the road below.

"Figgy, go tie it," Oliver said.

"No!" Julienne, Yarrow, and Mindy yelled in unison.

But it was too late. Figgal let go, sending the rest higher and higher. Julienne wondered if he could survive the fall with his rindskin—and worried even more for his friends who were less gifted in conjuration.

Figgal stretched the noodle as he ran for the grounded carriage, forcing Julienne to feed more essence to keep its integrity.

"Ooookay…tied!" Figgal yelled.

"Julienne, give it all your essence!" Oliver yelled.

Julienne let his essence loose just as Oliver reached a hand up and plucked the noodle. It was a strange feeling for Julienne, feeling his essence get contracted by someone else, but it worked. They sank down twenty feet all at once, the grounded carriage sliding sideways and the horses tensing as they held on.

"Hey!" the driver yelled. "My carriage isn't going up with theirs!"

"Then pull!" Yarrow countered.

The driver grabbed the noodle and yanked it with the fallen guard. Together, they got Oliver back on his feet, then Mindy, then Yarrow. Julienne still dangled in the air when Figgal leapt onto the steps of the carriage and started pulling the back door open.

"Don't let it all out!" the other driver pleaded.

Figgal just laughed. The door swung open and one barrel hurtled into the air while the others floated and bounced around inside the carriage that dropped back down to the ground.

"You forgot to put weights in that barrel," Figgal said. "Should be fine now."

Julienne let go and looked up as the barrel caught the wind and flew away. He laughed at his own accomplishment. Archie had never done something so cool with his pastamancy.

"You idiot!" the other carriage driver screeched as he stomped toward Figgal. "That was worth over a hundred gold!"

"Saved the rest, though. How much is that worth?" Figgal grabbed a loose grape as it rolled off the ceiling into the open air. Moondrop knew exactly who that grape was for, leaping up just as Figgal lowered his hand. The dog ate it and bounced as he landed, going up another four feet in the air, his tail propelling him forward as it wagged faster than Julienne had ever seen.

The day's excitement had only just begun. Oliver recapped their heroic save—even though everyone present had been involved—as they traveled, managing to dramatize it even further. Julienne suspected that by the time the school year began, the story would have them breaking above the clouds.

Once the story had been told—three times as long as it needed to be—Oliver went back to playing cards with Yarrow, who fretted and worried that someone might steal the things he had left behind at the keep. Julienne, Mindy, and Figgal sat in a triangle tossing Moondrop back and forth. The dog was an expert floater. Even when the effects of the moondrop grape started to wear off, he made up for it by paddling his legs harder as he arced up and down and all around the carriage.

And then Julienne tossed the dog, and Moondrop made a break for the window, his nose pointed up and fidgeting.

Figgal grabbed Moondrop before he could escape. "He smells 'em."

A minute later, Julienne looked out the window to see rows of grapevines with leaves and branches that were pulled up by the grapes that threatened to float away. Escaped grapes decorated the air above, floating along this way and that way with the wind. They swirled together like green waves against the blue summer sky.

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Moondrop kicked with all of his might to escape Figgal's grasp, wriggling his head around to prevent the collared leash from being put around his neck. Mindy giggled as she tried to calm the dog.

"You know how I got him so good at sniffing out truffles?" Figgal said. "I gave him a moondrop every time he found one. The dog's so smart, only took two times for him to realize. If one day he loses his appetite for the grapes, I'm gonna have to get a new dog."

The carriage rumbled down the dirt roads and pulled up next to a massive manor of yellow stone and pointed red roofs. Julienne barely made it out of the carriage before an old round woman was upon him, her black hair covering her face as she bowed as low as age would let her. Her black Chef's jacket was striped with dust.

"Master Julienne! Welcome to Plumage Vineyards."

"Madame Blanc. It is good to see you again. It has been too long." Julienne bowed his head, hiding his discomfort from a Black Jacket calling him master.

"Indeed! Last I saw you, you looked up at me. Now you look down on me."

Julienne's smile faded as he wondered how deliberately Blanc had chosen her words, but the Black Jacket stayed grinning and giggling through it all.

"Come, come," she said. "We've prepared a charcuterie board for you."

Oliver patted Julienne on the back. "Crazy that this all belongs to me now."

Julienne slapped Oliver's arm away. "It doesn't. You get a barrel."

"Three barrels," Oliver corrected. He rubbed his hands together and grinned. "Oh, you don't even know what I could do with three barrels. I'm gonna turn Ambrosia City upside down."

A branch cracked and settled as a bunch of grapes broke off and floated into the air. Moondrop barked as he lunged toward them, but Figgal held the leash tight.

The manor smelled of sour earth and sour cheese. Julienne ate his fill of goat cheese and hummus and prosciutto and apricots. Mindy gave Moondrop a big chunk of salami, but the fire in its eyes said that it wouldn't be satisfied until it sunk its teeth into some moondrop grapes.

"This isn't going to get me stuck up on the ceiling, is it?" Oliver asked as he picked up a glass of wine.

Blanc laughed. "No, that one's for flavor. The next one will float you."

"Hm…" Oliver eyed the wine and set it down. "So tell me about what I'll be getting."

Blanc corrected her hunchback and spoke with a rehearsed voice. "At Plumage Vineyards, we have a resident staff of three Chefs, myself included, and employ upwards of thirty seasonal workers. We are not the largest vineyard—in fact, we are one of the smallest vineyards that still produces moondrop grapes. But our goal is not to be the biggest. It is to be the best. For nearly thirty years now, we have exclusively provided our products to Cafe Julienne."

"Not exclusive anymore," Oliver whispered proudly to himself.

"We operate with precision to produce consistent products that contain different levels of float. At our lowest end, our galleg grapes make heavy soups feel light. At our highest end, our vola grapes can keep a fully grown man on the ceiling for upwards of twelve hours."

"Which ones do I get?" Oliver asked.

"Whichever you choose. You can request a ratio of your choosing."

Oliver licked his lips and nodded. "That won't be necessary. What were the really strong ones?"

"The vola grapes."

"Yeah, I want those."

"Very well. I will have a barrel loaded into one of our specially weighted carriages. Have you figured out storage on your end?"

"Yeah, they're gonna let me keep it at Lifted Spirits."

"And will you be returning to Ambrosia City with the carriage?"

"Yeah."

Figgal cocked his head, Moondrop mirroring him. "You're not staying for the hunt?"

"Nah. I got what I came for. I'm ready to get back to Ambrosia City life. Everything moves too slow for me over here. I like a little more pace."

Julienne leaned on his elbow. He had gotten used to Oliver's antics. Without him, their lives would all feel a little emptier. A little too quiet. A little too serious. Julienne had hardly enjoyed any of his time in Toral. He needed to squeeze out one last bit of fun.

"Madame Blanc, could we do a quick tour before we send Oliver off?"

"Of course, Master Julienne. Is there any part in particular you'd like to see?"

"I was hoping we could help smash some grapes."

Mindy cooed with excitement and Yarrow grinned.

"Of course, Master Julienne. If you'd all follow me."

Blanc led them into the main building and into a dimly lit room where ropes hung from a ceiling hidden in darkness.

"This is where we ferment our grapes," she explained. She laughed at their apparent confusion and pulled a rope with a red flag on the end. A barrel descended from the darkness. She let go, and it floated back to the ceiling with a gentle thud.

"And if you'll follow me this way…"

Julienne's lips puckered as he walked through a wall of sourness. If not for the room's big open barn doors, he might not have been able to handle the smell.

He looked up and laughed. He had seen wineries before, but none like this. A massive wooden basin had been nailed to the ceiling, tubes sticking out and attached to barrels that hung on hooks and pulleys.

"If you'd like to remove your shoes and help yourselves to our levitation station," Blanc said as she pointed to a little drink station that had been built into the corner of the room. Empty glasses sat on top of the table, a full pitcher sitting upside down below it.

Everyone but Oliver ran to the station. "How much should we drink?" he asked with uncharacteristic caution.

"Don't you drink this stuff every weekend?" Julienne asked.

"Yeah, so I know how quickly it can go wrong. We had one guy get wedged behind the toilet from midnight to sunrise."

"Wait…when they pee, does it…you know what, nevermind."

Blanc cleared her throat to get their attention. "None of you seem heavy. I'd say to drink half a glass. If you feel the need to come down early, we have drop stations near every door."

Julienne tracked her gaze to a door that had been built from the ceiling rather than the floor. A similar drinking station had been nailed upside down next to it. He imagined that the vineyard would have an entire layout on its ceiling and chuckled.

"Wait, shoes off?" Yarrow asked.

Julienne grinned. "You don't know how wine's made?"

"You step on it," Blanc explained.

Yarrow recoiled. "Gross! Why not use a press?"

"Press might crush the seeds," Julienne answered. "With all the curves of your feet, you'll just crush the skins and squeeze the juice out."

"If you're able to infuse your feet with essence, it'll be better for the final product," Blanc said.

"Us Yellow Jackets can," Oliver said as he tapped Julienne's chest. "I dunno about the orangies."

"Well, be that as it may." Blanc's smile seeped with toleration. "We would normally have this done by Chefs of higher…specialty."

"Don't worry, Madame Blanc," Julienne said as he kicked off his shoes. "I'll let my uncle know that any dip in quality was on account of our inferior feet."

"You kidding?" Oliver laughed. "Your patrons find out that Mindy's feet were in their wine, they'll pay double!"

Mindy slapped Oliver's shoulder. He shied away and kicked his shoes at her, Moondrop hopping along and barking as if it were part of some game. Yarrow poured two cups upside down and handed one to Julienne.

"Uh, I'll stay down here," Figgal said as he backed away. "I quite like the ground. I was born on it, you know?"

Emboldened by his cousin's hesitancy, Oliver poured himself a drink and downed it in one go. For as nervous as he had been, he leapt comfortably off one foot and flipped himself all in one motion, floating gracefully to a soft landing on the ceiling.

Julienne didn't need to be able to see himself to know that his ascent was nowhere near as graceful. He kicked and swung his legs to get them around. A little bit of stomach acid gurgled into his throat as he inverted—he didn't want to know how bad it would have been if he hadn't been taking Neccio's nightly tonics. Yarrow nearly crashed into Julienne. Mindy would have gotten up smoothly if Moondrop hadn't grabbed the bottom of her pants on the way up, forcing her to shake him off.

Blanc took a drink and showed off, leaping in one fluid motion through the upper door and into the room with the barrels. The students bounced along the ceiling until she returned, wheeling in a barrel and tipping it over to pour the grapes up to thud into the basin. Moondrop barked upon seeing his favorite snack.

"Don't jump on them. Just step," Blanc said. She drank the sludgy brown liquid from the corner and descended back to the ground. "We'll prepare the carriage in the meantime."

Oliver wasted no time and hopped into the basin. Julienne and Yarrow followed suit, the grapes squelching beneath their bare feet. Julienne had to stop himself from stomping too hard, otherwise he'd end up floating back in the middle of the room.

"Don't jump!" Mindy scolded as she tiptoed in, grapes squelching beneath her feet.

Oliver kicked a bunch of grapes that floated and fell around her. Mindy grabbed a grape to throw back, but thought better of it and tried to throw it to Moondrop on the ground. The dog jumped up and missed, but three attempts and a lot of laughter later, he managed to catch the grape before it floated back up to the ceiling. Figgal kept a hold of the leash and snacked on some dried apricots as he watched.

Julienne stepped into a particularly juicy cluster of grapes, bursting with laughter as they burst with juice. Yarrow fell over and grabbed Julienne for support, knocking Julienne over with him. They landed on their butts with a juicy splet! and roared with laughter. Julienne missed this Yarrow. Toral had brought out a side in him that Julienne didn't particularly like. Confidence had become vanity. Opportunity had become stoicism. But as they struggled to gain their footing and threw grapes at each other, Julienne felt like they were just a bunch of students again.

"We're going to miss you, Oliver," Mindy said.

"Ah, you'll see me in no time. I'll have a surprise for everyone when the school year starts. Just wait."

Something about Oliver's tone alarmed Julienne. He made a mental note to not drink anything made by Oliver for the first few weeks of class.

"It's always more fun with you around," Yarrow said.

"Oh!" Oliver's face lit up with surprise. "I thought you said I was just a clown!"

"Well…clowns are fun," Yarrow laughed.

"Speaking of fun. One last parting gift of joy…" Oliver jumped as hard as he could, falling halfway to the ground and yanking Moondrop's leash away from Figgal.

"Hey!" Figgal protested.

Oliver landed back on the ceiling with Moondrop in his arms, removed the collar, and fed him a grape. He tossed Moondrop back toward Figgal, but the dog paddled its legs and spun its tail around to stop halfway between them. Figgal tried and failed to jump up for the Moondrop, who swam around in the air while panting with happiness.

"Moondrop, down!"

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