Many wizards could fly.
They used flying magic, flying brooms, magic carpets, flying swords, rare birds and exotic beasts, and countless other means.
But just as walking could lead to falls and swimming to drowning, flying carried risks too.
And far greater ones at that.
An annual accident investigation report issued by the Wizard Alliance had once noted that roughly one in every hundred wizards who attempted flight suffered some sort of accident upon landing. Minor cases included twisted ankles and scraped knees; moderate ones included magic carpets catching fire and riding beasts breaking their necks; in severe cases, wizards might land headfirst, spilling their brains.
For every hundred landing accidents, there were roughly one or two "special landers." These included, but were not limited to, those left dangling from treetops by their belts, those who accidentally crushed passing groundhogs to death upon landing, and those who fell down another wizard's chimney.
Among every hundred "special landers," there were another one or two "miraculous survivors."
For example, Harold Dillihunt, the Crimson Hunting Team's Seeker Hunter, had suffered a broom malfunction while pursuing a crow demon and plunged headfirst into a lich barbecue gathering, only to miraculously escape.
Then there was the famous adventurer Fred Cruso, whose flying spell had gone out of control while he was crossing a gorge, sending him tumbling into a spatial rift. Fortunately, the other side of the rift was a New World that wizards had already developed, allowing him to find the road home by sheer luck.
Or, for another example, a blue great fish could crash headfirst into a horde of ravenous demons. Even as the great fish reeled from the impact, seeing stars, the demons actually stood meekly around the fish, not daring to let out so much as a loud fart.
Zheng