Spreading Your Wings

[Nightshade Eld]

Vhalar 63rd, 716

Nightshade landed outside The Gardener's Grace. She sighed remembering the Carowa fight that she'd gone through with Alex. She had to admit she still felt kinda guilty considering it was her fault. If she didn't drag Alex out there then she'd never of had to deal with the Carowa. But then Night's coworker would have most certainly been dead. She wouldn't have been able to get him here before his life ended. She made a mental note to pay him a visit some time. She walked forward her cheeks burning with embarrassment. She always seemed to make some kind of mess around Alex. Messes that usually had a general theme of Night almost getting herself killed in some way shape or form. But the third time was always the charm, all she could really do was hope.

The pushed the door open as the smell of herbs wafted from the building. She had to admit she loved the smell of the alchemists shop. "Alex?" She asked curiously peeking around to catch a glimpse of her. "Are you ready for our lesson?" She called out. She didn't add any specifics to the word lesson incase Mr. Gardener was about and wouldn't like the idea. She especially didn't want to breath a word of it being a flying lesson incase someone else was in the shop. Night knew that Yludih were not particularly liked among the people of Idalos. From what she'd heard they were a race that faced more hatred than even she as a half Avriel often did. It was after all quite a fearful thing to imagine someone with the ability to steal your own face. Most of that fear had been shocked out of Night upon discovering the nature of Alex, instead it had been replaced with a wariness and slowly a powerful curiosity as she came to trust Alex more and more. Face changer or not, she couldn't really imagine Alex as a truly malicious person. At least not from what she'd seen of Alex. Maybe a little strange, perhaps a little dangerous, and maybe even uncaring to some extent in certain situations; she didn't know the details of Alex's life and nature quite yet. But she did know that so far Alex had done nothing to cause specific harm to Night. If anything it was the opposite, she'd done nothing but be helpful. Her coworker and later herself upon going back there wouldn't have survived that Carowa without the aid of Alex. That was enough to earn Night's appreciation and trust.

"It's a beautiful day out considering how late its starting to get into the season. It's kind of cold though, which could be a problem depending..." she mused to herself. The cold didn't really bother Night as much as it did others. You tend to get used to it spending all your time in the sky getting freezing cold winds blown at you while you wear little more than rags because one it's more aerodynamic and two it's the only thing you can honestly afford when you're trying to save every coin you can get your claws on. But Night wasn't all to sure how Alex or Valyeria more importantly dealt with the cold.

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

Alex was busy stocking shelves when the bell jingled. She immediately recognized the sound of Night's voice, but kept putting away supplies, trying to finish up the box.

"Yep! Just need a few bits to finish up. Could you give me a hand? That way we could get going a tad quicker. And don't worry about the cold. I'll manage it. Besides, it's doubtful I'll be going very far or fast" Her smile was broad and self depreciating as she greeted the woman, pausing to look at the injured arm.

"How'd the stitches hold up? They'd just about be ready to come out by now." She limped over to the counter, still favouring her wounded hip slightly. It had healed nicely, courtesy of the Claytona, but there was still only so fast it could get better. It should be stable enough for flight, and she desperately needed lessons.

She handed Night a box full of small packets. "The red ones go in the jar over there marked 'Brain Berries', and the tea bags go into the "Rockmoss" jar."

She carefully put away the last of the supplies she had made, and quickly ran downstairs to let Mr.Gardener know she was leaving. The man, though quiet in recent weeks, had fundamentally changed Alex in the seasons since she had arrived. His solid, unmoving presence had provided something she hadn't known she needed, and the safety his shop represented had allowed Alex to let down her guard after arcs of relying on no one but herself.

Returning, she smiled at the woman and nodded. "All set! Can we walk out? I'm just thinking that way I don't have to try to fly over the city again. I'm a little nervous about that." She grabbed a cloak by the door, whistling at Amber who jerked awake. The Hyx trotted after the pair as they left, her head barely leaving Alex's side.

She followed behind the woman as Night left the shop, heading down the streets as they made their way out of the city. Alex made small talk, her unusual chattiness betraying her nervousness. It wasn't often that she was taught by someone she knew, and she was worried it would ruin what they had. Not that she knew what that was, since they had only met each other several weeks earlier.

Once they left the city proper Alex led them into the forest, stopping when she reached a large clearing surrounded by heavy trees. They were barely a hundred paces from the road, but few would be able to see them, and the clearing was large enough to let them practice in peace. She shifted quickly, shedding the heavy cloak and letting her wings spring free.

Valyeria turned and faced Night once more. "Okay! What first, prof?" A wicked smile crossed her face as her nervousness slowly bled away.

[Nightshade Eld]

"Yeah, of course," she said with a smile walking over. She gave Alex a sympathetic smile. "And don't worry about. The problem seems to be you haven't gotten enough practice. And that's usually how winged creatures act in the air when they don't get enough practice," she said with a small laugh. "I remember I wasn't much better at flying in my younger days," she said with a small laugh

"The stitches are doing wonderfully. I've actually been able to still do things. When I was little I refused to enter town so none of my wounds ever got the proper help they needed. I've got a couple smaller scars because of that. I'm just glad nothing serious ever happened..." She let her voice trail off slightly and she sighed. "Anyway," she said moving away from the topic of the past as quickly as possible. She took what Alex handed to her and put them into the appropriate jars. "I always wanted to learn how to use herbs and plants to my advantage when I was little," she said with a small almost wistful smile. That brought back slightly fonder memories.

"Yeah, it would honestly be best not to fly out of the city. It could cause unwanted attention unless we flew high enough up. And that could cause a multitude of problems," she said. Night was curious as to what was going on when Alex whistled. And then her eyes lit up, widening slightly. Her hand twitched a little and she looked like she wanted to hug the Hyx that moved to Alex's side. She quickly forced away the feeling reminding herself that no, this Hyx was not Mal. She could not go around hugging random Hyx's because she missed Mal. It was strange how Night formed relationships to say the least. The last two people she'd gotten close enough to in order to call a friend had been Mal and Alex. Both of which she'd become fond of in a matter of days. It was strange, but she couldn't help feeling like it had a bit to do with the fact she'd gotten a chance to fight beside both. There was something special to the half breed in fighting along side another person, being able to watch the others back and trusting that they have yours. In both cases Mal and Alex had her back and so they'd won over her trust. The train of thought just left an aching pain in her chest. She missed her favorite Hyx.

Night didn't mind the chatting, though it did make it pretty obvious just how Alex felt about the situation. "Hey, don't worry," she said once or twice trying to ease Alex's nerves as best as she could. Each time she shot a confident and warm smile. She wanted to ask questions about the Hyx, one being where Alex had got it and the other being if Night could hug it. But she figured both of those weren't really the best for the situation.

Once they were in the clearing she could finally get all of her thoughts straightened out and focus on the task of teaching Valyeria. "First let's work on your take offs. With a good take off you can catch an air current as well as spend a lot less energy trying to get yourself up off the ground. The key to these good take offs is not just standing around and trying to jump. If you do that it's gonna take a lot more exertion to finally get yourself into the air and you're gonna need a lot more strength to rise up higher into the air simply because our size and weight. When you're taking off what you want to do is figure out the direction of the wind," she paused for a second taking off her own cloak to make getting into the air easier. She tended to fly with her cloak on around others, but Valyeria was a bit different. It was like trying to teach an Avriel that didn't want her dead. Which made her a lot more comfortable with her own form. Plus it wasn't like she sat still for hours letting Alex model her before or anything. She stretched out her wings slightly feeling which direction the wind caught. The currents were faint today which was both a blessing and a curse. They would need those powerful air currents at later levels, but for now it was safer if Valyeria just had smooth winds.

"Alright, the wind is coming from the south east the strongest today. so what you're gonna want to do is you face into the wind and jump. You have to angle your wings correctly but if you do then you should be able to get some wind under them that will help force you up," to demonstrate she turned towards the south east and spread her wings out to their full size. She threw her body into the wind only beating her wings a couple of times. It still seemed to take energy and effort, but a lot less and once she was in the air she was able to angle her body turning towards Valyeria. "Alright, you give it a try."

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

Valyeria motioned for her Hyx to sit as Night took off to the air. She nodded as Night began to talk, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the way the woman's feathers fluttered in the wind.

Okay, so face the wind. Seems pretty easy...

She turned and faced the wind, jumping with her wings spread. A heavy gust hit her wings, the force knocking her backwards. She flipped, landing heavily on her stomach.

Groaning, Valyeria buried her head in the dirt for a moment. She took a deep breath, and got back to her feet, face aflame.

"All right. Attempt number two."

She turned away from Nightshade, angling her wings down. Obviously not flat against the wind, so maybe like this... Leaping into the air yet again, she lifted off the ground. She gasped as she lifted easily off the ground, her wings barely having to beat as she rose up. She shot a beaming smile towards her teacher, and that's when she lost it.

The turning of her head twisted at her shoulders, and she began to turn in a broad arc. Drifting sideways through the air was something she hadn't done in a long time, and the feeling caused her to reflexively pull back in her wings. Dropping like a stone, she hit the ground hard, bouncing before coming to rest right where she had started. She sputtered as she spit out the grasses, looking up at Night.

"I think I might be missing the point of flying. I don't think it's to sit on the ground, is it?" She smiled up at the woman, climbing painfully to her feet.

Third time is the charm, right? Raising herself upright, she leapt into the air, gaining altitude easily. The wind blowing into her face provided the extra lift she needed, and she was soon circling the grove, a wide smile on her face.

[Nightshade Eld]

The first attempt caused Night to wince slightly and cover her eyes. She knew a fall like that was far from fun. It was a nice try and by Valyeria's stance she seemed to get the idea, but she needed the angle right. Night kept her mouth shut. Each pair of wings were different. Valyeria needed to figure out how to angle her wings to get the best take off. And to do that she needed the experience of falling down a couple times. As long as they weren't far in the air Night wasn't to worried. She couldn't even begin to count the number of times she'd knocked the air out of herself when her father was first teaching her. Of course it had been harder for the half breed since there was a certain instinctual understanding and wing strength that had skipped her in favor of more human details. She supposed Valyeria was having the same problem. There was a kind of instinct both of them had to learn instead of pick up on like the Avriel tended to. She smiled gently as Valyeria got back up for her second try.

"That's it! Wait, don't look at me," she said starting out with a blindly happy and proud smile that turned to a look of worry. Night glided over landing next to Valyeria where she had fallen. Now was as good a time as any to bring up her next big point. "Be careful with every movement. The way you move your body has an immense effect on the way you fly. If you angle your body wrong the effects can be just as catastrophic as angling your wings wrong. Of course I guess you already learned that. Don't move your head around to much when you're flying. Try to look up and down at the most for now. Maybe slightly off to the sides if you feel more confident by the end of the day. If you move to much you might change the way your shoulders are positioned and change your flight pattern. Which is what you just experienced. You won't be able to not change your flight pattern for a while. Heck it's even hard for me to control sometimes if I turn my head to far. The only reason you should ever turn your head during flight is when you're being tailed," she explained while Valyeria stood back up.

Night watched her third attempt a smile finding it's way across her face. "That's great! Now try landing," she said giving no express instructions on how to land. It was hard to explain how to land exactly and she wanted to see how Valyeria did it once more. She flung herself back into the air to watch Valyeria's landing a little better as well as to give an example of her own landing.

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

The woman's words made sense to Valyeria, and she nodded as the teaching continued. That makes sense. the neck is connected to the rest of the body, so of course it turns as I do. She had to suppress a smirk at the mention of being tailed. That won't be for a while.

Floating in the air above the clearing, the warm sun across her back, Valyeria sighed. This was flying.

She turned as Night joined her in the sky, dipping and darting around Valyeria easily.

"Allright, landings."

First, she showed her tried and true method of dropping to the ground. Ungainly though it was, she didn't wind up eating dirt everything she tried, which was nice. She looked up at Night, waiting for the critique before taking off again.

The takeoff wasn't quite as nice as the last time, Valyeria dropped perilously low before catching herself and rising back up. That was obviously something that would take practice, and probably several trials to learn adequately.

This time, she tried coming in at an angle, swooping low to the ground before arcing sharply upwards and dropping the last foot. Her momentum hadn't bled off completely, and she took a few staggering steps forward as she desperately tried to keep from falling. Valyeria straightened, and once more looked to her friend for guidance.

The second one had been far faster, but it was less controlled. She needed to learn how to get the best of both worlds. She rolled her wings, seeing how she could pivot them as she thought over the advice Night had given her.

[Nightshade Eld]

"That was an okay landing, but it seems like you're hesitating. When you land you shouldn't have to up and stop. You can aim for the ground and slowly decelerate. If you get the timing right you should be close enough to the ground just to plant your feet down but also going fast enough that you don't stop in mid air. If you stop in the air then you'll have to drop out of the air and that can be quite a troublesome thing to do depending on the situation. Ideally you'll be able to learn how to land on something like a tree branch even without feet like mine. But then there's the problem of getting out of the tree if you aren't familiar with a landing like it. So for now we can just focus on perfecting this landing," she said in regards to the first attempt.

The second attempt was certainly better but Valyeria's control faltered. "You've got the right idea but perfecting the momentum takes time. It's best if you practice at least once every trial so that your body starts to remember the movements more than your brain. But that might be harder for you so at least remember to practice once a week. You've got the idea down now so it's more about perfecting it and learning the way your body moves in the air. Once you've taught not just your mind the movements but taught your body the movements it gets a lot easier and we can start moving on to some more advanced movements. Knowing the right momentum to keep is something that's easy enough to understand but it's harder to actually put into practice and it'll take a few goes. And even then the next time you want to land you'll have to figure it out all over again if you don't practice enough."

Night narrowed her eyes slightly. She'd been watching the movement of Valyeria's wings meticulously ever since the lesson began and she'd found the root of most of the problems Valyeria seemed to be having, or at least what she hoped it was. "Along with learning how to angle your wings properly you need some more practice beating your wings. You seemed to have a lot more ease while you were going in circles earlier. Something as simple as going around in circles requires a lot less power from the wings because a lot of it can be done by gliding, something you've seemed to pick up on well enough. But the other day when we were actually going a direction and you had to use your wings in a more advanced way for the actual lift of flight you seemed to be having some trouble. I think the pattern of you wing beats is off. The movements seem kind of choppy. At times you aren't letting your wings finish beating and at others your beating them too quickly than what you need to be, not to mention I even caught you having to correct yourself once or twice because your wings started beating at different times during a gust of stronger wind. As you get the hang of flying in different conditions and altitudes you should be able to start naturally picking up on the pattern your wings need to beat with, but for right now since we're flying so low at easy winds try matching the beat of your wings to the beat of your heart," Night said watching Valyeria a little closer to see if that made as much of an improvement as she was hoping it would.

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

Valyeria took in Night's criticism, nodding her head as the woman explained where she went wrong. No hesitating...easier said than done.

She felt a tinge of irritation grow when Night talked about landing in trees, as if she didn't have enough on her plate, but quickly squashed it. She knew the woman was just trying to help her, and it wasn't Night's fault that Valyeria was terrible at flying.

The advice about training every trial was good, but every week was far more realistic. It wasn't often that she could get out of the city, and she definitely couldn't practice in the city. Rumours would abound, and it wouldn't take people long to put Alex at the same place as the Avriel learning to fly.

When Night turned her attention to Valyeria's wings, she had to nod. She knew her wings weren't the strongest- that was something that required constant work and practice to keep up, and with how rarely she had used Valyeria for flying since living in Etzos she was lucky she could still get in the air at all.

She had felt awkward when going to save Night's coworker, and she had been so focused on getting there fast that she hadn't paid attention to what her wings were doing. She flapped them experimentally, and realized just how out of sync they were. Closing her eyes, she drew herself inward to the muscles contracting and relaxing on her back, the breath in her lungs, the beating of her heart.

Thump

Thump

Thump

Together, they beat in time as one.

Thump

Thump

Thump

A warm nose shoved itself against her palm, snuffling around and shattering her concentration.

She opened her eyes, slowing her wings as she smiled at Night. She turned her eyes down to Amber at her feet, scratching the Hyx behind the ears.

"Well that felt a bit different." She felt more alive, her whole body thrumming. It felt as if everything had synced up, working together properly for the first time. Her face felt flush, her arms and legs full of energy, and it wasn't until she took a deep breath, calming herself, that she noticed the chill in the air.

She looked up at the sky, her smile dropping as she surveyed the dark clouds rolling across the bright fall sky. A wind blew through the trees, bringing with it the promise of a storm. "We really should be getting back. I'm not the best at flying to begin with, and I doubt I could handle a storm." She cast another look skyward, nervousness winning out as the clouds swallowed the last hints of the sun.

[Nightshade Eld]

A brilliant smile crossed her features as Valyeria seemed to get the hang of it. After Night pointed out the wing beats the woman corrected her movements. Her wings started to beat as one and Night could see the pattern forming that would allow her easier flight. She felt both pride for her own teachings helping achieve this as well as happiness for Valyeria. Now that she had the basics things would start to get a lot easier for her. Hopefully at least. "That's perfect! Just that one little thing should make flying a whole lot easier," she said her grin widening even further if such a thing was at all possible.

Night glanced in the direction Valyeria was looking and her own smile dropped. "Yeah, let's head back. Even I'd like to stay out of the storm. Flying in the wind alone isn't fun and I've been flying my entire life. True I've learned most things myself and haven't had a teacher since I was 10 but that doesn't really change the fact a storm isn't fun for anyone in the sky. Worst of all those look like rain clouds, and you Do Not Ever want to be caught out flying when it's raining and windy. Trust me, I should know. I got lost for a week the first time I tried to weather a storm," she said the last sentence as a bitter mutter as she shook her head trying to disperse the memory.

"You wanna try flying back until we get to the gate or would you rather walk. Whatever you're comfortable with," Night asked but a look of worry marred her features. They were damned no matter what they did at this point, they just had to figure out how less screwed they could be. If they tried to walk back they would certainly get caught in the fast approaching storm. Night wouldn't have much fun getting home either since she lived in a place far enough removed she had to fly if she wanted to get back before dark. As much as she didn't want to impose it was likely she would need to ask to stay the night considering how bad those clouds looked. But if they were to fly there was still the chance of the storm catching them and that could be especially dangerous for Valyeria. The choice was up to her.

[Vluharqih]

CREDIT

Valyeria nodded, realizing the storm must've been more dangerous than she thought. If Night , the woman who flew so powerfully, was worried about flying in storms, Valyeria didn't stand a chance.

Despite that, a thrill ran through her as the clouds grew heavy above her. It was a nervous energy; anticipation and excitement warring inside of her. Her fingers were jittery as she grinned at Night.

"Let's do it."

She whistled at Amber, showing her back to the city with one hand.

"Go back to the shop, Amber. I'll meet you there. Go on." Slowly the Hyx turned and trotted off, sending worried glances backwards towards the duo until she was lost from sight.

Finding the wind was even easier now, and she had no problems taking off. She circled the grove, waiting for Night before turning back towards the city.

The day had soured quickly, and an eerie, greenish tinge covered everything. While she beat her wings, hurrying back to Etzos, something changed.

Without warning, all the wind died. The air became as still and silent as a tomb. Valyeria looked over her shoulder, already forgetting Night's advice, and nearly fell out of the sky.

A wall of rain was approaching, heavy and thick, less than a mile away. She caught herself a dozen feet lower, focusing on her wings as she gained altitude, redoubling her efforts.

"Hey...Night? Not sure if you... noticed... but that doesn't look good..." She said between pants.

She sent another glance over her shoulder, trying to keep her balance. The clouds were closer now, only a few hundred yards away. She could see the rain slicing sideways into the trees, and she swerved back towards Etzos.

Harder and harder she beat, feeling the weight of the storm raging behind her, waiting to swallow her up in its eager arms.

The noise hit them first. Like a fist, it hammered at their ears; the howling of the wind, the crash of the rain as it fell. Almost simultaneously, the air rushed forward in a wave, pushing Valyeria faster than she had ever flown before.

They could see the outer wall of Etzos now, Valyeria's frantic gasps for air lost in the madness of the storm.

And then the rain hit them. She lost altitude, falling nearly a dozen feet before she caught herself. Hammering them down, the weight of water falling down seemed more than Valyeria could bear.

She shot a look over at Night, communication impossible, and used the last of her reserves to fight against the implacable storm, a yell escaping from her lips only to be whipped away by the wind.

The next bits felt like they lasted forever as Valyeria fought the winds. Random and cruel, they pushed her one way, then the other, sometimes dropping her without warning, and other times shooting her up higher than the city.

At long last the pair landed outside of the store. A soaking Hyx greeted them, pushing her smelly body against them eagerly. Valyeria pushed her pet back as the door opened, and rushed inside, switching back to Alex as she stood, sopping wet, in the front entrance.

At a loss for words, she shot Night a smile, her body thrumming with energy and exhausted at the same time.