[IOU RP] Treat Yourself (Pachua & Aldara)

[endejester]

Skye Starrfyre

“Yes, no, maybe.” He said and grinned honestly. “Just try not to laugh too hard. Remember, when you take off…move your wings to ‘catch’ the air as much as you can, sort of…circle it, well oval really. Here… I’ll start slow but I have to go faster for lift off alright?” He moved to one side and spread his wings, moving his wings slowly to demonstrate the basic technique before doing what he needed in order to take off.

He caught an updraft and spun overhead waiting for her to take flight to make sure that she could get the lift off taken care of.  

[Skye Starrfyre]

"Okay, okay... I promise I won't laugh... But you can't laugh at me either!" She called after him as he went over the edge, eyes wide with admiration as she watched him take easily to the air. It reminded her...

It reminded her that this was not the first time that she had taken flight. She had been forced to try before she had been ready and she had failed, but she had also been determined enough to try again.

The soft, blue glow around the lock at her throat intensified for a moment as her heart skipped a beat. Aldara was anxious but determined; completely certain that this time she would not fail. She would take to the sky. She would soar because she remembered and the memory filled her with every bit as much courage as watching her friend take flight.

She paused for only a moment to rustle out her feathers, giving them a flap of perpetration before throwing caution to the wind and simply diving off of the ledge. She let the momentum sweep her, a draft catching her awkwardly before she was able to balance herself out with a cackle of sheer delight. "I did it!"

endejester

 

[endejester]

Skye Starrfyre

“You did!” he agreed. “Feeling the wind, that will help keep you aloft with less effort!”

“Ah…I don’t know what direction the Mawl is.” He admitted and executed another loop in order to stay more easily aloft.  

[Skye Starrfyre]

"I think it's... That way!" She tried to point before realizing that was a poor idea, more so because her wings were attached to her arms than for any other reason. She began to tumble, less than gracefully scrambling through the air before remembering her first lessons. Breathe. Focus. Aldara spread her wings again, catching herself with a flap or two before evening out again.

"Due south from the dorms, on the outskirts of town!"

endejester

 

[endejester]

Skye Starrfyre

He nodded. “Remember…ovals kind of.” He told her. It felt strange indeed to teach someone else how to use his or her wings better. The wings…honestly he did fine with, but he had to remember it was a lot more like swimming than he tended to think of when he was in the air.

He led her towards some better updrafts, patches of air that were warmer and carried them upwards towards the pumpkin illuminated sky.  

[Skye Starrfyre]

endejester

"Pachua!" She called out to him as they neared their destination, a very real trouble nagging at the back of her mind and then coming full force to the front of her thoughts. "Pachua... I don't know how to land!" Although the tension in her voice was very real she didn't let it startle her into tumbling downward again, instead steeling her determination to not make a complete and utter fool of herself.

"It's just... Falling gracefully, isn't it?"  

[endejester]

Skye Starrfyre

“Ah…oh…um” He said hesitantly. “You know how you tilt your wings just slightly this way to go up, and sharper to go up faster? It’s the opposite of that. But since you don’t have um…I mean you have legs so, bend your knees. Absorb the impact. I’d say coil but that’s really not going to work for you so, bend your legs, ease into it and sort of…of walk it off I think.” He said carefully.

“Follow my lead? You can probably learn from my mistakes ok?” He tilted his wings slightly and angled downward, his descent was awkward and his landing was…well.
Terrible.

He smacked one knee off the pavement and narrowly avoided bending a handful of feathers to the point of snapping but quickly stood trying to affect some semblance of dignity and even ‘nobility’ though the latter was far more affected.  

[Skye Starrfyre]

She followed after, likely too soon after, swooping down only to try and catch herself from closing in too fast at the last minute. She might have been able to cushion the landing if she had talons instead of feet, or even if she'd had any proper practice at landing in anything other than a bottle of water... But as she didn't she simply fell and, in this particular case, went barreling right into Pachua on her way down.

Compared to her landing he had, at the very least, looked like a graceful swan descending to the ground from the heavens.

endejester

 

[endejester]

Skye Starrfyre

To be fair, he did try and catch her when he saw her coming in for an all too familiar style of landing. Suffice to say however they both landed in a heap of down feathers and dirt.
“Gaackk.” Said Pachua, not perhaps the most eloquent phrase.
“Are you alright?” He hissed, wheezing as he tried to push her back into something like a sitting position. “Bent feathers? Broken pins? W…we can work on that. We…we can oil your feathers.”  

[Skye Starrfyre]

She lay there for a moment in a pile on the ground compiling her thoughts while running through a mental check-list of worst case scenarios. Nothing felt broken and Pachua hadn't started shouting at her or flailing, so....

Aldara began to laugh. Her sides ached as she sat up, tumbling off of him before the cackling continued, soon turning into a coughing caw of a laugh. Another moment or two was spent choking on her laughter before she finally managed to groan out an 'ow', but more because of how much her sides ached than because she had hurt herself while falling. "That was amazing. Absolutely amazing. I didn't mean to squish you, but that was incredible!"

endejester

 

[endejester]

He gave a small half stifled laugh that finally broke free, a warm and delighted sound. “…You did really well, you did really well for a first time.” He grinned. He could have teased or mocked or…done all the things they would have done at home but the joy on her face washed away inclination that he might have otherwise had to share the harsher method of teaching.

“Don’t worry, I’ve been squished by larger things than you.” He laughed.
“I think seeing you fly for the first time was worth being dragged out for ‘shopping’ he grinned.

Skye Starrfyre

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

When she could actually breathe on her own again, another moment or two with a bit of laughter in between, she pushed herself up to her feet. Aldara ignored the thought of dusting herself off to hold a hand down to Pachua so that she could help him up, still wearing a bright smile that lit up her eyes.

"I'm going to make it a point to remind you that you said that about the shopping when you start fussing at me, Pachua." Her grin didn't falter even as she said that, clearly teasing more than anything else, even if there was a light flush to her otherwise pale cheeks at the compliment... Or maybe it was just from being winded.

"Lunch is on me later too! Once we're all tired out from shopping."

endejester

 

[endejester]

“If you’re NICE… I’ll tell you when I’m going to molt next.” He took one of his long trailing tail feathers in hand and slid it carefully across his palm.

“…That’d include shedding these…and…scales but that’s just…itchy.” He shuddered and looked dejected at the idea. “rrgh… so itchy” he reflected on the idea.

“If the shopping trip isn’t too bad I’ll even agree to try new foods if you try some I like too.” He grinned, knowing that his own family carried with it some rather…eclectic tastes. Sound like a good plan?” He asked even as he shook out his wings with a soft rustle of feathers, half akin to leaves in a strong wind, and just an edge of a whistle to it when he tipped his wings just a certain way.

He took her hand though and let her help him stand, dusting himself off and rubbing dirt off where it clung to the pearlescent scales.

“…I’m glad I came back.” He said with a softer smile.

Skye Starrfyre

 

[Skye Starrfyre]

She could have responded to what he had said with any number of things. She could have picked it apart, responding bit by bit with chatter just to keep it going... But she didn't need to. Instead of doing that, or any number of other things, Aldara simply gave Pachua's hand a squeeze as she smiled.

"I'm glad you did too... And I'm glad that I did as well. The school would be lost without us." She left it unsaid that she might still be spending more time cooped up in her own dorm room otherwise; that she might not have been quite as bold or as determined. She might not have been all that different if she hadn't met him, but she certainly wouldn't be the same.

endejester