Welcome to Gaia! ::

“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.

“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.

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.

“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.

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.”

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.

“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.