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 Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:32 pm
It had been a while since the stern ghost teacher had fledglings this young. And it showed. She expected certain things from the little pair, things that it occurred to her (quite belatedly one might say) that they might not really be up to yet… As soon as she noticed the little mist’s intention to fly from the lowest to the highest platform, the red-eyed teacher’s talons twitched in place and she made a curt motion forward before quickly stopping herself, small grin running across her beak, undoubtedly wondering if the little mist would be able to reach the highest platform.
Though the young fledgling ‘s success brought a certain gleam to the red gaze, Breeze’s silent excitement ended rather brusquely when Osprey’s talons missed the lower platform and she lost her balance. She was already moving when Holly landed (surprisingly gracefully) next to her. “Stay here. Ally.” She said calmly barely containing the order for Holly to continue the exercise.
Breeze plummeted downward after the flapping fledgling but did not attempt to stop her. For one, she could tell by Osprey’s course that would land on dense foliage of the close trees below the platforms and two (and much more importantly), she was keenly watching the mist fledgling’s reaction. A little pull of her will… increasing her speed so she could grab her student gently… they would certainly bring Osprey back to safety much faster… but then what would she learn from it? Panic… resolve…, her mind whispered with eager anticipation, what will she choose…?
Ally’s was hardly as excited as her master. The tan skurri ran towards Holly, standing between deep woods and the edge, just to make sure he wouldn’t fall as well. “Small trees below. Wide trees, fat trees. Can’t fall to ground, no no. White girl safe.”
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:15 pm
Osprey could hardly hear anything over the pounding of her own heart. A few seconds of immobilizing panic overtook her, but she quickly found her wings and beat them furiously. While it was not furious or powerful enough to lift her back towards the platform at this rate, it was enough to divert her path towards a shorter, young, thin limbed tree.
She scrambled for a branch desperately and managed to catch a slender branch in one paw. It held, although bent and swayed.
The fledgling was left dangling rather ungracefully from one two toed talon with her wings spread and flapping uselessly. She fluffed in embarassment and her core burnt with shame. She was gasping for breath and still shook with fear of falling.
"Oops..." She muttered quietly, after her breathing regulated slightly more.
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 2:00 pm
Feathers drawn in so tight to his body that it looked like he had water poured over him, Holly watched tensely from around the skurri, a little bit annoyed that Breeze had stopped him. He wanted to go down and help her, if he could, but now he wasn't allowed to. He thought he probably understood why, but....
It didn't matter, though, because Ossie thought fast and saved herself. As soon as she was upright and perching again, Holly let out a sigh of relief and fluffed up again, stretching his wings and stepping around Ally to move toward the edge of the platform again. He gave no indication of preparing to move, simply sat himself down on the edge and watched.
"Good job Ossie!" he called softly, gentle encouragement for his corageous friend. He wasn't sure what he would've done had he missed his landing, but he knew that he would've been scared out of his wits. It was just like Ossie, to not even have to think about it.
And even if his impressions were a little bit off, he admired her. Very much.
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 3:23 pm
“Oops indeed.” came the composed voice from just above Osprey, as the teacher landed a few branches above her. “Out for a walk?”
Breeze’s head tilted slowly to the side. “Not very graceful, are we little mist? On your talons, Osprey. Take a moment to rest because you have a long way to go before you’re back on the platform. Which is a good thing as it will remind not to fall so quickly next time…”
The red gaze was set on the shaken student. She had certain… spunk, she did. Her almost immediate reaction might have been partially attributed to practice but her quick witted mind and resolute character were most likely the ones to blame. As a precious gem in dire need of polishing, Osprey was proving to be a most interesting student.
Ally sighed softly and sat next to the deep woods fledgling, leaning gently against him, perfectly aware that it would be useless to ask him to move away from the edge. Eyes shooting downward, the companion dutifully awaited the return of her master.
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 7:14 pm
She flapped her wings slowly and lurched upwards in an attempt to right herself on the thin, shaky branch.
After a few rather embarassing attempts, the little mist stood and bobbed up and down on the shaking perch. Her feathers fluffed and she still trembled from her frightening little fall, but otherwise she was unhurt, though her pride was bruised. She silently thanked Noctus that it was only Breeze, Holly, and the skurri that had seen her miss.
"Yes Ma'am..." She murmered sheepishly as she caught her breath. She turned her gaze upwards to meet Holly's and gave him a quiet, but relieved shrug.
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 1:32 pm
As soon as he saw that everything was all right, Holly stood up again and spread his wings. Now that everything was all right, he guessed from how Breeze had already acted that she’d want him to start the exercise again, and looked thoughtfully at the middle platform. The lowest one was dangerous to try for, he knew that already, so he simply shifted a little ways away from Ally, spread his wings, and pushed off again. This time, he only had to flap to control his steering—after all, gravity did most of his work for him in this direction.
His landing was—now that he was thinking about it again—bad. Not falling but certainly scooping at the air like a maniac to keep himself from plowing beakfirst into the platform, he just barely got his feet under him.
Then he took a moment to compose himself, looked around for both Ossie and Breeze, and shuffled over to the edge of that platform. It was a lot of work for him, all this balancing and flapping. He had never done something so strenuous before.
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 4:16 pm
“That should enough rest, Osprey.” Breeze said with an ice cold voice as she eyed the mist fledgling. “Let’s begin. I believe Hollyhock is doing some noise above and I really must be there if only to fly after him should he fall as well. But I do hope that unlike you he will use the middle platform, as I clearly remember telling you to use it as a stepping stone between the other two. Moving from the high and low platforms, as you have so kindly demonstrated, is well beyond your current level. And please don’t aim your landing to the edges of the platforms again.”
Secretly, the teacher was feeling slightly disappointed that the fledgling had missed the landing even if it had been a rather good opportunity to see her reaction to a life or death situation.
Ally flinched at Holly’s landing, following him quickly to the middle platform through the branches near the tree trunk. “Don’t look so down, look upper. Paws down, beak up, fight the air not so strong. Less moving, strong flap.”
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 5:18 am
Osprey shrank under Breeze's gaze, but bobbed her head. "Yes Ma'am..." She was embarassed and had little else to say. While the chastizing was aimed at making her better, she felt a bit put off.
Gotta show 'er...
Gotta show Papa Twist...
Gotta show Song...
She moved between the branches of the small tree in which she landed, then moved to the taller tree above it ever so carefully. Each limb was a step back to the small platform and with each jump, she thought quietly to herself.
'Specially Song!
Miss Peridot ain't gonna sing songs 'bout me failin'!
She landed roughly, but did not aim for the edge of the platform this time. She parted her beak and was breathing heavily, but did not pause for long before moving to the middle platform. This was more work than she had ever done in her short life.
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 5:39 pm
Taking Ally's suggestions to heart despite the fact that the skurri was...well...a skurri, Hollyhock nodded, panted softly for a moment, and stood again, spreading his wings. A blink and he noticed that his feathers were out of alignment. Preening them quickly, he spread his wings again and executed a surprisingly gentle glide down to the lower platform. Though the landing was rough, it wasn't as frightening as before, and in spite of his sore wings, the little sentinel laughed with glee.
He caught Ossie on the platform for a moment, edging in and giving one of her eartufts a quick preen before turning again. They'd be moving in tandem at this rate...which was probably not a good thing.
Better that one of them wait to get the rhythm back. Inclining his head to Ossie, he turned back to the edge of the platform, ignoring how his wings wanted to stop, and pushed into the air again.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 5:33 am
“Good.” Said the teacher just before they reached the platform, hopping effortlessly behind the mist fledgling. She caught the interaction between the two students with slight apprehension but quickly rose in the air to the middle platform where she sat, narrowed gaze fixed on the two fledglings’ movements.
Holly in particular seemed to be the primary target of her attention. His willingness to work (even against Breeze’s previous command, something she chose to ignore at that moment) clearly seemed to have pleased the red-eyed teacher. And even without any sort of training or tip, he had suddenly gained some kind of confidence that was clearly conveyed by his movements. Still, Osprey wasn’t any worse. Confident and ready to work as soon as she reached the platform, even more determined after the fall, the mist fledgling seemed to have only gained from the frightening ordeal.
“Good ones this year.” Said a soft voice by her side.
“Indeed.” The teacher replied without looking down at the furry companion. Just like her, Ally knew what bad students looked like. Sounded like. Always whining and complaining, begging for breaks and unwilling to do anything their narrow little minds hadn’t seen before… annoying children that relied on their parents’ influence in order to achieve a different kind of treatment.
No, these two didn’t look the sort. She observed the fledglings as they moved through the platforms, excitedly forgetting to breathe every time she saw something she considered particularly good, lowering her ghostly head every time a mistake was made. Up, up, down, down, up, up, down… Did they look tired? Did they seem more comfortable ascending to the skies or falling down below? Did they look at each other for incentive? Did they look at the teacher for praise? This was hard exercise for ones as young as them… they should be stopping soon.
“Osprey,” she called softly as the mist fledgling moved past her one more time. “As punishment for your previous mishap, you’ll have to do at least one more lap then Holly.”
“Holly, your landing stance is too rigid.” She whispered softly as the deep woods passed “And I hope you haven’t forgotten what I told at the beginning of the exercise.”
(I tried to speed things up a little to the end of the exercise, hope that’s okay.)
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:08 am
The exhausted Osprey was sure Helios himself had to of been burning her wings and her breathing was heavy. "Y'hes Ma'ham." She panted as she waddled across the middle platform to decend once more. She was slightly annoyed, but the annoyance was not aimed at Breeze or Holly, just at herself.
She moved to decend and steered to the best of her ability to the lowest platform and there seemed to be improvement as she landed and turned about, although there was still vast improvement needed to be made. She felt her wings would drop off, yet hsuffled to the edge to make the tiring flap to the middle platform once again.
OOC: :3 I'm fine with that!
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 7:10 pm
As if taking that comment as permission to do what he had been wishing for, Holly pushed his screaming wings once more, wearily and somewhat clumsily making his way to the center platform, trying to stay relaxed and embody his teacher’s most recent suggestion when he landed. Stopping, panting slightly, he didn’t risk looking at Ossie.
He could have (perhaps) done more, but it wasn’t fair to Ossie, who had started before him in the first place. Breath still uneven and a little ragged, he blinked twice, shook himself from tip to tail, and methodically started preening his wings. Smoothly rearranging things, he shook both out and folded them, settling down to relax for a moment. His eyes half-closed, and he didn’t turn to watch Ossie. He didn’t even look at Breeze, nor at Ally, though he did want to thank the Skurri for the previous advice. (He made a note to bring something nice to the next lesson.)
For the moment, he was savoring the break he had. Noctus knew it wouldn’t last long.
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 2:28 pm
Breeze almost complimented the young deep woods’ landing but stopped herself as soon as she realized his intentions. The open beak clacked shut and her head turned to watch Osprey in silence. It wasn’t really that she was unhappy with the fledgling’s performance. In fact, she was quite pleased by it. The red-eyed teacher did, however, have some doubts and conflicting feelings regarding the reasons that had led her student to end the exercise.
Suspecting Holly had stopped to ease the pressure on his mist friend, Breeze debated on whether or not she was pleased by the possibility. She appreciated the bond that was usually created during the fledglings’ schooling but she was also weary of that sort of interaction as she often found it an obstacle to the achievement of each student’s full potential. She hoped Osprey (who seemed more competitive in nature) could push him into breaking his own limits. To strive for perfection. And… who knew? Maybe Hollyhock’s wings had just quietly given in and the fledgling was simply one of less exuberant reactions. Forcing him into a serious accident was definitely not on her plans.
So she remained quiet, without so much a glance towards the deep woods and eyed her other student with her typical intent gaze tinged with a little incentive. She was almost sure Osprey would do at least one more lap. But… after the pressure had eased, after doing what she had been told… would the tired fledgling stop or would she push forward, fighting her weary body and maybe even risking embarrassing her friend? And of course, considering the previous fall, maybe she was demanding too much of the little mist. Well… at least she was doing it in silence. This time.
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:47 pm
Osprey lingered on the middle platform, but not for long as she shuffled past Breeze and the resting Holly. She pressed her eartufts back against her skull as she peered upwards. Her wings hurt like they never had before and she felt winded, but this ascention was the last she had to make, so she thought since Holly had stopped, so she made it. It was not exactly graceful, but a slight improvement. Her landing stuck and she was proud of herself for not falling again.
She steered carefully as she made what she deemed to be her final decent and landed on the middle platform with a hop-skip. The exhausted fledgling waddled slowly towards Breeze and Holly, but did not look up at either of them. She focused on her talons as she came to a stop and fluffed her feathers while she attempted to rest her weary wings. Her beak was partially parted as she panted.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 8:49 am
When he heard Ossie’s landing, Hollyhock looked up and over at her. She wasn’t looking at him, and he understood. Indeed, the fledgling had done exactly the same thing moments before. Without looking at Breeze, he waiting until Ossie was settled and moved over to sit next to her, facing in the same direction and looking at Breeze for almost a moment.
Risking a scolding, he quickly preened one of Ossie’s eartufts and murmured, “good job” to her before looking curiously up at Breeze. The initial burning in his wings had subsided to an ache that somehow felt good. He was satisfied with what he had done, even if it was maybe a lap or two less than he would have managed otherwise.
He hoped that whatever was next would be something that wasn’t so tiring.
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