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 Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 4:08 pm
Breeze watched the fledglings’ movements for a few moments and her eartufts twitched tensely at inter-type preening before she spoke quite harshly.
“It would be wise to preen your own feathers, Hollyhock.” She started, blatantly ignoring the male’s earlier preening. “I hope your minders have taught you the importance of preening.”
She paused again, preening her flight feathers as if setting the example.
“Ally, start preparing the items.” She said suddenly turning her red gaze to the furry companion who quickly moved to the center of the platform. The teacher’s eyes travelled through the surrounding area with an impenetrable expression. It would be impossible to understand what she was thinking. When she finally spoke again, her words might not be exactly what a fledgling in Holly and Osprey’s position might want to hear.
“One more lap. Begin.”
And as if wasn’t quite sure they understood, the teacher added “Lower platform first, come back, higher platform next and then finish back here. Now.”
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 9:09 pm
Osprey winced at Breeze's words. She had barely begun to preen her own feathers. She moved her beak from her wings and it parted, as if she were about to protest. She quickly thought better of it, which could be noticed in how hastily she snapped it shut. She shuffled to the edge of the platform and spread her aching wings.
She gave two test flaps, both of which stung, but made the decent to the lower platform.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:57 pm
Even though he had been half-expecting it, Holly’s eartufts went flat at Breeze’s sharp words, and though he gave her a look that was half-frightened, half-resentful, he didn’t dare say anything about his earlier preening. And when Breeze gave what he assumed to be punishment for what he had done, he turned mutely and shuffled to the edge of the platform without a sound.
Indeed, it was only when he had left the center platform and was halfheartedly gliding his way down to the lower that he let the groan that was partly because of the ache in his wings, partly because of annoyance, escape him. Landing and stumbling, he righted himself as quickly as he could, looked up, took a moment to muster his drive, and took off upwards again. The beats were faltering, and his landing was horribly shaky. Without looking at Breeze, he pushed himself again.
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:29 pm
These were indeed good fledglings, the teacher thought to herself, talons tensely clutching the edge of the middle platform. This is was the hardest part of the test and the one she disliked and feared the most. It almost rewarded the lazy who were only pretending to try their best giving them a chance to look good and placed a massive burden on the wings of those who were truly working as hard as they could to carry out the teacher’s instructions. She hoped she’d never have to follow after Holly and Osprey, pecking at their talons or pushing them with her will, she thought to herself with a small smile. But she didn’t think she would. Not with these two.
The fact that neither complained impressed her almost as much as their stamina. Hollyhock’s quiet grunt (so typical and so familiar to a student of hers) didn’t escape the teacher and Breeze would have laughed if she wasn’t aware that this was the most dangerous part of the test. She could tell the two were exhausted. Breeze’s body was tense as if waiting to make a sudden depart to fly after a falling fledgling. The landings were getting rougher, the chances of missing the platforms increasing… she held her breath each time they flapped and landed, taking quick compensating mouthfuls of air, ready to act should anything happen.
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:40 pm
Osprey stumbled to the center platform and then to the top. Her landing was much more rough than her first few after her tumble. She was panting heavily and her wings burned, but she managed. She waddled slowly and turned about to face the middle platform. She gave a sigh and her golden eyes drifted over Breeze momentarily. She gave a sharp grunt of pain and frustration, then made her rough decent.
She landed tiredly and waddled towards Breeze, where she stopped and rested her wings. She ran her beak through her feathers, straightening each one methodically, as she had observed Twistumbler doing frequently over the course of her short life.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 4:18 pm
Hollyhock closed his eyes for a moment on the top platform, then gathered all his strength and energy and half-flapped, half-fell onto the middle platform. Scrambling to his feet immediately upon his thumped landing, he rushed to realign all his skewed feathers and tried his hardest to slow his panting. He was not a happy bird, right then and there.
Glancing over at Ossie, he shook his head, still panting, and let his wings rest, spread slightly, to keep them from burning when he folded them.
This was unpleasant, and Holly was starting to wonder if he ever wanted to grow up and learn to fly.
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 5:25 pm
“Good, good. It seems you still had enough strength… let’s move on to the center of the platform then.”
The ghostly figure of the teacher strutted gracefully along the wooden platform without so much as a glance towards the worn out fledglings, quickly joining her flickering companion. As Breeze watched over Ally, the skurri finished aligning a few shapes on the wooden floor and upon deciding her task was completed, the furry companion scurried off to the fledglings, freezing abruptly at her master’s voice.
“Ally, stay here.” Breeze loomed over the objects with a visible depreciative gleam in her eyes. Even with her back facing the two students, it was fairly obvious she was speaking to them. “If you think it hurts now, I should warn that it will probably hurt a lot more tomorrow… which is a good thing, I assure you. No need for ointments or sneaky medicines…” The teacher’s eyes landed on the tan skurri who seemed to have found a sudden inexplicable interest over a small leaf. “…Every muscle of your bodies will hurt and every time you take so much as a step, you’ll be able to feel each and every one of them. If you’re smart, you’ll use it to understand how they work together to form… movement. Now hurry. Let’s get this done with.”
She was clearly displeased about something and for most it would be hard to pinpoint the origin of her discomfort.
“This is a test of Will. It is not meant to depict your true abilities accurately. Noctus knows they’re not fully developed yet. But in case you are particularly gifted in some way, I should know as it will influence your training.” In front of the teacher and perfectly aligned, stood ten shapes: a feather, a leaf, a small piece of bark, a twig, one plump berry, a large piece of wood, a pebble, a large rock, a small piece of golden metal and an old worn out piece of hide.
“Try to lift each item. If you feel confident enough, you may attempt to manipulate them. Failing to lift or change an item is of absolutely no relevance. Osprey, you will go first. Holly, you follow right after. Do it quickly, please. And leave the heaviest items to the end.” Her eyes had abruptly locked on the deep woods fledgling, as if expecting him to do something she was ready to make him regret.
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 7:18 pm
The panting fledgling listened quietly and flattened her eartufts. She was tired, but at least this test did not require the use of her wings.
"So... Just lift it, huh?" The question was more to herself as she looked over the objects with exhausted eyes. The first, a feather. Her Will was not exactly strong. In fact, it was almost nonexistent. The feather before her lifted slowly as she focused on it. Chances were, she would not be able to lift anything heavier than an extremely small pebble.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 7:21 pm
He supposed that look was because he had preened Ossie earlier and she was still annoyed with him, though he thought it was rather unfair—it hadn’t occurred to Hollyhock that Osprey would have told Breeze about his...uncanny little impulse. It was an extreme act of will—and not the kind Breeze meant—to keep himself from immediately gulping things like the berry and the pebble.
Watching Ossie to keep his mind off it, he turned his attention on the berry again after a moment, tilting his head this way and that, curious. It was little and round and the sort of thing he wanted to pick up anyways—feathers couldn’t be swallowed, and therefore he wanted nothing to do with them.
Very thoughtfully, he concentrated on the berry, on reaching out and holding it, on NOT swallowing it!!, and on lifting it just a little bit. His Will wasn't much good and his beak was always better for picking up things to swallow, but it felt like he might understand this. So he half-closed his eyes and concentrated hard.
The berry twitched a bit, and Holly hooted, nearly falling backwards in surprise.
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 10:56 am
“Good, Osprey. Carry on. Don’t linger on each of them for too long. Just let me know if any of them feels different.” Breeze sat comfortably keenly watching her students move through the objects, bobbing her in a rigid rhythm. “Keep trying, Holly. That berry looks ripe so be careful not to squeeze it too hard.” The red eyes narrowed to thin slits as her gaze nestled on the male fledgling. Still waiting.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:49 pm
Osprey bobbed her head and as she did so, the feather drifted downward and free of her grasp.
She moved on to a second item, a leaf. It was not much heavier than the feather and it drifted upwards. It was when she tried the small piece of bark that she began to have difficulty.
"Errrfff... It's heavier..." She mumbled, though she focused hard on the object. It began to shudder and shake, then lifted. It was causing her a bit more trouble, though, than the feather and the leaf.
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Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:15 pm
Holly, who understood how the lifting itself felt now, nodded and concentrated harder. The berrry wiggled again, and then lifted a feather's-breadth off the ground. Surprised, Holly peeped and lifted it higher for a moment, before letting it fall. Humming softly to himself, he rocked back and forth and then waddled over to the feather Ossie had lifted. The pebbles, both large and small, got a very curious once-over, but he visibly shook himself and walked more quickly to the feather.
He knew how it felt, now, and he lifted the feather easily enough. The leaf, too, was easy, though shaky. It twisted a bit and dipped, unwieldy to pick up.
Ossie was on the bark, so he moved back to the pebbles. Without thinking, he leaned forward and made as if to turn the smallest stone over with his beak. Then he jerked back, checked himself with a visible shake, and then sucked his feathers in embarrasedly. Not looking at Breeze, he prodded the stone with his Will. It jiggled. Encouraged, he struggled to pick it up.
Mostly, it jiggled, though it did lift once before rolling away.
Holly unfed softly. "Heavier," he mumbled.
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 11:18 am
Breeze’s head stopped bobbing abruptly and ghost teacher looked up to the tree tops as she spoke in a rather exasperated tone.
“Go on, hurry. Haven’t you ever tried it before? To play with your Will? Like I said, don’t waste too much time on it, just hurry through them… it’s not as if it’s too important.”
In fact, she would rather they didn’t do it at all. After the experience of losing a particularly gifted fledgling to the artisan profession after the discovery of his will abilities, she would much rather see her two promising students fail miserably at anything remotely related.
Holly’s little “lapse” made the teacher’s head drop gently only to lift up again when the deep woods fledgling returned to the exercise.
“Good, Holly. Continue.” She said simply.
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:30 pm
"Oh... Oh... Okay." Ossie murmured as she moved from the bark to the small pebble. It was heavier than the feather and the leaf, but she managed to lift it and hold it at about beak height before dropping it again. She moved on to the hide, which failed to move at all, and then to the berry, which was pretty and tempting to the hungry little ball of fluff and feathers. The twig was too heavy for her, too. the wood and the large rock were out of the question. They wouldn't even budge.
Breeze didn't seem too concerned with her inability to lift much heavier than a feather or leaf, but Ossie felt somewhat disappointed in herself.
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 7:44 pm
At Breeze's encouragement, Holly made one more thrust of Will, lifted the pebble to a height equivalent to the width of one of his feathers, and then set it down and moved on to the bark. It lifted more easily than the pebble, and Holly ignored Breeze's words. They would only have flustered him, and he thought it easiest to pretend he didn't hear so long as the words weren't addressed directly to him.
He bypassed the hide, the wood, and the rock, managed to make the twig jiggle a bit, and then focused on the metal. Tilting his head back and forth, he blinked at the sheen to it, and then lifted it a bit of a ways with his Will. This time, without thinking, without being able to stop himself, he took it in his beak.
He played with it in his beak for a moment, and was halfway through the motions of tossing his head back to swallow it down when he realized exactly what he was doing. Dropping the piece of metal like it had suddenly turned into a Serpe, he scooted back from it and sleeked his feathers so tightly against his body that his outline came completely smooth. Pressing his eartufts against his head to complete this, he dared not look at Breeze, nor Ossie. He had made a grave mistake, and he was sure that he was about to pay for it.
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