Welcome to Gaia! ::

"L-like this." T'go stretched out his arms, fingers spread.

Stoloth stretched out his wings, fingers spread, and looked back and forth along the breadth of the enormous appendages which blocked out the sun, casting a shadow over His.

"T-the air f-flows u-under and o-over the w-wi-wing," T'go explained. Since he stopped speaking telepathically to Stoloth his stutter was slowly improving. At least, he felt more confident in himself. But Stoloth was now having problems of his own. Naturally, T'go wanted to repay the encouragement Stoloth gave him when dealing with his stutter. He tilted his wrists up and down to illustrate. "T-the air p-pre-pressure u-under the w-wing be-becomes greater than t-the air p-pressure o-over the top of the w-wing, c-cre-creating lift. T-that's how you fly."

Stoloth glanced back and forth. Eventually he turned back to T'go. "I understand lift. What is air pressure?" he asked skeptically.

"Uh..." T'go floundered. Understanding the dynamics of flight helped him overcome his apprehensiveness. He hoped the same knowledge would help Stoloth overcome his doubt, but how was he supposed to explain air pressure to a dragon?

He thought of something. "W-when you flap your w-wings you'll f-feel r-r-re-res-sis-sis..." Stop. Breathe. Now, slowly. "Re-sist-ence. T-that's air p-pr-pressure."

Stoloth flapped his wings experimentally, causing a gust of wind to rip through T'go's hair and wrinkle his clothes. The two of them must have looked an odd sight standing in the middle of the meadow, limbs spread wide, the mirror image of each other, as if one was teaching the other how to fly. That was exactly what was happening. As the wind whipped through T'go's hair he smiled, crooked teeth and all, and laughed. Stoloth trilled, sharing in T'go's joy, and gave a mighty flap that knocked T'go right on his a**.

"Mine!" Stoloth took two bounding steps and stooped over T'go, looking down on him with his enormous eyes swirling with concern. T'go was sore, but still laughing.

T'go reached up and grabbed onto Stoloth's knob as his dragon lifted him to his feet. As Stoloth lifted his head T'go's legs dangled mid-air. He held on easily as Stoloth gently lowered him until his feet touched the ground and T'go scratched his leathery hide in thanks. Keeping his mouth closed (though it was an effort to do so, he was too embarrassed to show his crooked teeth around his friends) T'go smiled and nodded at A'nos. He looked up at Acriculeth and waved. If he tried to pronounce the bronze's name, it could take him all day. Thank goodness rider names were short.

Stoloth lifted his head and rumbled warmly at Acriculeth. Although he was wary of his bronze brother's tenacity, he saw no reason to deny him a friendly greeting. They were, after all, clutch mates and would be in a wing one day. He might as well try to stay on his good side. "Good day, Acriuleth. How are you and Your's?"

T'go ducked his head and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. Out of the box? Really? Wow, no one ever complimented him for thinking differently. Usually everyone just laughed at him for bieng odd. Smiling against his disbelief, he shrugged modestly. It was nothing really. Whenever he had a spare moment he was always in the library researching whatever question was on his mind and lately they all had to do with flight. Naturally he shared his knowledge with Stoloth. Even if Stoloth never quite grasped it the simple act of trying to teach him cemented new knowledge into T'go's mind, giving him confidence. They were ready, no doubt about it.

"Of course not," Stoloth boasted. It was a bold faced lie. He worried that the air would not carry him, but he did not want to expose his fears to Acriculeth. "We are practicing every day. Mine is eager to be in the air with me."

T'go glanced up at his dragon in faint surprise. He'd never seen Stoloth lie before. Of course, he knew what it was like to be embaressed. Shrugging it off, he turned to A'nos. "W-we're working on it. I c-can't wait!"

T'go struggled not to smile too big. He was embarrassed about his crooked teeth and always tried to keep them hidden. His reluctance to smile sincerely probably caused the other riders to mistake him as gloomy, which could be why he hadn’t made many new friends yet. Of course, T’go was unaware of this. The idea honestly never occurred to him, he was too busy researching and training to consider what other people thought enough to realize he might be making things worse for himself socially. That didn’t mean he disliked other people. In fact he was quite happy whenever another human being was talking to him! He especially liked talking to someone as verbose as A’nos. As long as A’nos did most of the talking he wouldn’t have to worry about his stutter so much, so when he did speak he felt much better about it. He nodded enthusiastically. “I w-wasn’t scared. S-so much t-to take in up there! I h-hope I d-don’t get d-dis-distracted, heh.”

There was so much more he wanted to say, but he wouldn't risk it. He could only laugh at himself so much before he started to feel like an idiot. Sadly, most people couldn't see how intelligent T'go was.

”Oh? Such as?” Stoloth asked, looking a bit nervous. The last thing he wanted was to have an accident up in the air because someone else was flying awkwardly. ”I promise I won’t be one of them. Mine is researching flight and teaches me everything he knows. We may even be over-prepared.”

Truthfully, Stoloth didn’t trust the air to carry him anymore than he trusted stones to float. He knew it was possible because he saw other dragons doing it, but that didn’t mean he expected it to work just as well for him. Flying wasn’t magic. You had to know what you were doing, otherwise you would fall.