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 Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:29 pm
 Snowpeak shined like a beacon under the pale moonlight gaze. He was bored and tense. The faintest sound made his turn abruptly with fiery narrowed eyes ready to catch the most discreet motion. He shivered a little which was unusual given the warm temperature that comforted the enclave on such a peaceful night. He could hear Typhoon’s voice somewhere in the distance but he wasn’t calling him.
There it was. A mouse… or a mus? It was unclear at that distance. Snowpeak moved as silently as he could from the platform and hopped to a closer branch. The creature was moving rather slowly as if it hadn’t seen him. So the fledgling moved closer. The small animal’s eyes met his and showed no fear. That should’ve been a warning for little Snowpeak and yet his head lowered… and he moved closer.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 2:39 pm
"What'cha doin?" Came a voice from behind Snowpeak. The fledgling that owned it was out and about, of course with the permission of her beloved instructor, Breeze.
Osprey was getting better at flying, so she had decided to drop by and visit Typhoon, if he was home. As with the Minder's Enclave she spent most of her time in, she was comfortable here. She had been under the ghost's wing a few times, as most fledglings were shuffled around from time to time to build bonds with the whole of the community.
Osprey was unconcerned if she interrupted whatever the other mist typed fledgling was doing. Her wings were tired and she leaned her head to the side, preening her feathers with immaculate attention, another thing she had learned by observing the ghost instructor.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:10 pm
It took a very long second for the female’s voice to reach the deeply focused brain of Snowpeak. His head turned slowly and deliberately and he eyed the female as if measuring her up before turning back to… the mus. It was clearly dyed companion, he saw it now.
“Staring contest.“ he lied without shame, turning away from temptation. “You made me lose.” He shot back at her. She looked bigger and stronger and that made him somewhat happy. “I don’t know you. Did you come on your own? Can you fly?” He seemed almost excited now.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:17 pm
"O' course I can fly." She replied as she continued to preen and set her feathers. She moved on to her chest, then cast her golden orbs up at the smaller fledgling. There was something funny about him, or at least there seemed to be, but she couldn't put a talon on it.
As He spoke, he seemed to grow more excited. Perfect. A smug smirk twitched at the edges of her beak and she fluffed up her feathers comfortably.
"Yeah, I came on my own. I'm old enough." She neglected to say that one of the other minders had accompanied her at least a quarter of the way. Why ruin the fact that he was impressed?
She had ignored the bit about the staring contest.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:33 pm
Without even thinking, Snowpeak mimicked Osprey’s actions and began to preen his chest feathers.
“Really?” he asked with mouthful of feathers across his beak. “You did? You can? Can you really? Show me!” he spat the feathers with little interest and hopped closer to Osprey. The companion was completely forgotten in the presence of a much more interesting appearance. He hated being so little and for a moment he really wished he was “old enough”.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:34 pm
Most of the time, Ashton was bored. Lessons always went too slowly, or quickly. Shiny details, like mentions of epic battles against Spectres or the possibility of flying at last were rare but attracted him like moths to a fire.
There was no lesson going on right now, and he was not near his mother’s smelly stuff. He didn’t expect anything interesting to happen, until he saw two white spots not too far, surrounded by darkness.
He flapped clumsily and not quite silently at all as he came near. The Wildtype thought, however, the other fledglings wouldn’t hear him. After all, leaves and branches and everything around were making more noise than him. Right? Nonetheless, before reaching the Mists, he greeted them with a cheerful “Do what, show what?”.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:46 pm
"Why, you don't believe me?"
As Ashton settled onto the platform, she fluffed up even more. Two counted as an audience in her mind and she would show them.
"Watch me close, little bit, and you'll see!" It took a great deal of control, but the easily excitable mist was managing to keep from eating her words, even outside the vicinity of her teacher.
Osprey waddled to the edge of the platform and flapped her wings once, twice, three times and turned back to make sure both Snowpeak and Ashton were watching.
"Name is Ossie, by the way." She told them before lifting off the platform and moving to a higher perch in a spruce away. The platform practice in Breeze's territory really comes in handy.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:01 pm
Snowpeak’s eyes were carefully absorbing every bit of information that Osprey’s body alone could provide so he only noticed Ashton’s appearance when the fledgling spoke. He didn’t answer right away as he was quickly evaluating the new arrival. He was also bigger but not as big as Osprey though. Maybe he wasn’t much older… or maybe it was just because he was a wildtype. That last thought annoyed him considerably. The fledgling also seemed familiar even though he couldn’t put a name on his face.
His attention jumped quickly to Osprey when he realized what she was about to do. She introduced herself (with a weird name that didn’t linger on his mind) and… she called him what?! It didn’t matter… because just a moment after, she was indeed flying just as she said she could. She wasn’t perfect like an adult, he thought to himself but she was really good. There were many fledglings her age that didn’t fly as well. For some reason, he was proud to be there, looking at her.
He flapped three time to close branch (one that an adult could’ve easily reach with a well-aimed hop) and turned back to Ashton. “And you? Can you fly?”
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:16 pm
Recovering his balance, Ashton watched Osprey with surprised eyes. “What, what are you gonna do? You gonna fly, err, Ossie, that's it?”
He wasn’t a good flyer at all himself. He was fairly certain someone called him Crash at his second flying lesson (which describes him well if there is no branch to rely on) but having found nobody who could have said that, he didn’t want to make a fuss about it. Still, he was sure he could improve if he wanted to.
He had hoped Snowpeak wouldn’t ask that question. “Huh, I’m not bad”, he mumbled, “What about you? My name’s Ashton, what’s yours?” He made himself ready to follow the other kids, and fluffed his chest to appear stronger. It was not a lie until he had to show his skills or lack thereof, and he didn't have to obey to another fledgling anyway.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:26 pm
"Ashton?" Osprey asked from the next limb over. "I think I've seen you 'round afore." She stretched one paw, then the other, followed by her wings, and bean to preen again.
"Y'gonna show us? Huh? Are yeh?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:43 pm
The wildtype wasn’t as confident as Osprey which seemed to please Snowpeak but his words came down as freezing rainfall to the young mist. He knew what that was. Courtesy. Typhoon had talked about it. But really…? Who cared what the names were and if they had or hadn’t introduced themselves? They were talking about flying!
Still, Osprey’s words fuelled him and he decided to answer the wildtype as politely as he could.
“Snowpeak. Just started, they didn’t let me out before. Haven’t had lessons yet. So are you? Are you gonna show us?”
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:09 pm
Ashton fluffed up some more. “Later! And you, Snow, can you fly? Will you show us?” he asked, inquisitive. He jumped on the nearest branch and spread his wings so he would not fall down.
Thinking about his answer, he let out a thoughtful “I’ve haaaaad...” then realized that he has had no more than two lessons. If he sucked that much at his last public attempt, then he really needed more lessons. “… one lesson! With that old Teacher with the black dye. It felt like an eta… an etreni… an awful lotsa time!”, he finally said, lying about his experience so he would not look as stupid if he had to show his skills.
He didn't realize he sounded courteous, he just wanted to know who was who and not just shout "hey you, the Mist boy!" or "white girl". He was not sure he would like to be called "brown guy".
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:16 pm
Osprey flapped a few more times before launching off the spruce limb and made the slight decent to the platform, near the other two youngsters.
"Y'ain't had none an y'only 'ad a couple?" she tilted her head slightly as she observed the two. "Well... If you get the chance, try and get Madam Breeze as a teacher. I dun't know how many students she will take, but she is the best teacher EVER."
As she spoke she glanced ever so slightly at the males to see how they reacted to her advice. She couldn't help but to feel slightly superior to them, though on the grander scale of life she was no where near ready to be an adult.
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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:49 am
He was disappointed that the wildtype didn’t want to show them his skills just yet. Maybe he really couldn’t… or maybe he just wanted them to ask more than once, maybe he just wanted attention… either way, the little mist didn’t feel like begging the other male for anything so he dropped the subject and answered the wildtype.
“I’ve been practicing. Yesterday I did seven straight flaps! Seven! Then fell. I can only do four or five before I start falling but I did seven!“ Snowpeak hopped on the branch to face Ashton and his tone was much quieter now. He didn’t want Osprey to hear him. A fledgling who could already fly like her would surely laugh at his feeble attempts. But this… Ashton, was it? He only had one flying lesson on those silly wings and it didn’t look like he had enjoyed it much. He couldn’t be much better… could he?
“Oi!” he shot back at Osprey when she approached them, having completely forgotten her name by now. “So you have a teacher, too? And classes? Wanna race? You fly good already so… we need a rule or something.” If he was going to race her, he’d definitely need a handicap.
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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:23 am
Seven straight flaps? Ashton didn’t count them, but he was pretty sure he could not do it right now. Anyway, he was a lot more frustrated with such an impressive number. He absolutely had to find Breeze later. With a pouty face, he said: “Mah teacher is fo’ sure not yours, ‘cause he’s old and he sucks.”
A race, now? Ash had to take part to make sure no one gets hurt. How would they get hurt? Who knows! A lizard might appear from nowhere, or a Mus army (he was convinced that rodents in large amounts were a huge threat, you just can’t swallow every single one of them until you’re safe).
And anyway, he needed the practice. Eager, he hopped closer and said cheerfully: “I wanna join! I wanna see how you fly!”
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