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 Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 9:25 am
Sly was an early riser and he now expected Rain to be so as well. Luckily for the fledgling, he was hunting first thing which left her to snooze for a bit more before he returned. He would bring Rain with her once she knew how to fly and would then challenger her flying and her hunting, but that was getting ahead of himself.
He only managed two mus, not necessarily plump, but good enough for the two of them. It was strangely odd to be hunting for two and though he wasn’t against doing twice the work, as being a hunter meant he was use to returning with more food that he would never eat or see again as he delivered it to the Matron, he at least knew where this extra mus was going.
It was slightly unusual to return home knowing that someone was in his home and he had a vague sense of worry. Not for Rain, but for the fact she would get into things she shouldn’t. That and maybe for the fact that Dayga wasn’t one to be against eating a fledgling, or at least tempting due to her small size. The serpe was just as territorial as he was, though he was larger and she knew the sharpness of his talons.
Returning, he entered the enclave to see Rain sleeping soundly, her body puffed. Too cold? Hmph. She’d have to get use to it. Walking in, he transferred the two mus to his one talon and regarded the little fledgling. He…wasn’t really sure if there was a best way to wake up one of these …things.
Unsure, he opened his wing and nudged her.
“Rain, wake up or you won’t be eating.” Same words his teacher use to tell him, though after a while, he didn’t bother waking him and he’d find himself waking up with an empty belly and the old Sentinel telling him it was his fault for sleeping in. He’d take it easy on Rain at first. Well, as easy as someone of Sly’s personality could be.
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:55 am
 The Deep Woods baby was dreaming about happy things. Things like eating and impressing Sir with her innate talents. In her sleep-world, she could juggle boulders with her Will and swoop down like lightning on the largest prey imaginable. Which, with her limited experience, was a raccoon. Or maybe it was a woodchuck. She couldn't remember which one it was, but it was bigger than her and that was all that mattered.
After her dream-hunt, she awoke to the touch of soft feathers, the sound of her already favorite voice, and the scent of meat. The minders were always there with food when she woke up, so she did what she always did: She grabbed whatever was closest, hauled it into the shelter of her wings, and started shredding. Funny, though. Usually there were other fledglings poking their beaks in, too. It was nice to have a whole mus to herself for once.
When she was done, she looked up at her caretaker and did her best to sparkle with gratitude. Such an endearing little tyke, with blood all over her beak and talons and spattered on her chest. Neatness was not yet one of her strong points.
"Will we fly tonight?" she asked. She managed to sparkle a little harder, hopefully awaiting an affirmative answer.
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Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 7:47 am
Sly shot his feathers back at Rainfall viciously ate and though he liked the carnivorous enthusiasm, he didn’t like the splatter. Cringing, he watched her drip with animal leftovers and shivered in place. The idea of having that much filth on your feathers was unsettling.
Easing out of that thought, he watched her cheer at the idea of flying, and he smirked with an amused curl to his beak. Such pride in a skill she obviously didn’t have. Too gun-ho, and he wondered if that was a good or bad thing. Each little aspect of Rain was under his skepticism of whether he made a good or bad choice in her, or if whatever little attribute she was showing was one of the list he was creating to work against or even twist to his own uses.
“I doubt you can fly, though we’ll see. If you do fly, I will give you a little treat. How’s that?” He said, wondering with brief glee that if the motivation worked, which he doubted, this whole ordeal of teaching this young one to fly would be shortened. That and he liked the idea of making her work hard, though equally happy to see her fail in succeeding today.
Still looking at her speckled, grimy feathers, he frowned once more. “…clean up first. I’ll be outside waiting for you. Don’t dally.” He said, his voice firm before he walked out with his meal. Once outside in the cool air, he eat his own breakfast, practiced in not getting a speck upon his feathers and grooming afterwards just in case.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:31 pm
When her newfound father-figure mentioned a treat in return for flying (and flying was treat enough!), Rainfall's eartufts nearly jumped right off of her head. Never mind that she had watched older fledglings fail more than they succeeded when first learning to use their wings. They didn't have a hunter, someone strong and brave and impossibly cool, to teach them how to do it properly. With Sir leading the way, she'd probably get it perfect on the very first try.
The little fledge grinned at the thought, but the joy didn't last long. Darn it, she'd gone and upset him again! Serves her right, for being a messy Mus. She looked down at her red-speckled breast and sighed. As Sly went outside, she sighed again and started cleaning her feathers.
As the moments passed, her beak began moving faster and faster. Her chest was still dirty and Sir was still waiting. How long would he wait? How long before she disappointed him again? How long before--oh, wait, she was clean now. On to the learning!
Rainfall's fledgling waddle was more ungainly than normal as she hurried to reach her guardian. She almost tripped just before getting there, but managed to stay on her talons. "I'm ready!" she sang. She would have gone on about how excited she was and how glad she was to be here with Sir and where is Dayga she's scary well not scary she's just a companion and flying will be so fun and oh wasn't it such a lovely night? But Rainfall didn't say all of that, to please Sir with her attentive silence. This didn't come easily, though. The Deep Woods baby was quickly filling with words, and sooner or later, they would have to come out.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 6:38 am
It was too early for such perkiness, as Sly wasn’t the one to be around Sentinels who constantly smiled and felt cheery to be alive. Raine certainly was a change for him. He found her unflattering walk irksome, thinking that flying was going to be a hard task if she couldn’t even balance herself on a branch properly. Still, all things would work out in good time and the little wrinkles would be smoothed out by a trainer’s beak.
“Good. Come over here to this platform’s edge. We’re going to test you’re abilities.” Or lack there of. As he said this, he started to move around her and noticing something unpleasant, reached down and preened a gaudy mess of a feather the little fledgling had either not seen or was able to get. He could not and would not be training a messy Sentinel. It was unflattering on his part, as if he had no better sense to keep her tidy!
“You must keep your feather’s clean or you will not fly properly. Always place value on your feathers. Not only do they help you in flight, but it’s better for appearances. No one likes being around a filthy Sentinel. It's embarrassing and makes others think you cannot take care of yourself, and then no one will associate with you.” He said, walking away from her and awaiting her at the platform.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:27 am
"Okay, gotta keep clean," Rain noted softly to herself. That shouldn't be too hard. It was one of the few of Sly's rules that immediately made sense to her.
As instructed, she went to the edge of the platform and looked down. There were plenty of branches stretching across the space below, but it was quite a drop if one were to fall straight to the Ground. Rainfall began to feel a little nervous about that, but she kept her beak shut. Just trust Sir, she told herself, and everything would be fine.
The fledgling stretched her wings -- first the left, then the right -- and wiggled her fanned tail. She was mimicking her old minders, not even knowing that stretching was a warmup that could possibly prevent injury while flying. In her mind, it was some kind of ritual that just happened to feel nice. But she really didn't know what to do after that. She tentatively held her wings out as she looked over the edge again. She was leaning pretty far...
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:09 pm
“Ah, that’s a girl.” He said, glad she did not argue to anything he said. It was almost enjoyable to give orders to someone who did not question them. Such mindlessness. He wondered why he didn’t pick up a fledgling before.
Turning, he regarded her pose. Impressing…to some extent. She at least got the basics of warming up her wings, though the whole wiggling about seemed a bit comical and unnecessary. Still, poise would come after lessons.
“When you take off, push off the platform and let yourself fall. Your wings should be spread out. Don’t tuck them closed out of fear. The wind will hit them and you will feel it. That’s when you take control and work with the wind to move your body to a goal. Your goal will be…” He gave a sweep around and spread his wing out. “…that branch. It’s low enough to glide to and not that far for a first try. Grab it when you arrive. Don’t panic and don’t ignore your instincts. Concentrate on what you are doing. That way you can learn on what you are doing wrong and what you are doing well.” He said, giving her a moment to absorb.
“Now, off you go.” He said, looking down at her. This had to be hear own will to take off. If she hesitated, he would brush her off the platform. Still, if fear gripped her, he could scold her for it before pushing her off. She had to swallow that fear and have the determination to fly herself with aid. Sly would not give ‘aid’ out freely or baby her weak needs.
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Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 3:44 pm
Well, this was it. The Big Test. It seemed simple enough. Wings out, jump, soar on to glory. Or was that jump, then wings out? It seemed silly to jump with nothing to catch you, so Rain decided she’d open her wings first.
Fwoom! They spread wide. The fledgling took a deep breath, gave a little wiggle, and… leaped!
The wind whistled through the feathers of her outstretched wings. Now she was soaring to glory! She was the greatest fledgling ever, the smartest, the strongest, the best and fastest flier, the pride of Sir! Glory! Gloryyyyyyyyyyy!
Rainfall was only slightly surprised when she landed face-first on the branch just below the platform. Actually, not even slightly. She totally expected that. Actually, she meant to do it. As a joke. Yeah, that’s what she’d tell Sir. Maybe he would even laugh!
She scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could, doing her best to put on an “I did that on purpose” air. When she looked up to where the big Shadow was perched, she was grinning like a bobcat.
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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:56 pm
Sly had been perched on the edge, ready in the highly likely possibility that Raine would fall to the ground. Instead, she fell on the branch. There had been, for the briefest of seconds, the potential for flight. It almost, ALMOST looked like the wind would take her, but Sly saw how her wings tilted, didn’t respond to the wind, and instead she dropped like a rock. Just as he was spreading his wings, he saw her land on a branch below. If this old tree was good for one thing, it had a lot of branches.
The Shadow sighed and looked down. “That Raine, was not flying. You lost your chance to get a surprise. I guess I’ll save it for when you do fly or maybe just someone else who is worthy of it.” He said, breaking the harsh news to the fledgling. Disappointment in oneself made you work harder. Arranging himself, he gave a flutter and flew down to the branch she was now on.
“You jumped, but you didn’t pay attention to what you were doing. You have to focus. Don’t just let the wind take you. You’ll either fall or hit into a branch.” He said, wanting to get that caution into her fluffed head.
Honestly, this was irksome. He wished he could just FORCE her to fly, but this was one of the minimal tasks he already knew he would have to work through with very strained patience.
So how to get a fledgling to understand how to fly properly? At least how to start at least?
Damn, how did those stupid Minders do their job? Sly tried to think of how he was taught. He had started flying very early, before he was sent to live with the Minders. There, he was introduced to a class that was already starting to fly and had missed out on several lessons and thought the ones that were being taught unnecessary. He had preferred his own trail and dangerous error.
Still, he had to think of how the ‘traditional’ teachers taught their fledglings.
His mind, as much as he didn’t like the female in there, went to Granny.
Thank heaven there was no audience and people remained away from his territory.
“Alright, saying this is not helping you.” He huffed, turning about so that he could be side by side by Raine.
“Now, practice what I do.” Ugh, he didn’t like sounding like minders.
“Wings out and position yourself as I do.” He said, tilting his body and pulling out his elegantly black wings. “Watch my wings. How they are curled. This is to catch the wind. If you have them back, they will not do anything and you drop before you start.” He awaited for Raine to mimic him.
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Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:14 pm
Busted. Sir hadn’t bought the attitude like she’d thought he would. She’d have to take this a little more seriously. Rain focused on his explanation, all the while moving her wings about, looking for the perfect position. She still hadn’t found it by the time Sly gave a demonstration, but quickly shifted to match his stance.
His wings, stretched gracefully over her small brown-and-cream body, seemed so immense. Her own pithy wingspan was feeling less and less worthy of flight. It made her… kind of mad, actually. If the Shadow thought she could fly, then she should. So why hadn’t it worked?
Her expression settled into one of determination as she shuffled to the edge of the platform for her second attempt. She felt the beginnings of glee bubble up as she thought about making her first successful flight, but a glance at the stone-faced Sly helped her to refocus again. Once she learned how to do it right, then she could afford to enjoy it.
This time, she backed up a few steps and then took a running start off the edge. With her wings arched like Sly had shown her, she took off. It was almost like falling onto the branch again when the wind caught them, only the blow was to her wings and shoulders instead of her face. The fledgling had a moment of panic, wobbling in midair. She felt herself sinking and strained to hold up her wings the way she’d been shown.
Rainfall’s entire “flight” lasted only a few seconds before her talons seized a branch. It was considerably lower than the one her instructor had pointed out, but she wasn’t really thinking about that at the moment. She just wanted something solid between her and the Ground, and she wanted it now. And she got it, faster than she could comprehend. Her momentum threw her head over claws and left her sitting on her tail feathers.
She stayed still for a while, feeling hurts on her little body that were much worse than the time Scumblebark had yanked her eartuft. It was nothing serious -- she was soon able to get up and preen her disarrayed feathers back into place -- but this time, she didn’t smile when she turned her eyes upward.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:00 pm
Sly was at the edge of the platform, watching Raine was she flew and prepared to scoop her from the air the moment she went too low or she was in a dangerous situation. Despite himself, watching her take flight caused his heat to flutter at the idea of her potentially falling to the ground. He didn’t want to have to explain a hatchling dieing on his watch. If Raine failed, he would be held accountable for that failure. He wasn’t going to let that happen. It was a bit twisted to think that Raine, in her small little frame, could do a lot of damage to his image and reputation. People hated him, yes, but not nearly as bad as it would be if a hatchling met their demise in his ‘care’.
When she landed, he breathed out and caught himself for almost not paying attention during her flight. Well, what would be downgraded to be called ‘flight’ for now. Telling himself to keep a level head, he pushed off and flew over, watching Raine preen herself as he came over. Good. She at least got that habit down.
As he landed, he saw that she was not all smiles and was now serious, if not disappointed in herself. Always a good sign. If she felt bad about herself, she saw she needed to improve, wasn’t cocky, and would work harder to have something to smile about.
Still, watching her like that, he remembered how much words had mattered to him when he was younger.
Damn, why was he getting so sentimental about the past now?!!!
“Not bad. At least you kept yourself up. You caught the wind, which is better than before. You still need to work on control, but that all comes with time. After you control the wind, you can slow yourself before landing.” He said, looking at her. “Get use to the pain. You’ll be crashing a lot more by the end of all of this.” He said, remembering how many ruffled feathers and nicks he received. Almost broke a talon a few times.
“Come. Give it one more go. This time, for experience, try flapping your wings to see what happens. Don’t worry about falling this time. Just try it once.” Sly would pick up the slack. Right now was testing everything to show what could be done. Once they worked bit by bit, she would feel comfortable enough to try what they tried at first. “Preen everything to make sure it’s all in working order, then go. Always check your wings.” He stated.
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:44 pm
Even though she’d only been with him a few nights, Rainfall was still surprised by the Shadow’s kinder-than-usual words. She didn’t like the idea of having to get used to pain, though. But, if she wanted to stay with him, she’d have to do as he said. And she wanted to stay with him.
She was far more careful this time, studying her target landing spot for a long while before attempting another takeoff. If she had that place memorized, it would give her more room to concentrate on the actual flying.
With her eyes locked on her target, the fledgling took another running drop off the branch. She felt the wind fill the underside of her wings and strained to push it down, flapping as her caretaker had suggested. She was amazed when her wings propelled her upward. It wasn’t much of a lift, but she did it again and rose higher! She missed her mark again – barely catching the next branch before she slammed into the tree trunk – but for once she wasn’t terrified or hurt. In fact, she was becoming rather eager again, and took another leap without waiting for Sly’s next instruction.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 5:59 pm
Sly didn’t wait for her to try and attempt to fly further before he jumped off and swooping, scoped Raine from her flight before landing up on the platform they originally started at. His grip had been tight and he had to catch himself to not squeeze too tightly. He was use to hunting and holding onto prey that didn’t need care. Holding something with some degree of care was something new to him, especially with how furious he was.
He released Raine onto the platform with little care despite how tenderly he tried to grab her from her flight. He landed, talons clicking on the dried bark and curling inward as he stood, a menacingly dark shadow with bright, yellow eyes narrowly glaring at Raine. “Did I tell you to take another try?” He said, his voice firm and controlled, though with the undercurrents of something dangerous. He didn't even wait for her to straighten to her feet before he started talking. He was angry, which didn’t take a well-aged Teacher to figure out. He was supervising Raine to fly, but for her to get cocky so quickly was another matter. He like enthusiasm, but he hated mindless excitement that led to stupid actions.
“You didn’t even stop and pause to preen your feathers to see if they were all in order before you took off. Do you know what a few bended feathers can do to your flying? And you didn’t even pause to check to see where you would land? You have to have that in sight first before you just go jumping in any direction.” His beak paused to clench a moment as he stepped closer to her, feeling that creeping anger he got when he saw a particularly annoying companion with a very fragile neck. “You didn’t even position yourself before you took off. Don’t you understand what jumping without thinking can lead to? You can die. You can loose your control and you can plummet to the ground. How eager are you to kill yourself? I so much as see you do that again, and I will personally pluck every flight feather from your wings. Do you hear me?!”
I got permission from Lum to godmod a moment.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:45 pm
Rain let out an awful squawk, the air forced from her lungs, when her body was suddenly crushed in the talons of the dark bird so much bigger than herself. Wings and feathers splayed in all directions as he practically threw her onto the platform, she was too terror-stricken to react immediately to the male's silken words. She remained hunkered down, her breast touching the platform with her feathers sleeked tightly to her tiny form. It was her first taste of what Sly was truly capable of, and she did not find it pleasant in the least. Her guardian, clearly, was not only to be loved, but feared as well.
Her eyes never left his sharp talons during the entire tirade. They could have hurt her badly if he'd chosen that punishment for her. It would have been as easy and graceful as flying was for him. But he'd allowed her to stay whole, content with words as punishment. For this kindness, she loved him all the more.
"I won't do it again, Sir," she said, her small voice barely audible.
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:35 pm
“Good.” He said, content with her answer, though no less aggravated. As his point was now made, he decided he could break eye contact and turned about, showing her back to the fledgling in his custody and looking out at the frothing cold river slinking around his territory. He couldn’t believe it, but he actually felt angrier than he felt in a long while, and with his emotions usually in the vicinity of annoyed or angry, that was saying something to find himself back to a extreme he usually didn’t let himself go. His talons still itched to break something apart. Right now was not the best time to resume flying lessons for either of them.
“That’s it for flying lessons today. We will resume just as early in the morning. I expect you to be awake. For now, go back inside. I’m going to get us dinner. Dayga will watch you, and don’t you dare try flying without me present.” He said, just in the slight chance she got any ideas.
The serpent hissed from her perch around one of the dead branches of the tree, turning to look at Raine. Sly turned his sharp gaze to the companion. “You will behave and keep Raine safe while I’m away.” He said, making a point to curl his talons around the branch and let the sound of bark scraping on his sharp talons be heard. The serpent lowered it’s body, hissing a ‘yessss’ from it’s limited vocabulary. It understood enough that Sly would not hesitate to make it a meal, and the pink scars upon it’s body showed it learned the lesson countless times. Sly already felt like killing something and Dayga was close to a convenient item to vent. Instead, he turned and went to the edge of the platform.
“I expect you to be inside when I return, Raine. Think about what you did.” He said, and with that, flew off into the woods to find something to strangle.
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