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 Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 11:14 pm
Another day, another evening spent looking through her new telescope. Xiu's excitement over her new hobby still hadn't dwindled over the days. If anything, as she leafed through all the books that Sheridan and lent her, her attraction to the stars and all things space had only grown. As it was, having just finished her homework, the little Baku began to prepare for another night of stargazing.
She already had a chair seated in front of the telescope, and on it sat her sketchbook and pencil. On top of that was Arashi, her Storm Melonkit who she had purchased about a week ago. While his owner was busy getting a glass of water, the feline was batting at the pencil, managing to get it down on the ground when the Baku suddenly returned, glass in hand.
"Arashi!" She scolded lightly, though she still bent down to scratch him behind the ears. Putting her water down on the chair beside him--but not before giving him a firm look of warning--the Baku peered into the telescope to see what it was currently pointing to, only to see that something was flying through the air. Something within the school campus. Pulling back, Xiu moved around the telescope and stuck her head out of the window, squinting into the darkness.
What in Halloween was that?
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:37 am
Oh Xiu, don't you recognize your friend? It had been one of those nights that looking up at the stars was not enough, a night that he felt the need to stretch his wings, his real wings. Leaving his pin safely in his room, a warning glare at his cat, Sheridan had shifted into his true form before leaping from his window and into the night air. Against the night sky, the dragon almost appeared as nothing more than a silhouette, a shimmer that danced across the stars, the shape of his star-littered littered form undistinguished from the stars of the sky. Or the prismatic coloring of his wings may have given him the appearance of a nebular, silver scales of his belly reflecting in the moonlight. It was a beautiful night, clear as was possible for a night in Halloween. Wings spread, the dragon glided through the air, moving with the ease of a fish through water, completely unaware of the eyes watching him from below.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:22 pm
It looked like a little investigation was an order! The Baku immediately abandoned her plans for the evening, pausing to tell Arashi to behave before she began to head out of the door. However, she suddenly froze when a thought came to mind, her gaze slowly moving back to the window.
What if that thing she had seen was dangerous? If she really wanted to investigate, then it would be better if she was as quiet and as subtle as possible, right? If that were the case, while her human form was already rather petite, her natural form would probably be more practical if she needed to duck into any bushes and hide.
With this in mind, Xiu immediately removed her skull pin and dropped into her natural form then and there. When Arashi hopped down and approached her, she pushed her skull pin towards him, tail waving behind her. "Keep this in a safe place for me, okay?" When she received an agreeable meow, the Baku reached out to awkwardly pat at her minipet's head, and then went out the door.
It was a little disorienting being so small on the campus, so it took Xiu some time before she managed to get a good bearing of her surroundings. Determine to find out what the shimmery thing in the sky had been, she head in the general direction of where she had seen it.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:12 pm
Sheridan rolled as he flew, gliding with his belly to the stars a moment before rolling again and diving toward the ground followed by a turn toward the sky again. It was a maneuver he repeated several times, swimming through the air as if it were his own playground.
It was during one of these turns, when his gaze turned toward the ground that he noticed something moving below him. What was that? It was small, light in color (or at least lighter than its surrounds), possibly furry. A small mammal perhaps, but one unlike any he had seen before.
Like the curious creature below him, Sheridan followed his inquisitive nature. Turning toward the ground, his wings folded back, sending him toward the ground in a gentle sloping dive.
Hopefully it wouldn't think he was trying to eat it.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:27 pm
The Baku stopped mid-step. Something...was approaching. But from where? She glanced to her left, to her right, and behind her, but she couldn't find anything of note.
Then she looked up.
Unfortunately, Xiu did indeed believe that the dragon flying towards her wanted to eat her. Had she realized that the large creature was her friend, she wouldn't have done what she did next, which was dive into the closest bush. She wasn't the most subtle of hiders, however--not only had the dragon probably already seen her, but her ears and her tail were sticking out of the shrubbery.
Despite her fear, Xiu was still curious enough to try squinting through all the foliage. Could that dragon be a student? It was huge! Larger than her own currently-tiny natural form, at least. Though she was certain there was a school rule about eating your peers, she chose to remain "hidden" in her hiding place.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:09 pm
He's not trying to eat you, really!
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), Sheridan had seen the creature's retreat into the bush. Gliding closer with a power flick of his tail, the dragon approached the bush, landing on the ground a few feet away, as lightly as if he had only taken a single step.
His head tilted curiously, approaching one step at a time. A twitch of his tail, his head lower to sniff at the bush and the ears poking above the branches. He thought for a moment of sticking his nose in the bush to sniff out the tiny creature hidden within, but had thought better of the idea, deciding that doing so would only frighten it away.
He did however fail to resist the temptation of another curious sniff at the small ears. There was something familiar about those ears, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Hello?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:31 pm
Xiu stiffened as the dragon moved closer to her. It knew she was here! It had seen her! She tried to hold as still as possible, still unaware that parts of her were poking out between the leaves. This fact was only made clear to her when she felt something sniffing at them and, with a panicked squeak, she quickly took a step backwards.
However, being the ever-elegant Baku that she was, she ended up tripping over her own tail, sending herself rolling out of the bush. Hastily righting herself, she got ready to flee when the dragon suddenly spoke.
...In a very familiar voice.
Frowning, Xiu turned back to the dragon and slowly began to approach it. Finally, when she was close enough, she tentatively reached up and lightly bopped the creature on the nose with a foreleg. That voice, it had been...
"...Sheridan?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:14 pm
Oh, had he frightened the creature? He hadn't intended to! And then the furry little critter had tripped and landed not so gracefully on the ground. Oh no, he hoped it wasn't hurt! He took a step forward, his head lowered to gaze at the tiny creatures.
"Are you okay?"
Wait, he knew that voice! Was it really...this was his friend! But she was so tiny! Another step forward, his nose nearly at ground level as he approached who he now knew to be Xiu.
"Xiu? Is that you? You're so tiny."
Blink blink.
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:52 pm
She stared back just as blankly as the dragon addressed her. She definitely knew that voice! It was Sheridan! So this must have been his natural form, hm? It was...definitely not what she expected. Not that Xiu hadn't expected for him to look as starry and elegant as he did, but he was a lot...
"And you're really big!" Larger. He was definitely a lot larger than she had imagined. Maybe it was because her own natural form was tiny, so their size difference was even more noticeable. Cocking her head to the side, she looked over him for a moment before nodding in understanding.
"So you're the one I saw from my window!" That definitely explained a lot. "I was going to do some star gazing when I saw you flying. I came out here to investigate." Of all things, she hadn't been expecting to meet her friend out here, though.
Since they were still nose to nose, Xiu rose shakily on her hind legs so that she could gently rest her forelegs on Sheridan's snout. "...I guess you're not so scary since I know that it's you now." Her tail waved behind her and, though it wasn't very visible on her face, there was a smile in her words.
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:31 pm
And she was much smaller than he had expected. She was small enough that she could easily have stood on his nose. As it was, his chin was nearly resting on the ground to bring his gaze low enough to meet hers.
"Ah, I didn't mean to scare you, I like to stretch my wings some nights."
A tint of a blush, he felt bad for frightening her, he certainly had never meant to. He had never thought of himself as particularly big, he was long though not broad. As an adolescent he was dwarfed by the adults of his species, and to the ancients, well he may have appeared to them as Xiu did to him now.
His nose wrinkled under her weight, his head raised from the ground just slightly, a smile in his expression.
"I'm glad I'm not scary."
Well to her at least. Were he to ever see any humans he would certainly hope he was terrifying.
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:57 pm
Xiu simply nodded to show that she understood, her gaze turning to focus on the large wings. They definitely looked powerful--she was envious that he could fly! What would it be like to soar through the sky, she wondered?
...
"Hey, Sheridan?" She piped up suddenly, her tail wagging furiously behind her, "Do you think I'd be too heavy to carry in this form?" Considering her size and Sheridan's, the logical answer would have been...well, no. If anything, she probably wouldn't weigh all that much to the dragon.
She moved back and dropped back to all fours before sitting down on the ground. "If you're okay with it..." Would it be too rude to ask if she could jump onto his back and fly around for a bit?
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:53 pm
His own tail twitched, his head tilted as he watched her. If one didn't know better, they might have mistaken her for a puppy with all that tail wagging!
Sheridan smiled, raising his head to stop the crick that was trying to form in his neck and then nodded, a hand raised and held outward, an invitation to climb on.
"You wouldn't be too heavy."
Though she hadn't said it, he could guess what she wanted to ask. She wanted to fly, to know what it was like to glide through the air. He didn't mind the request, and fortunately he had plenty of mane to hold onto.
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Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:24 pm
The Baku beamed eagerly, climbing onto the outstretched hand. It looked like she didn't need to ask--Sheridan knew exactly what it was she was getting to. "Yay! Thank you, Sheridan!"
While she was a little terrified, she was definitely excited as well. The idea of flying had always sounded fascinating to her, but aside from the flying she did in her dreams, she had never gotten the chance to actually try. Of course, it was also frightening simply due to the height that they would be at.
"How fast do you usually fly?" She piped up suddenly, looking both excited and anxious at the same time.
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Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:06 pm
He waited until she had climbed onto his hand before raising the same hand toward his opposite shoulder to allow her to easily climb to his neck. The mane around his neck was soft and fluffy, hopefully ideal for a little baku to hold on to.
"I guess it varies, but we can start slow and go from there."
When she was settled on his neck (or back, whichever she chose), Sheridan set all fours on the ground, wings unfurling to their full width, tail swaying behind him as he prepared to propel himself (and Xiu) into the air.
"Ready? Hold on tight."
Another moment, or as long as it took for her to reply that she was ready. Then a bound, a single powerful beat of his wings, and they were in the air, climbing toward the sky above. Sheridan was a graceful flier, his body twisting, lashing side to side from his head to the tip of his tail, as if the air were his pool and he was swimming through it.
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Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:51 am
In addition to the dragon's natural form, there were two other things that Xiu had learned tonight. One, Sheridan had a very, very comfy mane. And two?
Flying was awesome
She gripped on so tightly that she was worried that she was a little paranoid that she may have been hurting her friend. At the initial take off, the little Baku had squeaked and squeezed her eyes shut, alarmed when they suddenly bounded upwards. It wasn't until they were fully airborne did she finally open her eyes and get a chance to marvel at the new experience. Seeing the buildings below them shrink slowly as they rose into the air, and the dragon's graceful flying...
"This is amazing!" She called, hoping that he would be able to hear her, "Do you get to do this everyday?" Xiu really was jealous! To be able to experience this any time...
Little did she know that, in her excitement, she had loosened her grip on Sheridan's mane and had slipped back a little.
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