Jasper
Wyvern Lord
[red]I still eat babies[/red][M:-1000]
Posts: 212
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Post by Jasper on Nov 14, 2011 9:11:34 GMT -6
"As soon as you both can mount up, if there are no further objections." Jasper answered the man. He couldn't say further there would be further objections. It had to be said, his new companions had a gift for idle conversation. Jasper couldn't say he shared that talent. His thoughts were already with the mountain tops in the distance, trying to measure where they were in relation to the nearest points of reference on the maps of Bern he was taught to memorise.
Jasper didn't make nearly as much effort to ready his steed for his passenger as the Ilia did for hers. The backseat of a wyvern was there for what it was worth, he travelled light aleady, but it would never be comfortable or feel safe. It hit Jasper that Elly had mentioned she was but a future pegasus rider, not yet sworn into their knight's order. He wondered how the lass came to be here, alone and so far from home. Nice band of misfits we make. The knight thought.
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Elly
Pegasus Knight
Rookie Squirrel!
Posts: 101
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Post by Elly on Nov 15, 2011 1:02:30 GMT -6
"Please, Heather? For me? Pretty please?" The girl pleaded with her mount quietly, whispering in her ears as she stroked her mane, yet the pegasus snorted, shaking its head as it backed away yet another step from Nayru. She gave the filly an annoyed look, struggling to finish clasping the bridle around her forehead as she followed Heather's retreating steps. She hoped the older woman hadn't noticed. She'd heard pegasi could be skittish about carrying other people, but really! At this rate, her plan would fail.
"I'll even get y' apples!" The filly's ears perked up for a moment before falling again to the side; apparently, her offer hadn't been enough. Heather danced nervously as she finished securing the saddle in place, yet remained still long enough for her to finish. "Attagirl!" One stirrup was a bit higher than the other, but that was close enough, no? Elly smiled at her handiwork proudly.
The squire ran her hand through her partner's mane once more and rubbed her head soothingly; the poor pegasus seemed to be shaking, and she felt a stab of guilt for making her feel that way. Nayru was right, she'd definitely ask Heather next time before offering her as a ride; she'd never known she was that afraid of strangers. Or maybe it was that awful, scaly monster. Oh, definitely the second, how could she not have noticed? She turned to Heather, hugging her softly around her neck. "Shhh," she started, trying to calm her as she had seen the knights do from time to time, lowering her tone so only Heather would hear. "I won't let the ugly monster hurt you, okay? We'll just trail as far behind them as possible." Oddly enough, the filly didn't seem particularly reassured, but neither was she panicking. That was a victory, no?
Turning her back on Heather, she waved at Nayru, trying to catch her eye. "We're ready, Nayru! You'll love flying, absolutely!"
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Nov 15, 2011 3:02:51 GMT -6
"It is a pleasure, Sir Jasper," she nodded to the wyvern, feeling a certain degree of kinship with the creature, "Elisel." Perhaps kinship wasn't the precise term she was looking for, but it would do for the time being; while they were nowhere close to the same species, there was certainly room in the skies for two types of serpents. After all, she could not very well be in her natural form during the age of man; wyverns could be seen as a temporary replacement! "Ride well, the both of you." Pegasi, on the other hand - turning to the abominable creature, who was unsurprisingly resistant to the novice rider's attempts to calm her down, Nayru again considered waiting until Jasper had taken off to morph, eat the stupid thing, and fly away.
That feeling strengthened for a moment when Elly started talking about how they were going to have fun flying. Fun for plebeians not capable of actually properly flying, maybe, but the idea of being stuck on top of a flying failboat and having to worry about falling off - something she never would have even considered worrying about had she not been stuck pretending to be human - refused to go away. Fun. "Of that, I have no doubt." The manakete gradually turned to face the pegasus - Heather, she reminded herself - head on, facing the dumb beast down. She was careful to make no sudden movements; the situation was already untenable enough without dissolving into chaos and stampeding pegasi.
When Nayru next spoke, her voice was calm, flat, emotionless. "Heather." She had no intention of supplicating an accursed horse for its cooperation, but it seemed that she needed to rely on the dumb beast for the time being, and since Elly had displayed no real aptitude for making it more amenable to her presence, perhaps it would be more effective to take a direct approach. She didn't exactly have any hopes of bonding with it, but perhaps acknowledging it would be beneficial. Without looking away from Heather, she spoke again, this time to Elly. "You are the pegasus knight here, not I - I defer to your judgment. Is there something I can do to aid in this... process?"
[OOC: topic is effectively done. Probably going to have to do 1-2 more posts apiece with Elly to convince Heather, but the rest of y'all don't need to be stuck waiting for us to finish and we'll join up in the new topic(?) or whatever asap, hopefully Tuesday evening.]
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Elly
Pegasus Knight
Rookie Squirrel!
Posts: 101
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Post by Elly on Nov 15, 2011 18:45:26 GMT -6
"Um, help? Nah, Heather's a good girl, right...?" Her voice trailed off, eyes widened in surprise as she felt the pegasus tug heartily on the reins in her hand, pulling backwards once more, rearing up slightly as she let out a terrified whinny. Elly felt her ears heat up as she hurried to her partner's side. Why was she behaving so rebelliously? "Heather, please not now!" Her words seemed to fall on deaf ears, however, and she turned, mortified, facing Nayru once more.
"I swear she's not usually like this, she really ain't..." She gasped as a particularly strong tug tore the reins from her hands. "Crud! Heather, no!" She embraced the filly's neck tightly; hopefully, she wouldn't take off if she thought it'd harm her rider. She turned her eyes to Nayru, a few strands of hair obscuring her vision as she struggled to keep the pegasus' head from hitting her own. "I, uh, I promise it'll be fun, just..." She trailed off, looking towards the ground. Of all the times for Heather to act up, why did it have to be now? And Nayru had even said she thought she'd be a good pegasus knight earlier, too. "Maybe you can, y'know, try talking to her? It might calm her down, she just needs to get used to you-" She winced, her words cut off as the panicking filly's head finally found her own with a dull thud; it hadn't been a strong hit, but heavens, it hurt!
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Nov 15, 2011 19:15:27 GMT -6
Oh, this was a treat. Nayru's face twisted into a wry smile, bordering on grimace. She hated dealing with the stupid horses. "I have never been much loved by pegasi. Situations similar to this one have happened more than you can know." The manakete didn't bother mentioning that it was due to a combination of her being a flippin' dragon and her constant desire for the raw, succulent flesh of the accursed fliers. Animals could sense intentions better than humans, after all; even if she didn't intrinsically distrust pegasi, the whole thing of wanting to eat them would make interaction difficult nonetheless.
Nayru opted to take several measured steps towards the creature, on arm outstretched in a vague gesture of - something. Either to give the pegasus something to chew on or for easier pimp-slapping if it tried the former; she wasn't sure which. "Good... horse... thing." She didn't notice her voice slowly becoming more halting, filled with a certain degree of uncertainty that belied her inner frustration; for as much as she had avoided the stupid things, having to deal with one now was proving difficult enough to ensure that she would continue to avoid them in the future. "I won't bite." "Much," she added under her breath.
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Elly
Pegasus Knight
Rookie Squirrel!
Posts: 101
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Post by Elly on Nov 15, 2011 19:33:08 GMT -6
Heather froze in place, deadly still as the older woman approached; transfixed, Elly stood by her side, completely oblivious to the poor filly's shaking. "Wow! You're amazing, Nayru!" She gushed, staring at Nayru with awe. "So, you've seen pegasi before, no? Aren't they the best? They're so loyal and graceful!" Her acquaintance's expression was completely lost on the girl. "And y' even said you weren't good with them, but see, Heather's completely calmed down now! You'll see, she's a real sweetie once you get to know her!"
Elly hummed under her breath contentedly as she climbed on top of Heather with some difficulty, running her hands through the pegasus' thick mane. "Good girl!" She turned towards Nayru, smiling brightly. "Hop on! I, uh, don't have a second set of stirrups," she said, her tone apologetic, yet brightening up quickly. "But, you can just hold on tight, the saddle is plenty big for both of us, and I promise neither Heather or I will let you fall!"
If only she could have seen Heather's eyes at that moment, her tone might have been a lot less confident. The pegasus gave another involuntary shudder, her eyes darting from side to side, casting around for a way to escape the terrifying woman that stood at her flank.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Nov 15, 2011 19:42:11 GMT -6
With the accursed horse finally trapped, Nayru continued walking steadily towards it, looping the outstretched arm around the creature's neck while leaning in to whisper sweet nothings in its ear. "If you drop me, I will devour you whole."
Well, it could be taken as sweet by... some definitions. Probably. She wasn't particularly worried; her patience had very nearly ran out entirely. Rising once more to her full height, Nayru smiled lightly at the horse and rider. "I'm sure that we will be the best of friends. Isn't that right, Heather?" There was a bright twinkling in her eyes that spoke of murder, or perhaps humor if one didn't pay too much attention to hidden meanings and all that.
She could only hope that the blasted creature was sufficiently cowed to the point that it would be reasonably obedient for the time being, though she never intended to get close to another pegasus again - or this one, once the ride finished. At least their little group was already proving to be interesting. Nayru wasn't particularly fond of traveling with others, but each of her temporary companions seemed to have a degree of depth that was uncommon amongst humans - or perhaps she was just having an off day. Time would tell.
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Elly
Pegasus Knight
Rookie Squirrel!
Posts: 101
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Post by Elly on Nov 15, 2011 19:56:34 GMT -6
Heather let out a soft, high-pitched whinny, her muscles tensing up before going completely still. Elly clapped her hands, delighted. "Yeah, that's the spirit! You two will get along great, I just know it!" She smiled happily at Nayru. The older woman just looked so happy, too! Her plan was destined to succeed! As long as Heather continued to behave, everything would work perfectly. Now, why did she feel such an ominous sensation at that last thought?
"Ready for takeoff, cap'n!" She said, giving a mock salute as she puffed up in pride. She'd show Nayru how wonderful flying was! Just imagining the older woman's delighted face as she rose into the air for the first time was enough to make her giddy. "Don't be nervous, Nayru, we're gonna have fun, promise!" Oh, there it was again, that curious ominous feeling. How quaint.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Nov 15, 2011 20:20:18 GMT -6
"Yes. Fun." Nayru ignored her self-esteem as it crumbled around her in vast swathes of ego, looking dubiously at the flying deathtrap before her. Maybe not too many people would notice if she turned into a dragon and flew to the town, and maybe these people would be fine with it. While she was at it, maybe she was actually the god-queen of the entire world and everyone loved dragons, and humans would definitely not immediately start trying to hunt her down whether out of proactive self-defense or in order to say that they had killed a dragon.
Yeah, totally realistic. The dragon sighed, shoulders slumping for a moment as the last remnants of her pride dissolved into the seething seas of the ocean of self-loathing that grew a little more every time that she remembered she was going to have to rely on a pegasus to fly her places. She had never actually ridden a pegasus before, but it couldn't be too much different from riding a horse, right? The saddle part was familiar, anyways. Making a valiant attempt to look as though she knew what she was doing, Nayru swung one leg over the saddle and sat down gingerly, vaguely wondering if she had a significant degree of bad karma about to come back and chew off her tail. "Let's... get this over with."
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Elly
Pegasus Knight
Rookie Squirrel!
Posts: 101
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Post by Elly on Nov 15, 2011 20:36:46 GMT -6
Elly shuffled in her seat as Nayru mounted, trying to make herself comfortable. Okay, this shouldn't be too hard, no? She'd never flown this long before, or as high as she was planning to, but what could go wrong, honestly? She took hold of the reins, pulling them slowly off the ground as she rolled them around her right hand carefully. A stab of nervousness seemed to cross her body, and her chest tightened in anxiety briefly before she let out a breath slowly. Nayru had said it before. As long as she wasn't afraid, everything would be fine. She tried to project confidence, though she suddenly didn't feel particularly sure of herself; what if she steered Heather into a peak? She shook her head. No, that was ridiculous, Heather would never crash into such an obvious obstacle.
She licked her lips gingerly before steeling her resolve. She had flown with Heather lots of times in practice already, no? Nothing would go wrong, that was just silly! With one last breath, she shook the reins lightly, making sure her movement was gentle enough to communicate to the filly her intentions, but avoid hurting her. "Let's go, Heather!" Her heartbeat picked up speed as the pegasus' wings spread on each side of her white body, somewhat stiffly, she noticed, before they took off.
It would be such a perfect flight.
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