Evening Duty {Closed}

[Eris Coulson]

Eris didn't immediately get an answer to her question. Instead she watched as the commander carried out whatever plan he had up his sleeves. He got his unit to form a tight ring around the area, something the commander evidently called a "Faith Circle". It was intimidating, but more over it was still impressive that his entire unit was so ready to obey his orders. Even just to deal with a brat like Sudreth.

The Commander walked to the edge of the ring, ordering Eris gently to do the same. The strawberry blonde followed the commander to the ring's outer edge, careful of the spear heads that lined this edge. The Commander rested against his own spear, which had impaled into the ground, but his weapon was far more durable than Eris' simple iron lance. So rather than mimic the gesture she simply turned to face Sudreth and Ilheod's Astraeus, arms crossed as she suddenly grew more impatient.

Yes, it was still better than guard duty, but what did this have to do with her.

Shockingly the Commander ordered Sudreth to attempt to bring his wyvern to him. For a moment Eris genuinely believed that he had wanted the boy to die, but that couldn't have been the case. Why bother arranging two custody transfers for the lad just to have him devoured by his wyvern? It didn't make sense. Still, Eris supposed she had to be present for one reason or another. May as well pay attention to the whole event.

"This seems a bit nutty, to me." Eris paused after making her comment, throwing the commander a glance. "And forgive me, sir, but why I am I present for this?"

She could be proud of herself for how careful she had been in her complaints. Any other man, even another superior, and her questioning would likely be a bit harsher. More impatient. But there was something different about the Commander. It made her more curious than irritated.

[Sudreth Belrot]

Sudreth practically jumped at the sound of Ilheod giving his orders. He had to admit, Ilheod certainly was the leader type as he had a presence whenever he gave orders. He could even make wyverns bend to his will as his squad landed in a circle around Ilheod, Albrecht and Sudreth! He then watched as Ilheod patted the beast's snout and then rested his head there. For the time they were there, it looked to Sudreth like they were sharing thoughts. "Can wyverns do that?" he asked himself.

"Private Albrecht, if you would follow me. It's time to leave the young sir alone with Astraeus." Ilheod commanded.

"Wait... What!?" Sudreth questioned as both Ilheod and Albretch made their way towards the circumference of the ring of wyverns surrounding them, leaving Sudreth alone with Astraeus. Once both Ilheod and Albrecht were at the ring's edge, Ilheod began explaining the test. As Sudreth was listening, one part caught his attention. "You, are going to earn my wyverns trust, or attempt to..."

"Well... This already doesn't bode well for me doesn't it big guy?" He remarked to Astraeus with a smirk on his face. The wyvern was not amused. Sudreth was scared of Astraeus, no doubt about it, but the excitement of being able to interact with a wyvern overrode the fear in his system, hyping Sudreth up for his test.

"ASTRAEUS, STALK." With that command, the colossal wyvern unfolded it's massive wings and reared it's head for a roar, that made Sudreth's heart skip a beat, before rising into the sky with a mighty woosh! Within a few moments it landed a few yards across from Sudreth which lead to Ilheod giving his final command: Bring Astraeus to him.

Sudreth's heart still racing, he began his slow approach to the wyvern. His idea was to slowly walk up to the wyvern and try to place his hand on it to see it's reaction. From there Sudreth could judge the best course of action for bringing it back to its master.

Only a few feet away from it now, he raised his hand slowly and began to close in and attempt to touch its leg.

[Ilheod]

Well...it's not the worst start ever attempted...but he certainly doesn't know what to do. Not surprising though. He's not a trained soldier that's prepared for this.

There was a moment of hanging silence as the boy attempted to approach the monstrous wyvern. However Astraeus was clearly interested in none of it, for he flapped his wings heavily once to generate a gust of wind towards the blonde boy before letting out a far more ferocious and hostile shriek. Small strings of saliva trailed between gleaming white fangs as the wyvern bore it's teeth with a predacious snarl. Hulking figure lowered to the ground as the wyvern started to circle Sudreth, before hopping backwards about four yards over and behind him; shoulders raised and slowly backing into the middle of the circle again.

The sudden tones of the young female beside him briefly drew Ilheod's averted gaze.

"This seems a bit nutty, to me."

The sound of his wyvern shrieking once more while it turned it's tale to knock the blonde lad away from him became back-ground noise. This was a normal sight for him, or once..it had been. Ilheod shifted his left side and leaned further on his spear to support the weight while turning further to gaze at the young woman, speaking directly to her, his one eyed gaze fully upon her.

"This is how we get the wyverns used to others in the 38th Aerial unit. Expose em' to your scent. Force them to interact with you so they recognize you as a friend. Not a threat. Means they won't get confused in combat and attack you as well. It's easy enough for a rider to get his mounts trust. Not so much other riders. "

Ilheod pointed to two riders on the eastern side of the circle before continuing.

"Say that lad is fighting on the ground. His wyvern's going to strike at enemies too, because their a threat he can reach. Now say the lad next to him has been knocked off his mount and stands up brandishing his weapon. The wyvern doesn't recognize him as a friend? He's injured, crippled, or dead. You've gotta remember. Wyverns may be smart animals, but their still animals. They let instinct think for them when their in danger. So you've got to get them accustomed to it. Can't tell you how many times in my youth I had a wyvern knockin' me around before it liked me enough to stop. Didn't regret it though when that wyvern ends up savin' my skin because I got knocked for a loop and fell off Astraeus. Every lad here's saved another at-least once, and every wyvern's saved our hides more than that."

He tilted his gaze back to see Astraeus wailing out with another piercing shriek and flapping his wings as if to warn the blonde boy, waiting to see what he'd do next.

"And forgive me, sir, but why I am I present for this?"

"Why? Because, lass, if your going to be commanding men at any point in the future, you ought to get used to seein' wyverns. This is Bern after all."

[Eris Coulson]

Eris was less focused on the scene before her and more on what Ilheod said to her. Of course she couldn't exactly ignore the large wyvern's shrieks, but what happened to Sudreth wasn't nearly as important to her. The Commander wasn't going to let him get killed or devoured, so even if he got injured he was surely going to survive.

"I see." Eris grit her teeth a bit at the Commander's explanation. "I...yes, I get it. This is Bern. I ought to know a thing or two about wyverns. But the most important thing I know is that I can't ride one for shite. I can barely ride a horse." The soldier tried to keep her emotions in check as she spoke, however she was also running off them at the same time. She felt that the Commander ought to know that she was incompetent when it came to mounts.

And trust was a whole part of that issue. How the hell was she supposed to trust some animal to be her legs? How was she supposed to trust them to be her wings? She didn't even have wings of her own. If they failed she failed too.

Biting those thoughts back she watched as Astraeus continued to act out against Sudreth, making more noise and shrieks as he did so. Besides, the Commander brought up a seriously valid point. Just because she didn't have what it took to ride a wyvern didn't mean she should be unfamiliar with them, especially the ones on her side. Soldiers have accidentally slain their comrades in the heat of an intense battle, obviously a wyvern was fully capable of doing the same.

"That is smart, though. Getting the wyverns familiar with other riders. Worth the time and effort this ritual likely takes. How did you come up with it?"

[Sudreth Belrot]

The sudden gusts of wind from the wyvern’s wings lifted Sudreth off his feet for a split second, sending him back a few inches, and he ended up losing his footing and falling on his behind. "Argh! Son of a-" He swore to himself. Not letting himself stay down, he pushed himself back up and rolled his shoulders and then began to stretch for a bit. “I ain’t losing this you scaled bugger, so get ready to say hi to your master!” He huffed and threw a few jabs in Astraeus’ direction to show he was serious.


Despite his pumped up attitude he once again tried the slow approach, partly because he didn’t want to startle it and have Ilheod floss Sudreth out of Astraeus’ teeth. Once again, nearing the wyvern caused it to fly up again and to the opposite side of the ring. With the gusts picking up again, Sudreth was once again lifted off his feet and sent a few inches back, though he was able to catch his footing and not land on his arse for a second time.


"Argh!" Sudreth cried out in frustration. The slow approach wasn’t working and the other approach was too risky to attempt! Trying to think of a new method that could come to mind, he was interrupted by the rumbling of his own stomach. "Oh right! I still haven’t eaten, have I?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out the apple that got him here in the first place. He turned in Astraeus’ direction "Hey! Don’t move, Imma take a quick lunch break!" he ordered. He then sat on the ground and took a bite out of the apple.