WHEN I LEARN TO FLY | Flight?

[Onyxdreams]

~ ☼ With wings as big as hers were, it was no wonder that they ended up getting in the way a lot of the time, or were just trouble to take care of in general. Onyx had quickly learned that she needed to be mindful of her wings and where exactly they were, especially when they tended to drift along the ground beside and behind her if she wasn't actively lifting them a bit. Getting sand on the fur that covered the backs of her wings wasn't too much of an issue, sand could always be washed out, but she had to be careful of what might be laying in the sand, like, say, a jellyfish, she did not want to bump into one on accident. Aside from that, she had to be careful about stretching, or just extending her wings in general, when anyone else was nearby, didn't want to hit anyone or knock someone over. Plus, cleaning herself off without help could be a bit...difficult.

Still, even with those problems, they really were helpful! They were great for grabbing stuff, much better than her paws were, they really, really helped her out with climbing, oh, and they made her look cool too! Most of all, however, was the knowledge that, some day, she'd be able to fly, like a bird...a really big bird, with scales! To soar through the skies, feeling the wind running through her fur and across her scales, it was a big dream of hers, and now that she was a discens, it would finally be a reality. No more getting pulled down off of a roof and getting told she was too young, or that it was "too dangerous", today was the day. Ohh, it was so exciting, no more running from place to place with the winds to carry her there, prey easily taken down from strikes above, and best of all, no need to climb to get up into trees where those birds like to hide their eggs, free, easy eggs from this day forward!

Climbing to the top of one of the taller rocks around the camp was the easy part, the harder part was looking down and remembering that she was about to jump off. It...it wasn't super high up, she had climbed taller trees before, but the thought that she was about to jump instead of climbing her way back down was enough to make her a little...hesitant. "No...come on, you can do it!" the hybrid shouted, a bit louder than she meant to, giving her wings a short flap to clear some of her dead scales off and into a small cloud of glimmering purple dust. Crouching low, she took a deep breath to steady herself, and pounced forward, legs stretched out to her sides, extending her wings and flapping them as hard as she could.

It didn't take her long to realize that she wasn't gaining any air, when her eyes peeked open and she saw that the ground was approaching, steadfastly refusing her any distance from its embrace. She wasn't exactly falling, but neither was she flying, she was caught in a clumsy, wobbly glide, getting closer and closer to the sand, until she finally smacked into it spread eagle, sliding for a brief moment before finally coming to a stop, limbs out to her sides, wings giving one final flap before laying still, spread across the sand. "Ughhh....owww...." It didn't feel like she had hurt herself too bad, there were definitely going to be bruises though, but, laying there, groaning, she couldn't help but wonder just where she had gone wrong. She had flapped her wings, and...well, that was all, but that was all there was to it, right, so....why hadn't it worked?

[SirDio]

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The wire's getting older - I can hear the way they're creaking.

Jaeger wasn't one to watch others try things out, since he himself got very awkward about trying new things with others watching. But when he saw Onyxpaw attempting flight, he couldn't help but watch in hopes that she'd be able to make it. When she failed, even he felt the pain. Reducing the fire on his neck to a simple, flat flame, he approached the Tirone. "You alright? Small animals can't take much falling without getting too injured." he tilted his head, looking at her wings. They did seem big enough to get air with enough flaps, but apparently that wasn't the case?

JAEGER FIR - PALMGLADES - PENNED BY ASTRAL

[sup]© tikki[/sup]

[SWORDSKIT.]

IF SOMETHING GOES A LITTLE WRONG
WELL YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND BRING IT ON

One thing that Swordskit lacked was wings and he thought they were the coolest thing ever to exist, he sometimes wondered what it was like to have extra appendages that would help him fly through the skies. Ducks could fly and it made him often wish that Azul was real, a soft sigh leaving his maw. He had been fixing his bed making sure that it was all nice before he began to head down and outside of his house only to see someone was on top of the higher rocks, his pupils widening at the sight. Well, that was rather impressive.

He stayed back for a moment before walking forward though he stumbled backwards upon realizing that Onyxpaw was throwing herself off the rock. Oh god, that was not good. He could recall one of his siblings making those kind of jumps to high or lower platforms and it always made him nervous. He closed his eyes expecting to hear a thud within the sand but it did not come. He opened one of his eyes to see that the girl was gliding rather than falling, Swords let out a low breath of relief. He might not have known her but he didn't wish for any harm to come to his groupmates, he shook some of the sand from his toes deciding to approach her.

He flinched at the sight of a large lupine, this one was a lot more different than his father. He had fire around his neck and the child piped out with a small frown "Doesn't that burn? Once I touched a hot pan and it hurt really, really badly but then my mama made it all better!" There was a pause with his face becoming thoughtful only to continue with a small smile "I'm sure he could help you too, if you asked!" Suddenly, the sound of Onyxpaw letting out a soft sound of pain made his eyes lock onto her. He proceeded to run over with his folded ears moving slightly, Swordskit began to speak "Hi! Hello! I'm Swordskit Pendragon-Daisuke! Who're you?"

He let his introduction sink in for a moment, his mama always telling him to introduce himself to new people or else it would be rude if he didn't. "That was super cool! How does it feel like to fly? Can you touch the skies and clouds? Did all your feathers fall off when you were little? Your wings look really cool, I like them a bunch! Are you part bird?" Ah, there was his small plethora of questions and each one was said with a warm, big grin on his maw.

— Reggan

[Onyxdreams]

~ ☼ It hurt, of course it did, she had just smacked into the sand at a decent speed, she just hoped that none of her scales had gotten cracked from the rough landing. It could have been worse, but she was just a little winded and dazed for the moment, laying on the sand as she waited for the pain to fade out. Perhaps worse than the physical pain however, was the instant embarrassment she felt when she realized that more than a few of her groupmates had probably just seen her jump off a rock and plant herself straight back into the sand. She couldn't believe she had failed, today was supposed to be the day she took to the skies, not the day she splatted onto the sand, but she just couldn't puzzle out how exactly she had gone and messed this up, this was supposed to be easy.

Hearing someone approach, the hybrid tilted her head up, and-oh wow, it was the guy who was on fire! She always kind of wondered just how you could be on fire and not be hurt, but maybe it was just a fire control thing, like...like her mom had had. Another voice brought her out of her thoughts, and it was only then that she realized she had been asked a question, two questions, in fact, her crimson eyes flicking between fire-guy and the other newcomer, one of Winter's kids? "I'm fine, I'm good, just stings a bit. Onyxpaw, nice to meet you Swordskit!" she answered, pushing herself up into a more dignified seated position, giving herself a firm shake to as much sand and grit off of herself as she could, wings folding and settling back against her once more. Then, she was bombarded by question after question, and, as they went on, a big grin of her own started to form. "Uh, that wasn't really flying, more like gliding, but I'll tell you when I get it down, just give me a few days! I dunno about the sky, but I'll definitely go touch a cloud, that's like, number two on my list of cool flying stuff. I never had feathers, I'm not part bird, I'm part snake, and they are really cool aren't they, I mean, look at 'em!"

[SirDio]

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The wire's getting older - I can hear the way they're creaking.

Jaeger's eyes looked to Swordkit and the wolf chuckled. "I direct the heat away from my neck so it doesn't burn. It does help keep my neck warm during the winter." He smiled, then directed his gaze to Onyxpaw. He was, to say the least, quite glad the Tirone was okay. "That's good. I'm Jaeger." he shook his fur a bit.

"Gliding is better than flat-out falling. I had friends who had wings like yours, one of them had feathers on the top of his!" He chuckled, remembering those he used to play with. "I'm sure you just need practice."

JAEGER FIR - PALMGLADES - PENNED BY ASTRAL

[sup]© tikki[/sup]

[RHINESTONE.]

Ultimately, Rhinestone had known that Onyxpaw would eventually try to fly. After all, the other had been born with wings, and it was natural that she would eventually want to use them. The legate could understand that even more now, considering she had her own dragon form. While that form didn't have traditional wings, she was still able to fly by manipulating the wind around her, and she had to admit that it felt pretty... well, great. It was incredibly freeing to know that you could go anywhere and catch yourself if things went wrong, although Rhine knew she couldn't keep her own type of flight up forever. Eventually her air elementals would exhaust her, and she would end up plummeting towards the ground below. That was why she made sure she was well rested and ready if she needed to fly for some reason, since she didn't want to get herself injured and have others worried about her. That was especially true these days, considering she was one of the only ones within the group with any type of medical knowledge, aside from someone like Winterhymns. Although, it thankfully seemed as though others were willing to learn, such as young Ares. However, that didn't mean she wanted more injuries popping up throughout the group.

Even if she had known that Onyx would eventually attempt using her wings, she still hadn't expected for it to be so soon. It wasn't really that soon, all things considered, but Rhine found it difficult to process how fast her daughter was growing. In addition, she wished that Onyxpaw would've told her she was going to try flying beforehand, just so that she could be around in case things went wrong. Although, she had probably been worried that Rhinestone would try to talk her out of it, which wasn't a totally unfounded fear. Regardless, the legate couldn't help wincing as she stepped into camp, the rabbit she had brought back falling from her mouth as a result of the reaction. It didn't seem as though Onyx was fatally wounded or even particularly heinously injured, but the sound of her groaning in pain still made the canine's stomach turn as she quickly made her way over. At least it didn't seem as though her daughter was totally alone, considering Swordskit and Jaeger had already arrived to help her - or rather, at least provide her with some kind of distraction.

Sighing softly, Rhinestone leaned over to nose gently at Onyx's ribs, questioning as she did so, "I take it your first session of flight school didn't go so well...? You're not too hurt, are you? Cause if you are, I might just have to wrap you up in bubble wrap." She offered the hybrid a small smile, her tone soft and joking. She was glad to see that the other seemed to be smiling again, no doubt spurred on by the presence of others. Reaching up with a paw, Rhine gently brushed over the top of Onyx's wings, muttering, "Maybe you could use a bit of a teacher... I'm fairly sure there's at least a couple of Typhooners who have wings. I could try asking one of them if they could help you out, when I go for medical training?" It would be a bit of an odd thing to ask someone, but she was also fairly sure their ally would understand that it could be difficult for someone to learn all on their own. After all, Rhinestonestar was fairly sure that not every Typhooner with wings had known how to fly flawlessly right off the bat. However, it would require one of them not to be busy, which the canine could understand if that wasn't the case. She wasn't exactly starved of things that she needed to do, these days.

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