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We Watched the Stars Fall; Anamchara's Flight (Seiss)
Topic Started: Mar 14 2012, 09:42 PM (469 Views)
Zinc
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The Owl Waife
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The breathy winds of the night carried with them a chill that spoke of the impending autumn. They'd all known it was coming. The season that chased it's brethren in the endless cycle. Upon the sharp edge of the brisk cold came the gentle touch of humidity and clear air. Ozone filtered briefly in the higher altitudes, and smoky waves of clouds broke through the sky, the remnants of a scattered storm that had swept through in the night. Stars shattered the stillness of the sky, illuminated in all their glory in the lack of vibrant light from the waning Sekkain moons. All was still. The night waited, and it was, a dragoness decided, the perfect night for what was to come.

In the weeks that had followed since the returning march home, things had calmed. Wounds had healed to tender lines of raw flesh and forming scar tissue. Sceathers had been shed and new ones grew in amongst the old as the season for scale shedding came closer and moorings loosened to allow scales to clatter away. But this was not only the season for a new gleaming hide of night and fire for the dragoness. The fall brought a promise. Winter may have been a time for dormancy, and of death, but for the Academy, and for her as well perhaps, it brought with it the promise of new life soon to come. Shells would shatter on the sands, and the first hatchlings born without the tyranny of war hanging over their heads would break their way into the world.

But...She thought, as she looked out from the opening of her and her rider's own room. That day was not for many months. She stood on the very edge of their aerie. An instinctual and deep part of her longed to spread her wings and soar into the night. To release that call that caused her insides to tremble. But another part, a part that had seen the horrors in this past year, hesitated, and quailed at the thought of scoring her wings into night air. Torn, the dragoness stood, barely a visible silhouette in the pattern of the night. The rain-clear air was dark, disguising the brighter patches of color on her hide, only her eyes glittered in the flickering stars. Mistakes had been made. Lives had been taken and placed where they did not belong. What was this Flight to be if she took it?

Would it be an attempt to right a wrong? To fix the transgressions she'd wrought by giving a Taint a child? Willing or otherwise?

Her eyes flickered, and her expression fell to softer planes as she thought of Dhruva. How odd it was to think that now of all times, something would occur between them. While Riven had been unsurprised, and even amused at the sudden development, she was still utterly baffled. The flaxen Fire that had been her Talon, and she his Claw for so many years, had suddenly become something more. Something had shifted, and that small crumbling grain of sand had triggered the landslide of emotions.

This was, she decided, not a Flight to right wrongs. It was a Flight for her. It was a Flight for him. It was something that she wished, and she would partake in. Large, and oddly sceathered wings unfolded loosely from her sides and fanned out in the damp air. She took her leave of the aerie she and her rider shared, and soared out into the sky, a black shadow amongst the star strewn sky. The cold light from the waning moons caught the scattered raindrops here and there as they'd been caught on the blades of grass and the branches and leaves of trees, creating a world that had been covered in diamond dust.

Anamchara surveyed these details as she twisted away from the Academy, and out past Lihn. Her flight path was beginning to angle towards Nyushi when the urge rang through her again. This time she released it. Her head tossed up to the sky, and her jaws parted, through the ivory fangs a high ringing roar, like the peal of a struck bell echoed out towards the Academy and lands surrounding. It called for one male, and only one. Another twist of her wings and a flick of her tail and she'd circled higher into the air, waiting to see if the call was received. Hoping that perhaps, she had not made a foolish mistake in coming out here. Uncertain like a young dragonet in it's first year, she waited, ears straining to catch a sound in the dark. Then the reply came, shattering the crystalline silence. Smiling, she turned her amethyst gaze towards the Academy, hunting for his form. It was time for the chase to begin then...

Catch me if you can...
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Seiss
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Gyrfalcon- geddit right bud, or you is food.
The first month had been restful. He didn’t have a choice in the matter. Wounds were deep, exhaustion so absolute he thought he might sleep forever. Still, he had to move, get up and attend to his new duties as well as old while his bonded lay recovering. Most of them didn’t require him to fly, just meetings scattered through the days. Dhruva would have preferred to spend the time with a certain obsidian female. Autumn was a time when he would usually take leave, away from rising females. This fall, however, he remained. Soon, they would call. He could scent it in the air, the insidious filter of pheromones that made him restless.

It was his twentieth day in a row that he chose to sleep on the perch of his aerie. Waiting. Just for one voice. He had no way of knowing if she would rise after the horrors she had been through, didn’t know if the cursed event had twisted and repainted the image of males in her mind. But to stop the bold rush of hope was impossible. What if he was a fool and waited for nothing? Tortured himself in the very heart of temptations for no reward but a gaping hole of worsening lust? The long list of ‘if’s hadn’t reached the third point before the Fire decided, to hell with it- he would rather take the chance and miss it entirely.

The night was cool, and the air pleasantly moist against the warm spread of his wings draped over the ledge with no safety barriers. Dhruva had his nose tucked under one wing, shielding the silvery beams of moonlight from half veiled eyes, dozing peacefully under the lull of murmuring winds. Until a distant cry, a single long drawn sound beckoned him with the strength of a sacred summon he cannot deny. He didn’t want to, so the urgent compulsion was welcome. Her voice, he could never mistake, his conscious so taken and attuned. For a brief moment, the Fire jerked his head up right, stunned awake, spined ears standing on end to capture the fading echoes of his siren’s call. Mercurial eyes blinked wide, snout pointing to the sky and nostrils flared. Her scent was of course, nowhere to be caught for she was too far away, but his own desire dangled its own lure, phantom fragrance conjured straight out of memory to tease his expectant senses.

Fire roused to life in his core without his summon, blazed in a livelier glow than the searing heat of harm. Fresh molten blood poured from his crown, and into his tensed spine, down to the very tip of his tail. She called for him. A flux of sheer affection, passion, joy, a humbling and yet a rise of pride seized the longing in his chest. He rolled with abandon, up onto his feet, wings shuffling in a clattering rustle to his side. Teasing fingers of exhilaration shivered down his spine. He breathed in deep, eyes alight, till his chest was full before he loosed his replying howl.

A deep sound, short, that spoke of relief curled from his throat. All else seemed to fade before his eyes, turned monochrome, lost their shine, their appeal. Talons gripped the edge of his perch, scraping stone and marble when his weight shifted. Pale wings fanned the air impatiently, white, drinking the moon’s light. He didn’t mind the stabbing hurt when the cast cracked. It was so dull compared to the craving set so deep inside him. Harder and further his sceathered wings stretched. Chalky dust and pieces of white cast previously sealed on his shoulders rained down on the balcony floor. Then with a shattering downbeat of great wings, Dhruva tossed into the vast sky. Maws stretched wide, he repeated his roar, strident, assuring her that he was coming.

He flew unerringly straight for her, pinning her location with her previous call. The male had completely forgotten about his ruffled appearance until he sighted her. Atramentous hide pristine, perfect glossy sheen overlaying each scale. Whitewashed wings stroked the cool air in swifter strokes, slowing his approach as he simply stared. The ivory of her horns drew his gaze to hers. Her expression soft, lilaceous eyes entrancing- and he felt captured. A willing prisoner. He should have preened earlier to make himself more presentable. While she bore her scars, his wounds were still raw, marring his rump and between his shoulders with patches of disfigured scales. Spines lifted and plates loosened with slight embarrassment, but he lifted his head and brushed them all behind him.

What was there to say? He was fumbling like some inexperienced young, but he was not ashamed of his floundering. She had rightly charmed him to a hopeless, fluttering dove. That was her power over him. The enormity of the moment was nothing speech could compare. When his jaws parted, it delivered a deep susurrus from a single beating organ in his breast, “Anamchara….
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Though the thrumming chords of instinct hummed deeply beneath her obsidian scales, she knew she wouldn't have to wait long. The initial call that had made her aware of the male's coming was heralded by a second ringing howl that caused a shiver to rattle her scales. What was this new feeling? No...not even a new feeling. It was one she'd experienced many times before. It was one she'd come to dampen and ignore during the seasons when other females would fly, and she would remain upon the ground to watch. Rarely had she given into the instincts of lust, and even then, the males she had met were faces that were shrouded by the darkness of the nights when she flew. Sometimes she saw them again, upon the moments of the hatching of the children she'd clutched, or the day of the clutching itself.

But this...this felt greatly different. A shuddering warm breath exhaled from her nostrils and clouded the air in a misty veil that dispersed through the night air. Her head twisted on her lithe neck, her hunting eyes scouring the air for any signs of his pale form. Nostrils continued to churn the air, seeking a hint of his own scent. One she knew by heart, and one that should have beckoned and pulled her back to him like the allure she must have presented to her. But no, a tug pulled back a rational thread of thought. This was an opportunity to be earned and it was this intricate dance of one male and one female that would begin the movements as old as their race.

Then came the flash of pale flax in the moonlight. A heavy thudding of pressure change and wing-beats, quick in their haste and growing steadily nearer. An arc of her wings and she'd doubled back to turn and direct herself towards the source of the wing-beats. There from the depths of darkness' own veiling cloak, he rose forth, a wraith in the night, his silver eyes flashing with an emotion that no doubt matched her own. A flare of heat surged through her, and whether it was the fire blazing within her, stoked by her magic, or the fires of some other emotion all together was hard for her to discern. She stalled her flight as he held his own wings to scoop the air in a hover, and she let her eyes fall across his form.

Dismay replaced the former heat. He was still bearing the signs of old wounds. Scales that had yet to heal over completely. Patches of fur that were ragged and had been cut away for healers to take their attention to the skin, hide, and armoring scales below. Those would recover in time, but for now, the knight that had fought for her in the Frozen Wastelands, and the dragon that had found her when she bordered on the edge of insanity and despair was in poor shape. But did it matter? He was here, he had come to her beckon, and she felt the pride and giddiness soar within her, mixing with the heat as he spoke her name in a deep and sensual purring tone. Oh how it gave her great joy and great pride to know that he was here for her!

He had simply stopped where he'd approached, his expression was perhaps one she knew, but dared not hope to be. Infatuation? Affection? Or was it just perhaps the lust that overcame all males when the season of the blazing trees fell and females took wing? The hesitation returned briefly but she tucked it away. Her decision had been made, and she had called him here. What embarrassment it would be for them both if she were to back away and send him back to his own aerie...A flicker of sceathers and she'd surged forth to skim past him. One wing trailed gently over the edge of one of his, an intimate beckon even as her head turned to throw over her shoulder with a sultry smile. "Fly with me." She called, and surged forth into the coolness of the night and out over the forests of Nyushi.

Soaring out into the night, she let her wings stretch and catch the gentle threads of the north wind that had driven the dissipating storm farther towards the sea, the thunder still audible in the distance now and then if one listened hard. She had not flown truly in almost a decade. She felt foolish and lost, unsure of where this path would meander, but knowing where it would ultimately end. Until then, she would guide, until she was ready, and while she was not the female to cruelly dangle the prize before a male's nose, she knew she did not have the audacity to simply jump Dhruva from the air and send them tumbling to the ground below for a bout of private activities.

They both still felt the strain from the battle however. She could feel it in every stroke of her wings in the pull of the tightening skin of scars across her back. She could see it in the stiffness he tried to hide in his movements as he soared after her. This would not be a game of chase, or a game of speed. No, she was well aware of Dhruva's prowess. Such had been proven in the years of time in a Wing together. She was even more aware of his mentality regarding tactical precision. But there was another edge of his mind she was curious to test the keenness of. Twisting briefly in a slight roll so she coasted upon her back to stare back at him, she called, "Ours is not a race of skill on wing, nor a trial of combat to prove the better. Instead, I shall call upon the honed edges of your mind, to see how you cope with puzzles presented to you. Are you ready?" she asked.

Banking slightly she continued her languid flight, falling back beside him, still several wing-lengths away, but speaking loud enough so he could hear her.

"If you break me
I do not stop working,
If you touch me
I may be snared,
If you lose me,
Nothing will matter."


She finished the first riddle and swept away, to wing through the night, the dim points of her orange spines glowing with faintest traces of white. "What am I?"
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Seiss
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Gyrfalcon- geddit right bud, or you is food.
He caught the change in her demeanour, no matter how brief, when she took in what he was lacking. It wasn’t disappointment he read- a great ridiculous relief even as he drew up his chest in an instinctive desire to please- but concern for his recovering wounds. Crowned head canted, his turn to trace his mirror gaze on the harsh, scarring wound on her back. Surely she was not going to grant him sympathy leeway now. Indignant male pride lifted his hackles, but really, it was so trivial when faced with the female’s flowering mirth when she directed her thoughts elsewhere. His own rose as if to follow its recognized partner, turned his weight lighter and every beat of his wings much more substantial against the constant weight of gravity. How silly it was, as his eyes reflected his returning smile at her, that he likened it to floating.

Misting breaths puffed from both dragons, colouring the blackness between them with vanishing smears of gauzy white. It was overpowering for her to allow him so close before the chase even began, a mistake and stumble on his part for his eagerness. But he doubted he could have resisted the allure of scent, the ghostly taste breathed in on the back of his tongue and the impact of her presence. Dhruva would still have blundered his way nose to nose with Ana. A long time ago in his youth, he had chased a few females in their heat, but once- he had only need to taste it once- a bonding that was more than the primal drive of instinct, and he never looked back. He wanted that chance to come again, a choosing of his own, not simply submitting to the carnal clawing in his stomach. Tonight she had risen, and the sweet, urgent flood of intoxicated blood was swaying them both. From the beginning, however, he had consciously made the decision to stay.

And to come to her calling regardless of how many other males would come to compete. He might lose this season if there were, but the flaxen Fire would come again, and again, until she saw him. The possibility of her choosing to retreat, however, did not cross his mind. So when hesitation greyed her amaranthine gaze for a fraction of a breathless second, he blinked and tried to corral his scattering sense of reason. She gave him no time to consider. A sweep of liquid ink kicked his heart to a spluttering rapid hammer. Starlit eyes locked onto hers. His breath shuddered when the downstroke of her bejewelled wing ghosted over the arc of his wing, supple stroke in sync. He had never liked to allow his wings to be touched by another. The medics and Rosemaries often had to deal with his foul temper for it. It was a privilege he allowed a chosen mate, the touch too intimate to share. He flexed them as something else squeezed inside him, reaching for hers in the following beat, missing her primaries by a mere hair’s breadth when she drew away. Like water, he flowed after her.

”Fly with me.”

A cool gust stirred by her wings brushed against his face. His partially gaping jaws clicked shut, ears flicking back sheepishly when he realized he was openly drooling. Fortunately for him, nothing leaked out his maws. He snorted at himself, a wry smile pulling the edge of his lips for a brief moment. Conditioned muscles ground noiselessly, sceathered pair of limbs rotating and joints responding with oiled stretch and release to drift him forward. Wind flow beneath his wings and the delicate cool permeating the punctures in his shoulders were kind salves against abused flesh. He glided next to her, a slight length behind, eyes now drawn to the dappling shadows beneath them in the dark, trusting the rest of his senses to maintain his position with her. Closer, his desire whispered, but the flaxen Fire ignored it, understanding it was hardly time. If she wanted him to fly with her to end of the golden horizon, Dhruva would oblige without complaint. Her company was an inflammation in his blood, but a soothing as well.

He didn’t challenge her speed, nor urged her to go any faster, silently aware and unwilling to exert her. He remained like a still orbit companion, shifted when she did, turned when she wished, dipped and rose like white shadow cast beside her form. Dignity and instinctual male pride refused to allow him any slack, no matter how foolish. His desire to impress, to please, was at the forefront of his mind, dictating his actions to conceal faults and weaknesses.

Mercurial gaze glanced her way when her mellifluous voice graced his ears. His smile was a warm lift of lips, humour flickering in his eyes. “Ready for you- I doubt I will ever be. For your trials, I am.” It was a pleasant feeling, despite the minor hurts when she swept him off his feet, knowing. She had folded, briefly exposing her belly before she swung seamlessly in an elegant manoeuvre beside him. The added distance was a yawning trench between them.

She might have delivered him a riddle, but it sounded somewhat, like an indirect imploration. What is it did he want from her? His flight slowed as she coasted further away. He couldn’t read her face, the only indication of any emotion coursing through her, was the pulse of white in her spines. But really, all he needed was a bit of courage.

Jaws set, Dhruva tucked his feet close and pitched his form to chase. Moonlit wings worked to carry him faster, further. Sinuous revolutions accelerating till he was a dragon length away from her tail. “I am quite certain I do not have mine with me anymore. You might have stolen it,” he called after her, baritone voice resonant in the silence of the night. With a brief burst of energy, he sailed above her and rolled to take his place next to her, pale edges trailing gossamer touch to the curve of her pliant wing. He tilted his head to keep her within his sight, a crooked smile on his lips. “But you can have it.” His answer was unspoken, but for a simple gesture of one paw pressed to his chest.

"I can wait... if you wish to turn back," soft, patient and willing despite the roil in his blood3, he remembered her hesitance. "It does not have to be today."
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Ana found herself bemused and at the same time, wondering, as she twisted through the starry night. How was it, she pondered, that this male that she had always looked to, and always followed found it so intriguing to follow her now? Surely, she had looked to him for so many years, and yet here now, he stared at her with such attention that surely she would have been blushing brightly if she were human in form. She was the enchantress, the siren that had summoned him here, and yet, for the times she had done so before, she found it just as captivating and confusing, just as tempting in it's potential powers as all the times before. She let out a low musical hum of laughter, that had bubbled up from the amusement she had with herself and her own confusion. Things such as these had their ways of working out, and it would just as it had before.

He was quick to follow, his attention sharp and focused as he trailed after her, keeping a singular distance between them both. Enough room for her to shift and move in the flights, and give him time to respond in turn, but little enough room that the distance between them was so close that had she stalled for only a few brief seconds they may have brushed by one another. She cast a look over her shoulder at Dhruva as she ascended through the sky, letting him mull over the riddle she had just cast to him as they flew, both going at their languid pace, but feeling the tension regardless. His mercury eyes caught the glow of the moon and starlight, making them appear to blaze like molten silver,

His warm lilting voice chimed through the wind and carried to her sharp ears, the low baritone easily bracing against the wind that ruffled past them. Ready for her trials, that was good, she was glad he was determined in this. The last fluttering scraps of uncertainty regarding whether or not he was truly willing to Chase and to Fly after her diminished like fog in the morning sunlight. Why did she doubt before? She wondered as much now as she watched Dhruva wing after her. As she pulled away, his wing beats slowed to a coast, allowing the trench of distance to further itself. She canted her head to observe him, her wing-beats slowing out from their steady rhythmic heartbeat to a still stretch of black sceathers that caught the shaping wind.

Her riddle was in place, what was his answer?

A flurry of wing-beats and he was behind her again, his speed easily allowing him to catch back up. She didn't raise her wings for another aerial stride, she instead tipped her head back to listen and observe, had he figured it out so quickly? A gentle upturn of her lips and she chided herself gently and internally, of course he had discovered an answer in some form or another. There was no surge of speed from him behind her, he did not hover closely to push her forwards faster. There was no urging nor need to accelerate, he allowed things to go her own pace and that was something she was glad for.

His answer hummed forth from behind her, a careless and amused set of phrasing, that even as he spoke it's very beginnings she knew he had found the answer she sought. Her smile widened slightly and her head tipped to a coy curve on her neck. Stolen his heart? Her? She would have shaken her head at the ridiculousness of the notion that she had stolen Dhruva's heart. If anything, she had found herself suddenly swept off her feet instead. Even now, his graceful flight, even in his still damaged condition, and the words he spoke in his deep thrumming voice gave forth to an internal sort of swoon that she did her best to control. But he'd given her permission, he'd let her have his heart. She looked down shyly at the passing edges of the forest.

He twisted in the air and surged forth from behind her, his body twisting in a graceful turn in the air and brushing one edge of wing over hers as he settled back beside her in the air. The gentle touch upon the sceathers caused no extra motion gave no sign of having been affected, but within herself, the fires twitched and shifted. Even in the cool night, the heat surged.

His next words however, stalled the flames, made them gutter, and flicker. She turned to look at him, her eyes now guarded by uncertainty again. Had she been obvious in her prior nervousness? Her wrestling with the truth and her own desires had not meant to be demonstrated in external signs. She had her own demons, and now wished that they had not presented themselves this night. She had given Dhruva the means to doubt, and she wished she had not caused him the discomfort that her hesitance had provided. Instead, a glow of mirth arose in her eyes. "Wait? Turn back? But you've only just answered one riddle. Surely the first wasn't so difficult that you'd rather wait a few days to brush up on more."

She paused and turned to look at him, the hinting and humor gone. Had they not been in flight, she would have brushed reassuringly against him, but as it was, the motion was not followed. Instead, she gazed at him levelly and offered a small smile. "All is well with me. Do not fear that you are pushing me into something I may not wish. The call was for you, and I do not regret sounding it." She winged back ahead of him, hoping to instigate him back into following. She would rather move on past the thoughts of hesitation and uncertainty. They were here, they were together, and she was wise enough to know the difference between Taint and Sekkain, and there was certainly no demonstration of the terrible aggression she'd become acquainted with from Gloire in Dhruva.

"You've answered one riddle correctly, but two more await you." She murmured to the wind, her neck arching to allow her to watch him. "Here is your next riddle:

At night they come without being fetched.
During the day they are lost without being stolen.

What are they?"
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Seiss
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Gyrfalcon- geddit right bud, or you is food.
Her laughter was a slow pour of warm honey down his crown, a boost to his courage. He altered the rhythm of his wing beats and wound the pair of white sails backwards, halting his advance, propelling him skywards. A low thrumming of delight bellowed from his between the ivory daggers of his teeth. Flames, gold in dim light sprouted from a great heave of his breath a brief vanishing bouquet. Gentle flames that barely lit the darkness around them, spreading a second’s brush of colour on the inky canvas curled to nothingness. Dhruva dipped a short flitting dive beside his sable lady, sinuous neck bowed in a curious curve to catch a glimpse of her shying face. He grinned, feeling years younger, cocky as a strutting youngling upon his graduation.

It made his chest fill with an indescribable feeling, as though he had breathed in a concoction of bliss. It spurred him to dance for the female, show her what she had won. He didn’t resist the instinctual calling, regardless of how silly it might have been had he been thinking rationally. But rationality had no place here, a moment separate from reality, where fire brought pleasure instead of pain and hunger was the drive to gift. He wished he could shorten the extensive stretch of his wings, pull closer to the female who enchanted him so. Wistfully, he let his left wing dip vertically down, exposing the pale expanse of his belly to her. The position, suspended upon a fraction of a second collapsed as he spun beneath her. Spread wings held still, while he twisted his spine to send him whirling in a horizontal, aerial pirouette. The opposing forces of resisting wind granted him no leniency, testing the strength of his wings with his own delivered force against him to collapse stretched wing arms. If the ache was terrible, he gave no notion of feeling it. After his second round, the great wings gathered the air beneath, bras au repos in movement, parting the air before his strength returned to grant him an upward climb.

He flitted, mimicking the soft fluttering beats of a butterfly back to her side. Neck arced in a tight curve to slant his head over his shoulder. Silvery eyes reflected his spirited mood as he dipped his right wing down to a sloping slant, gliding a wide curve before her, round her back. Hastened, supple wing beats collected him back to her flank once more, warm breaths misting through his nostrils as he righted himself. A ragged chuckle grated from his throat when she made light his query for her comfort. “I’d rather not. I might grow too nervous.” Her assurance proved to him her strength, the commendable bravery for her desire to overcome the cruel hand that seized her. She had gifted him a great honour to choose his blood to carry. He was all the more determined to protect, to keep. “I will always answer, Ana,” he said, raw words wrought with the white strings of promise and emotion.

Two more. A wry smile pulled at his lips as he watched her flow ahead, a form of complex beauty, liquid darkness strung on enticing shape and the colour of autumn flame on her back. She shouldn’t have told him that. Now the desire to leap on her for a good tumble was almost difficult to resist. There was no need for her to worry, for he was swift to follow, still riding off his previous playful high, Dhruva swung his weight from side to side, meeting her gaze thoughtfully.

A moment of extended silence stretched between them. There were a few possibilities… he hesitated as he reviewed his choices, but soon settled upon one. “The stars, perhaps?”
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The vast wings of the flaxen Fire, though not illuminated by any light that the night gave off, still seemed to glow bright white, catching whatever scant luminescence that the stars provided to veil the area around them with their own radiance. The white flared out and Dhruva's exhaled tendrils of ghostly gold, a radiant sunbeam of fire that writhed joyously in the air like the release of a lover's daisy picked flower petals before being carried away by the wind. The light faded, but the brief gold still felt as if it reflected in her eyes, just the barest of flecks of the deep gold that settled in the back of her mind and drew her liquid amethyst gaze to the sinuous form of Dhruva.

As he twisted his body in a contortion of a dive, his neck curving into a noble arch, she noted the playful mood that had taken over the earlier tension that had balanced around them. The tension was there, but it had loosened, like a musician adjusting the tune to their strings, checking the pitch and tenor for the proper song to be played. The sheet music had changed, and just like that, the lines of her mouth drew up as Dhruva descended into his dance, his wings spreading wide before dipping and turning him over to flash the scales of his chest and stomach up at her. She arched her own neck to observe with an appreciative eye as he seemed to float there like a leaf on the wind for a suspended moment of time before twisting away with just as much ease as he'd seemed to defy gravity with.

A twist and stretch of his spine like a cat adjusting to a fall, wings strained against the wind, the sceathers she noted, straining in the winds that pushed at the corkscrewing maneuver that would have caused a lesser male to rescind his wings and curve away. But not Dhruva, despite his condition and the ragged appearance of the male, he'd still managed to captivate her with his grace, and the majestic leonine movements that his figure inspired, even as he flitted with the ease and grace of a great bird that had been born of the sky, and not of both worlds like they were.

Then he rose again, quick wing-beats sending him twisting about her like a young yearling that she guessed that they were both beginning to feel like. Another soft laugh. She would have followed him had this not been a Flight for her to lead, and him to follow. What would have been the harm though? Nothing of course, but still she stayed her course, her eyes however, bright and playful matching the mirthful grin that had found itself placed upon Dhruva's own maw.

At his answer, she gave a gentle smile. "Good. I fear I'd be too nervous to sound a second call." She almost turned her head away in embarassment again, but at the last moment only glanced away slightly. Truly she felt inexperienced and lost from time to time around Dhruva in this flight. Things she had known skipped from her mind. Her breath fled from her lungs at the twists and touches he'd bestowed upon her attention so far. His voice's unique lilt commanded her attention every time that it soared through the air to carry to her ears.

"I will always answer, Ana." Something in her twisted, and an emotion pulled at her. A twist of bittersweetness and joy. Her reply was quiet, "I am glad..." She had his heart he'd said. It was clear to her, and she hoped it was to him as well, that he had hers as well. An equal exchange between the two of them that left her with the joy as the bittersweet faded away in the face of the still present playfulness demonstrated by Dhruva's rocking through the sky. Amused, she twisted her own way in counter to his own sway, their wing tips almost brushing as they both swayed back to the central space between them both. Perhaps not as impressive or playful as his earlier singular dance, but it granted brief brushes and touches of sceathered wings.

"Bravo." she beamed at him, a deep purr ringing under her voice. "You are quite good at these riddles. Are you certain you haven't heard them before?" she asked with a chuckle. She tipped her wings so she passed low on her next swing, sliding by beneath him and back up to his other side. "Now it is time for our final riddle, Dhruva." she hummed. "This was one my mother had taught me long ago, and it confused me for a good day." she chuckled and glanced sideways at him teasingly. "Hopefully you will be quicker upon finding the answer, which I suppose I should say, is actually not one, but two different things."

She tipped her head back briefly, trying to remember just how it had gone. A dusty memory this one, but one that had a shine even beneath the grime of time.

"What falls but never breaks, and what breaks but never falls?" she asked with a slight smile pulling at her mouth.
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Seiss
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Gyrfalcon- geddit right bud, or you is food.
He really ought to stop straining his wings, but he really couldn’t resist. A soft rusty warble bubbled up his throat, his insides thawing, disintegrating into mush when the dark dragoness charmed him with the unintentional shy turn of her cheek. Unaware of the effects of his own presence had on her, he was dancing to the soundless, voiceless melody of her song. A serpent entranced by its charmer’s flute. She made his blood pound, his lungs expand, fill him with a different thrill. So beautiful…. Collared neck twisted, silvery eyes ensnared by her form when she joined him in his swinging. Ghosting touches… golden laughter in her eyes. He sighed, movements growing steadier, a besotted smile still upon his lips.

If he was too forward, he didn’t care much anymore. Dhruva was willing to take the risk. The night might share a similar cloak with her hide, but he could make her out easily. The dim, weak lighting, with close attention, had laced her outline with the thinnest sliver of vibrant blue, touched her scales to add the depth and dimensions that made her solid against the vast tapestry of infinite gloom. A jewel laid upon soft black velvet. Her silken whisper did not escape his attentive ears, but it seemed too short for him to read how well she received his bold offer. He didn’t dare assume, but she was still here and she had yet to ask him to leave. Perhaps it counted as something positive.

There was no need for her to impress him. Why for when she already had him captured by her star lit tines, black mirror scales, deep mauve eyes and enrapturing voice? That part was his and every other males in any mating flight. Her call alone had made his blood boil and his soul sing. The distraction he choreographed wouldn’t last, he knew, but he felt it was necessary despite her assurances. He wanted her to enjoy this, wanted her to take pleasure in her flight, and Dhruva had decided it was far more important than the mating itself. The charged pressure between them returned as his childish antics waned, bringing his senses to an uncomfortably sharp focus on her scent, her ripe body.

Her praise, wrapped luxurious velvet and tied complete with a bow laced in sensuality didn’t help. Pale wings stiffened, faltered in their smooth strokes when the texture of her voice stroked against the thirst in the pit of his belly. It was a sudden jerking drop of his own doing that was the rope to save him from spiralling down too far. Dhruva gave his head a hard shake, renewing his efforts to recover his flight. Sceathers clicked softly, muffled by the even mane along his neck. “I have not,” his answer came late, distant with hypnotized distraction from the flicker of her wings. “The answers come faster, for you are the one who asked.” The attraction was dreadful. If he had been competing, how was he ever going to win her if she was more than compelling to his primal senses? He tried valiantly to gather himself, puzzled by the control that slipped from his claws without his awareness.

The shadow and the senseless warmth of her presence passing beneath him very nearly undid his efforts. Last riddle. Last. Dhruva blew a swirling breath of condensing mists into the air, desperately drawing in the cold wind to replace in his lungs. He pulled his wings close, aware that she was nearly brushing the tip of her sceathers with his, and urged them to carry him higher, place just a bit more distance between them for the sake of his sanity. Quicker? Yes he would damned well make sure of it. White shoulders flexed harder, deliberately awaiting the stabbing hurt in the wounds that Gloire had made. It brought a piercing sense of clarity through the fog of desire, an embarrassing relief.

Dhruva dared to chance a glance below at his waiting dragoness. Pale wings beat the air with light touches, before they stretched far to glide a slow cruising circle, ensuring he followed her in a loose orbit. Mercurial gaze dimmed as his thoughts flowed inwards, teasing the words she delivered him apart. Generally, all physical objects would break given enough force applied to them. Unless the objects in question defied gravity, they should fall to comply with the rules of physics. The first answer to her first riddle was the heart, the second were the stars….

How many rounds he circled above her, how long he stared, he paid little attention as he raced for the answer in the maze of her riddle. She said she took a good day- Dhruva snorted, eyes blinking rapidly when realization hit. He laughed, the sound resonant, pulsing baritone that reflected his relief. He felt like an accomplished yearling as he fluttered overhead and flitted upside down for a brief moment to give her his answer, “Dusk falls but never breaks. Dawn breaks but never falls.” Silvery eyes sparked with renewed mirth. “If you hadn’t told me how long you took to solve it, I am afraid I might disappoint you.”

He fell next to her with an agile contortion of his spine, awaiting her assessment.
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Zinc
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It was almost over, and she was quite eager to see the Flight reach it's conclusion. The rusty purrs and rumbles, the sounds of Dhruva's voice...They only created a tighter winding coil in her stomach, her insides surged at every deep tenor of his voice and she was beginning to feel uncomfortable. She wasn't totally unaware of the things her own scent and her own body was doing to Dhruva's. The air, though full of the scent of ozone and the crisp scents of autumn, was filled with her own scent, enticing to any male, and the increasingly growing scent of Dhruva's own.

He was a bright beacon that drew her eyes with every movement of his body, and she'd noticed over the procession of the flight that his patterns were getting more erratic in his flight. His body was stiffening up with a strain she herself was far too familiar with at the given moment. But the Flight had not reached it's end, and damn it all if she was remember just why she and every other blasted female of the Academy liked to stretch them over a length of time to test the prowess of the males. It wasn't just to observe, it was to make sure that all were prepared for what was to come. Gah...Damn tradition. She was nearly on the same boat as Dhruva, just skipping the final answer all together and jumping him right there. He'd answered two of them correctly so far. That was a passing score, was it not? It was certainly the majority.

His voice distracted her, caused her eyes to flare back to life from the fog of distraction as her thoughts had wandered...elsewhere... in the briefly passing moments. So distracted was she, that she hadn't noticed the lapse in time since Dhruva's question had been presented. But she did note with surprise that he had dropped and fell back. She tipped her head to look at him, the tightening in her gut receding and replaced with worry. She had known he was in bad shape, but the sudden stiff movements he showed made her wonder if the pains from battle had returned, and the flight had gone on for far too long.

A flattering few words came next, though they were carried on a farther distance of wind, they were still legible. She felt a smile curl on her maw. "Woe to the others who may have tried to court you and received no prompt answer." She gave a soft chuckle, turning to look ahead and take her mind off of courting for a few brief moments as she remembered she was trying to direct a Flight. Getting lost in the dark now would do her no good. She banked and swept back to the east, her wings sliding near horizontal as she arced sharply, the wind whistled past her horns and through the ridges of her scales and sceathers, a slight sound, but briefly distracting.

Another brief brush of sceathers and he soared higher and farther away from herself. She knew then, from that final tip off, that his own self-control was waning, perhaps faster than hers was. But her final riddle was voiced, what a distraction the fact that it was her last was more prominent in her own mind perhaps than it was Dhruva's. He had her riddle's meaning to ponder. She had the giddiness of what was to come to cope with. It was tinged by nervousness, a twitch of a shying yearling, and a great joy that she knew came with every promise of new life.

His answer came and her brief smile widened to a grin. There it was, three out of three. A perfect score. "Yes! Yes!" she exclaimed. "That is it indeed, I didn't realize however," She gave a brief chortle, "That I had given a hint. I suppose I should have been more careful with how I spoke." She gave an internal shrug however, she didn't really mind that he'd figured it out, the less time for them to wait, the better, she was starting to feel impatient herself, and was glad he was as keen a mind as she had expected him to be.

She felt something in her loosen as he finally approached her again, drawing near. She turned her head and smiled. "Yes you found the answers. Dawn and dusk, day and night, light and dark." She thrummed thoughtfully. "Like you, and like I. We are both light and dark, and yet we find ourselves here in this moment." She turned her wings and soared upwards in a sudden twist of her body. "You have proven yourself this day, Dhruva. I am yours, and you are mine."

She flew up towards the clearing stars of the sky, ready for him to follow, he had fought for his prize, the rights to sire her children, who were to be his children now too. The night was clear, the stars were calling her, as he called her, and she called for him. She was ready to begin the true purpose of this flight now so long as he was by her side.
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Seiss
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Gyrfalcon- geddit right bud, or you is food.
”Woe to the others who may have tried to court you and received no prompt answer.”

He laughed a hearty bass, tight knot of tension loosening in his gut. “Fortunately, I never had that happen.” At least… none that he was aware of. He was often too busy, almost always arriving late with social meetings. Few females have the patience for that. Then again, he had never felt compelled to try and please any. Perhaps, save for Ana. Her brief parting attention alerted him to their surroundings. For a moment, he worried if his senses failed to detect a lurking Taint. Nostrils flared, filling his lungs for a more purposeful sifting of the air. Moist fallen leaves, clear, save for the dominant scent of female. Silver eyes never left the graceful arc of her back, the sweep of amber on the scales of her spine.

Murmuring winds sifting through her sceathers and grooved ivory horns accompanied her elegant movements with fluttering sighs. He didn’t follow immediately, curbing the pressing desire to chase in exchange for the glimpse of her aerial elegance. A deep thrumming was his sung praise to her. Alabaster wings beat twice, pivoting upon his weight to make a sharper turn, closing half the distance between them with a smooth sweep of pale body. It was a poor choice, given how hopelessly entranced he was with the dark female. Dhruva had faltered then and corrected the brief lapse with the choice of drifting higher up.

When she affirmed his answer, the weight in his belly burst into countless fluttering wings. The last riddle was solved. He listened , so rapt in her euphonic voice. Light and dark. Had she meant he was light? The exhilaration flooding his veins slowed and his eyes dimmed with a grey tint of melancholy. “You must be the light, then, my bright lady,” he murmured. He wore pale armour, wielded fire, but inside the flaxen Fire felt far from pure. Plates on his crown loosened before aligning once more in a smooth rattle. This was no time to brood. Arching neck twisted to cast his gaze on her mirthful glow and he smiled. Tonight was for her. “I am yours,” there was a strain when he repeated her vows, a raw, trembling beneath sonorous depth, “as you are mine.”

The beating organ in his chest had never felt so alive with its accelerated rhythm. It funnelled through him, a rare warmth long forgotten, that reminded him that he was a beast of flesh and blood. Sensations he missed filtered through him and sought appreciation, made him feel as though he was a mortal babe just born, feeling the strength of his wings for the first time. There were no barriers barring him from touching her now. She had granted him permission. Tension unfurled, unleashed a flood of fiery, intoxicating blood through his veins as ivory wings stretched with abandon, heedless of how much exertion it took to rise with her.

A bright plume of flames gushed from his parting maws, a vanishing flower that accompanied his gravelly call after her, desire thick in the layers of his voice. Expansive wings ploughed the cool air, shoulders flexing in a powerful show to bring him to her level, but he didn’t slow, and still he climbed, higher. Armoured velvet nose dipped and nuzzled the exposed length of her throat. His warm breaths fanned across the softer cast of her obsidian scales. The drive to pierce high above the cloud layer, to make their joining fall last longer provided him with a flood of adrenaline. It mattered little, for the forest below would provide them both ample cover. Vigilant mercurial gaze observed her intently, gauging with care, her endurance and newly recovered wounds. The strains of his own were forgotten, brushed aside as mere pin pricks against a wide expanse of skin.

When the thinnest, gauzy film of clouds stirred around them, Dhruva thrummed a low purring sound in his throat, brushing his nose against hers in a doting gesture of open affection. The distance between them was sealed in a flurry of wing beats, bodies coiled in the embrace of lovers.
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