Control, or Lack Thereof (Dor)

[Lu Gavima]

Winter, Day 11, AV 511

It had been merely two days since Lu had broken his arm and nearly lost his life. His heart was still heavy with the guilt he had at not being able to protect the porters, but the life of Shinya was not for melancholy. He had allowed himself a day of solid sleep but on this day, he knew he had to push on with his training. His mother, a rarely seen presence in his life, had swayed his father into keeping him out of active practice right away. Lu would not dishonor his parents' wishes, but he chose to leave the City and enter the Misty Peaks. There were several other options besides fighting. Truth be told, his still swollen arm wouldn't deal with it anyway, regardless of inner strength.

Outside the relative protection of Zintila's grasp and Her skyglass, the winds whipped over the cold crags of broken rock as Lu found himself looking up at a small area which looked promising for his practice. He could see the blue tinge of a patch of sky pilot and was determined to get up there. Doing so in a weakened physical state with a bum arm was just written off in his mind as another challenge to be met and overcome. Slowly and very carefully, he used his free hand and his feet to find each solid piece of rock until he found the small summit he had eyed. The wind seemed to die down briefly, which was a blessing as he bent down near the edge and plucked one of the small blue flowers free from its stem, his fingers caressing it in his hand.

His intent at this time was to practice a bit of Projection, something that had come to him while watching leaves blow from a tree in the Surya Plaza. He had seen a leaf nearly touch the ground and then suddenly be picked up by a small draft. It was not such a reach to imagine the draft as a Projectionist's manipulation. It very well could have been in the City of Stars. Now he found himself on the side of a mountain, his fingers and palm already working free of his flesh. Concentration kept the small flower in his astral hand, its natural cerulean hue more vibrant in the hazy blue of his ethereal limb. His forearm and bicep followed suit, his arm of flesh and bone falling at his side, the petals precariously perched seemingly by magic. And it was Magic.

[Dor]

Within the wind was the wealth of the world. The peregrine falcon was a master of the sky, sweeping up all of the dust the clouds had left behind. Cartwheels and narrowing gyres had been carved from the air, handfuls of nothing alchemized into joy wingspans wide. Day watched perfect and cold, smearing the light from Syna's sun against dissipating mist until figures began to emerge on the peaks below. It had been day spent drinking wind, eating up the rainbows the wolf's hour had left behind with its rain. By now all the peaks that made up the dual natured city of Lhavit had long since been explored aerially, but there no lack of new crevices and caves, flora and game to pester and pursue. Hunger had the falcon floating in a lazy spiral lower and lower, eyes black as the spaces between the stars keeping a careful watch out for sign of potential luncheon. Rather than a plump, glowing pigeon or an irritatingly shrill starling, the falcon's interest was caught by the vigorous health of a young man seated on what had to have been awkward height for a human to ascend. It was not until the cerulean flower began to float in midair and the travels of the wind the bird knew well had stilled that she acted. Within a wink, the falcon languorous flight flipped. Black tipped wings shot toward the spread of tail feathers and the wicked curve of her beak stretched long. Wind whistled against the breath taking stoop and too soon sharp talons stabbed through the flower's delicate petals, whisking the plant away with her to roost on a nearby sycamore branch. The bird's caw sounded incredibly satisfied.

[Lu Gavima]

Lu moved his fingers in a slow, oscillating fan, watching the petals of the sky pilot drift and bounce softly beneath their manipulations. His focus was fully present on this finer control. Knowing where he wished to take Projection, he focused on one finger at a time, his vision sharpening around each digit's interaction with the flower. As his father often said, 'Practice makes the master.' So, practice it wou----

A flash of movement passed before him in the intensity of his focus. Even with his eyes set on his fingers and the small blue plant there, whatever passed before him did so with such a speed and power that it was very difficult to determine what it was. What was sure and plain was that he had been pilfered from and it had been done with complete efficiency. His body tried to turn to follow whatever it had been when Lu made the sudden. stark realization that his body was falling. Without his arms to catch himself, one being bound and broken , the other a weak astral counterpart, he fell solidly with a thud against the rocks, his head stinging from the impact.

As if he was not humbled enough, he realized as soon as he lay there that he could neither rub the smarting lump on his head....or get up. He knew that pulling his astral arm back in quickly would do more harm than good. The hasty mating would cause his arm to be numb and painful, as nerve endings tried to find their places among the mess. So he simply had to lie there and be frustrated. The vantage point from the ground did give him the moment of pause he needed to turn his head and see a falcon nearby, its haughty crowing seemingly filled with smug satisfaction? The dull throb in his head matched the one in his jostled and splinted arm. "Was that really necessary?"

[Dor]

Green shadows dappled the topside of folding wings, feather settling from their satisfied fluff and the cerulean flower dangling with unconscious comedy from the curve of the bird's beak. The terrifyingly adroit swivel of her head brought a black eye lowering upon the young man, at once detached and focused with an intensity of study. One might receive the impression of cliff faces and far flung stars, distant and cold in their nonetheless vigilant observance. Whatever suggestion of nobility might have existed, however, ruptured in an abrupt spread of wings and a hoppity-hop carrying her down the branch. The falcon's awkward descent rustled the sycamore leaves, or what remained of them in winter's barren panoply. When he spoke, she went still. After a moment, tail feathers dipped, she shook as if showering off an irritating rain, and dropped more swiftly than a pirate's fist to the ground beside his head. Her treasure, that celestially glowing bloom (now a bit tattered), floated in the beckoning fingers of a more kindly breeze to come to rest upon his chest. It was, perhaps, an apology.

[Lu Gavima]

Bringing his head back to the front, Lu was already in the process of reattaching his right arm, though he only did so to the elbow. He could hear the branches of the tree the winged thief had settled in shaking, so he turned his head slowly. It was making its way down the tree. He found that very odd for a bird. It made its way to him, releasing the flower, the breeze catching its shredded wings.

He pulled himself up to a seated position with a little difficulty, the bird still sitting near him. It was perhaps the strangest reactions he had ever seen from a bird. "Thank you...bird. I certainly didn't expect you to bring it back. Looking over to his splinted arm, he could see that the wrapping had become loose with the fall and the activity of rising. He moved his right arm, the astral part from the elbow out gingerly retying and stretching the cloth around his broken arm. To the bird, Lu would exhibit his own strange action, his right arm moving toward the splint, though his forearm and hand of the unwrapped arm would hang limp, an unseen force doing the tying and manipulation of cloth.

"That's better." His arm reached back instinctively to feel what felt like a goose egg rising on the back of his head. Instinct, however, did not give his arm sensation enough to know, the limp, empty arm flopping backward and hanging. His frustration grew slightly and he turned back to the bird of prey. "Why this flower? There is a whole hillside of them above us." His head nodded back and to the left in the direction of the sky pilot patch he had first perused.

[Dor]

The moment the muslin bandage began to twist and move through the air in accordance with the dance of no wind, the bird struck again. That defiant and deadly curve of beak poked at the bandage, catching an end against the sharp, downward slope and proceeding to worry at it with a great deal of clack-clack-clacking. Her talons dug into the rocky soil for purchase and the massive spread of her wings caught the air as she strained backwards, trying her damnedest to worm the cloth free. Only then the stranger was talking to her and black eyes locked. When he nodded, indicating the direction in which there were supposedly a great wealth of flowers exactly like that which she had stopped from assassinating him (it had been floating in the air, after all), the bandage was dropped and the falcon's head swiveled to stare.

[Lu Gavima]

Lu's face turned into a sneer of surprise and disgust as the bird became more determined to hassle him. Was he some kind of rodent scurrying around? What was this bird's problem? The digging in and pulling of the muslin was painful and brought some sweat to his already damp brow.

Now it looked at him with intent when he spoke to it. He was utterly bewildered. When he spoke of the sky pilot patch, it had been mostly out of frustration and yet, this simple bird seemed to understand. Had he moved his head? He couldn't remember. He was already out of breath from the effort and it would be a long trek back to Lhavit. He didn't want to get caught injured after Syna retired for the day. Grunting and straining, he pushed his legs in order to bring himself to his feet. He felt no safer with the bird, as it could fly around his head and make him fall.

"Well? Go eat those flowers. I need these bandages." He started to very carefully inch his way past the bird. "Please don't make me fall again."

[Whimsy]

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Experience Award

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Lu Gavima

Exp
+1 Climbing
+3 Projection

Lores
Broken Arm
Falling

Comments
A shame this ended prematurely. It was interesting watching Lu struggle with so many things at once: his training, his health, and the damned bird. PM me if you have any questions or concerns.