(Flashback) Ascension (Closed)

[Tiaue'a]

35 Spring 502 In a world so torn by hate and sorrow, to find a nice thing was truly precious, and often miraculous. It was something to covet, to hold onto with hope that one day that will be the normal thing again. Everything will be normal again, eventually, right? Wind Reach had not truly changed too much ever since its original establishment. Its realm had been expanded, of course, but it was always the same old thing. It was odd, that is, that Wind Reach existed because it did - a crater of sadness and loss. Mizahar burned with rage all around the mountain if you looked hard enough, but there were still some of those miracles that lightened the mood. A little more than a year ago a group of eaglets had been born. It was sometime in the fall. It was also when Tiaue`a had first shifted, some few weeks after her birth and been moved into the aeries. She had been generally behaved, for an eaglet that is, and didn’t try to peck out any of her younger brothers. Now they all stood overlooking the ledges of the peaks below Mt. Skynarta. It still went higher… some of them thought. Ti`ue flapped her wings lightly as she hopped over a few feet from the absolute edge. She had joined a group of two others, nest-mates you could say. Their minds were open enough for their thoughts to be heard within a close distance. “You go look over...” “No! You!” “I’m not going’! You go- Ti`ue! Ti’ue go look over the edge.” “I’m not going to go look! You go look! What is he thinking?” “He says it’s not a far drop. He wants to try to fly, but he’s scared he’s going to fall. I don’t blame him, but I’m not looking either.” The three of them stood looking over the edge from afar. They all hopped back, feathers ruffled, as an older Wind Eagle swooped down from a nest above. He always did that sort of thing, a show off, the girls were probably up higher watching him. “Look! Over there!” For a year there was a nest across the way, the entrance clearly visible from this one. Another eaglet was looking over the edge, his wings moving in and out, a rough mimicry of the adults who were soaring all around them. The older one who dove over the three before was circling over to the other eaglet flapping his wings. His caw was heard across the way, taunting yet full of encouragement. The three opened their beaks together and hopped closer and looked on in awe. The eagle had flapped his wings, hopped closer to the edge and dove off. It was a straight drop to the bottom. Ti`ue for one was horrified. She could hardly help herself to watch, but…but it was so scary! “He’s gonna’ die! Get mom! Get mom!” “I don’t know where she is!? He’s not going to die! Fly! Fly!!” Ti`ue agreed, “Fly!!!” Soon they were all chanting it in thought and voice, their little beaks screeching at the horror unraveling before them. An elder wind eagle had caught a glimpse of the eaglet trying to fledge and dove down after him. He was almost half way to the bottom now! He had been flapping his wings frantically, trying to get it right, but seemed to be in more of a dive. The elder flew alongside him several feet away. No one really knew what he was telling the younger. The elder looked over to the eaglet, and the eaglet to him. The elder then pulled away, his wings spearing wide as he took off towards the center in an arc. He then began to beat his own wings against the wind in broad, full strokes. He brought them back in and did it again, nice and wide, being sure to get all the air under there. The three eaglets on the ledge had only taken their attention from the eaglet trying to fledge for a moment to observe the elder. One by one they returned their attention to the younger that had leapt. Ti`ue was the last to return her attention. His frantic flapping, the eaglet who jumped from the high ledge of Wind Reach, seems a bit calmer now. His flapped his wings together. Three fourths…it was now or never. “I can’t watch!” “Stop screaming!” “He's going to die!” “He’s not going to die!!” “He’s going to die! He’s going to die! He’s going to di-i-ie!!! ” Tiaue`a caught a glimpse of something. “Shut up! Shut up! Look!!!” The fledgling spread his wings wider in his beating, and caught the air underneath. His strokes became broad like the elders, his chest protruding far from his wings in full expanse. He began to beat faster and faster. He straightened out, and eventually he was flying. His heart must have been racing as he now soared across the crater. He was excited, and screamed his success to the world. Those three eaglets on the edge who had served as witnesses just then were awestruck. Their beaks very well might have dropped three times that day. As the silence that hung over them faded, they started pointing beaks at each other immediately. “You do it…” “No! You do it!! Tiaue`a should do it! She’s older!” “Am not! He wanted to do it in the first place! Go ahead! Fly!” In all fairness, either of them could have gone first. Their plumage was more than ready for such a task. Most of their young down had long been replaced. They just needed a sort of push. It was a standoff, however. Despite the evident success rate, one for one that is as of the moment, no one wanted to be the odd factor. “How about we go together?” “I’m not flying next to you…” “What does that mean?!” “You’ll hog all the space, just like you do in the nest. …fattie.” “I do not! …and I am not fat!” “Ya, she’s not fat! That was mean!” Ti`ue was always right to come to the defense of her sister. “You should go first for that one.” “I don’t want to!” “Do it or I push you!” “No!!!” Tiaue`a and her sister cornered him off. His back was to the edge now, creating a terribly dangerous scenario if he backed off the ledge. “Fine! Fine… I’ll go first. You’re such a bunch of girls…” he mumbled to himself, "…probably not enough going to be good enough for a dek…” He whirled his head around to see if they heard that one. They didn’t seem to. Secretly they were still terrified, or at least Tiaue`a was. She loved him dearly, the bugger, but…well someone had to go first! And there was no way, and she meant NO-WAY it was going to be her. The girls backed up and cringed in their dark feathers, beaks ajar, as their younger brother hopped closer and spread his wings like he was ready to just dive off the edge!

[Tiaue'a]

His form fell off the edge into nothing. Both Ti`ue and her sister went nuts, hopping over to the ledge for themselves just to see what was going on. Was he a dead spat on the ground?! Did someone else save him?! She’d have screeched for momma’ if she were around. The fledging of an eagle is a necessity most overlooked with caution. It could result in tragedy, quite easily, but there were efforts to prevent it. Ti`ue gazed with the widest eyes to see him diving. It appeared he was trying to spread his wings apart, and, and! He did it! He parted his wings and started to fly out toward the center of the crater. Both girls were awestruck by the feat. The older eagle who taunted them before now joined with their brother. It was beautiful to see them fly along each others’ side. The grace of the wind eagles was unparalleled in this world, in Windreach. Naturally, they looked at one another next. Who would go next? “It doesn’t look too hard. I mean even he could do it.” “Yeah…not tough at all! You want to go first?” “It’s okay, you can…if you want to.” “Yeah…” Ti`ue saw her sister look around a bit frantically. They had a good relationship, so there wasn’t much of a desire to push one another. Their brother flew up some feet from the ledge enough to speak with them. Both were so excited to see not only that he was alive, but that he was flying! He was really, really flying! “You’re not scared now are you?!” The girls looked at each other deceptively. Even with sisters there was some tension of competition. “Hey, hey! How do I land?!” Neither one could respond to him with this either. He gently hovered himself over before them both and fluttered down…down…and finally… He landed with less grace than a one year flyer. His wings even beat a little bit before he must have realized he had landed safely. Before the girls could ask him about it, he interjected. “This, is, so, COOL!” His exclamation was met by his natural desire to hop closer to the ledge and dive back into the open blue. He was off flying as they returned glances of astonishment. One of them would be showed up today. With that split second double take each was looking back and forth toward the ledge. They raced to it, but neither of them leapt forward. The bond of sisterhood set them both up to the jump. “On three?” “On three!” Together they counted. One… Two… Three! Tiaue`a jumped and quickly fell into her path. Her straight leap from the cliff side didn’t get her far. Her tight knit wings let her glide out a bit more, but before she knew it, gravity has started to drag her straight down. Her sister, who she thought would be right along her side, had hesitated at the top. She followed after Ti`ue, but it still hurt to know she wasn’t right there with her, to help coach her along.

[Tiaue'a]

They were too far apart to argue now, and the eaglets were plummeting to certain death if they would not spread their wings soon. Oryth quickly caught up to them and pulled up somewhere between them. He would be able to save the day. He fell somewhere between them when he first started his chatter. "Spread your wings!" he shouted, and his body closed up like a dart and zoomed ahead of them to demonstrate his new knowledge of flight. His wings parted from the body and the rush of wind was cut by his feathers, his body snapping to a stop by comparison to his falling sisters. Ti`ue tried parting her wings but was held back. The rush of wind made opening her wings more difficult than she had ever known, in addition to her present fear and helpless falling. Ti`ue felt the wind rushing through her feathers, the warm gusts of the lakes reaching up, not yet thick enough to condense in her plumage. Oryth wouldn't let off; he kept on pulling ahead and showing off. "Open your wings, Ti`ue!" "I'm trying!" "Open your wings!" Ti`ue cursed Oryth and pivoted towards him, her wings opening up in her upset and catching wind. Oryth smiled as he could, his beak parted as he looked on, but Tiaue`a was experiencing terror as she lost control and began to spiral in some lopsided corkscrew. She felt how the wind gave resistance and turned her body. The rush brought on a sense of catharsis, the hypnotic spiral stripping away Oryth's taunting or Elith's abandonment. For a moment she paused and thought of what it was like without wings to just fall, but when she opened her eyes she was still falling and something just clicked. She stopped spiraling, her wings evening out, the wind bundled in them lifting her. She gave more, and more, and soon after she was gliding. She could hardly believe it, but had little choice in the matter. She was a fledgling now, and would be expected to join the hunts soon after. Ti`ue and the others kept apart enough, at least four young fledglings claiming the space between the caldera for themselves. Yasi would be able to see from any open part of the city and set their sights on future opportunities to join the Endal, to claim their bird. Likewise, the eagles peered down and thought of the riders they dreamed of. Ti`ue experimented with flight all the while. She noted the pivoting in her body causing her to strife. She pitched her wings to turn, leaning a little into the curve and was soon cutting the air. It came naturally now that she was out of the nest and Gods…it felt so good. The heat of the vent aided their petite bodies in flapping their wings, ascending through the imaginary sky pillar that stood at Wind Reach's center. They soared to their hearts' extents and the endurance of their stomachs. Even as fledglings, mother would be there feeding her babies for some time to come. As their noon turned to dusk, the fledglings turned back to their nest. Oryth soared in smoothly, beating his wings in the wrong direction and actually giving himself a bit of a tumble into the nook. Elith followed, her wings beating like a hummingbird's, almost missing the ledge as she hesitantly moved forward and hopped around a few times before she was secure in the cave. Tiaue`a followed after, and as gracefully as she could she touched down on the ledge, her talons digging into stone until she felt she was secure and then closed her wings. She began to tip back, not precisely as secure as she wanted to be, and fluttered her way into the cave. There they were, fledglings… like hunters who had spent their days slaving away on the hunt, they now went to the nest to collect their reward, and mother came soon after with plenty of food to go around. It had been a good day.

[Whimsy]

Tiaue'a

Experience	Lore
+2 Observation	Flight: Catching the Air beneath your Wings
+2 Flying	First Flight
	Sibling Rivalry
	The Bond of Sisterhood

Comments
This was a lovely little thread, especially the dialogue between the siblings. The description of Tiaue'a's discoverances of how to fly and the most effective way to do so was very informative. PM me if you have any questions or concerns.

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