Mean Green Fighting Machine (Valenphs Flight)

[zeis]

They're following us. M'ari thought with equal parts despair and delight that confused him. The glance he chanced to steal behind the furious wing beats of his Valenph told him that a handful of fighters so far were on their tail. Fighters which should have been fighting koxi and defending the Eyrie and all in it were abandoning the battle to chase. Among then were K'huna and Da'in, and M'ari crazily found himself weighing past encounters with the two of them with confusing fondness. Da'in was a mysterious sort, intriguing in how he kept himself way from others. K'huna, on the other hand, was not much of a mystery and strong, forceful. The other chasers all had a thousand moments he suddenly treasured, and he gazed wistfully back at them with want. All strong capable men, all of them. Men. Oh god. M'ari forced himself back into some usual presence of self, struggling to maintain a level head against Valenphs feelings that strove to crush him. I"m never going to live this down. He glanced down and saw that Valenph had flown to a height never achieved by the pair before, and realized the air had grown dangerously thin. He clung terrified, and besieged at all directions to the harness. If I live at all.

Valenph, as considerate as she normally was, could have cared less for her riders preferences and appearance right now. She had her fill of relaxation and gentility. Now was the time for brutality, and over all speed. Her neon feathers gleamed headache inducing bright against the solid blue of the sky, and unheeding the thinning air she flew higher still, nearly vertical in her ascent. A display meant to push her own endurance as much as her would be suitors. Blood from her wounds fell from the rising simourv in a light rain upon her chasers, spattering their feathers with ruby droplets. When she reached the greatest height she could manage, she hovered only for a moment, and turned her wrathful gaze down upon the chasers. Worthy all of them, save for one.

Her black gaze landed unerringly on the rapidly approaching form of Canph, and with a thunderous shriek of rage she arced out of her hover and dove for him with talons outstretched. How dare he rise to her challenge again. Wasn't one rejection enough to tell him he wasn't wanted? She'd get the message through if she had to carve it into his hide. The slower red, startled but in truth not terribly surprised by her attack, attempted to take evasive action by banking swiftly to the right. His cry of pain mingled with Valenph's own cry of triumph as she raked a clawed foot across his flank. Her rapid descent didn't halt with that attack, but evened out as she raced out away from the eyrie into the skies over Chydyn. She raced low over the massive trees, and her bright green coloring blended her craftily into the similarly green treetops. She was a darting blur of crescent stripes, tough to spot, and even tougher to catch.

~~~

Canph lagged behind the others as Valenph made her escape to Chydyn. His pride was hurt, but his leg hurt even worse. Whatever hopes K'huna had that the wound and the rejection might discourage him from further attempt was viciously squashed by the red's currently overwhelming mental presence. Doing his best to block out the pain, the red raced down after her with speed that ripped his rider's hair free from its from its bindings and set it wild about his shoulders. To hell with her approval or her choice. He was the swiftest and strongest male here, and he would catch her whether she liked it or not. K'huna could only grimly and futilely battle against the iron wall that was his simourvs intent.

[Siphran]

Strangely, Darin was starting to enjoy the speed, and even the height of their flight. He felt pleasantly giddy from the wash of emotions from his simourv and the thin air. The neon green flash that was Valenph darted swiftly in the distance, followed closely by the red streak that was Canph. Red droplets showered down on them, blood from some battle wound of Valenphs. Darin noticed, in a strange focus, the blood mix with the small droplets of water that covered Siphran’s wings.

They both looked on with confusion as Valenph left her formidable height, attacking and driving Canph away. She didn’t stop there however, but continued with her dive, leveling out right over the tree tops. She disappeared from Darin’s point of view, but Siphran could still see her. With a wild bugle he dived after her, trading altitude for speed, as oxygen returned to Darin, his wild abandon went away, even though the exhilaration stayed.

As Siphran leveled out, Darin chanced a look back and saw Canph gaining speed, K’huna hanging on grimly. He looked down and saw the massive trees of Chydyn flashing underneath them. Unbidden thoughts of the battle they had just left flashed through his mind, and a sudden wave of guilt at abandoning his fellow riders filled him. When he had understood what was to happen he should have left Siphran and continued the battle, but it had not turned out that way. After berating himself he looked back, Canph had gained on them, determined even after Valenph’s clear rejection.

[Kat]

Wegmeph was behind. He had to tend to his bonded, his ward, before he could fly, and now he was never going to catch the green before another simourv, but he could try. The passion, fury, and desire clouded his judgment, and imposed itself as a new continence, overriding his strict, logical mind with a hedonistic, lustful urge. He just wanted to chase. He wanted to chase and he wanted to fly; even Ros’n’s pain melted from his mind, only existing as a slight irritation that spurned his furious passion. The stress and fear he had felt watching Ros’n struggle with the koxi only intensified his passion, his reaction to the chase. The fire he had been repressing, the anger and the fear, fed the desire which propelled him through the sky. The chase was heading towards Chydyn, which was his sky, the sky that Wegmeph knew best.

Chydyn was his sky, his city. Chydyn was the location of his watch, of his constant and dedicated watching and protecting. He knew how to dodge the trees, how to fly high enough to avoid the tallest of them, but low enough to avoid increasing his altitude to the point of slowing himself down. This was the land of Ros’n; the world that she knew better than any other place. Ros’n might be a terrestrial creature, one bound by her inability to fly, to only understand the realm of the ground, the sphere of the humans, connected and yet so distant for the air—the sky. But a knowledge of the ground only improved Wegmeph’s understanding of the sky, as rider and bonded were both separate and one, and every aspect of Ros’n existed as a part of Wegmeph. He could feel her now, even when the thrill of the chase intensified his ego and captured his logical mind. She was bathing, because she was silly, and felt the need to be clean; the grime which coated his light feathers acted as a testament to his skill as a fighter. He had taken one out, with a bit of Ros’n’s incompetent meddling. Wegmeph snorted as he increased his speed, tightening his body behind the slipstream of another lagging Simourv. Wegmeph was still behind, but he was gaining. Not that he expected to win the flight, unless the green, Valenph dragged the flight out long enough for him to catch up with the simourvs in the front. But he did not need to win the flight; Wegmeph just liked the chase.

The blue simourv watched the green reject the red. Which one of his clutch mates was it—Canph, who would not let go of his pursuit. Wegmeph did not understand the other simourv’s persistence. Wegmeph would have just let go, abandoned the chase once he knew that he was not wanted, but then even in his primal state, Wegmeph’s firm belief in order remained. When he abandoned the structure of his life, the structure of rules, hierarchy, and social conventions which school every one of his actions, Wegmeph would be unsafe, or at least he would feel unsafe, and he was unwilling to threaten the sanctity, the safety and the sanity of Ros’n or himself.

Although the simourv was clumsy on land, a hulking bulk of a blue, with no consciousness of space and area, but in the sky, Wegmeph changed. He was not the most graceful flyer, but he was a powerful flyer, as his large, muscular wings propelled him. The air provided the simourv with grace, and he enjoyed flying more than walking, if only because his lack of coordination was somewhat, although not debilitating, humiliating. The sky liberated Wegmeph from one of his disadvantages, and he loved the freedom. The chase intensified his feeling of liberation, oddly, as if the carnal desire removed Wegmeph from his restrictive mind.

((I thought I would provide some company; sorry my entrance is so terrible.))

[zeis]

The scent of xymokoxi was on her claws, and heavy in her feathers. It was a maddening scent that when mixed with the smell of her own blood gave greater urgency to every thundering beat of her wings. Valenph needed to fight, she needed to kill, and she needed to fly. Her angry cries silenced completely as she darted and zigzagged across the tree tops, and only the sound of madly rustling leaves in the wind betrayed her presence. The green could sense them behind her, and feel the probing presences of their minds. Three suitors, three still even though she had sent one away. That red fool would get what was coming to him.

One was gaining close, Siphraph and his Da'in. She wouldn't have that. They didn't earn the privilege yet, and nothing on Pohono ever came easy, not to her or her rider. There would be nothing different for them.Valenph dove suddenly down into the leafy tree cover, and broke into the airspace below the canopy with a shower of leaves and a small cloud of startled wildlife. The branches had whipped at her and her rider painfully, but this only fueled her inner fire. Her mad flight continued into the maze of massive tree trunks, and she wove her way through these in a frustratingly tangled path in an effort to lose her chasers. It was easier down here to make her bright green form out against the tree trunks, but to catch a glimpse of her at all was hard. She was constantly on the move, trying to keep out of line of sight. Her pursuers would only have a glimpse of her lashing tail, or a flash of her crescent striped wings to judge their course.

M'ari spat a leaf out of his mouth with a grimace, and flopped back and forth jarringly against his harness at every sharp turn his simourv took. His riding straps cut painfully into his sides with every change of direction, and he watched with terror as every huge tree trunk rushed toward them with incredible speed. Every time he thought his lovely green, granted she wasn't so lovely right now, would crash they darted to the left or right and just missed an impact that surely would have killed them both. If breaking bones on impact wouldn't do them in, then surely the fall to the ground below them would. He wanted to urge her to be careful, but a strange part of him, the part that was linked so strongly with her in this moment was enjoying this mad dash through the obstacle course that was Chydyn.

---------

Canph shrieked as he caught sight of Wegmeph winging after Valenph. It was that blue who had come complaining with his rider to his K'huna. The smaller simourv wouldn't win this, not a chance. Nor would Siphraph. He would see to it he caught her before either of them even got close. The red chased after her alongside his rivals as they raced over Chydyn, a territory that was familiar to him but not nearly as much so as the other to. Since his rider's promotion to Wingletmaster, he had spent most of his time at the Eyrie while K'huna prepared. In a more coherent state, Canph might have found time to blame his difficulty, and possibly his loss if it came to that on his bonded, but he had no time for that now. The green Valenph had revealed herself through her dive into the canopy, and Siphraph was in the lead, with himself and Wegmeph gaining.

As the larger simourv made his move to dive through the branches and follow after her, his rider through some lucky feat of mental strength managed to have the presence of mind to caution his simourv. DON'T An image of the red following in the green exact path flitted across both their minds, and in that image the red's wing had struck a branch and broken. The path through the trees that the green had taken would allow the two smaller blues, but Canph would have to find another way. Hissing in fury, the simourv broke off from their shared path, and searched frantically across the treetops for another way down. He was losing time!

[Kat]

Siphraph was beating him, and Wegmeph did not like to be beaten, especially not by another blue. If Siphraph was a red or a black, Wegmeph might consider backing off and allowing the higher ranked Simourv to win, but Siphraph and Wegmeph were equals, and Wegmeph would not lose except by his own failure and his late arrival. He had mastered the skys of Chydyn long ago, and he knew that he could maneuver his way to a victory if only because the sky, the area, was so known to him. Siphraph was smaller, more lithe and graceful, but Wegmeph had more power, more strength, and he would try his hardest to win. He wanted to win. Even though Wegmeph loved Ros’n, he abandoned his rider from his mind, blocking her pain and her thoughts from his mind so that he could pursue his only goal, the little dainty Valenph. Wegmeph shrieked as he pursued the green simourv, his yellow eyes remaining fixed on her form as she darted through trees and buildings. She was an abnormal thing in this normal landscape, which made her easier to spot for Wegmeph, who watched her dart between the trees. She was moving so quickly, but he was fast too, at least he was fast in the air even if he was slow and clumsy on the ground.

Had Valenph not rejected Canph so obviously, Wegmeph would have considered the red a treat to the blue’s victory. The rejection, though, was so clear and strong that Wegmeph thought that the red would not win the flight. Why did he keep flying, then? Just to be difficult, Wegmeph assumed, as his interactions with Canph had shown the red simourv to be a difficult and stubborn creature. Wegmeph still respected Canph, if only because the red outranked Wegmeph, but the respect was tempered by his developing dislike. That Canph had insulted his Ros’n, and Wegmeph would not forgive the attack on his rider. Wegmeph dropped into a fast and almost vertical dive, a dive only possible because he was riderless, which positioned him much closer to Valenph. He was definitely behind the smaller blue, but Wegmeph was gaining ground, if only because he kept willing himself fly faster and harder. Free of Ros’n, Wegmeph could move so much faster and so much more reckless; usually he liked to have Ros’n ride him, but now he enjoyed the freedom of solitary flight.

Wegmeph watched, pleased, as Canph had to pull away. The space would be tight for the bulky Wegmeph, but he was sure that he could make it—so sure that the simourv did not hesitate to plunge through the tree branches after the green. His body barely fit through the space, the branches pulled at his feathers, but he slipped through regardless of the close fit. He was not going to let the green get away—not yet, especially since he had the chance to show Canph that perhaps he was a worthy opponent.

[Siphran]

Siphraph watched with frustration as Valenph dove into the tree cover. He hesitated, debating whether to dive into the trees after her or continue flying above. That hesitation allowed Wegmeph to gain even more. With a steely determination Siphraph dove into the trees,weaving around leafy branches and wooden trunks. That slowed them down even more, and he was now unaware of where the others were, because if he paused to look he might crash.

Da'in looked back to try to help, but branches and leaves blocked hi view, and the only thing he could be sure of was that Wegmeph was close by. He squinted, then crouched down closer to the feathers of his simourv, trying, in vain, to escape the whipping leaves. Through the canopy of branches he spotted a red blur, Canph. His determination was admirable, but Da'in knew that it was futile. Valenph had already rejected Canph.

[zeis]

Valenph had been the largest of her green sisters ever since emerging from her egg all those years ago, and though she had never been the fastest of the adult greens that roosted at the Eyrie today, she was easily the hardiest. Faster still than the blues and the obstructed red that gave chase, she threw her all into evading them, using every last ounce of endurance that she had to fly as far and as fast as she could. They would remember this, they would remember her, Valenph, as the green who had taxed them so far, made them work so hard. She was a benevolent soul, but she was not a push over. She was not an easy catch, a trophy victory to be added to a collection of successful flights, as she was sure the red Canph thought. With a caw of determination, she somehow managed to double her efforts, and sped forward darting and arcing around the trunks of trees.

She abandoned her relatively straight course carrying her away from the Eyrie for a twisting turning one that curved her path in a half circle around toward her pursuers. There were two now with the red frantically searching for a way to follow, two fast dedicated blues she knew well. The well-restrained and polite Wegmeph, and playful and peaceful Siphraph. Her black eyes fell upon them glittering like black jewels with the dappled light rapidly flickering over her. Somewhere deep down in all the fury and adrenaline of the flight it pleased her to see the two of them in chase, here paying homage to her. Still, she would only choose one, and if the other objected she would chase them off with the same ferocity she had used on Canph. The green charged at the two blues who were now flying neck and neck with a screech of finality and warning.

M'ari's hair whipped behind him like a black banner as he fought to hold onto the harness, the leather straps bruising his body and arms, and cutting cruelly into his flesh. Valenph had never traveled at such speeds with him aboard before, and he was terrified and elated at the final charge. Her choice, unknown to the two simourv in her path, became clear in his mind, and he braced himself with a whimper against the deluge of emotions and wants he was in no position to act upon. Why were his simourv's flights always such a mess? The question was a distant lament, lost in the storm of feelings that drowned his half of their collective consciousness.

The green had always been a bit of a dare-devil. Perhaps she liked to pretend she was much more responsible than her rider, and that her indulgence of his dangerous whims was merely to humor him. But there was a reason that they had bonded together, and as she closed with her would-be partners in a dangerous game of aerial chicken, her hearts and spirits lifted. A wild peal of love-crazed laughter broadcast from her in every direction as she reached out with her claws for the blue she wanted, the blue she had chosen.

Siphraph.

She demanding in tones that were somehow equally angry, excited, and teasing. Valenph back-winged with a mighty flap of her wings in the precious seconds before collision with the tenacious blue, and took to flying in tight agile circles around him, caressing him with her wingtips and tail. Her fury dissolved into a strong feeling of happiness and devotion. Her eyes were only for him, and her mind radiated her choice so there could be no doubt. It was Siphraph, only Siphraph.

~~~~~~~

A distance away above the tree tops, a scream of rage mingled with disbelief and disappointment announced Canph's reception of the broadcast. He couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it. That had been a dirty trick to play on him, to go somewhere where he could not follow. His rider didn't care at this moment to mention that the red himself had quite a reputation for dirty tricks. The red's mind blossomed with curses and epithets against Valenph, which he directed at anyone near enough to hear, but mostly his own rider, demanding agreement, sympathy, or both. K'huna for his part, relaxed his grip on the harness as his red's mad dash evened out into a still swift flight, angry and without direction. He fixed the back of his simourv's head with a weary, and disapproving stare. The man could not blame him for being seduced away from the battle, but as for the looming temper tantrum...

Home, Canph. Home. He commanded tiredly as the after effects of a lost flight washed over them both. Anger, disappointment, and a feeling of unprecedented loss drifted to him over his connection with the red, who was still in shock and angry still at Valenph that he listened to the order without much defiance.