The Mouse and the Model

[Quietus]

Quietus watched the approach of the young Dorn and her savior; the skreev setting down stiffly as the girl slid off its side. The woman was unimpressed as she looked to the beast - clearly a very aged dragon judging by the pale color of its scales and the absence of many of its teeth. It bore a myriad scars and several broken tusks.

Riah, the Beastia tipped a brow at the creature and shook her head.

A pity-play, that's what it had been. The skreevs were trained to catch a falling human, but most of them wouldn't have bothered with a human like Evelynn who hadn't earned their respect. Riah was a gentler creature, one that no longer carried a rider because of its age. Seemed she decided it was time to come out of retirement.

So be it.



Five days passed by in a flurry of lessons from dawn until dusk. Quietus trained Evelynn the body language of the beasts, taught her the fundamentals of how to read them and understand their moods, their intentions. Riah proved to be an easy beast to work with - an opportunist in the greatest respect, the skreev was willing to play along patiently. On the fourth day, once Evelynn learned how to approach, she was taught how to handle the creature, and finally on the fifth day she was given her first flying lesson.

The morning of the sixth day they met in the cliff courtyard again. Some of the nests had begun to hatch, but the care of the young drakes was entrusted to the Beast Tamers. Today Evelynn would be tested on everything she'd learned.

Call Riah, Quietus told the girl as she arrived. The woman was offering Miir a slab of meat as his massive form furled from the skies, landing on his sunning boulder with a hoarse roar. In the skies to the east the sun was just peaking over the mountain range, pinking the horizon with dawn. While Miir scooped up his snack Quietus adjusted the saddle fitted over his barrel before mounting.

Soliael you may take your pick, the woman motioned to the other skreevs about the area.

They were going to the jungle clans today, a far enough flight to test Evelynn's newly minted skills.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael had spent the last few days mostly hanging around Halcyon Citadel, he had spent most of the last few nights speaking with his mother about his activities. Mostly it had been about what he had learned about Moridin, and what he had learned from Dissero. It had been an interesting discussion however, and he found that he enjoyed the nights talking with his mother. Of course both of their favorite subjects had been when it came to family, mostly about Soliael's Great Uncle Vascious. Quietus had fond memories of the man, and Soliael was growing ever closer to him.

Amorella came up as well of course, and Quietus had been quite amused about the tale of Soliael and her's first meeting.

All in all it had been a few good nights, though the days had been far more of a bore. He had spent the time away from Evelynn and had instead chosen to work closer with the beast tamers of Onderon. He was no expert in the taming of Skreev or Drexl, but his many years on Onderon meant he knew his way around the creatures better than most.

The week had gone by quickly however, and Soliael made sure to check that Evelynn was still alive at the end of each day. The Training here was far harsher than what she had experienced on board The Freya and Evelynn had probably found her last week to be quite torturous.

Chomp on the other hand had likely enjoyed his time here, Onderon after all was a beasts wet dream.

As they all gathered in the courtyard Soliael smiled slightly s he looked at all the Skreev. There was a few dozen or so in the courtyard and Soliael wandered over to one of them, her skin deep red and almost flame like. The Skreev eyed Soliael for a few moments, and the Sith simply stepped up to it and patted its nose. The Skreev replied with nudging Soliael's chest and the Sith grinned, making friends was so easy.

 

[Evelynn]

Her life was a collection of montages.

Come to think of it, her life was a collection of increasingly harsher montages, she started out prancing along like some Princess out of a fairy tale, full of wonder and spirit. Then came the discovery of knowledge, a learning lesson for all to behold, a spot of training, a touch of toil but nothing too harsh. Then the powers that be kicked it up a notch again. Beast training with Merciless Ming.

Exhaustion.

The words so far came naturally. Just typing away, speaking about montages like it's marmite on toast but now, now there's challenge. I mean I could just type that Evelynn Dorn called the skreev and that would have been that, but it's not enough for me. I mean I'll never go back and I'll never re-read these words from the moment they leave my fingers but deep down I'll know what I did. I'll remember.

How did Evelynn Dorn call creature? Did she engage in the knowledge that had been granted to her in these past few days. Well, yes, of course she bloody well did.

You're sitting there reading this and thinking, 'What is she doing? Is she having another meltdown? Why can't you do this Louise? There was a montage, there was freedom for you to describe this in whatever way you wanted? WHY ARE YOU CONSTANTLY FAILING ME!?' Because I don't know who you are but I think it's a bit harsh that you're thinking all of those things.

She liked Riah. I the tendency to give all the creatures I meet shreds of humanity. As if it was some wise old woman of a creature that had a soft spot for the little runt that was Evelynn. This probably wasn't the case. I'm the rodent queen, they don't speak my language. Now womp rats! Yeah, I can tell you exactly what a womp rat is thinking by the twitch of it's whiskers.

I can imagine that somewhere during that last paragraph that EVELYNN DORN SUMMONED THE SKREEV. Such girl. Much vague. Very call. Wow.

 

[Quietus]

Quietus' lip twitched at the meek call the girl offered. No skreev in their prime would come to that, but Riah continued to be ever eager for the attention. She came at once, as though she'd been waiting all day to hear it, and touched down before Evelynn with a heavy grunt of effort. The Beastia rolled her eyes, took up the lash of leather around Miir's neck and used her lean of weight to steer him off towards the cliff edge where the creature plummeted into open air.

They dropped thirty feet before his wings furled to catch the wind, scooping the pair up through the thermals and high into the skies. They circled once above as the only means of giving the girl a moment to get herself in the saddle before taking off to the west and the peaks of the mountains that waited for them there.

@[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]
@[member="Evelynn Dorn"]

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael followed his mother quite quickly, there was no waiting or placating the dragon like creature. Instead he moved to its side, using the monsters wide and thick neck as a prop to swing himself upwards and onto the beasts back in one swift fluid motion. The Skreev seemed to almost purr slightly as Soliael kicked it in its haunches to send it flying away. Unlike his Miir however this skreev did not jump off the edge, instead it seemed to crouch slightly lowering itself to the ground.

Then with a powerful single beat of its wings the Skreev leaped into the air, sending a massive gust of wind and wall of dust into the courtyard.

Soliael and his Skreev swooped into the air like a jet. Cutting through wind, clouds, and everything else that came in their path. The Sith allowed the familiar feeling to fall over him, the wind rushing past him, deafening him slightly. His eyes closed, and he let his body relax.

As the Skreev and Soliael soared over the courtyard in a ring the Sith Lord slowly began to climb up into his saddle. His feet hit the hard leather, and Soliael took on a surfing stance. A grin fell on his face as he swooped through the air, gliding easily through the sky.

 

[Evelynn]

I feel like if Evelynn could read your narration then her feelings would be hurt, although since she constantly dances upon a line of flustered and embarrassed it wouldn't really be a major event of her life.

Also, Riah the skreev, what an absolute babe. It's like starting out fresh in an online game, where most users will scream noob at your face and tell you to uninstall your life. It's demoralising, you might think about quitting but then you'll meet this one player, this one person who is kind, encouraging and shows you the ropes. Gotta love those gentle veterans.

Now, considering the girl had spent just this last week learning the very art of the skreev it would be absolutely maddening to have her just flop to the floor and be terrible, just because I can scarcely describe it doesn't mean that she can't do it. Evelynn Dorn actually absorbed information like a sponge and had the work ethic to back it up. It was just a question of confidence. Doubts abound.

This one time I rode on a naked man wearing a saddle*, I'm going to have to draw upon that experience for this moment. Although there was a lot of ketamine involved so the details are a bit hazy.

She clambered onto the saddle, the very act of mounting is an art for the graceful, balance? Who's that? Are they nice? Oh god, this is taking too long. I have to get dressed for work. GO GO GO! RIAH, JUST BLAST IT. YOU OLD BEAUTY QUEEN, YOU! YOU SASSY LASSIE. I BELIEVE IN YOU. FLAP. FLAP THAT IMPRESSIVE WINGSPAN. I BELIEVE IN YOU!

Evelynn had a look of pure constipation on her face as the creature blasted those massive wings and took off into the sky. I think a small insect went up the girl's nose during the take-off.

I'm not going to describe the feeling of flight. That's what you two are going to do. I'm going to talk about feelings in general. She's a sheltered girl riding a charizard on a completely hostile planet. That's scary, you know? Then you have Soleil Moon Frye over there surfin' USA and it's like, you little excretion. For a split second the girl channelled her mother and shot half of a withering glare at her Master. Although that melted away by the force of wind assaulting her head. When you fly without headgear you've really got to squint.

* This is a lie.