Wind in My Sails

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Adder smiled a real smile for the first time in minutes. Her green eyes crinkled at the edges and she reached out to squeeze Aela’s hand for a moment. “Thanks.”

The tension in her shoulders seemed to ease a bit even as they hastened down the slope. If it was the reassurance of her friend or the proximity of her escape from this island, Adder didn’t know. But it felt good anyway, so she rushed after the Jedi and tried not to think too hard about the cause.

That never ended well.

Soon enough they reached the narrow patch of level ground. There wasn’t a lot of space to stand, but they weren’t her to do much standing about.

They were here to fly.

Finally something Adder was good at.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela looked around for a moment, giving Adder a small smile as her hand slipped away.

Briefly the Jedi Master wondered just how they were going to manage this. The Titavian was more than large enough to carry the both of them, but it wasn't like they had a saddle or anything else. She frowned for a moment as they reached the plateau, her body shifting as she looked back towards the massive Avian. It seemed almost pleased with itself, having made it through the forest and now standing once again in the open air. It's head slowly cocked to the side.

"Okay." She said taking a step towards it.

Her hand extended and the Titavian bowed it's head, her fingers stroking along it's beak for a few seconds before finally she took a breath.

"I think..." The force reached out from her. "I think we're okay."

Slowly she began to pet the bird, it's massive neck craning low as it allowed Aela to get closer and closer. Eventually the Titavian moved to it's haunches, practically sitting upon the plateau and allowing Aela to reach over the base of its neck. "Get on first."

She motioned to Adder.

 

[Adder]

Deep breath. In, out.

She could do this. Air. Flying. Maybe not on her first (or, let’s be honest, even last) choice of aerial transport, but she’d take it over another minute on this barren rock.

Adder brushed unruly red hair out of her face and approached the bird. She wasn’t nearly as tall as the Jedi – couldn’t reach that high – but… she could jump. Pretty well, at that. Wasn’t any kind of acrobat, but she’d done her share of footchases in the tight alleys of the Underbelly where you couldn’t squeeze in even with a stripped-down swoop.

Brow tight in concentration, the cop took two steps backwards, then darted forward and grasped at the rough skin of the Titavian’s neck. Heart in throat, Adder managed to pull herself up, legs kicking at the air half the time.

Once she’d finally swung her right foot over the other side, the redhead turned a thousand-watt grin on Aela.

“Come on up,” she said and leaned down to offer her hand.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

The Titavian shifted slightly, though to it Adder must have seemed as little more than a tiny bug of weight.

Aela looked up, then grasped Adder's hand. For this to work they would have to hang on pretty tight to the massive Avian, though from her flight last time she knew that once they reached a certain height the great birds tended to soar and glide rather than constantly flap their wings. She supposed it was an advantage of their size, the capability of just sort of floating through the air without a trouble in the entire world.

A slight huff passed her lips and Aela dragged herself up and onto the bird. "Alright."

She breathed as she positioned herself in front of Adder and got comfortable, her fingers gently digging into the Titavians feathers as she tried to grab hold. She knew that the take off and landing would be the roughest part, mostly because the creature had to practically jump to do both.

"Hold on tight." She said loudly. "I'm gonna see if he'll take us to Theed."

It wouldn't be too far, they hadn't sailed for that long.

 

[Adder]

Heights didn’t scare her – she enjoyed them, in fact. It was a small mercy as she glanced past Aela, past the creature’s neck, and down at the rocks far below.

It was a long way down.

Carefully, slowly, barely breathing, Adder drew her arms around the Jedi. The fact that they were going to plummet off a hundred-meter-tall cliff? Not a problem. The fact that they were doing this on a giant-ass bird kept in check only by the mystic forces of space magic? Also not a problem, surprisingly.

No – Adder was worried purely about the fact that she was going to spend the flight glued to Aela’s back.

The whole. way. back.

Oh yeah. This was going to be fun.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela took a breath, feeling Adder's nerves but figuring that it was simply the giant bird they were sitting on.

The Titavian to it's credit managed to remain almost perfectly still, sitting and simply waiting until Aela once again reached out with her mind. Her touch was gentle, calming, almost as serene as could be. The Jedi master focused, and then urged the Titavian forward. "Here we go."

Her words trailed off slightly, forgotten and unheard within the sound of the Titavian raising it's massive wings.

There was no time to think, there was no time to do anything but hold on for dear life. The creature rose off it's haunches, bounded forward in two steps, and then flapped it's wings. A powerful gust of air pushed down and then pressed them up, within an instant Aela and Adder would find themselves leaping into the air, the wind biting against their faces.

Unconsciously Aela began to scream, a wide beaming smile on her face.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

With the minute tilt of the bird forwards, all weight disappeared beneath them. Her gut filled with butterflies, and her lips stretched into a smile at the familiar feeling.

She joined Aela with a cry of freedom of her own, holding on to the Jedi as they plummeted towards the foaming teeth of the sea. With a heavy, slow flap of its massive wings, their weight returned hundredfold – but Adder just kept grinning. Compared to the g’s she chased around with the Phantom Limb, this was a walk in the park.

The wind howled around her ears as they evened out again, somehow soaring through the sky on a giant-ass Titavian.

“This is amazing,” Adder yelled over the beating of its wings, eyes wide with excitement.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

There was something about this, about true flight that was completely and entirely unique.

Aela had experienced a few times before. When shed come to Naboo previously, her trips to Onderon, and of course when she soared with Malfegor. Yet every time she rose into the heavens it felt as though she were doing it for the first time. Her heart beat calmly, he face was half a grin, and her eyes lit up as the great Avian swooped high above the clouds.

The wind raked through her hair, her eyes were half closed in a squint, but she couldn't have been happier.

”Hang on!” Aela shouted to Adder behind her. ”He's going to try to catch the coast winds!”

Before she could finish the Titavian slowly began to duck, its massive form diving down and soaring through the sky towards the oceans below.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Didn’t have to tell her twice – Adder clasped her hands closed around Aela’s torso, practically plastering herself against her back as the Titavian tipped forward.

Blonde hair whipped her face, and so she ducked to the side. Peering past the Jedi, the redhead gazed, wide-eyed, into the incoming sea. Stark blues and greens, playing and flowing into each other beneath the white lace that lined the peaks of the waves.

“Was your first time anything like this?” Adder shouted again, craning her neck to glance at her friend.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"Better!" She called out into the barely audible gusts of winds.

Aela remembered well the first time she had flown anything. It had been a skreev of Onderon. The method had been rather...harsh. Her Grandmother had quite literally picked her up and threw her into the air, expecting her to catch the neck of one of the reptiles.

The experience had been...terrifying but exhilerating.

"I'll tell yo-" She was cut off as suddenly the Titavian leveled off and beat it's great wings. "Another time!"

In the distance Aela spotted land, rocky cliffs carved into the earth.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Yeah?” Adder called out, grinning up to her ears. “So birds don’t stop working when you take them into the air?”

The smile bled into her voice – the pure joy of the wind in her sails and the warmth across her back. Streaks of whipping blonde and red hair billowed behind them, glinting in the sun.

This was life. The rush, the zeal, the breathlessness of splitting clouds and letting her voice echo to the heavens.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"No!" She called back with half a laugh.

The coast was now drawing closer and closer, and it showed just how fast the Titavian was actually going. She and Adder had sailed for about half a day, not too long a time but they had managed to get several miles from Naboo's central continent. The Titavian could close that distance in just mere minutes.

The grand creatures were amazing, and Aela wondered why no one on Naboo had ever tried to tame them.

"I'm not controlling him!" She called out between another flap of the creatures wings. "Just guiding!"

Was that how the curse worked? She had no idea.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Green eyes fluttered closed as she squeezed the bird tighter with her thighs. Moments later, her fingers untangled around Aela’s stomach, and Adder arched her back, splaying her arms wide through the breezing wind.

Now that they were flying at a steady pace, the journey was almost comfortable. The bird’s giant back could certainly hold ten more Adders and Aelas.

“Maybe you should try guiding a ship!” The redhead laughed. “Promise I’ll be there to catch ya if it starts going down!”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"I can't do that." Aela called out, her eyes wandering along the distant coastline.

Explaining how the force worked to Adder here, now, would be rather difficult, but this was something she could at least relate.

"My sister can!" Kaili was a talented Technomancer, a gift that she had inherited from their father. Aela had tried it once or twice and failed in an absolutely horrible way. Her little sister however could do it without a real thought. "The force lets her control ships, droids, pretty much anything!"

It was amazing, though it's own gift.

The trade off was that Kaili didn't really have the same talent with animals as her siblings.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

“Can’t she teach you?”

Sure, it was fancy space magic and all, but every skill could be learned. Nobody on the force back when could drive a speeder through the Underbelly like Adder could – didn’t mean they were all lousy drivers, though.

“Just a little? So you don’t, you know, crash yer ship every time you touch a drivestick?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"No." She called out through the wind. "Doesn't work like that."

Aela had tried to tell Adder this the other day, but it wasn't like having a regular talent. Sometimes with the force you could try for days, even years to learn something and it still didn't matter. A gift was a gift and a skill wasn't necessarily a skill. The fact was sometimes you needed basic talent.

It was something that frustrated her beyond all belief. "Sometimes you just need the talent."

She shrugged, feeling the Titavian swoop low as they drew nearer to the coast.

"I don't have it." Something she'd come to accept a long time ago.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Puffing a stray strand of red from her face, Adder pulled back up from her cushion of feathers. They began to descend again, this time with land in sight – the sea grew pale and green below them as they left the deep blue far behind.

Good riddance.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to try with the voidstone, yeah?”

She took hold again around her friend as they picked up speed, wind rushing ‘round their ears and down the flattened form of the Titavian.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela nodded her head as she felt another gust of wind press against them.

Speaking seemed like a bad idea at the moment, mostly because as they drew closer and closer towards the coastline she just knew that there would be bugs waiting for them. The last time she had done this Aela had swallowed a moth on the landing, not an experience that she was keen to repeat.

So instead she just clung tightly to the bird, motioning for Adder to do the same.

A moment passed, and then the Titavian dove. It swooped down, it's massive wings folding in as it dove towards the coast. A final involuntary scream pulled from Aela's lips as they dropped within only a few meters of the ground itself, the Titavian pulling up just seconds before they went crashing into the ground. It beat it's wings once, twice, and then suddenly jerked to a stop, it's body slowing and Aela nearly smashing her face into the creatures neck.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]

Maybe she should’ve felt afraid, but a lifetime of flooring the pedal and rushing around corners so narrow it puckered yer ass so tight you couldn’t shet for a week? Yeah, Adder was good. The maneuvers they pulled with Wraith in extractions made this look like flight school for kids.

Not that she didn’t enjoy it.

Oh, no – Adder was smiling wide, eyes bright and open as she watched them dive headlong towards the ground.

Unlike her friend, the pilot knew exactly what to expect from an abrupt landing, and prepared accordingly. You know, by being already pressed as flush as she could against her friend. It worked wonders, and moments later, Adder was scrambling from the Titavian’s back, laughing all the way.

She laid a warm palm on the creature’s flank as she slipped off, grin still in place. “Thanks, bird. You did good.”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela quickly followed after Adder, landing on the ground with a soft and muted thud.

The Titavian seemed to swell with an odd sort of pride, Aela adding her own hand to Adder's for a few seconds as they both scratched the birds side. A warm smile appeared on her face and she motioned for her friend to take a few steps back. "He wants to go back."

It wasn't right to keep him here for long.

The Island was the Titavians home, where he roosted with his family. These glorious creatures were not something that you kept bound, even with the force. It was best to let him run free and do whatever it is he wanted to do. A small part of her regretted that, not because she wanted to keep him captive of course but because in truth...she wanted to fly more.

"I think Theed is just over those cliffs." It'd probably take them a few hours to get there, but she didn't want to bring the Titavian any closer. "We'll make it without him."

Aela drew herself away from the massive creature.