From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
"Oh, I didn't know that." And it was a good thing to know: she'd have to keep in mind that injuries could cause her to revert to her human form at ... inconvenient times. While flying a thousand feet in the air, for example. That would be bad.
Arialla nodded; if she'd been in human form, she would have bitten her lip, but as an eagle, the closest she could get was working her beak a bit. "Coming here was hard. Really hard, at first. And I still ... Well, if I could go home, I would. But in the end it was just ... one day at a time. Like anything else."
Glancing over at the fin, she mentally frowned, despite her eagle's inability to make such an expression. "That's not the right shape for a dolphin, so it's probably a shark. But it should be all right -- they don't usually attack prey out of the water. I imagine it's attracted by the same school of fish we tried to go for."
Arialla
Freedom. Flight. Grace. Keen-sight.
"Golden Eagle - Mongolia" by carfull...from Wyoming is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
01-13-2021, 06:30 AM (This post was last modified: 01-13-2021, 06:31 AM by Henry.)
I'll jump from the cliff and I'll build my wings on the way down
Henry nodded in sympathetic understanding but, unfortunately, he didn't know what else to say. Even as he racked his brain for something supportive to say, he felt his mind completely run blank as soon as that haunting, dark fin appeared above the lull of the waves.
Even if Arialla remained calm, Henry began to shift about on what part of the rock he perched. Unease clouded his judgement, that perhaps if he had just stayed still, he wouldn't draw attention to himself. Arialla might've been right, might've had a better understanding of them than he, but all Henry knew was that he was scared. The eagle's instincts had his wings flap in reaction to the fin veering dangerously close.
"I think we sh-should get out of he-e-re," His risen feathers brushed against hers as he edged closer.
And suddenly, as if out of Henry's own nightmares, another shark surfaced. Only, it wasn't from a distance, and it wasn't merely to swim past, but to make a snap for Arialla from behind. Henry jumped into the air, his wings supporting him. In a moment of crazed, stupid panic, he clawed at the nose of the shark, his heart pounding and his beak parting to let out a raucous screech, "Go! Go!"
"It should be all ri -- " Arialla wasn't afraid up until the very moment the second shark breached, but at that point, yes, she very much agreed with Henry -- they needed to fly! She snapped her wings downward, taking off with all the force she could muster. Whether her feathers were dry or not, it was time to go.
At first she wobbled in the air, fear weakening her wings, but as she flapped several more times, she started to gain altitude. It was going to be all right. She could fly, and the sharks most definitely could not ... Though, she remembered from fisherman's tales, they could jump quite high.
"Keep going!" she told Henry. "They can jump!"
Arialla
Freedom. Flight. Grace. Keen-sight.
"Golden Eagle - Mongolia" by carfull...from Wyoming is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
I'll jump from the cliff and I'll build my wings on the way down
Henry's talons slipped through air, missing their mark, but the threat of his talons was enough to make the shark reel back into the water. It disappeared... for now. He wasn't sure if they'd be back, and he didn't want to stick around to find out. With a glance over to make sure Arialla had found her way into the air, Henry swept into the breeze and glided over the ocean in haste.
His eyes glanced down into the flickering shadows beneath the water, and he barely heard Arialla's warning when the sharks proved her point. The waters below parted in an ominous splash, and up came one of the biggest sharks Henry had ever seen. He let out a screech of alarm, eyes widening, as its teeth clamped through the air for him.
His muscles and wings worked vigorously to rise higher, higher, higher, until he found himself safely out of harm's way in the sky. It took him a moment to calm his flapping wings, to relax into the warm air, air that hardly reflected the rapid beating of his heart.
But once he did, he glanced over towards Arialla before letting out an eagle-cry of victory. "Whoooo!" He turned in the direction of the coast, which was visible from their vantage point. "Take that, you stupid fish!" He cawed down at the waters, far below them at this point. In a swish of feathers through the air, he popped up beside Arialla.
Arialla barked out an eagle's laugh as Henry taunted the shark, though her heart had been in her throat for a moment there as it jumped at him -- for a second she'd had half-formed plans to dive-bomb the shark if it caught him, though she wasn't sure what she could really do in that situation, if he was too injured -- and too wet -- to fly.
"I'm fine," she replied, soaring towards the coast. "That was close, but no harm done in the end ... We'll call it an adventure."
One of the closer calls she'd had in Caido so far, but sharks had been a potential threat at home, too, so it didn't color her perception of this world. Rather, she felt somewhat elated by their victory, such as it was.
Arialla
Freedom. Flight. Grace. Keen-sight.
"Golden Eagle - Mongolia" by carfull...from Wyoming is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
I'll jump from the cliff and I'll build my wings on the way down
"An adventure to be sure!" Henry soared on ahead of her with his beak parted, giddy from their narrow escape. The coast was not as far as he'd anticipated, or maybe they were making good time given the sudden adrenaline rush... Likely!
"Hey!" He cried over his shoulder at her, slowing down his flight into a smooth glide so that they could near each other one last time. "It's been fun! Arialla," he would've been smiling if he were human right now. "But I should get going, back to the Grounds." Because that was his home, and he was always needed there for one thing or another - even if it was just because his parents had something for him to take care of. He could never seem to unglue himself from that place for very long, could he?
With one last look across to her, he said, "I hope to see you again sometime! You know, as humans!" His laughter faded into the air as he turned and plotted a different course.
