In the morning, Fiel woke before sunrise, taking a few minutes to sit quietly in his room and gather his energy. Then he rose, stretched his arms and legs and wings carefully, and collected his traveling gear. His outer coat was cleverly designed with a large number of inner pockets and compartments which he could access while flying. Once he'd stowed away all his rations and the gifts for his family, as well as spare survival tools and medical supplies, he pulled on his boots and made his way to the castle tower where he expected to meet Lukas. He didn't mind waiting a bit, since he had to study the weather patterns and plot out their best course to the sea.
Lukas woke up and got dressed quickly, his hair a mess and still half asleep for some reason. He grabbed his things and went towards the tower, he stopped at his brothers door and stood there for a few moments before he smiled softly and went up to go meet Fiel.
Fiel heard Lukas coming up the stairs and turned around to greet him as he arrived. "Good morning," he smiled. "The wind and weather look perfect today. You slept well, I hope?"
lukas nodded, "well enough, how bot you? did you get enough rest?"
"I slept wonderfully. I'm very much excited to be up in the air again." Fiel tucked back his wings so that Lukas would have plenty of room next to him on the top of the tower. "I know we agreed not to make a big deal out of your departure, but I admit it still feels strange to have no one here to say goodbye. Surely at least the servants will miss you, don't you think? You seem very close with the kitchen staff."
Lukas nodded, "yes but most people are still asleep, they know I will be leaving, so they have no reason to get up so much earlier than my parents." He shrugged, "And besides it is much better to not have to say goodbye as we leave, it is not very happy making after all"
"I suppose so." Fiel took a deep, deep breath and checked the sky one last time. "In that case, are you ready to go?"
Lukas nodded, "yep, ready whenever you are" He smiled.
"Very well." Fiel spread his wings again. "So….here's how this will work. I'm going to carry you on my back, all right? You'll have to stay mostly still and balanced, or else my wings won't bear the weight very easily. Also, I won't be able to gain enough lift to take off unaided. So what I'm going to do is channel some magic and launch us upward for a start. That might be jarring, so hold on tight. After that, we should have fairly smooth sailing. Make sense?"
Lukas nodded, "so if I end up falling asleep, would that be ok?"
"It will have to be, as I'll be flying non-stop until tomorrow morning at the earliest. As long as you don't move around too much in your sleep, I don't mind. I'll wake you up if there are problems." He adjusted his coat. "Any more questions?"
Lukas smiled, “I don’t move in my sleep…not that I know of at least. And no more questions I have…I mean I have no more” he shook his head to himself.
"Well…..in that case, I think it's time to go." Fiel turned to face east. "Climb on, and mind my tail please."
Lukas carefully climbed into Fiels back, wrapping his arms gently around Fiels neck. “Is this good?”
"That's fine." Fiel took a moment to get used to the weight, then spread his wings and got ready to spring. Blue and gold light fizzed and gathered around him, stirring up a breeze out of nowhere. It built up underneath him, then launched him skyward as if from a catapult. Strong east wind above the castle caught him as he rose into it, shoving him bodily back. He veered sideways to absorb the impact and circled once, continuing to soar higher and higher until he got his bearings and the tumultuous air currents settled down.
"We're off," he called to Lukas over his shoulder. "Are you still doing good? Sorry for the rough take-off."
Lukas took a deep breath, "yeah! Im fine." He said holding onto Fiel a bit tighter than he was a minute ago.
"Good." Fiel had to shut his mouth again and focus hard on keeping them stable. He'd carried others in flight before, but usually that had been a much younger, smaller sibling. It would take a while to get used to the extra weight. But for Lukas's sake, he tried to act like it was nothing.
"Enjoy the view?" he asked after a few minutes. Below them stretched the castle, and the gardens, and beyond that the rest of the kingdom. A slight gold haze obscured the far horizon, but they could still see for miles in all directions. With Fiel's superior eyesight, he'd already spotted the sea coast up ahead. The cold sky above them was awash with fresh blue and smudges of faint pink clouds glowing with sunlight. Up this high, it was as if the sun had risen much higher already, but the valley they'd left was still deep in shadow.
"it is very nice" Lukas said slowly, feeling quite tired. He rested his head against Fiel. "I think im going to take a nap"
Fiel blinked. "All right…..I'll try not to fly too roughly then." He was surprised. Lukas couldn't have ever done something like this before, and had every right to be frightened. But apparently he was relaxed enough to sleep. Fiel found himself half impressed and half honored that Lukas trusted him this much. He flew just a bit higher, to make sure they were caught on a strong enough air current, then set off on a direct course for the glittering ocean.
After a few minutes, Lukas fell asleep, his body relaxing as he did.
Fiel payed close attention at first to make sure Lukas was still properly balanced, but equilibrium was maintained and eventually he returned to riding the wind as efficiently as possible. They had a long trip ahead of them and there was no point wasting energy.
It took them almost an hour to reach the coast. The air currents over the land were warm and steady, but a bit too calm to speed them up. The sun was fully over the horizon and burning away the mist by the time Fiel looked down and saw the cliffs and beaches slowly passing below them.
As they did, there was a sudden powerful blast of cold air, smelling like salt and seaweed. Fiel was buffeted up and down, and he had to make some quick adjustments to the angle of his wings and tail to avoid tipping sideways. After a moment, the initial gust passed, but the wind was now chillier and damper, and far less well-behaved.
The sudden gust of wind woke Lukas up, and he held onto Fiel a bit tighter. Not saying anything, nor opening his eyes.
Fiel felt Lukas tense up and grimaced apologetically. "Sorry," he said. "Just a cold front. Did that wake you?"
"Well, I am awake now, so I think so?" Lukas mumbled. Wanting to go back to sleep.
(Hey so….I don't want to get in an argument or anything, because we're in another rp together right now and that one's going well, plus I want this one to do well also but…..it really feels like I'm doing all the work right now. Our characters had a few good interactions and we have a good goal in mind, but so far all the plot hooks and forward movement of the rp seem like they've been my idea. I'm not getting any real engagement from you or your character (Lukas is literally asleep, I'm just talking to myself at this point). It kind of feels like you're bored with this story. And it's fine if you are, but I wish you'd tell me so we can either make it more interesting or just drop it entirely so I don't spend a long time typing up replies only to get barely anything in response. Ok? This is me checking in. Am I totally misunderstanding you or what's the deal?)
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