Reaching up over Ausren's back, Leo stands on his tip-toes to tie his bedroll to the back of the saddle. The last-minute changes to the saddle weren't hard to do, but getting it back on was just as great a challenge as the first time. Now, however, with the leather straps to hold his belongings on the back of the dragon, hopefully all the struggle was worth it.
Cinching the bag down tight and finishing the knot, Leonidas steps back carefully from the dragon. On the uneven, bouldered ground, Leo steadies himself on the prince's wing, moving up the dragon's body to his shoulders.
Ausren watches him, neck twisted over one shoulder, his eyes alight with excitement.
Sighing, Leo slides his foot into the stirrup and hauls himself onto the dragon's back. "Don't get too excited," he mutters, settling himself between the dragon's wings. "I might just change my mind."
Ausren laughs, the deep ruk ruk ruk surprisingly comforting. "How can I not be excited? Not only have you agreed to leave with me, but you've agreed to fly."
"I know," Leo growls, hunching down in the saddle. "I'm still struggling to believe it."
Ausren lifts his head and blows smoke out of his nostrils in a rather happy gesture, "You have glided with me and you seemed to enjoy that."
Glowering at his companion, Leo growls lowly, "We were close to the ground then, and you promised we wouldn't fly. I was alright with that."
"Well," the prince replies, turning his attention to the peak so far above their heads, "technically, it's safer for me to fly high rather than low. It gives me more time to adjust to unknown variables and catch myself should we plummet."
As Ausren starts the journey from their cave to the top of the mountain, jumping gracefully from boulder to boulder, Leo responds, "That's not helping." In fact, his body is instinctually rejecting even the very idea of flying. As he recently discovered, he has a rather large phobia of heights, and the idea of being thousands of feet above the earth balanced on the back of another being is terrifying. Just riding on Ausren's back through the forest took some getting used to. The boy, who was used to riding horses, had his control completely removed when he climbed aboard the dragon. He has no way of stopping the dragon if he feels like he'll fall, he has absolutely no control over where the prince goes. He just has to hold on and hope Ausren doesn't decide to fling him into empty nothingness.
Of course, logically, the dragon has proved over and over that he just wants to protect the human. It's the very reason Leo has gotten used to the removal of control on the ground, and even the light gliding they've done. He's been able to trust the dragon, to some extent.
Now, however, he's going to be hundreds to thousands of feet above the cold frozen earth. It's safe to say Leo, lacking wings, doesn't know how to fly. If the dragon so much as shakes himself too hard and flings the boy from his back, Leo has absolutely no way to save himself. If he got scraped off a branch on the ground, it would hurt but he'd be fine. To fall off gliding would yield a possible broken bone or two, but he'd survive.
To fall flying is to die.
To say the least, it's incredibly hard to put his life in the talons of the dragon. And on top of his natural fear of heights… it's just something he doesn't want to do.
And yet, logically, he knows it's needed. Traveling as they are on the ground is a death sentence for both of them. Ausren is severely limited on the ground: He's a dragon, they were created to fly. Besides he's much slower on the ground, and their route for travel would be much more limited, not to mention the immediate disadvantage he's put at against other dragons if he cannot fly. And finally, being caught on the ground by either the humans or the dragons would be catastrophic for the two beings who no longer belong to either side. They're traitors to their races, and enemies of the only two nations on the continent; who are currently at war.
As much as Leo dreads flying, they cannot afford the luxury of his comfort. When it boils down to it, it's a necessary evil.
"Ugh," the human complains again, gripping the leather handles even harder now. What if they were to break mid-flight? Would he be able to hold on? Would he just immediately be ripped off by the wind and flung into open nothingness to plummet to his death?
Don't think about that.
Leo squeezes his eyes shut and manages to press himself even further into the saddle, trying to suppress the instinctual shivering that has gripped him.
What would those moments be like? Falling through the air and awaiting impact? Would this newfound magic be enough to help him survive? And what if he did survive the impact? That would be agonizing--
"Riorra." Ausren's soft voice cuts through the human's panicked thoughts, breaking him from his frozen terror. The dragon has paused, one jump away from reaching the peak of the mountain, and is looking back at the human crouched on his shoulders. "I won't let you fall, alright?"
No longer willing to peel himself into an upright position, Leo answers with a grunt and nothing more, even as some of the crippling anxiety lessens.
Ausren huffs a soft laugh, turning his attention back to traversing the rough terrain, and launches the two to the top of the mountain. Landing easily on the boulder, the prince perches himself there, his wings splaying to steady himself. For a moment, the wind kicks up, and the dragon tilts his wings back, his claws digging into the stone to keep himself steady on the rock.
Being lifted off the rock and thrown into the sky by an updraft might be exhilarating for the prince, but Ausren doesn't wish to terrify the human on his back into never flying again. This first flight is important: He has to make it so magical that the human will never want to land again. The prince wants to make flying as fun for the human as it is for him.
Leonidas, for his part, recognizes that they've reached the top of the mountain and dares to peek over the dragon's shoulder. It proves to be a mistake.
The last time they were here, Leonidas was caught in the beauty of the world below him and had no time to actually think of how high above the surrounding land they were. Now, with nothing but the fear of falling in his mind, all he can do is recognize how deadly the cliffs and heights around him are.
Any assurance the dragon may have brought the boy is immediately gone, leaving him trembling like a newborn deer. Every little movement the dragon makes has the boy flinching and trying to press himself farther into the saddle. Even the littlest gusts of wind that ruffle his hair is also an adjustment the dragon makes to his wings. The semi-opaque membranes between the wing's bones rustle slightly as the dragon moves, the sound soft like fabric.
Knowing that the dragon is just balanced on the boulder beneath them, readying to launch them into the empty air, watching the membranes of his wings flap in the wind like that only serves to heighten Leonidas's anxiety.
"Ausren," he finally croaks. "I… I don't think I can do this."
Ausren twists to look at his human one last time, his mind brushing against the boy's own. Despite his own excitement, he can recognize the terror within the brown-haired boy's mind, and a part of him sympathizes.
Blinking slowly, calming his own thoughts and allowing them to surround the boy's terrified consciousness, the dragon says, "Leonidas, look at me."
For a moment, Leo ignores the order, too terrified to even remove himself enough to peer up at his companion. However, after a good pause in which he allows his mind to mingle with the dragon's own, he pushes himself up enough to meet the dragon's eyes.
There is nothing in those fiery depths but unshakable confidence. "I will never drop you," Ausren says, his voice level and low. "So relax, Riorra, and trust me."
Giving the land one more glance, Leo squeezes his eyes shut and forces himself upright in the saddle. Ausren has never once given me reason to not trust him.
Taking a deep breath and opening his eyes, Leonidas breathes, "Okay."
Knowing the time is now, that the human has gathered enough confidence to take the leap, Ausren flings his wings out and warns, "Hold on."
Leo tightens his grip even further on the handles, if that's possible, and braces himself. The dragon bundles himself on the edge of the boulder, his front feet braced between his powerful coiled back legs, and adjusts his wings one last time.
And then he launches the pair off the mountain and into the open air.
Uncoiling his legs, Ausren's shoulders come up as he rears over the open expanse. Leo instinctively tightens his thighs into the dragon's muscular shoulders, riding the motion relatively well. And then the prince brings his wings down, and with an audible boom that shakes the very air around them, the dragon completely leaves the boulder and rockets into the air.
Leonidas simultaneously finds himself pushed into the saddle and back toward the dragon's haunches. His firm grip with his thighs and the death grip on the handles allows the boy to stay on with relative ease. Underneath the leather of the saddle, the boy feels as the joints of Ausren's wings pivot, and suddenly the entire world is blocked out by the seemingly endless expanse of bone and sinew. The dragon's neck and shoulders come up again as his wings sweep up on either side of the boy, towering impossibly tall above the human. With a powerful pulsation of his neck, Ausren brings his wings down again, once again producing a concussive boom.
For the first time since Leo met the dragon, the human finds himself realizing just how powerful the gentle dragon actually is. To defeat the inescapable force of gravity so easily, with the simple force of musculature alone… it's insane. It's incredible. And the prince seems to be enjoying himself, bands of joy and excitement flashing through his mind with every wing beat.
Very suddenly, they are hundreds of feet above the mountains, the dragon still working to push them higher. The boy can't focus enough on the height to be afraid, instead infatuated with the inner workings of the dragon's mind. The prince is flying… flying and the action is so instinctual that the dragon isn't even thinking about it. Instead, his attention is on his altitude, trying to figure out where the best height to woo Leonidas would be. He is completely unconcerned, so incredibly used to flight that it's second nature.
Leo blinks, peeling himself away from Ausren's thoughts long enough to glance around himself. They are already so high above the land that there is nothing to obscure the horizon until Leo's eyes fail him with distance. To the north, the icy sea stretches out into nothingness, only a hint of the northern island on the horizon. To the south, the Alaric Mountain Range stretches into lowlands and eventually empties out into the Maga Plains.
Ausren brings his wings down one more time, then tips his wings in a way that's unusual to Leo. Instead of bringing his wings all the way up, Ausren instead levels them on either side of himself and stills into a glide. The membranes once again appear translucent, stretched tight between the bones of Ausren's wing. They look red, fading to black where the light struggles to find them next to bone, webbed with dark veins.
Interestingly, Leonidas can both see and sense, through Ausren's mind, the constant vibration of air against the membranes, making them thrum softly. The boy is also aware of the constant and tiny changes Ausren makes to his body to keep them level in the air; from the position of his long tail to the very tips of his wings. He is most definitely a magnificent beast.
Looking directly down on the land below him, for once Leo feels no fear. Instead, he's fascinated. The fort is barely even visible, the trees fading into a single green carpet interrupted by gray peaks of mountains. Everything seems so small and insignificant from up here.
"Wow," Leo breathes, actually daring to lean out over the dragon's shoulder and peer around. It hits him then, the reality of his situation, and he laughs before he can stop himself. "I'm flying," he laughs. "I am flying. No other human has ever done this before. No other human has seen the world like this before."
Ausren tilts his head and rolls his eye back, peering at his human as delight pours through the boy. Then, rolling up his lip, he roars at the sky, the sound shaking the air around the two.
Leonidas laughs again at the sound, throwing his head back into the wind whipping around him. It's cold, up this high, but the boy doesn't care. Not only is the dragon beneath him warmed by fire but the thrill of flying has completely wiped away any care in the world.
"Do you like it, Riorra?" Ausren asks, his voice echoing in the human's skull.
"I… uh, yeah," Leonidas responds, surprising himself with the answer. His terror seems so insignificant now, in comparison with the sheer beauty of the world beneath him.
"Good. Hold on," Ausren says.
Before Leo can even ask, the dragon folds his wings, the wind billowing out of them. They are still semi-extended, but the human suddenly finds Ausren's head tilting toward the ground, his own body trying to lift off the dragon's back.
"Ausren--" Leo starts, squeezing his legs around the dragon's body with all his might.
The dragon rumbles with humor, the vibrations shaking the boy, and then suddenly his right wing snaps back to his side. With a shriek, Leonidas suddenly finds himself plummeting to the right, Ausren arrowing for the ground so sharply that the boy can stare down his neck at the rapidly approaching mountain peaks. And yet… it's not uncontrolled. As soon as he is satisfied with his course, Ausren re-extends his right wing, letting the pair continue to fall but stopping the spin.
Crouched on his dragon's back, his stomach lifting to somewhere in his throat, Leonidas can feel as his terror starts to dissolve into delight. Ausren is in complete control, his thoughts feeding Leo with constant updates on his trajectory and the mechanics of his flight. They may be arrowing toward the ground, but they are not on a collision course.
In fact, in the absence of fear, Leo realizes something: this is the fastest he's ever moved. The wind is whipping his hair into his face, his eyes watering so aggressively that he is constantly blinking tears away. In fact, it's taken his cloak and is snapping it back and forth hard enough that Leo half expects to lose it. Who knew air could be so powerful?
It's… exhilarating.
It's fun.
Before he's realized it, Leo lets out a whoop of pure joy, even standing up in the stirrups a little. Ausren answers him with another roar, his mind flicking between ecstatic excitement and an all-consuming joy. This is without a doubt what he was born to do.
Watching the ground approach between Ausren's horns, Leo smiles savagely. If only you could see me now, Cecil. How wrong you are, and you don't even know it.
Gradually, Ausren begins opening his wings, the velocity of the air around them decreasing. His shoulders tip up, the ground disappearing from Leo's view, and eventually, they come level with the earth again. Now, they are beneath the peaks of the mountains, arrowing over the tops of the trees at breakneck speeds.
Perched like a jockey on the dragon, Leo peeks back at the trees behind them, smiling as the force of their passing shakes the snow from its place. Such power.
Ausren drops his left wing tilting into a gradual turn, his entire body tilting hard to the side. Leo easily adjusts, fear completely forgotten now. The boy feels like one with the dragon, their minds melded to read the other's thoughts. They're working effortlessly together.
Flattening out his flight, Ausren beats his wings to push them further above the trees. As his wings come down, Leo catches sight of the fort off their right wing. This, he knows, will be the last time he sees Dismal Fort, covered in snow and looking worn. This may be the final time he sees a human. Smiling softly, Leo gazes at the fort as it goes by below them.
Interestingly, there seems to be a pair of horses leaving the fort to the north, on the road that will guide them out of the snowy northern forest. That must be Cecil.
"It did not take him long to abandon the fort," Leo thinks, watching the horses fade into the distance. "It did not take him long to abandon Ruhban."
Reaching up, the boy pulls the dragon-scale necklace out from under his shirt and clutches it in one hand. Closing his eyes, Leo turns from the fort and squares his shoulders.
"Goodbye," he breathes, letting that soft smile return.
Opening his eyes, staring over Ausren's extended neck toward the south, that smile turns to a smirk and Leo lets his eyes wander to the east. There's no time to reminisce: it's time to move on.
New horizons await.