Adapting to a New Way of Life (Rhune)

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Hyruu wrote:Rhune blinked once again as Baldirak dismissed everyone, leaving him alone and still as confused as before. The green dragon sat down, looking at the king.
"I... I will stop here. My wings... are not strong enough." he replied.
Rhune made a pause after his sentence. Visibly what happened had disturbed him, but he seemed more confused than actually shocked.
"May... May I leave? I... I need to be alone." he requested.
It wasn't the first time Rhune had made such a request, usually when he was confronted with something new like now.

A low, rumbling growl echoed through the King's throat. A sound of understanding. Baldirak nodded, "You are dismissed," he said in a slightly more serious tone than he intended or was even aware of. Habit, perhaps. By now, his stomach took a liking to mimicking his throat. Baldirak made his way to the food tables, now free as the festivities began to die down. He selected what was a surprisingly large piece of meat--surprising because the biggest pieces usually went first--and sat. The sun yawned silently as clouds covered it--soon it would descend into its den below the horizon. If the clouds would yield to it once more, the sun might feel compelled to end this lax day of celebration with an autum sky. Oranges, reds, yellows... all colors of the trees in the fall. The sky might don such an appearance, but only could it be truly enjoyed if the sky was free of obstruction. And so as the Earth King sated his hunger, he pleaded with the clouds and whatever God or Goddess that mght hear those pleas, to keep the sky clear until the sun closed its eyes.

Rhune nodded at Baldirak as the green dragon left.
"Goodbye, Baldirak!" he said, waving a paw at him.
He still wasn't really sure that movement was something dragons did, but he used to do it and never really questioned it.
"And... Thanks, Nara. Goodbye!" he told the healer, turning back to leave as well.
Tye healer smiled, fluttering around Rhune.
"Goodbye, Rhune! Rhune continues his training and tells Nara when he's ready, right? Nara wants to see Rhune flying!" she chirped.
Rhune had a smile at that comment.
"Yes, I will." he simply replied.
With that the green dragon headed out of Nara's den. His belly reminded him he hadn't breakfast yet. So he headed to the dining hall, already salivating at the idea to eat something. Food was so good here...


The afternoon had been rather calm, Rhune having spent most of it just letting the sun warm his scales. The night came, and another morning began. Yawning, the green dragon headed outside only to be welcomed by the sun. It wasn't as early as sunrise, but not much latter either. He headed toward his training spot, sitting while waiting for Baldirak. The two stones still were there, filling Rhune with determination.

It was not Baldirak who met Rhune this morning, but his nephew, Vilkas. The spikey half-EarthWing smiled a little when he saw the smaller Dragon. He hadn't had an opportunity before now to see this EarthWing. "Hello, Rhune. I'm Vilkas. Uh, Uncle Baldirak couldn't make it this morning, so he sent me instead. I hope that's okay?"

Rhune turned his head as he heard someone approaching, but this time it wasn't Baldirak. This dragon was younger, yet still bigger than himself. Rhune had really that feeling to be small among the Earthwing, while back among the humans he was one of the biggest.
Rhune had a very small frown as Vilkas said a word he didn't understand.
"'Un-cle'? What does that mean?" he asked, tilting his head.
He was so absorbed by this word he didn't know he kind of forgot to answer the actual question.

Vilkas sat and looked at Rhune. "On, sorry. I forgot there's a lot of words you don't know. An Uncle is a family member, specifically the brother of one of your parents." The demi-god smiled at Rhune, hoping he seemed friendlier than he looked. Then he turned his gaze to the two rocks Baldirak had laid out. In reality, the King wasn't busy and could have come. He sent his nephew hoping the young Dragon might make a new friend instead of spending his days working all the time.

Rhune nodded as Vilkas described what an "uncle" was. It hit him that while most dragons here would know their family, himself only knew his parents... and not for long. He barely saw his father before he got executed, and his mother tried to protect him when he was only a few years old. Rhune's face got slightly sad as the memories kicked in, but he made his best to forget that. Wherever his parents were right now, they would be happy to know it was the last generation to suffer such a fate.
"Oh, okay. I don't really... know my family. Don't even know if I had... uncles." he replied, some regret showing in his voice. "Anyway, erm I guess we could begin ?" he asked.

Vilkas frowned as he listened to Rhune. He looked down, feeling bad now. He couldn't possibly imagine what Rhune had tgo through... It was yet another reason why Vilkas vowed to destroy any Human he ever came across. Shaking his head, he looked at the smaller Dragon with a smile. "Sure, let's get started," he said as he picked up a rock.

Rhune let out a smile and spread his two wings, allowing Vilkas to place the rocks on them. The green dragon was visibly eager to begin the exercise, even if in the end he wasn't holding that long.
"I can't wait to fly." he said as the other dragon began to place the stones. "It must be... so nice, being in the air..."
While saying this, Rhune was dreamily looking up at the sky. Flying was something that had been out of reach to him for so long, and now he was close to it.

Vilkas placed the stones then stepped back a little. "I haven't gotten to do any flying out here yet, but it is fun. Even flying in tunnels, you feel so free, like nothing can stop you. Don't worry, Rhune. You'll be flying in no time." The spikey Dragon looked up at the sky, blinking as the sun caught his eyes. He wondered what it would be like to fly up there. Hopefully, one day soon, he could find out.

Rhune blinked as he heard Vilkas has never flown in the open either. Why couldn't he do so? It was tight that they were mostly living underground and not often going to the surface, but still...
"Oh... When I'll be... able to fly... then we could do together! I wonder if we could... catch a star." the green dragon dreamily replied.
The exercise began as Vilkas placed the rocks on his wings. Soon enough Rhune could feel his wings tiring, but he was motivated to last as long as possible. The look on his face soon reflected the effort he was making to maintain his wing straight, but less than a minute later his wings gave up. The stones rolled as Rhune's wings fell on the ground, leaving him panting with the effort.
"How... long? Rhune panted.

Vilkas laughed. "I don't know about catching a star, but sure we can fly once you're ready." He counted silently as Rhune held up the rocks. He was surprised to see the small EarthWing hold them up for so long. "That was great, Rhune! Almost 50 seconds. You keep this up and you'll last a whole minute or more!" Vilkas moved the rocks out of the way then took out a piece of bark with some salve on it. He rubbed it on Rhune's wings. "Nara showed me how to do this. She said she'd be too busy this morning to do it herself."

Rhune's eyes brightened as Vilkas announced he had held fifty seconds. That was five seconds more than the previous day. This was really nice! If he continued like this he would be able to fly in no time! The green dragon let out a relieved sigh as Vilkas started to apply the salve on his wings, instantly feeling invigorated.
"Thanks, Vilkas." he thanked the other dragon.
Once Vilkas got done, Rhune sat down, letting his muscles rest. After all it was only the beginning of the day.