Flights

Rice� left Kourikawa behind in a foul mood. The self-centered, amused and arrogant dragon was gone and in her place was a being that knew only one desire: FLIGHT. Deep inside a part of Rice� was almost frightened as despite her �tough� talk this was her first flight, and her own ferocity came as quite a shock. But instinct is generally much stronger than any being alone and so an unearthly roar exited her lips that was half the mourning wail of lamenting spirits and half the vociferous challenge of a rising female.

Four of her male suitors were instantly alert and when she took wing they followed eagerly. One suitor, still wrapped in his own confusion, made a hasty bargain with the very spirits who seemed to be guiding this flight. He vanished and Rice� was left with four eager pursuers.

When she first took wing Rice� was concerned with only one thing: fly far, and so the beginning of the chase was spent with her beating her mighty wings as rapidly as wind resistance would allow and steadily increasing the gap between herself and her suitors. When she was far, far away from Darkling Dawn and realized she had lost sight of her suitors she realized her error. Instinct was all well and good, but despite the blinding need to FLY she also needed to mate. The urge did not leave because you avoided all your suitors.

Hastily she reverted her flight path and her four suitors (what was that flicker? Did she in fact have five suitors?) found themselves being confronted with a charging female. This was certainly different, instead of having to catch her all any of them needed to do was grasp her as she sped by, right?

That is exactly what little Tivrell thought. The Lantessaman dragon (oddly larger at Darkling Dawn than on his home planet) turned tail just in time to come even with Ricensyal as she tried to scatter the group of suitors. He reached out, straining his smaller wings to keep up and grasp her, but in the end all he was successful in grabbing was the tip of her tail, his turn had too greatly slowed his motion. Rice� roared as his claws grasped her tail and flapped her huge wings at him as if trying to �clap� them around him. Startled and just a trifle stung but the fury of her slap Tivrell let go and Rice� flew on.

By the time Tivrell had recovered from his shock he was far behind and while it occurred to him that Rice� might pull another such stunt he was stung by her forceful rejection and returned to Darkling Dawn. With three visible suitors still chasing her Rice� summed them all up. Rimaerten was not at all her type, but with his two sets of wings he had the stamina to outlast her if he chose, she made note to keep a close eye on him. There was something adorable and almost innocent about Jikuri, she didn�t mind him at all, and the poetry spouting Hydra at least had enough wit to try to woo her, even if he did intrude upon her mind without permission the first time they met. She had thought she would have more suitors, surely another male had signed up for her flight? She was sure it had been full. But she had also been sure that Kourikawa was chasing her and he had expressed shock at her explanation of the flight process. With those wings he wouldn�t be able to catch her anyway. A pity, as he had intrigued her despite his unsure attitude.

Well, she knew each male�s strengths in the wit department; it was time to test their agility. Rice� roared another challenge to her three suitors and banked into a tight spiral on one wingtip. They closed on her in this spiral and as they were almost within range of her outside wing she suddenly thrust with her wings, the thrust so powerful that her wing-tines actually crossed beneath her. The thrust enough to push her above them as they flew forward she skillfully found herself facing the way that had come and she shot off in that direction with a call of taunting laughter as she left them behind once more.

All three males scrambled to revert their course, Shivaray calling poetic verse to her in an attempt to win her favor, Rimaerten simply grinning with the fun of the chase, and Jikuri wondered why he�d ever agreed to chase such a stubborn female. Perhaps the evil ones weren�t so bad; at least staying alive was a lot easier than all the about-facing that was going on in this flight!

This next portion of the flight is far too complex to put into words. Let us suffice it to say that Rice� dipped and dove and performed arial maneuvers that shocked her suitors in their complexity and left their heads spinning. One of these maneuvers caused Shivaray to drop out as his three heads collided trying to watch opposite ends of Rice� that turned head over tail and plummeted to the ground. Grumbling and bemoaning his return to dark poetry, though this was to be lovers� lament, Shivaray returned to Darkling Dawn and Rice� took in her two remaining suitors.

All throughout her flight she had seen flickers of what looked like a serpentine creature �swimming� through the air, but nothing substantial had yet made itself known to her so she was left to assume that Jikuri and Rimaerten were her only remaining chasers. Another of those flickers caught her attention though and she stopped paying attention long enough for Rimaerten to surge up on her with his dual wings. Jikuri, realizing he�d missed the opportunity and not yet ready to give in, surged forward as well, but it was Rimaerten who grasped her wing arms first.

Shocked by the contact Rice� squawked her whiskers flailing wildly in agitation. No! This was not the way it was supposed to happen. She didn�t want Rimaerten, she would prefer Jikuri! She opened her mouth in a roar that was not heard in the mortal realm and fled to the only place where Rimaerten could not catch her. She vanished from his grasp, slipping effortlessly into the spirit realm. And there, Kourikawa was waiting. An ethereal dragon for a spirit dragon, what could be more appropriate? The spirits approved the match and though Kourikawa was most definitely winded from the trial of keeping up with her from the spirit world, Rice� spread her wings as the spirits shoved them violently back out into the mortal realm.

They emerged, Rice�s large wings keeping them gliding despite the harshness of the transition and both Rimaerten and Jikuri called out in surprise to see their prize had already been taken away from them!