Indraneel + Ambrosine || What is it with flying Others crashing into trees

[flightedfancy]

Who: Indraneel, Ambrosine
When: Last week sometime, before the attack
Where: Market to woods
Ratings & Warnings: Pretty sure G

Indraneel sat atop a street lamp watching the crowds pass by below. Some stopped to gape at him, though most didn't notice him, a tiny dragon the size of a pigeon, perched atop a post with his tail winding around it, above eye level. It was midday, the sun high in the sky, glinting off of his sapphire hide. The bustle of the street kept traffic constant, so those few who did spot him didn't have much time to stare and figure out what he was.

He'd taken to perching above because people didn't tend to look up, which didn't bother him any. Not being the center of attention meant he had a chance to observe, to see what people did in their daily lives, where they went, what they purchased. He'd spotted a shiny, gold ring on one of the stalls not too far off and absconded with it, the merchant not having noticed, and now held the thing in one tiny little front paw while he watched the goings on of the market square. Winter would likely lessen the crowds, but for now, they made for much entertainment.

That was the thing about Ambrosine. She always looked up. Especially these days, with the memories of human life chipping away. Her pupils stared up at the sky, round and wide like an owls, and she reminded herself that here on the ground is where humans were supposed to be. Nicely dressed. Owls and martens and cats and whatever other form she might find herself in could not dress nearly so stylishly. Although that cat had certainly found himself a nice piece of jewelry.

Wait, that was not a cat.

Ambrosine strode up to the street lamp, lifting back her hat to get a clear look at the... was that a dragon? Her grin became wide, but she managed to contain herself. Ah! A crime that a wizard such as herself had never met a dragon. But if he was an unusual sight, Ambrosine's body language did not betray her naivety. "Hello there, friend." She called everyone that. "And how might you be doing this sunny afternoon?"

It took a bit for the dragon to realize someone was speaking to him, having gotten used to listening to the snippets of greetings and conversation that drifted upwards from the crowds. His little neck craned as he peered towards the voice, noticed the woman looking at him, and blinked down at her. His first response was a soft chirp, something he'd gotten accustomed to in greeting strangers. Humans seemed to find it endearing.

Smiling, the dragons head bowed in a nod. "Namaste," he greeted, thick Indian accent obvious even with his tiny voice. "Very well, thank you." He looked the woman over curiously, inching forward to lean down the post and get a closer look. Should he introduce himself? Even with his activity on the ledgers, people still didn't know he was the dragon. "I am Indraneel. It is nice to meet you."

Ambrosine smiled. A dragon with manners! Not so surprising, in hindsight. They were among the most noble of beasts, as far as she understood. There was perhaps the odd story of kidnapping some princess or another. But what woman would choose a knight over a dragon? Honestly.

She removed her hat with an excessive flourish, lowering into a theatrical bow before flipping it back on her head. "I am called Ambrosine Nightingale," she said, smiling as she rose back up. "The pleasure is mine." She turned to face the crowd, standing beside the dragon's street lamp. "People watching?"

Indraneel nodded, peering out at the traffic once more. Some few stopped to eye the woman talking to a post, fewer still noticed the creature atop it she seemed to be speaking to, most were too distracted with having places to be and things to do. "It is a good place to watch. Many people come through with different things to do." Probably one of the busiest places in the city.

He slipped his tail from around the post and wound it forward, toying with the little gold ring and then sliding it up the twisting length until it wouldn't budge further. His little dragon digits preened over the feathered crest where the ring sat, picky about presentation, then released the tail, the glittering length twining itself back around the post. His attention returned to the woman. "Ambrosine," he uttered, being sure to get the sound right, though his accent chewed a bit at the pronunciation. Hopefully she wouldn't be too put off by it. "Nightingale is a bird, yes?" He paused. "Are you a bird lady?"

Ambrosine was polite enough to smile and wave to people who gave her bewildered looks for her street post conversations. Jaded, all of them! To go about their days not realizing that magic that was in front of their very eyes. Normally, Ambrosine meant such things in a more figurative sense. It was almost depressing how literal a turn that took at times.

Almost. She grinned back at Indraneel with his question. "Only some of the time," she said. "I am a wizard-- I am whatever I wish to be when I wish to be it." Not exactly true, but close enough.

Indraneel blinked, pulling his head back to give her an appraising look. "Can you be a dragon?" he asked, curious. It would be a lot of fun to have another dragon around! Even if they weren't a real dragon. He could teach them how to be a dragon!

A dragon. This gave Ambrosine pause as she tapped her chin. "A dragon," she repeated aloud. "I have not tried such a feat." It was a worthy goal, but possibly too big a spell. What would the cost of such a spell be? A wicked grin crossed her face. Wouldn't it be worth it to find out?

"Tell me," she said, "What would you consider to be the essence of a dragon?"

Another blink. "Essence?" Indraneel had no idea what that meant, other than, well... Sometimes it was used to describe the soul, in his reading. Which was a silly concept to begin with. Other times it meant a scent. Well, if he went with soul, it would be what made you what you are, wouldn't it? Dragon soul! "Flying!" he declared, after much consideration, and seemed pretty happy with his answer, punctuating it with a flap of his little wings that would have caused him to tumble from the post if it weren't for his tail.

Flying. There was, perhaps, more to being a dragon than that. But at least flying was, technically, something Ambrosine already had great experience with. As an owl more than a dragon, unfortunately. "I could pull it off," she decided. "Though it would be easier with a live dragon to study." Her eyes shifted, looking to Indraneel.

Indraneel gave her an inquisitive look. "What sort of study?" he asked. He was already studied at the Hour, and he didn't really mind it, but everyone had different ideas of what they wanted to learn and know about something. And she was a wizard! Wizards did magic! Not that he'd ever met one before. "Not with spells, yes?"

Ambrosine shook her head. "No, goodness no. Observation. I cannot turn into what I do not understand. How you move. How you fly." She thought back to his mention of essence. "Perhaps a lot of how you fly."

She nodded to herself. "Yes, that should be enough. A flight together, to watch and observe." She whistled, glancing up. "Terrible hour for it, but these things cannot be helped."

Craning his neck, the dragon peered at himself, extending one wing. How he flew was perhaps the most asked thing, he realized. His healing abilities as well, but they seemed less eager to learn about that than his flying.

He turned back to her, nodding, and unwrapped his tail from the post, giving it a little shove with his feet. He dropped a few inches before his wings spread and he caught himself, hovering just before her, tail twisting about beneath him. "You can fly?" he asked. "As a bird, yes?" What kind of bird did she use? Oh, this was so interesting!

Ambrosine was already snapping her fingers a few times. It always helped get the mood of moving her ribbons of magic, weaving invisible threads in and around herself to change her form. The more intense the weave became, the easier it was for others to see colored wisps on the air, but it was ultimately a sort of poof-- at least it felt like one-- that changed Ambrosine's lovely form into that of an owl.

If anyone gave her strange looks for the sudden transformation, she ignored them, flailing her wings until she managed to get herself in the air and perch on the lantern. Strange, that Indraneel could flap in place. Strange and intriguing. She hooted a few times until she found her balance, feathers ruffling while she peered into the crowd. Daytime was no time for owls. They would learn to cope, she was sure. "Here we are."

If the dragon weren't enough to get their attention, someone suddenly turning into an owl certainly did, much of the crowd faltering in their steps to gape and stare, make exclamations, and back away from the two aviary critters. Indraneel paid no attention to them, eager to fly with the owl woman. He smiled as he looked her over, not even considering that owls were night creatures (he was, too, really - but there were less people to watch at night!).

"What else can you turn into?" he asked, curious. Oh, but she wanted to fly. "Flying first, yes? Then you can tell me?" Eager, he nodded to his own questions, and then flapped his wings and sent himself upward into the sky, spiraling as he rose. Eeee, someone else to fly with! So exciting! And this one could talk unlike Alex who couldn't make a peep as a bat outside of the bat-chirping which was far from conversation.

Nonsense bat-chirping is excellent conversation.

Ambrosine gave her wings a ruffle before flapping off after Indraneel, doing her best to mimic his tricks, though with limited success. He was flexible in the sky, the make of his wing membranes-- like that of a bat-- giving him a greater degree of control and turning than Ambrosine's own allowed. Hers were silent in her flight, however. She liked that about owls.

"A marten, occasionally," she said as they flew, swooping under Indraneel. "I have been a snake before. And a man." The last one was not intentional, but that hardly warranted a mention. "I have not been a rat. I think that it would confuse me." After all, rats were delicious.

Tricks! Mostly his tricks involved soaring this way and then that, with the occasional loop, his tail trailing after him, twisting almost with a life of its own. He slowed when she spoke, listening, his little head craning to look at her since it was only polite to look at someone you were speaking with even if you were flying through the air. ...Probably easier for him than most other fliers.

"I can be a man," he commented, a hint of disgust in his voice. "I do not like to be. Humans are too squishy and clumsy and cannot fly." And they had to wear clothes. They itched. Even the ones he'd gotten from Ravindra were uncomfortable, but better than anything else he'd worn.

Indraneel swooped down beneath the owl, and back up on the other side of her, letting out a chitter of delight. Flying was the best! He veered, heading towards the city walls. "The woods are the best for flying!" he called out, heading that way.

Ambrosine enjoyed the feel of gliding, giving the occasional flap to keep up with her new, reptilian flight companion on their way toward the woods. She hoped it would be darker there.

This was her first time flying with any sort of companion. A flock! A tiny flock. A tiny, mismatched flock. But the same benefits of trading air currents was (marginally) present. Much more fun this way, for certain.

"Men are rather... blocky." Yes, that was a good word. She preferred the body of a female, herself. "But the human body has its uses." The clothes, for one. Oh, what wonderful, stylish clothes. And the flourish! Dancing. Dancing was also great. And tea. Paws and talons could not properly lift a teacup. She tried to remind herself of these things the more she felt the wind flowing over and under her. She was human. Being human was best. She had to remember that.

Indraneel swerved in front of Ambrosine before falling back to speak again. "Anything humans can do I can do." There wasn't anything he needed to be human for. He could open doors, carry things, even write! And it didn't seem to make talking to people any easier, either. He was too different, even as a human.

As they neared the woods, the dragon altered his course to bring them lower. The trees blocked out much of the sun if you went in deep enough. He peered about the treeline, swerved, and then dove at one of the tree branches, twisting at the last moment to dive under it and come up on the other side, facing the owl. He gave a dragony grin as he landed on the branch. "How well do you fly?" he asked. "Can you dodge through trees?" Alex hadn't been able to when they'd met, and the memory of the bat flying into a tree still amused him a great deal, the dragon letting out a chittering laugh.

"Is that so?" Ambrosine's tone was amused. Given her recent mental list, she failed to keep from imagining Indraneel dressed in his own tiny clothes, and drinking from his own tiny tea set. Owls could not do the same thing.

Ambrosine swooped down with Indraneel without fear or concern, thankful for the darkness of the canopy. She twisted through a few branches before fluttering up beside Indraneel, perching on a branch when he came up in front of her. How useful it would be to remain in one place! Perhaps she should have picked a hummingbird! "Friend, I am the best at dodging trees. They do not even move."

Not to leave him to take her at her word, she took off from her perch and weaved herself through the mess of trees, over and under branches, twisting around trunks and turning to circle back around and land back where she once was. She puffed her chest, impressed with herself. When was she ever not impressed with herself.

"Yes," he answered simply. Of course it was so! He said it was! Dragons were never wrong. ...almost never.

His head tilted towards her, the dragon grinning toothily and about to speak again, until Ambrosine took off. He looked after her for a moment before diving from the branch to give chase, twisting and swerving through the trees, letting his tail flick against a few of the coloured leaves along the way the knock them off their branches. He loved Autumn! All the leaves got pretty.

He caught up to her, diving beneath and past, only to catch a branch with his tail not too far ahead, using it to twist himself around and hover in place, right in her flightpath. Let's see if she could dodge dragons too!

Foolish trees! They knew not the power, the speed, the grace of Ambrosine Nightingale. She would defeat them. She would defeat them all.

The dragon was a surprise, though.

Ambrosine flapped frantically to try and avoid the sudden, new obstacle. And succeeded. Of course. Naturally. Her body swerved with poise and elegance, darting around his form and directly into the nearest tree.

He had a moment to be smug before the owl smacked into the tree, and Indraneel let out a startled chirp, darting over to perch on a branch and peer at her with concern. "...are you all right?" That was... not what he'd intended. Gosh, what was it with flying Others and trees? First Alex, not this Ambrosine.

Ambrosine had slumped to the ground, but was back up in almost the same instant, wings ruffled and flailing as she tried to get her wits back. Spinny world! Dizzy world! She finally locked her sights back on Indraneel, giving a hooting huff before ribbons of color swelled around her form.

No longer an owl, but a hummingbird (albeit a rather... brown one), Ambrosine flit up in front of Indraneel. Ha, ha! Take that, air! Take that, dragon! Now she, too, could hover in place! "Of course I am all right." Because that? Never happened.

Oh it happened, and he'll be telling that story to people later just you wait.

The dragon blinked. That was not a bird he'd seen before! Was it? ...maybe he had, he wasn't sure. "What kind of bird is that?" he asked, his head twisting about to peer at the hovering creature from different angles. Its wings flapped really fast! And the beak! What a strange shape. Other than that, though, it didn't look like anything special.

No Indraneel don't you dare her reputation will be ruined forever! Forever. What reputation.

Ambrosine was darting to and fro, circling Indraneel and stopping beside him a moment before darting to some other side of him. "A hummingbird," she said, all too proud. She landed on Indraneel's snout, body not much larger than a mouse, and not much heavier than lint. Normally, she would be uneasy in such a tiny form, and one so close to something's mouth, no less. Ah, the dangers of shapeshifting! It was better to stick to predatory species.

But Ambrosine had a point to prove, and that point was that she was amazing and could hover in the air if she wanted to. It was an important point. She peered at Indraneel, nearly poking him with her long beak as she studied his features. There were many birds. Were there many dragons? "What kind of dragon are you?"

His neck craned to follow the bird with his eyes, though he lost her at some point, only to blink and go crosseyed when the little thing landed on his nose, the whole bird probably about the size of his own head. It took a lot of effort not to shake himself and unsettle the little thing! "Hummingbird," he repeated, making a note of that so he could read up about them once he returned to the Hour's library.

"Drakon," he answered. "Drakones are from India. I have heard of other dragons but have not met any." Some of them couldn't even change their size! The poor things. Though, they could breathe fire, apparently, which he could not. "Drakones live in trees or rivers and hunt elephants, but I wished to explore and have not been home in many many years." He paused. "And there are not any elephants here, so I eat deer mostly."

No deer shape changes, then. Pity! They were graceful beasts, much like the unicorns she protected. On that note... "I see. Don't eat unicorns." Ambrosine had never seen an elephant. She wouldn't have to worry about that kind of shape.

She flit off of his snout and took the form of a pine marten, landing on his perch with him and keeping her balance in the branches as she scurried about, inspecting more of his form and pawing at his tail. "Your tail is most long." Was it for flying?

Indraneel blinked again. What an odd request. Unicorns weren't real. ...were they? "I would not eat a unicorn any more than I would another dragon." Which was to say, at all. If unicorns were real, what sort of creature would go and eat one? Really now.

The new shape caused him to chirp in surprise (again), and he peered at this new creature. A mammal! A strange one, too. "What is that one?" he asked. How many different forms was she going to take? Curious. His tail lifted up, and his head turned to look at it, then the thing coiled itself about the branch. "It is for catching elephants. They do not like to be eaten." Well, most things didn't. "But I have to be much larger. Elephants are large."

"It is a marten," Ambrosine explained. "Good for climbing. And small spaces."

Next she was a wall lizard, brown and spotted, flicking her own tail and experiencing the body of a reptile as she ran under Indraneel's perch to inspect the other side of him. "How does a tail catch elephants?"

Perhaps she should think of dragons in parts? Lizard, bat, and... cat? But she had never been a bat before. And he did not fly like a bat.

"Oh." Indraneel slipped his tail free from the branch as the marten took to it, the thing winding about beneath him while he watched the creature. "Not just the tail. I get big and wrap around the elephant." He paused. "We hide in trees and our tail drapes down to wrap them and then we leap on them and wrap the rest of us around them. They are big but we can be bigger."

His little head tilted at her, and he scampered along the branch to the tree's trunk, and then up to a higher branch, the uneven bark perfect for his tinier claws, unlike the solid wood of the posts in the city. Humans smoothed surfaces down and made them harder to climb. He gave a chirp once he settled, neck twisting to watch Ambrosine.

Ambrosine was only barely listening. She would not be turning into a dragon to eat elephants. There were no elephants to eat, or otherwise she might. Instead she skittered along the branches, chasing up Indraneel as a lizard, running circles around the trunk as she chased up after him.

"It will be a big spell," she said. "But doable. I will have to prepare."

His head tilted to look at her, knowing nothing about spells or magic outside of that he was a dragon who could fly and that was the best thing ever. "Prepare?" he asked, giving himself a gentle shake that ruffled his wings before they settled back against his body.

In another ribboned poof, Ambrosine was an owl. A safer form, and one that could fly again. She perched next to Indraneel, ruffling her wings an twisting her head around to look at him. "Prepare," she repeated. "Ingredients. Knowledge. A candle or two. I will tell you when, if you wish to watch." Having someone there who believed she could would give the spell a boost.

He could watch? Indraneel smiled, nodding emphatically. "I would like to, yes!" He knew there were other spell casters in the city, some having been mentioned over the ledgers, but he'd never gotten to see it in practice before! So exciting! "What sort of knowledge?" He paused. "And ingredients? I can fetch things! And the library has a lot of books!"

His enthusiasm was not unsurprising. Ambrosine was amazing and of course he would want to witness her alter reality itself. Who would deny themselves such a privileged? Dragons were indeed wise and noble beasts.

"Books?" That had Ambrosine's attention. She unfolded her wings, just a tad, as if ready to take off at any moment. "There is a library? That would, indeed, be useful, friend. Can you show me?"

"Yes!" He gave another eager nod, grinning. "The Hour has the biggest library." ...Not that he'd seen many libraries, but it was still impressive! "Many books on many different things, and Reilanin taught me how to read English better."

He made to shove off the branch, then paused, wings fluttering as he caught his balance and steadied himself, peering at her. "Have you been to the Golden Hour? It is the most interesting place in Tyrol."

Ambrosine spread her wings and prepared to launch, but paused when Indraneel kept himself in place in the air. Perhaps she should stick to hummingbirds around this one, but, well, she had already exhausted quite a bit of magic for the moment. Ambrosine was, at least for a while, stuck as an owl. She would have to think of some excuses as to why she would remain in this form for a time.

"I have visited there once," she said. "It was not a long stay... I saw little of it." Truthfully, only the lobby and Sundrop's room.

Indraneel grinned broadly. "I could give you a tour! There are many people who study many different things. Some make toys, others study medicine. There are the gardens, but you must not touch the plants because I am supposed to guard them, and then the kitchens where they give me ham sometimes." He paused. There was too much to explain all at once! "You will see!"

The dragon's wings fluttered and he veered off into the sky, flitting through the branches and leaves to make for open air.

Ambrosine tilted her head. As an owl, this meant turning it completely on its side. Indraneel's enthusiasm was chipping away at her wariness she had for the Hour. Sundrop hadn't wanted to leave immediately upon getting her memories back, either. What was the truth of this strange place? A tour was not a terrible idea. "I will see," she repeated, bewildered.

She spread her wings again, driving off the branch to soar after Indraneel.