Warily entering the Nexus just long enough for Naoko to lead him over to the dimensional locator, he dropped in a scale and got the coordinates. The girl wanted to be the one to input them, but he'd do it himself.. Can't let the vassals do everything, right
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It had been far too long since anyone stepped here.
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"..Miss Naoko? I need to go somewhere. Would you please climb on?" He's not going into the 'not knowing how to fly, not understanding the dynamics of having a rider, not having a clue what he might get into' aspects, of course, but he's pretty sure he can do a controlled fall. So long as it's just descending, he should be okay, but..
"Hold tight."
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"Ready!" she took a deep breath when saying that,
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He's just getting above the cave mouth when he realizes a modest, steady thermal is issuing from it. And that's NOT good. Still, he can manage a workable circling to come down on the (severely trunctuated) rock ledge, landing a little jarringly but not excessively so. Wordlessly getting on all fours, he starts to prowl into the cave..
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Going a little bit further, nearer to his own clutch's teaching chamber, he tries rationalizing, figuring what could be wrong with his sense of recognition, "Just wanting it to be more righ- Dear BAHAMUT!Older!Zhil is going to be so embarrassed about that one ( ... )
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Zhil wandered aimlessly for a few more moments, looking at the various claw-scribblings and letting it sink in; it was a lot more of the same, as one might expect of a place where hatchlings were taught. While he's not exactly prepared to go lava-dipping QUITE this soon in his life, the heat-haze emanations rising off from it didn't really mean anything besides where the thermal had been coming from..
And things clicked just a tiny bit in his mind. "The Council Cave. If there's anything, ANY kind of message, it'd be there.. I have to know." He's probably more vulnerable right now than Naoko had ever seen him, and is just grasping at any straw he can think of!
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If she had met him when he was this age, she would not have given him a second notice, but this was different. She wondered if their child would grow to the same maturity, but contained an inner sigh. She could not bear his child... not unless she wanted to doom the child the same way her blood placed too many responsibilities on her.
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(He didn't really get that humanish creatures were fully capable of taking care of themselves until much, much later; at the moment he felt responsible for her well-being. He got her into this, he needed to get her out!)
"Miss, please get on. We've got a ways to go yet!" He may have tried to sound rather walled-off and closed up, but he just didn't know how to shut away his emotions yet. The trying (and failing) was blatantly clear, but she shouldn't be troubled by his mental turmoil!
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"Deep breaths, dear one. We'll get through this," she climbed on and braced herself as she had done so earlier.
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And that helped far more than words could possibly say.
"All right, keep moving.. We'll be heading down to the valley floor next." He's already halfway out of the cave, wanting to leave those memories behind as fast as he could..
"Thank you, Miss Naoko." He isn't about to say for what, as they begin to spiral down.
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Not so much, actually. Some dragons were hatched with the knowledge of how to fly, and while Zhil wasn't quite that precocious in this field, he'd put some serious effort in!
Falling pretty much any distance without getting hurt was a given; it comes with having functional wings. Naoko's shifting weight and mass certainly made sure it was no cakewalk, but all the months of practice he'd put in helped him overcome that obstacle; it was a reasonably slow and uneventful trip down.
Right until this guy tried to tear off one wing in a flyby.
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Naoko hung on tightly to Zhilbar as they descended, bracing herself and letting the wind hit her in the face. It was warm, yet strangely comforting. Despite the precariousness of her seat, she was enjoying it. That was of course, till something hit Zhilbar, and she was nearly thrown off the dragon. Her grip on him was quite tight, but even so she lost her footing. For one heart-stopping moment, she was hanging on to him by just her fingernails.
To her credit, she didn't even let out a sigh. Naoko had been trained to be stealthy except during certain circumstances. This was not one of them. Instead, her eyes scanned for handholds. If there was an enemy attacking, she would not distract him, and would offer him a hand instead, albeit not from his back. It was better not to remind and distract him now that he had a passenger on his back.
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Too slow to float, and the dastard was coming back for another pass.. He'd have to try that trick that just never worked right for him! Partially furling the wing nearest the cliff, he slipped in that direction suddenly with a smooth shift.. Oh crap, the wing suddenly closed altogether! He was spinning and falling like mad!
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