Gym Training - Lethalia

Lethalia had come to realize her drake was, in a sense, quite spoiled. Dominant with plenty of hatchlings of his own running about the city, hasn't lost a battle, won a tournament for that matter - which was almost a series of flukes. His competitors were a series of unbroken browns, a hen who just wasn't quite able to match his speed but would have been terrifying had she, and a higher tiered drake with branching horns that was as fast as her drake, but Vidarr managed to luck his way into the first blow. But, try and tell a now-dominant creature that his stint in the pit didn't really count to someone - because what would the thoughts of others really matter to a drake?

She thought about it all the time, and wasn't quite sure why it tormented her so. Vidarr's win was hard earned, with all of the intensive training she poured into the young drake, her failure to break him successfully that left her with huge claw marks across the tops of her thighs. His win, his dominance, his daughters, it was all an inarguable result of their hard work. So why didn't she feel that it was such a fluke, when a tournament winning dominant drake was one of her biggest accomplishments? Did people think as little of her win as her guilt brought her to feel?

It could have been in part Vidarr's attitude towards it all. He was big, dominant, king of his castle and completely unchallenged by anything but his owner, the only one who has 'defeated' him up until this point.

That also meant he had become cryingly lazy.

It was in due part her fault for allowing his lethargy to turn into the drake losing his 'dominance'. Lethalia didn't all realize it could happen once they'd become top dog, but apparently keeping up appearances to whoop even the occasional brown was enough to keep those hormones flowing, or something like that. Sarane were bizarre creatures. Whatever it was, she could see the change in him over time. He would never lose his additional size from becoming dominant, and still lorded over her farm as his territory, but he didn't seem motivated much beyond retaining what land he has.

That was what made her start hauling his ass out more, taking him flying just to get him 'out of the house'. And then started on installing steering, which was admittedly far too long in the making.

And that was what brought about the change she hadn't known she was waiting for, but seized the opening with all her might.

|Boring!| he'd finally snapped at her, while the satyr had been trying to goad him into learning something in the air. His interruption had made her near instantly forget what her original intent had been, but she'd probably been attempting to 'install' some steering into the drake.

|Boring, huh?| she implores, not having known she was awaiting this moment, but tackling it as gingerly as she can before Vidarr has a mind to take it back. |Here I thought you liked playing in the air.|

|Boring.| With a slight bob of his head as if to nod like he's seen his owner do, though it does little to emphasize his point and more to cause his owner to put a lid on her giggling. Vidarr was one creature that disliked being laughed at, certainly. |No fight.|

|There aren't any fights going on right now-| an automatic protest came upon her lips before stopping herself amidst the thought, realizing what she may be able to get Vidarr into doing from here. There weren't any sarane tournaments coming up, that much was true. But creatures and owners who were looking for a fight? Rumor was, a tournament open to all creatures was in the works! |...you still wanna fight, huh?| she steered her words instead.

|Fight!| Vidarr parroted enthusiastically.

|What if... they're not drakes?|

This one provokes more thought from Vidarr, but aside from those creatures he hunts and those he's not allowed to touch in his owner's paddocks, she doesn't think he holds a real awareness of creatures that weren't adversary drakes or available hens. |Yes!| comes the response shortly; after all, what could bring harm to him? Clearly there's not a lot such a simple creature could comprehend; this was enough of an abstract thought to not give him all that much pause.

|Are you willing to work for it?|

Lethalia can literally feel the suspicion he begins to radiate - puts a whole new spin on being thrown shade. But he ponders and then responds positively, without words.

It had been just the opening she was waiting for with Vidarr, she just hadn't known it till it happened.

|Let's go start then. Right now.|

The next few moments found Vidarr landing at her house, the satyr digging out her foam-padded arrows and a gym membership card, both of which had been handily forgotten about in the last few years. Another few minutes found her flying with Vidarr to the gym.

It has literally never been so easy to get Vidarr here. Lethalia's head spun with the speed in which the trajectory of not only her whole day changed, but likely the next month. Another marathon of hanging out with Vidarr and teaching him literally as much as she could before a tournament?

This would be fun for them both. Gods knew they needed it.

Vidarr compressed his wings to slide into the gym's sliding doors, Lethalia flashing her membership card to the white tigress behind the desk. Though she did with some trepidation since she'd only been here once before, and the card had been rotting in a drawer somewhere since, she was waved on with no problem.

Lethalia found that she was grinning to herself, walking through the complex to the outdoor training area she preferred. It had been such a long time since they'd been here; Vidarr was so much younger then, smaller. Funny to think of the 'smaller' growing drake who was slightly gawky in his youth, figuring out just how to run around a track without stumbling. It would have been hard to fathom back then, that he was going to grow into... well, this!

Given all of Vidarr's time off, he's taking to the gym with much less complaint than she'd been anticipating. Perhaps he really had been bored with all of his time off, especially since he didn't even complain about the foam arrows he once hated with a passion. It was likely she was going to be reminding him of his dislike soon.

Though Vidarr didn't take kindly to being compared to an equillion in any way. He's still sulking around the water trough as she tries to soothe him, softly talking to him over their ribbon while she set about putting away the hurtles first. Lethalia makes sure she sets about putting the bending poles a little further apart so she doesn't mess that up the first time, either. It wouldn't do either of them any good if she continued to deter Vidarr from his work when he was somewhat willing originally. She doesn't mention that hooved prey are most known for using these, either.

The equillion jumps felt flimsy when she brought those out, just two stands to each, with matching sets of pegs to hold more of those bending poles on them. Instead of getting caught up in an entire hurtle that wasn't even sized for him anyway, he would just knock the pole over - though she still had to place them quite far up to be large enough for him. She made sure these jumps were significantly more spaced out than last time, less likely to make her drake... well, biff it again.

Still sulking off to the side, Vidarr watched what his owner was doing with slightly narrowed eyes. He might be upset with her, but what else was there for him to do while he waited?

|Look, I'm sorry for messing the jumps up, okay? I can't get everything right.| Especially when she lacks the ability to write things down. Lethalia's envious of the ability to write down neat little lists, keep track of everything. Even being able to read the labs' notes on the creatures she owned would be quite useful, but she has to harass Saira every time she wants something read off... like all of her letters from the tournament. One screw-up often provides a reminder of others; Lethalia growls to herself, and even Vidarr looks mildly concerned.

|Just - run out some of your frustration with me, okay?| she offers, sighing and picking up her bow and odd ammo. |And I'll do the same with these, you're warmed up enough. Maybe you'll actually be better at dodging if you're a bit mad,| she tries to tease; there wasn't anything to make him not mad at this point. So they might as well press on, since she wasn't about to let a little hissy fit of his cause them to go home. No, he was still going to have to do work, upset or not.

Vidarr still minds her well at least, because the even larger canister of foam arrows she's armed herself with this time certainly isn't going to improve his mood.

Lethalia poses with her arrow nocked and drawn, and she tracks Vidarr with it as he gets up to speed. As soon as the drake hits that first straight stretch and avoids the bending poles for now, she loose the string. It's difficult getting a true aim with the bulky foam on the end, but the arrow gives Vidarr a good thump on the hind leg anyway.

|Hah! Already forgetting the training we worked on? That was all for nothing, huh?| she teases, even as she fires another.

|No!| Vidarr snaps, but at least there's the hint of joking in his 'tone'.

|Maybe you're just fat after laying around so much after the tournament,| she jabs, getting a growl she can hear across the track when she snags him in the rear a second time, even though he makes an attempt at tucking it under himself to avoid the hit. To be fair to the drake, he has kept in pretty decent shape even in his time off. They few together as near as every day as she could fit in, went hunting on his own, harassed her poor meat-critters in their paddock. It felt like he ought to be in better shape than this. Vidarr is, of course, getting annoyed with this routine already, declaring it boring through their ribbon. Lethalia's still nocking her arrows loosely, giving the drake time to react. If she was actually trying, he'd be faring even worse. |I'm even taking it easy on you!|

|Prove it!| he snaps, and she can feel his agitation rising; with a creature so based in instinct, his feelings are so much like a physical force. It's hard managing it.

|Maybe when you can handle it!| she goads anyway, firing a bold shot at his head.

She would have been smarter to have intentionally missed.

A flash of red-hot anger throbs in her skull for a beat of her heart - as slow as she can hear the beat in her head is all the reassurance she needs to know it's a pretty accurate measure of time.

Thup-thub.

The opening and the closing of her heart, just once is all she hears rushing in her ears like it was trying to drown her. A gasp later she surfaced, finding herself on the ground instead of the sea, despite what her equilibrium is telling her. Hand to her temple, Lethalia forces a larger calm breath, the ringing in her ears too loud to hear Vidarr's approach until he's beside her. He would understand she wasn't dead as long as he could 'feel' that she was conscious again, so he was fine to sit there and wait for her. She didn't feel all that gravely injured, but took the time to lay there and recover for a moment. Assess damage... in a second, here.

In spite of his anger having not completely faded, Vidarr hovers over her as close as he dares. Though he's not sure what happened, the drake doesn't expect her to be pleased once she gets up again. Still, Lethalia can feel him practically thrumming with his need to protect her, concern over this unusual happening winning over at his flash of rage.

It's strange yet having an emotional connection with a drake; let alone because sarane are so much different in their feelings Almost as if it's more... raw, than the connection with Mavelle. The equillion's emotions almost feel further away, but they do bounce around erratically enough to sometimes make Lethalia jittery herself. Vidarr's feelings are always like a deep rumble, something from within the bones, especially when the feelings are particularly tied to instinct. They rarely change strongly - a more annoyed buzzing once in a while, a thrumming contentedness on occasion. His soaring joy had been something to experience while bringing him out in the storm to learn to fly with her - she looked forward to sharing it with him again.

So, she seemed fine - and with that thought, her hazel eyes dart across the room as if scanning for predators. Might as well be, for as much as she'd hope she was dead if anybody had seen that, let alone do something like be coming to check on her! It was more and more likely they would be sharing the gym with someone so close to a tournament. Ready to try and just melt into the earth if someone hailed them, Lethalia was able to breathe a deep sigh of relief when there didn't appear to be anybody around. Or if they had, the episode was brief enough nobody noticed.

That meant either she fainted, or was maybe even some kind of panic attack that made her drop, but she couldn't recall what she had felt like before blacking out for that moment. It did though feel like her bodily operations were on manual mode for the moment, having to remind herself to breathe as she centered herself.

Certain she wouldn't just collapse once she stopped leaning on her drake, Lethalia wandered over to her bag to rummage out her water bottle, drinking deeply of it once she found it. Vidarr's eyes upon her was slightly unsettling for the knowledge that he was watching her without even looking at him - like being able to feel someone's eyes on you with a literal sixth sense, rather than just getting the inkling something was peering your way.

"Okay..." she breathes, much more to herself than him. "Okay." Lethalia finally meets Vidarr's gaze, the most of his worries having melted away as she got up and started moving around. "Are we ready t' try that one again, Vidarr?" she beseeches him out loud, head still pulsing enough to deter her from using the ribbon for now. Considering that, the woman returns to her bag to rummage for the painkillers she seldom used.

There's an awareness in the back of her mind that he shares the same dubiousness she does at recovering this day; they had their differences and their blunders just like any kind of team. It wasn't as though that much had happened that the day should feel so insurmountable, and it felt quite childish to act like they couldn't carry on after everything.

They had to carry on. Lethalia wouldn't allow them to leave without an entire workout under their belt.

"Let's try that again, then," she concludes, strolling over to where her bow had dropped near her bucket of arrows, trying to come across as much less bothered than she was. The negative feelings draining away left something of an emptiness in their wake. The bow looks fine too, it's probably a wonder she hadn't hit herself with it. Or gotten the string caught in a horn... that's pretty horrible.

Vidarr's still rooted in place, unsure of what to make of the rapid change of things, fury and then something was happening he didn't understand, and now he was supposed to go and return to what they had been doing, just like that? Feeling his hesitation, Lethalia prompts him, |It's easier to not think about if you go and do something, so come and do something with me.| He shuffles for a moment before approaching, pouching his nose to her offered palm before he would return to the track.

|Let's go, I want to see if I got those jumps right first,| she tells him with a grand wave of her arms, garnering a snort from Vidarr even in his current state. "Let's go, Vidarr!"

Oh gods, if the alternative to running and getting shot at was his owner getting louder on him, he'll gladly take participating in her silly exercises! A warning shot just behind him alongside the first threat is enough to get the drake jogging on the track again. They were really still going to do this, weren't they? Ugh. He had wanted to go here, sort of. But he wasn't sure this is what he really wanted, because the gym bored him - might keep him busy for some time, but it's not his kind of exercise.

But it's unlikely he'd ever ask to be trained something, even if he's thinking it might've been a little better than this. But more training to maim things, not what direction was what. That was the kind of tedium he didn't want more of.

Though she picks up a few arrows, Lethalia lets him get at least once lap in - avoiding the row of bending poles for now, because he can't even really guess how they're used. The size of the jumps seems to throw him for a moment, jumping a bit too late on the first while he was still trying to figure them out. At least this time all it does it knock a poll onto the ground, leaving the drake much more upright this time. Though he slows for a moment to make sure this time there isn't a hurtle around any of his legs, Vidarr recovers quickly enough to spring over the next jump. The third and fourth are more fluid, and he pops over those with the intended pace or so between them.

Grinning to herself, Lethalia trots over to right the felled poll before Vidarr can reach that side of the track again. It was just really fun to watch him, especially that he was becoming capable of figuring out what he'd done wrong the first time. Or at least it seemed damn like he recovered like he'd learned something.

The woman takes aim at Vidarr as she walks back to the center of the track, pausing to plant her hooves and loose her first arrow at his chest. He'd probably wanted to look cool and cut the arrow to pieces, but was only paying enough attention to jerk back out of it's path, but still grasped at the arrow as it whizzed by. It was likely that he'd be capable of catching a few of them by the time they were done here, especially how slowly and ponderously these ones fly through the air in comparison to a normal arrow. They felt so sluggish, it took a bit of working to ensure she's actually hitting him - it was a set that might as well be a toy anyway, so there was that.

That was the thing with working with the drake, as it would be forever more. It wasn't something she could reason with, just... a simple force of nature. You could direct and hone and make attempts to quell nature's wrath all you can, but in the end, the chaotic quality of the wilds would prove uncompromising with the wishes of humanoids. It was rather bold of them to begin to think they could tame and control it, wasn't it?

Lethalia would love him to the end of the world and back in spite of it, and the woman finds herself blinking away tears at the sudden cognizance of that. Perhaps she hadn't allowed herself to acknowledge it yet; she really did love him, didn't she? Not entirely the same way she dotes on all of her creatures, especially since in some small way, she feels that Vidarr returns the feeling. It's not the unending loyalty of a vulticus, for to Vidarr to show even the merest amount of tenderness towards her went against everything that made a drake, a Drake. Even if identifying a soft emotion like affection from a drake was a hell of a lot different than any other creature, it was there.

It wasn't unlikely that she saw her relationship with Vidarr through rose colored goggles the woman pondered to herself. Though she raises her water bottle to her lips, it's mostly used to veil her eyes from the drake's sight as he drank deeply from the water trough. He'd stop if he knew she was watching, and so she did her best to avert her eyes if he was looking near his owner. She had told herself not to romanticize him when he was so tiny he fit in her arms, and yet breaking him still caught her off guard. She told herself that while he flailed his way through the tournament, but found herself getting sick at every strike that looked like it might actually fly true enough to harm him. She keeps telling herself this, and look where she is now.

Vidarr may well be one of the longest lasting 'relationships' she's ever had.

The idea is absurd enough to crack a smile on her face, suddenly bubbling into a cackle at the mere idea. Vidarr jerks his head out of the water trough with the suddenness of of it, rivulets of water still spilling out of his mouth as he came up. It does nothing to remedy her mirth which transforms into a short bought of laughter, the woman now clutching her stomach at the sight of him. Yes, this was absolutely boyfriend material, right there.

|I'm not laughing at you, I promise,| she tells his skeptical eyes, still giggling to herself as she reassured him. It's hard to blame the drake for his withering looks. Her act isn't exactly convincing even to him, but she was definitely only laughing at him a little bit. Not that he'd believe she was laughing at herself, she instead quells herself with a clearing of her throat. There's no wiping the smile off of her face, but she quiets down and places a hand on Vidarr's nose (now that he's stopped dribbling everywhere) in hopes of preventing further offense.

At least getting him to pause for a little while seemed to be going how she'd hoped. Even though he abhorred working like this, he could also try and keep going forever if he thought it was being implied he couldn't, indeed, go on forever. Since the idea hadn't been brought up, Vidarr sits ungracefully in the grass, upper half sliding down into the cool lawn. A massive sigh expands his ribcage as the drake sets his head down on his forepaws, a side eyed glance thrown her way. He could very well plop down wherever he pleased and she wouldn't be able to do much about that, but it's nice he seeks permission for some things. It's odd what things he tends to ask about and which ones he just does, though.

The woman smiled as she watched him, and as much as she'd love to curl up with him, the gym doesn't feel like the place she wants to take a nap. As long as there's a choice in the matter of taking a dirt nap, which today proved that she couldn't always choose. As it was, she grabbed her journal out of her bag since she'd need something to do while letting Vidarr nap. Even with the saddle still on, he's already dozing. Though she carefully makes note of where his tail tip is before she seats herself, the woman is otherwise fearless about sitting up against the hollow the curled up drake made with his body, leaning against his substantial side.

There's been many times at this point that she's been utterly convinced that Vidarr was going to be the death of her. None of those event came to pass thus far, and Lethalia intended to keep it that way. Damned if she got through all she did with the drake, only to waste away to that poisonous spade. They hadn't gotten this far for an end so mundane - she could've perished to breaking him, or falling out of the air with the big guy... Poison's not so much the way to go.

Though she's a bit confused - one source claimed that a tropical pure green sarane made poison in that vicious looking spear. Others call it toxin, and yet more called it a 'sting', as maddeningly broad as that was. Ah well, the contents of it didn't matter - she was leaving it as well alone as she could. Though it brought about the wondering if one could become immune to it like some of those brave and / or foolhardy people who injected themselves with snake venom. Hm. There's a thought, but it's not one for her.

The duration of Vidarr's nap found her notebook pages filling with sketches of that spaded tailtip, and eventually tiny pictures of the drake himself. She was beginning to think on how his daughters would grow up to look before she resurfaced from the depths of her thoughts, luckily only wandering around them. Not today, brain - she's not going to cause herself needless suffering by getting trapped in there just now. Time to get moving again.

"Letsgo!" the woman all but shouts, a little grin returned to playing on her face. Even without Vidarr's direct input in the matter, the drake does coast to slow and turn around, facing down the poles once again. This was getting to be a little more fun than just messing around with those horrible arrows! He might not be completely into it yet, but she figures he's got to be a bigger fan of this method. It doesn't feel like he's getting nearly as frustrated with it anyway, which is always a good thing as far as drakes go. Now he just seems more determined to figure this out, and one go seemed to be enough to give him an idea of what they were going for here.

The drake's weaving is improving even by this second pass, but unsurprisingly Lethalia still needs to pull her hooves and knees out of the way as each pole whizzes by. It's certainly a good thing the woman is pretty nimble herself, otherwise she would have been either scraped of or damn banged up by now. She's got half a mind that Vidarr may be doing it intentionally - in a far more gentle fashion than an unbroken drake trying to peel her off their back, but it brings it to mind anyway.

Let him have his fun. It's painfully obvious he's doing it on purpose now, with a few looks back to her as he can spare the time not looking ahead. He could get away with so much more if he was smart enough to not give away when he was up to something. Might she be letting him get away with too much? Probably. But letting him have his fun and thinking he's getting away with something made the drake many times more cooperative.

|Let's start going all the way around, then. You've got these down,| she compliments, patting the brawny neck in front of her. It was also much harder to see around him and direct where he was going with that sinewy tall neck in front of her, especially compared to a more normal ground mount or when they were flying and he was leveled out enough to see over. It was a small grace he could direct himself, surprisingly. Kind of made sense why people didn't really use drakes as ground mounts. But what if she trained one of the hens? No - she shakes herself out of the thought quickly. There was bit more going on here than she should be spacing out on.

There's no coaching necessary when he rounds to the jumps, but the woman does become acutely aware that she still doesn't have any stirrups. Of course she was decent enough from riding beasts all her life to hold onto him without him, but it didn't change the fact that she was jumping with a creature with a much different movement than she was used to backing over a leap. No matter. The woman sucks in a breath and grasps harder to the saddle horn, most of her concern stemming from Vidarr's lack of correcting for her additional weight on top of him. Though he does knock down the first pole, he quickly corrects himself on the next - and didn't even trip over the felled one!

"Nice, Vidarr!" she crows as he pops over each one, even if she can tell it's beginning to take effort. Even as much as he claimed her weight was nothing upon him, it was clearly making a difference.

Another circuit whizzed by them, but by now Vidarr's growing a little fatigued enough to not have the energy left to try and scrape her off with as much purpose as he had been. Once he trips and stumbles a little over the downed pole as he circle around the track again, she calls him to a rest.

He doesn't even ask as much as he seems to know the drill by now, ambling over to get a drink of water himself. It takes no time at all to reset the downed jump, and the woman can't help but be pleased with Vidarr for not knocking over any more of them. Was this was improvement looked like? It was hard to tell, as small of increments as it came, but perhaps they were actually progressing something here.

When she gets a drink of water herself, the woman's eyes land on the gym supplies she'd forgotten she had even picked up, cursing herself a little for how remiss of her it was to neglect something that could be helping them. Well, the polo wraps are a little late now, and her hands were going to be way too full to be able to make use of the stop watch right now. But her eyes land on the free weight, a much better quality one than the sandbags she used - and it instantly sparks an idea. It's not supposed to be used in dexterity training, but she's going to make use of it anyway.

Lethalia carries the bagged weight with her, looping it's strap over the saddle horn before hauling herself into the seat. Vidarr looks on curiously, but doesn't ask - he almost even seems content, even if he doesn't know what she's planning.

"Alrigh, we can head home soon. Let's go a few more first." He knows what 'home' is without explanation, and gets going on the track with little fuss. Home might be a little further off than he realizes, but it's some okay motivation for him. He'll forget about how much longer they actually ended up staying in no time at all.

Leaning with him through the turns, Lethalia doesn't feel like her weight can make much of a difference with such a huge drake. But it seems to lend him direction, and so she carefully keeps her balance with him, though it's not quite like riding the equines she's used to. She marvels at the muscles of his shoulder bunching in front of her knee, the twitching of his wings as the unfold just slightly to keep his balance. Even his long, sinuous back feels different, so flexible even beneath the saddle compared to a stiff-backed equine. It felt like he could twist right out from beneath her if he tried!