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Post by Noa on Feb 29, 2020 15:11:35 GMT -6
End: Maul
But by asking him for it on a stationary target, she could better assure that in a moving or live situation, it was less likely he would miss completely.
The whole affair might have looked strange or silly to onlookers, but it was apparent that the creature had taken it seriously. It was Rabbit who had to call the session to an end. “That was sufficient,” she said. “On our next session we will be learning a different application of this principle.”
But the creature, who to his credit did usually seem to pay attention to her despite sometimes pretending otherwise, was genuinely distracted today. Or perhaps his mood had soured, and he was deliberately ignoring her as a sign of dismissal.
Rabbit stood there for a moment, uncertain. Perhaps there was something she ought to say. The creature did not seem angry, but there did appear to be something subdued… No, that was not the correct term for it. Her vocabulary databases, or possibly her ability to qualify emotional states, was failing her.
When she could think of nothing else, she said, “I will return tomorrow.”
The creature paid no mind to her as she took her leave.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:42:47 GMT -6
It had been another few days from their trip to the river for fishing and relaxation, and after a short stop to the gym, as she had promised, Rabbit was to start flight training with the creature.
She had taken more time and care with her research and preparations than usual. It felt strangely significant, for reasons that were not entirely clear to her. It was not that she did not feel that he was ready; she could understand his impatience, for it was clear that his wings had been physically healed for some time now. And yet, there was a sense that once this was done, something would be complete. A full return to his mobility, perhaps.
But unfortunately for the impatient creature, they were not to attempt any actual flight today. Which she explained as soon as she arrived in their customary clearing, and which was greeted with a flat look.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:43:04 GMT -6
“There is a need to build up strength in the relevant muscles first,” Rabbit explained. “Much as we engaged in swimming to help regain muscle tone in your legs, we will commence wing exercises today. Attempting true flight too early may simply injure your wings once more.”
She wasn’t breaking her promise or attempting to delay. She was merely taking the necessary precautions. Everything she said had been true, which was why the creature subsided after a moment, though he still seemed somewhat displeased at the advent of yet another road block.
“We can make a combat maneuver of it in the meantime, if you would like,” said Rabbit. “There is a way of striking the foe with one’s wings, and often to some significant effect.” It was generally more effective when attempted once one was already in the air, but Rabbit did not say this out loud.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:43:26 GMT -6
It would be like salting one’s wounds, and she had no desire to worsen the sting of today’s revelation.
Her aim was to motivate him, and as he had been interested in combat, perhaps connecting this to that interest would do a better job of pacifying him.
The creature still appeared dismissive, but his countenance had taken on a different quality, as though he were waiting for her to get on with it instead. “Very well,” said Rabbit, and led him to yet another target dummy that she had set up.
“It is not a very difficult maneuver,” she explained, “though we may practice it for some time to build up strength in your wings. You will simply attempt to buffet the target with them. If you could unfurl your wings please.”
The creature made a show of stretching out one wing to its full length, and then the other, flaunting the great broad span of them each in turn.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:44:04 GMT -6
They were the same pale, slightly pearlescent white as the rest of his body, and by all appearances more or less webbed, though with many more underlying fingers than those of a Sarane, which gave a silhouette more similar to that of a feathered wing. Rabbit had seldom had a chance to see them on full display like this, though she supposed it was more that the issue had never come up than any real, pressing reason.
They certainly looked as though they were capable of delivering great, powerful blows.
“May I?” she said, moving to one side of him and reaching toward one of the wings. The creature gave a toss of his head, and she placed her hands upon the wing, exerting only a little pressure to guide the appendage into the necessary position. “If you would sweep them forward, like so,” she said, as she did this.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:44:15 GMT -6
It was his own limb, of course, but he had not been in the habit of its use for some time, and she did not know if he had ever attempted to use it in such a way before. Seeing that the aim was not to injure the wings and cause any further delay in the development of their flight training, she did not want to leave any of this up to chance.
The creature moved his wing in accordance with her guidance, and then the opposite wing also, without her hands on it. They swept forward until they were in an extended position, beyond the front of his body. “Yes, and you may strike a foe in front of you like this,” she said. Then, guiding his wing again, she moved him through retracting it and sweeping it forward again. “Cycle it like so, repeatedly. We will go slowly at first.”
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:44:33 GMT -6
It was more important to get the right motion than to achieve speed at this point, though the power of the attack when it was performed properly was in fact determined by speed. But speed would come later, and she intended to lay the foundations for it first.
The creature was normally used to this, but she suspected his eagerness to be flying had soured his mood somewhat, and so she let him go after this. “Please strike the target with your wings when I give the signal,” she said.
The creature moved in front of the target, then angled his head to look back at her. “Wing buff,” she said.
He shook out his wings in a gesture that might have been deemed sarcastic, then slowly slapped the target several times with his wings in succession. “Yes,” said Rabbit. He had done as she had asked, but it did not feel right to compliment him on this.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:44:48 GMT -6
In his current mood, she suspected he might well have taken it as an insult instead.
“Once more please. Wing buff,” she said.” Again, the creature struck out with his wings several times. And so they fell into the familiar pattern of learning a new maneuver, with Rabbit giving the signal and the creature performing the associated task. It was, if anything, rather tedious, even more so than could usually be said for the process. In part, it was because there was very little to explain after this initial introduction of the movements. It was only a matter of memorizing the rotation of the wings, and reproducing it at greater speed.
The other issue was that this was being used as an exercise to build strength in the wings. Thus, they repeated it more often than Rabbit might otherwise have asked. She also insisted that he do this slowly, and did not speed up past a certain point.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:45:14 GMT -6
Her intent was to prevent straining the muscles from doing too much too soon.
Eventually she called an end to their practice of the wing buff maneuver, and walked him through some other exercises for the wings, all at the same slow and relatively gentle pace.
He did not look much less frustrated after the session was over, but it was a beginning. They were on their way to his goal, and they would continue the next day. It was the most she could promise him.
On the next morning, the creature’s mood had not improved, though at least he was no longer inclined to be impatient and surly this time. The reason was abundantly clear as soon as Rabbit saw the way he was moving. Overnight, the exertions of the previous day after so much time spent relatively unused had caused soreness in the muscles governing his wings, and now Rabbit’s cautions against strain must have seemed much more reasonable.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:45:29 GMT -6
She said nothing. To comment on it, and thereby draw attention to it, would have been counterproductive. The only thing for it was to keep at their training.
Rabbit led him again to the target. “Let us begin with a series of stretches for your wings, and take the first few repetitions slowly,” she said. The creature did not protest this time, though she could sometimes hear a sharp intake of breath as he went through the stretches with her, when they worked over a particularly tender spot.
When she felt that he was ready, she said, “Wing buff.” And the creature, taking a moment to give his wings one last ginger stretch, then proceeded to slap at the target with them.
The strokes were slow. One, two, three, four. “Good,” said Rabbit, allowing him a moment of rest before beginning again. “Wing buff.”
Things went on in such a fashion for the better part of the session.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:46:24 GMT -6
As he warmed up, the creature beat his wings somewhat faster. It was still not at the speed where Rabbit would have deemed it complete, but they had only begun to practice, and the creature was using appendages that had grown weak from disuse.
In truth, they likely ought to have been practicing earlier. But the wings had been broken at one point, and perhaps Rabbit had been overly cautious in terms of insisting upon resting them for their recovery.
Still, there was nothing to do about it now but what they were doing.
She called an end to the session, and returned the next day with more of the same. Gradually, over the space of days and weeks, they built up strength in the wings in this manner, until the creature could beat them at a steady, respectable pace, and Rabbit felt that he had finally developed the strength needed to sustain flight.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:46:49 GMT -6
And then Rabbit urged him even faster, such that he would be able to make a respectable attack of it if it was used as such--- and so that when he needed to provide the extra power required at takeoff, his wings could handle it.
In the process, something rather curious happened. The beating of his wings against the target was such that a little wind was whipped up; that had been true for some time now. Indeed, given the size of the creature and his wingspan, in these last few sessions, a great deal of wind had been whipped up. But on this occasion, the creature seemed to be throwing himself into it as the last attempt of the day, and the turbulence grew significantly, to the point that the trees groaned with it. And then the creature folded his wings, but the winds remained a moment longer. A moment too long.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:47:43 GMT -6
The creature did not seem to notice, but Rabbit certainly did. “What was that?” she said. The creature looked at her with the blankness of someone who had no idea what she was speaking of, and then with narrowed eyes, thinking, perhaps, that she was insulting his work without reason. Rabbit shook her head. “The wind,” she said, explaining before he developed any more misconceptions about the intent behind her words just now. “You were exerting a force upon it beyond that which your wings should be able to generate.”
The blank look returned.
“... Very well, I will think on this and return to the topic tomorrow,” she said. “I believe you have sufficient mastery of the wing buff maneuver, at any rate.” The creature merely inclined his head, accepting this mutual dismissal, and the two of them went their separate ways, as was their habit at this time of day.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:47:54 GMT -6
Rabbit did think on it, and when she came back, she added to the number and variety of targets set up in their practice area. The creature, upon seeing this, seemed slightly taken aback… And then the accusatory look came, and Rabbit had very little to say in the face of it.
“You are right; it is likely that I am merely satisfying my curiosity,” she said. “Nevertheless, it may prove useful in combat.”
The creature rolled his eyes. The implication seemed to be that she had taken this particular priority of his and run away with it, even as his interest had moved elsewhere. “But do you not wish to at least explore the possibility? Control over the winds is no small matter,” she said. “It may yet prove useful in a situation that you had not anticipated.”
The creature sighed and shuffled his wings, as if to tell her to get on with it, then.
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Post by Noa on Oct 28, 2020 20:48:17 GMT -6
“Thank you,” she said, for he had essentially established that he was doing her a favor by going along with this. Whether or not it was true, she did have to acknowledge the concession, and this felt like the easiest way about it.
At first they returned to the original target, and Rabbit said, “I would like you to replicate what you did yesterday. On the signal, please attempt to generate as large a gust of wind as you can, for now.”
The creature seemed dubious at best, but he had not refused, and he was not refusing now. That was as much of a green light as Rabbit needed to proceed. “Harsh gust,” said Rabbit, and the creature set up a furious beating of his wings. It was a testament to the creature’s expressiveness, perhaps, that he could make such an action look sarcastic--- as if to say, see, very well, I am playing along, but soon you will see how absurd this all is.
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