Flying 101 [Curtis/Ulrika]

[Ulrika&Timber]

Time and Date:: Morning, November
Weather::Overcast, pleasant coastal winds for fun flying
Previous Threads?:: Nothing to Do

Ulrika and Timber were walking along the beach. It was rather chilly so she kept herself snuggled in her furs, which she was wearing extra layers. Timber was wandering in her vicinity, snuffling in the snow, hoping to find some hiding crabs under the blanket of snow. Unfortunately she found one and it snipped her on the nose, making her leap several feet in the air and run back to Ulrika, before plopping herself on the ground, covering her snout with her paws.

She dragon looked up at her when Ulrika laughed at her. In retaliation she swept the girl off her feet with a swish of her tail. It was Timber's turn to laugh now. Ulrika sat up onto her knees, angrily brushing snow off her clothes, not wanting to get wet and catch a chill. She then crawled up to Timber and sat leaning on her. Timber lapped up the lumps of snow on her head and jacket that remained. A dribbble of drool ran down her forhead, and she wiped it away. "Eeew, Timber you're so silly! Your spit is really sticky!" She said, elbowing the dragon, which she hardly felt. "Last time you drooled on my hair it took, like, four days to completely wash out."

Timber would have made a remark, if suddenly there was a woosh, and a white blur flew overhead and over the waters away from them. Ulrika reacted strongly, suddenly standing up as if the ground had been electrocuted. With the overcast sky the white-greyish dot was slowly blending, if it wasn't for a darker spot on it's back - a rider!

She thought she saw it - yes! It was the dragon healer's partner, who had those strange, White-Night Fury dragons! She watched as they swooped and dived skillfully over the ocean, performing varied tricks and manoevers. Ulrika's eyebrows furrowed - how did he even stay on?

Timber could see that her human partner was drinking in the spectacle. She understood why she didn't want to fly - all the misfortunes that had happened previously has shaken her up. Though Timber could trust Ulrika, despite her bout of stupids from time to time, she wondered if Ulrika trusted her.

I need to show her she can trust me when we're in the air.

She got up and bounded in front of Ulrika, jumping up and down and wiggling her butt in the air like an exciteable dog. She really wanted Ulrika to fly with her, and since Ulrika didn't know dragonese she simply had to express through her body language. Ulrika looked at her, her gaze still furrowed, frowing.

"You want to go up there? You can, then. It's not like you can't fly on your own, or something." Timber blankly stared back as Ulrika completely missed the point. She was going to get her in the air, goddamnit. She turned to face the open seas, spotting the White Fear omg the clouds and roared - loudly. Ulrika had to cover her ears and squinted at the sudden noise. She didn't think Night Furies could be so loud!

That would get them their attention, hopefully.

[Curtis Veen & Slity / Silvia]

    The air was cold and the breeze didn't help to make matter better regarding temperature. But flying through the air made Curtis feel like the cold was never there. It was almost like there was no difference between flying around the frigid island of Berk, or the plains back in Red Rock.

    Curtis was taking Slity out for a much needed fly after he had been cooped up in the home for the past couple of days, thanks to the fact that Curtis had been too busy helping Luna after some kind of cold bolted around a group of dragons in the village. Today seemed to be the first time in the past week that the amount of patients they had dwindled in numbers, so Curtis took advantage it.

    "Finally happy that you can stretch your wings. And you know, not complaining to me like a five year old? " Curtis remarked to the white dragon he sat atop of. Curtis was faced with a grunt in return, no words, but Curtis knew Slity was more than happy to be outside and flying about. Even though he COULD have done that on his own, but chose not to it had seemed. "Alright snippy." He grinned to himself as he twisted the saddle handle towards the beaches of Berk and flew towards them.

    They changed directions and flew over the snow covered beach, nothing had really stood out aside from what looked to be another dragon and a rider. Curtis didn't pay much attention to them and just kept flying ahead. Though they didn't travel much farther before they heard a roar from behind them. At first thought Curtis thought there was a dragon flying right behind them, but after taking a look back the only thing he could see was the dragon on the ground. Maybe they wanted something from them? Its not like it would hurt to take a look right?

    Curtis gave Slity a pat on the shoulder before pulling back on the saddle handles, pulling Slity straight up and then back the way they came. Curits grinned to himself before feeling the blood rush to his head, he jerked the handles to the side to turn Slity up right, though the fear didn't need to be told what to do on that matter. Slity turned upright and promptly downward to the pair on the beach.

    The ground came up to them fast and the fear glided the rest of the way down, flapping his wings hard just before touching down of the ground. Curtis gave Slity another pat on the shoulder before slipping out of the saddle and brushing off his clothes. He looked up to the night fury and girl in front of him, though he didn't know the dragons name he was aware of Ulrika. He raised an eyebrow and glanced between the two.

    "Hmm? Now which one of you roared at me. Cause I honestly wouldn't be able to tell between you two." Curtis smirked at his comment and looked over to Ulrika now, "Something you wanted Ulrika? Or ya going to pester me like you have before."

[Ulrika&Timber]

Ulrika flailed her arms at the dragon. "What are you doing? Roaring at the sea? Are you mad?" She cried at Timber, because the dragon was obviously not listening. The White Fear came into view again in front of the overcast background. Ulrika looked incredulously, did she call the dragon back? The white dragon swerved in an arc before coming to land elegantly nearby.

Ulrika watched Curtis hop off his dragon which looked like Timber but white. Ulrika had had little opportunity to see Slity or Silvia up close. Timber took the opportunity and bounced over to Slity to investigate, her tail wagging as she sniffed his nose. "Hey, I'm Timber!" She introduced herself.

Curtis made a snide remark, which Ulrika detected and scowled. "I can't roar, I'm not a dragon! I didn't even want you to come. My dragon randomly started screaming at the sea."

At this Timber turned back to look at the humans. "I want you to help Ulrika fly. Me and your friend are similar kinds, so our flying styles will be similar, which means you will be able to ride the same too. She is afraid to fall, but its because she cannot ride properly." She plodded up to Curtis, but was hesitant to get too close, or be touched, as she was with any new person. Timber moved to nudge Ulrika, which Ulrika rubbed back on her head, but she didn't really understand that Timber was talking.

The nudge made Ulrika feel awkward though, as if she felt she needed to say something. She shuffled her feet and averted her gaze. "You, uh... You fly good." She admitted simply.

[Curtis Veen & Slity / Silvia]

    Slity looked curiously to the night fury when she sniffed at her nose. He leaned forward abit as he sniffed back and snorted before shaking his head abit, his ears following along with the motion and smacking the sides of his head as he did so. "Never came across a night fury before, part from the fact I've seen you around and about. Nice to meet you Timber, I'm Slity, nice to meet you."

    Curtis raised an eyebrow and smirked when Ulrika pointed out the obvious about her not being able to roar, then making another comment about not wanting him to come down. He gave a shrug of the shoulders and was about to respond but Timber beat him to it. He listened curiously to the dragon, learning about the fact that Timber wanted help with getting Ulrika to fly due to the fact she's too afraid to fall. Curtis gave a little smirk when Ulrika made the comment, for more than one reason.

    "I fly well." Curtis corrected before quickly moving on, knowing Ulrika would likely get annoyed by the fact he corrected her on her speech. "Anyways. Why would you be so afraid to fall?" Curtis asked out of intrigue, but he figured it was just the typical human fear, so he didn't wait for a response on it. "I'm sure you're fully aware Timber would catch you, I mean, even if she wanted to knock you out she wouldn't let you drop and splat on the ground" Curtis knew that didn't sound reassuring, or at least the last bit didn't, but what he was saying was true. He quietly thought to himself for a moment, thinking of possible solutions the pair could put in place.

    "Well. Granted I don't know how much you two have bonded together, or how well you communicate, if at all, I cant pick apart those aspects without seeing them. But from what I gathered, what is this whole point about you not being able to ride properly?" Curtis asked curiously as he looked between the blonde girl and the night fury that stood next to her.

[Ulrika&Timber]

Ulrika didn't know what Timber had said, so Curtis suddenly blurting out something she was trying to hard ruffled her feathers. "What?" She said loudly all of a sudden, making Timber retreated slightly in reaction. "What - no I'm not afraid," she said flustered, avoiding eye contact, but Curtis' gaze was too strong. She shuffled her feet in the snow and sand. "Well, uhm, uh, I don't like how it feels - falling, I mean. And I fall a lot and it feels like that when she goes down, so I don't fly... Not for long, anyways."

Curtis told her how Timber could catch her, but the end of that wasn't very enouraging. "Except I fall a lot." She glanced from Timber, to Slity, then back to Curtis. "Uhm. How do you not fall off your dragon when you fly? You go so fast and stuff..."

Suddenly Ulrika had an idea and her eyes flashed. Timber's ears perked as Ulrika fell into her plans all along. They were going to learn to fly - together - and properly! Now she hoped that Curtis would help. She made a noise in Curtis' direction, extending her wings slightly in enthusiasm, jumping on her forfeet.

"Come on, lets do this!"

[Curtis Veen & Slity / Silvia]

    Curtis raised an eyebrow curiously when Ulrika made comment about not knowing how falling felt, even though she did a lot from what she had said. He smiled when Ulrika asked how he didn't fall off when he flew around on his dragons. "Well. I have had my fair share of falls in my life. You don't know how many times I used to fall off back at my homeland. " He stated as he looked over to Slity, "He never let me fall to the ground. But it does take time and practice to be able to stay on a dragon in flight, I've only had about five or six years of experience as it is."

    What caught him off guard was when Ulrika and Timber got together to fly, he smirked as he patted Slity and hopped onto his back and adjusted himself in the saddle. "Even though it's a hard thing to do, try your best not to think about falling. Focus on us. Curtis suggested before he waved his hand into the air and pushed Slity into flight. The Fear bounced off the ground and flapped his wings hard at first until he got into the air. Curtis looked back to Timber and Ulrika and waited for them to follow, "FOLLOW ALONG SLOW POKES!"

    This was going to be interesting. Curtis had never really taught anyone to fly aside from Luna, and the relationship between Luna and him was obviously very different than anything between Ulrika and him.

[Ulrika&Timber]

"Five years is a long time..." Ulrika said quietly. Would it take that long? So many Vikings appeared to fly with ease. She saw her dragon eager, offering her saddle for Ulrika. Curtis gave one last advice before hopping on his dragon, and taking into flight. Scared to lose him, she quickly hopped onto her own dragon. She held on tight and clenched her teeth, realising Timber was going to perform almost the same take off.

Timber made a bound in advance and in her peripheral vision, Ulrika saw two dark masses spread out, and Ulrika knew to held on as tight as she could. She closed her eyes as she felt her stomach lurch and the wind began to buffet her. She felt Timber rocking as she beat her wings. She daren't cry out at the feeling, she didn't want to come off as a weakling to Curtis.

The Night Fury leveled out. She had easily caught up with the White fear, and was flying alongside, though slightly behind, in following. She caught an easy breeze so flapped only to keep her stable and level. Ulrika felt this as well, a sudden calm.

Like Curtis said, she opened her eyes, but didn't dare look down. Her knuckles were white holding onto the saddle, and rocked about as a mixture of the turbulence and Timber moved her. Her saddle came with what could be described as stirrups, but she didn't know the purpose of these strange loops on her saddle, and thought of them as mere decorative pieces. She was sat more or less upright, not realising her body positioning was affecting both her and the dragon's flight.

She looked at the white dragon, where Curtis rode, dark against the white and reflected blue hues of his dragon. "NOW WHAT?" She cried uncertainly over the wind. Ulrika could deal with level flying, and going to and from lessons. Anything else was out of the question.

[Curtis Veen & Slity / Silvia]

    Curtis waited around for a minute or so in the air, waiting for Ulrika to meet back up with him. When she finally did Curtis smiled and looked at the flight of the dragon, hearing Ulrika yell out about what to do now. "Well let me check your position over first!" When Curtis yelled back he rolled his eye and smiled as he continued to check over Ulrika and Timber.

    From what he could tell, Timber was flying as she should be, well as much as she could with Ulrika on her back that was. But there was something off with Ulrikas position in the saddle that Curtis tried to put his finger on as he kept looking over her. Curtis pushed on his saddle handle and Slity glanced back at him, "Get in a little closer would ya?"" He asked before Slity did so and flew nearer to Timber.

    "Okay.. Easier to see now. Hmm.." He said as he didn't have to yell from this distance, he kept looking over and now that he was closer, it was much more apparent what could be causing Ulrikas flying issue. Her feet were nowhere near the stirrups in which they should be sitting in, Curtis just felt like faceplaming at that moment.

    "Ulrika. Why are your feet not in the stirrups." He asked as he pointed to the stirrup he could see on his side, "Don't even question that. Put your feet in the stirrup and you might find flying easier, ya know, not falling off would be ten times harder that way."

[Ulrika&Timber]

Ulrika and Timber watched was Curtis approached and inspected how she was flying. It was difficult for them to get too close with the massive wingspans of their dragons, but they managed to get in close enough.

"What's a stirrup?" She asked, though he snapped back to not ask questions. He pointed to something towards his saddle. She peered over the edge slightly, wondering what he was looking at.

And then she saw how high they were. They were high. They weren't as high as the tallest peaks of berk, but they were near there. A small glint on the ground gave away where the village was. She clenched herself tighter and Timber made a noise as she felt her knees dig into her through the saddle. She made a silent prayer to the gods for a soft landing if she did.

She leaned over again, and tried to look for something she could 'put her foot in'. All she could see was these loops of sturdy leather, than Ulrika had thought were decorative. She had tried to get rid of them but they were well integrated into the saddle's design, and she didn't want to annoy Kenna for breaking it.

She she nervously put one foot in, then looked on the other side to put her left foot in there too. She realised she needed to sit further back to put her feet in properly, so she scooched back a bit on her saddle. With the handle still ahead, she had to lean over slightly. She wasn't in a perfect riding position, but it was better than before. Timber could definitely feel an improvement all of a sudden, and readjusted her stance with a shallow flap.

"Yeah, that feels better." She said.

"This feels weird. I might hurt my back if I stay like this too long. I don't think this is an improvement."

[Curtis Veen & Slity / Silvia]

    "What... What is a stirrup.." Curtis mumbled to himself as he repeated what Ulrika said. Why... Curtis knew Ulrika wasn't the sharpest axe in the armoury but that to him seemed like a really dumb question. He rolled his eye as he looked away and brought his attention back to Ulrika who was slowly figuring out how to actually use a stirrup by herself.

    He almost wanted to clap sarcastically once Ulrika finally got herself in the stirrups, her body position already looked a hundred times better and from Timbers comment he could only figure that it was a lot easier on the dragon. There was one thing he knew about flying and dragons is that if the dragon is uncomfortable, it's either cause something's not right with them, or the human on their back is doing something real wrong.

    "It feels weird because you never actually have used them before. You're back will be fine, the only problems you ever get from being in a saddle like that too long is your butt with hurt for a little bit after. Curtis said before he looked at the position she was in now, "Timber is pretty grateful for you putting your feet in the stirrups, seems to be easier on her." Curtis wiggled his feet around in his saddles stirrups and he looked around them, "You'll find you won't fall off very easily with your feet in the stirrups now"

[Ulrika&Timber]

Curtis reassured Ulrika that it was normal, but it didn't feel normal. Apparently Timber felt better, but how did he know? She also felt her feet in her stirrups. She realised she had support on her feet she could push against, which she realised would help, in retrospect, but she wasn't going to admit it was better right away. Timber flapped her wings again but this time Ulrika didn't feel like she was rocking about as much.

Though it took a moment, things began to make sense. As she tried pushing against teh stirrups to get comfortable, she realised if she moved *with* the dragon she was more comfortable. Ulrika began to notice Timber moved more when she flapped. She decided to try something.

"Hey Timber!" She called over the wind, "Try flying a bit faster - flap your wings more I wanna try something!"

Timber could feel Ulrika readjusting behind her, and more and more it was getting comfortable for her too. Thankfully Timber's hearing was good enough to just hear her over the winds. She complied - this was a team effort, right? Ulrika needed to find her way in the sky and a little test drive was more than welcome.

Timber pushed on, beating her wings in a spurt of speed to get ahead of Curtis and Slity. She craned her head to look at the white dragon teasingly. "How's that?"

The acceleration caught Ulrika by surprise, but with her feet secure she didn't feel like she was slipping back. They leveled out in speed again and Ulrika could relax. She had a brief sense of exhilaration. "I think I'm okay with that." She said.

[Curtis Veen & Slity / Silvia]

    Curtis sat back and flew nearby the learning pair. He felt a little weird that he was teaching yet another person how to fly, or at least how to fly properly, he never figured he would actually have to teach anyone. Though of course it's not like he was bothered to do it, what else was he going to do with his time anyways?

    Curtis soon smirked when Timber asked how they did. "Don't get too cocky you. You two still have quite a ways to go it seems, but at least you've made big strides today." He pointed out, but reassured as he felt like Ulrika might make comments on what he said. Curtis had always heard little comments hear and there about some of the viking in training, some more than other like Ulrika, but wasn't everyone a pain in the ass between the ages of ten and fourteen?

    "So see? The stirrups are a good thing, not there to just dangle by your feet ahah." Curtis commented before he patted Slity, the white dragon banked slightly and started heading off in another direction, "Come along!" Curtis called back to Timber and Ulrika.





(This was actually a struggle to reply to.)

[Ulrika&Timber]

The longer Ulrika flew like this, the more she could feel Timber moving beneath her. She no longer felt like she just had to sit on the dragon and let Timber do all the work. She could feel, even though the Night Fury was flying straight with few flaps, a lot of work was going on keeping them from falling out of the sky. She craned her head around and noticed how the wind buffeted the membranes of the dragon's wings.

Ulrika beamed when Curtis told her they were doing well. Timber made a noise in appreciation. They then banked away, beckonging to follow. Timber did the same. After flying straight in her new orientation, this was new. She pushed into the stirrup to stop herself from falling, but also felt like she had to lean in more. As they banked she could see how high up from the ground they were.

Ulrika gulped and remembered that Curtis said Timber would catch her if she fell. That had been proven before but it didn't mean Ulrika did not like the idea of falling. She clenched her knuckles on the saddle a bit more, though with the stirrups she didn't feel like she was slipping off.

They leveled out and once again Timber was slightly behind Slity. Ulrika leant forwards to call out to them. "Where are you taking us now?"