Novice Champion Training: Prompt II

"Your Stryx is now used to wearing full body armor, but how well do they handle it when it has to be utilized? Draw your Stryx either in flight or performing maneuvers while wearing armor to get them prepared for how their movement is affected by their new protection."

Asteria was ready. Beval stood beside her, checking the armour straps one last time. She'd built up her endurance by walking and running, and then flown small laps around the paddock. The armour, once cumbersome and stiff, was now like an extension of her body. She moved just as fluidly with it on as she did when it was not.

It had taken a month for it to happen - and quite a few times Asteria had tripped over her own talons, clumsy now that she was wearing the gauntlets. A few others had been witness to such events, but it happened to every warrior-to-be stryx - if someone told you otherwise they'd be lying.

The final test, however, had not yet been completed. It was customary for fighting stryx, once they had adjusted to their first set of armour, to fly a circuit of the city. Marcen was no small town - it was a massive sprawl of buildings, with desert to the north and marshland to the south - and even without armour, a stryx needed good endurance to do a lap of the city.

Rehkav, the city Rookery Master, had joined them on the paddock, watching from a few feet away and nodding his approval. Beval gave him a nervous smile, and climbed up onto Asteria's back; Rehkav was a man of few words, but he never hesitated to intervene if someone was about to do something foolish. He'd learned that from personal experience.

He clipped his harness onto Asteria's saddle, and waited while Rehkav made a final pass of the harpia, tugging on straps and making sure that everything was secure. He tightened a few and loosened others, before stepping back and saying, "all's well. Good luck, Beval and Asteria."

Beval gave the signal for her to take off, and, crouching for a moment, Asteria beat her wings hard, leaping into the air off of the paddock. Clouds of sand swirled below them as they gained altitude, and he had to fight back laughter as he spotted Rehkav brushing sand out of his beard.

Asteria kept climbing until she was at the same height as the Rookery. He leaned forward, staring at the tall, honeycombed structure. From where they were, he could make out the busy shapes of other handlers and their stryx going about their daily duties. The traffick in the Rookery was less than on most days; the sun was out, bright and hot, and there was a lovely breeze whipping through the city.

Anyone who could would be out, flying with their stryx on a day like this - not staying in the stuffy, hot Rookery.

Asteria stared down at the streets; a few people had stopped in their tasks to look up at her as her shadow passed overhead. She would have been hard to miss, with her black feathers silhouetted against the clear sky.

The wind caught her wings, carrying them a few meters higher. Beval looked forwards; they had just passed the first landmark, a large fountain in one of the city plazas. Around it was a busy marketplace - one known for selling some of the best mash in Marcen. One down, twenty more to go.

Asteria was a steady flier; her broad wings, characteristic of harpias, allowed her to glide smoothly for hours. As they passed a small corva, whose wings beat much more often to keep it airborne, Beval was glad that his stryx was a harpia. He had nothing against corvas or tytos, of course, but a smoother flight was a pretty big boon.

She turned slightly to avoid a spiralling watchtower; the guard waved as they passed by. The next few landmarks they passed were unremarkable, and Beval's thoughts turned to other things. There was an important landmark coming up, one that he'd spent many nights dreaming - and worrying - about. The Marcen Arena.

It was a place that every stryx that made a circuit of the city sporting new armour had to pass over. It wasn't as important, of course, as the first battle, but it was still something that many looked forward to. Some veteran Arena-goers said they could tell how successful a stryx would be just by that first pass over the Arena. Others scoffed at such superstitions.

Either way, Beval didn't want to botch Asteria's introduction. It was considered poor taste to put on too much of a show, but the spectators still wanted something to look at. He'd been planning it for months, but now - oh, dear Nokt - now he'd forgotten everything he'd had in mind.

Asteria, on the other hand, seemed to know exactly what she wanted. They drew closer to the Arena, heralded by the tolling bell meant to warn spectators of fresh blood approaching. She let loose a shrill shriek and beat her wings hard - then, as they passed the cusp of the arena walls, unfurled her wings to their greatest extent and glided across. Below, two stryx parted from eachother, looking up to watch as Asteria passed by. Whatever noise the crowd made, they were too high up to hear it.

They passed over the opposite wall of the Arena, and Beval muttered a soft prayer to Nokt - and Daius, and why not Galyx, too - that they'd be received well. Anything was fine, really, so long as they didn't say that Asteria was no good for a fighter.

He patted her shoulder, thankful that she'd managed to salvage their introduction. Calm rushed through him, and suddenly he knew that no matter the outcome, it didn't matter - together, they'd make sure their legacy was a lasting one.