Talm and Gannonaji: Veo's Flight

The hammer came down with a heavy clang on a helpless, red-hot piece of iron, striking sparks that showered down over the anvil and the stone floor below. Talm-Dai's shaggy, half-bear and half-human paw was on the hammer, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

It was just before dawn. Gannon had woken her before the sun, excited and nervous, and almost before her sluggish brain could register that she was awake, she heard him.

::Today. It's going to be today.::

She came awake quickly. This, she'd thought about, ever since he'd told her what he'd wanted to do. "Please, Gannon-- I don't want to be here. Take me home. Let me be underground, with something in my hands to work on."

His expression was sad, but understanding. ::Can I come get you afterwards? Whether I lose or win, I'll want to be with you.::

She laid a paw against his muzzle. "Of course, Gannon. Whenever you need me."

For the first time in years, she was alone in her forge cavern, working without partner or assistant; she'd returned to her caves without notice, without anyone waiting for her, and without her usual companion and occasional forging partner. It had been a long time since she had worked alone, but at least she was equipped for it.

Even stranger, though, she was working on something that she wasn't even sure would end up usable. This was unlike her; she never wasted metal. Right now, though, what she'd told Gannonaji was true: she needed something in her hands, some task to keep her busy, while he chased his eye-searing lady to heal her heart. So, she found some ore and started to heat and hammer. To be honest, she didn't even know what she was working on, aside from that it was metal; she rarely did that, either. She absently expected it to end up scrap metal; her thoughts weren't on it, but with her bonded dragon, even though he was a world-- a universe-- away.

Ten dragon bucks crouched waiting in the great crater of the Ring of Fire mountain, one of them Gannonaji, faintly nervous and shifting his double set of wings, anticipating the workout they'd get. Even if he knew he wasn't going to win, he had still decided he would give it his best. Veo deserved that much. Even if he didn't think she would know and be hurt if he didn't show her he meant his actions in truth and compassion-- he wouldn't think love, because he hardly knew what that was, yet-- she still deserved his best effort.

The lady-dragons weren't in sight, yet, but they would be. Any moment. They all knew it, they all felt it, like a summons that wasn't exactly a summons. Gannon had no idea whether this was what a flight was supposed to be like, but none of the others seemed particularly concerned-- rather, they were excited, or restless, or full of eager anticipation. How many of them were flight veterans? How many of them were new to the experience, young and untried, like him? How many of them knew what love was?

How many of them saw the pain in one of those they were to chase?

The metal barely dented at the strike. Not hot enough... it went back into the fire, which flared when she stepped on the bellows she and Gannonaji had rigged for her to work alone. The metal sizzled, heat rolling from the forge. The metal glowed, and Talm heard what her bond heard, rather than the crackling and sizzling.

"Catch me, as I fall, say you're here and it's all over now."

Ten heads turned, at various speeds, to look behind them; Gannonaji, a beat behind the others, nearly twisted himself all the way around and tangled in his wings. Norajoan, resplendent in her gold and scarlet fur, had stepped into the early sunlight, singing a driving, haunting melody. They'd all been watching the sky, or the crater walls, looking for a proudly soaring pair, while all the while Veo and Norajoan had crept up on them. Gannon's eyes flicked immediately past the singer, and saw the damsel of his own thoughts standing in the shadow the crater made against the rising run. Even on the morning of her own flight, she was instinctively hiding herself. He could almost feel his heart break for her.

"Speaking to the atmosphere, no one's here... and I fall into myself... This truth drives me, into madness-- I know I can stop the pain, if I will it all away... if I will it all away!"

Veo shook her head once, then launched into the sky. Without hesitation, this time, Gannonaji leapt after her; others followed, but he hardly paid them a thought. The last of the song that he heard echoed behind him: "Don't turn away... don't try to hide!"

Don't try to hide, the dragoness said. Was Talm-Dai hiding, in a way? She wondered on it as she drew the metal from the fire, laid it on her anvil again. She had no reason to stay on Pre'Mian, no reason to watch Gannonaji's flight with her own eyes, and she was happier when she had something in her hands. No, she decided, she wasn't hiding. If she had been hiding, she would block away Gannon's thoughts from hers, pretend nothing was happening as she swung her hammer.

As soon as Gannon was done with this chase, he would come for her, either for consolation or, less likely, to show her his new mate, however long that would last. Probably not long. No air-born dragon would want to live so far underground unless she was bound to one who lived there, like Gannon was. Veo was not an earth creature, for all her bright colors were a parody of earth tones, and even if she tried to follow him here, Talm expected she would feel stifled by all the stone. What would Gannon think, if that happened?

Not that it was even likely to ever get that far. Gannonaji himself knew that.

Gannonaji fell behind quickly as Veo led him and four others over the fiery ring around the volcano's mouth and towards the shoreline, fueled with the speed of a dragoness in heat and the flight skill of a graceful aerialist. She rose high above them, catching the light briefly, almost blinding to look at. He and three others followed below, one rose higher, Gannon guessed to dive upon her from above.

Was that fair? Diving down on an unsuspecting dragoness? He knew so little about these things, but he didn't much like the thought of crashing down upon Veo-- or anyone else, for that matter-- like a falling stone. That didn't seem very... romantic. Then again, chasing a lady and "catching" her didn't seem very romantic, either.

But what did he know? This was his first flight.

It was a large piece of metal, not something Talm usually worked with. She made jewelry, mostly, and small cooking wares, not weapons or armor; though she could make weapons, she preferred more useful, less dangerous products. She didn't think this would be a weapon, but neither did she know what else it might be. She determined not to think of it; she was here not to product, but to keep her paws occupied.

A few swift hammer strokes flattened the metal, sparks flying and blows ringing clearly over the sound of the fire. More shaped them, rounding edges, coaxing form out of raw nature. She still did not know what it was.

Veo disappeared into a cloud, and, trying to conserve his strength and catch his breath, Gannonaji hovered at the edge of the misty whiteness. What else could he do? There was no way he could see her if he flew in after her, and he might lose her completely, then. Two others apparently did not think of that, rocketing after her, one from below and one from above. Gannon stared futilely into the haze, stubbornly trying to see her-- she was bright, why couldn't he see her, even in that darkness?

Exclamations of shock from below drew his eyes reluctantly down-- and then elicited rumbled surprise from him, as well: Veo had, somehow, appeared far below them, along the trees! She shot out over the ocean, a vibrantly green streak that he could never hope to catch up to. With a sigh, even so, he cupped wing in his wings again and took off after her. Above, in the cloud, the pair who had tried to flush her out collided, and were left behind.

Pulling herself briefly out of her oblivious bond's toughts, Talm-Dai considered her work. Her hammer blows had stopped having the effect she wanted. Again Talm-Dai thrust the metal into the fire. It had lost it's glow, fading from white to dull orange, and she wasn't done shaping it. There was something in it that needed to come out, to be given its true form. Whatever it was, it wasn't done yet, just as Gannonaji's flight wasn't finished yet.

Even so, she doubted the work was that connected to Gannon. He would start to flag, before too much longer, and she still had a long way to go with her metal piece. If she didn't give up halfway through, anyway, when she no longer needed the distraction of her hands while her thoughts flew with the dragons.

Somehow, though... she didn't think she'd give up.

They flew on for another long minute, another long two minutes, and Gannonaji only faintly sensed Veo's disquiet. She was far ahead of him, now, and he knew he'd never catch her. He should have given up, but he didn't want to, not after all this effort. At least, he decided, he would make sure he saw who did catch her.

But when he finally caught sight of her again, she was not caught-- and nor was she fleeing. She hovered, her other two suitors waiting patiently, as if they hadn't just been pursuing her across the sky. A little out of breath, now, but not yet straining, he paused behind them, directly opposite the dragoness he'd set out to see at least a little healed.

::Night's Storm, Seppun no Yami, thank you for coming,:: she said calmly, looking to each of them. ::But I have chosen Gannonaji.::

Talm-Dai drew in a breath slowly, softly, listening-- and without thought, she shifted the metal in the fire. Not much longer, or she would lose what she'd already shaped, but it still wasn't hot enough yet.

Gannon thought his heart might stop. Did he hear her right? She continued: ::Because, though each of you may be faster of wit or wing, he is noblest of heart and mind. Do you accept this decision, Gannonaji?::

She held that breath, slowly drawing the metal free of the flame. It was so hot that it was white, with a faint yellow core. She set it on the anvil carefully.

She was looking at him, now, and he blinked at her once before looking to first one then the other of her other suitors: older dragons who had flown faster and better than he, but who she... hadn't chosen. Uncertain, surprised, elated, and a little apprehensive, he turned his gaze slowly back to her. She had made her choice, the choice which would most heal her, and he would abide by it, even if it was unexpected. Though it was not, he realized as she hovered there, brightly verdant but lithe, with true beauty shining beneath the shell of her skin, undesired.

She let out her breath, smiled, and shut her eyes briefly.

He flew towards her, catching her up with his forelegs the way he would were he human-bodied, and folded his wings around her, letting them fall towards the ocean below.

::Indeed I do, Veo. Indeed I do.::

Talm-Dai shook herself, tactfully withdrew her thoughts, and let his dragon learn about loving. He would come for her when he needed her, and not a moment too soon-- and by then, she would be finished.

Now, she knew what she was making, just as Gannonaji did.