Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Flight

[Phoenix]

Break Free

While the now anxious riders waited, Doran and one of the other guardsmen were carefully looking around just outside the stables, trying to find the rest of the unit without drawing any unwanted attention from above. They would have to grab them on the way out or risk never seeing them alive, again. So far they hadn't seen anyone, which meant they were probably still fighting over by the tents where the riders had been held captive during the battle. That was the area where visibility was the poorest, and searching for people would take the longest, Doran realized.

"It's just about time," he said, drawing his sword and leaving his gun holstered. It would be a mistake to use a firearm until they had gone unnoticed by the wyvern knights long enough to be in the clear. "Remember," he glanced back at Cameron and the other riders, "stay out of the fighting. Head straight out of here and back to Ursaea. Don't stop for anything."

"W-we should go," a soldier said, his voice shaking for some reason. Doran turned and saw him staring almost straight up, where Fizza had gone. He leaned out from the entrance and began following his gaze upward when he saw two more wyvern knights show up from the west. They were flying up toward the remaining four. It was now Fizza against six wyvern knights and their passengers. He continued upward until he saw the encounter overhead. It was too far away to tell what was happening, but one thing was clear, Fizza was overmatched, and fighting her way out definitely wasn't a viable option, anymore. She seemed confident enough before she left, so he hoped she had a workaround to their numbers and firepower. If not, they would never see her alive, again, either.

"Yeah, let's move. They're completely focused on her, right now," Doran said, taking the first step outside and immediately turning right, toward the tents.

[Mercakete]

Norbert adjusted his grip on his poleaxe slightly. His mind had shifted back to thinking about what they might expect once they broke out of the stables. It sounded like something happened outside to scare one of the guards. Immediately, Norbert worried it was dragon-related. He was also a little unsure about what Doran had said about heading straight for Ursaea and, specifically, not stopping for anything. Normally, he would completely agree with this plan. Of course, normally, he was in Rizen's saddle. He fully intended to switch pegasi as soon as he could -- they would go faster on the whole, this way. However, if they were being chased at the time, he would just have Rizen run along with them and dismount Cameron's pegasus later; he wasn't in any shape to be trick riding. Otherwise, he wouldn't even ask Cameron to slow down, let alone stop, and would have just shifted pegasi while both were running. Unless Riz pulled some sort of mischief, he was fairly certain that he could pull that off...if he wasn't so cut up from the fighting.

The present was far more important than any thought-up potential future right now, though. Doran was already out of the stables and his men were following. The pegasus knights were starting on their way out. From the sound of things, Fizza was doing her job well enough. That left Norbert with two immediate hopes. The first was that Fizza managed to get Darcey's pegasus back to her safely, like she'd said she would. The second was that the unknown threat out there wouldn't be having to deal with Sonya as an enemy.

[Phoenix]

Mine

The guardsmen took off running just ahead of the pegasus knights, heading straight for the tents and their remaining allies. Cameron noticed that the main gate was open, not fully, but they could get through it easily enough, which meant they just might make it there unnoticed. All of the riders urged their steeds onward, picking up the pace as they passed the tents and left the guardsmen behind. They reached the gate without incident, and Cameron looked back to find that Doran and the other guardsmen had just been ambushed by a pair of bandits. Their assailants went down quickly, and none of the guardsmen were hurt, but there were still plenty of them left, and plenty that could go wrong.

High up above, the two wyvern knights that had just arrived were moving to flank Fizza, though it was unclear from this distance whether they planned to attack her right away or not. Cameron supposed that either way, there wasn't much they could do about it. Fizza didn't seem to be changing course, so she either had the situation under control, didn't know she had company behind her, or was resigned to the inevitable.

They passed through the gate and pushed ahead, and then, with the fortress walls out of the way, Cameron could see one of the other pegasi that the bandits had been using, one of the pegasi that rightly belonged to them. The agitated mare was out in the open, trying to find a clear and easy path deeper into the forest. At times she was flying just inches off the ground, and at others, she was skimming the ground with her hooves, as if she could't decide whether or not to fly over to escape the area. "Let me off," one of the female passengers yelled, "I know that skipping anywhere! She's mine!"

Leave it to a pegasus rider to be able to spot her own from anyone else's at this distance, Cameron thought. It was against the plan to stop for any reason, but she couldn't help but feel like this was a special case, and either way, the rider she was with was already slowing down to let her off. "Keep going without me," she said as she hopped off and rolled to soften her landing. She came out of the roll running and the other rider got her pegasus back up to speed. "I'll catch up, I promise!"

[Mercakete]

And they were off. It was even stranger riding passenger now than it had been when they were just standing still. When he held the reins, he was actively working to get something accomplished -- sometimes working harder than he really should have had to, but that was just a part of being Rizen's rider. Being a passenger like this, though -- and particularly being on a kind of mount he was used to -- left Norbert with all the familiarity of riding a pegasus, and none of the tasks he was used to doing, apart from keeping on the animal's back. This left Norbert instinctively looking for something to do, and, in turn, giving him the freedom to focus on more of what was going on around him.

His adrenaline was flowing and his focus was sharp, but for now, all he could do was watch as things unfolded. Ahead, the gate was open wide enough for them to pass through. In the sky, Fizza was fighting what was now six Imperial wyvern knights and what looked like other passengers. Norbert grit his teeth. He wanted to fly up and help, but he was quite unable to do so, primarily because he wasn't the one holding the reins. And even then, it wouldn't be safe if he had a passenger.

Behind them, another fight was raging, but it quickly disappeared as they passed through the bandits' stronghold doors. It didn't sit well with him, but this was the most strategic plan. He wasn't fighting and he wasn't steering...yet he had all of this pent-up energy and aggression ready to be used.

That was when he heard one of the pegasus knights call out. Norbert redirected his attention to her. Evidently, they'd found her pegasus. She dismounted in order to get into her own saddle, calling for the others to keep running. Ultimately, Norbert agreed with this. Spreading out their weight over more pegasi could only help them. Briefly, he wondered if this would continue as they rode, finding stray pegasi along the way to Ursaea, and seeing their riders dismount in order to mount their own steeds and continue on, swelling the herd as they went.

Norbert thought that'd be for the best. They could travel longer distances that way much more quickly. Plus, once the trees were in the way, the wyverns would have a hard time catching them. One branch was tough enough, but a slew of them between you and your foe was a fairly reliable barricade as they caught on each other like the strands of a net. That these were pine and fir trees helped block out visuals, too, and the bushy branches stopped projectiles far better than the branches of other kinds of trees. Besides all that, the pegasi were on hoof. Over land, pegasi could run much faster than wyverns, having equine legs and bodies. Yes, once they'd entered the woods, every moment Fizza stalled the wyvern knights the pegasi and their passengers would become safer and safer. The only trouble would be if they had to deal with Sonya. His main concern, however, was for Fizza herself, and Darcey's pegasus, especially if she lasted long enough to help the remaining guardsmen get out safely.

Norbert also decided that he'd use a similar approach to the dismounted pegasus knight once they came across Rizen. If he knew her -- and he did -- she was milling about somewhere in the woods outside the minefield. Probably pacing and snorting uncertainly, actually, not wanting to go anywhere near the mines nor where she had seen so many of her natural predators, but still wanting to retrieve him. All he had to do was call and she'd come running, especially if she could tell he was on the run, and not where she didn't want to be. Right now, though, they were stampeding along the western path through the open field that surrounded the bandit stronghold. The woods were still ahead...

"I know we're not supposed to stop for anything," Norbert said to Cameron, "but once we get far enough into the woods -- to where I think we'll be safe for a bit -- would you mind stopping so I can get on my own pegasus? That's all I plan to stop for."

Edited March 12, 2016 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Flight

"Bandits ahead," the front rider called back to the others. She had spotted them a little over half a second before they leaped out onto their path with their weapons raised. For some reason, rather than veering from her course, she got her pegasus to pick up speed and unfold her wings slightly. Cameron followed suit as they reached the enemies.

"Hang on, we're going to muscle past them," she warned Norbert, hoping he wouldn't strain himself trying to fight them off. She heard one of the bandits cry out as the lead rider's pegasus slammed into him. He was thrown right out of the whole group's way and his axe went tumbling off behind him. Cameron knew he wasn't getting up again anytime soon. The lead rider finally abandoned all pretense of a grounded escape, and took off, but not before trampling another bandit. The pegasus' leaped up and nearly crushed the man as she beat down her wings and sprung up into the air off of his shoulders. The next pegasus rider went right and around the crumpled man before taking off, and Cameron went left and nearly pulled the same trampling maneuver on a bandit that was trying to get in an attack. As her pegasus leaped, one of her hooves knocked his weapon from his hand, and the other planted itself firmly on his dome. The force from the takeoff sent him straight into the ground. It was anyone's guess if he survived the instantaneous face plant.

The whole group was airborne before anyone on their side had gotten hurt, but the lead rider wasn't going above the treeline, and sticking to a relatively slow speed while still following the main path from the fortress. "I guess we should have expected that. Is anyone hurt?" she called back to the group. She got several different flavors of assurance before she focused her attention forward, again. All of the former captives knew where they were and how to get back to Ursaea, but until they'd gotten their steeds back, it wasn't a trip they could make. Now they could.

After a moment, the lead rider's pegasus began to pull up on her own, and it took several attempts to get her back low to the ground, again. Cameron's pegasus followed suit, as did all the rest of them. "Would you cut it out? We're ..." she froze, suddenly realizing that it probably wasn't the pegasi just being finicky, not all at once like this. It must have been the minefield they were coming up on.

[Mercakete]

It seemed that they hadn't gotten all of the bandits. While not impossible, it was unfortunate. Still, his attention snapped to the need of the moment, forgetting his own question for now, and readying his axe for a swing as they passed by. Cameron warned him that they were going to muscle past them. He was all for that, not seeing any conflict with his plans for his own contribution.

However, no good opportunity presented itself as they hurried by and took to the air. It was just as well -- a ram or trample from a pegasus was easily fatal. And so, as they left the stray bunch behind, Norbert relaxed his arm again. He was a bit concerned for the pegasi, though. Trees were beginning to show up on eaither side, though they weren't among the trunks, yet. On their way in, in order for Rizen and Star to get through, they'd had to have Sasha plow through branches to clear a path. He did wonder if that'd hurt him, but maybe it didn't. He didn't know enough about wyverns to tell.

Anyway, once they were in the trees, he really didn't think they should be flying. The trees were too close together, and it was too easy for a pegasus to break its wings in there, not having enough room to spread them far enough for any sort of flight. All the pegasi were airborne right now, though, and from what he could hear from Cameron, it wasn't really because their riders wanted them to be. The mines...

"The minefield extends into the woods," Norbert informed, "They won't like it, but the pegasi are going to have to land before we get too far into the trees -- their wings're too long to fly in there." After a brief hesitation -- which was caused by a sudden idea, Norbert added, "It's the smell they don't like. If we can mask the scent of the mines or cover their noses or something, maybe we won't have to strong-arm them."

[Phoenix]

Merry Go Straight

"How are we supposed to do that?" Cameron asked as she guided her own pegasus back down. The mare seemed all but desperate to get far above the treetops, but it was too soon for that. The group of riders seemed to never be at the same altitude anymore, with each rider rising and dropping as they lost or gained control of their pegasi during their brief moments of rebellion.

[Mercakete]

"Most of you have passengers," Norbert replied, "It's a bit risky, I guess, but you should be able to do it. Just pass the reins to the passenger while you climb forward on your pegasus' neck. Reach over and pull a damp cloth or something over the pegasus' nose and make sure it gets stuffed into the bridle's straps so it stays put. The passenger can lean back so that the pegasus isn't pitching forward. We can prepare the cloth for you, too, so you can keep your pegasi steady until you hand the reins off."

He was glad that everyone present was a pegasus handler, though he admitted that he didn't know how much trick riding military pegasus knights practiced. Something like this should be possible for them, though, right? It wasn't like he was asking anyone to do a hand-stand on one of the flying equines -- just to climb and reach further towards the pegasus' head than usual while someone else holds the animal steady.

[Phoenix]

High and Low

"B-but we don't have any wet cloth," Cameron protested. She knew they could probably improvise if they had a little water on hand, but just the idea of wrestling with her pegasus to keep the thing on until they were safely beyond the minefield seemed like a bit much to her. She tried to look back and past Norbert to see if they were even being followed, by the wyvern knights, or the bandits they had just bull rushed past. The bandits that were still in sight were either lying lifeless on the ground or standing around helplessly, fading into the background. The wyvern knights were like ants at this distance, and still high above the fortress. The fortress itself, was getting smaller all the time, and just a little ways between the fortress and the bandits they had outmaneuvered, was another pegasus rider, the same one they let off earlier. She was fully mounted up and already airborne.

"Maybe we should just stay above the trees," Cameron hesitated. The obvious problem with that approach was that while they would gain full control of their pegasi again, they wouldn't have a safe way to descend back down and find cover until they reached another clearing. If they didn't use the trees for cover before this path disappeared, they would be stuck in the air for miles.

There was another problem, one she left unsaid, but that all the other riders were aware of. If the ballista they had each encountered along this route to the fortress was still there and manned, that could spell disaster. Again her pegasus pulled up, and against Cameron had to gently but firmly urge the irritable equine back to a reasonable altitude. "Well, it's not like they aren't listening to us ... not exactly .... If we have to stick below the trees then we probably just need to keep them on track a little longer." Optimistic, but not unrealistic.

[Mercakete]

Norbert wasn't entirely happy with the circumstances, but he didn't see much problem with letting things carry on as they were right now, especially if they didn't have the materials they needed to block the pegasi's noses. The pegasi weren't daft enough to slam their wings into the tree trunks and tear them off, so they risked losing their momentum or control entirely, but other than that, hopefully, they'd get past the minefield just fine. "Sounds like we don't have any other option. Not unless you can get enough of that vulnerary onto her nose that it blocks the scent out." There was also the problem of the smell remaining after the stuff dried.