Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Seven - Flight of the Wyverns

“You’re a good little almost-dragon, aren’t you? Yes you are! Yes you are!” I cooed to Miss Greencrest the wyvern. The big beastie’s emotions were hard to read. It didn’t have as expressive a face as most mammals, or even the few dragons I’d met, but I think Miss Greencrest was still quite happy with the way I scritched her under the chin if the way she pressed into the attention was any indication.

“She seems to like you,” Winnow said. “That’s good. Paladin Bastion will be flying with her, you can ride along with him.”

“Oh? I don’t mind which wyvern I fly with. They all seem very sweet and friendly. Isn’t that right, Miss Greencrest? Do you want to be my friend?”

Greencrest
Dream: To fly and hunt
Desired Quality: Someone who will give her meat

I chuckled, then glanced around. There was a bucket in the central corridor with a metal lid above it having the words Bones and Gristle painted on the side. I bet those were snacks. “Can I give her a treat?” I asked.

“Certainly,” Winnow said. “But she’ll have to be saddled in a moment, so do so quickly. And take care not to have your hand snipped off.”

“Okay!” I said.

Winnow led Amaryllis to another cage deeper in where the third wyvern we’d be flying was located. Bloodfang, who was a big boy of a wyvern with reddish scales. The wyvern bumped his head against the cage as Winnow approached, looking pretty excited to see the knight.

I got a honking big chunk of meat for Greencrest, who gobbled it up greedily while the other wyverns in the cages around us looked on with jealousy (I did want to give them all snacks, but I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to do that. Maybe they were on a specific diet?). Then I had to leave her cage as a group of pages and squires came around with harnesses and nets and big leather pieces that they started to strap over Greencrest.

The other two wyverns were being prepared too. I noted that the barding had chainmail between layers of padding and leather. It covered a lot of the wyvern’s sternum and ribs, and they had a sort of metal helmet that fit around their heads, giving them a fearsome appearance.

The saddle was at the front, just above the wyvern’s wing joints. There was a lot of flexible material there, probably so that the wyvern could move their wings unimpeded. The seats looked like they were padded, but I suspected it wasn’t going to be super comfy.
The door to Little Doug’s cage was opened and Melos led the wyvern out with Awen clutching onto the saddle while the wyvern moved with careful grace. A few more squires approached with some last bits of equipment that were probably tricky to fit while the wyvern was still in its enclosure.

Greencrest was let out next. I moved back so that I wouldn’t be in anyone’s way and I watched as the wyvern slithered out of her cage, then allowed the sylph working with the wyvern knights to equip her properly. Allowed, because I had no doubt that things would be quite different if she didn’t want to be fussed over.

The wyverns all had thick, corded muscles just beneath their scaly-cool skin, especially along their backs and flanks. I walked over to Greencrest’s front with another snack, then I patted the wyvern on the snoot while she munched through what I suspected was a goat’s femur bone.

“Will you need a hand climbing aboard?” Bastion asked.

He had changed a bit while I wasn’t paying attention. He still wore his shiny paladin breastplate, as well as its greaves and vambraces, but he had removed most of the rest of his armour. The sylph around him were acting a bit more carefully now that he was there.

“I think I can manage,” I said. “But we should probably wait until we’re outside?”

He nodded. “Indeed,” he said before reaching up to Greencrest’s head and giving it a rub. We both had to step back as a squire stepped up apologetically and started to strap a helmet onto the wyvern’s head. There was lots of padding, and it looked custom made, so it was probably fairly comfortable.

Another sylph passed by and handed Bastion a set of reins that led up to the bridle around the wyvern’s head. Once Greencrest was fully equipped, we started walking towards the exit, only I was stopped a few steps away. “Ma’am,” a young sylph in armour similar to Melos and Winnow said.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Ah, we have some equipment for you and your companions,” she said. “It was interesting, finding things in your approximate size-range.”

“Will I need to change?” I asked with a tap to my breastplate.

She shook her head. “No, no, the harnesses are meant to go over a knight’s armour, you’ll be fine. The overcoat will give you another layer. Trust me, you’ll appreciate it unless you happen to have self-heating magic.”

“I don’t think I have any magic like that,” I admitted.

The nice knight brought me aside to a small area with all sorts of other equipment, then she helped me into a harness made of tough leather straps. It ran around my chest and over my arms and between my legs, with parts strapped to my thighs and upper arms. There were lots of buckles that clinked and jingled, and I had to squish up my skirts to be able to fit into the bottom part of the harness.

I probably looked a bit silly, but then the knight gave me a big coat made of some very long fur. It had slits for my arms and more slits so that we could access the harness buckles through the furry material.

“Oh, this is cosy,” I said as I hugged myself. I was now the softest bun ever.

“You’ll need it. It gets cold mid-flight, especially with any metal armour on,” the knight said. “Here, the caps aren’t fashionable, but they’ll keep your hair out of your face and the goggles will let you actually see.”

She handed me a leather cap with thick cloth pads around the outside of it. The inside was filled with more fur, and the front of the cap had a half-mask which could be buttoned up on one side to cover everything from my nose down. It even had goggles with thick glass. It was a good thing I didn’t wear glasses or else that bit would be tricky.

I did encounter one big problem though. Or rather, two of them. “What do I do with my ears?” I asked.

The knight blinked, then slowly looked up above my head. “Ah,” she said.

A couple of minutes and a couple of holes later, I pulled the cap on tight, ears wiggling around out of the modifications we’d brought to the cap. “Thanks,” I said.

New Skill Acquired: Wyvern Riding
Rank: D

Oh, that was neat!

“No problem. Please make sure you’re well hooked onto the harnesses before you take off. It would shame us all if you were blown off your wyvern’s back mid-flight. Not to mention search and rescue missions aren’t any fun.”

I nodded. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience anyone by splattering myself against the countryside somewhere.

I left the room and a grinning Awen went in after me, then Amaryllis followed after her, led by another knight.

“This isn’t going to be as quiet an event as I had wished,” Bastion said as I returned to his side.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He gestured to the many sylph loitering around. They didn’t seem to have much to do anymore. Too many of them were sweeping the floor with brooms just to look busy. At least the place would be very clean if they continued to clean to be able to stick around.

“Oh,” I said.

“Oh indeed,” Bastion replied. “I think we’re all gaining a fair bit of attention. I had hoped that the mission would be discreet.”

“Well, they don’t know where we’re going, do they?”

“That’s true. Still, if the rumour goes around, it might reach the ears of someone who’ll feed it to the cervid, and when they get reports of your rather distinct group in the Trenten Flats it won’t be difficult to put two and two together.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked.

Bastion rubbed at his chin. “Not necessarily. Even if the right cervid learns about you, it doesn’t mean they’ll act in a way that would be detrimental. But that’s asking for the mission to go without a hitch. Never rely on your adversary doing what’s convenient for you.”

"They're not really our adversary, though."

“If you’re trying to talk sense into her, I’d just give it up as a lost cause,” Amaryllis said as she stalked over with a jingle of metal on metal from all the belts she wore.

I blinked. That had been surprisingly mean of her. She was always a bit snarky, and didn’t mind calling me a moron but... “Are you nervous about flying?” I asked her.

Her chest puffed out, feathers going poofy. “I’m part-bird, Broccoli, I’m hardly going to be nervous about flying.”

“It’s okay to be a little afraid about something new,” I soothed her. “Flying like this is something you’ve never done. Well, besides that one time with Rhawrexdee, but that was different.” I nodded. “When I’m scared, I find that hugs make the scary feelings go away. Do you want a hug?”

Amaryllis was glaring at me, but her puffiness had changed a bit in quality, and I think I had the measure of her. A moment later, she as much as admitted it when she huffed a ‘yes-you're-right-but-I'll-never-in-a-million-years-admit-it’ sort of huff.

So I gave her a big tight hug and Amaryllis pretended that no one was watching as she returned it.

“Oh, we’re doing hugs now?” Awen asked.

She didn’t look the least bit nervous about the flight. Meeting so many new people might have made her a little nervous, but I think Awen was really excited about taking off and flying around.

“Alright everyone,” Winnow said. “Everything’s packed up, last chance to reconsider.”

“I think we’ll be okay,” I said.

The knight nodded, and we followed her outside. The three wyverns we were going to ride were lined up to one side, their big talons gripping onto a set of logs bolted to the ground on the edge of the tower. Judging by all the scratches on the wood, those were where most wyverns launched from.

Bastion fluttered up onto Greencrest’s back with a few flasps of his wings, then I hopped up behind him. There were a lot of buckles to clamp onto my harness, and we took our time making sure all of them were properly secured while a couple of sylphs packed our things away in big saddle bags near the wyvern’s flanks.

“We’ll be flying at a brisk-but-easy pace,” Winnow called out over the wind. “Nothing showy, understood Melos?”

“Yes ma’am!” the other knight said.

“Alright then.” Winnow tugged at Bloodfang’s reins and the wyvern growled eagerly even as he spread his wings wide. “Then let’s go!”

I gasped as Greencrest spread her own wings, bunched her legs up, then threw us up and forwards.

The wyvern’s wings flapped hard and fast, with great big whups that snapped out at every beat. My tummy did a little flip as we started to rise. Then we hit some sort of thermal and our slow rise became a lot faster.

I laughed as we circled over the tower. Goldenalden was spread out below us, only the highest of the airships even with us.

I heard Awen laughing too, and noticed Amaryllis’ very white face as she gripped onto knight Winnow atop Bloodfang.

“Follow me,” Winnow shouted over the wind. And with that, we banked around and started across Sylphfree.

***