Astalder dug his blade into the side of the plateau. He pushed off the tiny cleft in he had his foot in and found another. He repeated this process until he found his arm on the top of the plateau. He swung back and forth to create momentum and swung himself on top of the ledge.

He sat down on the edge of the severed mountain and let his feet dangle loosely. He wiped the beads of sweat that had collected on his forehead off. He slow down his breathing, to slow down his heart and stood up looking over Imythess. A light breeze picked up that blew his damp hair in its direction. The sun was approaching the horizon, but the sky was still its tue blue color. It was unsually warm for being on top of a plateau, AND it being winter, but Astalder couldn't argue with mother nature. He really didn't mind any kind of weather, but storms were his favorites.

Astalder walked to the edge of the plateau that seemed to have the longest amount to its opposite side. He readied himself as if in a fighting stance, only about to run. Astalder spread and folded his wings over and over again until the seemed stretched out and free. He stood on the balls of his feet and took off.

He ran at a regular human's pace, because if ran at what he knew was his pace, he'd probably run across the air.

This is it Astalder... It's do or die now... He thought to himself and he pushed of the ledge with his right foot. He lingered in the air a moment and dived down the steep side of the plateau. He spread his wings wide and flapped franically and...

...Nothing happened. He was still falling down. Panic spread throughout Astalder's body. He flapped as hard as he could but he was still falling. He was going to die from doing something as foolish as try to fly. He was nearing the ground. He gave one last natural flap and...

...He he was up. He just skimmed the suty ground and he was flying straight. He flapped naturally a few more times and he flew higher and higher. He was soaring in the air now. He spun around and floated like a hawk. He smiled widely as he was high above the plateau he had jumped off of now. And as he flew, blue wisps of air that were very cold to the touch and cooled him down.

Astalder finally slowed down and descended to the ground. Once his feet touched the ground, he exhaled greatly.

"Well, looks like I can at last fly... Too bad no one was hear to witness it." Astalder said to himself with a little chuckle.

Ahren was hiking along the mountain path, making his way carefully along loose rocks and dirt roads. The wind around him raised a cloud of dirt, but none of it got near him. The wind around him kept it at bay, just one small gift from his connection with the wind. As he continued to walk along, he saw a sudden shadow appear on the ground. Looking up, he spotted the falling person. The surprising thing was that despite the fact this person had wings, they were still falling. Ahren rushed forward, summoning his magic, ready to slow the person's descent and catch him. Before he could, the person corected their flight, and soared through the air. As Ahren thought about what could have happened that would cause this person to fall, the wind brought the stranger's words to his ears. So that was it, he was someone that didn't have the wings naturally. They didn't pick a very good way to try and learn how to fly then.

Ahren followed the path that the stranger had taken, searching to find where they had dissappeared to. Following the winds direction, he eventually found the person. Walking forward in plain sight, he looked over the person. Now that he was close to him, Ahren could tell that it was another elf. His wings certainly looked new, as though he had gotten them only a few days or weeks ago. "That wasn't a very smart thing to do. You could have very easily been killed. You are lucky that you stopped trying to fly, and just did it naturally." Ahren watched the elf with bright eyes, wondering why he had decided to try and do this on his own.

"I'm not sure what possessed you, but you obviously had no clue how to fly when you tried earlier. You were falling like a rock, and I'm not sure if I would have been able to stop you from crashing into the moutainside." Ahren hadn't stopped to consider how this person would feel about being chastised by a complete stranger, and he still didn't care. Unlike the elf, he hadn't been sweating any, the cool breezes preventing the sun from burning down upon him. His light blue robe was clean except for a few spots here and there where they had gotten some dirt on them. But other than that, Ahren showed no evidence of his journey along the dusty mountain path.

Astalder spun around to the voice of a man. He looked very familiar, but Astalder couldn't quite put his finger n it. He knew he'd seen this man somewhere, but where? He couldn't recollect. He squinted at the man with a raised eyebrow trying to remember who he was.

Then it hit him. He was Ahren, a member of Orodreth Ancalimë. He smiled as he recognized the man from a guild meeting. He was very timid and shy during the meeting, like he didn't really like talking to a group of people. Now, Ahren seemed to be very concerned and talkative.

"I like taking risks, Ahren. And besides, baby hawks are forced to fly or die when they're born. I was sick of having these wings just for looks. I wanted to finally fly. And jumping from the ground was working very well at all. No one is perfect, you know..." He smiled down at his feet and shook his head. "I bet you would have done the same thing, if you were me."

((OOC: Sorry for the short post.))

Once the stanger spoke and called him by his name, Ahren remembered seeing him at the Orodreth Ancalimë clan meeting. He tried to remember his name, but it escaped him for the moment. "Forgive me, you remember my name, but I can't recall your's. Don't take it personally, I am just horrible with names." Ahren continued to try and remember the person's name. For some reason, his mind was completely blank. He shook his head, ignoring that for the moment. It didn't really matter right now, but names where a nice thing to have when speaking to someone. Ahren smiled, almost laughing at what the elf said. He didn't know how right he was, but Ahren didn't see why people always chose to do things on their own.

"You are more right than you know. When I was a child, I hadn't learned how to fly yet, so I decided to try an learn. I really was to young, but I thought it would be simple. So, I tried almost the exact same thing you did, but unlike you, I didn't catch myself in time. I broke an arm and a leg in the crash. It took me eight weeks to recover fully. Still, I lived in a place where if you didn't know how to fly, then you couldn't get anywhere. You don't have that problem." Ahren watched the elf with bright eyes, seeing some of the similarities between the two of them. It was almost funny.

Ahren flapped his wings some, trying to think of something to do. He knew how this elf felt, Ahren had been the same way when he was young. He had been tired of waiting for his parents to teach him and had gone off on his own. He had been lucky that they had found him when they did. He had been in the same spot for a few hours after the crash, and his parents had arranged a search party. It was almost nightfall when they found him, weak from the loss of blood. "If you want to learn how to fly, I would try it from a lower altitude, that way, you don't have as far to fall if you mess up."

Astalder chuckled. He never really took forgetting a name personally. Memory was one of the hardest things to control, why should some one be scolded for it? Plus, he had a hard time remembering who Ahren was.

"My name is Astalder. No apologies are neccesary. I'm not too great with remebering names either," he said. "I'm sorry that happened to you Ahren. You are very lucky indeed that your parents had found you. That story almost made me rethink what I had just done... Almost was the key word their," Astalder joked, with a small laugh.

Astalder looked up at a ledge that was about one third of the height as the other one. Then, he had an idea.

"Hmm... Perhaps I could work my way down. You know, until I can just jump off of ground level and start flying. In most battles, I doubt there'll be plateaus where I can jump off of." And without waiting for an answer Ahren, Astalder headed of to the smaller ledge, where his training for an advanced way of flying would begin. Astalder was very wreckless. He knew some day that would get him into some trouble.

Ahren watched Astalder head up to the ledge, laughing at his manner. He was determined to learn how to fly, and nothing that anyone could say would stop him. Well, Ahren might as well make sure that Astalder didn't kill himself. Ahren flapped his wings a few times, before taking off from the ground. He winged his way up to the ledge, arriving swiftly. He watched Astalder make his way up, waiting for him to get up her. "It may not have made you change your mind, but watch out. You don't want to crack your skull, you wings won't help you then." Ahren decided to help in whatever way he could, since they were together in the guild, anything he could do to help Astalder would help the guild.

"You want to know what went wrong the first time, you were trying to hard. You need to stop trying and just do it. Eventually, flying will become second nature, and you won't have to think about it." Ahren took his bow and quiver of arrows off his back, placing them on the ledge. He also, unsheathed both his knives and stuck them next to his bow. "Flying is a lot easier than most people think. You barely have to do anything. The wind does most of the work for you. Once you become experienced, you will learn how to ride the wind and use it to your advantage." Ahren took off again, hovering a few feet out from the ledge, his wings moving in a steady rhythem.

Astalder's hand appeared on the edge of the miniature plateau and he pulled himself up, and onto the leadge. Astalder let out a short chuckle at Ahren's safe play.

"This ledge isn't too high. If I do happen to fall and crash, I won't be injured beyong repair. Besides, I'm very well known for soft landings." Astalder smiled at what Ahren had said next. "Easy for you to say, isn't it? You've been flying since you were just a boy. This is my first time at it. What seems like something natural to you, is something that requires a lot of work for me. I do intend to have flying as a second nature though." And with that Astalder dove off the ledge, head first like he had of the other plateau.

It was only seconds later that Astalder realized that that was a bad choice. This ledge was much shorer than what he had jumped off of before. He wouldn't be able to gather speed quick enough to fly back upwards like he had.

Astalder flipped around so he was falling, feet first, and he spread his wingd widely, so to slow his decent. He landed with a thud on one knee, one foot, and one hand. Everything seemed to be ok, except his hand was scraped up from the rocky floor. Held that hand with his other and a blueish glow appeared. He removed that hand and his once scraped one was fine. He gave Ahren an O.K. sign and started back towards the same ledge.

This might take until nightfall... Astalder thought with a smile and a shake of his head.

Ahren watched in silence as Astalder leapt off the ledge, realizing his mistake at the same time as Astalder. He didn't move to help him though, the fall wouldn't kill him. He was being to quick, he wasn't thinking it through. "You should take more time, you are just leaping, hoping that you will be able to catch yourself. It might actually help if you tried to take off from the ground first. You might not be able to completely, but you will know how to. Then, you can run off the ledge, and do exactly what you practiced." Ahren watched him carefully, watching as he climbed back up to the ledge. He wouldn't be able to keep this up, he would soon tire from climbing up the ledge. It would be easier if he tried to fly up to the ledge instead of flying down from the ledge.

Ahren flew off of the ledge, flying down until he was level with Astalder. He followed Astalder as he climbed, staying parallel to him. "You are right, I have been flying since I was young, so don't you think I might know more about it than you?" Ahren waited patiently for an answer, keeping level with Astalder as he continued to climb up to the ledge.

(short post, I couldn't think of anything to say)

Astalder dug his sword as far as it would go into the rocky wall. He was either getting lazy, or tired, because just dangled their, holding onto the blade with one hand. His eyebrows dug closer to his nose as he listened to Ahren.

"Indeed, I know what I did wrong. I have a different plan for this time," but Astalder stopped talking after he heard what Ahren said next.

Astalder had walked himself right into that one... Astalder shrugged and retrieved his blade and kicked off the orange and dusty wall. He fell with amazing grace and balance and landed lightly on his feet. He looked up as Ahren descended and spoke.

"Alrighty then, Ahren... You win. We'll start from the ground first. What seems jumping off of cliff's seems like a waste though now... I did think working my way down, but this is quicker and you must know what your doing," Astalder said with a smile. He awaited for Ahren to finally touch down and tudor him in flying.

Ahren floated down to land gently next to Astalder. He watched Astalder carefully, trying to think of a way to explain what he had been doing for years. "First off, let me ask you something. Is this the first time you have actually used your wings? And I don't mean just flapping them around, I mean actually trying to fly and lift your own body weight." If it was, then that was the first problem. Astalder was trying to fly on wings that had never been tested and tried. It would be like a ten year old human trying to lift over 200 pounds. A difficult feat if they hadn't been training for their entire life up till that point. "Wings are a muscle, just like any other, and you have to build up some endurance before you can fly for any length of time. Even when you do learn to fly, it will still take some time to build up that endurance." Ahren flapped his wings slightly, moving the air some to keep him cool.

"One way to build up your wings, is to actually try to take off from a standing position. The more you practice, the stronger your wings will be. It shouldn't take to long for you to get off the ground, for wings are very powerful." Ahren remembered how he had learned to fly, thinking of the time he had spent practicing. He was doing the exact same thing with Astalder, and he knew that soon Astalder would be able to soar through the air. "Go on, give it a try. You have to build up some muscles. It shouldn't take to long, as you don't weigh that much."

Astalder concentrated, trying to figure out where Ahren was trying to go with this question.

"Well... Yes, this was my first attepmt to try and fly. I have tried flapping them to lift off, but that never worked. I suppose that is why I'm here." And Astalder listened to the rest of Ahren's words.

The flapping of Ahren's wings seemed to cool him off a bit as well. It was unusually hot in the ranges, especially considering it was winter. Astalder didn't mind though. He bagan flapping his slowly to build up the muscles. Astalder gradually flapped the faster and faster until he felt he would be able to take off.

Astalder crouched down and pushed off the ground, jumping as high as he could. He lingered in the air for a moment, but fell almost immediatly. He landed on his feet and looked a bit displeased.

"That IS what usually happens. I don't think I've ever levitated in the air like that before. Do you have any tips for me? It is kind of obvious that I'm doing it wrong, isn't it?"

Ahren watched with a smile on his face as he saw Astalder's attempt. He knew that it must be frustrating, but he still couldn't help but smile. "Maybe it would help if you weren't taking off into dead air. What little air is up here isn't moving, meaning you are doing all the work. For th emost part, flying involves riding the wind. If you have to flap your wings to stay up, then you will soon tire and fall. Let me help you with one aspect of that." Ahren concentrated, using his link with the air to do something he hadn't done before. He knew that he could do it, but this was the first time, so he was being careful. He created air, making more than there should have been at this time. He kept at it until the amount of air was equal to that at sea level. He also created a small breeze, which would also help Astalder take off.

"There, try again. This time, try going into the wind. The wind will be pushed underneath your wings, lifting you up higher into the air. But do not stray to far, the air that I have created only stretches about 20 feet. Once you have reached the end, you will be flying in dead air again." Ahren watched, waiting for Astalder to try again. This should help him out more than what he was tyring to do. With any luck, he would be able to stay in the air more than just a couple of seconds.

(sorry for the wait)

Astalder's hair suddenly flailed about as Ahren performed some sort of Air ritual. It was as if he was under water now, but their was no water for another couple of miles from where they stood. The air had merely become so heavy it felt like he was under water. Astalder lightly pushed off the ground and did a couple backflips in mid hair smiling.

"Now why couldn't the atmosphere ALWAYS be like this?" Astalder said with a chuckle. He touched down once again and spread his wings out to their full length which seemed harder to do. He jumped up once agin and seemed to catch a breeze, as it pushed him backwards ever so slowly. He flapped his wings once, which was a lot of work, and he levitated upwards. Continueing the process, his wings began to burn with a pain. His muscles in his wings were beginning to build up. He touched down to the ground again and looked at Ahren.

"Well that was certainly a work out. Perhaps we can work our way down until the air level is normal? Or did I do something wrong just then?" Astalder queeried with a bit of a frown on his face.

((OOC: No problem))

Ahren released the air, letting it spread out like it normally would under these conditions. "That was very good. Keep it up, and you will be flying in no time. I suggest that you find a valley instead of a mountain in which to practice your flying. At higher altitudes, less air means it is harder to fly." Ahren watched Astalder, surprised he had learned so quickly. Still, thinking back to his childhood, it hadn't taken him that long either. It had just seemed longer at the time when he had been impatient. "Still, it will be good to eventually learn to take off in places like this. If you have to make a sudden take off, then you can't afford to wait until you find a place with enough air." Ahren flapped his own wings, thinking about what else there was to tell Astalder about flying. You hardly actually flew by your own power. The wind did most of the work for you since you tended to glide a lot. You just need to use your wings to get you up into the air so that you could glide.

"Well, I don't know what else to tell you. As you work at it, you will be able to stay up for increasing amounts of time. Just try not to overwork yourself. You need to build up your wings just like any other muscle. You can't work it for one day and then expect it to do whatever you want." Ahren retrieved his gear, resheathing his knives and putting his bow across his back. He made sure that his arrows wouldn't fall out while he was flying. Not that he really needed to worry, he could always retrieve them, but he might need them. "The only other thing I can say is good luck. I hope that soon you soar through the skies."

Astalder listened to what Ahren had to say, embedding every word into his mind with an imaginary chisel. He nodded wisely and gave Ahren a respectful bow.

"Thank you very much, freind. I hope our pths cross again some day, but until then, may the wind guide you to righteous decisions," with that Astalder disappeared quicker than any eye could keep up with. A dusty trail rose from where he once stood and followed along the path he was running. He was off to try and find a valley to fly under. After all, practice made perfect, and he was ready to making flying correctly perfect...