The Sun Has Nothing On Me (Goldflight)

[E]

Malekith used his huge wings to his advantage, the wind was scooped easily by them and even tickled slightly as it danced and swirled around the scarred tissue before being pushed along with a down stroke. Another bronze joined into the flight and he roared angrily. What was this? While he would never wish another dragon to go through what he and his rider had gone through with thread to leave his once magnificent bronze hide so marred, he did wish the new bronze a sudden muscle crap and be forced to land.

His wish didn’t come true though, but it did succeed in making Malekith realize he could not simply allow these bronzes to take their time with the queen. No, this game of hunting, of cat and mouse would come to a close, and soon. Watching the gold slow below him, he made use of his bulk. Only half closing his wings, he made sure she could only escape below or off to one of the sides as he descended suddenly. He searched for her neck but he knew she would not be done quite yet. This was the first move made by any of the bronzes to actually catch her. The first rarely worked, but somebody needed to begin the attempts and Malekith would be damned if he passed up such a well placed one.

Tail held at ready to help him turn and wings held taught in their half closed position, he was ready to increase the speed of his dive in one direction or another and was very expectant of her to take off from him. He would catch her though in time, and he would show her how wonderful a free fall could truly be before taking her home.

[LyricalBlue]

Malekith's dive was too be expected and like the flight based creature she was, she was all too sensitive to those above her. But Nisurath was very young and very cocky, she let Malekith get close before she rolled out of the way. What she didn't expect was Rovanoth on her left, the gold twisted in a corkscrew in dove, in a maneuver that looked backbreaking. Sly bronzes, but she was not ready for them yet. Two had left, but as Myneth and Hirith joined in the fray, Nisurath pumped her wings and shot forward again. They would see no signs of weakness, not in her. Even if her shoulders and lungs were burning with the effort now.

She was still Queen of the sky and it would take more than some halfhearted attempts to woo her back to the ground. Nisurath pulled back out of her dive, once more below the mass of bronze wings. That was too close, he'd almost had her and all because she hadn't looked where she was going. The pale, glowing gold trumpeted to the bronzes, before spiraling back upwards towards them. Stuffed wherries! They could fly no better than a newly hatched wher!
Is that the best you've got?!

They couldn't catch her, she was sure of it. There was not a single bronze her who could match her maneuver for maneuver. They were all holding out and for what, to watch grass grow on the Star Stones? Nisurath shot past the majority of the group, heading back up into the clouds. Her lungs burned and her wings were strained, she did not have the stamina of a larger gold. Forcing herself to continue, she refused to succumb to fatigue. They were going to have to work a little harder than that!

[hrsegrl]

The Bronze above had made his move so Rovanoth tried to position himself well. Nisurath was prepared for Malekith's move but had failed to consider where he was. He had nearly touched her wing with his own. The excitement from that near touch was enough to keep him going. Despite the fact that two others had joined he felt he had just as much of a chance. Eventually she would be too tired to continue and then, then he would need his strength more than ever.

Rovanoth was not new to being pushed to the limit. He was not made for as much endurance as the larger Bronzes. Myneth and Malekith were larger than himself by quite a bit but he did have more agility which at this moment was on his side. He nearly mimicked her dive exactly trying to keep close should she make that mistake again. The next time she did he would not let her get away so easily.

Until another opportunity presented itself he would have to keep up and find a way to trap her. She wanted free reign of the skies and now she had it. Eventually someone would have to trap her so she could no longer fly and allow herself to be brought back to down to the ground. Now however she seemed as feisty as before. Perhaps it was Ev'os reluctance at chasing her which held the Bronze back but the Queen was growing more frustrated with her suitors and Rovanoth could feel it. He should have attempted something by now. Maybe he was not prepared for what the consequences could be?

She deserved the best and though it was obvious to himself that he was the best he was not so sure she felt that way now. All Bronzes must think so about themselves. They could not fly Golds if they did not think themselves worthy of the task. So as she flew higher until the air burned in his lungs also, he began to formulate an idea. Whether he could implement it or not was another story entirely. At the moment he ran the risk of someone else getting to her first but this was his first flight and he could not be expected to know the way flights went. No doubt this would not be the last of many mistakes he had already made.

[wonder123]

R'lec's breath caught in his throat as he watched from Myneth's vantage point Malekith's dive and subsequent try at flying the Queen. There would be no hiding his fury if they had arrived at the scene only to watch another dragon catch their prize. He shouldn't have worried, as seconds later the golden beast flew once more out of reach.

The relief that flooded him at that moment was quickly replaced with an angry passion, mirrored by that of Myneth's own. Over the four months there had been the expected comparisions of the juvenile queen to that of the late one. Would she be able to clutch well? Would she thrive like those before her? There were no doubts now, as Myneth's wings carried him higher and higher. Nisurath had proven herself with that earlier manuever, and it was clear to both rider and dragon that none here deserved her.

Except for them.

The dimglows surrounded R'lec, but his eyes burned with obsession as he kept them on Iaslia. Meanwhile Myneth was still climbing, his strength holding out for now because he had joined later than the others. Finally, he took his own shot. Malekith would not be allowed to win her because he was the only dragon with a backbone. Myneth would prove just how great of a mate he could be. The bronze trumpeted his challenge from the heights, having been able to finally reach the same altitude. Lungs burned, but the pain was ignored in the thrill of the chase. With a smoothly executed spiral, Myneth closed the distance between himself and his target, stretching out his neck in offering.

Surely she could see he was the only one worthy of her.

---

Hirith drafted Myneth, using the larger dragon's bulk to break up the air resistance as they climbed higher, and ever closer, to their Queen. His only hope in this race was to conserve as much energy as possible, given that his competition were all larger than the brown. Hirith's chocolate hide absorbed the sunlight instead of reflecting it as it did with his metallic brothers., allowing him to move from shadow to shadow without relative notice.

He continued flying below the main contingent of suitors, always catching currents of wind or tailing one of the larger bronzes - Malekith or Myneth. Nisurath was a fiesty one, there was no doubt. And while Hirith longed to trumpet his desire to her, he forced himself to stay silent. Another bronze would try to capture her, and once she freed herself from their attempt, Hirith would be there. The large brown only had the strength for one worthwhile attempt at capturing a Gold such as Nisurath.

He was going to make it count. He would be there to catch her when she fell from the heavens.

[LyricalBlue]

She spared a quick glance behind her as she soared ever upwards. There was Rovanoth, who might as well have been her shadow. Myneth had closed that gap quickly though and now the bronze offered himself in another serious attempt, following Malekith's bid. Nisurath banked to the right, letting an updraft buoy her tiring wings. No, she would have none of them yet. She trilled once more to the male suitors, urging on the lagging Hirith and Malekith. Perhaps that previous dive had been too much for him to recover from.

Letting the wind carry her forward, she settled out into even flight, just above the cloud line. Her pale hide let her blend in at least from below. The sun though, would light her from above like a beacon. Nisurath mrred at her ingenious maneuver, sure that none of the bronzes could possibly find her. She would gather her strength back, then give them the flight of their lives. A gold with longer wingspan and deeper lungs would have had much more stamina than the pale, small Nisurath, but she was determined to remain free of those grasping males.

The clouds cooled her burning hide as she shot forward along the air currents, they were high enough now that the air was cold and that the sun looked close enough to touch. The tops of the mountains were mere specks below them and Nisurath resisted the urge to trumpet aloud her ownership of the sky. Oh no, none of the bronzes could possibly find her now. Of course, now she could not see any of them. But no matter, she would appear once more when the time was right and really show them who was Queen.

[hrsegrl]

The game was now afoot. Who would be able to catch her unawares? The failed attempts of the other Bronzes did not surprise him. Rovanoth knew they were unworthy of her. He followed her right and then upwards to the thinning air. The gorgeous scenery of being on top of the world at any other time would have awed both rider and dragon but in this moment, nothing shone more brightly than Nisurath. Even the sun paled in comparison to her. (No, he's not biased!)

She was now in the clouds along with himself and unfortunately the other competitors. The brown was much too far away from his thoughts at the moment to even be taken into consideration but the Bronzes were not. The situation could be dangerous but Rovanoth wanted to be unpredictable. His body, more lithe than the other two Bronzes allowed him to spiral horizontally underneath her so that she just felt the whooshing of air beneath her.Then he flew, just close enough that he could hear her wing beats and positioned himself on her left again. He was slowly working his way closer.

If she did not see him coming it bode all the better for him. His hope was that she would be preoccupied trying to figure out where the rest of the males were than to worry about his increasingly close position. His wing was almost on top of hers though he was now several feet above the Gold. Rovanoth's descent towards Nisurath was quiet and smooth. He had to take this chance as it was offered to him even if it meant failure.

Teeth gritted on the ground, it was clear that Ev'os was concentrating. His dragon's rising tensions were building up within him as well. The wings of his great Bronze were sore, he could feel the burning from the thin air in his own lungs. Rovanoth would not last much longer though the Bronze would take defeat hard should he fail.

[LyricalBlue]

Long moments went by and Nisurath began to let her guard down. The clouds caressed her tired wings and she let her pace fall. The toll of all the earlier wild acrobatics was taking effect on the very young Gold. The sound of her own wings cutting through the air cut out any chance of hearing Rovanoth's approach and she looked downwards, scanning through the clouds for any sign of her pursuers. Now, where were they? They had seemingly disappeared just as she had in the cloud layer.

She took in a deep breath as something began to just feel... wrong. With the cloud cover she could not see much, nor hear much. The shadow of the ever looming Rovanoth was lost, but Nisurath couldn't help but begin to get nervous. Far below, the tension in the room had reached a breaking point and Iaslia gripped at her riding leathers tightly. The tiring Queen's nerves were grating on the human half of her. Iaslia was only dimly aware of the men surrounding her, and every breath she took was in tandem with the Gold flying high above.

Nisurath's nerves began to fray and the gold pumped her wings to head back upwards. She had to get out of the cloud cover and see her surroundings once more. Suddenly instincts warned her of the bronze above, dragonsense won again... sort of. Nisurath flipped on her back to defend herself and with Rovanoth so low, their claws tangled. In another second their legs were tangled and then his tail was wrapped around hers and it was all over. Very quickly both Queen and rider realized they were caught inescapably. One thought did make it through Iaslia's passion fogged mind and that was to get them home safe.

[hrsegrl]

The Bronze clung to hope even as Nisurath tried to escape.There was not much time to dally he used the opportunity he was given and lowered himself so that his claws and hers entangled. Of course she struggled and in struggling became more entangled. When she was struggling less, he wrapped his tail around her gently. Rovanoth seemed to need no help, dragon instinct had taken over.

They began to fall through the skies with alarming speed. Great wings expanded and caught them so that they fell less quickly and seemed to float down towards the earth below them. One thought seemed ever present in the back of his mind, he had won. None of the others were worthy. He knew that and now so did she and he had proved that to her easily enough. While Rovanoth had no qualms about flying Nisurath it was not so easy for Ev'os.

He stayed with his Bronze ensuring that nothing happened to either dragon. His emotional battle was not easy for him but he could not resist the passion that had erupted within him. There was strong desire to be closer to the lovely Iaslia. Ev'os saw nothing else now it seemed not even his competition which could still be in the room for all he cared.

The idea of being closer soon became more than a desire, it was something he could not resist. He moved forward and placed his arms around her. “Iaslia” The youth sounded breathless as he spoke. “Come...” Ev'os took one of her hands and led her toward the large bed. He was too engrossedin dragon lust to realize exactly what he was doing. He might regret it but at this point he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.