Member
The girl was speaking to him, which, to be honest, Garuth should have expected. Given the size of the crowd, however, he did not give any sort of response that could be considered an answer aside from a few rushed caw-caw-caws that could at least be interpreted as acknowledging what she'd said to him.
It certainly wasn't a very good answer to a proper introduction but he'd been warned time and time again one simple thing about peacefully interacting with other peoples.
Humans and elves and honestly pretty much everyone were afraid of fire. Or at least afraid of fire that wasn't strictly regulated by a human, elf, and/or some other elf-shaped creature. It made them panic, and there were a whole lot of them here moving around unpredictably, so a bit of impromptu incendiary skywriting would probably be a rather poor choice even if the girl couldn't otherwise understand his point. She'd have to settle for not understanding. Or maybe she did understand birdsong? She did seem pretty bird-like after all.
The announcements from the stage did draw some of his attention though, even if he couldn't see from his new perspective of the ground. Such strange names these humans had. How exactly did one earn the name Dragon-Lancer? This person was simply a student here, not a fierce warrior who had slain so many dragons that he became known for it, right? Or maybe humans were more impressive than he had assumed despite their strange and nonsensical anatomy. They couldn't even change shape like an Anima-Iht, how could they have hoped to keep pace after all.
And then the youth called him to the stage. This was utterly unexpected. Mostly because he hadn't been aware that this was even a position at play. Sure, it was fine that the humans were blind to his light, but that's because humans were easily blinded when looking at the sun, so of course they hadn't immediately put him on top of the heap. But this Dragon-Lancer had been able to look close enough to put him near the top, where he of course belonged, yes, but he had expected it would take more time for their eyes to adjust to see the truth.
He looked to Leihra, before turning around and extending his wings upwards, an act that would likely catch the attention of anyone who wasn't a six-and-a-half-foot tall giantess standing up to her full height, as his wingtips stretched out to almost the height of a human being, before he flicked them down, launching himself into the air and restarting his flight on to wherever the stage was. It took a few more flaps to get properly going, but that first one had to be slow on the upstroke just to ensure people understood the message and got out of the way.
That platform there looked like a stage. It certainly shone like a stage would. And it had only a few people on it, as opposed to the mass that covered the grounds around it. It would take a bit of maneuvering and time spent just getting to the place, but nonetheless he did fly over to the stage and made a much more graceful landing this time as he aimed for the ground from the start instead of making that decision half a second before impact.
On the other hand, 'more graceful' meant in this case that he swooped in, left a set of scores on the stage as his talons met the nice and presumably polished-to-perfection surface, and initially facing away from the crowd. Though that last part was on purpose, as it let him waddle around on those selfsame talons—with just as much care for the surface now as when he landed—and show off every side of his body after landing. It all would have likely been impressive if he hadn't flown so far uninterrupted and crashed into the ground less than 5 minutes prior, as his feathers, to be as gentle as possible, were in complete disarray, with a couple visibly sticking out on his head.
Not that he was that concerned, really. He preened for himself, after all. Everyone else was meant to recognize just how bright he shined without such trivialities.
It certainly wasn't a very good answer to a proper introduction but he'd been warned time and time again one simple thing about peacefully interacting with other peoples.
Humans and elves and honestly pretty much everyone were afraid of fire. Or at least afraid of fire that wasn't strictly regulated by a human, elf, and/or some other elf-shaped creature. It made them panic, and there were a whole lot of them here moving around unpredictably, so a bit of impromptu incendiary skywriting would probably be a rather poor choice even if the girl couldn't otherwise understand his point. She'd have to settle for not understanding. Or maybe she did understand birdsong? She did seem pretty bird-like after all.
The announcements from the stage did draw some of his attention though, even if he couldn't see from his new perspective of the ground. Such strange names these humans had. How exactly did one earn the name Dragon-Lancer? This person was simply a student here, not a fierce warrior who had slain so many dragons that he became known for it, right? Or maybe humans were more impressive than he had assumed despite their strange and nonsensical anatomy. They couldn't even change shape like an Anima-Iht, how could they have hoped to keep pace after all.
And then the youth called him to the stage. This was utterly unexpected. Mostly because he hadn't been aware that this was even a position at play. Sure, it was fine that the humans were blind to his light, but that's because humans were easily blinded when looking at the sun, so of course they hadn't immediately put him on top of the heap. But this Dragon-Lancer had been able to look close enough to put him near the top, where he of course belonged, yes, but he had expected it would take more time for their eyes to adjust to see the truth.
He looked to Leihra, before turning around and extending his wings upwards, an act that would likely catch the attention of anyone who wasn't a six-and-a-half-foot tall giantess standing up to her full height, as his wingtips stretched out to almost the height of a human being, before he flicked them down, launching himself into the air and restarting his flight on to wherever the stage was. It took a few more flaps to get properly going, but that first one had to be slow on the upstroke just to ensure people understood the message and got out of the way.
That platform there looked like a stage. It certainly shone like a stage would. And it had only a few people on it, as opposed to the mass that covered the grounds around it. It would take a bit of maneuvering and time spent just getting to the place, but nonetheless he did fly over to the stage and made a much more graceful landing this time as he aimed for the ground from the start instead of making that decision half a second before impact.
On the other hand, 'more graceful' meant in this case that he swooped in, left a set of scores on the stage as his talons met the nice and presumably polished-to-perfection surface, and initially facing away from the crowd. Though that last part was on purpose, as it let him waddle around on those selfsame talons—with just as much care for the surface now as when he landed—and show off every side of his body after landing. It all would have likely been impressive if he hadn't flown so far uninterrupted and crashed into the ground less than 5 minutes prior, as his feathers, to be as gentle as possible, were in complete disarray, with a couple visibly sticking out on his head.
Not that he was that concerned, really. He preened for himself, after all. Everyone else was meant to recognize just how bright he shined without such trivialities.