in which Remedy attempts flight.

She'd climbed as high as she could muster, to the top of the tallest ledge in Canis- or at least, the tallest she could reach by paw. The cub stood, overlooking the cave laid out before her, beneath her. I could get used to this sorta view. Her mouth curled into a smile where the keratin became flesh. Yes, this was a marvelous sight to take in. She turned away, so not to spoil it, and checked her wings again. Every flight feather was fully grown now. She felt no more itchy growth and had plucked the final plumes of baby down away the night before. She felt clean, and light, and ready. Yes, this would be it. She'd fly today. Nothing could stop her.

Adjusting her footing, Remedy didn't look down. She looked across at another ledge, just a few feet lower, and aimed for it. She backed up a few paces, lashed her tail to straighten its position, rocked her weight side to side, then with a deep breath...

She sprinted for the edge. One set, two, three, JUMP!

She launched herself from the ledge and spread her wings, taking only a moment to swing them downwards and force the air underneath to carry her up. Oh, up! She was flying! She was doing it! She was--

--flapping, really, really hard. She pumped her wings a few more times, then to her delight, found a draft circling the chambers. It carried her higher and off-course, but she adjusted, and that natural instinct kicked in. Every feather meant something. Ever little movement, every adjustment, made a huge difference. Oh, but it was hard work! She couldn't rely on the gentle breeze to keep her airborne, only help guide her alone. Her inexperienced wings did all the hard work, and slowly, she found herself losing altitude. Rem circled back around toward the clearer space of the main area...

...and then she realized a vital miscalculation.

"How the hell do I land!?"

With a louder, more intense keening sound already playing in her throat (she'd come to call it her distress cry as of late), Remedy pulled herself upright and thrusted her wings forward. She over-extended herself, and rolled backwards into a flip. Adjusting, she found her center of gravity- thank you, cat half!- and without so much as a lost feather, landed easily on all four paws, a few feet from where she might've crashed. With a gasp, she tried to comprehend what had just happened.

I flew. Her mind repeated like a mantra. I flew. I flew. I've flown! I was flying! I flew! I was- She craned her head back to look up, tracing her descent pattern by memory. I FLEW!

"HOLY SHIT I DID IT!" She shrieked, jumping up into the air and twisting in her excitement. "Uncle 'Zazel! Kerberos! Bones! Rixy! Holy shi- I ACTUALLY DID IT!" There were honest tears of elation pooling in her eyes as she whirled around, hunting the cave's surroundings for any signs of her friends. "AND DID YOU SEE MY LANDING HOLY SHIT!" A little too excited maybe. Such language from such a young beak!

Definitely her father's child.

Okay now it's open to anyone. :>

Liora had been drawn to the curious affair of the half-breed's attempt to fly by the immense racket she made while airborne. It wasn't easy to ignore, she'd have to admit. Nestled on the perch she had somewhat appropriated from her larger father while he was busy with his other duties, Liora had been trying to catch some shut-eye while everybody else was off doing whoever knows what. Her head had tucked under her wing, eyes closed, she was drifting in and out of consciousness when the scrabbling of claws against rock had attracted her attention and roused her from slumber. And then a childish voice touched the air, followed by a loud distress whine. Agitated by the noise, Liora withdrew her head and blearily scanned the stale air of the cave, only to see what looked first like a black blot fluttering in the air.

She narrowed her eyes, confused. This didn't look like any bird she'd ever seen. It was wayyy too big. Sure, there were big birds in the cave. Aza'zel was one of the biggest birds she knew. And Raik'Zik was pretty big too. Her other father, Krakarak, was by comparison rather small. So what the hell was this? Liora blinked the sleep out of her gaze and focused on it, but by the time she had identified the thing, it had noisily landed somewhere below and was loudly calling out to other Gembounds. By listening, Liora slowly gathered that the newcomer (relatively speaking) must have been trying to fly. And, without a doubt, Liora felt the undeniable need to quell her pride by reminding her that she was the best at literally everything.

Besides, what right did this trespasser have to be good at something?! This was Liora's turf!

With a decisive grunt, Liora unraveled herself and stretched her wings. Then she lunged forward, one, two steps, and spread her wings. By two cycles, the expanse of her wingspan was already heavily implied. Once she was fully grown, she'd be just barely smaller than Aza'zel - she'd likely resemble an ominous vulture from a distance, a shadow circling overhead. The hybrid soared over to where the feline-bird had landed, predatory white eyes flashing amusement. "You call that flying?" Liora crowed out from above, careening around the Karkata. "Liora could do that with her eyes closed! KRAKAWARWAAAWA!" She cackled and, to rub salt in the wounds, did just that. Her gleaming beak parted, suspended in laughter as she squeezed her eyes shut and pitched to the left, soaring a lofty circle above the catbird.

A horrid voice screeched above her and pinning back her ears, Remedy looked up, twisting that long neck at an awkward angle to spy the black bird at it circled her. Oh, this was a familiar shape! Like a mini Azazel, but all black like her Pa. The only color was on the bird's face, where it bore a purple crystal beak and bright, red-ringed white eyes. She would've thought the other hybrid pretty, if not for the cackling remarks it taunted down at her. Oh, really? The birds eyes shut and Remedy acted without any real forethought. She leaped upwards...

...and with that feline grace and a mighty flap of her wings, she reached up with her talons and wrapped them both around one of Liora's.

"Yeah, well you're grounded!" She screeched mid-jump, as she grabbed hold.

Gravity would do the rest, and she'd keep as firm a grip as she could- it wasn't what she'd been going for. She'd aimed to wrap her talons around the other bird's midsection, bring her down full force- but this would simply have to do.

@Liora

Really, it served her damn right for flying around with her eyes closed. If she hadn't crashed into a wall or accidentally dive bombed the ground, then it would be the Gembound she taunted below that would take her out. Before she even knew what had happened, there was a sudden weight on one of her taloned feet. Liora's eyes wrenched open, her beak still cracked open, but this time in alarm. Wait. This wasn't fair! The catbird hadn't said anything to her in response to her arrogant words, gave no warning that she was lunging until it was too late - no no, this wasn't how it was supposed to go! Liora was in charge! Liora was going to the King! Why was she attacking her?

Yet, there was nothing else Liora could do but suddenly go down. She bent her head down to look at the critter dragging her hellbound; the catbird wasn't all that big, maybe about as big as Aza'zel, but she was a lot damn heavier. And that weight was more than enough to take her out of the air. She began sinking and, in her panic, started to frantically beat her wings in an attempt to escape. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LET ME GO YOU DIRTY FREAK- KRAK!" Liora cawed loudly, half hoping that her desperate cries would alert one of her fathers to the hybrid's dirty games. She flapped furiously and raked her free foot at the catbird's face, sharp, curved talons aiming for the junction of her beak and face, or her eyes - whichever she was fortunate enough to hit.

Round 1/5?
Attacks: Clawing at Remedy's face with her free foot
Defense: None
Injuries: Strained muscle in her other leg??

@Remedy

It was working! The black bird sank lower and lower, beating her wings furiously to keep airborne. Remedy worked her wings to try and tip the scales in her favor, sending herself backwards against the other bird's attempts to lift. Then came the kicking talons, and Remedy was in for it.

She felt a shredding pain across her forehead, feathers fell away in bloody tufts. Pain like fire. She reeled, but held firm.

"Hey, STOP!" She screeched, lunging with her toothy beak to bite at the offending foot--

--and felt a scaly appendage clamp firmly between her teeth a second later. Her canines framed the joint, dangerously pointy but rounded, meant for piercing. The only danger was keeping aloft. Remedy kept her hold as best she could and began to twist her body, throwing her weight about. She didn't know precisely what she was doing, but she had every intention of dragging this stupid black menace to the ground!

See how well she flew without her primaries! Yeah, that seemed fitting.

Round: 1/5
Attacks: Biting at Liora's free foot to keep it in place.
Defense: Thrashing about to avoid further hits and drag her lower.
Injuries: Dual slashes across face, above her eyes.

@Liora

When she felt flesh part between her talons, Liora was met with an odd satisfaction that only the incredibly arrogant and considerably fucked up would find. She saw a flurry of feathers suddenly fly free from the hybrid's face and relished the screeching of the catbird below, only to just as quickly feel a searing pain through her thin, graceful leg - the free one, the one she'd been using to claw at the catbird, and now the one that was also incapacitated. With both of her legs captured by the catbird, Liora's only remaining appendages were her heavily beating wings, struggling to keep her aloft while the hybrid dragged her down. And even those were growing tired, desperate not to fall.

She made up her mind. "FINE!" Liora cawed, turning her vicious white eyes to the catbird. "You wanna go down? Lets go down!" The black lammeraven trilled. It was an incredibly risky move, but nobody ever said that Liora was careful. In fact, it was widely speculated around here that Liora completely lacked any shred of self preservation. Folding her wings in and tucking her head against her chest, she suddenly allowed the entirety of her weight to fall into the catbird, hoping that she would send them both plummeting to the ground. If she calculated this correctly, then maybe the catbird's plump body would serve to cushion her fall.

...Except, at some point, something had obviously gone terribly wrong. Liora was probably going to fall right on her head. What a dummy!

Round 2/5
Attacks: Folding wings in and falling on top of Remedy
Defenses: Wings folded in, head tucked (to protect her face and hopefully minimize any falling damage?)
Injuries: BOTH her legs hurt now!! wtf!!!

@Remedy (i edited my post to account for the failure,,, feel free to get creative with it lmao)

"FINE!" Came the heralding of bad news. "You wanna go down? Lets go down!" Suddenly, they were plummeting. Remedy twisted, reaching up with one talon to try and grab a hold of Liora before they hit the ground- her own wings stretching and twisting to try and flip them around, so she'd land on tip, Liora beneath her claws...

...but through sleek feathers, her talons slipped and down they went together, a tangle of angry feathers and claws. A millisecond before she touched ground, Remedy took a very brief moment of sick pleasure in seeing her foe land with her- side by side. Then, pain and a sudden halt. Her world exploded into sparks, breath forced from her lungs with the impact. She didn't roll this time. She simply collapsed, shoulder bruised and wing flattened across the ground at an awkward angle- at least nothing was broken.

She struggled to right herself, that keening sound humming from her throat again, louder, angrier.

"DAMN BLACK BIRD! WHY ARE YOU BEING MEAN TO ME!?" She screeched, the moment she caught her breath again. She'd spend the next moment bracing- certain the fight wasn't over, just becaues they'd hit the ground...

Round: 2/5
Attacks: Twisting Liora to try and bring her down first- failed, so side by side landing?
Defenses: Righting herself as she speaks, braced for more.
Injuries: Bruised shoulder and hip (right side), claw marks across face.

@Liora

(This is a bit of a shitpost, forgive me)

Down they both went; as Liora tried to throw her weight into the catbird, it seemed the catbird's strangely cat-like reflexes had allowed her to avoid the lammeraven's bulk for the most part. But falling, Liora couldn't quite orient herself like she'd wanted. It was harder when gravity was suddenly pulling you down to hell and she was hardly skilled enough to pull off the aerial acrobatics she'd seen her fathers perform. She briefly withdrew her head to see the catbird avoid her attack, and she had every urge to try and strike one more time while they fell side by side, but the ground was coming up fast. Out of instinct, she tucked her head again.

They both hit the ground with a heavy WHUMP, and Liora bounced and rolled a couple feet away, her light and feathery body more a pillow than a rock. Her neck ached, but thankfully she didn't feel anything broken either. Quickly as she could, Liora wheezed and scrambled back to her feet, flapping her wings indignantly. "MEAN?! I'M NOT MEAN! YOU'RE MEAN! YOU GRABBED LIORA!!!" She shrieked furiously. How dare this filthy trespasser accuse her of being mean - she started it!! With an angry craw, Liora beat her wings again in an attempt to churn up some dust from the ground, hopefully she could blind the catbird.

Round 3/5
Attacks: Liora takes to the air and tries to swirl up some dust??
Defenses: n/a
Injuries: sore everything!!! My hot bod!!!

Remedy got back to her feet as the other bird did, and the two faced off. The white-eyed bone princess crowed at her, flexing her wings and creating a small whirlwind of dust. Remedy didn't waste a second. She was new here, but she was nobody's punching bag.

"You were mocking me, and you clawed my face!" She shrilled, lunging forward again, above the dust as it stirred up, her own wings pumping to carry her faster, further...

...and aim true, she'd barrel towards and into the other bird, to knock her over, to pin her down. She felt feathers criss-crossing with her own and clenched her eyes shut, wary of those longer, hooked talons. Her own were needles by comparison, flexing to try and pin the other bird with unfriendly force. She wasn't even certain what had offended her anymore- now she just wanted to win. This big bird was mean, obviously a villain like the kind her Pa and Mara were out fighting, the kind that took Cure- she wouldn't let anything like that happen again! She wouldn't be a coward!

Round: 3/5
Attacks: Tackle! (and hopefully pin)
Defense: Head's ducked, eyes are clenched shut.
Injuries: Scratches on face, Bruised shoulder and Hip

@Liora