Claus really needed to find a new place to practice… The thought arose again and again over the course of his different visits to the forest. Each and every one was accompanied by an audience, a gaggle of pixies who found his presence interesting or perhaps simply wanted to see how he floundered today. That alone was enough to make him want to leave, the multiple sets of eyes watching his every move was enough to make his skin crawl with discomfort. Sadly, it wasn’t even the worst part.
No, the worst truly was how badly the pixies wanted entertainment from him. Claus had begun to learn what they liked, what they found fascinating, and what they found to be a horrible drag.
Today was the latter most option.
Claus had wanted to test the limits of his PSI. It’d been interesting to him, a small collection of items he’d found about the forest to see just what he could or couldn’t lift with his psychokinesis and for how long. At first the pixies had found his struggles to be worth their while. His exasperation over his own shortcomings seemed to be hilarious to them if their laughter when he’d kicked the branch he’d been unable to lift meant anything.
Straying back into familiar territory had been where their patience ended.
The lack of excitement or reaction must have been boring, because the little group began to make sounds Claus could only compare to booing.
At first he’d tried to ignore them, but as they grew louder and louder, refusing to leave and instead patronize him, his own patience began to waver. He wasn’t here to be their play thing or clown, he was here to train safely away from everyone so no one would get hurt! Couldn’t they understand that!? Couldn’t they leave him alone after the countless times he’d asked them!?
Enough had been enough. And with a grit to his teeth Claus chucked the pinecone he’d been levitating as hard and fast as his mind would allow.
“THERE! Is that what you wanted!?”
He barked at the group, a few small gasps escaping them. For the briefest millisecond, Claus almost felt proud of himself. Shortly before it all came crashing down at the sound of an animal’s screech and a distressed voice.
Claus’s heart dropped.
“Oh no-“
Forgetting the audience he darted in the direction he’d launched the pinecone, panic already bubbling up inside his chest. Shoot shoot shoot shoot- What was someone doing out here at this hour!? Had he hit an animal? A person? Both?
It didn’t take long for him to find the source of the cry. At least, he assumed it to be the source. A boy was standing there and was the first person he’d found in this direction. If anyone had gotten hit…
“A-Are you alright!?”
Any and all formalities were forgotten in the face of the burning concern he held for the one he’d now stumbled across.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t- I didn’t think-“
He took a step forward, about to try and get a closer look when he finally took notice of the creature flying near the unknown boy. Mismatched eyes went widened a bit at the sight of the creature.
Wait what was..?
» For most of their lives, Ratha had been the larger of the two of them. Hatchlings grow quickly-- they don't spend long as small as he is now, quickly maturing and growing. It had been a long time since most things other than other monsters had been of any sort of formidable size comparison.
So the distress as the tiny wyvern stops mid-air, flapping hard to catch himself, feels more than warranted. As does his quick about-face as soon as he gets his bearings back about him, flying quickly back to perch on Leo's shoulder, where he's found himself more often than not since the two of them work up here.
Two fingers come up to scritch under the wyvern's chin as he settles, wings ruffling a bit next to Leo's ear and tail wrapping around the back of his neck, the end twitching along his collarbone. It's at the same time that the sound of hurried footsteps reaches his ears.
"Oh!"
"He's fine- no injures or anything, just a little flustered. Don't worry." As if in protest, Ratha spits a tiny plume of black smoke as he grumbles-- any of the fire that had once been at his disposal had also seemed to be out of reach since being shrunk.
Somewhere off in the distance, a faint 'tut-tutting' can be heard from up above, as though to scold further than Leo had been. Eyebrows furrow as he glances upwards before bringing his attention back down to the boy in front of him.
"That's one heck of an arm you've got, though, to be throwing something that hard."
