Now that was a sentiment she knew all too well. She couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle as she accepted the outstretched hand.
“Rani. All right. I’ll remember that.”
Both the name itself, and the connotations it carried, if she remembered her vocabulary correctly.
Cautiously placing her boots and taking a deep breath, she paced her way up the extended wing and onto Rhiannon’s back.
It… wasn’t so bad, she reflected, settling herself behind the mechanical steed’s primary rider and checking the placement of her feet.
She’d ridden horses before, after all, delivering messages to other Resistance cells. How much difficult would one made of metal be?
“No need to commit it to memory... I’m sure you’ll be hearing it quite a lot the closer we get to the Capitol...” People were so quick to offer deference and respect to the queen as she moved through the world, these ‘escapes’ into the wilds were often for the sake of her own humility as it was her rational thought.
It took a bit, of course it did, it would always be quite the experience mounting one’s first mechanical steed. For Zelda- Her first time was less hesitant and more. . . explorative, but- Well, the grand experience was the point, the details of the experiment were subjective. “Feel free to grab hold of one of the sails, if things become too rough for you.”
She liked to say she’d take things slow for first time riders, but- Somewhere... Somewhere deep within the wise, aged queen, lay a giddy little princess that recalled days on days of rigorous and unpleasant training at the hands of She who currently sat behind her. Going slow was not in the cards today.
“HYAH!” A crack of the reins as Zelda called on the words- yawps -of her fated ancestor. Rhiannon, needing no further prodding, took off at a full gallop toward Castle Town. Each step like thunder beneath her hooves as she charged, Zelda leaning into the wind with a smile on her face. Counting the seconds, simply counting them as the winds whipped and wrapped themselves around Rhiannon’s extending sails. From 1 to 10 to 20 and- Finally?
A press of her palm to the green jewel on Rhiannon’s neck, the old girl simply... took to the sky. The shock of a consistent gallop was slowly replaced with the feel of wind buffeting at separate altitudes, the feel of an earth slipping away beneath one’s feet. Serenity, earned in the sky. Zelda laughed as Rhiannon leveled out, the feeling never failing to bring delight out of her. So much so- Well, she’d almost forgotten to check on her dear, honored guest.