Chapter Text
Knocking.
That is all Dain heard. It was quick but not urgent.
Another knock.
He crossed the room in his sleep shirt and pants. When he opened the door, Sloane stood there wrapped in her winter flight gear, hair in a long braid, eyes too awake for the hour.
“Hi.” Her voice bright with the smile to match.
It had been a couple days since he gave her and Imogen the day off. A couple of days since he felt a possible spark of interest from her. Though granted she was more than a little tipsy at the time. The small smiles, the giggles that sent him to the moon and the light blush on her cheeks and the way she looked at him with those blue doe eyes.
“Hi.” Dain spoke softly, not wanting to make a wrong move.
“I want to learn a running landing.” Sloane blurted out. Dain couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, the first years hadn’t had much flight practice since arriving in Aretia, let alone learnt any specific moves, running landings was a second year skill.
Before Dain could respond, Sloane was talking again. “It’s technically within the rules.” She lifted a hand, gesturing to them. “Two riders. Not during class hours. Not a scheduled lesson. Just training.”
Dain smiled. He liked when she came to him for help, like that she wanted his help. “Let me get dressed.” He went to step back into his room, but Sloane followed without him having time to invite her in or not. “Please come in.”
Dain went to grab his clothes from the armoire. “Want to tell me what this is about?”
“To learn a running landing.” She sat on the edge of his bed watching him.
“Why now? You’ve had exactly three flight lessons since we arrived. And running Landings aren’t something you learn till next year.”
“Next year isn’t guaranteed. Plus… You will have graduated next year.”
Dain’s eyes softened at the confession. “Okay. We’ll go flying and assess your skills first.”
Sloane’s face lit up. “Deal.”
They walked out of Riorson house silently.
‘Are you up for flying this morning?’
‘I have already been summoned and am waiting for your arrival.’
Dain couldn’t help but laugh, shaking his head. “You already woke Cath up?”
Sloane looked over her shoulder with her eyebrow raised “How else were you supposed to teach me?”
Dain couldn’t hide his smile as they walked across the grass.
“When did you start sleeping with a shirt on?”
“When first years continue to knock on my door at three am.”
She grinned at that, as though barging into his room at an ungodly hour had become the most natural thing in the world. “Guess I’ll have to test that theory again sometime.”
Dain couldn’t help but smile. If Sloane deemed him worthy of being woken up every day at 3am by her, he would feel honoured and start going to sleep earlier. “I look forward it.”
A blush rose to her cheeks, though she quickly turned away, blonde braid swinging against her back.
By the time they crossed the training fields, the torches along the perimeter had burned low, their glow hardly touching the frost that silvered the grass. The whole valley felt hushed, like the world itself was still asleep.
Two reds were stood tall, waiting for them at the top of the valley. Steam curled from Cath’s nostrils as he lowered her head, golden eyes narrowing at Sloane. Thoirt stood next to him, at about three quarters of the size, he couldn’t help note the similarities between her and her rider.
“Hi!” Sloane smiled brightly up at Cath waiving to him. He huffed steam over her head and lowered his in greeting.
Dain crossed his arms, glancing from his dragon to rider. “Right. We will take it easy. I need to see how fly first, no running landings until I know exactly what you can do in the air. Understand?”
“Yes, Wingleader.” She gave him a mock salute, grin tugging at her mouth.
Dain bit back a smile. Gods, she was impossible. And yet there was something about the silver fire in her eyes, even at three in the morning, that made him want to meet her halfway instead of shutting her down.
“How’s your shoulder?”
“Perfect.” She grinned swinging her arms with no resistance. “I had a good healer.”
He gestured toward Thoirt. “Mount up. You’re going to lead, three circles around the house, two climbs, and a one fast drop. Clean and controlled. No theatrics.”
Sloane ran up Thoirt’s leg, taking her seat. “And if I pass?”
“Then we’ll talk.”
Her smile turned dangerous.
Dain mounted up. “When you’re ready Mairi.”
Thoirt launched first, a spray of frost scattering from her talons as her wings caught the heavy air. Cath followed a heartbeat later.
Dain leaned into Cath, letting him find the rhythm as his eyes tracked Sloane. She sat forward, posture tight but not stiff, hands light on the ridge.
‘Watch her shoulder’ Cath noted, amused. ‘She’s braced for failure when Thoirt is not.’
‘She’ll have to learn to trust the balance.’ Dain muttered, though he didn’t miss the way Sloane adjusted with Thoirt’s first bank. Not perfect, but fluid, instinctive.
They circled once, twice over the valley, the hush of Aretia beneath them. The air was sharp with cold, but Sloane never faltered, eyes forward, body moving with her dragon. By the third loop, Dain could see her breathing settle into the rhythm of flight, steadier, more secure.
Thoirt’s wings hammered as she rose, cutting into the thinning air. Sloane leaned low against her neck, her braid whipping across her back. She didn’t fight the drag, she let it take her weight, trusting her dragon’s power to pull them up.
The followed, and once they were all at the peak.
Thoirt pivoted, her timing was sharper. Her heels pressed just enough to anchor, her body folding forward in harmony with Thoirt’s lunge. The dragon’s growl of satisfaction carried even through the rush of wind. As they dove towards the ground.
For a breath, Sloane was late, her body a fraction behind Thoirt’s movements, but then she bent with it, back flat as the wind screamed over them, faster and faster, until they levelled.
Thoirt pulled out in a clean arc, snow trailing from her wing edges. Sloane sat high again, flushed, eyes bright even from this distance. She gave a small nod down to him, proving she could do it.
Dain exhaled slowly. “Not bad.” he called across the gap.
“Not bad?” Her voice carried, incredulous, and it nearly pulled a laugh out of him.
“Land. Show me control.”
Thoirt banked low, wings cupping the night air as she descended. Sloane kept her weight centred, her hands steady, only shifting when their controlled touch down on the ground. No stumble. No jerk. Just a clean landing.
Cath landed behind them, wings folding tight. Dain slid down, boots crunching against the frost, and crossed the field toward her. She had dismounted as well, flight goggles now pushed to her forehead as her bright eyes followed Dain.
“You’re strong in the climbs.” he said, voice measured, “You don’t panic in a drop. That’s good.” He gave her a long look. “But a running landing isn’t about bravery. It’s about timing. You miss it by half a heartbeat, and you’ll break your legs before you finish your stride.”
“I won’t miss. I can do it. Just give me one chance.”
Dain crossed his arms. “Have you ever stood up on Thoirt while in the air?”
Sloane’s eyes flicked down then back to him. “No…”
“Then you’re not starting with a running landing.” Dain said, gentle but immovable. He tipped his chin toward Thoirt’s shoulder. “First drill. Kneel while gliding, then if balanced move to standing. Knees soft. Eyes on the horizon. You move with her, never against.”
Sloane opened her mouth to argue, shut it, and nodded once. “Fine. Drill me.”
“I’ll watch from here. Stay low and slow. Do not move to kneeling until you are gliding.” Dain moved closer to Sloane. “You want one leg slightly in front of the other for balance.” He lightly tapped her right thigh, she moved it forward. “Good, now slightly bend tour knees and tilt you’re hips.” She did as instructed though didn’t quite align her hips properly. Dain moved behind her to lightly position her hips. “There. Now in this position you will be able to balance on both the straights and the turns. Though no turning today, when you eventually do, you want to rotate your hips ever so to allow for the movement to glide.” He used his hands, still on her hips to twist her ever so.
“Ready?”
Sloane let her a breath but nodded. “Ready.”
They launched low this time, Thoirt holding a smooth, floating glide that skated the frosted grass by arm’s length. Dain stayed on the grass, calling up cues.
“Up on two. One, two. Good! Heels under you. Don’t lock your knees.”
Sloane rose. For a heartbeat she looked carved from glass, balanced and exquisite.
Dain pulled the conduit out of his pocket, something about being around Sloane just made his body buzz, the magic swirled within him. He held it in his hand, allowing the flow of magic through as he kept his eyes on her.
Once she seemed balanced Dain called out. “To your feet!” Sloane looked back to him then looked ahead, moving from one foot then to the other, her knees found the rhythm of the wingbeats, and she softened, shoulders dropping, breath syncing to Thoirt’s.
“Eyes forward,” Dain called. “Horizon, not her neck. Count her beats. One… Two… Three…”
Sloane wobbled, but caught herself with a curse, then laughed. Dain’s heart stopped while she balanced out herself. Holding steady. She held the position Dain had showed her, strong and confident.
They went through this multiple times. Moving from sitting, to kneeled, crouched then standing. By the fourth pass, she was standing clean and balanced cheeks bright with the cold wind and the morning sun beginning to shine off her.
Dain had stopped instructing her and just let her go through the movements. His eyes never left Sloane’s ethereal form as she flew through the sky.
Cath’s voice slid across his mind, warm as embers. ‘You will not always be here when she knocks.’
'I know,' Dain said, breath misting. He lifted his face to the pale sky. 'So I’ll be here when I can.'
Once Thoirt deemed it time to land, he was sure Sloane didn’t want to come down any time soon. He walked over to where she slid off Thoirt’s back.
“Well?”
“Better.”
“Don’t you mean, ‘incredible, fantastic, best first year ever to exist’?” she said, breathless, eyes alight.
“Don’t get greedy.” He warned. “You’re good Mairi, quite the natural.”
She smiled and pointed to his hand. “What is that?”
Dain held up the conduit. “Alloy.”
Sloane nodded. “But why do you have it?”
“I’m imbuing it for Felix. We can never have enough.” Dain popped the alloy out of the conduit held it out for her. “Want to feel it? It is almost full.”
Sloane hesitated before plucking it from his hand and rolling it around hers. “It is… singing?”
Dain frowned. “Singing?”
“Yeh… but not, not vocally. But I can feel it, singing.” Dain arched an eyebrow as he watched Sloane inspect it. “It is almost angelic.”
He sort of understood what she meant, when imbued it had a distinctive hum to it, but he wasn’t sure if he would describe it as ‘singing’ or ‘angelic’.
Dain watched as Sloane continued to be mesmerised by the object in her hand, squeezing it, rolling it between her palms. He watched her for more than a few minutes, he didn’t want to pull her away too soon, didn’t want to pull her away at all.
Once Sloane looked up from the object in her hands, a little bit of a dazed look on her face. “It’s beautiful.” She whispered.
Dain nodded. “Would you like to keep that one? I have more.”
She looked down at her hands again “Won’t Felix miss it?”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s yours now.”
A soft smile spread across her face. “Thank you.”
Dain assessed Sloane again, she looked calm and relaxed, a sight he had only seen a handful of times. “We should head in and get cleaned up for the day.”
Sloane looked up, catching his eyes. “Can you show me a running landing?”
He thought for a moment, but he wasn’t getting much flight training himself and why not use the time he had. “I can… as long as you promise not to copy while I’m not around.”
“Promise.” She grinned.
And so, Dain mounted up
‘Shall we make it impressive?’ Cath asked as he launched.
‘No. She needs to learn the basics first.’
‘Or… does she need how good you are at it. See how difficult it is.’
Dain sighed. ‘Basics first.’
‘I disagree.’ And with that, it was all Dain got as warning before Cath did a back flip at the peak into a full nose spiral directly towards the ground.
‘Cath!’ Dain locked his thighs and held on, enduring the pressure.
‘You are a Wingleader. Prove your skills.’
Dain didn’t bother fighting and looked ahead, with the sliver of morning light, he could see through the spiral he could see the ground was getting closer, they would need to level out before he could move but he’d need to be ready.
In three breaths, he would need to be on Cath’s claw.
1
They got closer, Cath began to pivot.
2
Cath flattened out. Dain immediately jumped up. Stabilised himself and began sliding to Caths’s front claw.
3
Cath banked lower as Dain landed on the top of his claw.
He let out a shaky breath as Cath got lower. Almost skimming the valleys edge and Dain braced before jumping and running to avoid breaking anything and breaking his momentum. The floor before him was icy and slippery. He began to lose balance and quickly turned his body and feet 90° as his boots slid the last few feet of icy grass. Keeping him up right and stable.
When Dain looked up, he realised he was almost perfectly stopped in front of Sloane who was just staring at him.
He cocked an eyebrow at her, as if his pulse wasn’t still rattling from Cath’s stunt.
‘You’re welcome.’ Cath chuffed.
“That…” She pointed at him accusatory. “Was not a running landing.”
Dain crossed his arms across his chest. “It was. Just not the kind I want you attempting.”
Sloane huffed. “You’re peacocking.”
Dain laughed “I’m what?”
“You’re peacocking,” she repeated, lips curling into a smirk. “All this don’t do as I do, do as I say nonsense, then you go flipping through the air and sprint across ice like you’re…” She eyed him up and suddenly Dain felt as though he was stripped naked. “Trying to impress me.”
Dain took a breath in. If he was being honest the only reason, he agreed to do the running landing at all was to impress her, but he would have preferred to be less obvious.
‘You’re welcome.’
He took a step closer to her “You asked me to show you a running landing. That’s what I did.”
Sloane huffed hands on her hips “I did not ask you to do the rest.”
“No?” He took another step closer. “Were you impressed?”
Her lips parted, then snapped shut again. Colour flared high on her cheeks, bright against the blue morning light. “That’s not the point.”
“It sounds like the point.” Dain’s voice had dropped, softer now, but threaded with something warmer. He tilted his head, studying her face, the lose strands of hair that framed her face, the way her eyes glowed and the light blue in the sky almost a perfect colour match. Her perfect lips, deep pink from the wind. “Admit it. You were impressed.”
She faltered, breath catching, “You’re insufferable.”
He took another step, closing the last of the distance between them. Arms dropped by his side, not touching, but close enough that he could feel the heat of her against the frost still clinging to his leathers. “And yet.” he murmured, “You came knocking on my door at three in the morning.”
Her flush deepened, her lips twitching “That was for training.”
“Mm,” he hummed, leaning in just enough for his breath to brush her ear. “Of course it was.”
Sloane gasped as he lifted his right hand to caress up her relic till his flingers gently tucked a few lose strands of hair behind her ear. He couldn’t ignore how inappropriate it was, but he wanted to do so much more.
He leant back, looking into her perfect blue eyes. Sloane wasn’t drunk, she showed up at his door and right now, she was looking at him like he was the most important thing in the world.
His hand came to the back on her head, snaking into her hair as he tilted her head slightly, her intoxicating gaze never leaving his. As his left hand lifted to her waist. “Sloane, tell me-” Before he could finish the sentence Cath was in his head. ‘Incoming patrol riot.’
Dain immediately shifted back a pace, arms folding over his chest like nothing had happened. He neutralised his expression and looked above as multiple dragons flew above them.
It was only then did he notice how high the sun had made it in the sky. The night patrol returned at 6am which meant the rest of the house would be waking up as well.
When he looked back to Sloane, she was blinking hard, dragging air into her lungs as though the cold would cool her cheeks. She pulled her braid over one shoulder, squaring herself with all the defiance she could muster. He took a moment to study her again, taking in each of her features before he had to be her Wingleader again. Dain had an overwhelming feeling of guilt. She had come to him as her Wingleader for help flying, not to flirt with her and break every boundary that was in place.
“You should get going to breakfast.”
Sloane nodded a little too quickly. “Right. Breakfast.” Her voice came out thin.
Dain cleared his throat. “You did well,” he said, professional now. “On the drills.”
Sloane’s mouth twitched. “You too. On the… peacocking.”
Another pair of dragons skimmed the ridge and vanished toward the eyries. Voices drifted up the slope as a few riders spotted them and lifted hands in greeting. Dain returned a curt nod. They needed to get out of here.
Once the riders had passed, Dain nodded towards the house.
Sloane understood imminently and ran over to Thoirt to give her snout a hug goodbye but it was when Cath lowered her level did Sloane didn’t hesitate to give him a hug goodbye as well.
‘Big softly.’
‘At least I made a move.’
Sloane jogged back over to him as they began making their way back to the house, well fortress.
They walked in what Dain hoped was a comfortable silence for them both.
“Can I-” Sloane blurt out before the words came out softer. “Can we… do this again? Not the spiral death drop,” a quick, breathy laugh, “But the flying?”
Dain caught her eye and smiled. “We can.”
“Three am?”
He chuckled “I’ll keep wearing a shirt to bed.”
They walked in what most definitely was a comfortable silence now. The back of his knuckles gently brushing over hers every few steps. She didn’t pull away, if anything Dain was sure she was contributing the slight touches.
As they made it to the courtyard, Dain was going to head in a different direction to avoid any questions when Sloane spoke. “For the record.” A flush rose up on her cheeks “I was impressed.”
His answer was almost a smile. “Duly noted.”