Aerial Practice

[Adrian]

Adrian wondered if Richard realized that he was broadcasting his thoughts outloud. Jullian had given them a brief lesson on using thoughtspeak and making it private or public but sometimes habits were habits. When people were used to speaking to themselves it was hard to stop and thoughtspeak had no "volume." Unless it was restricted to specific people anyone in range heard it equally well.

Oh well, Richard would catch on eventually if Adrian kept avoiding his preplanned attacks. He waited until Richard dived and had committed himself to a specific direction before turning sharply to the left and up, flapping his wings for all he was worth to get a bit of attitude as Richard shot past and below him.

[Richard]

When Adrian dodged his move with ease, Richard figured that something was wrong. What had he done wrong? He thought back to what he did and thought to himself that everything had been planned perfectly. Then it hit him like a cannonball hits a pirate ship. He had been thoughtspeaking to everyone when he said his plan, so it was now obvious what had gone wrong. Richard had made a major error and probably cost himself a potential tag. He certainly didn't make it any harder on Adrian.

Richard slowed down by flapping repetitively as to lower his speed. He needed a new plan that would bring Adrian to him instead of the other way around. He looked to see how far he was from the floor, and tried to figure out whether or not he would survive a fall from this height. Richard's mind told him no, but there was no other choice but to do what he had in mind.

Richard stopped flapping and began to fall again. <<Oh crud. I'm overdid it again.>> Then he started flapping and then falling. He did this until he went plop on the ground. He laid there with his eyes partly open to see if Adrian would come down and check on him. Then he would tag him and flutter away as quickly as possible.

[Adrian]

Adrian worked for altitude and didn't notice Richard's predicament at first. When he did he craned his head around so that he could see the limp form of the bird and began to turn around. <<Hey, if you're hurt you should morph out,>> Adrian said. He'd managed to get pretty far away from Richard fleeing from his last attack so it was taking him a while to get back.

<<Are you gonna morph?>> Adrian asked, beginning to grow a little suspicious. They were animorphs after all. Even the worst fall could be healed by a quick demorph. So why wasn't Richard moving?

[Richard]

Richard just laid there wondering why Adrian had not come down to check on him. It was true that they could morph out if they suffered injuries, but what if a morpher were knocked unconscious or dazed or something. Richard figured that maybe he needed to do something that would encourage the idea that he was in serious trouble or something, but what. It was not like he could post a sign that said he was totally loco in his mind.

Then, a lightbulb lit up inside of his head. <<I don't want to go to school today. I want to stay home and play with my racing cars.>> Weird talking was always a sign of being messed up in the head, so maybe it would be enough to draw Adrian closer. Richard was smart enough to realize that he was not going to be able to outsmart Adrian in the air, so maybe on the ground he could pull it off.

[Adrian]

Adrian was doing his best to hover over Richard now which wasn't working all that well. Hovering was a fine concept in a sci-fi movie or when you were in a helicopter, but most birds could not hover and they certainly couldn't do it in dead air. He couldn't even circle very well. So when Richard started babbling Adrian didn't listen to his naturally skeptical nature and decided to give his wings a rest and go investigate.

It was all he could do not to crash into the ground since he was going so slowly and had almost stalled out. He did manage to land a few feet away from Richard though and began hopping over to him in true bird manner. <<Hey, Richard, you alright?>> he asked as he got closer.

[Richard]

Richard could make out the fact that Adrian was trying to land. This would be the only time that this type of maneuver would work, so he was going to have to do his best not to screw it up. He slowly got up so it looked like he was okay, but then began to wobble around as if he had just gotten off a carousel that had been put on super fast.

Then he began a conversation with himself that would help him succeed with what he wanted to do overall. <<No Bugs. It's rabbit season.>> He paused for a second before saying the next line. <<It's duck season.>> Another second <<Rabbit season.>> A few more seconds. <<Rabbit Season.>> Half a second. <<I said it's duck season. Fire>> On the word fire, Richard pushed his bird legs backward as if he had been shot, so that he was being propelled toward Adrian.

[Adrian]

Adrian instinctively flapped his wings and tried to get into the air when the other bird launched itself at him. His wings beat at the aggressor while his claws tried to do damage before he could even think of controlling the morph. He gave out an indignant caw before his beak snapped shut on some feathers while his wings continued to beat at the other bird.

Adrian tried to gain control of his morph but it was in full fight mode and its instincts were so much stronger than anything he was used to dealing with as a human being. As an animal instincts were all it had to go on and they wiped away his puny human reasoning that the other bird was Richard and a class mate. He cawed and clawed and beat as his feathers puffed out to make himself look bigger and more intimidating.

<<Stop! Stop!>> he yelled to Richard and to his own bird morph, trying to get it to calm down. He managed to hop away but his feathers were still puffed up and his wings were mantled as his mockingbird put its talented vocal cords to work scolding the other bird. <<What was that?>> Adrian asked, a little riled up.

[Richard]

Well the reaction Richard got to his move was not the one that he expected as Adrian took some of his feathers off with his beak, which hurt somewhat but Richard ignored it as Adrian or the bird mind was preparing for combat. This was not something that Richard had counted on having to do with this particular morph, so he just hopped back as Adrian went into berserk mode.

Obviously, this little game had led to something that Richard had been wondering. He figured that Adrian would come down to check on him, but he hadn't been sure on whether he would react to a target that seemed down and out coming at him with such speed. Now he knew that at least Adrian would defend himself to the best of his ability.

<<I guess you have never heard the expression 'Playing Opossum'?>> Richard didn't really wait for a response before continuing on with the explanation of what he had planned to do. <<I was trying to see if you would give up your height advantage to check and see if I was okay. I honestly didn't think that you would get that close. Sorry if it startled you.>>

[Adrian]

<<Yeah,>> Adrian grumbled. He hadn't been surprised by Richard's move as much as he'd been surprised by the mockingbird's reaction. He supposed that was the point of games like these, to put your morph into situations it might encounter out in the field. If that had happened when a controller had been trying to shoot him he would probably be dead. So he wasn't annoyed with Richard as much as he was annoyed with himself, but being annoyed in general did not inspire generosity or good loser behavior.

He shook himself and smoothed down his feathers with difficulty. He clipped his beak a few times to shake loose the feathers still stuck in it and hopped around just to ensure he had full control over his morph back. <<It's your turn,>> was all he offered Richard before hopping away and starting to count in open thoughtspeak. <<1, 2, 3, 4...>>

[Richard]

Richard could see that Adrian was slightly upset about what had happened, but he didn't think that it was for the same reason that Adrian did. He figured that Adrian didn't like being caught off guard in such a way from an ally, so Richard decided that such a move should not be done again until the two of them knew each other for a while longer as they were technically acquaintances at the moment.

Adrian reminded Richard that it was his turn to be the one chased. He started flapping his wings as Adrian began to count as he didn't know how long the counting phase was going to be, so it was best to get as high as he could in the time allotted. Richard didn't particularly like his bird morph as it wasn't really good at gaining altitude in dead air. He started wondering what it would be like to fly outside where it was warm.