DracoStryx Artemis, a comming of age story

Hatchling Artemis, control training

'Come on Moonlight, you can do it' she spoke softly, using the Tytos nickname. She only used it on special occasions. After some hesitation and looking up and down the tree once again, Artemis lifted one of her feet, wrapping it around the branch closest to the ground, locking her talons around the bark. She rose her body, her foot fully supporting her weight and wings spread out and her tail was erected for balance. Her next claw locked onto the next branch, rising her body up higher. Then another branch and another one. Artemis slowly climbed higher and higher as Scyleia rewarded her with each step. Soon the Tyto joined the Amazon on the same thick branch. Artemis started to get used to the feeling of bark underneath her feet, her pads giving enough grip to not slide too much. Scyleia moved around on the branch, showing the Stryx how to maneuver in a single tree. After the brunette walked up and down the same branch, Artemis followed her until she too got the hang of it, still keeping her wings and tail as counterweight. Scyleia noticed her improvement.

'You're a natural. Must be the owl in you' she spoke, thinking back of the times she had seen owlets 'branching', walking up and down branches and jump around in the tree they were nested before they flew out. 'Time for the next step!' she added after some heartbeats.

She made her way to the edge of the branch closest to another branch of the same tree. She took aim, bent her knees and jumped, landing neatly on the next branch of the tree and turned to Artemis.

'Your turn' she said, trying to sound as confident as she could to give Artemis the courage she needed because she had that same hesitating glance again. The Tyto looked down to the ground far underneath them. She inhaled deeply to steady her heartbeat and exhaled again, all the while closing her eyes. As her forest green orbs opened once again, she was ready. She moved to the place Scyleia jumped and stood there, taking one last look downwards before focusing on the task at hand. She calculated the place she would land and bended down a bit, muscles flexing, wings spreading, tail upwards and, jumped! In the split heartbeat she was hovering away from the previous branch, she felt the wind flow along her wings and then solid ground underneath her talons again. She made it without any trouble. Scyleia was very proud and Artemis too on herself.

'Good job!' the Amazon exclaimed.

The pair jumped around some more, circling the tree from branch to branch, not all branches on the same level and they arrived back at the first branch. Now that Artemis had the hang of it, Scyleia decided to step it up some more. She calculated the best spot to jump and land and once she went, with one last glance over to her Stryx, she made herself ready and jumped again but this time to the branch of another tree. Artemis, still full of herself after the branching just now, didn't hesitate. She jumped to the next tree, gaining another happy exclamation of the proud Amazon.

The pair continued the jump from branch to branch. Sometimes they stayed a while in the same tree, before moving on to the next. Both Artemis and Scyleia had a lot of fun. It was practice and play at the same time. Artemis grew more and more confident and Scyleia was happy she was teaching her Stryx the way of the Amazons. She and her Sister Amazons moved around in the trees a lot. It was a quicker way of traveling without a horse and it gave great vantage points, great to patrol their borders, protecting their territory and its resources.

As they continued to jump around, Scyleia also used particular Amazon whistles. She had started to teach Artemis the various sounds Amazons made to communicate over longer distances and to warn each other without being noticed easily. Artemis was picking it up nicely due it being natural sounds to her bird-side. Up here, it was also a way to still communicate while each moved on their own or performing multiple things at the same time.

Soon, Artemis started to notice the distances from branch to branch became wider because she was feeling more and more air under her wings and spent more time in the air than before. Scyleia by now had trouble traversing some distances so she looked for easier passages. The trees also became shorter, exactly what Scyleia had in mind. As they arrived at the spot the Amazon had in mind, the brunette stopped jumping and Artemins took a seat next to her, looking around.

'It is time for the last challenge' Scyleia began and Artemis payed close attention to what her companion was going to say next. 'I am not able to jump these distances anymore, they are too many paces wide. I'm gonna climb down this tree but I don't want you to follow me' she continued and Artemis became a bit confused. 'I'm going to walk that way and will wait for you there. I want you to come to me but not through climbing down but by gliding over towards me' she finished and looked at her Stryx to see if she understood. Artemis did but she was a bit hesitant again. Scyleia noticed and she nudged her on. 'You can do it. You glided from branch to branch nicely. This is just a farther jump, a longer glide' she said and stroked her Stryx once for some more physical assurance and climbed down. It was now up to her.

Artemis stayed put like she was told and watched with her eyes where Scyleia went. Many paces away, she stopped walking, turned and gave one last reassuring smile. Artemis' keep eyesight caught it. She relaxed her heartbeat more and took another deep inhale and exhaled, just like she did before climbing the first tree. She spread her wings, testing the wind currents, instinctually measuring if it was good enough and it was. Flexing her muscles, looking down one more time and then she jumped, ejecting herself with more power than usual from this branch and took to the sky. She caught the right wind currents. She glided towards her companion, enjoying the feeling of flight, she loved it. Soon however, her enjoyment dissipated as she had to land. It was a different landing than on a branch, it was on the flattened ground. For a split heartbeat, she panicked but steadied herself, trusting her instincts and continued gliding to her destination. Feet moved forward, her first tail fully spread and second tail straightening. Her claws touched the ground but her weight won out and after she landed, she ended upon her belly with a thud. Scyleia moved over to her but saw she was ok, just a bit dirt on her white belly.

'Good job, Moonlight. Good job' _box02