Carry You

Weiss had Sayaka lead her out to the barn after she'd gotten changed into a pair of pants and some riding boots. It still felt beyond strange to wear anything that wasn't a dress. It felt so unnatural to her. She even wore dresses while training. Usually, it was just a nightgown since it was free flowing and didn't inhibit her movement too much. Plus, she didn't want to potentially hurt any of her clothes and tip President Jacques off to the fact she had been learning combat. Blake was already outside with two pegasi, one brown and one a very soft shade of lilac purple. It was a beautiful animal. She couldn't imagine how temperamental it must be though. She didn't know anything about pegasi, but if they were anything like aura breeds, they wouldn't take well to new handlers very easy. Neige really only liked her and the man that had trained him. She had at least been allowed to bond with him somewhat as he'd been growing up so that way he would recognise her as his rider. How would the pegasi be? Blake smiled and raised her hand. "Hey Weiss. Ready for your first time on a pegasus?" Weiss hesitated before nodding a bit. "Yeah, I guess. Though...I've never really been high up in the air before." Well. That was a bit of a lie, but it wasn't at the same time. Atlas was a floating city but all of the horses were kept in areas nearer to Mantle. She had never really seen the distance between Atlas and Mantle, so she had never seen heights before. For her, Atlas wasn't anything more than higher ground level. It was just another place for her to be. Though she was used to the thin air that came with being higher up. "We won't be going that high up, so don't worry too much. Some pegasi can go a few kilometers or higher in the sky, but we'll just be going maybe as high as the trees in the forests. So maybe about sixty meters or so?" That...was still pretty high as far as Weiss was concerned. But she nodded despite her misgivings about all of this. She did want to see what it was like to be in the air even if part of her was afraid. Atlas was much, much higher than the flight they were going to take today. A fall from that height would be terminal velocity and almost certainly kill someone should they have hit the ground below. "All right... Is there anything I need to know in particular before we go?" Though a glance at the pegasi's heads revealed a lack of reins. "Why aren't there any reins...?" That scared her. She knew the fey didn't use bits, but not even reins for the pegasi? That was incredibly off putting and she feared the animals not being responsive at all. "You'll get more in-depth learning once you start lessons, but the main thing is that it's really not too much different from riding a horse...except it's in three dimensions. Telling them different directions is pretty easy." Blake motioned her closer and she walked over. Ropes sat around the animals' necks. "This takes the place of reins. Plus, you can lean as well. Pegasi are even more sensitive than awakened horses, so they don't take well to rough handling. Just hold onto the neck ropes and lightly tug to the left or right in order to go either direction. For up and down, lean slightly forward for up and lean slightly backward for down. It might not come naturally to you, but you'll get it in time. We usually only train at about ten meters but I figured we could just have a bit of fun today. Yours will follow mine's lead. Sound good?" Blake smiled at Weiss who gave a small, uncertain nod. This felt dangerous. What if she fell off? "Okay." Weiss didn't really feel confident in any of this, but she didn't want to go against Blake. They mounted up and the animals' wings unfurled. With a few powerful strokes, she felt them start to lift up. She grabbed onto the saddle for dear life, her eyes wide and her entire body shaking. This was so far out of the normal realm of what she considered okay. She really didn't want to go anywhere, so it was absolutely terrifying. The ground quickly unfurled below them and Weiss held on for dear life as wind buffeted them a bit. A glance at Blake revealed that she was entirely at ease, a small smile on her face. How could anybody be so calm when they were so high in the air? She didn't like this, not one bit. The air wasn't too thin yet since they weren't that high, but she could definitely feel the change in direction and the breeze that had been nice but definitely felt a bit more powerful up here. Blake brought her pegasus closer and smiled at Weiss. "Weiss, it's fine. They're experienced. You're not gonna fall. It's gonna be okay." "It sure doesn't feel like it!" She was only used to having solid ground beneath her feet. This would almost mean certain death if she took a plunge. Then again, she did have her Glyphs. Though she didn't have any dust. She couldn't use any of the specialised Glyphs she had discovered when messing around with other sorts of dust. She hadn't defeated any Grimm either, so she couldn't rely on summons to help protect her. This entire thing felt like certain death. Yes, her normal Glyphs could support her, but she probably wouldn't think to use them since she wasn't exactly known to be calm in crisis situations. "It'll be fine; don't worry so much." Blake smiled and clucked again, the pegasi starting to fly off toward the forest. Weiss held on for dear life and could see the world moving below them in her peripheral vision. Her head spun a little bit but she didn't say anything. They skimmed the treetops of the forest and birds flew around them. Weiss shook and shivered, trying to calm down, but it was difficult when her mind was focused on more or less certain death. The pegasi didn't seem unstable though. It was clearly used to being ridden and Weiss did find that a bit comforting. As they flew more, she did start to calm down and look around. She had never been able to see a forest from the top like this before. She was stationed on the ground on a horse at all times. She couldn't really see through the trees aside from the occasional clearing. She thought she caught sight of a deer in one clearing, but it was hard to know with how quickly they went. The pace outsped even the fastest gallop on Neige. She couldn't believe how much ground they were covering as opposed to having to weave through the trees and follow predetermined paths. Eventually, the forest broke across a clear boundary and the temperature cooled down a bit. The trees turned from normal green deciduous ones with beautiful blues, purples, and reds. Blake clucked and they headed down, touching into what was clearly the unicorn forest. Blake smiled at Weiss as she patted her pegasus' neck. "Looks like you were starting to enjoy it, but I figured a rest would probably be a good idea. It takes a lot more core and leg strength to stay up on a pegasus than a normal horse. Thankfully, you do seem to have pretty good core strength." Weiss nodded. "Yeah, it's a good idea to work out all parts of the body whenever possible." She had needed the strength and fitness to go into Beacon, but that would never happen now. But it might be good to keep up some sort of fitness routine so that way she could keep up with all of the riding she'd be doing. Kali had said she didn't need to keep up with any sort of combat routine though... Honestly, she didn't even like fighting. She liked playing around with her Semblance to see what it could do, but that was about it. But sit ups, pushups, and so on... Those weren't bad to keep up on. She could take five minutes a day to work on herself like that. "I definitely do a feel a bit sore though." She still wasn't used to sitting in a saddle for a few hours at a time. While the time was significantly shorter than the ride through the forest, it had still been fairly long. She needed to build up her resistance and endurance if she wanted to do any sort of long-distance riding. "We can have you healed back up when we get to the house." Blake smiled at her. "No need to have you unnecessarily sore for days at a time. Would you like to explore around here a little bit?" Weiss tapped her chin. She really hadn't gotten any chance to explore the unicorn forest during their first visit here a few days ago. Granted, 'forest' was a relative term. From what she could see, there were still quite a few open areas of meadow and mixes of trees. It was odd, but it was magic. She couldn't really explain things that were magic. Magic was so confusing and frustrating and she hated almost everything to do with it. "Sure, I guess." Weiss stretched a bit, though her legs felt a bit wobbly from having been off of solid ground for so long. They had been in the air for at least an hour even if it didn't seem like it. She started walking, the pegasus following behind her and Blake. Honestly, this place was beautiful in an odd way. The grass was multicolored as if somebody had shot paint around and it dripped everywhere. The trees were similarly oddly colored, but it was still pleasing to the eyes. She couldn't believe somewhere like this existed. She had seen paintings of forests before, but she hadn't known such lush areas actually existed. Evergreen forests were one thing, but fully deciduous forests like this where life sprang around every corner... It was mesmerising. One thing did cross her mind as they walked. Berries of every color imaginable sprang up around them. "Are there still plants here that are deadly for people to eat?" She wasn't sure if she could eat everything she was seeing. Plenty of berries and fruits were deadly to people on Remnant. She had been able to eat a lot of the stuff at the edge of the unicorn forest, but they were deeper into its heart now. They lived close enough to harvest what had been planted intentionally, but deeper in... She couldn't be sure. "Not in unicorn forests, no. They're places of peace. Committing violence in a unicorn forest while, not a crime, will get the guardian of the forest agitated and you won't be allowed in. Plants that cause harm aren't allowed in at all. They can't even grow in a unicorn forest. Even though unicorns are usually placid, that doesn't mean they can't be fierce protectors under the right circumstances." Weiss frowned at that but nodded. Well, at least she wasn't planning on committing any violence in this forest. She hated any and all violence to be completely honest. She hadn't wanted to attend Beacon in the first place, but she knew how much trouble Winter probably had to go through in order to get her accepted in the first place... It had to be a lot of trouble to talk to Ozpin and get her to accept Weiss without her being able to take entrances exams or anything like that. "Gotcha. Well, I'm not someone that particularly likes fighting or anything like that, so I don't have any plans of committing violence here." If she wanted to play with her Semblance, she had plenty of room to do that at the manor. This definitely wouldn't be the place to do so. Then again, would flipping around on non-physical platforms even count as violence? She couldn't even use any of her normal types of Glyphs outside of the basic one, and that couldn't do much more than stop people or support weight. She had no ice, fire, or gravity dust or anything of the like, so she couldn't even fight with her Semblance if she wanted to. Still... She was glad that Koiria was a relatively peaceful place. She really wanted nothing to with any sort of violence in the first place. "What exactly are these berries then? There are so many colors... Are they all different species?" She couldn't help but be fascinated. "Yeah, each different hue is a different species. If you're not highly trained in the arts, it can be hard to pick apart two different species, but there's no worry of eating something that's dangerous. But the foragers that come out here each day to harvest what we need for meals know the differences if just by location. These are great little snacks." Blake smiled and picked a handful of berries off a couple bushes, then put them in Weiss' hand. "Here; try them." They were all different colors so they were all different flavors, or so she guessed. She popped one into her mouth and smiled widely. "Oh, these are good..." It was still strange to pick things out of the wild and eat them. But here, there were no pesticides or anything like that... It was all natural. She couldn't believe just how much rich life existed here. It was awe inspiring... She wondered if Winter had ever seen anything like this before. Whitley definitely hadn't... He was such a brat that only hated her... She wondered how Auria was doing with him. "See? And if you eat them in a medley mixture like in your hand, they're even better. Try it." Blake smiled and motioned to Weiss to do so, then she nodded and popped them all into her mouth. The intense flavor almost numbed her tongue but it wasn't bad... She just wasn't used to intensely flavorful things. Atlassian cooking was incredibly bland compared to even the snacks fae could eat. These berries were absolutely amazing and she loved it. "Would it be okay if I had some of these in my room? Will they go bad?" She wanted to experience them more and explore all the different flavors they offered. She would be starting lessons probably sooner rather than later, so having something to snack on during would be nice... She was at least getting the nutrition she needed now, but she had been absolutely starved during her time at home. Still... Having some intermediate snacks during the times between meals wouldn't be bad. "If not refrigerated, then yes, they will go bad in a day or two, but if you eat them quickly, there's no worry. We should probably wait until you're in lessons to start giving you a lot of snacks..." Weiss nodded. That was entirely fair in her book. Entirely fair. She didn't want to waste food. Thinking about how much waste Atlas produced honestly upset her. There was probably more than enough to go around even for the poorest levels of society... But how much got wasted on a daily basis? She didn't understand how people could be denied such basic amenities... "All right. That's fine and perfectly fair. Do you have any idea when my lessons will start?" She wondered when that would happen. She really wanted to get back on a predictable schedule. This not doing anything and her time being entirely unpredictable was so hard on her. She hated it. She was so used to a really rigid, predictable, normal life. She wasn't at all liking this. She hated having to figure out what to do with her time. She was used to spending ten hours a day all day, each day, in lessons, then being put back in her room. It was so strange to have the run of the manor and be able to go into the library like she wanted to. Not that she was entirely complaining about unfettered access to books... But it was still beyond strange to her. Blake shrugged. "Dunno. You'd have to talk to my parents about it. They'll be the ones that know. They need to find teachers for you first on all the topics you want to cover. We at least have riding instructors so that won't be too hard to figure out, but everything else? It might take a little while... Like human history. There are so very few historians that care about Serlian history. We enjoy entertainment from Serlia, but we don't really care about its history or culture unless it's in an era where we can trade with them. And since we're not in an era where that's possible..." She shook her head. That did make sense, Weiss supposed. Why care about somewhere you couldn't comfortably or safely contact? There was already so much pain and suffering on Remnant that it was hard. She couldn't imagine the pain and suffering that would be inflicted on the fae by Atlas. They could and would weaponise absolutely anything they could get their hands on. If aura could be weaponised, they could and would do that... Fae magic would absolutely be turned against them if Atlas figured out a way to do it. "By the way, why are there so many colors in the unicorn forest compared to the normal forest?" The technicolor look of the unicorn forest was a bit garish compared to the normal forest. She didn't really understand. There were so many different colors between the plants. Green was the standard, of course, but purples, blues, reds, and pinks were incredibly common here in the unicorn forest. She really didn't understand how the plants could be so markedly different. Shouldn't they all follow the same rules? Blake shrugged. "I dunno. I'm not a scientist. I'd just chalk it up to how magic interacts differently with the environment. Everywhere has some level of magic in it, but unicorn forests are pure areas of magic. The normal rules don't apply to them. The unicorns rule their little area and kind of decide how things look. So I guess part of it is also just the aesthetic choice of its ruler. I don't know much beyond that though." That...was an unsatisfying explanation, but of course it came down to magic. It seemed like everything came back to magic here somehow. She hated it. She really did. She just hated all of it. As they walked, Weiss nearly tripped over something and jerked away. "What's that?!" It was small, about the size of a hypothetical house cat. She had never seen a housecat before, but she could roughly picture the size based on the dimensions given in her biology studies. "Ow!" the thing squeaked. It was incredibly fluffy and had a tail that looked three times longer than its body. It had six legs and the neon pink of its coat almost hurt Weiss' eyes. She had no idea what this thing was. "Watch where you're going, you big oaf! You're in our territory!" Of course it spoke. Practically everything in this world spoke. "Oh, sorry." Blake put her hands on her knees and bent down near the creature. "Weiss, this is one of the dragons that lives in this unicorn forest. Unlike the dragons on our land, this one doesn't fly." A dragon the size of a house cat... This was all so mind numbing. How many different species of dragons were there? She knew little of dragons other than that they were supposed to be monstrous beasts of impressive size. This one...could be a pet. How could she respect something that was supposed to be ferocious yet barely the size of a cat? "I see. Well, I'm sorry. This is my first time exploring the forest. Blake's parents took me under their wing." She still wasn't sure if it was kidnapping or not... Technically, it probably ws. But they were giving her a much better life than she would've had in Atlas... It would've just been months until she would've been married and then raped in order to have children...then probably died young from complications due to birth. She didn't want that life for herself at all... The little dragon picked itself up out of the dirt and shook out the fluffy, neon-pink coat. "You need to be more careful when out here then! Just because you're bigger doesn't mean you have the right of way! We live here; you don't. Keep a better eye out!" Impudent little thing, wasn't it? She internally sighed. She had apologised yet she was still being treated like the bad guy. She didn't know the layout of the unicorn forest or anything that lived here. She hadn't meant any harm. What a frustrating scenario. "I'll do that in the future to the best of my ability. I was just a bit overwhelmed by all the colors and such." She was looking around, so yes, she hadn't been paying attention to her feet. Maybe she should've stayed on her pegasus because they wouldn't have tripped over this dragon most likely... What a mess. "Please calm down. Weiss didn't mean any harm. There's no reason to get so upset. It was a legitimate accident," Blake said, trying to smooth things over. The dragon huffed. "Why are you enabling he--" "Joni! Stop your prattling!" A similar creature approached, though this one was neon green. Its tail curled and its ears laid back. The pink dragon jumped and laid his own ears back. The green one looked at Weiss and sighed. "I'm sorry about him; he's young yet... He's not really used to interacting with fae, though..." She sniffed. "You aren't a fae, are you? You don't smell like a fae... You carry the scent of acrid and sterile... A strange combination." Weiss shook her head. "I'm Weiss Schnee and I'm from Remnant--Serlia in fae terminology. I'm a changeling. Blake brought me here." She wouldn't go into much more than that. That was about everything that this dragon needed to know. Their coats hurt her eyes though... She wasn't used to such bright colors. At least the forest's colors were a bit more muted and leaned more toward pastel than anything else. She really, really had no idea what was going on here with their coat colors. And the pegasus she'd ridden was lilac too... Magic was probably the only explanation for the odd coat colors since almost no animals had colors like these on Remnant to her knowledge. "Oh, interesting! I've never met a human before!" The green dragon smiled at them warmly, her ears coming up. However, she looked at Joni and batted her paw at him. "Go home!" "But Mom!" "No buts young man! Go home now!" Joni's ears flattened against his head and he slung away, tail low. The green dragon sighed then looked back at Weiss and Blake. "So what brings you to the forest?" "Oh, I just took Weiss out on her first fly. We're exploring a little bit before we head back. What's your name?" "I'm Sori. I've seen you around here more than once, Blake, but I've never introduced myself. There was just no need for me to. Anyway, I'll let you two get back to your wanderings if you want. I'm sorry about my son. He's still young yet--only about six months old." Sori shook her head. Only six months? Were they a short-lived species then? With a lifespan about the same as a house cat? She had no real idea... There were too much to try to keep track of. "How old are you?" That would give her a taste of how long these dragons could live. "About twelve hundred... I've had a lot of cubs over my life but he's one of the worst. So sorry about him." Sori raised her tail and waved it before heading back off into the depths of the forest. "That...was weird." Weiss shook her head. Weird even by this world's standards. She wasn't used to most things yet so every odd thing that crossed her path was definitely not worthy. There were so many odd creatures in the world. She hadn't expected the absolutely vivid colors of the animal's coat... Her eyes still kind of hurt from looking at it and might for a while lounge. The forest's pastel colors were comparatively gentle and easy on the eyes. Blake shrugged. "Eh, maybe to you, but not to me. There are dragons of all shapes and sizes around Koiria. Those are some of the smallest and those ones are herbivores. They're better suited to living in a unicorn forest than the ones that live on our property that you previously met. Anyway, we should probably head back sometime soon... If you want to spend a whole day out here at some point, we can. Would you like that?" Weiss tapped her chin before nodding. "I think I would." The forest was rather beautiful and she wanted to see more of it. Plus, maybe she could talk to Dorosi's pack some more. "But if you think we should, then let's do that." She still had no real conception of the time and how it passed here. So they mounted up, Weiss once again feeling incredibly unsteady in the air. But it wasn't quite as harrowing a ride as the previous time. But with that done, Weiss headed back up to her room and changed back into a dress. Much more comfortable than pants and a shirt in her eyes. Though she still felt like a well overstuffed holiday hen with as many layers as there were. She did see some books on her bookshelf though--apparently someone had delivered them. They were the books she'd requested. She tucked the books into her bag then headed to the library. Time to start transferring her notes from the library copies to her own...