SPOILER!!: Angel

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Angel smiled as Benny squeezed her hand and then called the Hippogriff toothless. "That's an awesome name Benny." Angel loved the name. "I might call one of my plants that one day, just for you." Angel thought it would be cool, but she'd see if Benny liked it later, she was already thinking of naming her next plant after him.

Angel then listed to him. "I trust you... you know I do." Angel smiled as she started to get onto the Hippogriff with the help of Benny, she just hoped he was right behind her because she didn't want to fly this thing on her own... she wanted him there with her.

Toothless it was.

Benny really had already thought she did, but he hadn't wanted to surprise her with his movements. This way Angel could make decisions on what was done. "Just making sure," he said with a small smile. With a grip on both her arms, the older Gryffindor lifted her up onto Toothless' back which gained a small squack but the hippogriff remained mostly in place. Good...good. That was step on in getting them both on and flying.

"Easy boy..." he assured the creature with a pat before moving to get on himself. Just like a broom, he told himself as he sidded up beside their ride, first slipping one leg over and then pushing his body in the same direction so both legs were now off the ground. Ben took a few moments to adjust himself into a more comfortable seat on the hippogriff before taking a gentle yet secure hold with his left hand.

"Ready?" he asked, waiting until Angel seemed so before reaching back with his opposite hand and patting Toothless' backhind to give him the signal to start. An action he seemed more than happy to as the hippogriff took off along the trail causing Benny to quickly take hold with his other hand as well on the other side of Angel They would be traveling on the ground...for now.

Toby wasn't about to give up. Nope. Not right now. He paused a moment to brush himself off, while Monty looked on, still with those front legs bent.

"Sorry Mont. Not really with it today," the Hufflepuff said, giving a small smile and reaching across to stroke the feathers of his newest friend. Once again, Monty seemed quite unbothered; Toby was lucky enough to have chosen a real patient hippogriff, except he'd totally worked that out for himself already. "Hold on, I'll give it another go. I'm sure you're getting tired of kneeling and all."

Once again, Toby reached up to get a good hold over Monty's back, careful not to grab at any feathers. He gave a little jump, trying to swing his leg up and over, but it wasn't enough. Another little hop, but still no. Then, figuring the quicker he did this the better, Toby gave a bigger leap and FINALLY managed to swing his leg over Monty's back. He used his hands to heave himself over and...

...

... slid straight off the other side with an oddly high-pitched squawk of his own. The Hufflepuff fell and hit the floor with a THUMP and just sprawled there for a moment.

Monty eyed him again, beak open and ready to squawk. But Toby, still on the ground, held up a hand.

"Don't say it. I know."

...

...

Squawk.

"... Thanks buddy." Pat pat pat.

Angel was nervous now as the Hippogriff took off... at least it was on the ground for now but the problem with that was because that meant more obstacles. "Benny I'm scared." Angel didn't want to fly in the air nor did she want to stay on the ground with the Hippogriff.

Angel was just looking around when she saw an obstacle coming up. "Benny be careful." Angel yanked the robes to the left without thinking, her mind was racing, it was like she was in a different zone... she had just moved the hippogriff by instinct and now she was ready to faint as she tried to keep calm and hope no more obstacles were around.

So hippogriff racing, then.

Figuring that the hippogriff had probably had enough time to relax and whatnot, Grayson turned his attention towards it instead. "Okay, we're probably not gonna make it to the finish line first but who cares? We're gonna show them what we're made of, mkay?" Which was full of something epic, the boy just knew it. Pat pat pat. "SO! I'm gonna climb up onto your back and all I want you to do is try and run as fast as possible. We can try flying later. How does that sound?"

SQUAAAAAAAWK!

He was gonna take that as a good sign, then.

"I need to climb up onto your back so I need you to kneel down for me. C'moooon! Kneeeeeeel! KNEEL!" Bow down before your MASTER! "Kneeeeel! Bend doooooooown!" There was even more downwards patting but for some reason, the hippogriff just did NOT want to bend down. Could it read his thoughts or what? "Down, boy! DOWN! Dow--"

And there was some BENDING. "Thaaaat's it! Thank YOU, hippogriff," he said, climbing up on the giant creature the proper way: like you would with a horse. Once the other leg had been swung over, Grayson bent down until he was pressed up against the creature's feathers. If only there was some good company around so that he could make a comment about........ THIS.

Lulz.

ANYWAYS. His grip around the hippogriff's neck tightened when the creature started standing up again. Sweet MERLIN, did this feel weird. And it didn't get any better when he looked down at the ground to see just how far up he was. WELL, then. This was gonna be a weird sensation from start to finish, wasn't it?

Reaching back, Grayson patted the backhind of the hippogriff to set him off which.........

............ he didn't.

"What? We're meant to be going! C'mon!" Pat pat pa--

AND THEY WERE OFF!

SPOILER!!: Angel

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

SPOILER!!: Benny

"Easy boy..." he assured the creature with a pat before moving to get on himself. Just like a broom, he told himself as he sidded up beside their ride, first slipping one leg over and then pushing his body in the same direction so both legs were now off the ground. Ben took a few moments to adjust himself into a more comfortable seat on the hippogriff before taking a gentle yet secure hold with his left hand.

"Ready?" he asked, waiting until Angel seemed so before reaching back with his opposite hand and patting Toothless' backhind to give him the signal to start. An action he seemed more than happy to as the hippogriff took off along the trail causing Benny to quickly take hold with his other hand as well on the other side of Angel They would be traveling on the ground...for now.

Angel was nervous now as the Hippogriff took off... at least it was on the ground for now but the problem with that was because that meant more obstacles. "Benny I'm scared." Angel didn't want to fly in the air nor did she want to stay on the ground with the Hippogriff.

Angel was just looking around when she saw an obstacle coming up. "Benny be careful." Angel yanked the robes to the left without thinking, her mind was racing, it was like she was in a different zone... she had just moved the hippogriff by instinct and now she was ready to faint as she tried to keep calm and hope no more obstacles were around.

Benny really wished he could share his admiration and positive feelings about the whole situation they were in to Angel. Let the younger lion be less afraid of the whole thing. But then her favorite was plants not animals like he and Adi. He was sure his bestie was having the time of his life whereever he and his hippogriff had wound up in the race to the finish line. "Its okay..."

He saw the obstacle as well but Angel managed to get the hippogriff to avoid it by her sudden action. "Good job," Benny complimented in hopes to get her to relax more and just enjoy the fun amongst the challenges. Speaking of challenges, Toothless had seemed to speed up after the minor change in direction and the fourth year realized they really needed to keep back to the way they were supposed to go.

"Okay Toothless..." he said, taking control for the moment and trying to get the creatures attention back. "This way boy..." he instructed, patting down at the left forelock to gently push in the right direction. "Come on." A few more nudges and the hippogriff obeys, relieving Benny as they returned to the course, managing to escape another obstacle in the process.

Angel gave a weak smile when Benny praised her, was this over yet? surely they had been ridding this thing for a month now, well it felt like that to her.

"WATCH OUT!" Angel suddenly realised that the Hippogriff was heading towards another obsticle, seriously couldn't Hippogriffs see what was going on this was scary and all Angel wanted to do was stop, she tried to move the thing to the right but it didn't seem to want to move. "A little help please Benny?" Angel didn't know what to do, she was trying to get the Hippogriff to move but it still wasn't working, Benny was good with animals he would know what to do.

Once she’d decided the hippogriff was okay with the sponges, Brooklyn had carefully dropped one into the bucket of soapy water while keeping her other hand stroking the creature’s neck. She didn’t want the noise to startle it or anything, but soon enough, she’d gotten the sponge soapy and switched so she was sponging off the hippogriff’s feathers as she’d been instructed. Obviously it took her a lot longer than it would have for some of the older students, just because they were way taller, but she still managed to do a pretty good job. It helped that her hippogriff sensed the trouble and knelt down so she could wash its back. Once it was pretty clean, she had to take a few moments to find her other sponge, dropping the soapy one back into the bucket in the meantime. A quick Scourgify later since she’d found the sponge on the ground, and she was back to stroking her hippogriff with it, soaking up any of the remaining water from the earlier bath and occasionally turning to squeeze it out of the sponge so she could keep going.

Once the hippogriff was relatively dry and standing again, she quietly coaxed it out of the pool again to finish drying. Plus, she found the fine tooth comb from her kit and started combing the feathers out to really make sure they’d dry. She definitely wasn’t going to ride a wet hippogriff, and on that note she hoped hers didn’t decide to visit the lake once she’d gotten on. She didn’t doubt she’d be able to get on, even if the hippogriff was probably five times bigger than her. It had been cooperating so far, so she was confident it would continue to do so. There was the threat of not being the best hippogriff ever hanging over it if it didn’t, after all. She knew how to control things.

Once the hippogriff was dry, she coaxed it out of the penned up area and whispered, “Now it’s time to run, okay. But you have to let me on first so we can work together.” As if it understood, needing only a few pets to help the situation, the hippogriff knelt down again as small as possible and she somehow scrambled on. It wasn’t anywhere near as pretty as Professor Thompson had been when he’d mounted his, but he was a lot taller. It hadn’t been hard for Brooklyn to press her body against the back at all as her mount raised back to a standing position. Once it was up, though, she sat up tall. It was just like riding a horse, except there were the wings in the way. She tucked her legs behind the joints as an extra precaution, then clicked her heels. There was no way she wasn’t going to fly. Hippogriffs flew, so she was going to too.

There had been a soft squeak as her hippogriff had taken off, though, barely noticeable after the squawk it had made when she’d signaled it to fly, and she’d found herself tightening her hands in the feathers in front of her so she wouldn’t fall. She definitely wasn’t going to do anything so embarrassing as fall off, but then maybe her hippogriff would catch her if she did. They had that understanding after all. She trusted it wasn’t going to forget that, and after a moment they’d started moving forward, relatively in a straight line toward the finish line.

Holding on to Mr. Hippogriff as tightly as she could without hurting him, Lux was having so much fun already. They were making great speed, and she kept whispering words of encouragement and praise into his ear because he was being so good. Of course a few times she also had to keep him on track because something else caught his attention, but all in all they were doing wonderful.

Of course she knew that this wasn't going to last forever since there were lots and worms which were a huge distraction. Yummy worms. BARF. But if her new friend liked eating worms, she wouldn't hold it against him since everyone had their own food preferences. It was like how Bay couldn't eat cucumber sandwiches without getting sick while she herself loved them.

Keeping her eyes on the lookout, Lux tried her best to spot any objects she could though it was almost impossible because of her position on his back and how fast they were going.

Flying was awesome. It was almost like Brooklyn could see all of Hogwarts from up there. Her domain, no matter what anyone else said. She was queen, and so it was hers. Even her hippogriff seemed to understand that, being careful every time it banked or did anything that could jostle her. That was definitely a good thing, as she was much too distracted by looking around at everything from up high. People looked so tiny from up there. Even the other hippogriffs who were running looked tiny, and that brought a grin to her face. Winning the race wasn’t important. Not really. She got to say she’d flown on a hippogriff now, and not a lot of firsties could say that. Not a lot of the older students could too, as a lot of them had seemed to take the easy way out and run instead of fly. That was stupid. Flying was way better.

As she felt her hippogriff turn again, she was snapped back into attention to notice a hawk circling nearby. A hawk that had apparently decided to inconsiderately distract her hippogriff, and she clicked her heels again. “No. I won’t name you if you go after the bird,” she said, leaning forward only slightly so she knew the hippogriff underneath her would hear. It must have, as it had turned back on course after only a few feet. Hmm. new threat had really worked, but then now she was going to need to come up with a name for it just to keep up her end of the bargain. At least it gave her something else to do. She was kind of bored watching the tiny racers down below her by now.

SPOILER!!: Angel

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

SPOILER!!: Benny

"Okay Toothless..." he said, taking control for the moment and trying to get the creatures attention back. "This way boy..." he instructed, patting down at the left forelock to gently push in the right direction. "Come on." A few more nudges and the hippogriff obeys, relieving Benny as they returned to the course, managing to escape another obstacle in the process

Angel gave a weak smile when Benny praised her, was this over yet? surely they had been ridding this thing for a month now, well it felt like that to her.

"WATCH OUT!" Angel suddenly realised that the Hippogriff was heading towards another obsticle, seriously couldn't Hippogriffs see what was going on this was scary and all Angel wanted to do was stop, she tried to move the thing to the right but it didn't seem to want to move. "A little help please Benny?" Angel didn't know what to do, she was trying to get the Hippogriff to move but it still wasn't working, Benny was good with animals he would know what to do.

There was a smile from Angel, however small and weak it might be. It meant she was trying, like they had tried to keep Toothless from the possible food that also was there along the way. The hippogriff was certainly interested in going after to catch anything he could like the running was making him super hungry. "No...we're not going after it," Benny said coaxing the creature away from its would be prey.

At her exclamation, Benny was drawn back to the more serious thing that was coming up quickly in their way. "Of course," he answered, rushing to try and think of the best way to handle the situation. Going right or left seemed out of the question by the location of the obstacle. So maybe going up and over it was a better choice. Just a little jump like a proper show horse would be all it took.

However as he clicked his feet against the sides of the hippogriff, Toothless got the hint. Albeit too much. Instead of just jumping over the log, the creature released his wings and took off with them into the sky. "Woah...Toothless..." he exclaimed, strengthening his grasp on the hippogriff while also making sure Angel was still safely in his hold in her place in front of him and between his arms.

This was a little ball of happiness in her day, legit, speeding through the sky with nothing but the finish line to work towards. Suffice to say after getting up here, she wasn't so much sold on winning but rather on enjoying the flight, wind whipping at her face and the fleeting feel of freedom. How upset would the Professor be if she simply decided to steer the Hippogriff in the other way and go for her own joy ride...? Head Girl privileges and all that...?

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she figured it wouldn't go very well and reluctantly shook the enticing thought from her head. No joy rides, none yet but who's to say one wouldn't happen before she left this place?

Lex was so lost in thought that at first, she didn't realize they had been going lower? "Oi! Oooiiii, why are we landing? The finish line is UP that way!!!" HKGsiafdiswf!!! How did you pull up on this thing?? Up up up! "That way!" She pointed, pointing in the direction they were no longer headed. The hell was the weirdo landing for....?

Of course -_-

"You're no better than my kneazle." She huffed, watching the Hipppgriff shadow small bird that was flying lower than them. No seriously, this was classic Felix, getting distracted by his own prey, completely forgetting what they were collectively trying to achieve. "I feel like you're gonna go after it anyway."

Sqawk!

Looking forward she saw many well ahead of her and thought, what did she have to lose? If anything she'd get a longer ride yeah? So...."Alright then, make it quick." There was another sqawk, one of clear satisfaction as the Hippogriff moved into a steep, swift dive while the Gryffindor did her best to hold on. Poor bird never saw it coming.

This felt freaking FANTASTIC!

Oh man, look at them galloping in the wind. He was LOVING this! And trying to get the hippogriff to gallop faster because going slowly wasn't the way to go. He wanted to feel the wind in his hair and forget about his troubles and all of that overly cheesy and puke-worthy nonsense that poets spewed out. It sounded dead weird to him but was something his mum was interested in and would call beautiful.

Yeaaaaaaaaaah........ no.

But the galloping? Great! He was loving every minute of it! The hippogriff seemed to be listening to his commands so far, which was shown in the way he commanded the creature to gallop faster and it kinda did. Kinda. It wasn't a bad start, either. They hadn't even come across any obstacles yet! YES! Maybe they could go right towards the finish line without encountering one of those--

He spoke too soon.

And what was it? "Hey, man, why're you stopping? I know we're not gonna win any races but we can't stop NOW!" But the answer soon came in the form of........ worms.

That's right. They were stopping because the hippogriff's stomach or love for worms or whatever it was was more important than this.

"No! NO! We CAN'T stop! Come ON!" And he tried to pat at the hippogriff's backhind again to see if it would help to get him to move but no such luck. Freaking hippogriff. "We," Pat! "Have," Pat! "To MOVE" Pat pat pat!

She really didn’t see what the big deal was about flying. At least, why anyone would be afraid of it, when the flying was done on something like the hippogriff currently underneath Brooklyn. Lily refused to fly, and now that Brooklyn had gotten to, she felt like her sister was even crazier than she’d already thought. Flying wasn’t really that scary, although she’d had to his in her mount’s ear again as another bird had distracted him. She was going to start hexing the birds if they kept doing that, even though she wanted one. She wanted a falcon though, not any of the stupid birds her hippogriff kept going after. Those were just starting to be annoying. Although the earlier threat had at least made the hippogriff keep on track toward the finish line.

She wasn’t afraid to threaten again if it flew off course. She wouldn’t hurt the hippogriff, but she’d threaten. Even though she’d already allowed herself to think of possible names for it as well. The hippogriff didn’t need to know that until they’d landed, and there was plenty of time until then. All she had to focus on right now was making sure it didn’t veer off course again, and of course not falling off as it had banked again around a tree. Corners were a bit scary, but she’d never admit that. Nobody was going to know anything other than the confidence she chose to show them, especially as nobody could annoy her while she was up here. Aside from the birds.

There was that hint of excitement to riding a hippogriff that was on the hunt. She could feel the strength of its muscles as they flexed and stretched in an attempt to grab the bird and the slight hitch and bump as it grabbed hold of it almost caused her to lose balance but no worries, she held tight.

The momentary thrill was lost when they descended further. What?? Whaaaat???? Lex watched, hardly blinking as the Hippogriff landed and helped itself to an early lunch.

...

......

This wasn't happening. It wasn't. Nope. It was not jeopardizing their time in the sky JUST for a small meal. Lex leaned around to get a better look at him and saw the way it tore the bird apart effortlessly, swallowing it only seconds later. She would allow herself to be impressed. Her Hippogriff was a vicious predator and she liked vicious things, so long as they weren't attacking her. Deep down she was pleased but really, they had to get going.

"Reckon you've had your fill now come on, we're really behind now and the Professor's gonna think we got lost or I'm incompetent." Which she wasn't, she was merely enjoying the freedom.

Once again she clicked at its sides to get them up in the air again. As they climbed higher and higher into the sky she was able to get a better look around. If she squinted she could see that some were already approaching the finish line. Poor them, their ride was over. She would be enjoying hers. Just no more birds, yeah?

Toby was up on his feet again, absolutely determined that he'd manage to climb on the hippogriff this time. He figured it was best to do it quickly, whilst he had this sudden little burst of renewed energy and before he could overthink it. With Monty still knelt, Toby reached up for a good hold, gave a little hop, swung his leg up aaaaaand...

It worked. Except, Toby could feel himself overbalancing again. He had a second to brace for impact and not much else, but before he could fall back off, Monty was standing back up and kind of adjusting beneath him and boosting him up so that he was pushed back into the right position. Toby blinked in surprise; he was suddenly sat astride a hippogriff, quite secure, when a second ago he'd been falling.

"Thanks Monty!" the fifth year grinned, giving his hippogriff a pat on the neck, before deciding 'oh, to heck with it' and leaning forward for proper hippogriff cuddles. "Best get in the air now then, bet you're dying to stretch your wings."

Toby sat up straight again and, after a moment to try and remember what Thompson had told them, before suddenly doing the heel-kicking thing.

Monty took off immediately with another squawk (it seemed Toby had chosen a very vocal hippogriff), and Tobias had to quickly hold on... or try to. He didn't want to tug any feathers, but if he did the hug-hold method then Monty would surely land. So instead he just sort of firmly placed his hands on either side of the creatures neck, and kept his feet in that conveniently sized dips where the wing joints were.

"Right then, let's go."

And towards the 'finish line' they went. Not racing or anything, just happily flying along.

As Charlene was taking off, Kace was getting nervous. He tightened his grip on her but he clicked his feet to let her know to fly. She understood and opened her wings and he saw her full wingspan. It was gorgeous and Kace was in awe. As she was bringing him higher and higher into the air, he was feeling weightless. He couldn't help but scream...

WAHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

This was a new experience for him. Charlene was avoiding the trees like a natural. Good thing too, he didn't wanna be whacked by any tree branches. Those things hurt a lot. He had his fair share of being hit in the face by tree branches by his cousins. As he began to get use to the flying feeling, he began to take in the view. It was really gorgeous up here. But wait he was racing other people, he looked down to see how other's were doing. He didn't even see people near the finish line yet.

The first log almost got them, but at the very last second they managed to jump over it. "Good job!" It would have really sucked if they both missed it and ended up crashing it and getting hurt. As thankful as she was for the Healer saving her boyfriend's life last term, Lux wasn't inclined to spend time with her in the Hospital Ward if she could help it.

The near-collision wasn't the worst of her concerns, however, since soon afterwards Mr. Hippogriff spotted some of those tasty worms which he apparently really enjoyed. She knew that he loved them because he started gobbling them up right off the ground. Okay, that wasn't going to work because there was a race to complete. It wasn't as if she was randomly stopping to eat some Chocolate Frogs.

Rolling her eyes, she tried coaxing him along with words. "Come on, Mr. Hippogrif. We have a race to win, and you can pig out on worms afterwards if you want." Of course that didn't work in the light of food, so after giving another eyeroll, she lightly patted him by the tail again. That did the trick, and soon they were off again. "Good boy."

So far so good. Her hippogriff hadn’t gotten too distracted by any of the birds, anyway. Brooklyn was proud of it for that, and it could have as many of the birds as it wanted after the lesson was over. She’d give them to it herself if need be, as long as it listened to her until then. Except she wasn’t planning on telling it that. Promises weren’t something she made, generally, not unless there was something in it for her. Even if it made a difference between finishing the flight or not, she wouldn’t do it. She was in control, and she wanted the hippogriff to know that. It wouldn’t know that if she made promises to it, and she hadn’t been dumped off for the threats. She wasn’t going to change now.

The finish line was almost in her sights up ahead. Tiny, but it was up there. She could see it, but then she couldn’t. Another tree had come up and the hippogriff had banked again to fly around it and she’d had to tighten her legs under the wings in order to stay on. It didn’t seem like there was an attempt to knock her off, but her hippogriff certainly liked turning. It took a while before they were back on course and she’d seen the finish line again, but then, she hadn’t worried. They’d get there eventually, and getting there meant her ride was over. It meant she would be back on the ground and little again, and she liked being big. She liked being able to pretend this was all hers. Maybe she understood the hippogriff a little. It owned the skies, anyway, even having power over the birds and everything else. While she was on the hippogriff, so did she.

She could have told him to go a little faster, just fast enough to look like they were still trying but there was no point in that. They would get to the finish line eventually and flying was where the real fun was, a point well proven as the Hippogriff swerved at the last minute to narrowly escape a tree she hadn't been paying attention to. Not her fault, she was busy enjoying the ride for what it was and no sensible Hippogriff would get itself hurt just because she didn't tell it to swerve. This one was very sensible. Lex had nothing to worry about.

When its head suddenly turned in a downward direction, the Gryffindor went on high alert, not wanting to go through the whole landing thing again.

"Oh no you don't. Finish this race and Professor Thompson will give you all the birds you want. You don't have to go catching them right this second when we're meant to be flying." She pulled lightly at it's feathers, coaxing it's attention back toward the sky. Left up to him she reckoned there wouldn't be any birds left at Hogwarts.

Greedy, that's what it was.

"You shouldn't fly so low, it makes you more easily distracted." Having gotten a second look around, she noticed that they happened to be lower than when they first took flight and as it was, she didn't trust him anymore.

Angel was just getting ready to be a lot calmer because Benny was with her and was encouraging her when it suddenly all went away when the Hippogriff decided to fly.

O______________o

"To....oth.....le....less." Angel sighed as she realised the Hippogriff was on full flight mode... this was really worrying but at least Benny was making sure she didn't fall off. "this isn't....to bad." Angel did feel a little white and was shaking a little because of this.

O___________o

Angel suddenly saw another Hippogriff in the air and she moved toothless so that he didn't decide to follow it too closely. "Benny we nearly there?" Angel asked him.

You know what was strange? Flying then noticing a cluster of Hippogriffs and realizing you've actually come to the end of the so called race--she couldn't even call it one anymore. They'd set out to try the winning thing but then he got distracted and she got taken in by the flying and soon she'd forgotten it was class, save for those moments of shear brilliance that had to ignored for the fact her mind would conveniently remind her it WAS class.

Lex almost told it to slow up, let them enjoy it a little longer but before she could make up her mind on this matter the Hippogriff caught sight of its friends and broke into a winged sprint, cutting the air like it was nothing.

"Heeeyyy!!" SLOW DOWN!! It was going to kill the ride for her and it didn't seem to care. Admittedly, she'd have loved this speed were it not for what the speed would mean in the end...which was...right...about....

Now.

Without telling it to, Lex could feel the Hippogriff descending once again as they approached the finish line. Figures. There was nothing to be done about it now, nothing, just...sit there and wait to be told to dismount. A small ride wouldn't hurt anyone and the Hippogriff hadn't outright told her she was heavy so Lex stayed mounted while she waited for the others to join them.

As Kace was flying with Charlene she seemed to be flying faster and faster. She even seemed to be going off course. "Woaahh girl where are you going?" Kace asked curiously. He wished the creatures could speak it would make things a lot easier. She was going towards the lake now. "Charlene slowww down we are supposed to be racing!" Kace lectured her. Apparently she wanted to do her own thing. She began descending down and wanted a drink of water.

She landed near the lake and bent her head down and sipped some water. It seemed like a lot of water. He felt bad he didn't ask. "Alright girl after you have your water, we need to go back and rac..." he began when he saw her plopping near the lake relaxing. Kace sighed and understood. He would wait till she felt better.

Yep...they were flying.

Something Benny hadn't been sure of doing, not with Angel who was nervous about being on the hippogriff in the first place and on the ground. But there they were and the fourth year was enjoying it for the most part. The boy quite used to riding on a broom in quidditch or racing winged horses with Adi. He was about to ask Angel if she was alright when she already answered, a look of relief passing on the older Gryffindor's face to know she was okay. Not that he'd be able to see anything different.

Toothless moved off to one side, likely at Angel's direction since he wasn't doing anything to command at the moment. Looking down Ben tried as best he could to notice markers, inwardly glad they weren't too high in the sky. "I...think so," he answered tentatively. He just had to get them back down. now what was the move the professor had talked about...leaning in and giving pressure on the front end?

Well here goes nothing.

"Come on, Toothless," he said leaning a little on top of Angel almost in a hug to guide them both on top of the hippogriff. His legs shifting a little to nudge the creatures forelegs to add to the signal to lower and go back in. Toothless got the message alright, the hippogriff sending them back down almost as fast as they had gone up, Benny once again glad they weren't too far up and diving. "Woah...." the fourth year added as they neared the ground, patting the hippogriff and guiding them into landing...

Once past the finish line.

This? This was awesome. This was just what he needed. It was thrilling to be able to get up in the air on the back of a majestic hippogriff and soar around and feel so free. So free.

So free in fact that for maybe a split second, Toby had thoughts of just accidentally-on-purpose flying off and escaping the school for a few hours of just soaring around for a bit. But then he realised that was probably ill-advised, especially as he was in his pyjamas and all and it would probably get a bit cold after a while. Still, it was a nice fantasy.

Instead, he flew onwards.

Or he tried to. Seemed that Monty was a bit hungry, and instead of moving straight ahead Toby found them veering off towards what his hippogriff probably thought was a tasty looking bird. Oh no. Nope. Toby didn't want to see that become dinner, even though he knew that it was likely to happen sooner or later.

"Gah, Monty no! This way. C'mon buddy. You can eat the birds later," the Hufflepuff called out to the creature, having to raise his voice slightly so he could be heard over the rushing of the wind around them. He used his hands to sort of gently guide Monty back towards the finish line, and breathed an unheard sigh of relief what the hippogriff did actually go that way. "Great job, Monty. You're doing super great."

Angel felt Benny getting a bit closer, this was amazing and she was actually starting to enjoy herself. "Will you teach me how to fly one day Benny?" Angel then realised that might sound like a stupid question. "I mean on brooms and on my own." Angel gave a small smile.

Angel then watched as Toothless went towards the finishing line. "Ladies and Gentleman, this is your captain Angel Valentine speaking, prepare for landing, we have reached our destination." Angel helped Toothless land and then she smiled as she continued. "Thank you for flying Air Toothless, we hope that you all have a pleasant day." Angel looked to see what Benny was doing at least they were now back on the ground, though she had just been getting used to flying.