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"Aw, come on, it can't be that hard." Eti grinned. "Scared?"
And before he could reply, she stretched out her wings as far as they could reach and began to flap. Warm air rushed away from her as her wings flapped faster and faster, and gradually Eti found her toes lifting off from the ground. She could feel the immense weight of her body tugging her back downwards, but she concentrated on moving her wings up and down, up and down, till she was at least three feet above the ground. Sweat rolled down from her forehead, and her face had turned rather red from exertion, but she continued flapping.
Suddenly, a rush of warm air swooped under her wings, and she soared upwards, high above Aniane's head. Eti let out a scream, half from fear but half from excitement, as she flipped over in the air. She held out her wings in desperation, staring in fright at the bubbling lava beneath her. "Aaaaaaaaaahh!" she cried as the upcurrent disappeared and she began to nosedive. She rushed, faster and faster, towards the deadly lake of melted rock. Eti screwed up her eyes. Better not to see it happening. It would all be over soon.
It was a miracle! She swooped upwards, nearly brushing the lava with her toes, and sailed up once more. With a relieved whoop, she tilted to one side and turned in a lazy circle, soaring back to Aniane. She flapped her wings to slow herself down, and let her toes come to rest once more on solid rock.
"You see?" Eti panted, wiping her sweaty forehead with her sleeve. "Nothing to it!"

((Have you ever played the video game Jak 3? It's got this funky glider thing you have to fly in certain places, and I'm getting all my flying tips from that.))

Eti's eyes narrowed as Aniane set off. "Oh, yeah?" she shouted after him, running to the end of the safe rock, flapping her wings and aiming at the upcurrent she had used before. She felt the whoosh under her wings as she soared upwards again, and she aimed towards the far shore. Why was Aniane darting all over the place, going up and down and side to side when he could be going straight just as easily?
Suddenly, Eti remembered what had happened to her, and understood why. As the air began to fail under her wings, she desperately wheeled to one side. She could almost see the various upcurrents coming from the vents in the rock, as if they were bits of fog shooting upwards. She hit one straight on and zoomed up again. She began to copy Aniane, darting from upcurrent to upcurrent, though all the time she tried to cut corners. Several times, she was sure she wouldn't make it to the next upcurrent, but right as she finished thinking that, she would hit the blast of hot air and soar towards the next one.

((sorry for the absurdly short post))

"Yikes!" cried Eti, rushing over to him. She had landed a moment before he did. She pulled him into a sitting position and looked him over. "Guess you didn't break anything, but I'm no doctor, you know. Still..." She suddenly grinned. "I beat you."

"Well, look who's got a good memory!" Eti joked before answering his question. "Me, I'm off to Durnstrad. You know, at the foot of the mountain. That's where I live. Good burg for a mercenary, you know! Tons of people pouring in, right close to the capitol so there's always a war going on someplace where somebody might wanna send you. I've been in about...oh...five wars, not counting a little skirmish off at Hasteful. That one sure wasn't fun. Bunch o' cowards. You been in any battles?"
As she spoke, Eti led the way confidently through the passage she had entered in half an hour ago, only stopping her barrage of talk when the cool wind of the outdoors hit her unprotected face. For a moment, she felt as she would have if she had suddenly left a warm, toasty tavern to find herself standing before a wintry gale, but then she felt a prickling all over her skin and the ubrupt coolness of the summer mountain air felt comfortable. The sun was shining high in a clear, cloudless sky, and Eti could see for miles all around, to forests and valleys, lakes and the rest of the mountain range angling off to the right. A small smudge of smoke below them announced the town of Durnstrad.
Eti took a deep, satisfied breath and pushed down the hood of her Firecloak, shaking out her wavy red hair that spilled down below her shoulders, completely unchecked and rather wild-looking. Her face was now totally revealed for the first time to Aniane; it was round except for a pointed chin, and her nose was rather skinny. Her eyebrows were dark red, almost brown, and seemed to angle downwards in a determined look, though the twinkle in her extremely dark green eyes betrayed a rather playful nature. The scarlet scales of her wings and tail, glittering in the noonday sun, fit her hair extremely well, and made a pretty contrast with the black of her borrowed Firecloak.

"'It looked nice,'" Eti mimicked, stuffing her fist in her mouth in the attempt to stifle her giggles. "Nice is one thing it sure isn't," she finally gasped out when she regained her composure. "Well, according to normal standards, anyway. I like it, but then again I like a bunch of things not many people like too much. There's a ton of crime, so you've either gotta watch your purse or stow it somewhere they won't think to look." She winked slyly, and then her eyes widened slightly as she reassured him, "But don't worry; the murder rate's been going down every year. Pickpockets have sorta learned the patrols don't like kniving episodes very much. Still, keep your weapon handy and don't draw attention, and you'll do fine." She patted her sword hilt with a grin.
"Well, shall we get started? We don't hafta fly, you know." She chuckled to herself.

"Pah, weapons," Eti scoffed. "You won't need 'em, so long as you stick with me. I know the ins and outs of Durnstrad like the back of my hand. Been there since I was a kid. But what are we standing here yabbering for? Come on, let's go!" Eti grabbed Aniane's arm and pulled him along as she started down the trail.
"So, what did you say you did for a job again? And whatcha looking for, anyway?"

Eti felt an inexplicable ire rise inside her. "Well, no wonder!" she exploded, brows harshly drawing together. "How would you feel if somebody came barging into your house, looking for your wedding ring or something like that? It's no wonder Amarynth did this to us."
Eti thought for several moments before she breached an entirely different subject, her voice much quieter this time. "Not to pry or anything, but you got any family? Like a brother, or something? I...I don't." She hastily cleared her throat and forced herself to think about daisies. Nice daisies...sitting in a patch of them...
Don't try to think about them, Eti told herself. Just forget them; they're gone. But Eti knew that she wouldn't cry. It was a comforting thought, and so instead she waited for Aniane's reply.