Chapter 5 - Day 2
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Notes/Disclaimer: This fic is based solely on the Dinotopia movie, NOT the series. I apologize for any inconsistencies with the books. I don't apologize for any inconsistencies with the series because it bit. I don't own the movie, or the series, or the books. Thank you.
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Just as Sebastian had predicted, he was so tired that evening that he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was visited again by the dream of hands.
This time, the hands were joined by lips. Impossibly hotter than the hands themselves, the lips trailed softly down his chest, leaving a river of fire in their wake. David could hear nothing but the sounds of his own ragged breathing. His own lips moved as he silently chanted a prayer. He wasn't sure what he was asking for but the hands knew, and the lips knew, and so he prayed for it.
Vision finally came to him, in flashes. Through miles of thick haze, he could see glimpses of the bare flesh that blissfully contacted his own. The skin seemed to whisper through the mist and over his body, there and not there. Not solid, but felt so powerfully that they could not possibly be real.
Glimpses of gold also tortured his vision. Here and there strands of pure, blond hair would trail into his sight, only to vanish again quickly. His hands itched to tangle in that hair, pull the face with the heated lips towards him, drown in the lava of that kiss.
"Wakey-wakey!"
David was abruptly startled awake and catapulted out of his dream as reality came crashing down upon him like a bucket of cold water. He sat up hurriedly, only to find Sebastian standing over him, his eyes sparkling with amusement. He blushed involuntarily at the thought of his mentor rousing him from such an intimate dream.
"Come on," Sebastian urged. "It's almost dawn, and I want us to be in the air when it comes around." With that he strode away, leaving David to collect himself. As he left however, David couldn't help noticing the way the few precocious rays of early sun caught the edges of the White Rider's hair, giving him highlights that were... golden.
David blushed to the roots of his hair and was suddenly very, very glad that Sebastian's back was to him. My God, he thought, was that him in the dream? No way. Impossible. No possible way in hell I just had a hot dream about my teacher. These kind of things don't happen to me. Karl maybe, but not me. It can't have been him.
He stood shakily and quickly dressed, preparing himself for the rigors of another day training.
If it was possible, this morning's sunrise was even more beautiful than the first, thought David. Only this early in the morning did the sunlight hit the water just right, making the entire river glow a molten gold, surrounded by the red and pink glow of the canyon walls. It looked like a painting, and David used the awe of it to help clear his mind of all traces of the dream from the previous night.
This time, when they returned to the cliff, Sebastian produced a dozen or so small balls the size of his fist, half of them white and half black.
"Now," he said, showing the balls to David, "here's what we're going to do today. You and Freefall are going to go and perch on that ledge over there." He pointed to a small outcropping of rock a few hundred feet away and about fifty feet or so below them in height.
"I'm going to toss these balls into the air, and you and Freefall have to fly by and catch them. Now Freefall, no matter how strong the temptation to nab them with your beak, you have to let David catch them. It'll be more difficult for you to position yourself where he can catch them than for you to just catch them yourself, but that's the point of these exercises after all. And David, you're going to have to let go of the saddle with at least one, possibly both hands in mid-flight for this exercise."
David nodded. What Sebastian was proposing was difficult, but not impossible. "I don't have to wear a blindfold again, do I?" he asked dubiously.
Sebastian laughed. "No, not for this one. You'll probably only have to wear it once or twice more during the whole training session, don't worry. Now." He rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Here's how we're going to start it. At first I'm only going to throw the black balls, since they're much easier to spot from a distance. For the first couple times I want you two to zoom towards me as soon as the ball leaves my hand and see how quickly you can get it. After that I'll have you wait as long as you can and try to catch it as close to the surface of the water as possible. Then, once you can do that, I'll fly around with Cliffdiver and throw the ball at random; you'll have to be watching for it."
He must have seen David's expression, because he laughed again. "It's not as bad as it sounds, trust me. THEN, once I'm sure you can do all of that without trouble, I'll start throwing the white balls, which are nearly impossible to see from a distance in broad daylight. That's when you're going to start having problems." He grinned. "You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess," David muttered.
"Great! Then mount up and let's get started!"
It was mid-afternoon when they finally stopped for a break. They had gotten as far as Sebastian throwing the black balls from mid-flight, but David just couldn't seem to keep his head up long enough to look for the ball. They decided to stop for food and a little rest before continuing.
"So, have you been sleeping okay?" asked Sebastian as they sat around the remains of the previous night's campfire, finishing up their meal.
For a single, terrifying moment, David was absolutely sure that Sebastian knew that he had had been having hot dreams about someone who was most probably him.
Not him, David reminded himself. Of course it's not him.
Then he remembered that they had talked about his sleeping habits earlier, on the journey in. He nodded sheepishly, hoping his embarrassment didn't show.
"Yeah. I... I had kind of been having some bad dreams. I had a bit of a fight with my brother before I left and it's been haunting me. But you were right, those dreams stopped as soon as we started training."
For once, Sebastian didn't flash him a grin. Instead he simply looked gently concerned. "Do you want to talk about it? Your fight with your brother, I mean."
David considered this. Did he? He didn't really know Sebastian very well, but the other man had said he wanted to be friends. Besides, the White Rider wasn't that much older than him, after all. He must have had similar problems at some point.
"We were both kind of fighting over the same girl," he admitted. "And much as I hate to admit it, I think he may have finally won. I just- argh!" He slammed a fist into the ground in frustration. "He always wins, you know? No matter what we're competing over, he always manages to beat me somehow. And I really liked her, you know?"
"I'm sorry to hear that," said Sebastian. "It's very difficult to fight with one's siblings. I know, I have two of them. But if you really care about the girl, then you should probably ask yourself, what did she actually want?"
David was startled. He hadn't thought to consider that. But when he thought about it, Karl really was all that Marion would want, wasn't he? He was the clever one, the daring one, the bad boy. Women always did go for the bad boy, didn't they?
He sighed. "You're right, of course. I guess I should let her go. He really is better for her than I would be. So I guess I should respect that and move on. Still, it irks me a little that there isn't anything that I'm really better at him than. Anything that really counts, anyway."
Sebastian stood, holding a hand out to David and pulling him to his feet. "Nonsense! You're plenty good at flying, and that's something he'll never be able to do. Speaking of which, come on. I think I know how to help you with this exercise."
Still pulling on his hand, Sebastian led David over to Freefall. "Mount up," he ordered.
David did so and, without any warning at all, Sebastian mounted up behind him. Freefall squawked slightly in protest, but Cliffdiver said something to him in Saurian that David didn't catch and the Skybax calmed.
"Now," said Sebastian, "lay across the saddle like you usually do."
Somewhat nervous about the unaccustomed presence behind him, David leaned over the saddle, grabbing it at the front as he usually did and assuming the posture he maintained during flight.
He gasped involuntarily as Sebastian laid himself on top of him, putting his hands over David's own.
David was suddenly stunned by the incredible feeling of his mentor's weight on top of him, a delicious pressure that sent a shiver of pleasure through his entire body. Not entirely sure where it came from, David fought to overcome the wave of lust that threatened to overpower him. As if from another dimension, he heard Sebastian's voice, even as the man's breath whispered like a ghost across his ear.
Sebastian, seemingly oblivious to David's turmoil, was re-positioning David's hands. "See," he said, "if you hold it more here, towards the center, then you can prop yourself up better so you can see around you and keep an eye out for the ball, or any other incoming target. Got it?"
David pulled together enough decorum to nod his head, and Sebastian thankfully slipped off the saddle, returning to his own mount. "So," he said, as if his complete invasion of David's personal space had been nothing out of the ordinary, "are you ready?"
David tried to speak, but found that he couldn't manage to make his voice work. He swallowed once and cleared his throat hurriedly. "Ready!" he assured Sebastian, hoping he didn't sound as unsettled as he felt.
They went back to training and David found that Sebastian was right; the positioning of his hands did make all the difference.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.
