not quite flying

Do you mind if I stay too? The question came. Halo offered Dread a smile, and a fond look. “You’re welcome to, it’s actually going to be a lesson.” The words were spoken softly, confidentially, before the pups had a chance to arrive. If they knew they’d be learning? Well, then there may well be an uproar! Probably not, but Halo would play things up just a bit for dramatic effect. It was fun, and she was going to have fun with it.

“Warden, your manners.” Halo’s tone was serious for just a moment, her eyebrows lifting. The mom look. The boy took the correction without so much as a roll of his eyes, but she dropped the look just a heartbeat later. Wylan was quick to join them, too. Halo’s smile was gentle, proud, as she looked at the boys. “This is your uncle Dread.” A quick introduction wouldn’t hurt. “Dread, this is Wylan, and this is Warden.” She ruffled each boy’s ears in turn.

“Okay my dears! We’re going to practice falling.” Halo’s gaze sets on each of her pupils in turn, making sure they’re following along. Making sure they’re paying attention. “When we’re playing, it’s not unusual for us to fall down. I know some of you boys want to be fighters, too, and that involves so, so much falling down. It’s important that we learn how to fall so we don’t get hurt.” Halo pauses once more, looking for understanding from her students. It seemed like they were getting it well enough, so she continued on. “The most important thing to remember is that when you’re falling, you want to feel loose and wiggly instead of tense and scrunched up.” Halo demonstrated what she meant by loose and wiggly. Wiggling over her knees, her elbows, being silly about it– but silly was a good way to learn. She demonstrated tense, too. Scrunching her face, locking her knees, exaggerating– exaggerating in an important way.

“Show me wiggly!” Halo instructed the group, standing before them and wiggling. Once satisfied that they understood what she was asking for, she stopped wiggling. “Great job! Show meeeee tense and scrunchy!” She demonstrated once more, waiting for the group to mimic her movements as well. When she was satisfied with that as well, she began her instruction once more. “You can relax now, well done! If we’re loose and wiggly, we’re less likely to get hurt when we hit the ground.”

“When we’re falling, it’s also important that we try to land on the places that are soft and squishy. We don’t want bones to be the first thing to hit the ground, that will hurt more. Squish hitting on the ground hurts less. Does anyone have a guess as to what squishy parts are the best to land on?” Halo waited patiently for her pupils to answer. Dread looked to her for a moment, deciding to give the pups a chance to answer first, earning a small grateful smile from the healer.

"Halo"