( closed ) even though I keep trying

[periastron]

WHO: Alex & Sarah
WHAT: griffon rider nerding out
WHEN: eh
WHERE: Gallows
NOTES: tba if necessary

It's exciting, all this. Learning new things, making new friends. And she does count herself in the company of new friends, because she's managed to come to grips with how to best interact with giant lion birds, which isn't something she'd ever considered very likely.

Alex is doing medical checks, making sure eyes are bright and clear, skin and feathers are healthy, and beaks are murderously sharp. Diet seems to be good, they're doing well, and Alex is getting ready to head to the stairs to meet Sarah, when she feels a knock at her back, right between her shoulder blades. "Okay, Uggie mate, okay. I gotta go get someone, but then you'll get a whole heap of cuddles, alright?"

She decides to take the forward tilt of his head feathers as a yes.

So, time to go find Sarah, and Alex is jogging down staircases, past offices and all the rest, and she's in the home stretch when she—

trips, stumbles, almost catches herself, and lands shoulder-first at the front door of the tower, with a loud thud. It's followed by am equally loud, albeit muffled, "fuck!"