The sound of her clearing her throat seemed to startle those who hadn't initially noticed Azalea's approach. It was certainly enough to get her noticed then, and the soldiers straightened quite a bit in the dragon's presence. Even if she was a little bit on the tinier side than they'd perhaps have imagined one to be.
The officer looked down at his table and to the ledger there, and quickly scanned the different entries until he found what he was looking for. A tight grimace was all he had to 'say' on the matter of the time, and instead he turned to one of the corporals, gesturing him to lead the dragon in through the gates and up the short road to the training grounds.
It was a fantastic day.
Sure, most days were fantastic days, but that day was particularly fantastic. There had been hot coffee freshly made by the time Ekida had gotten down to breakfast, the sun was shining bright and glimmering in the sky, there was a healthy breeze to keep the weather from being sweltering, and the wind had provided the perfect buffer to make the day's flying drills cleaner than fresh fallen snow.
Sure, there had been the usual appointments to keep that weren't nearly so enjoyable as flying was, and sure, there had been a few soldiers who wore their bad mood like a perfume, and sure, one of Ekida's appointments was late - nearly an hour - but that didn't stop the day from being exactly the kind of perfect day Ekida loved to see for Ketra.
As if to underline his inner monologue, Ekida drew back on his bow in the practice range, paused, and let loose. The arrow landed with a loud thunk, just shy of the bullseye, but otherwise within a similar cluster as the rest of the arrows he had fired. Not bad grouping, not the best, but still much to be proud of.
"Dragonrider, Ekida, sir!"
Ekida was in the middle of pulling his arrows from the target when there was a sharp call from across the training yard, and he looked over to see a corporal walking briskly towards him with what Ekida almost took to be a bundle of sails. Shaking his hair out of his eyes, Ekida turned towards the corporal, looking just beyond his shoulders and positively smacked with understanding as a result.
Ah, right. His appointment. No bundle of sails after all, but rather a lean, white dragon who shuffled along like a dog looking for table scraps or a kind word. Hardly a gait befitting such a creature, and Ekida felt an instinctual pang of sympathy for the creature who was, apparently, NOT having a fantastic day at all.
"Ah. Thank you very much, corporal, you are dismissed." Ekida paused to return his arrows to their quiver, and set his bow down shortly after, leaving his hands free as he strode across the yard. He focused his thoughts, careful to keep his own presence calm and friendly so as to not further cause issue for the dragon. "You must be Azalea, are you not? Did you get lost? Are you thirsty?"
