[Khrusolophos]

Hey penultima, is my rider almost done? I'm being very impatient, sorry...

[Penultima]

Hey penultima, is my rider almost done? I'm being very impatient, sorry...

Please PM me, I just finshed it. Posting on an unrelated topic like this is considered spam.

[AirAngel]

Advanced Training #1: Relaxation.

Sakura sighed happily. This was her favorite spot from many years ago- one of the largest hills that overlooked her village and everything beyond. And now she got to share it with her magnificent dinosaur. She leaned against the lying dinosaur's stomach, drawing. The sunset at this time was beautiful, and she felt that it was her duty to capture it for everyone to see. Suddenly, mid-stroke, Laetus bumped her with his big schnoz (sometimes my dad will say that when he's joking, it's funny x3), and the pencil went wide.
"Laetus!" she groaned. She tapped him sharply on the nose- Laetus just rumbled with laughter. "Oh hush, you," she grumbled. But she wasn't really mad.

<3

[AirAngel]

Advanced Training #2: Border ride

Sakura listened to her mother call, “Sakura! Your father wants you to saddle up Laetus and head over to the house to meet him! Get moving!”
She paused, wondering what that meant. Then she shrugged. She could ask when she got there. Sweeping the area briefly and finding no danger, she ran out to meet her love.
“Laetus!” she sang out to her beautiful dinosaur. “Come here, buddy!”
He rose his majestic head and looked at her from the (pasture?). Then he rumbled and walked over to Sakura, his beautiful golden eyes glinting. She tossed him the leg of a smaller type of dinosaur, and he, magnificent as always, caught it gracefully and swallowed it.
She sighed happily. Sakura loved Laetus; there was nothing about him that she didn’t like. His colorful body gleamed and shone in the sun, like crystals. His intelligence allowed her to teach him anything that he was physically able to do. His power and ferocity to defend her made her feel like a queen.
Enough daydreaming, she growled at herself. Then she smiled, pulling out the tack from under a covered area, and pulling it over to him.
Laetus eased down, until his arms touched the ground. The skin around the scar on his haunches rippled and bunched up.
“Thank you, bud,” she said warmly. Sakura swung the saddle pad over his shoulders, the horribly heavy saddle after it. I wish I had a nicer saddle, she thought, mildly unhappy at the scuffed up, brown leather. She shook her head as she fastened the chest straps, and then reached for the bridle, popping it on. Laetus grumbled, and stood up. Sakura proceeded to fasten the belly straps to the saddle, and then she clambered up by the stirrups and sat in the saddle.
“Let’s go, Laetus. Over to the house,” she said, and they ran the short distance towards her father, mounted on his silvery-blue dinosaur, Argentum.
“Your first border patrol,” her father said with a twinkle in his eye before she could ask what was going on.
“Oh, dad, really?!” Sakura cried out with joy. She’d always wanted to go on a border patrol, to see what else was really out there beyond the hills. She dreamed about going on the sunset patrol, when the setting sun lit Laetus’ skin ablaze, looking like a fiery peacock. “Right now?”
“Yes, daughter. Come, the others are waiting.” He led her off to where two other warriors and one new rider waited. They reached the party, exchanged a few words, and set off, traveling through a pass between the hills that was most frequently used for patrols. Wind whistled through the space, and Sakura grinned.
I’ll have to remember to figure out how to paint wind. This is giving me too much inspiration to NOT paint it, she thought, a giddy, floating feeling dancing through her stomach. She had never felt so… free. Laetus stretched his legs even more as he walked, raising her higher in the air as he sensed her elation. Two best friends, together embracing the wind of innocent joy.
“So…” the other newer rider started sheepishly, looking at her. “Your dinosaur’s name is… Lae- something? Laeta? Laeton? Um… Laetus?”
“The last interpretation is correct,” she said, glancing at him. “What is yours?”
Laetus had become quite the famous dinosaur among the tribe when Sakura had brought him to her home. The fact that he’d been attacked by Mat’huen had riled up everyone, making him a symbol of revenge. Almost everyone knew his name.
“My gal’s name is Lumina,” he said warmly, stroking the neck of his white-striped green dinosaur.
"Pretty," Sakura replied. She started to gaze over the distance, frowning as she saw movement on the horizon. "What is tha-..." she started to ask, when a cacophony of screeching erupted against her ears.
Smaller carnivorous dinosaurs, ones that worked in packs, swarmed over the hills.
"Warriors, to arms!" her father bellowed. "I've never seen a pack this large!"
The older riders pulled out their bows, shooting as quickly as they could at the hoard. The screeching reached a new volume, and Laetus leaped to the side- without Sakura. She fell to the dirt, gasping and winded.

[AirAngel]

Advanced Training #3: Mounted HEADSHOT (Not really, but... ;-;)

Sakura was frozen with fear and pain. The hoard was nearly upon her, and she saw her death coming. Stomped and sliced to bits. Tears pricked her golden brown eyes, and she struggled to rise, fighting the paralysis. I'm not going to get back up in time, she thought, hopeless. Her eyes closed... And snapped back open as air wooshed by her face.
Laetus' tail smashed into the oncoming flood of the predators. He slammed his foot down, lunging his head forward, and roared. It was the most vicious, enraged sound Sakura had ever heard. His golden eyes were blazing with the light of the sun, and the muscles in his legs bulged as he darted forwards, screeching his fury at the pack. The smaller dinosaurs bunched together and backed off, snarling in unison. Laetus backed up, next to Sakura.
Grunting, she rose and jumped up, grabbing the stirrup and launching herself into the saddle.
"Sakura, are you all right?!" her father hollered to her fifteen meters away, throwing spears at the predators that were growing increasingly braver... it seemed that a green one, far faster than the rest, was the leader. They were taking the lead from him, and it appeared that the leader wasn't about to get killed anytime soon.
"Fine!" she yelled back.
"Then I need you to use your bow."
Her stomach dropped. She hadn't used a bow on dinoback yet, and the fear of hurting Laetus tortured her mind. There's no way! she thought in a panic.
Her father darted next to her in a second, nailing another dinosaur that had tried to lunge forward at them. "Sakura, you've been shooting for years, and the skill that develops from that dedication stays with you. You might not be quite as good of a shot mounted right now than if you were on the ground, but you'll hit them. We need another bow if we can take this mob down," he said grimly.
It was as though she had fallen off again- the paralyzing feeling, the terror...
"Sakura! NOW!" Her father roared as the dinosaurs attacked again, led by the green one, jumping over their dead packmates.
Terrified, she unslung the bow from her shoulder in a fraction of a second, yanking an arrow out of the quiver attached to her saddle.
Before she could even blink, the arrow sang its way from her bow and slammed into the green dinosaur's....

Eye.

He fell to the ground instantly, dead. The other dinosaurs, without a leader, stopped. They backed away, and then, shrieking even louder, they turned tail and ran. Laetus roared in triumph, and the other Bernikesaurs followed suit. Immediately after, without the riders even needing to tell them, they turned tail and headed home.
Sakura sat, perfectly still, in the saddle. Her mind simply couldn't comprehend what had just happened. The other riders came towards her, praising her and calling her "champion of the bow".
Her father walked over to her atop Argentum, the pride in his face so obvious that it contested the sun.
"Daughter," he said warmly. "I believe this calls for a feast."

Sakura had never tasted better food.

[AirAngel]

Nearly finished with advanced training... Also, bump.

[AirAngel]

I have completed advanced training, and am now a fully fledged rider x3

[AirAngel]

She's perfect!! *OOOOOO*