After spending the night in a storeroom, sleeping on a sack of wood shavings to keep away from prying rune scribes, Vidar was in a mood. The new pair of boots keeping his feet warm was a comfort as they set out from the village, at least. Any attempt at paying the old lady was met with pleasant but firm assurances that the warmth and light runes were more than enough. Even so, he'd hidden a couple of silver coins in her kitchen, and she would find them at some point in the future.

Striding up to Jarl, trying to shed what could only be described as sulkiness, Vidar did his utmost to summon an ounce of cheer. "Fine day today! We're not going to that garrison, are we?"

"Why are you yelling?" Jarl asked, his eyes red-rimmed and looking like he hadn't seen much in the way of sleep either. "The weather is foul, and yes, we will be stopping by to see if the landmaester has any news to share."

Optimism and cheer, feigned or not, evaporating, Vidar couldn't contain a deep sigh. "Why?"

"Why, what?" Jarl asked as they set off, their party even smaller than the day before. Soldiers were missing. Fredrik and Freja didn't seem to notice as they walked at the back of the column, conversing while throwing looks full of meaning Vidar's way.

"What news could a landmaester out here have to give us?"

"Bandit activity, for one," Jarl said, his gaze never wavering from the road ahead, leading out and away from the village. "And monsters, for that matter. Dragons. The villagers spoke of dragon sightings."

"I'll deal with whatever comes our way," Vidar grumbled.

"How kind and thoughtful of you," Jarl scoffed. "Also, Fredrik and Freja have demanded we attempt to secure new wagons and beasts of burden."

The mention of wagons led to an immediate return of at least a sliver of optimism. "Wagons?"

"I'm sure you'll be allowed to walk if you so wish."

"No, no," Vidar said. "I'll be fine on a wagon."

"Mhm."

While Vidar's new shoes were more comfortable than anything he'd ever worn, walking was still an arduous and slow process that he wouldn't miss. Fredrik and Freja, while stressing over their slow progress, didn't seem to mind the actual walking at all, much to Vidar's displeasure. Also, unless he figured something else out, he'd be doing a whole lot of walking later, once he'd left his current travel companions behind. It'd been a few days now, and the journey to Stalheim wasn't supposed to be much longer than that, so perhaps they were even drawing close despite the hurdles they'd been forced to overcome. If so, Vidar needed to start figuring out his next steps. Above all else, he needed a means to travel faster. Much faster.

To that end, Vidar considered the stakra rune as they left the village behind. Triggering a thrust rune meant a sudden burst that drained the essence in an instant. At least, that was how it often went. Creating a much smaller gap in the runic circle when triggering a stakra rune gave a smoother experience with a prolonged period of thrust. That meant it was possible to make a more graceful ascent into the sky, at least in theory, like with the cart they'd used to reach the dragons. That, however, had been Alvarn's idea, and he'd spent a good long while finessing the many stakra runes to work together and at just the right amount of thrust. Vidar didn't have the time nor the inclination to spend hours upon hours getting it just right. Instead, he would have to go about this through trial and error.

Finding a flat-enough rock next to the road, he stopped, telling everyone who passed that he'd catch up as he withdrew paint from the satchel. Attempting this with runes tattooed on his skin was an option because he had the foresight to put stakra runes in different places on his body, but that meant going without coat and shirt, and he was willing to part with neither just to experiment. It might have been getting warmer, but it was still far from warm.

With the group trudging off ahead, Vidar crafted runes by painting several encircled runic symbols on the back and front of the coat. Before donning it again, he waited a few moments, allowing the paint some time to dry as he jumped around, rubbing at his own arms to stave off the worst of the cold.

Once satisfied triggering the runes wouldn't destroy the paint, Vidar held up the coat, nodding to himself. "This will work. I'm sure it will work."

The words didn't inspire much confidence, no matter how much feigned conviction he put into them. Having rejuvenated the new runes and put the coat on, he stood for a moment, looking into the distance, considering what he was about to attempt. Not just the foolhardiness of it, which could be somewhat mitigated by algiz runes to protect him from the fall, at least to an extent, but also how unpleasant it would be. Vidar sighed and removed his boots, stepping onto the soft, cold mud with bare feet. Shuddering, he pushed them into the satchel, forcing them down. He'd ruined the previous pair with carving runes into them, and he was not about to walk around with sodden feet again so soon after getting new ones.

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After strapping another stakra rune to his burned hand, Vidar found no reason to linger. The stone would make a decent launching-off point. If he just ran at it, took a swift step up, and jumped, that would give him some air from which to trigger the runes. Feet first, to move upward, then the runes on his back to give forward momentum. To accomplish this, he'd made painted lines going down his coat and in under it, leading to styrka runes on his back. That way, he could feed essence to the runes after triggering it, which should give him an easier time of keeping everything synchronized and stable.

"This is going to be fun," he told himself as he backed up, speaking through a clenched jaw. Breathing in deep, Vidar set off, running at the stone, screaming, "Fun!"

Just as planned, he leaped up onto the stone and pushed off. While in the air, he triggered the runes tattooed on the soles of his feet, focusing on keeping his knees locked. It thrust him forward at an upward angle, and Vidar screamed as he hurtled through the air. It should be said that he followed the road on the first attempt. He had to give himself that. The rest could stand to do with some improvements.

Triggering the runes at his back pushed him forward as planned, with enough force to make it feel like his stomach would push out through Vidar's back. Rather than going forward and up, he just tumbled forward, spinning as the essence in the runes drained at frightening speed. Another thrust from his feet meant little when they were horizontal to the ground, and it just meant he floundered all the more as he spun, limbs flailing, hurtling into the ground at a low angle. Algiz saved him. Rather than breaking every bone in his body, Vidar bounced. Once, and then again. Luck more than anything took him into the air with another thrust, and he screamed in exhilaration as he soared toward the tops of the trees. This drained the runes again, and he rejuvenated them, keeping a close eye on the dragon's essence in his heartwell. Well, as close as one could while being thrown through the air, screaming. Even using runes to this extent didn't put too much of a strain on his essence, and he had Rend's dragon to thank for that. Without dragon's essence, tossing himself through the air again and again would be impossible. At most, he might've managed it once. And make no mistake, what Vidar did at that point was nowhere near what you might call flight. It was more like grabbing himself and throwing, hoping for the best, then doing it again without stopping.

Unable to keep the leap following the road, Vidar veered off into the trees. Coming to a sudden stop against the thick trunk of a pine before peeling off it, falling to the ground. Algiz lessened the impact of the tree, but not the ground. Thankfully, moss covered the ground, as well as a bush, which cushioned the worst of it.

"Ow," Vidar groaned, getting to his feet.

Seeing the road through the trees, Vidar returned to it, left leg dragging a little from a pang in the thigh. The pain wasn't too bad, but to call the first attempt a success would be fooling himself. Adjustments would need to be made. The first time he used stakra runes to lift himself off the ground, when scaling the wall to Nordstan, he'd used a much larger trigger opening to carry himself, but the thrust was still much more forceful this time, to the point that the dragon's essence could not account for all of it. Considering this, Vidar sat down and examined his foot. After wiping off the worst of the grime to see the tattoo, he realized the difference. The quality of the runic symbols. It was far better made than what he would've been able to craft on his own back then. Even the hastily painted runes on his coat were of greater quality.

"Great," he muttered. "Another thing to take into account."

The first attempt at flying hadn't sent him far, and the rest of the group was still too far ahead to spot on the winding path between the trees. Another try then, he figured. This time, with even more care.

Rather than rush forward with a running start, Vidar rejuvenated the runes and triggered those at the bottom of his feet, keeping the triggered opening almost nonexistent. Feeling the thrust, Vidar swayed a little, but didn't lift off the ground. With frustration bubbling, he widened the triggered opening while the rune was active, not bothering to consider the implications. This time, experimentation didn't blow up in his face.

"Whaaaa..."

Able to control the thrust to a much greater degree, Vidar lifted off the ground. Easing up on the stakra runes, he hovered.

"I'm flying," he whispered to himself, before losing control, flipping forward, and planting his face into the mud.

Spitting and wiping away the grime, Vidar reached his hands into the air. "I flew!"

On the third attempt, he managed to stay straight for a little longer, but not by much. Same with the fourth, and the fifth. With frustration growing again, each attempt made little progress. Keeping yourself from toppling over was almost impossible for more than a brief moment, and his group was getting farther and farther away.

All of a sudden, conscious of just how alone he was in the middle of a forest, Vidar swallowed hard and looked around. Birds chirped from somewhere unseen, and something small scurried in the underbrush beyond the trees. The sun shone bright through the crowns of the trees, and the air smelled fresh like the coming spring, if you ignored the earthen stink of drying mud. Not spotting any animals, and more importantly, no monsters, he breathed a sigh of relief and resumed training, using his hands to balance himself in the air. Just like the previous several attempts, this one ended with arms wheeling, a lot of cursing, and a face full of mud.

Cleaning the stuff off again, muttering to himself, Vidar stopped to stare at his hands. That was it. Of course, that was it. Balancing himself like he'd been trying wouldn't work, not without so much practicing first, it would be faster to just walk to the mountains of the North. But what he could do was use the stakra runes on his hands. He'd done so on the first attempt, but just as another way to push himself forward. If he instead tried using those same stakra runes for stabilization, that might just work.

"It will work," he told himself as he got up.

It was time to give this another go, right after warming his poor white and blue toes back up with warmth runes, since waiting another moment to do so might just result in them falling right off his feet.

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