Thanks to @armoury for the beta!

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“Down.” I said firmly. Pointing down at the dirt with my finger.

Beithir stared at me, tongue flicking out as she tilted her head slightly in apparent confusion.

With a sigh, I crouched down, careful not to brush the dead hand against the dirt as I tapped onto the firm earth of the school. “Down.”

Beithir stared at my hand, then, as I watched, she patted the ground herself with her claws to mimic my motion.

… I let out a sigh, good hand running down my face as I shook my head. “Ya think ah was speaking Scots to ‘er.”

“Perhaps you should,” Morrigan responded, and I turned back to see the woman walking across the field with a book tucked underneath her arm. “You barely make enough intelligible sense when you try to speak English. Perhaps switching to a simpler language would be easier for you both?”

“Aye? An’ hear ah thought my tones were the envy of every man in Dover. Between my accent, my heroics, and my grizzled features ah’ll have ya know ah’ve yet to meet anyone immune to my charms.”

Morrigan snorted, coming to a stop a few feet away from me. “Truly? Charming are you?”

I nodded, “observe.” Then I raised my hand to my lips and let out a whistle. I smiled as the heavy footfalls filled my ears, and I moved my hands from my lips to the air as Beithir rubbed her snout against it. I curled the fingers, scratching lightly at the scales at the tip of her snout and caused a happy growl to escape the wyvern.

I never stopped looking at Morrigan as I did this either, a smile on my face. “See? The ladies love me.”

Morrigan laughed, one hand moving to cover her mouth as she looked away as if embarrassed I made her do so. “Well, at least your sense of humor didn’t get any more damaged from the accident.”

“Aye, small mercies. But it’s not easy to mount her with only one arm. Been trying to get her to learn to lay down so that ah can more easily. Seems that she can’t quite figure out the issue ah’m havin’.”

Morrigan let out a thoughtful hum, her gaze moving from me, to my ruined arm, then to my wyvern. “Well, nothing to do but to keep trying. Do you feel up to it?”

I shrugged my good shoulder and turned back to the wyvern. Removing my hand I pointed at the ground. “Down.”

Beithir stared at me, then her long tongue came out to run across my hand.

… This was going to take a while.

---

“Back ya dumb thing!” I shouted, eyes narrowed as I glared at Beithir.

The wyvern grumbled, backing away from me before letting out a snort of flame from its mouth that dissipated against the rocks. The slab of meat that I was previously offering was now held behind my back, and I stood on my toes a bit more for extra intimidating height… as much as you can intimidate Beithir in any case. I was offering her a treat, but in her haste to get it she nearly took my one remaining good hand off.

In the face of my glare Beithir tucked into herself, then she leaned forward slowly, placing her head down onto the rocks and looked up at me. Her tail lightly tapped the rocks behind her as she begged for the food.

“Aye? Yer a big scalie dog now? This the ca-”

My words were cut off as Beithir lifted her head and licked my face, her breath smelling of carrion. I sputtered, then tossed the treat forward and past her. Little more than a slab of raw beef, Beithir spun on the spot and chased after it, roaring and leaving the cliff shaking as she tore off after it. It landed onto the ground with a wet splat, and sadly before it got a chance to hide or even offer a prayer to god the wyvern was on it, curling around it like a snake around an egg, then, with a burst of hint and the scent of gas she let loose flame down onto it, the sound of sizzling meat filling the air before she plucked it off of the ground with her claw and stuffed it into her mouth.

She swallowed it without chewing, her tongue darting out to lick at her lips before she looked at me expectantly for more. “Ah don’t know why ya bother to cook it when ya can’t be arsed to chew.” I said, then pointed to the spot in front of myself.

Beithir, on cue, walked across the rocks to come to a stop in front of me. I stared up at her, then lifted my hand to rub it along her neck. The wyvern stretched, head looking up towards the glass of the aviary as I ran my hand along the softer scales of her neck.

“Most wyverns do it,” Morrigan says, responding to my earlier question. “To help with digestion likely. Or perhaps they simply like their food hot?”

I smiled at Morrigan's announcement of her presence and patted Beithir’s neck before allowing my hand to drop. My other hand hung, still useless, against my side, but I paid it little mind as I turned around to look at Morrigan. I also paid Beithir butting her head against my back little mind. Morrigan was dressed in her full regalia, which to her meant her armor as I tended to find. Her silver helm glinted in the light of the morning, designed in such a way that the only part of her face I could make out was her green eyes through the slit, and even then they were cast heavily in shadow.

“Well, here’s hoping she never decides ah look particularly tasty then,” I replied. “Lord knows she’s tried to cook me more than once.”

“Pity,” Morrigan said. “Mount up. I want another run of the course outside. You have less than a week until London and you need to be practicing as much as possible.”

“Aye.” I agreed. It had been three weeks since the injury, and since then it had been nothing but work. When I wasn’t riding Beithir I was reading about Beithir, when I wasn’t doing that I was receiving tips from Morrigan or sleeping… and I wasn’t doing much of the latter recently. But the progress was substantial, even if I wasn’t anywhere near where I would have liked to be. Turning back to my wyvern I pointed at the ground, and without a word from me Beithir lowered her entire body to the ground and looked up at me expectantly.

I walked up and threw my leg over, my hand grabbing the reins. With a slight tug against them, Beithir stood, and I nudged my left knee against her side to get her to turn towards the entrance at the lower level. Then, without any prompting on my part, the wyvern started forward, walking along the rocks and then the path towards the entrance to the aviary. I tugged the reins to the right to make her stay on the path, but Beithir was already halfway through the motion when I was. It is a difficult thing to control a flying animal, or any animal, with only one hand. But Beithir had been remarkably agreeable during the process, once you got to work teaching her hand gestures… she basically took over the rest, needing little prodding from her rider to actually maintain herself with me on her back.

As we stepped outside I pulled the reins back, and with a flap of her wings, Beithir lifted off of the ground. A happy trill lept from Beithir as I carefully guided her towards the racing grounds. They were little more than a series of twin poles stuck into the ground at odd intervals over several acres, but they served as a safe...er way of learning how to fly around obstacles without risking my other shoulder. It was a short flight from the aviary to it, but I needed to be flying as much as possible just to get used to guiding Beithir with only one hand. It was imprecise, clumsy, and I had to rely far more on Beithir’s instincts than my ability to control an animal. But it was also the only option I had available to me. The wyvern came to a skidding stop between the starting poles, looking around expectantly for the fun to begin. Beithir took to wyvern racing like… well, a racing wyvern. And I was lately all too eager to give her the chance to practice and learn, as she seemed to be about as new to it as I was.

Of course, that was just to learn control and how to turn a bit better. My weeks were full of training and adapting. Beithir… had to adapt to little actually, the moment I fully let her go as fast she wanted to she took to it like a bullet to gunpowder. Both in terms of speed and being something I was unable to take back after the fact. ‘More please’ was the order of the day for Beithir, and at this point, I was willing to let her go as fast as she wanted as long as she didn’t splatter me against a wall. Which she almost did.

Twice.

At those speeds, it was more on Beithir’s part to make the turn than myself. I was mostly there for general direction and command, she handled the actual difficult bits. Which she once again took to rather well, seemingly knowing what I wanted her to do even with the inaccurate rein tugging I was capable of accomplishing. I let out a low whistle, and Beithir leans her body forward, pressing her tail against the ground for balance as she nearly fully extends.

“Go!” I shouted, and I lost the ability to hear the words as Beithir took off like an arrow. She didn’t fly through the first gate, she leapt, her strong legs pushing off against the ground as she leaped into the air. Only when she reached the plateau of the jump did she flap her wings, the tips of them nearly touching the ground as she flapped them rapidly to increase her speed. The next passed by in a rush of wind, and I tugged against the reigns and pressed hard against her side with my left foot to bring her into a turn that took us through the next set of poles. My back slammed against the padded rest of the saddle behind me as we straightened again, and I pressed both of my feet against her sides this time as we approached a pair of pulls set onto a raised platform. Beithir could easily clear the platforms without the trick I was about to pull off, but it allowed her to keep her speed even as she gained height.

Flames billowed from Beithir straight down, blasting against the brown dirt below and sending the both of us higher in the air as the heated air hit her wings. We passed through the raised platform easily, then twisted to the right to pass through a harsh turn right next to it. Then, dead ahead were three pairs of poles in a row before a ‘gentle’ curve back towards the start. I kicked instead of simply pressing my legs against her side, “aye, faster girl!” I shouted.

Beithir likely couldn’t hear me, hell, I could barely hear me. But Beithir understood the gesture well enough. With my single hand holding firm onto the reins in case I needed to command her to lift herself back up, Beithir tucked her wings against her side and dived. I leaned forward, fighting the wind to wrap my arm around the front horn of the saddle, making as little of my body ‘visible’ to the wind as possible as we gained speed. Three.

Two.

One.

I snapped back and yanked the reins to the left, Beithir’s wings extended as we cleared the last set of pulls and she made a sharp turn to the left at my command. Then, all that was between us and the end of the course was a straight shot, Beithir’s wings pumped in the air, yesterday’s time was thirty-one seconds around the entire course, and I could feel the grin spreading across my face as I made myself as low to the saddle as possible once again. “Come on girl!”

We didn’t slow down or even stop as we passed the starting line once more, I wouldn’t dare to try. Instead, I pulled against the reins to send her in a wide turn to the right, and lightly patted the back of her neck to tell her to slow down. The wyvern’s wings fully extended, and she lifted herself back slightly to slow down. Then, and only then, did I guide her to a skidding stop against the dirt a good twenty feet away from the poles… and I’d estimated only just a bit more than half a minute since I started.

I laughed, tossing my gauntlets aside as I scratched the scales along her back. Beithir growled happily, turning her head to look back at me in what I would swear was a smile. I then slid off of her, landing unsteadily onto the ground and looking up for Morrigan. My legs were unsteady below me, my heart was pounding, and I was fairly sure that I may have bruised my back from how hard I hit the saddle.

Completely worth it mind. “What’s the time?” I asked, looking towards the Irish woman standing next to the starting line.

She holds up a stopwatch, though from where I was I could make the time. “Twenty-nine seconds, almost exactly. Do you feel ready?”

I grinned, reaching up to pull the helmet off of my head as I started to walk towards her. A heavy thudding sounded behind me as I did, telling me that Beithir was following along as usual. “Last time ah felt ready my shoulder exploded, but ah’m ready to give it another try at least.”

Morrigan smiled, slightly. “We’ll be leaving in two days for London, best to get in what practice you can, Jock.”

I reached behind me to pat Beithir on the shoulder, the wyvern grunting and leaning into the touch before I pulled away. “Aye, plan on it. An’ thanks for the help, even if ya got me into this situation, to begin with.” I then twisted my body, making the useless limb move slightly in the case “Shake?” I asked, grinning as I offered her the currently useless hand.

Morrigan stared at it, then at my face.

The laugh we both shared lasted precisely as long as it took for Beithir to get annoyed that I was no longer petting her and headbutted me in the back.