Although she had decided to re-enter society for a bit, Laoren found herself a little worn out around the hubbub of the cities and towns. This was a perhaps inevitable consequence of living like a hermit for so long, even if she would not have styled herself one. Thus, she had decided to take a visit to the capital of Regnum. Though an ironic decision on the surface, she knew there were glades and hideaways aplenty in the flower where she could take a breather and see sights that weren't on the branches without being around a crowd.

Still, she had dressed as she usually did, a crisp white jacket and a purple shirt underneath. Although such crisp clothing would have stood out in the emptiness of the branches, it's not like there had been anyone around to remark upon that fact. Here, too, Laoren was a noticeable presence among the green and brown hues of the winter valley, though she would have been camouflaged fairly well had there been snow.

The human-looking figure stopped near one of the streams, stretching as she unfurled her decidedly nonhuman-looking wing, white in plumage but entirely unused for flying. She only had the one wing, after all. From within the unusually deep pockets of her jacket, she brought forth a warm, brown liquid in a spherical potion bottle, which she began to sip at while looking pleased with herself.

At some point she notice the faint buzzing of life nearby and looked around, confused as to whether there were insects out at this time of year, and wondering if she should have brought some mosquito spray.

Though she looked around with some concern as the buzzing sound drew closer, Laoren gave a sort of 'ah-ha!' expression as the winged person finally came into view. "Ah! No, I simply came out to have some tea and enjoy nature." She held up her flask, which did in fact have the aroma of her Oolong tea drifting forth from its neck. Upon closer inspection, the woman also appeared to have a lunch box of some sort tied to her waist.

"Oh! Is this, uh, your territory?" Laoren looked around awkwardly. Though she greatly enjoyed the scenery here, she suddenly remembered why she generally avoided Regnum, as well as the other flowers in general. A long time back when she'd visited, she'd been mistaken for an escaped serf and almost put to work. Having recalled one of the more unpleasant reasons for her need for fashion, Laoren set about suppressing that particular memory again.

"It's quite nice, peaceful and all. Not as beautiful as it is in the spring, I'm sure," she added, gesturing around to some of the more barren trees, "but I do like to visit places off-season. Less tourists, you know?" Laoren finished with that classic tone tourists used when they liked to pretend they were in with the locals.

"Ah. My name is Laoren. Just that, if you will." The now-introduced Laoren looked in the direction of Dasha's gesture with some relief. "Glad I didn't brush up against that. The last time I came across something like that, I still had two wings! You can guess what happened," she said with a chuckle, though it was uncertain whether her statement was entirely serious or not. Her relief seemed to be genuine enough, at least.

At the mention of knighthood, Laoren inspected the buzzing warrior more closely. She did seem to have the musculature that one might expect. "Well, if you're practicing flying, I can imagine not wanting to lug around armor." Laoren flourished her wing out a bit. "Not that I'm any expert, of course. This won't get me anywhere," she added with a chuckle, this one just the slightest bit forced.

"You don't need me out of the way, do you? I was planning on eating before leaving. Oh, or I could watch and let you know what you look like from below, if you'd like!" Laoren added, seemingly unaware of the knight's reason for doing practice away from others in the first place.

"Back when I had? Ah, let me think about that..." Laoren settled into a quiet contemplation, which lasted a touch longer than an average person dredging up a memory. The end result was a despondent head shake. "Too long ago. I could definitely do something cool enough, but I'm of no help here I'm afraid."

She looked around at the scenery. Certainly, an area this varied in elevation and obstacle density would provide a nice training ground for a wide variety of techniques. Still, though she was no combat expert, something did seem to be missing. "Ah, you know what it is," Laoren said aloud, neglecting to vocalize her prior thoughts. "You should probably practice with, er, live opposition, you know?" She looked towards the direction of the purported training grounds as she suggested that.

"Well, I guess you could get enough of that if you wanted. Hey, have you tried any maneuvers while carrying another person? I'd sure love to get a view of this place from up high! Before eating lunch, of course. After would be a terrible idea."

Before anything else happened, Laoren first secured her tea flask to her person. It would have been unfortunate to make a mess up in the air, especially on a white jacket. "Unfortunately, I'm not so fat as to weigh as much as, say, a comrade of yours in heavy armor that you have to rescue," she lamented jokingly. "With that in mind, I guess you should carry me however you might carry a bystander who's fallen unconscious or something similar. Around the chest, maybe."

The winged human put up her best swoon, collapsing carefully to the ground with her wrist over her forehead. "Oh, my, I appear to have fallen faint from having neglected my midday meal for so long. If only some dashing knight would come along to sweep me off my feet to the most scenic luncheon location available nearby," she said with her best 'damsel in distress' voice. In keeping with the realistic theme of the exercise, her one wing was sprawled out so as to complicate the carry as much as possible.

Allowing herself to remain limp, Laoren felt a bit like a disobedient cat being hauled off somewhere. She did smile a little at Dasha's practice of rescuer bedside manners, though. "I don't get called ma'am enough considering my age, that's for sure," she lamented with an exaggerated drawl.

Fortunately for the both of them, Laoren gave no indication that she could read the minds of amateur punsters, and instead dedicated herself to examining their surroundings from her newly elevated vantage point. She remained silent for a little while after Dasha's questions, taking in the view of the landscape from above while she could. Still, after a moment, her eyes drifted over a ways and she responded, "There seems to be a lake over there. Looks a little icy, but a lakeside lunch might be nice, no?"

At this point, Laoren had realized that, though of a slimmer persuasion like herself, Dasha was definitely strong enough to carry her with some stability. As such, she attempted to squirm herself slowly into a more comfortable position. A stray thought came to her head, which she blurted out: "It's been some time since I was held like this. Hope you're not enjoying yourself too much." After that, she began cackling, a form of laughter which sounded somewhat out of place given her soft-toned voice.

"Oh yeah, Unicorn Lake sounds-" Laoren shut up quickly as she realized in the back of her mind what was about to happen. She tried her best to remain still and easily held as she began to slip out of Dasha's grip, but the pit of dread in her stomach only deepened as she realized what was about to happen.

Unfortunately, Laoren did not have the mental discipline of a sage, and so her body began to tense up as the panic set in swiftly. Doubly unfortunately, her wing was part of her body. A brief twitch of her pinion shifted her out of the knight's grasp as she began to tumble down.

Despite knowing that she obviously could not fly with only one wing, Laoren's panic brain made her try anyway. Even if she never utilized her flight capabilities, she did have enough control over the wing to try and flap, and her flap had a surprisingly respectable amount of strength behind it, causing her flight path to curve suddenly into a nearby evergreen.

The collision resulted in a great number of disturbed pine needles, and a very disoriented Laoren stuffed inside the pines and branches of the tree like a last-minute Christmas decoration.