Redhawk Caldera you can make me whole again

Don't squish the kid. Don't squish the kid. Do NOT squish the kid.

He ran the thought through his mind several times, and assured himself he was relatively light, and could be light on his feet. He would've preferred to have Eljay try launching off his shoulders first, just to see how bad the impact really was, but there was no having that. He'd perked right up when Shrike offered to switch positions, and he couldn't go back on that now. He crouched, and decided then and there that he wouldn't run full tilt, and would do his best to be as gentle on Eljay's shoulders as he could. 

"Okay!" Shrike called, and lunged forward at a lope. He didn't need too much speed, he didn't figure, as this was just the first test. Once he was sure Eljay could bear his weight, he'd give it a more honest try, but for right now, he wasn't going to try much at all. He was quite close to Eljay when he finally left the ground, landing tentatively on Eljay's shoulders, and springing lightly up off them. He was nowhere close to grabbing the leaves- he likely could have jumped higher from the ground without jumping from Eljay's shoulders- but he had to make sure, first, that Eljay didn't mind having even the slightest bit of weight dumped on his shoulders. He landed and swirled around, ears foward. "You ok?"