Jade

Trees. Greenery. A fragment of blue sky.

The dragon squinted in the glaring sun. Where was she? Slowly, she tilted her head to look around her, head pounding with pain.

Everywhere she looked, she saw green. Bursting from the ground, overflowing from the trees, winding up the trunks. The dragon ducked her head and concentrated, but her mind refused to cooperate, sending a starburst of colour flashing beneath her eyelids. Gingerly, she clambered up from the ground, shaking dewdrops off her wings with quick flaps and wincing when her mind gave another pang. She shied away instinctively, peering down on the plants that sprouted near her feet.

Where was she? The dragon surveyed the area with growing doubt when another question surged into her mind.

Who was she?

A sudden rustle of the leaves alerted her to another presence. Immediately, the dragon's body shifted subtly into what she could tell was a practiced warrior pose, wings angled and claws tight. Was she a warrior then?

A louder shaking of branches stopped her from slipping into her thoughts again, and the dragon frowned. Her claws dug into the dirt and slowly, she inched her wings wide to catch the breeze, ready to launch off at a moment's notice. Suddenly, the dragon winced as another pang racked her mind. Her careful pose faltered, and she crashed to the ground in searing pain.

Immediately, the rustling intensified until it came to a sudden stop. The dragon squinted up at the sky from her spot and nearly jumped out of her skin when a pair of glowing green eyes materialised in front of her.

"Alright there?" The dragon heard the eyes say. With a quick shake of the other dragon's head, a face popped up, partially hidden by the thick foliage. Birds whistled grumpily and adjusted to accommodate the grinning face. "Do you normally shake like that?"

The dragon was indeed trembling, she realised. Out of exhaustion, possibly. She felt as if she could pass out on the forest floor there and then, which wouldn't do wonders for a first impression. Instead, she inspected the other dragon.

The other dragon was a monstrous catastrophe of green, dishevelled and unkempt, with birds literally nesting in her scales. Then again, she considered, her appearance probably looked worse than the . So she continued to peer up at this disordered - but practically glowing - dragon, who was looking more and more worried with every passing moment.

"Oh. Oh dear," the green dragon tutted.