. 2 .
Day 3
Location: ???
Current dragons:
Felka,
Sance
(optional ambiance listening)
Coliseum: 30-40 matches
The night passed without incident. In the morning, Sance woke feeling stiff and achey. He helped Felka bury the remains of the fire, and then the two of them set out into the sea of grass.
The warm wind that blew along the open fields rustled Sance’s feathers and made the tall grass around them bow and sway. Small, puffy clouds scudded across the sky and fat, fuzzy bees buzzed from one wildflower to the next.
“It’s really kind of nice out here,” Felka said, stopping to appreciate a small, white butterfly that was flitting across her path. “With terrain this gentle, we might be able to find a clan settled around here somewhere that can tell us where we are.”
Sance considered that.
“If we could find out where we are, then we’d know which way we’d need to go to get to the Starfall Isles,” he mused. “I mean, if the ship did sink or run aground, isn’t it weird that none of wreckage washed ashore with us?”
Felka nodded in agreement.
“It could be that the ship is completely fine. And even if they got blown off-course, that’s where they would be heading next.”
That sat well with Sance. It felt good to have a plan.
Around midday, they stopped to rest in the shade of a patch of large shrubs. The flat grasslands were giving way to broad steppes, each one rising up from the last. The ascent was gentle, but the two dragons were tired, which made their progress slow.
A stream burbled nearby. Sance tried to catch one of the small fish that darted among the shallow waters at the banks, but he came up empty-handed. He contented himself with a long drink of the cool, clear water.
“You know what I wish I had with me?” Felka asked as Sance settled down next to her.
“Hmm?”
“My journal.”
“Oh, right. It must still be with the ship, huh?”
“Most likely,” Felka blew a bug away from her face. “Wherever that is.”
They sat in silence. The sunlight filtering through the leaves above them cast spotted shadows on their limbs that shifted to and fro with the breeze. Felka used a claw to scratch something into the dirt, though Sance couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be.
A rustling in the nearby bushes brought their wandering thoughts sharply back to the present. In a moment, they were both on their feet, readying themselves for whatever was crashing through the brush towards them. Sance tensed his sore legs, trying to decide whether it would be better to stand their ground, or make a break for it.
To his surprise, a young skydancer burst out of the bushes, rolling to a stop a short ways away from them.
The hatchling lay on his back for a second; it looked like the wind had been knocked out of him. Sance and Felka glanced at each other. Before they could decide how to react to this new development, the tiny dragon was on his feet. He called out excitedly to the two older dragons.
“Did you see that? Did you see how high I went that time?” He puffed out his chest and strutted back and forth. “I’m the best flier! Lani hasn’t even gotten off the ground yet!” He stopped, and looked at them expectantly.
“Y-yes! Wow!” Sance stalled. “That was really good!”
“Are you alone out here?” Felka furrowed her brow.
Her question was answered when another, much larger dragon stepped out of the underbrush.
“Makani? Makani, where did you go?” Although her tone was gentle, her powerful voice was like a rumble of thunder. The skydancer, who seemed to be the Makani in question, scampered over to her.
“I was saying hi! Did you see how well I did?” He pulled himself up one of her massive legs and settled between her wings.
“I did, but you shouldn’t get separated from the rest of the group.” She turned her gaze back towards the two ice dragons. “I don’t think I’ve seen either of you before. Who would you be?”
“Lost, actually.” Felka had probably not intended her grin to be quite so feeble. The guardian cut an imposing figure.
“We came from the Southern Icefields,” Sance supplied. “We got caught in a storm, and washed ashore about a day’s walk from here.”
“I see. You are quite a ways from home; this is the Zephyr Steppes.” The guardian considered them for a moment. “The two of you look like a pair of kites that've gone through a hailstorm, poor dears. If you don’t mind waiting until I’ve finished with the day’s lessons, I would be happy to bring you back to the den with us. Our healer can help patch you up, and you can get a proper meal.”
Sance and Felka agreed readily, and followed the guardian back the way she had come.
The bushes opened up into a meadow, with grassy plateaus forming broad, tiered steps. A group of hatchlings were taking running jumps off of these small ledges, pumping their tiny wings as they tried to take to the air. Makani hopped down from his perch and ran to join them.
The guardian settled herself on a waiting blanket that had been spread out in the sun and gestured for them to join her.
“I don’t think I caught your names,” she said, keeping one eye on the hatchlings.
“I’m Felka, and this is Sance.” Felka motioned to each of them in turn. The guardian dipped her head in acknowledgment.
“My name is Kamea. I take charge of caring for the clan’s young ones. I often bring them here to practice taking off and landing.”
“It’s very nice to meet you!” Felka said politely.
A hatchling with a scraped knee called Kamea’s attention away from them. As she tended to the scrape, Felka leaned over to Sance.
“Isn’t she gorgeous?” She whispered.
“Kamea? Yeah, I guess,” he replied. Felka huffed at him.
“You have no taste, Sance.” She gave him a friendly check with her shoulder.
“No, you just have a type!” He laughed as he gave her a shove. The two friends giggled together as they sat back on the warm grass, feeling the sun on their faces and listening to the whoops of the hatchlings as they ran and jumped and tried to take flight.
When the group arrived at the clan’s lair, the light was fading from the sky. A couple tired hatchlings had climbed onto Kamea’s back, rather than finish the walk themselves. The rest surrounded the three older dragons in a gaggle of little legs and wings, periodically running ahead or falling behind as various distractions along their path caught their interest.
A large clearing ringed with tall bushes marked the entrance. Beyond, tunnels cut through the thick greenery, leading to parts of the lair hidden deep within the chaparral. Kamea sent the hatchlings down one of these tunnels, then led Sance and Felka down another. True to her word, she brought them first to the healer, then to get something to eat.
Once they were bandaged up and fed, she showed them where they could sleep that night. Like many other parts of the lair, it was a small opening in the brush. Beyond the branches that bent overhead, Sance could see stars twinkling in the night sky.
“In the morning, we should ask around to see if anyone has any news about shipwrecks on the coast.” Felka yawned. Sance nodded his sleepy agreement.
The two curled up together and let the rustling of the wind in the leaves lull them to sleep.
I was planning on introducing familiars as the dragons earned them in the coli, but Felka and Sance surprised me by finding a Bluelight Chipskink AND an Alpha Webwing during their bout in the Training Fields! I couldn’t figure out a way to gracefully incorporate them into the story, so I just. decided not to... lmao
How do y’all feel about pictures of dragons that aren’t a permanent part of the party being included? I like the visual, but if it’s too disrupting to the reading experience, let me know!
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