Tombow impatiently tapped his claws on the rim of the wooden boat, staring out at the wide-open waters in search of any scrap of land.
A splash sounded from behind him, and he looked to see Talenti pulling on a ratty string of rope.
“What… what are you doing?”
He asked cautiously, as the Tundra hoisted the rope into the boat. She didn’t respond, and a few seconds later, she pulled the rope in- revealing her oar spear tied to the end, and a wriggling fish impaled on it. She pulled the fish off the spear, throwing the wooden shaft down on the boat floor.
“Seeing you grabbing at the water with your piddly Coatl paws to catch fish for yourself made me sad because of how pathetic you look, so I made a fishing spear so I can catch fish for you. Now eat it.”
She threw the fish at him, and he scrambled to grab it out of the air.
“Er- thanks?”
He said, then sat down and took a bite of the fish.
As he munched, he glanced over at Catch. The little Fae was lying on the boat floor, staring pitifully at Tombow. There weren’t exactly many insects on the open ocean for him to eat, and the Fae’s energy plummeted the longer he went without bugs.
Suddenly, Talenti jumped up and leaned over the side almost far enough to fall in, shielding her eyes with a paw and squinting. Tombow stared at her.
“LAND!”
She shouted, grabbing the broken oar blade and furiously paddling with it.
Tombow tossed the fish on the floor of the boat and scrambled across, leaning out to see a pale green shape in the distance. It stretched across the horizon- exactly in the opposite direction he’d been looking.
Good job, Tombow.
“By the Shadowbinder, that’s LAND!”
He shouted, leaning over the side and paddling with his front paws. Catch crawled up the side of the boat and peeked over the side, being active for the first time in days. He watched silently as the other dragons attempted to guide the boat, his crests flicking upwards as the landmass ever so slowly got closer.
After a long fight against the currents, the boat was finally at the shore.
Catch crawled up the side of the boat again, taking in the surroundings.
They’d landed at a peaceful, small beach, with rolling green hills and meadows beyond. Small herds of animals could be seen grazing, with birds and bugs flitting about.
The Fae leaped out of the boat, an anthill locked in his sights. He descended on the anthill and began pillaging their nest, greedily stuffing talonfuls of ants into his mouth as fast as dragonly possible. Talenti hopped out of the boat, wobbling a little as she found her paws on solid ground for the first time in weeks.
Tombow took a cautious step over the side, letting his paw feel the sand before he jumped out. As he was adjusting, he felt something underneath the sand.
He grabbed it and pulled it out- revealing a loop of string, with bird skulls and beads strung along it. Delighted with his new find, he put the necklace on and looked at it. As he admired his new jewelry, Talenti reached back into the boat and grabbed her spear.
“Well, I'll be off now.”
She announced, causing Catch to look up from his anthill-consuming rampage.
“You're seriously just going to ditch us?”
Tombow asked, shaking sand off his talons and adjusting his necklace.
“We’re the only dragons you know in- what is this? Wind territory?”
He pointed out, flicking his tail at the landscape around them.
“I don’t need dragons I know. I need to get back to the Wasteland!”
Talenti responded, stamping a paw on the ground and glaring moodily at him.
As the two argued, Catch resumed terrorizing the ants.
As he ate, he heard wings behind him.
He looked behind him to see a large green bird standing there, four leathery wings tucked to its body.
He stared at it.
It screamed at him.
Its wings snapped out, and Catch took off, shrieking and flinging himself away from the bird. The bird beat its wings and zipped after the Fae, its beak snapping hungrily.
Tombow and Talenti stopped arguing to see Catch screaming and frantically winging away from the bird. Tombow began to yell as well, gesturing frantically and saying some unintelligible mix of Coatl and Draconic and being entirely useless. Talenti groaned. She ran after the bird and the Fae, and whacked the bird as hard as she could with her spear.
The bird came to a stop in midair, screaming indignantly as Talenti continued to hit it with the stick.
“Get- out- of- HERE!”
She grunted, whacking the bird between each word. The Webwing got the message and winged off into the fields, leaving a terrified Catch huddling on the ground. Talenti walked up to the Fae and looked down at him, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
“Well, if this is how you handle attacks, I guess I’ll have to stay with you idiots so you don’t get killed by
pigeons.”
She said, glancing over at Tombow.
“Yeah, yeah, okay.”
He admitted. His feathers were still puffed up from fear, so he looked like a puffball for a moment. Catch lay on the ground for a minute before shamefully creeping towards Tombow, climbing up his leg and burying himself in his feathers.
“Don’t talk to me.”
He said, seemingly making a nest in Tombow’s feathers.
Small crunching noises emitted from Catch’s “nest.”
“Well, anyway, we should get going.”
Tombow announced, setting off in a random direction down the beach and ignoring Catch. Talenti followed after them, muttering quietly and keeping an eye out.
And so it begins.
fun fact the pull is a Lie i actually got an apparel item(talenti's bandana) but it seems too early to gene someone & nobody's ready to breed so i swapped it for a banked pull from when they were growing up
they're also level 4 now!! good job guys
hope this isn't too long because i am Physically Incapable of writing anything shorter than 600 words apparently
