Igra

Igra
we play the ache away

Her travels cease at the very foot of Emberglow Hearth, where the ground is toasty and the smell of ash rinses away the stench of decay tailing the hatchling. The warmth of unnatural breeze washes over her face with each inch she draws closer into unknown territory. Like clockwork her little mouth pries itself open, letting out arrays and arrays of pants and heaves.

Crawling on the floor is not the best form of transportation, she thinks as her body grows overheated, as the scars on her thick skin multiply. There is no way she is crawling here. Shadowlings do not belong in Fire, but is she a Shadowling even? Her parents present themselves as speedy silhouettes in her field of vision whenever she tries to remember what she had before, their eyes a blur like her clan’s members, nests, home.

Is she welcome? Is she safe? Is she going back to scavenging for food and crawling into hollow logs for a damp shelter?

She drags her wings behind herself, slowly, jaw clenching with each agonizing tug as distant dragon roars erupt in sync with unstable soil. Igra calls out too with a pathetic squeal dulled down by her exhaustion. Fireflies taunt her with their freedom, flight, and grace, as her body slumps on the hot ground and all the orange fades from her sight.

/ / / / / / / / / /

Metal clanks as she soars through the fumes and smog. Her screech is weak yet sharp, makes a man wonder how something that makes such a noise keeps its throat in tact. It shreds through gas and makes hatchlings cower under their freshly shed skins as the elderly scowl at adolescent mindlessness.

Zuyo ribbits with his sticky appendages holding his friend for dear life. Igra does not ignore a comrade’s misfortune, especially the one of such precious amphibian nature. Always had a thing for those little fellas.

Despite his protests, Zuyo the toad really.. enjoys, the speedy rides his friend takes him on. Her intentions hold no malice whatsoever. The view! The view, Zuyo! She can see the whole Molten Scar bubbling with life right under her! The gift of flight she has regained, not through trickery and not through spells, but through innovation and comradery alone.

Though for how long should this dragon stay airborn, will she hover or has her heart already flown?

art by angrysnake

art by nothan