Battlescale

He just appeared one day, from the woods. Leading the dire hyena familiar around like it was a cuddly pet.

Eloy fed him, and now we can't get rid of him!

Johann looked up and met Sori's wide-eyed gaze as he breathed, "The legend might just be true!"

"Are you sure, Johann?" his mate asked, equally breathless, and when Johann nodded they both broke into grins. "I'll get the packs," Sori giggled as he darted from the room.

Johann met his boyfriend in the front hallway of the Archivum and slipped his travel pack over his shoulder while he walked out the door. Then they took to the skies and flew in the direction of the far side of the Viridian Labyrinth. Night fell before they landed on the boggy outskirts of the Worldedge Wetlands, where they made a meager camp and rested leaning against each other until the early lavender light of dawn. As they slung their packs onto their backs, a strange ululation carried through the landscape - a sound somewhere between a laugh and a warcry.

Johann ducked behind Sori as his mate readied to throw a quick spell at the intruder. They held their ground and waited, tense and breathless, until the nearest shrubbery rustled and a raggedy Ridgeback stepped into their camp. Fast on his heels was the largest hyena either dragon had ever seen, fully the size of a small horse! It was this giant creature that threw his head back and loosed another of those blood-curdling cries, which brought a happy grin to the Ridgeback's white-mad eyes. "He's just da cutest t'ing," the Ridgeback murmured before he turned to stare fully at the two scholars and ask, "Who you be?"

"We be...we are scholars from the Archivum," Johann answered as he stepped forward and stood beside Sori. "And you are?"

The Ridgeback stood before them, confused eyes swirling faster as he tried to think, then shook his head and sighed. "Am I? Am I really?" he asked Johann, then thrust his long, pointy nose forward into Sori's face and whispered, "Because I'm pretty sure I'm not."

The odd Ridgeback turned to leave, but Johann leapt forward and begged, "Wait! Please! We are searching for something and maybe you can help us!"

Ragged wings fluttering as he stopped walking, the shabby dragon looked over his shoulder and in a low voice proclaimed, "We are all searching for something, youngling. What could you possibly need that I could provide?" Then, madness descending again, he added, "What could you possibly provide that I could need, as well?" When the dire hyena hooted its strange laughter, the Ridgeback joined in.

Quickly, Johann described the unnaturally disappearing and reappearing island that they sought. To their surprise, the Ridgeback's eyes widened just a bit in recognition. "Well, why didn't you just say so," he bellowed with a mad smile as he led the way into the underbrush.

Johann and Sori followed the mad one through the entire day, never once stopping to eat or rest. When they had both reached the ends of their endurance, Johann called out, "Wait! Please!" When the Ridgeback spun back to him, the Skydancer admitted, "Sori and I are exhausted. How much farther to the beach? How much farther until we sight the disappearing island?"

With a shrug, the mysterious stranger turned to a last, thick bush and pushed through. Desperate to not lose their guide, the scholars scrambled to follow him and found they were before a cave that was dug into a grassy knoll. The stranger's strange pet led the party and Johann and Sori followed the sound of the Ridgeback's tail scraping against the rubble scattered along the floor of their pathway. Still more long hours passed before Johan and Sori staggered from the darkness of the subterranean tunnel into the darkness of a moonless night.

When Johann's eyes adjusted, he realized they stood in the middle of jungle, facing a waterfall of epic heights. The spray cooled the air and tasted as beautiful as the clearing looked. Pink and gold crystals were jutting from the cliff-face before them and exotic flowers filled the air with the most beautiful of perfumes. "We made it," Sori whispered in awe as Johann grinned and dashed to the pool so he could splash in the crystal-clear waters. Both scholars rested throughout the night and when they prepared to fly home the next day, they realized they had forgotten all about their strange guide in the excitement of their new discovery. When they remembered the erratic Ridgeback, they searched the island for several hours, but never found him. With shrugs of acceptance, the pair took off from the drifting island and began the long journey by air back to their home.

The Ridgeback watched the youths from the surrounding trees until they left, and only then did Battlescale flutter to the ground and poke around the bottom of the waterfall for a secret hole that was hidden from the naked eye. When he found it, he slid into the tight space and wiggled through the short passageway until he found the cavern inside the largest golden crystal. Lit with a soft light, his eyes focused on the pile of tiny Fae bones at the far end, and he slowly approached. When he could touch the bones, he sighed and the madness cleared from his mind for a long, painful moment. "Oh, my sweet Camillia," he breathed as he caressed the skull with his tattered wingtip, "I couldn't keep you safe." Then he sat comfortably on the floor near the skeleton of his beloved and told her about the two curious dragons who wanted to find the disappearing island, then he told her of the nameless clan that fed him without asking any pesky questions. As Battlescale spoke to his dead love, Dog the dire hyena kept watch over his favorite dragon.

The next morning, Battlescale wriggled from the tight hole and shook the debris from his wings before he flew to the tunnel he had created to reach the island where his lost love lay as it floated by. After the lengthy travel from the disappearing island that floated close enough to find only every three months and eight days, he arrived on the outskirts of the nameless clan's borders and wandered into the grove where he knew eloy would have some food for him. By then, the lost prince had forgotten most of his past yet again.

Weeks later, Battlescale came across a wild-looking dragon in the thickest part of the surrounding woods. The two dragons eyed each other warily for a long moment, until the newcomer broke the silence with the question, "Where am I?"

"You don't know? Why," Battlescale soothed the older dragon, "you are on the disappearing island that floats in the northernmost ocean. The real question here, though," the Ridgeback intoned, "is how did you get here?"

An enigmatic smile peeked out from under the Skydancer's mask as he whispered, "Wouldn't you love to know?"

"Would I?" the Ridgeback giggled back. And that was the very moment that sealed the friendship between Sycune and the addled prince. These days see the pair of friends dropping in on each other at random times to just tell jokes and enjoy each other's company.