Luka

There were dragons chasing Luka.

They were infinitely smaller than him, but they were relentless.

He saw cliffs ahead and knew he would be cornered, and his only thought was that he let his friends down.

"There's a path," the one by his ear whispered. Luka looked harder at the cliff's edge and saw a narrow goat path barely there against the wall. So, without slowing down, he charged recklessly down the sloping track and trusted his thick claws to keep him from falling over the edge to his doom.

His pursuers flew over the edge of the cliff and harassed him as he fled, but he stoically ignored them and made it to the beach without falling. Once on the sands, he braced himself for the fight with his back to the stone wall behind him. The four dragons before him charged, but he took the punishing blows as he dispatched them one by one. When the fight was quickly over, he was bloodied and bruised. But, he also had a moment to gather his wits.

As he caught his breath, he felt a gentle tug at his tail and when he looked down, his friend used its nose to point across the sand. Luka looked up and saw a skiff, a small boat that would carry him and his friends from those who still chased him. Gingerly, he flipped the tiny boat over and sent a prayer to the Flamecaller that they would stay afloat just before he shoved it from the shore and hopped in.

Luka used his wings as oars and soon he had rowed them out past the reef, where the water smoothed and sailing became easier. With a sigh of relief, he flopped down in the bottom of the skiff and relaxed for the first time in weeks. His friends nuzzled down into his downy fur and slept with him, even as one stayed vigilant and watched for pursuit. Or land.

A day and a night passed and Luka was still lost and didn't know what to do. There had been no pursuit across the ocean, but they had no food and water and no land was in sight. Or was there? Distant, on the very edge of the horizon, there was a speck that looked like land. "Could we be on the way to safety?" he asked his friends.

By unanimous decision, they kept the nose of the skiff pointed to the land and slowly it grew into a spectacular sight with bright white sandy beaches and a gleaming crystal waterfall rising above the deep cool green of exotic trees. Luka focused his glowing eyes and took in all the distant details as they chased the island across the water. But, four days later, he and his friends were desperate for fresh water and had only closed half the distance to the island. "It's almost like it moves away from us," Luka whispered to his friends.

"It does," a voice chirped from the water beside the skiff. Luka startled and then cautiously peered over the edge of the skiff. His dimly glowing eyes met laughing eyes of the clearest blue.

When Luka saw the dragon in the water, he gasped in surprise. "But, Ridgebacks don't like water!"

The stranger laughed and nodded his pointy nose, "Usually we don't. But," he paused dramatically before he whispered, "I'm told I'm not normal!" Then, with a flip of his wings, the stranger leaned into the boat and rooted around a moment. When he found the frayed rope in the bottom, he giggled as he quickly tied it to a ring at the bow and grabbed it in one clawed hand before he plunged back into the water. From there on, the island grew quickly in Luka's view as his new friend towed the little boat past the protective reef that surrounded the moving landmass, then to the clean sands of the beach. Standing in the shallows, he made sure Luka and his friends were safely on the island before he waved happily and dove back into the water.

"Such a strange dragon," Luka whispered through cracked lips. Then he followed the sound of the waterfall and threw himself and his friends into the shallows, where they all drank their fills.