@Peyp
DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE! OH MY GOD I'M FINISHED!! I hope you enjoy it, I'm SO SORRY it took so long AHH?!??!?!?
----
Tiny splinters of wood flew his way as he stood silently in the carved doorway, watching her. Eyes shining, he traced every movement, mesmerised. Her sister – a squeaky Spiral by the name of Amira – had mocked her technique, but Phobos could never find a fault with it like her sister claimed to.
“You did it!” Amira squealed with delight as he took cover behind the oakwood bend of the arch from the spinning missiles of little wooden splinters. “You really did it!”
“Yeah,” Giselle panted as he turned around the corner as casually as he could. It always surprised him, he thought. Every time, he got surprised over how Giselle looked; her fluttering pink wings that looked strong and stable, her keen green eyes and her silken fur that was the colour of coal. He recalled seeing her for the first time and instantly falling for her. She had the kind of laugh that rang out and could even sing a hatchling or two to sleep, and she had the kind of smile that could brighten even the saddest dragon’s day. She was wearing that smile now as she stood ruffling and paw-combing the tussles about her paws. Even when she was dripping with sweat and water from the lake outside of the arena, she still looked beautiful.
“Yeah, you did really well,” he called out, trotting towards the dynamic duo of femininity.
“Thanks Pho,” Giselle whispered, smiling partially to herself and partially to Phobos – all the while blushing. Cute.
He turned to his left to see Amira’s piercing glare and his smile was instantly wiped away. Amira hadn’t been fond of Phobos since he
He turned to his left to see Amira’s piercing glare and his smile was instantly wiped away. Amira hadn’t been fond of Phobos since he had confessed a week ago to Giselle outside of the arena itself. It didn’t surprise him, since the Spiral was overly protective of her new-found sister, but it hurt to know that she doubted him.
“Amira,” Giselle sighed heavily. “Stop death-staring him. The poor thing’s getting tense.”
“No I’m not,” he scoffed in turn.
“Uh-huh.”
“I will when he’s proven to me that he won’t hurt you,” Amira growled fiercely, causing Phobos to flinch. He hated seeing Amira angry - it terrified him more than the sisters' father ever could.
“Look, Amira, I promise I won’t hurt your sister. Okay?” He’d been pleading for the past week to get Amira to stop being mad at him, but she hadn’t bought it. He was running out of ideas quickly, and every new idea was more weird than the last. Yesterday he’d even tried proving to Amira how much he loved her dear sister by practicing with her, in spite of their ability differences. They'd actually done pretty well in spite of all that separated their magic, in Phobos's eyes..
But it hadn’t been enough for the blood red and slinky Spiral.
“Prove it,” she snapped, walking away soon after she heard Phobos sigh.
“I’m sorry, Pho,” Giselle muttered on her sister’s behalf.
“It’s okay, love,” he said warmly, “it’s not your fault.”
“I know, but I also know she won’t apologise,” she chuckled. “Too much of our father’s pride.”
Phobos laughed and heard it echo around them, bouncing from wall to wall with the cooling breeze of the afternoon. The rustling of the leaves outside sang in that same breeze, ringing in his ears like little chime bells hanging from the trees outside of every home that rang whenever a storm was coming. Everyone in the entire region knew that whenever the Stormcatcher was superbly angry, the whole world erupted into a storm. Tsunamis, crashing trees, the whole lot. The same went for other nature Deities. Whenever the Icewarden was the same, he'd send blizzards, and the Gladekeeper would send trees crashing to the ground. All of the Deities would do some mass destruction whenever they were angry, forgetting about their dragons and their babes and everything else inbetween. Familiars often got hurt in the process, and any that were killed were often blamed on the Deities. Phobos never let himself think about it too much, though. The thought alone chilled him to the bone.
"Hey Pho, want to meet me by the cliffside later?" the dragoness by his side asked politely, smiling slightly to herself.
"Of course I would! Why wouldn't I?"
"Great! See you then!"
She walked off slowly, turning only once towards him. She smiled heartily before turning the corner of the stone wall of the arena. Phobos slowly let out a breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding and looked around the stone building that every dragon trained in.
Stone of the coldest, greyest blue created the arena all dragons in this flight knew and loved. Small lanterns blooming with warm orange light swung from the ceiling in the midst of the cool breeze, and curtains of thin velvet red flapped, trying to reach the dragons soaring and diving above. The giggles of the hatchlings flying with their mothers echoed through the wispy air, sounding like a soft lullaby to the older dragon as he noticed all of the small cracks and dives in the rocky floor beneath him.
"You okay, kiddo?"
Phobos jumped in his own silken fur and turned his head to see Giselle's father standing by the window, gazing out into the fields surrounding the area. "Yeah, I'm okay, why?"
"My daughter death-glared you. That usually scares young dragons away."
"She's been doing it for the past week, sir. It'd be terrifying if she suddenly didn't do it."
Giselle's father chuckled harshly. "Indeed. Can I ask where you're going with my daughter?"
"We're going to go to the cliffside. Why?"
"Just asking," was all the elder Tundra replied before disappearing completely from the younger dragon's view. It took a moment or two for Phobos to register that their father only appeared when he wanted to, and to register that he was gone again. He never appeared to his daughters, funnily enough. He only ever appeared to Phobos for reasons he couldn't even comprehend. Their father kept saying that it would upset them, and that it would damage them. It was an understandable reason, but it made Phobos feel awkward when he was presumed to be talking to himself.
Phobos just sighed inwardly and got up to dust himself off. Better get ready.
---
"Oh look, it's Orange," Amira remarked grumpily, pinning her gaze on Phobos' emerald green eyes as he sauntered down the dirt pathway. She didn't seem to have bothered dusting herself off, getting washed in the Lake or anything like that; she was still speckled with wood bits and dust from a few bells ago. Giselle on the other hand...
She was gorgeous.
A lily sat behind her small ear delicately, a lei of marigolds perched on her shoulders as if it belonged and had always been there. Her fur was freshly combed, making it shine in the bright sunlight, and her wings had been washed recently enough to still see rivers of small droplets trickle their way down to the curves of the wing.
"Wow," was all he could get out as she neared him, smiling a bright white smile of joy and passion.
"That's all you can say?" Amira shouted.
"Amira, please," Giselle begged her sister. "Don't make this difficult."
"Fine." That was that.
The pair of fluffs walked towards the unlikely-to-be-stable fence that bordered off the 20-Imperial-high drop off the cliff into the Water Deity's territory. The sun was setting against the watery horizon, turning the deep sea from its original black-blue to a darkened shade of orange. Whales of all sizes could be seen just under the watery surface, along with multiple different water familiars. Sprites floated around the weeds growing on the beach below, watching over the Water hatchlings that were flinging sand and rocks at each other for fun, and the Water Deity could be seen nestling on the furthest part of the beach. Her head was down on her paws, her eyes only half-visible from this distance. She seemed to be watching the teenagers in the water - those less than a month old - and making sure they stayed in check.
"The view's beautiful," Giselle whispered in awe, getting into a comfortable position against the fence. Phobos heard a slight groan from the rotting fence, but chose to ignore it for the sake of not ruining their night with anxiety.
"It really is, but..."
"But what?"
"Nothing compared to you," he continued, feeling a hot flush find its way up his neck and into his cheeks. Thank the Deities for my fur.
"Aww, Pho," she cried, nuzzling his neck lovingly and causing his flush to deepen. "You're so sw--"
A cry erupted from Giselle's as the fence gave way to the frighteningly high drop. "Giselle!" the black and orange Tundra cried as he reached for the ruff of her fur and caught it. The fur's silky texture made it hard to grab on to, and her frantically flapping wings didn't help with lifting her up. "Giselle, calm down!" he called to her over the rushing wind coming from her wings. "I've got you! Just please calm down or I can't get you up!"
"But what if I fall?" she screeched, panic lacing her voice.
"I'll catch you!"
That made her calm down, to his relief. Her wings slowly but surely stopped flapping, and she stopped twisting and crying out, making it easier for Phobos to haul her up to safety. When she made it up, both of the fluffs just collapsed with their breathing and the hissing sea below being the only noises around. Amira was stood there, frozen and unmoving. Her eyes were wide and shiny, and her body was shaking slightly with nervous energy.
"Are you... okay... Amira?" Phobos panted, looking at her from an upside down angle from where he was collapsed on the dirt track floor.
"Y-yeah," she stuttered. "I'm o-okay."
"Good -- Oof."
Giselle had decided to crawl over to his and collapse again onto his stomach, making little noises as she did so. Her lily had fallen out from behind her ear, and her little pearl-yellow lei was resting on a nearby rock. Phobos's paw found its way into the fur on her head and he began slowly stroking the soft, poofy mess of tangled fur in an attempt to calm her and her nervous breakdown. "Are you alright, love?" Phobos asked quietly, making sure he continued stroking her head reassuringly.
The only sound he heard was an "mm-hmm" sound, her little weeping noises giving way to it briefly - an indication that he should let her get her bearings. The same thought echoed in his head over and over: Thank the Deities she's alive.
"Phobos?"
He turned his head towards the sullen Spiral who was twisting her paws together nervously and raised a single eyebrow in her direction. Yes?
"I.. I'm sorry for all of the times I death-glared you. It wasn't right, like Giselle kept repeatedly telling me. I just didn't want her to get hurt."
Her voice cracked, and the little sound pulled at Phobos's heart. He rarely ever saw Amira in a state like this.
"You proved to me just then that you're not just... here to hurt her. Thank you."
"Any time, Amira," he replied, smiling. "Any time."
DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE! OH MY GOD I'M FINISHED!! I hope you enjoy it, I'm SO SORRY it took so long AHH?!??!?!?
----
Tiny splinters of wood flew his way as he stood silently in the carved doorway, watching her. Eyes shining, he traced every movement, mesmerised. Her sister – a squeaky Spiral by the name of Amira – had mocked her technique, but Phobos could never find a fault with it like her sister claimed to.
“You did it!” Amira squealed with delight as he took cover behind the oakwood bend of the arch from the spinning missiles of little wooden splinters. “You really did it!”
“Yeah,” Giselle panted as he turned around the corner as casually as he could. It always surprised him, he thought. Every time, he got surprised over how Giselle looked; her fluttering pink wings that looked strong and stable, her keen green eyes and her silken fur that was the colour of coal. He recalled seeing her for the first time and instantly falling for her. She had the kind of laugh that rang out and could even sing a hatchling or two to sleep, and she had the kind of smile that could brighten even the saddest dragon’s day. She was wearing that smile now as she stood ruffling and paw-combing the tussles about her paws. Even when she was dripping with sweat and water from the lake outside of the arena, she still looked beautiful.
“Yeah, you did really well,” he called out, trotting towards the dynamic duo of femininity.
“Thanks Pho,” Giselle whispered, smiling partially to herself and partially to Phobos – all the while blushing. Cute.
He turned to his left to see Amira’s piercing glare and his smile was instantly wiped away. Amira hadn’t been fond of Phobos since he
He turned to his left to see Amira’s piercing glare and his smile was instantly wiped away. Amira hadn’t been fond of Phobos since he had confessed a week ago to Giselle outside of the arena itself. It didn’t surprise him, since the Spiral was overly protective of her new-found sister, but it hurt to know that she doubted him.
“Amira,” Giselle sighed heavily. “Stop death-staring him. The poor thing’s getting tense.”
“No I’m not,” he scoffed in turn.
“Uh-huh.”
“I will when he’s proven to me that he won’t hurt you,” Amira growled fiercely, causing Phobos to flinch. He hated seeing Amira angry - it terrified him more than the sisters' father ever could.
“Look, Amira, I promise I won’t hurt your sister. Okay?” He’d been pleading for the past week to get Amira to stop being mad at him, but she hadn’t bought it. He was running out of ideas quickly, and every new idea was more weird than the last. Yesterday he’d even tried proving to Amira how much he loved her dear sister by practicing with her, in spite of their ability differences. They'd actually done pretty well in spite of all that separated their magic, in Phobos's eyes..
But it hadn’t been enough for the blood red and slinky Spiral.
“Prove it,” she snapped, walking away soon after she heard Phobos sigh.
“I’m sorry, Pho,” Giselle muttered on her sister’s behalf.
“It’s okay, love,” he said warmly, “it’s not your fault.”
“I know, but I also know she won’t apologise,” she chuckled. “Too much of our father’s pride.”
Phobos laughed and heard it echo around them, bouncing from wall to wall with the cooling breeze of the afternoon. The rustling of the leaves outside sang in that same breeze, ringing in his ears like little chime bells hanging from the trees outside of every home that rang whenever a storm was coming. Everyone in the entire region knew that whenever the Stormcatcher was superbly angry, the whole world erupted into a storm. Tsunamis, crashing trees, the whole lot. The same went for other nature Deities. Whenever the Icewarden was the same, he'd send blizzards, and the Gladekeeper would send trees crashing to the ground. All of the Deities would do some mass destruction whenever they were angry, forgetting about their dragons and their babes and everything else inbetween. Familiars often got hurt in the process, and any that were killed were often blamed on the Deities. Phobos never let himself think about it too much, though. The thought alone chilled him to the bone.
"Hey Pho, want to meet me by the cliffside later?" the dragoness by his side asked politely, smiling slightly to herself.
"Of course I would! Why wouldn't I?"
"Great! See you then!"
She walked off slowly, turning only once towards him. She smiled heartily before turning the corner of the stone wall of the arena. Phobos slowly let out a breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding and looked around the stone building that every dragon trained in.
Stone of the coldest, greyest blue created the arena all dragons in this flight knew and loved. Small lanterns blooming with warm orange light swung from the ceiling in the midst of the cool breeze, and curtains of thin velvet red flapped, trying to reach the dragons soaring and diving above. The giggles of the hatchlings flying with their mothers echoed through the wispy air, sounding like a soft lullaby to the older dragon as he noticed all of the small cracks and dives in the rocky floor beneath him.
"You okay, kiddo?"
Phobos jumped in his own silken fur and turned his head to see Giselle's father standing by the window, gazing out into the fields surrounding the area. "Yeah, I'm okay, why?"
"My daughter death-glared you. That usually scares young dragons away."
"She's been doing it for the past week, sir. It'd be terrifying if she suddenly didn't do it."
Giselle's father chuckled harshly. "Indeed. Can I ask where you're going with my daughter?"
"We're going to go to the cliffside. Why?"
"Just asking," was all the elder Tundra replied before disappearing completely from the younger dragon's view. It took a moment or two for Phobos to register that their father only appeared when he wanted to, and to register that he was gone again. He never appeared to his daughters, funnily enough. He only ever appeared to Phobos for reasons he couldn't even comprehend. Their father kept saying that it would upset them, and that it would damage them. It was an understandable reason, but it made Phobos feel awkward when he was presumed to be talking to himself.
Phobos just sighed inwardly and got up to dust himself off. Better get ready.
---
"Oh look, it's Orange," Amira remarked grumpily, pinning her gaze on Phobos' emerald green eyes as he sauntered down the dirt pathway. She didn't seem to have bothered dusting herself off, getting washed in the Lake or anything like that; she was still speckled with wood bits and dust from a few bells ago. Giselle on the other hand...
She was gorgeous.
A lily sat behind her small ear delicately, a lei of marigolds perched on her shoulders as if it belonged and had always been there. Her fur was freshly combed, making it shine in the bright sunlight, and her wings had been washed recently enough to still see rivers of small droplets trickle their way down to the curves of the wing.
"Wow," was all he could get out as she neared him, smiling a bright white smile of joy and passion.
"That's all you can say?" Amira shouted.
"Amira, please," Giselle begged her sister. "Don't make this difficult."
"Fine." That was that.
The pair of fluffs walked towards the unlikely-to-be-stable fence that bordered off the 20-Imperial-high drop off the cliff into the Water Deity's territory. The sun was setting against the watery horizon, turning the deep sea from its original black-blue to a darkened shade of orange. Whales of all sizes could be seen just under the watery surface, along with multiple different water familiars. Sprites floated around the weeds growing on the beach below, watching over the Water hatchlings that were flinging sand and rocks at each other for fun, and the Water Deity could be seen nestling on the furthest part of the beach. Her head was down on her paws, her eyes only half-visible from this distance. She seemed to be watching the teenagers in the water - those less than a month old - and making sure they stayed in check.
"The view's beautiful," Giselle whispered in awe, getting into a comfortable position against the fence. Phobos heard a slight groan from the rotting fence, but chose to ignore it for the sake of not ruining their night with anxiety.
"It really is, but..."
"But what?"
"Nothing compared to you," he continued, feeling a hot flush find its way up his neck and into his cheeks. Thank the Deities for my fur.
"Aww, Pho," she cried, nuzzling his neck lovingly and causing his flush to deepen. "You're so sw--"
A cry erupted from Giselle's as the fence gave way to the frighteningly high drop. "Giselle!" the black and orange Tundra cried as he reached for the ruff of her fur and caught it. The fur's silky texture made it hard to grab on to, and her frantically flapping wings didn't help with lifting her up. "Giselle, calm down!" he called to her over the rushing wind coming from her wings. "I've got you! Just please calm down or I can't get you up!"
"But what if I fall?" she screeched, panic lacing her voice.
"I'll catch you!"
That made her calm down, to his relief. Her wings slowly but surely stopped flapping, and she stopped twisting and crying out, making it easier for Phobos to haul her up to safety. When she made it up, both of the fluffs just collapsed with their breathing and the hissing sea below being the only noises around. Amira was stood there, frozen and unmoving. Her eyes were wide and shiny, and her body was shaking slightly with nervous energy.
"Are you... okay... Amira?" Phobos panted, looking at her from an upside down angle from where he was collapsed on the dirt track floor.
"Y-yeah," she stuttered. "I'm o-okay."
"Good -- Oof."
Giselle had decided to crawl over to his and collapse again onto his stomach, making little noises as she did so. Her lily had fallen out from behind her ear, and her little pearl-yellow lei was resting on a nearby rock. Phobos's paw found its way into the fur on her head and he began slowly stroking the soft, poofy mess of tangled fur in an attempt to calm her and her nervous breakdown. "Are you alright, love?" Phobos asked quietly, making sure he continued stroking her head reassuringly.
The only sound he heard was an "mm-hmm" sound, her little weeping noises giving way to it briefly - an indication that he should let her get her bearings. The same thought echoed in his head over and over: Thank the Deities she's alive.
"Phobos?"
He turned his head towards the sullen Spiral who was twisting her paws together nervously and raised a single eyebrow in her direction. Yes?
"I.. I'm sorry for all of the times I death-glared you. It wasn't right, like Giselle kept repeatedly telling me. I just didn't want her to get hurt."
Her voice cracked, and the little sound pulled at Phobos's heart. He rarely ever saw Amira in a state like this.
"You proved to me just then that you're not just... here to hurt her. Thank you."
"Any time, Amira," he replied, smiling. "Any time."