Dragon banked slightly, to better catch the air-currents. Autumn was almost over now, and the jungle behind him had faded back into dark greens and browns. Even from up here he could smell the rotting leaves behind him, along with the scent of the sea ahead.

Today was a fun journey, one he only got to do every couple of years, out across the sea and through the chain of islands to the east, loaded down with parcels and bags even more-so than usual.

There were ships and vessels that made the same journey, but they were confusing things, a mix of living plants and copper alloys, and he had had never managed to get close enough to one to find out how they worked. Added to that, he was much faster and more reliable than any ship, if a little limited in cargo capacity.

Flying onwards, he soon left the forest behind him, the sparking blue ocean below. Spotting a ship, he took a moment to admire the green of the sails and the shine of the deck; the people on board pausing to squint up into the sky as his shadow passed overhead.

Ok maybe he was flying a little low, but that was part of the fun.

There was no child on his back today, the lack of landing places in the sea making it more difficult to transport them, so he was free to swoop and soar as he wished. Sometimes over the ships below, his wings almost clipping their masts, and sometimes high above the clouds, drinking in the magic from the air.

The last stop had sat badly with him, any good done from the impromptu wash by the lake scoured away by the smog and smoke of that terrible place.

He didn’t understand what had happened. He remembered the city as a small walled settlement, a town at best, but over the last forty or fifty years it had grown. Bigger and bigger, it had spilt into the surrounding countryside like a fungus, the small disparate cottages transforming into ropes of green and white, the population skyrocketing out of nowhere.

That was fine though, what bothered him most was the air. It had changed from somewhat clean to awful. The air above any settlement was never truly clean, not to a being that could smell the smoke of a single cottage from across the horizon, but it had gone from somewhat okay to unbearable. He could feel the soot and tar coating his scales even now, his dives through the clouds failing to shift it.

So, as he flew, he decided on a tiny rebellion, the thought years in the making but now spurred on by a small act of kindness.

The next stop was a big island, and one he knew almost better than any other. A days flight off the east coast of what he thought of the big continent, the island consisted of a sprawling city built up and through and over an inactive volcano. He had delivered a few children there in the past, most with a good Grow talent, so he assumed that the industry there was something to do with that.

On top of that, this was where he had been born. Maybe. It was one of the first places he remembered being, at least.

Down on the docks was where ships were built and grown, and he saw a lot of them moving below him as he flew, much more now than in previous years. Small figures waving up at him and flags being raised in the harbour.

It had been almost a day of solid flight, and he was coming up to the mountain now, swooping down and skimming his feet against the sea, rocking the ships in the harbour, before rising again, twisting in the air.

This stop always felt like coming home. The volcano rising up before him, covered in green and white, with terraces and roads built into the walls to make a steep and beautiful city. It levelled out as it lead down to the waters edge, where there were wet and dry docks, harbours and marinas, piers, fisheries and all-over life.

He had never been able to explore the city himself, but he had seen it from above many, many times, and he had watched it grow from a small fishing town to the huge expanse it was today.

With a final twist he swept over the docks, watching the ships sway in the wind, before flying up and circling around the crown of the volcano. Then swoop! Down into the mountain, down, down, and into the courtyard in the center.

Everything here was green with mosses and vines, and it gave him a real sense of being “inside”, something he hadn’t experienced anywhere else. The center of the atrium was built on what he knew had once been molten stone, now hardened and polished to a smooth surface. The people living here had then carved out pools and streams within it to catch the rain, channelling it in beautiful patterns, all planted to absorb the mana and filter out toxins, leaving clean pure drinking water behind.

As he flew down in the center he was lit from the sun far, far above, a beam of light straight down, all to illuminate him!

As he flew, all around him were buildings. They were built up inside, against sides of the hollow mountain, circling his landing space as if he was the main speaker in an amphitheatre. All painted different colours, with terraced gardens and plants and people everywhere waving and laughing, all sheltered from the weather by the surrounding volcano.

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A final whoosh around the area, and then thump! A perfect landing in the center. Already people were running out of the buildings, holding tools and bits of string and all the other things they needed to do their work.

He liked this stop because it was a maintenance stop. Crouched with his chest against the floor, he turned to look at the people swarming up his sides, releasing him from the bulk he spent his life enclosed by. Give them a few minutes and they’d bring out replacement bags. Then a little longer for them to wave the bits of string over him and get them all cinched up, and he’d be ready to go again.

Or so they thought!

He watched in anticipation as the first bag dropped softly to the ground, then turned his head and watched as they lowered the other one. Free of the straps and bags for a moment, he stretched out his wings, a few of the humans scurrying backwards at the unexpected movement.

As so they should, because.

He.

Was.

OFF!

A flex of the legs, a flat of his wings, an angled sweep around the area, and he was gone! Up into the air, delighting in a freedom of movement he’d rarely experienced before. A moment later he was out of the crater and into the wind, glancing back down for a moment to see the panic below him, people scurrying around like ants.

He’d be back, he wasn’t abandoning his duties. Well, not for long anyway. A circuit of the island, full speed, and then with his legs and wings folded back like a bullet- something he’d not been able to do in a long, long time- he was into the sea!

Splash!

He knew that humans needed to breathe, they got something from the air that was only available below certain heights, but he, being a Dragon, a creature of the sky and sea, did not.

Filled with joy he swept along the bottom, digging himself deep into the sand, demolishing everything in his way and startling quite a lot of small creatures. For a moment he let the magic he always held constrained within himself go, and watched the water bubble and fizz around him, weeds sprouting from tiny seeds, coral beds growing in moments, only to be destroyed again instantly by his rolling bulk.

He sighed with satisfaction, a further release of magic, as the sand scoured his body clean. He had been so tired of the dirt between his scales, the itch that he had stopped thinking about, until Boy had tried to wash him.

With a cloud of bubbles he exited the sand, keeping more of a reign on the magic now but still letting it trail out behind him, breaking down all of the dead things in the soil and all of the toxins in the water, blooming the natural bacteria and organisms. He watched as his magic sprouted seeds and grew coral back from fragments, his earlier rolling having scattered the pieces like seedlings, ready to take root all over again. Clouds of reproductive matter filled into the water as they bloomed and died back and then bloomed again. An endless cycle.

This was where he was meant to be, a part of him said, buoyed by the water, no need to flap his wings to stay aloft, no need to hold back. He was a bullet, strong and fast, needing only small movements of his tail to adjust his speed or heading.

He shivered, sand releasing from between his scales as he flexed muscles, leaving them clean and tight to his body. Dead skin he hadn’t even known was there shedding off, to reveal bright and shiny silver underneath.

Then whoosh! Out of the sea like animals he’d seen playing and jumping, but they never got up as high as him! Up, up and up, spreading his wings wide in the sun, before folding and diving down again, this time after the fleeing shadow of a rather large fish. He had been saving meat-space just for this!

Back in the water, he took joy in speeding along again, mouth open. Efficiency-wise it wasn’t so great, but all of the little things he could catch in his teeth more than made up for it.

On top of that, who knew he needed salt in his diet? New discoveries all the time!

Sated with the meal of Very Large Fish, Dragon pushed himself from the water, less explosively this time, doing his best to make the exit clean and smooth. There was only a slight hiss as he left the sea, water streaming off him with barely a whisper. Satisfying.

Shaking the water off his scales and swallowing the last of his fish Dragon rose into the sky, up up up up and into the clouds. A part of him was tempted to keep going, to keep rising and never come back, but he had a job to get back to. A quick wash through the clouds that always seemed to collect around the top of the mountain, and then boom, back through the center. Back down into the rabbit warren, using his wings to break his fall moments before he impacted the ground.

As he flew down, he eyed the humans running around below him with ropes and nets. Did they… Surely not. No. Probably just decided to do some mending or something while he was busy. Right?

With all the glory of an adolescent dragon, he dropped the last meter to the ground, eyeing the fisher-people around him. He frowned, as much as a dragon can frown, baring his teeth slightly at them as they approached, nets out. Really, they were going to do this? If he wanted to leave then he would just leave, he’d only needed a bath!

Whump! One of the nets landed against him, catching on the claw and fouling his left wing slightly. He glanced at it, and then turned with a baleful eye, watching as the thrower ran for it, hands over their head. Utterly ridiculous the lot of them.

Very slowly, so as not to startle the rest of them, who seemed to have frozen up around him, he turned his head to look at the net. Then, using his teeth, he gently lifted it off of his wing.

With a delicate motion, he dropped it in front of himself, and then after a moment of thought, used the claws on his wing tips to fold it up into a neat square.

As he pushed it back towards the crowd with a dismissive claw, the postal workers and fisher-people watched in frozen silence. Are you done? His posture seemed to say. If he could have folded his arms, he would have, so he made do with wings.

Slowly, over the course of the next tedious hour, the workers put their nets away and shifted back into a somewhat-normal routine. The one that had been thrown at him remained discarded on the ground, as if it might leap up and bite them if they touched it. They bought out his new packs and strapped them on, flinching and scattering every time he so much as took a breath. Really, all he’d done was take a bath, it had been twenty minutes at most. Any delays incurred by this would not be his fault.

When the the straps were all tightened and bags all messed about with, he was ready to go. He watched as they bought out the map, ready to do their ritual of pointing and gesturing.

He watched as the human's hand pointed at the next destination. It was the same destination this route had had for the past 54 years. Really, couldn’t they add a little variety. This was pointless.

Before the hand even hit the board, he was airborne. Onwards!