“What are you doing?” Yvet asked, watching Bo with her head cocked to the side as he snapped off several spikes from the plant.

He glanced back and grinned, “Do you remember the guy who jumped on the sand shark’s back?”

“The dead one?”

“Yeah, him.”

“I do remember; what about him?” Yvet watched as Bo stuffed the spikes in his pocket, trying to figure out his plan.

“Well, I’ve just had an idea – nay – an inspiration, thanks to him,” Bo smirked and tapped the side of his nose, “Just you wait and see. My plan is genius,”

Yvet followed him as he left the Horus plant and walked out into the desert. Bo’s strides were eager, leading him to speed up considerably, leaving the little dragon in his dust.

“Hey!” She called out, struggling to keep up. “Aren’t you going to carry me?”

Bo turned and looked down at her, “No. You bit my ear,” He said, taking off in what – to any normal man – would be a dead sprint.

Yvet growled and chased after him, scampering along for all she was worth. She was forced to flap her wings and half-run, half-glide after Bo to keep up. It was a tricky rhythm to get right, and more often than not, she stumbled or missed the timing – resulting in her crashing to the ground in a cloud of sand and dust.

“Why don’t you just fly?” Bo asked after the third time she had eaten a mouthful of sand.

She didn’t deign to respond, growling at him with blazing eyes.

At this point, Bo started to feel a little bad, and offered to carry her the rest of the way.

“No.”

“But w-“

“No.”

“Fine, have it your way,” Bo sighed, slowing down slightly.

With Yvet no longer perched on his shoulder and chattering inanely – his mind was left to wander. And despite his best efforts, it kept drifting off in the same direction.

Fran.

Where was the tribe? Was everyone okay? Did they miss him? Had they searched for him?... Did they think he was dead?

That last question twisted in his gut like a knife. If he had let Fran think he was dead, well, he’d probably never forgive himself. He ran a hand through his hair nervously. The unfortunate truth was that – there was no easy solution.

Even if he wanted to meet up with the tribe again – which he did, Bo had no way of finding where they were. Sure, he knew they were going to fox mountain. But where was that?

The only thing he had thought of so far - was what Gale had done when he was separated from the tribe. If Bo could find another group wandering the desert and join up with them – he might be able to eventually regroup with the Karak at the tribe gathering. Or even earlier than that - if the tribe he joined was also heading to fox mountain.

He glanced back at Yvet, who was still periodically crashing head-first into the sand, unable to get the proper technique for her half-glide, half-running thing.

How would the tribe treat her? He wondered. Fran would be ecstatic, of course, and he could already picture Tor and Leo losing their minds. She was a dragon, after all. But something about the logistics of it troubled him.

Since she couldn’t eat Horus plants… what was Yvet supposed to eat when she grew bigger? And she would grow bigger. It was fine when she was her current size, but in a year or two, in ten years – she alone might eat more than the entire tribe put together.

Bo bit his lip and tried to think of a way around this. But in the end, he always came back to the same stumbling block.

The desert.

There was no getting around the fact that there just wasn’t enough food. There wasn’t enough anything, but food was certainly in short supply.

Of course, he had never planned on staying in the desert forever. It was suffocating. Claustrophobic even. Bo had always aimed higher than that, shooting for the wider world, the bigger pond.

Maybe Yvet was just his impetus. His trigger to actually do something about that dream.

He nodded his head and set his jaw. Yes. With her, he’d been shown proof that his dreams and aspiration weren’t empty. The dragons were real and deserved pursuit. He owed it to himself.

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Which brought him back to his tribe. Even if he returned there now, he couldn’t stay forever. Not that he wanted to.

Just then, Yvet slammed into his back amid an off-kilter glide. Bo weathered the blow gracefully, only stumbling a little bit before catching himself. He whirled around and glared at Yvet, who had curled up in a ball, her hind legs covering her nose pitifully.

Although he would have liked to be angry, he felt cruel, letting his temper out on something so downright pathetic, “are you alright?” He asked tentatively.

“Don’t talk to me,” she groaned, uncurling herself and staggering to her feet, “Let’s go,”

“Uh, are you sure? You look a little,” Bo searched for the right word, “frazzled,”

“I’m fine!” she snapped.

“Okay,” Bo held his hands up apologetically, “I was just checking,”

When they resumed walking again, Bo slowed his pace even further – keeping Yvet in the corner of his eye. Any time she looked like she was struggling to keep up or out of breath, he would claim to be tired and stop for a breather.

This inevitably drew complaints from the little dragon who ‘Didn’t want to be coddled,’ but Bo didn’t much care what she wanted. He just didn’t want his bait to be immobile by the time they reached their target.

Just before noon hit, Bo had managed to convince Yvet to let him carry her. It had taken a lot of pleading, along with the promise that she got to eat the sand shark’s heart – something Bo was more than happy to relent.

“You know, Qui wouldn’t like the way you treated me today,” Yvet said, slumping over Bo’s shoulder like a wet towel. Her hind legs draped down his back, and her forelegs were splayed over his chest.

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that, actually,” Bo squinted, thinking he could make out the ravine in the distance, “Why do you talk about Qui like he’s your friend? It’s not like you’ve met him, right?”

She gave him a sidelong glance, and a streak of fire shot out of her nostril, “I have indeed met Qui. What of it?” She said, her smugness worn like a badge across her chest.

“You have?” Bo frowned, “How?”

The little dragon shook her head, gazing off into the distance pompously, “Oh, you wouldn’t get it,” She waxed, “It’s a dragon thing,”

Bo narrowed his eyes, noticing she kept glancing back to see if he would ask her more about it. Having already figured out what she wanted, he shrugged, “Fine, keep it to yourself. What do I care?”

“Are you sure?” She asked, somewhat surprised, “Don’t you want to hear about how I met a god?”

“Nah, I’m not a dragon, so I wouldn’t get it,”

“Well, I’m sure you would understand bits and pieces,” Yvet stammered, “Are you sure you don’t want me to tell you?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Bo lied; he did want to know - just not if it meant Yvet got to act superior.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a fascinating story, though. I’m in it.”

“Look, If you want to tell the story that bad, then tell it,” Bo groaned, “You’re not being subtle about this,”

“Fine,” Yvet raised her head towards the sky dramatically, “If you insist,”

“I didn’t.”

“It was long, long ago. How long? You ask. Shut up; I’m telling a story,”

“But I didn’t ask anythi-“

“I said shut up, didn’t I?” Yvet snapped, “Now, where was I?” She gazed off into the heavens, “Oh yes, Qui,”

She glanced at Bo to see if he would interrupt her, nodding self-satisfactorily when he stayed quiet.

“Dragons are a special race,” she said, “We need our god’s help to breed since - the older we get – the more magic affects us, warping our bodies in ways hard to describe,”

Bo wished he could write this down but settled for listening raptly.

“Thus, Qui is involved in our conception. Every dragon's soul, when first conceived, grows from a flower in Qui’s garden. At this point, we are little more than energy given life - for our bodies do not exist yet. There, we are given Qui's blessing and gently guided to our eggs, where we wait for our inevitable hatching,”

“So, you met Qui before you were hatched?” Bo asked eagerly.

“I did indeed,” Yvet nodded, “He brought my soul to the Ming and let me drink of its waters, preparing me for the journey ahead,”

“Did you speak to him?” Bo asked.

“No,” Yvet lamented, “For I was too afraid to speak. His presence is beyond this world. Beyond reason... I could not describe it, nor do I want to.”

“However, Qui did say something to me – something that guided me through tough times - when I spent millennia alone, in the egg,”

“What was it!?” Bo asked intently.

“He said, ‘Your partner will be a cruel cheater, so prepare yourse-“

“Oh, shut up! There’s no way Qui said that!” Bo cried.

“How would you know?” Yvet snorted, “I’m the one that met him,”

“I should have sped up,” Bo muttered.

***

They arrived near the ravine - still on the far side from where they had last seen the sand shark. Bo understood that they were reasonably territorial creatures, so the shark should still be in the area.

“Keep an eye out for its fins,” He ordered, “They’re the same colour as the sand, so they can be hard to spot,”

Yvet nodded, sitting upright on his shoulder and scanning nearby meticulously. Her amber eyes darted across the sand, picking up even the slightest of movements.

Meanwhile, Bo searched for somewhere to stage the battle. They needed something high off the ground and difficult to climb. Something that would give the sand shark pause. Of course, they had both seen it scale the almost vertical ravine, so they were under no illusions that climbing something meant they were safe from the shark’s ravenous jaws.

But it would certainly slow it down, and hopefully, open it up for attack.

Eventually, Bo found what he was looking for - a steep boulder a few hundred metres from the edge of the ravine. Its surface was smooth and curved, making it difficult to scale in any short amount of time.

“This should do,” He grunted, flicking Yvet on the snout.

“Ow,” She scratched her snout with the tip of her wing, “What was that for?”

“Go find some grub,” he said, “I need to get set up,”

“Fine,” she snapped, “No need to be so mean,”

“Well, I am a cruel cheater,” Bo explained, “had you not heard?”

Yvet blew fire from her nose, sending a gout of flame right past his eyebrow, “I had heard, actually.”