It was still dark when I awoke. The birds had just begun to chirp and sing and dew clung to every fern and blade of grass within the clearing. Thankfully the frogs had finally shut up, I would have been even more grumpy if I had woken up to that horrendous noise.
Standing slowly in an effort to not wake Fyrlia who was still asleep right beside me, I stretched once I was a few paces away, feeling all my bones crack and pop after a long time of no movement.
Spotting Cryhn watching me from the now-dead campfire I shook off any excess water on me — I hated the feeling of it slowly sliding over my scales — and silently made my way to his side.
“When are we leaving?” I whispered to him.
“Soon,” he replied. “Go ahead and wake her, we will go to a stream I found yesterday for water first and then leave.”
I nodded in agreement and trudged back toward her sleeping body, trying to blink away the bleariness in my eye all the while.
Hopefully, she’s a morning person because I’m most certainly not and if anyone tried to wake me up this early I’d probably bite their head off.
It turned out that she was also not a morning person and I would’ve been missing a talon if I hadn’t used a stick to nudge her instead. Thankfully I had, and now the poor piece of wood lay shattered to splinters in the pile of leaves it had fallen in.
Once that had been done and Fyrlia wasn’t still grumbling at me we left for the stream. The sun was just beginning to rise when we touched down on the bank of the stream, its golden orange rays pushing back the inky black sky bit by bit.
Soft grass grew along the higher area of the bank while mud and smooth rocks took up the lower area. We drank from the lower, more sturdy area just in case we stepped on a loose bit of earth and it gave out — none of us wanted to take a dip this early in the day, no matter how shallow the water might be.
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The stream itself reflected the sky above, thin tendrils of orange slowly overtaking the primarily navy-colored water. Rocks were scattered throughout it, their sharp, pointy tops breaking up the otherwise smooth flow into white frothy sections before it once more calmed down.
After we had drunk our fill we all rose into the sky one by one, Cryhn leading the way while Fyrlia was in the back, myself flying comfortably in between them.
~~~
The sun was now at its zenith, and we were still flying. My wings had long since grown weary of flight, so now I simply aimed to glide for as long as I could before needing to use them to propel myself forward quickly. Even so, stretching my wings so wide and for so long made them feel like they were constantly on the verge of cramping.
Dragons may be built for flying — most of them, at least — but even then we still had our limits, and I had just about reached mine.
The wind was doing us no favors either. It howled and screeched past us, pushing against our sides and front and forcing us to work twice as hard to maintain the pace. Cryhn, in the lead, was taking the brunt of it, yet he still looked as if he could fly forever. No panting chest, no drooping posture, and definitely no weakness in the wings. He pumped them continuously as if we had only just started flying in perfect weather.
Definitely some influence of his age. Maybe his element and rank as well, especially since Yaegran’s normally have the second-worst stamina out of all the dragons.
Finally, Cryhn twisted his neck and looked back at us. We were probably quite a sorry sight, myself wilting like a dying flower, and while I wasn’t entirely sure how Fyrlia was doing, I doubted it was any better than me.
He seemed to reach some sort of resolution because he nodded his head slightly, and began to descend.
“Thank the gods,” I gasped into the air.
I snapped my wings shut, letting my body stall and plummet toward the ground before shooting through the clouds like a falcon. Hitting the warmer air below them was still as much a shock as it had been my first time doing this, but I managed to combat the usual discomfort and tightness in my chest by taking deeper breaths than I would normally.
Plains and fields of grass and gold ferns lay sprawled across the horizon for as far as the eye could see. The mountains were now far in the distance, and the forest we had come from was nowhere in sight. It was as if we had been transported to another world, and I loved it. While there was still a brisk wind, the sun beat more warmly upon my scales than it ever had in Yavleth, producing a feeling of contentment that I hadn't known I was missing out on.
Still following Cryhn’s lead, we eventually managed to find a small dip in the earth from where the flat plain built up into a small hill. It was the best we would likely find for leagues in every direction, so we decided to rest there for now.
Or at least I thought it was a nice spot for resting, but Cryhn obviously had very different plans. The second my feet made contact with the ground and my tired wings were given a temporary respite, Cryhn lunged for me, bowling me to the ground in a single, quick move. His next words made me groan in defeat.
“Your training starts now,” he declared, a predatory grin etched onto his face as he stepped off me, giving me room to stand up before he launched his next attack. I hit the dirt once again, my body already aching.
Well, this should be so much fun.