Gretel led the green seer-hybrid to the hills, landing atop the tallest one where she peered down and beckoned him excitedly to join her.
Gadalik managed to climb it with ease, grateful that his rough, crimson-colored paw-pads could grip onto just about any solid surface. He pulled himself up beside the purple-and-white wyvern. The unobstructed breeze helped cool him from the summer’s heat, and he instinctively spread his small wings and let the wind embrace him for a moment. Then his striped blue eyes focused on his friend expectantly. “What's the plan?”
“Plan?” Gretel scoffed. “You should know by now that I improvise. Bu-u-ut, I thought you'd like the view from up here.” She gestured to the plains they had just traversed.
Gadalik took in the sight of his forest home on the northern outskirts of the land, and the lake just south of it. Then he was struck by a strong sense of deja vu.
“You okay?” the young wind dragoness asked worriedly.
“I've been here before,” he remembered.
“Really? I thought you’ve never left the forest past the lake?” She seemed disappointed that her spot was nothing new to him.
“Well, I haven't…yet,” he clarified. “Last winter, I foresaw a future of me and Glacia standing on this very hill. In that vision, the colors of the forest trees were warm, so it must take place in autumn–next season.”
“What would you two be doing on a hill?”
“If we leave in late fall this year, the upcoming snow will let me survive the journey,” the water dragoness had told him a few weeks ago. The pieces fit together. “We were going to the mountains–to see the earth dragons.”
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Gretel’s tapered, purple-tipped muzzle gaped at him in shock. “You do know how earth dragons feel about having wings, right?”
The earth dragon hybrid nodded ever so slightly. “I know they had cast out and killed their own winged kind until they ended up wingless as a dragon type.”
“And you still wanna go?” she pressed, flabbergasted. “Why?”
“There are a couple of reasons,” he admitted. “The first is that…there's a chance they will let me in and I can find out more about my father and his side of my heritage.”
Gretel’s eyes narrowed skeptically at him. “Is having a connection to your parents that important? I mean, you'll be risking getting hurt or killed if the earth types don't welcome you.”
He took a single step away from her. “You wouldn't understand; you're a solitary dragon. I'm not. Both of my blood-parents’ types–and my adoptive mother’s type–are meant to live in a society, not isolated in the woods…”
“So you're planning on moving there?”
“N-No! I just…want a taste of the life I'm designed to have. If they turn me away, that's fine… If they attack, Glacia will protect me. But there's still a chance that they'll let me in, even if it's just for a day, or a few hours…”
Gretel sat down, her mouth and eyes scrunched as if trying to wrap her mind around the worth of family and community. She shook her head dismissively. “You mentioned there was more than one reason. What's the other?”
“Oh! I wanted to find out why the light dragons are hostile.”
"The earth dragons won't be able to help you with that... Out of all of the dragon types, they're the ones who've been trying the longest to figure that out--and it cost them their lives, and their ability to fly."
"That's just it: if light dragons only attack flighted dragons, I should be safe to meet with them and ask them directly."
She stared at him for a few moments as if to determine if this was a joke. Then the wyvern closed her eyes, took a breath, and leapt off the hill. At first Gadalik thought his friend was leaving, so when she turned around to hover directly in front of him, he was relieved. That relief was short-lived, however, as her hot pink eyes bore into his and she bellowed, “Are you insane?!”