At noon, after they had both gotten enough sleep and had lunch, Gretel felt more confident staying on Efron’s island even if her instincts nagged her to leave. I'll continue my search for a retreat this evening, she decided. In the meantime… “Are you ready to practice the duet?” she asked her friend.
The violet yearling swallowed his last bit of lunch and seemed to cower slightly at her suggestion. “Uh… Right now?”
“Yeah; why not? You said you'd practice today.”
“Oh… W-Well, I…”
The baby wyvern tilted her head. “You changed your mind?”
“N-No, but I'd rather practice singing for our duet alone…”
“Oh, okay! No problem. Should I leave, then?” She felt relieved by the excuse to act on her instincts.
“You can if you want,” Efron answered, “but if you're willing to stay and plan out my half of the duet with you, I'd like that.”
“Plan?” Gretel frowned. “You're still overthinking things. You can plan your half if you want to lead the duet, but my half will be improvised in response to yours. If you don't want to lead it, then you'd have a hard time planning around my improvisation.”
“Oh… Should I improvise too…?”
“I mean, if you prefer improvising for it, then sure.”
“Alright… I think I will, then. But I'd also like to lead it, if that's okay…?”
“Of course it's okay,” she giggled reassuringly. “It’ll be more fun for me that way.”
He smiled slightly. “Thanks.”
“Should I leave now and let you practice, then?” she asked again, losing the battle with her instincts ever since the opportunity to leave first arose.
“If you want to,” the revealer repeated.
“Okay!” Gretel chirped. “Then I'll see you tomorrow!”
“See ya.”
The wind-type hatchling couldn't help grinning as she eagerly took flight, proud of her friend. I'm glad he's actually telling me what he wants to do. When we first met, he only tried to do things that he thought would impress me, or change his mind about doing them if I disapproved–like using traps to hunt. It's a process, but this is progress! If he learns to be independent enough, I'm sure he'd have no issues staying in my future retreat, even if other social dragons don't fare well outside of societies. He’ll be the exception–there's hope for him yet! Speaking of retreats, I now have the rest of the day to look for one, too!
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The white-and-purple wyvern went south of Efron's home. She had been hatched farther north last season, and had already explored some islands east of her friend’s; the revealer society had been west of it, and the fire dragons’ territory had been southwest of it, so she refused to go west at all this time. She could see silhouettes of many islands in the distance, and most appeared to be just as vast as the volcanic one, if not larger. That was promising; the bigger the land, the greater the chances of her finding a piece of it outside of claimed territories; the last thing she'd want to do was get caught trespassing again, especially after she narrowly avoided that light dragon’s heat ray a couple nights ago.
Gretel glided easily on her summoned wind until she reached the nearest one: a huge tropical island. Similar to the volcanic one, it sloped up from a beach to more mountainous terrain, just with a large jungle in between. The mountains had thick waterfalls that either pooled into springs and lakes, or trailed out into rushing rivers. The wind type was drawn in by their beauty. Taking the precaution of silencing herself and double checking to make sure no light dragon was within sight, she passed over the upper parts of the jungle’s trees and began to dive down toward the lowest mountain spring.
Instinct once again took control of the hatchling, causing her to swiftly move backward before she realized what she was dodging; all Gretel felt in the moment was the disturbance of the air exactly where she had previously been, and now that she was out of harm's way, she felt terror upon seeing what caused it: the jaws of a humongous orange seer dragon snapping shut. He had emerged from the trees on clawed, spindly wings, much like a shark from water.
“Did you get her?” another male's voice sounded from below.
“She's quick, even for a juvenile,” the would-be killer growled in a frustrated answer, but his large amber eyes never left Gretel, even as she tried to seize that moment of distraction to fly away.
“My perception's better than yours. Let me at her,” the second replied.
Her mind raced in a panic as she still felt the first’s wingbeats disturbing the air behind her. I've never faced a seer before… What should I do…? I know I'm faster, but they can perceive time, can't they? Fleeing is useless if they can predict where I go…! Her thoughts were interrupted by a younger, dark blue seer dragon intercepting her path, swatting her down with his large paw from above.
It hurt; no doubt her back would be bruised by the effortless attack that had knocked her from the sky. As she was falling toward the ocean’s crashing waves, trying to recover her flight by redirecting the existing air beneath her skyward despite her pain, Gretel remembered what she had told Efron about how wind types dealt with larger threats: by amplifying their voice into a dangerous pitch and volume.
“You idiots!” sounded a third seer's roar at the first two. “She's the siren I foretold you of! If you don't want her to blowout our eardrums, then leave her alone!”
“This puny thing?!” the orange one exclaimed in utter disbelief.
“S-Sorry,” the blue one muttered.
To Gretel's relief, she no longer felt them pursue her as she recuperated and flew off.