Talons and Tails

Discovery

"Remind me again why we're flying out here? In the rain?" Turtle whimpered as he flapped his green wings to stay above the treetops.

"I still don't get why you don't like the rain. This should make your normally lazy wings work faster so we can be done with this and get back to Jade Mountain," Winter's haughty voice rang from above, clearly confused why a Seawing wouldn't like flying in the rain.

"Because! It's one thing to swim, surrounded by currents that help you move and another to have little drops of the stuff weighing your wings down as you try to fly!" Turtle argued back.

Qibli resisted the urge to roll his eyes, tilting his wings so he could fly in between the two dragons.

"As we've already discussed, we're out here in the rain because it's the rainforest and it's almost always raining. We're checking out the southern tip of the rainforest for the group of missing dragons, who were last seen around there. Now save your breath and try not to kill each other."

If Qibli could feel the two pairs of eyes glaring at him, he didn't let on. But even so, they all shut up and continued flying through the dim light.

Half an hour later, they arrived on the beaches of the southern tip, stopping in a cave to rest up and eat dinner. They hadn't expected the trip to take all day, but most of them weren't used to so much flying, so they stopped periodically to give their wings a break.

Qibli was joined by Moon at the edge of the cave, looking out to the edge of the ocean. He heard her careful footsteps and tucked in his tail barb so as not to accidentally hit her.

"You know, staring at it won't give you any answers," Moon said, sliding up to sit next to him. He smiled warmly at her, trying not to grin goofily at their touching wings.

Even though Moon had made it clear she felt the same way, their relationship was still very new and he worried that if he made the wrong move she might change her mind about him. And all the logic in the world couldn't help him cope with the loss of Moon.

He sighed, "I know. But what will we find out there? As far as I know, no explorers have gone very far out beyond this point. What if there's a whole other continent? Or maybe some hermit Seawings that have evolved to be completely different dragons? It could happen," he said, ignoring Moon's skeptical eyebrow.

"We'll find out tomorrow. A whole patrol of Rainwing and Nighwings can't be that hard to find." Qibli gave her a look.

"Yes. Besides the fact that Rainwings can camouflage and Nightwings are practically invisible at night," he said sarcastically.

"Right," she said. "Besides that."

"Hey, lovedragons! Get over here and tell these guys to appreciate my cooking!" Kinkajou chirped from the cave. They smiled and went back, finding Winter wrinkling his nose at a bowl of some sort of mixed concoction that smelled like water and fruit.

Turtle was attempting to pour it into Peril's mouth but was mostly just splashing it onto her scales which made the whole room smell like burnt fruit.

"I think it's alright," Turtle said kindly, giving up on Peril and picking up his own bowl from the corner.

"It's not- I mean it has some- good, er, qualities?" Winter tried, holding the bowl as far away from him as he could.

"I can see your face Snow Butt!" Kinkajou said bluntly, not exactly menacingly, more like a mother scolding her child.

"Then I'm sorry, Kinkajou. But Qibli looks starving." He practically shoved the bowl into Qibli's talons and moved to sit by Peril who looked disgruntled at the amount of burnt food on her head.