The Dragon Warrior

Chapter Seven: Eagle Feather

Chapter Seven

Moonblood groaned and slowly opened one eye. Pain shot through his body, the worst of it coming from his neck. He painfully opened the other eye and found himself staring straight at Tawon.

               The only reason Moonblood didn’t leap into the air with surprise was completely because of the pain it would inflict on his neck. Otherwise he’d be halfway to the kingdom of Chaos by now. That reminded him….

                  “You’ve slept for an entire month!”

                Moonblood was instantly wide awake after he remembered that humanoid beings used the word “Months” instead of “Moons”.

                 “Luckily,” Tawon said, making Moonblood freeze, “you are still alive. Plus, Skylo flew as fast as he possibly could to the kingdoms and came back just a week or two ago. That means that we are only about two months away!”

                 The fact that they were two months faster than Moonblood had first suspected soothed him a little.

                “What happened to Shadow?” Moonblood asked, forcing his voice not to quiver with the pain of speaking.

              Tawon sat down on a rock nearby to tell the story: “Well, me and the other elves were waiting back here for you three to come back. After a long while we decided to head out and look for you. When we got to the edge of the forest, both Skylo and Hydra weren’t there, so we decided that the plan changed and they went with you.

               “So we climbed over the fence into the town and saw a massive storm. We traveled a little farther and found you fighting a giant black dragon, only he had you pinned on the ground and his teeth were crammed in your neck.”

Moonblood lightly rubbed his sore neck with his right foreleg as he remembered the fight.

                 “So, we attacked Shadow and scared him off. Luckily, Addaser is also pretty well-trained in healing, so she tended to your wounds. Demaethor stayed behind to help guard you while me and the others went off to find Skylo and Hydra. Funnily enough, they were right outside the walls on the opposite end awaiting our arrival. That’s all we know.”

             Moonblood smiled and slowly clambered onto his legs. They were very weak from not getting a lot of exercise the past moon, so he was a little wobbly. But, he eventually regained his footing and followed Tawon to the “camp”.

           Hydra and Skylo were sleeping comfortably by a campfire while the elves played weird games Moonblood had never seen before. The temperature was down to a comfortable amount and the stars dotted the sky as if saying there was still hope.

           “We’re leaving at dawn,” Tawon said to moonblood as he settled down into a bag made of fur. “You should strengthen your wings for the long flight ahead of us until then.”

         As much as Moonblood hated being told what he should and shouldn’t do, he knew that Tawon was right.

               Moonblood spread his wings until they reached their full length and he felt more relaxed as they slowly unfurled. He leaped into the air and floated above the trees as silently as an owl.

              He felt as though he were actually a drop of the moon’s blood dropping towards the earth as slowly and lightly as a feather. His scales were still mostly red, but the black and purple made it look like he was part storm as well. But the name Moonbloodstorm seemed a little too long and five O’s was just a little odd, even though four wasn’t much better.

           He shot through the air as gracefully as though he were a current, slicing along worry-free. But Moonblood just couldn’t help feeling worried.  He was supposed to fight six dragons to the death. The odds weren’t exactly in his favor.

                Despite the worry, Moonblood couldn’t help but feel as powerful as the strongest dragon as he soared through the clouds. Small droplets of water stuck to his scales and weighed him down a bit, but that only helped to make his wings stronger. And he was always careful to stay in sight of the camp with that single, tiny flame flickering in the darkness, the only thing keeping wolves and cougars away.

             The worry flooded back to him as he thought about a pack of wolves tearing their claws through Skylo’s thin wings or shredding the elves to bits. Then again, he probably would have heard wolf howls if there was a pack nearby.

               The worries flooded away once more like waves on the open sea that Moonblood and his companions had yet to find. Then would come the biggest troubles of all.

                 Things like water demons and such that have been known to jump straight from the water and pluck a dragon out of the sky for a meal, for one. They had a pretty keen taste for Water dragons as well. No dragon is known to have a reaction speed fast enough to escape the claws of the terrible creatures.

Worry crashed back into Moonblood’s mind. It was beginning to feel like the tides in an ocean. An ocean filled with the demonly serpents….

            It all was enough to terrify any dragon, let alone one as young as Moonblood. Then he remembered his armor. The glorious Wolf Onyx could probably withstand the biting force of any sea demon. He swooped back down into the trees beside the fire and shook the water droplets from his scales before trying to find his armor.

            He soon caught the scent of the armor. It smelled like dirt, metal, and even fire; oddly enough. Moonblood followed his nose to a patch that had been cleared away to make room for all of the supplies. He quickly slipped all of his armor on and immediately felt much safer. If only he had been wearing his armor when he challenged Shadow….

                With a brief puff of smoke he rose into the air once more, this time being followed by Skylo.

            “Where’s Hydra?” Moonblood asked as they banked to the right and slowly began to circle the camp.

            Skylo quickly replied, “She’s still fast asleep. But it’s not like she’s done anything to use up energy and need sleep at all anyways.”

            Moonblood bared his pristine white fangs in what might be considered a smile before frowning again. “It’s best that she get her sleep. We’ll have to cross the ocean and water demons would snap her up without thinking twice. She needs to be vigilant and alert, things that come from a good night’s rest.”

            Skylo gazed down at the green tree-tops as he thought for a moment and replied, “Shouldn’t we get some rest then as well? I don’t want to get snapped up by any water demons.”

            “You go ahead,” Moonblood began, “someone needs to keep watch and make sure the others aren’t eaten alive by other things, things just as dangerous as any old water demon.”

            “No, you need sleep more than anyone else.”

            “Are you joking? I slept for an entire moon not too long ago. If I need anything it’s to stretch my wings out for our big flight,” Moonblood snapped.

            “That will only weaken your wings. They’ll be very soar by morning if you keep flying straight through the night,” Skylo said in a more affectionate voice.

            Moonblood saw no point in arguing further and floated back down the ground. Only then did he realize how tired he actually was. He flopped to the ground and began to feel too exhausted to take his armor off. But, eventually, he slowly drifted off into a deep sleep and felt as weightless as the feather of an eagle, drifting to the earth without so much as a movement to lose its rhythm, until it finally landed on a dandelion and made a tiny whisper:

            “I’m here.”