Ivy snorted in disbelief. Her daughter, Flower, had slept in for way longer than she needed to. Did she not want to see her father? Ivy doubted this, but she trudged over and blew a gust of air into Flower's face anyway. Flower drowsily opened her eyes, sniffled, and then sneezed. Ivy glanced down at her little dragonet before turning and stretching her wings.
"I hope you're ready to leave," Ivy said, shading Flower with her left wing. The little dragon opened her mouth to answer but the reply came from Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler was like a brother Ivy. He was dark indigo in color; his wings looked like sunsets than were thrown in a blender. He was also about half the size of Ivy.
Ivy, on the other hand, was a bright green. Her eyes were blue, and her wings were a mix of bright colors and patterns. Flower was yellow with green and purple rings traveling down her body.
"I'm ready," Nightcrawler said. Flower turned her head to look at him.
"Nightcrawler!" she exclaimed, bouncing over to him. Ivy looked at Nightcrawler, an annoyed expression forming on her face.
"That's great, but I wasn't asking you. Flower, are you ready to go?" Ivy repeated. Flower looked up at her mother (who, might I add, was four times bigger than her) and nodded. She then climbed on Ivy's back (because she couldn't quite fly yet) and wrapped her forelimbs around her mother's neck.
Ivy and Nightcrawler stood on the rocky ledge in front of their old cave. They took one last look at the cave that Flower had been raised in and flew into the mountains.
After some time they stopped to rest on the top of a mesa near a valley.
"I will go and find some food," Nightcrawler said as he took to the air. Ivy sniffed the air for the scent of other dragons. To her horror, other dragons had indeed been in the area. They were in another dragon's territory. Her pupils narrowed and she covered Flower with her wings. The oblivious young dragon, who was swatting at a daisy, squeaked in surprise. Ivy froze. The faint sound of wingbeats tore through the silence. Ivy frantically shifted her gaze to catch sight of anything. She noticed a black form flying toward them from the left. Another was coming from the right. Ivy quickly used her plant-bending magic to encase her and Flower in a cage of thorns.
The two dragons who were flying toward Ivy and Flower had landed near the thorn cage. One of them, who was a female and had a black body with rainbow stripes, noticed the ball of thorns.
"What is that?" she asked the other dragon. The other dragon was also female, and she was black with red markings.
"Cym, have you ever seen this here?" the black-rainbow dragon asked again. The black and red dragon looked at the ball and sniffed.
"Hanya, there are dragons in there," she stated. Hanya walked over to stand beside Cym. They rambled on about how they would get in the ball while Ivy was inside it with Flower, thinking of a plan. Ivy then hid Flower in a smaller thorn ball and got into a pouncing position. She burst through the thorn ball and barreled into Cym. Hanya ripped Ivy off of Cym and threw her aside. Ivy stood between the other two dragons, glancing back and forth. They all stood there for a good thirty seconds, simply frozen in their places. Suddenly, Ivy made a move. The slender dragoness slipped past Hanya and jumped on her back. At the same time, she was entangling Cym in vines.
"Why are you in our territory?!" Hanya roared, desperately and violently trying to shake Ivy off of her. Ivy released her grip on her, causing her to fly off of Hanya's back.
"We were just stopping here to rest for a while. I didn't know it was your territory!" Ivy half lied. She did know that other dragons lived there, but she barely had any time to react to their arrival. She tore open the small ball that Flower had been in and then released Cym from her prison of vines. Flower cowered away from her mother when she noticed Cym and Hanya looking at her.
"Aww, you're so cute!" Cym said, moving closer to her. Flower hid behind her mother.
"Flower, it's okay. They won't hurt you," Ivy said as Flower growled. Nightcrawler landed and dropped a large horse in front of the four female dragons. He twisted his body into a defensive pose.
"Hey. Why don't you chill? We're not going to kill you," Hanya sassed. Nightcrawler relaxed.
"I should have brought a bigger horse." He said as he looked at each of the four dragons. They laughed and shared their meal.
At last, the gang had arrived at their destination. It was a shared den where Flower's father lived; there were about fifteen total dragons who called this 'Mega-den' home.
Flower bounded over to her father, Abidemi, and gave him a warm greeting. Nightcrawler said his hellos and went to watch Flower as she began to chase a butterfly. Ivy stood in front of Abidemi. The two dragons kept eye contact for what seemed like an eternity.
"Ivy..." Abidemi started to speak.
"Hi," Ivy said as she gently pressed her nose to Abidemi's.
"I haven't seen you since Flower was born," Abidemi stated with a smile. Ivy laughed.
"Oh, stop! It was only seven months ago!"
"Seven months is a long time to go without seeing your daughter, Ivy. I mean, look at her. She's all grown up." Flower was busy swatting at the butterfly that had landed on her nose.
"Be serious! She's just a dragonet!" Ivy chuckled. Abidemi turned his head to look at Flower, a concerned look spreading over his face.
"Soon, she could be more than a dragonet," he began, "she could be a monster some day." Ivy frowned.
"Our baby could never become a monster..." Ivy retorted.
"We'll just have to wait and see," Abidemi replied.
At sunset, Ivy and Abidemi walked out to the star viewing area and sat down side by side while Nightcrawler was keeping Flower occupied. Ivy looked at Abidemi and he looked back at her.
"Abidemi, I want to go somewhere and start a proper flight," Ivy said hopefully.
"That's a nice thought," Abidemi replied.
"You don't get it, do you? I want to start it with you!" Ivy growled. Abidemi stared at her.
"Wouldn't it be nice? Just to start a small flight with Flower and Nightcrawler?" Ivy asked him. Abidemi pondered this and looked back at the setting sun.
"That does sound nice... I can live with you and Flower again. Shall we leave tomorrow at mid-day?" he replied.
The next day, the five dragons got ready to leave. After they had all eaten a decent portion of deer, Abidemi wished the other dragons at the den good luck, then they were off. The four dragons flew for a few hours before they found a small clearing in a forest and figured they would start there. The first weeks were filled with hunting and marking territorial boundaries. Abidemi was appointed Flight Leader.
Everything in their little flight was peaceful, but only for a little while...
