From Sea to Sky

t w e l v e | s k y e

It takes them only a matter of minutes until several dragons appear on their sides, flanking them and Skye quickly recognizes them as the city guard. The guard leads them over to a large clearing to the left of the center of the city. It's lit brightly and has the tallest building on the edge of it, it's huge bay doors open. To his even bigger surprise, Skye sees a crowd of dragons and their Riders wandering around the clearing.

Hundreds of questions fill his mind as they fly past several buildings so fast he can hardly make out where they are going. Then a familiar grassy field appears beside the building and Firedust slows, landing softly, and looks around in surprise. Most of these Riders look wounded and move jerkily, looking about them as if something or someone is going to attack them at any moment.

A member of the city guard lands in front of them, and although he smiles, he still looks grim. He dismounts from his dragon and as he does, they follow his lead.

Skye's feet hit the muddy ground and he feels as if his bones have turned to jelly. He shakes slightly and for a couple seconds, has to lean on Firedust until he can stand up straight. His legs are uncomfortably stiff as he walks forward to stand between Lana and Bryan.

The city watchman approaches them with a friendly nod. "Welcome to Halsa. I am Horace Woldrid of the City Watch. What are your names and home island?"

Skye shares a glance between Bryan and Lana who both look to him to speak. "I am Skye Medeis, he is Bryan Farrowsnow, and she is Lana of Orleyn."

The man starts at the name. "Skye Medeis of Orleyn?" He immediately brings his right hand over his chest, bowing slightly at the waist. "Your Grace."

The other city guards do the same atop their dragons and Skye freezes in surprise. People bowed to his father. People bowed to Dragon King Atol, not his son that was mostly shut away from the world.

"You don't need to bow." He says quickly, and they all look at him curiously, and he feels his heart beat faster in nervousness at the way they're treating him. "We are simply looking for a place to rest."

Horace straightens. "Of course. Our stables are right over here for your dragons and we've got rooms in the other building. If anything is not to your standard—"

"It sounds great, thank you." Skye says and the other man nods, the faintest of smiles starting to appear on his face, this time genuine.

Before he can reply, a horn blasts in the distance and all of the City Guard straighten. Horace starts to move but hesitates as he looks towards them.

"I trust you all can find your way around?" He asks and as they nod, he gives another small bow, before turning to mount his dragon. Skye feels small standing before his aquamarine colored dragon, and as Horace offers them one last smile, he takes off, leaving them alone on this foreign island.

They all look ahead to the buildings in front of them. The stables reach heights all the way up to the sky, towering over everything else. It's made from thick stone, it's sides covered with splotches of random black scorches from dragon fire. The wooden bay doors are open to the field and inside, Skye can see hundreds of sleeping dragons curled up on the floor or hanging from the rafters, their snores shaking the night.

He pats Firedust on the back, his large intelligent eyes assessing him first, before bounding over to the building, Andena and Whiplash on his heels. They disappear within a matter of moments within the gargantuan building and Bryan chuckles beside Skye.

"Looks like they were eager to rest."

"That makes four of us." He grumbles and both Bryan and Lana add their agreement as they turn to the other building.