When Dragonets Love

Friendships

As the air from Snake's wings swooshed in through the open tree hut, Cocoa's eyes widened and she leaped out of her bed and ran out onto the patio. The nurse behind her roared, but the hybrid ignored the RainWing. She ran past Vine and to the edge of the balcony, watching their friend soar away, farther and farther from them.

"Cocoa...?" She heard Vine ask from behind her.

"Hey! You shouldn't be out of bed, dragonet!" the nurse came running out after her.

Cocoa looked at the two dragons approaching her from both sides. Her right arm was throbbing like crazy but she kept looking up after Snake. Without another thought, Cocoa took one leap and fell headlong off the balcony.

"COCOA!" Vine gasped.

Not a moment later, the dragonet spread her wings, catching a steady updraft. As she passed the Infirmary, she saw Vine and a bright red nurse watching her zip past. She ignored them, taken several strong wingbeats, eyes on the yellow dragon ahead of her.

Snake was merely a speck on the horizon, heading Northwest toward the desert. She was beginning to gain on him, but it took all her strength and she wasn't even in hearing range.

As the Sun blinded her in one eye, Cocoa began to feel her injury wear on her. The little venom that was left in her wound spread with every beat. She could feel herself slowing, just a little longer.

The forest began to blur, she could hear her own heartbeat in her ears, and her breathing labored. She tried to blink away the dots, just making the trees blurrier. You useless lizard, she thought, tears in her eyes.

Below her she could just make out some RainWings in the leaves and then just darkness. Sweet darkness.

Cocoa felt her wings flapping and chest heaving. But it all felt detached for some reason, it feels so ice for once, not so loud. The dark was so enticing, maybe, if I just closed my eyes...

And then she fell.

She could distantly hear RainWings shouting in surprise, the racket of wings flapping. A familiar voice calling her name, accompanied by a howl of fury from somewhere nearby. Cocoa tried to open her eyes but kept drifting in and out of consciousness.

She had the faint feeling that she was falling, it didn't matter, though. Nothing matters, I'm safe. Just sleep, you'll feel better, her thoughts whispered.

The falling seemed to stop abruptly, Cocoa didn't think she'd died, though. Wouldn't it hurt if she hit the ground and died? Or maybe it wouldn't, who knows? I don't know anyone who's ever died before. Maybe, it's painless, she smiled, she liked that thought.

There was a light in the distance, far ahead at the end of the blackness behind her eyelids. The Night-RainWing frowned, puzzled. Maybe she really had died, all the scrolls described the afterlife like a bright light at the end of a hall. But she's never heard of an afterlife, not really, they weren't real, right?

The pinprick was getting closer, as if walking toward her. But it was two dragons, shining so bright Cocoa couldn't look. Then they spoke in voices resounding off the walls of her brain chamber. They sounded oh so familiar, "Our Cocoa...find us. Help us...miss you—"

As the voices seemed to break out, the little dragonet frantically called out, or reached out with her brain.  "H-how? W-who are you? Wait! WAIT! NO, COME BACK! PLEASE! HOW DO I FIND YOU?"

Their voices seemed to reverberate off some distant walls, combining and bending into incomprehensible sounds. Cocoa desperately tried to grab onto a sentence a word. Finally, the words got quieter and quieter, one name snuck out "...Vine."

______

A/N: it's short...yet again. I was trying to get this one done quickly. I decided to just leave it off there instead, but I'll be working on the next chapter immediately.