A strong claw gripped my shoulder just as the warmth felt almost unbearable and the tip of my human foot touched the flames and pulled me away.
Flap.
Flap.
Flap.
For a moment, I did not feel anything. Then searing hot pain spiked through my body and I restrained my yell. My entire body felt like it was on fire.
If I'm dying right now, I'm not giving them the satisfaction of hearing me suffer.
My saviour dropped me in a heap on the ground and flew off. Everything was blurry. My bones shifted and muscles bulged, as I took the form of my dragon self. The tugging at the back of my mind told me to let go, to lie there forever. Roaring and fire breath faded into white noise, and I let the blackness cloud my eyes. The world was light, then the light was the world, and then there was nothing at all.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————
Air?
I was curled in a spiky ball of scales.
"We gotta fly soon... he can't hold on much longer... wake up! Up, I say!"
Claws were poking at my side, finding the places which hurt the most. Or my nose.
How was I supposed to do that, exactly? Wake up? I was pretty focused on breathing. Still, I tried.
One breath. Another. Yet another one. My lungs filled itself gratefully, giving itself as much time to expand as possible.
I opened my eyes.
A large figure was flying in circles around me, throwing me into the dark shadow. Then I noticed the pain, like tiny claws gripping at my belly, but that was the least of my worries.
A Solarflare was leaning over me. But... something in his eyes were different. They were full of kindness the other solarflares did not have. blue eyes. Somehow. The dragon dipped down and yanked at my tail, "COME ON, DO YOU WANT TO DIE OR NOT?"
"I... can't."
"What do you mean? HECK, PUSH YOURSELF. DON'T ACT LIKE A DEAD FISH."
"Ugh. Fine."
"By the way, I'm Ash."
I wobbled to my feet and leaped into the air. The mountain below me shrank, the trees swaying, like it was waving me goodbye and wished me luck. Just then, we heard a resounding roar of triumph from the dragons below. Horrified, I glanced down towards the corpse left on the mushy, reddish brown dirt as red- gold dragons soared away. His cold dead eyes glinted in the bright sunlight, his bloody body leaving a pool of water. Piles of bones and ashes were also littered around the battlefield. As we shot off, I saw the Solarflare bow his head, fly in a circle around the body and join my side. My heart ached for the dead dragon, who saved my life.
"Coral." I muttered.
Ash cocked his head. "Your name?"
I nodded.
As we flew across lakes, mountains, more lakes and mountains, I felt the warmth of Ash's wings burning get far too close...
Ash let out a piercing roar and turned backwards wildly, arching his back at the perusing Solarflares. "GO!" He yelled. "To the mountain over there!" Then, as one caught hold of his horns, rage smoke from his burning wings blocked my sight of the fight as I fled towards the mountain, but soon enough, I saw the tell-tale sign of a Solarflare that fell towards the ocean, his wings extinguished.
That dragon... yes, maybe he was evil, maybe he didn't care for Hydroblasts, but...
He had a family. Maybe, baby dragons who longed for the day he would return...
What is this feeling? Sympathy for the enemy?
Just then, Ash caught up to me, and hurried me to fly faster. There was a cut on his neck and side, but he still flew faster than me.
As we continued flying, I cast my emerald green eyes across the sky, glancing for a moment across the shimmering lake as the dying sun's rays reflected off the water, into my eyes. I remembered the light from the day my parents died.....
I could only remember the fact that my parents left to find food after a week of starving... when they left, they never came back. When I gathered my courage and tried to find them, the two burnt, charred figures in pools of water were the only thing I had left of them. The tears that fell from my eyes were lost to the air, and I vowed to get revenge. Although I was fuelled by anger and hate, I could never steel myself to do the unforgivable. Why couldn't we just live in harmony? Why?
I also could not explain how I trusted Ash, but the friendliness in his eyes were enough.
Just as I was enjoying the mountain air, he went into a vertical dive, spiralling through the air and landed gracefully on a cliff, and a fairy flew out of a tree at the edge of the cliff panickedly. I crashed to the earth, sat up and growled at Ash as he snickered.
"Hey, I don't have a lot of practice." I complained rubbing my sore head.
"Quick." He hissed. "We gotta get under the protection of the trees."
I ducked under the thick branches of the pine trees.
"Down here." He whispered, pushing away a small cascade of vines, revealing a deep hole. I followed him, each step, gripping each stone and nook Ash had used seconds before. There were stalactites and stalagmites in the cave, so no dragon could fly across, and a wrong move would lead to impending death. Was he going to lead me to a death pit? I barely noticed that we were walking on solid ground or dim,cosy light that almost walked into him, making him lurch forward and almost pass through a pretty solid-looking wall of water, yelp and wince.
"Oops, sorry." I almost wanted to clap my mouth shut. Why was I saying sorry?
Ash merely giggled, "Relax. Goodness. Welcome to your new home."
—————————————————————————————————————————————————
I looked skeptically at the water. Not sold, comrade. Dumping this Solarflare into the water didn't seem like such a bad idea after all.
Like he sensed my discomfort, Ash tapped a series of patterns onto a large chunk of wood embedded into the ground and the wall of water fell away, revealing the cave. My new home.
'Home' looked amazing. Although the walls were made of stone, the ground was soft and squishy, and green vines stretched across the walls, bearing bunches of white flowers and grapes. Glowshrooms grew in small groups on the soft earth, adding it's multicoloured light to the cave. The room allowed seven dragons to sit together with their wings spread out. In the centre there was a tree with the four dragon symbols. Leaves fanned from the trees, a glass globe with yellow fire trapped inside and swayed in the non- existent breeze, its light filtering though the leaves and a layer of mist hung in the air. A snow- white dragon zipped into the entrance cave and asked, without glancing at me, "Where's Fry?" Her eyes darted around, clearly trying to spot someone or something.
Ash looked to the ground sadly. "He scarified himself to save Coral here."
"WHAT?" She roared, flipping into the air and soaring out of the cave.
"She's Sky." Ash said softly. "She and Fry are-" he cut off looking uncomfortable.
I wished I could have helped him. Really. My brain felt empty, if Sky was really affected, then what would happened to his, say, bestest of friends?
"Ooh, another Waterblast!" A small dragon nosed his snout under my wing. It took all self restraint not to whip around and bite his tail. Stupid instinct.
"She not you mom, Leo." Snapped Ash.
The little dragon huffed sadly and totally ignored Ash. I cuddled him closer. "I don't have a family either, buddy."
Leo sighed and walked away and my wings drooped a little before I snapped my wings shut, hoping Ash didn't notice. I didn't want to be seen as weak.
"How old is he? What happened to his parents?"
"He's three. And for the parents question, we have absolutely no idea. We found him in the forest, badly injured and Marsh decided to keep him. Poor thing didn't remember his name, so Marsh decided to call him Leo. leave it up to him to name an adopted dragon after an animal."
"What animal? Please not another pig- cow burnt carcass thing. Ash, you DID bring back a burnt thingy . I'm so gonna bite you." A mud coloured dragon poked his head in. Then he spotted me. A strange flash of familiarity in his eyes. Then he shook himself and grinned.
"Oh! Hello! I'm Marsh!" Marsh introduced himself cheerfully. "Another one safe!"
"Maybe not safe, per say..." grunted the aquamarine dragon beside him who also inclined his head at my direction. "We gotta carve another rock ledge for her to sleep on... more food. And are we sure we know what we're doing?"
Okay... I muttered in my head. Marsh. Earthbound. Ash. Solarflare. Sky. Skycloud. Leo. Also Earthbound. And the last dragon- is he a Hydroblast, like me? Am I not alone?
"Earth to Coral, earth to Coral." Ash waved his claws in front of my face, trying to get my attention. Behind him, Marsh picked up a clawful of-
A pile of dirt slapped me in the face. I yelped as a few earthworms wriggled on my nose. One dropped into my mouth and I turned away and spat it out into the ground.
"Hey! Do that again, Earth dragon!" I snapped, not impressed my Marsh's methods of getting me to pay attention.
"ANYWAY, would you want to sleep next to Leo? Or between Sky and Winter? The ledge next to her is um.. vacant."said Ash hurriedly, pushing Marsh away from me as my tail involuntarily moved in a quick action to jab him in the side.
"Isn't Fry sleeping there?" Asked Marsh. "Or is my memory even worse than before?"
"He's gone."
"Like on a long vacation right?" Asked Marsh again.
"He sacrificed himself for a water dragon." Sky trudged in looking miserable.
Everyone stared at me. I was pretty sure they were thinking that I was the cause of the death of a dragon.
Voices filled my mind, and I stepped back. I somehow knew that they were the voices in my new comrades minds.
Sky's mind was exceptionally troubling.
She better be sorry.