Glowing in the sunlight, Discovery Island stood proud with its magnificent mountain range and lush green forests. Above, the clouds were huge weightless clumps of cotton, floating in the eternal blue.
"And DIVE!"
"RWAAAAAAYRH!"
Without warning, a purple bullet tore through an unsuspecting cloud, leaving a gaping hole and a trail of swirling mist as it whizzed away.
The air around Whiplash whistled as she shot towards the sparkling sea, undoubtedly shattering the sound barrier. Kiara pressed herself against the dragon's back as the two became one magnificent being in their dive. Her hood was up as her usual blue jacket complimented the dragon's shimmering purple scales and her black scarf was pulled halfway up her face — what had become a habit of hers when flying.
Curving her wings, Whiplash twirled on her way down, becoming a blur to the outside world, but to Kiara and her, this was a well-practised performance.
"WOOHOO!" Kiara whooped as they neared the water's surface; the thrill and adrenaline rush was a welcomed feeling that energised every fibre of her being.
"It's splash time!" Whiplash announced before slamming her wings outward, instantly ending the dive a metre from hitting the water. The sudden movement bent the water and sent a huge wave spraying up all around them, like a giant ripple, and for a moment the dragon and rider were surrounded by a wall of cascading saltwater. The waves fanned outwards and the pair began to ascend again.
"YEAH!" Kiara cheered as every flap made them bounce back up to the clouds. She pumped her fist in the air as they looped-the-loop on her way up. In no time the pair were above the clouds floating on a gentle spring breeze. "This is wonderful," Kiara breathed as she soaked in the view that could only be felt on the back of a dragon. Whiplash nodded in agreement.
It had been exactly 100 days since Kiara landed on Discovery Island, and, while finding the crystal was always her top priority, Kiara loved flying with her dragon more than anything. It was the only time where she felt truly free of all bonds and worries, where she could forget the sour disappointment at the fact that raking every inch of the island over a course of three months hadn't revealed a trace of the crystal, where all she could feel was the crisp breeze lifting her spirit. Only in the sky, as she rode the wind with Whiplash, could Kiara breathe pure joy.
The pair were on their way to a rock stack not far from Discovery to meet up with Robbie. Though Kiara had befriended almost all dragons on the island, Whiplash and Robbie were always closest to her as best friends, so naturally the three spent most of their time together. Robbie even moved into their cave, which had resulted in the most humorous of nights. The two dragons were the only ones who stuck with Kiara and helped with her continuous search. She couldn't thank them enough.
A loud squawk pulled Kiara from her stream of thoughts. She glanced to the right and spotted a crown of horns poke up from the cloud below. A moment later, a deadly nadder with sapphire scales with a pattern of striking orange scales down her back and tail bounced out of the cloud.
"Stella!" Kiara greeted the dragon, and so did Whiplash with a friendly roar. Stella energetically squawked her reply before dropping back into the clouds and bouncing back up on Whip's other side. Kiara giggled at the playful nadder's behaviour. "I told you we should have called her Cloud-Jumper," she said to Whiplash as Stella continued to swoop in and out of clouds.
"And I told you Cloud-Jumper is taken," Whiplash replied. Stella squawked once more and jerked her head away, as if to say 'see ya later', before flying off in the opposite direction. She was probably heading back to Discovery.
Moments later they spotted the rock stack far below.
"Can we barrel-roll it?" Kiara asked hopefully. Whiplash gave her a disapproving look. "Please!"
"Kiara, you practically flew off last time!"
"That was last time. I did the ropes better this time."
Whiplash grumbled dismissively, not buying any of it.
"Oh come on! I used the taut-line hitch around your legs and brought the rope around and made a bowline on either side for my feet! Heck, I even used the handcuff kno-OOAAAAAH! WHIPLAAASSH!!"
The dragon had completely folded her wings and was spinning sideways as she fell. Moments before impact, she spread her wings, stopped spinning and planted her feet firmly on the rock stack. Kiara tumbled off, wheezing as she tried to stand straight. "Whoo! HAHA!" she pulled down her scarf to reveal a huge grin and, for a moment, just enjoyed the dizzy feeling, while stumbling around like a druggie. Whiplash snickered at her. "Oh, yeah, of course you'd find this funny. Nice early warning by the way, whatever would I do without it!"
"How else was I supposed to cut you off your geek-talk about rope?"
"Technically I was talking about knots."
"Well, it's a pretty useless conversation if I can't understand a word you're saying."
"Useless?! Knots are extremely important!" she leaned forward, faking seriousness, "they can save lives."
"This is the point where I can declare for sure that I will never understand humans."
Kiara smirked, "I can say the exact same about dragons."
"I have a question."
"If it starts with 'why do humans' then forget it."
"Where's Robbie?"
Kiara looked around but could not spot any sign of the changewing. "ROBBIE?" she called out. No reply. "He said he'd meet us here," she mumbled.
"And he should have already been here since you decided to take an extra-long bath this morning."
"Wasn't extra-long," Kiara thought, still looking around.
"Yeah, it was, even Nadders take less time grooming themselves. Maybe he left because we took too long."
"Ugh, no Whippie. Robbie wouldn't just leave."
"Yeah, he never came in the first place. He's probably busy flirting with Shellie."
Oh, yeah. Shellie: a member of the new pack of changewings that arrived at their island last week, and one that Robbie was crushing hard on, a bit too hard for his own good.
Kiara sighed. They had the whole day planned out to mark her 100th day on discovery.
"Change of plan, Whiplash. Let's head back to Dis—"
A roar sounded from nearby, followed by two similar ones. Kiara recognised them as thunderdrums and smiled.
"Oh no..." Whiplash pressed her ears down with her paws, knowing exactly what's coming.
Splash! Three thunderdrums erupted from the saltwater: one aqua green, one inky blue, and one soft purple. They whizzed up, showering them with little droplets. Kiara laughed as Whiplash hid under her own wing.
"Lighten up, Whippie: they're just here to say hi."
"You mean sonic-scream hi."
The three roared in unison, the boom reverberating like shock waves in the air, then tumbled down and landed by Whiplash. She curled into a tight bundle as the three bounced around her, cawing excitedly and nudging her to join them.
They had met these guys a while back and, although Whiplash could hardly tolerate their noise levels, the thunderdrums were great friends. Kiara had named the soft purple one Mumble, the blue one (who's also the only girl) Bumble, and the aqua green one was Tumble. Mumble, Bumble and Tumble: the perfect thunderdrum triplets. Or perfectly annoying as Whiplash would put it.
"Kiara! Please tell them to leave me alone! They somehow listen to you despite being deaf."
But Kiara wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were scanning the ocean for any sign of the fourth member of the thunderdrums. She spotted a faint blue shape gliding under the ocean's surface towards them.
"There he is."
The thunderdrum broke the surface and zoomed up; his wet scales were sky blue on top and pale blue under as they glistened in the sun. He roared at the triplets, instructing them to leave their fellow dragon in peace before landing beside Kiara. Whiplash breathed a sigh of relief as her 'tormentors' scattered from her. Though the triplets were almost as big as the forth thunderdrum, it was clear that he was the older one, a bit like the father figure in their little family.
"Hey, Tony!" Kiara greeted as she knelt beside him. She stroked his head playfully then giggled as the other three cuddled her for their share of affection. They managed to be absolutely adorable, despite being almost fully grown dragons. "Oh, it's so great to see you guys! But how come you're back so soon? Didn't your trip go well?"
Tony grumbled his response, his eyes narrowing as his mouth drew into a scowl. Even the triplets looked serious. Kiara shared an understanding look with Whiplash, before nodding at the sea dragons. It was clear that they had encountered trouble on their trip.
"At least you made it back safely."
"Now, Kiara, didn't you say you had to go back to Discovery?"
"Oh yes, we're gonna head off. See you guys soon," Kiara said before pulling her scarf up and mounting her dragon. Whiplash shared a friendly headbutt with Tony then lifted off.
"So... where to?" she asked as they flew back.
"First we'll check the waterhole for our missing changewing. Then we can find the crystal."
Whiplash's ears drooped. "Find the crystal?"
"Yes. What better day than the hundredth day? Well, other than every day before it."
"But we have a super fun day planned out."
"We'll still be having fun."
"But we'll be searching.." she moaned.
"We'll have fun while searching. Like, remember the time when we played grab the changewing tail," Whiplash snickered at this, "or the time when we tried to work out whether you're a dog person or cat person, we were havin' fun."
"Okay, okay, but can we do a lap of the island first?"
"And let me guess: you want me to time it."
"Yes! Please, purple please!"
"Alright," Kiara said as they reached their island, "ONE lap." Leaning flat forwards for speed, she set the timer on her watch, secretly excited for another speed run. "Here we go."
The dragon's ears perked at the sound of the beep that signals start. She shot forward, maintaining her impeccable speed with powerful wing-beats.
"That's my girl!" Kiara cheered as she expertly leaned with every twist and turn by the eastern cliffs. Then she paralleled herself with Whiplash as they rushed past the south-east cove.
The air around them whistled like a twirling staff as they sliced it like a swift katana. They were at a deadly speed as they curved around the south mount. Then Whiplash struck her wings outward and came to an abrupt mid-air halt, her eyes wide and disbelieving.
"Wha-what're you—" Kiara's breath hitched as she saw what her dragon saw.
Boats docked on the south shore.
(A/N: DUN DUN DUN!)
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