The Harsh Skies I - Journey to the new lands

Espik nuzzled him back.
Maybe there will be others? She suggested.
She jumped onto a log that bridged a narrow ravine.
A few splinters of dead wood fell into the seemingly bottomless crack.
Coming?

"Of course!" exclaimed Ther bravely, and he Jumped over. "So we are going in that direction?" he asked, and pointed with his claw against some hills. They weren't far away, but for a young dragon it was. Together they walked, until they came to a river.
"What now?" questioned Ther, and he looked at the blue water with the same colour as his shells

Espik looked at the water.
They wouldn't be able to swim across... She thought about turning back, then saw a charred, tall, tree near the water.
They moved over to it, and Espik put her claws on it.
Maybe it was weak enough.

Push it.

"Ok," replied Ther, and together they tried to push it. The tree didn't want to move. Then Thar got and idea. He bowed down against the bottom of the tree, and started to scratch it on the side closest to the water.
"What are you doing?" asked Espik.
"I don't know... Just watch," said Ther calmly. He kept on scratching until he had cut almost half the tree.
"Help me push it now, i think it might work," ordered Ther, and he started to push the tree. After hestitating a little Espik helped him. Suddenly a loud cracking sound came fron the tree, and the dragon babys stepped back. The tree fell slowly and hit the other side with a soft 'dump'.
"There you go," smiled Ther, and they walked over to the other side.

- ???? -
The Dragon awoke later in the tree and climbed out. His head scanned around and he saw a rabbit. The rushed it and killed it before it could react and run. He then went to eat it and finished quickly, leaving the bones of the rabbit.
"Excalan" He hissed to himself before walking to the edge of the forest.

Espik squeaked and jumped at Ther, knocking him over with a squeal.
She looked down at him with wide eyes, licked his nose, then carried on.
The Sun split the sky as it set over a hill far away.
The two small dragons perched on a boulder, and Espik nuzzled her friend's head, making a purring noise.
Overhead, a large dragon and a flock of slightly smaller ones followed it.


OOC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdTZ4MRZoU

The Rocklands

Ther and Espik had been walking the whole day. Around dinner time they had come past the hills, and a wide meadow appeared.
"Wow," had Ther exclaimed when he had seen it. There they had found a puddle of water, which they drank from. Later they saw some small rabbit like creatures which tasted great. Then they had continued over the meadow, and now they stood by the end, looking at a brown, rocky landscape as far as the eye could see, and even bigger than the meadow. Far away in the horizon, they could barely see mountains, but there was a long way there.
"Why no rest here for the night?" asked Ther.
"Why not?" replied Espik, and they had found a soft patch of grass to sleep on. They laid down, and fell aslep unaware of the dragons high above them.

Epsik woke up in the night.
She sniffled, and went to sit on a dead log a few feet away.
A tear fell from her eye.

The end of the meadow

Ther woke up by the sound of sniffling and low squeaking. He rubbed his eyes with his tail, and looked around. In the light of the moon, he could see the black dragon sit on a log, crying. Ther felt sorry, and wanted to go to her and hug her. But it wasn't that easy. He understood that she needed to be alone for a while.
For a while he sat there and looked at the small shivering body, and then he got enough of just sitting there. He stood up, and walked up to Espik.
"What's the matter?" he asked, and met the tear-wet eyes of a baby dragon.

Espik hid her head under her claws and kept sobbing.
Her small teeth were gritted, and her eyes were closed tightly.

The end of the meadow

Ther understood. But not enternally, but a part of it. He sat down by her, and just held his wing around her. Then Ther looked down at his wing.
I wonder what this is for? he thought. I'll think of it tomorrow morning after breakfast, he decided, and walked away from Espik to leave her alone.

- ????? -

The Dark Dragon walked out of the forest and noticed it was night.
Perfect. He thought.
His Molten Red eyes scanned the open plains.
He stopped for a moment before walking on.
I need to think of something... maybe a ally, one I can dispose of quickly though...

Espik whined and opened an eye to look at Ther, more tears falling from it.
Come back.
She sobbed.

Ther turned, and looked at the begging eyes.
"If you want i could come and sit with you again?" he asked. Espik nodded and Ther went back to her.
"Come here," he said, and lifted his wing as a signal for Espik to come and lay under it. She slowly slid down from the log, and crawled under Ther's wing. And together they slept until the next morning, while the unkown dragons landed to take a break.

Espik wove up to get a facefull of wing.
She wrapped her tail around Ther's, huddling up to him.

Ther woke up when he felt he was freezing. He opened his eyes, and saw that the whole world was white. He turned his head, and looked at Espik under his wing.
"Hey wake up! The whole world is... White and cold," he whispered. Suddenly he heard a flapping sound. Ther looked up and saw a big dragon coming flying against him. Before he could react Ther was fling up in the air together with a squeaking Espik. The battle had begun

The huge dragon's open maw was the first thing Espik saw.
She gave a squeal and flapped around frantically.
The tiny dragon landed on the huge ones nose. It's red eye hammered into her orange ones.
"E...eep." She managed at squeak, frozen to the nose.
Then, for some reason, she flicked her tounge and spat a blue thing at it's eye.
It was hot, but it didn't hurt her.
The huge one, though, screeched in pain and flung her off.
Espik was thrown into a tree and fell to the floor in a heap.

The end of the meadow

Ther flew trough the air, and landed softly with his back in a pile of snow. He stood up, and just saw Espik spit a blue thing in the dragons eye, then the dragon roared, and flung Espik up in the air. Ther ran to her, while the big dragon just roared in pain.
"Are you OK?" asked Ther, and helped Espik up. "That blue thing move was awesome! How did you do that?" Ther wanted to know. The dragon had now stood up again and looked angrily at the two dragons, which couldn't been called babies anymore. The big dragons eye was brown and burnt up, and he couldn't see with it.

Espik stood shakily.
I don't know. She told Ther.
The big dragon roard and spat fire at them.
I thinkwe should leave now.

The young Dargon passed a particularly large dragon spitting fire at a couple of smaller ones. Perhaps I should do something? Unsure the Dargon flew in closer, hovering nearby. The large Dargon seemed pre ociupied with his prey, the Dargon felt safe.

Suddenly the large dragon stopped, sniffing the seared air.
Slowly, it turned to see another creature above it.

Scared the Dargon quickly fled, beating its four wings in unison to creature rapid and unpredictable bursts of speed, leaving the large dragon confused and slighly dazed. After getting out of the way the Dargon hid himself from the large dragons.

The end of the meadow

"I think this would be a good time to leave," said Ther. "But that large dragon, it could fly! Did you see that?" he asked. Espik nodded carefully.
"Do you think we could do it too? I mean, we look just like him, just smaller," stated Ther enthustiatic. His eyes shone in exitement over his new discovery of a maybe probable chance of flying.

Espik lifted her own, more stubby, little wings.
We might need the speed...

"Speed... Don't we get that if we run? We could try to flap or something like that?" asked Ther, and he tried to flap.
"Yeah! I can feel it lifting me a little, let's try this out!" he said enthustiatic and tried to fly. By now they had entirely forgotten about the big dragon.

Espik flapped her small wings.
Nothing happened.
Nearby a log poked out over a steep drop. Holding her wings out, she walked to the end of the log.