"Are you lost?" A voice asked behind me, making me jump to the side, almost landing in water. From an alcove made by fallen rocks and hidden by some moss and vines another dragon came out. 'This was a... wait it was called Deadly... ah yeah, Deadly Nadder. Just rewatched it and still have problems remembering, should have paid more attention, but who could have thought...'
"What's wrong, what are you looking at?" Asked the Deadly Nadder and cocked her head to the side after trying and failing to find what was keeping my attention. "Oh... That's... nothing." I replied with some stiffness still in my voice. "So, what brings you here?" She asked, not one bit less confused.
It took me a moment to compose myself, but I was still left with no idea what I should answer and ended up with just a bunch of jumbled mess. "Um... I... Just don't have the plan what... how to... just... anything, you know?" 'Yes, that's very coherent and understandable. Yep, perfect answer.' I thought to myself with as much sarcasm and self pity that my tail just plopped on the ground on its own.
She on the other hand got even more confused and just looked at me for a few moment before shaking her head and trying to revive the conversation. "I'm Skyshot, by the way. What's your name?" My mind still booting back up and no ideas on hand I just said the previous one, or original? "It's Zoya"
"Zoya? Never heard of one. You have a strange name... Anyway, what are you doing here? Haven't seen any of your kind in ages. Last time was like, what, 17 years ago? Some almost wonder if you Night Furies went extinct or something."
"That's... a long story..." Out of reflex, I tried to scratch my cheek with my finger, but promptly stopped myself from doing so, when I realised how silly it might look as a dragon and fortunately reacted in time.
"Have you heard about the fight between the two bewilderbeasts?" Skyshot swiftly changed the topic, something shinning in her eyes at the prospect of discussing latest gossip. "Not much. I think I heard that one died and the other has been injured and left in the end."
Skyshot seemed happy to have someone to talk to. "Have you been there to see it?" I asked, but only got a small no for an answer.
"Ah, come over, I will show you something cool. Follow me!" Skyshot said, immediately taking off mid sentence. 'I need a cover story for why I can't fly, though, can't I just blame it on my cramped wings?' After a few seconds Skyshot was back and landed beside me.
"Why aren't you coming?" She said confused, making me look away embarrassed. "Well, ehm... it's an even longer story. My wings are kinda cramped right now and I might need a little relearning how to fly." At the end I couldn't resist it anymore and partially hid my head between my paws.
At first she looked at me like I just grew a pair of human hands, but soon after she shifted into anger as she spat sparks as she talked. "How long did those bastards lock you up for in that cage?" Her spikes puffed up a bit.
I raised my head to look at her, but didn't miss the chance to weave myself a bit of backstory. "Long enough. Though, I had some time to get back into mostly every thing else."
"Agh! I'm gonna' slaughter these humans when I see them, even if I have to kill every single one of those things!" This time she couldn't hold it and straight up shot out spikes at some of the rocks around us, her spikes vibrating slightly as they lodged themselves into stone by one or two centimeters.
I flinched a bit seeing that happen. Still remembering how hard the rock actually was. The sound also wasn't exactly pleasant. Being on the sharper side of the spectrum.
"I am better now, see. Just a wing cramp by now." This seemed to calm her down. "Though, if you could help me with that, it would be very nice. Less chances of me getting caught again."
"If it's just that." Skyshot turned to me and flinged a spike directly between my wings. This send a sudden jolt through my body as it reacted immediately and tensed up for a second and then relaxed, my wings finally unfolding properly. "Couldn't have warned me beforehand?" She giggled at my annoyance. "No, but this way was more fun."
I let out an internal sigh, but thanked her as I finally stretched my wings. After a few seconds I flapped them a bit, however, looking at the walls and trees, still turned to her.
"Unless you want to wait for me a bit I think I will need some wind in my wings for a start, after so long." I was honestly betting on my dragon instinct to help me out slightly when I'm finally in the air, like it helped with running and stuff.
Skyshot huffed angrily at this mention, but still took of and tried to position herself behind me to carefully grab my waist, or whatever it is called for dragons, and carried me up. "You are surprisingly light, you know." This made me squirm a little and I just mumbled. "Thanks."
This did make her giggle though. "I can't wait to tell others that I carried a Night Fury~." I just gave up hearing her teasing voice as she flew higher into the sky.
The island beneath us, finally visible to me from air. Most of it covered in forests, here and there breached by inselbergs standing tall on the island and in the sea, as the sand ones connecting them was now washed away by common in these lands storms. No more than a few beaches remaining, hidden in a laguna of sorts, protected by the many rocks still standing in the sea, resisting the waves.
As Skyshot finally stopped gaining hight, I opened my wings and felt the wind brush around them. I started fiddling with the pitch of my wings a little to get a better feel for all of this, smirking slightly as I thought of a plane checking it's ailerons before a flight.
My bet did pay of as I quickly got myself adjusted to the feeling and tried to put some wind under my wings. "I think I'm good now. You can start letting go, Skyshot."
She gave me a small smile and I felt her claws loosening up. She then tipped to the side ever so slightly and glided to my right. "Good that it's coming back to you quickly, Zoya." Skyshot commented and added right after. "Try starting with small flaps of your wings."
I nodded gently not even looking at her as I slowly flexed my wings and then gave a gentle flap. Slowly making them bigger as I repeated the process and rose higher into the sky. 'This is the best thing ever. This feeling of freedom from earth.'
After that it only got easier as we did two rounds over the island and finally Skyshot proposed. "Come on now. I want to show you something." And dipped down towards a certain spot on the island, gaining speed as I went in her tracks flying behind her.