'Taking of, from flat ground, sucks.' This was my honest opinion. Whether it was, because I ate too much at ones, or because I'm not used to it, doesn't matter. Even though I kicked of the ground to save myself a flap or two, it was still much.
The difference is like walking and sprinting at full speed it's just that the speeds are flipped. Ones I have some speed or catch a good wind, it just flows. Even weird maneuvers are easier when I have some speed, but taking off? That's no speed, minus speed even, as most of my flapping goes into gaining AND not falling, not towards speed that would have allowed me to mostly forget about holding my altitude.
"Ate to much~?" Skyshot teased at my groan when taking off. 'Don't know, but this can be blamed on my backstory. Consistencyis king. Or whatever the saying was...' "I would hope for it. After being left unused for so long, my wings can barely take the strain from something like this. Had I less space over this lake, forget about me taking off there." I answered with a deep sigh, in no mood to reciprocate her elation.
"That... That, actually, makes so much sense. Sorry, I didn't think of that." The rest of the way we spent in an uncomfortable silence, as neither of us knew what to say to that.
'There is no way in hell, that I'm not fixing this. I'm dragon for God's sake. A creature with enough ability and strength to actually be free. I am not giving this up no matter what! This is, but a small obstacle.' Apart from the take off, the rest of the flight was almost relaxing. Since we were essentially flying inland from the seashore, we had a nice land breeze keeping us in the air.
I think there is normally no breeze on smaller islands, but the one we where on right now was of substantial size. After I asked Skyshot about it, I came to a conclusion that comparing it to Crete from Greece is a safe bet. Not like I can say for sure since I never went there..., but I did quite well in geography classes, so that's a thing...
Trying to get my head out of this gutter of regrets, I finally steeled myself and tried to solve this awkwardness. "You know, I would love to have someone to accompany me on all those flights when I try to get back in shape?"
At that she turned at me with surprise that soon turned into joy. "I'll gladly fly around with you." Though she quickly added in embarrassment. "However, I would like to do so during the day. I don't see well in the dark..."
"Sure thing. I'm quite tired myself so it works out perfectly." I smiled at her right as we started slowing down to land at the bottom of this pit, carved by water in wood and stone.
As we landed, Skyshot turned to me and raised her tail towards me. "But I want a favour from you." This got my suspicion for a moment, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "What is it?"
She lowered her tail a little. "Well, I don't live here per se, I just stopped by. The most I can do is ten days or so since I have to go home." "Hmm?" "The thing is that I don't know, if my parents decided to stay or move after the battle of bewilderbeasts, so I want to get there before they move, to know where to find them. That's why, I want you to promise that you will visit me sometime. I will leave signs so you can find me, if we do move."
"Yeah, sure. I don't mind, but do expect me no earlier than in a half a year or so. I think I will look around this place for a while before I leave."
Skyshot beamed at that and ones again extended her tail to me. "Pointy Promice?!" This got me confused. "A what?" "Pointy Promise, apparently we copied that from humans, the rare kind ones." She explained excitedly.
"Fine, fine. Pointy Promise." I said embarrassed, touching her tail tip with mine. "Is that how you do it?" "Yes! And thank you!" Afterwards, she happily trotted to her alcove.
"Nighty, Zoya!" "Pleasant dreams." And that was all I managed, still stunned with how fast things went down. 'That was unique.' I had no other words for what just happened.
It was about then, that I realized that I don't have any place to sleep, since Skyshot's place is nowhere near large enough for two dragons of our size to sleep in there, without one of us hugging the other under her wing.
In the end, I just picked myself a large enough flat rock from somewhere around the lake. Normally, I might have tried harder for a nice sleeping spot, but my mental and physical fatigue, along with the knowledge from the movies that Toothless made do with it, gave me enough confidence to just leave it at that. And it wasn't even raining tonight.
I brushed of any leaves, needles or scales from the rock and plopped down on it. 'Now that I think about it, there are so many different things, even just in nature, called scales. For example, the scales that I just brushed of, have absolutely nothing to do with dragon or just reptilian scales...'
>A good while later of pointless thoughts...<
Thinking about nothing in particular for all this time did make me drowsy, but much to my displeasure, I still couldn't sleep. I tried many things. Changing my position, covering my eyes with my paws and wings, even counting sheep, though that had different effects...
As my sleepless agony continued, I scoured my brain for any good ideas as to why this might be happening. When all of a sudden, it struck me, almost like a bolt of lightning. 'Toothless slept like a bat, just on his tail, before he met Hiccup. Plus, I'm a Night Fury trying to sleep at night. That surely doesn't help.'
Unfortunately there were no trees in the pit for me to use, so I had to find something above it. I looked at the walls, hoping to find an easy way out, but as luck would have it, there were none. Heaving a heavy sigh of resignation, I crouched down, spread my wings and pushed off of the ground.
This action earned me almost one third of the hight I had to climb. Six fast flaps later and I was but a meter away from the top. Another two flaps and I finally reached the top of the pit, breathing out heavily and trying to catch my breath. 'I have to get my stamina up or I will be a joke not a dragon.' I said half jokingly with a dry laugh.
After stabilising my breath, I went around the pit, climbing every other tree that looked sturdy enough to hold me. A few broken branches and discontent grunts from sleeping Skyshot, and I finally found a suitable branch to rest on. 'Now, how should I go about this? Is the real question. Can I just wrap my tail around it and hold it like that?'
The idea of squishing part of my tail under the other, so that gravity would hold my tail in place under my own weight, did cross my mind, but I decided to try first without it to not risk bruising my tailfins in my sleep.
With that out of the way, I sat on the chosen branch and snaked my tail around it. Then, very carefully, I lowered myself on the branch and eventually hanged completely. Not sure why, but I also decided to wiggle the branch a little to see how it holds and to my surprise it didn't as much as squick under my weight.
'Maybe I really am just that light...Also, she is an absolute whirlwind..., but I do look forward to those next few days... It's remarkably comfortable, hanging like this...' With that I was at last able to drift away to sleep.