'I slept like a baby. Definitely, far better than anything I experienced in my own bed... Oh..., right. And here I was waking up in good mood.' I thought, groaning in the process. 'I don't even know what the hell this mood is.'
While I did sleep well, saying it like this is kind of missing the point. I slept well, for the first six to eight hours, however long the nights are here, and then dangled here for at least an hour, doing nothing. Yes, I counted seconds out of boredom. I did give up when I reached one hour, because I got bored of that too.
A weird fact about my tail muscles, they don't seem to tire out. 'I wonder what magic hides behind that, but then again, a heart is a muscle and it doesn't tire out, so who knows.'
Now, back to the present.
Hearing Skyshot wake up, I peeked out from between my wings, stretched my front paws forward and finally released my hold on the branch. I contemplated for a moment whether I should jump down into the pit, but eventually decided to do it anyways. 'I have to get some exercise anyway. Flying out of that pit is just another way to do it...'
I bounced of the edge and glided down next to the alcove, catching Skyshot mid stretch after she woke up. "Have you slept well?" I asked and landed next to her.
"Holy Mother of Dragons!! Don't scare me like that! Can't I wake up without loosing spines?" I looked at her surprised. "Sorry, didn't mean to." 'Apparently, I'm quieter than I thought. Oh, and that's true, they called them spines not spikes in the movies, didn't they?'
Shaking her head at that, she took off. "Come on. Let's go eat something before anything." She beckoned, at which I looked her in the eyes with a deadpan look and said as drily as I could muster. "You mean: Come on, I want to eat before we start."
She stopped in mid air confused for a second before recovering and responding with a huge grin. "I mean, you are lighter right now." I really wanted to be mad at her for this comment, but just gave up feeling the corners of my mouth rise.
That being said, it was still to much for me in the narrow space and I had to stop for a second on the pit's edge before continuing up above the treeline. "I... am not... some damned... hummingbird... to be working this hard."
"Come on, don't be so grumpy~. I'm sure there are some flowers growing around the lake." With no more energy for the time being, I just followed her to our first class buffet. 'Not sure, if I should be happy or despondent at figuring out her character...'
The glide over the forest, not one bit less liberating than yesterday, made me forget about everything else. Something I didn't notice earlier, during our first flight, was that conifers weren't actually dominant on this island. They simply dominated the more sea exposed shores.
This made me think that this place can be facing some seasonal tempests, probably in winter. The unusual number of felled trees, that I stumbled upon yesterday when following the brook, would support my theory to some extent. Though, on a second thought, this might have been caused by dragons as well...
With that monstrous shallow around this island I doubt any truly large waves reach the shores, but the winds would face no obstruction. If those waves were able to crash onto the island there would be no ferns. I think they taught us in middle school about how painfully slowly those grow. 'I really need to just let go... This is going to kill me at this rate with everything reminding me of it.'
'Turns out cheating the system and keeping your memories is not all sunshine and rainbows. It would be a nightmare, if I actually missed them...' Not sure, if Skyshot noticed my absentmindedness, but she didn't say anything and we quickly reached the lake.
My landing much more graceful than last time. "Take that gravity!" Skyshot chuckled at that. 'Sometimes small thing are what makes everything better, huh?'
"You will not catch any fish in the clouds, you flyaway crane." She brought me out of my thoughts and jumped into the water. 'I thought it was just me knowing a little bit about birds, but it might just be customary for dragons to make fun of birds.' Amused, I followed her into the lake.
Having it done ones before, it took me much less effort to catch one this time. Going with what tasted best yesterday, I came back with a sizable salmon in my mouth. "You really like those, don't you?" Skyshot commented.
"Yeah, I think those are my favourites. What are yours?" I asked and started eating. "I prefer herrings. Not very original, but they are a general favourite for a reason." I hummed in acknowledgement and returned to my meal.
In the end we ate similarly to what we had yesterday. "Are you fine to go for our flying practice now? Sorry, I ask, but I'm not clear about how it works for Night Furies." I was slightly intrigued about why she was apologising for asking, but put it in the back of my mind. "I think I should be fine. Night Furies, while on the verge of extinction, are still coastal dragons. I didn't eat that much either."
"Fine with me. I'm not so lucky in that department, but for this part you will be the one flapping her wings, so we are good." She clearly had something in mind for my 'rehabilitation', but didn't continue.
I licked myself clean of the fish's remains, which did made me pause, however, the feeling of wrongness I felt at the thought of flying uncleaned compelled me to continue. 'More instincts to manage, huh? I wonder what more came in this 'Night Fury package deal'.'
Skyshot guided us to a group of sea stacks further of shore. It still boggled my mind seeing them up close. Those pillars standing well over ten meters tall above the sea level, with some of the thinner ones being as small as three to five meters in diameter.
We landed on an average looking one, just big enough for me and Skyshot to fit comfortably on top of it. "So, I never really had to work on short-term endurance like you have to now, but there is this practice that many use to teach hatchling flight control. The exercise is rather simple. Just glide down this stack as close to the rock as you can and when you are low enough to touch water with your paw, pull up and do the same thing while flying to the top."
I looked over the edge and sighed at the hight. "And let me guess. We will move to the smaller stacks to make this harder over time?" "Yup~!" I couldn't help sighing ones again as I jumped off the top and started gliding down the rock formation in circles.
'This is so going to be my life for the foreseeable future, isn't it?' And it was, for the next nine days...