World of Dragon Riders: Book Two - REMADE

Chapter 4

Was it a weird thing to dream about a memory you couldn't QUITE remember clearly? Or a memory from so long ago that it seemed like it never happened at all? 

Adrien's groggy eyes blinked open to a brightly lit room, illuminated by lamps. It felt warm here... like he was home. Something moved right next to him, another person? No, it was a dragon. They were blue like the sky, and their hazy face cleared so he could see their gold eyes. He knew this dragon... but why were they so big? He reached out a hand, but didn't make contact with the blue dragon. They smiled, and looked next to him. 

There was someone in the crib with him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He woke up with a startled gasp, the dream a vague memory almost immediately out reach... save for the blue dragon's face. He felt wind in his face, and realized he was airborne again. 

"Are you alright Adrien?" Duststorm asked him. He had fallen asleep on his back... had he? "Did you have a bad dream?" 

"No... it... wasn't a BAD dream... more like..." 

"A memory? I can feel for you there." Lance was sitting in front of him, now that he focused. "By the way you almost fell off. And don't look down." 

He looked down, obviously. The ground beneath them was covered in grass... but it was GREEN and GOLD! 

"Woah, where are we?" He asked quickly, spotting Ryan and Fireworks on their right as he turned around. 

There were CLOUDS in the sky here, they looked like PILLOWS! Some kind of new wildlife ran around the green field below, darting across it in all sorts of patterns. THEY were all sorts of patterns! There were birds flying alongside them in the skies, tweeting and singing, as if the dragons weren't a bother to them. They flew in a V-shape, like the ones that flew over the Savanna... though they were too far away to make clear WHAT they were.

This blue looked like... that dragon... 

"Remembering something?" Ryan asked, noticing the distant look in his eyes. 

"I... think so. It was... like a dream. A distant memory? There was a blue dragon in it, they looked like YOU Duststorm. That part confused me..." 

Duststorm suddenly halted mid-air, making Lance and Adrien lurch forward. 

"Did you say a BLUE dragon that looked like ME?" Duststorm asked, squawking in surprise. 

"I'm talking about SKY aren't I?" Adrien noticed Duststorm's tone. "She... She seems so friendly. This... isn't comfortable to talk about is it?" 

"No no... it's fine." Duststorm sighed, moving again. "Where were we headed?" He changes topic quickly. 

"Where do you think?" The three asked him. 

"The new base?" He answered quietly. "That's where we're going." 

Adrien had little idea of what they were talking about. By base he assumed they meant the Rebellion's base. The 'new' part worried him though. Duststorm had vaguely mentioned a group of heroes who fought against any evil that threatened Kelekonia. He didn't mention a base relocation though... or that there WAS one.

"We're not going to be there for a while though." Fireworks yawned, stretching in the air. "The flight from here to there may take us till afternoon without stopping. Then with breaks it'll take till evening. And we'll NEED to take a break." The Fire Dragon insisted. 

"Wait morning? How long was I asleep?!" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fireworks seemed to cave to exhaustion a tad more frequently than Duststorm did... or Duststorm was just able to hide his exhaustion better. Fireworks napped each break they took too, so Adrien was impressed by his ability to relax as if nothing dangerous was around. Lance and Ryan insisted there wasn't much out there in the wild that threatened a dragon Duststorm and Fireworks' size. And other dragons would be easy to spot... and there were none. 

Lack of dragons out here seemed to be the least of their worries too. 

"An abundance of wildlife like the ones we flew over back there means a lack of wild dragon flocks in the area. Less predators means less threats to them. And by predators, nothing Fireworks and Duststorm can't scare off by flaring their wings. They'd be foolish to mess with a dragon their size." Ryan explained. "They're not very skittish of flying dragons anyway. It's when they descend that they scatter."

Usually their stops were quiet and silent, and with three people that Duststorm had once known as family around? Adrien wanted to get to know them without over stepping any boundaries. 

His priority lay with finding out more about the parents Duststorm never told him about. 

Unless there was something else that Adrien wasn't aware of going on between them. 

The dragons eventually started feeling the strain of repeated flying, even with their breaks. But according to Fireworks they WERE getting close as the sunset neared its peak. 

That's when he saw an odd cluster of trees growing taller and taller as they neared them. Fireworks' sigh of relief made Adrien confused.

"What is that?" 

"Oh THAT?" Fireworks flicks his head at the trees. "That's the Central Rainforest. VERY different from the Savanna ain't it?" He grinned, laughing as Adrien nodded. "Don't worry. Just wake make sure Lance doesn't fall asleep. He tends hit tree branches and vines whenever he flies through with the two of us." 

"Uh... what about me?" 

"Duck and hold on tight." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Manoeuvring through the trees at the speeds Fireworks and Duststorm were traveling at seemed a BIT on the side of crazy. Especially with the tightness, the dangling hazards and the long falls below them. 

Fireworks was right... you couldn't be asleep while flying through here! Either they flew this way for fun, or because of the turns and hazards flying at this speed made it easy to lose a potential pursuer. 

That's why Adrien only looked away for a MOMENT when he heard a dragon shriek and fall from the branches. And why he went smack into a tree branch, unseating him from Duststorm's back. 

"ADRIEN!" He roared as he plummeted down. 

He got snagged on branches, slapped in the face by leaves, caught on vines, before someone caught finally caught him. He coughed, exhausted and beat by the fall, listening to the sound of wingbeats and falling debris as someone else dived down. 

"Thank you..." he realized his rescuer wasn't Duststorm or Fireworks. 

A young dragon, probably the same age as the metal one who'd tried to grab Adrien, was hovering there expertly. His first Sky Dragon, in person. They looked like Sky, from what Adrien remembered of the blue dragon. But this one wasn't her, judging by the confused and annoyed look on their face. They also seemed... new, rather than familiar.

"Are you new or stupid?" They said calmly, not bothering to look up. "Who dropped him?" They asked looking up. 

They clutched him tighter when they saw Duststorm descending awkwardly. 

"Sorry young lady! I 'dropped' him. Thank you for catching him." he said. He must've handed Lance to Fireworks. He met eyes with the dragon. "Have we met? You're... familiar."

"No. We haven't. I have one of those faces." They said, hesitantly picking their words. "Well, I should get you to the Base. You had quite the fall." 

"So did you." Adrien retorted. "That was you who fell out of the tree."

"I didn't FALL. Merely stumbled and lost my footing before I regained it, nothing to worry about." They sighed, flying upwards towards the glowing shape of Fireworks. "Oh Uncle Fireworks. You're back already?" 

"Aeranus." Fireworks, Ryan and Lance greeted them. 

"Uncle?" Adrien and Duststorm asked, confused. 

"He and his family, plus the humanoids of the house, raised me. So what?" Aeranus huffed, not thinking much of it. 

"Explain Fireworks." Duststorm asked, making his tone more serious. 

"Oh. Right." The three hesitated, not sure how they should break the news. "Duststorm, meet Aeranus. Aeranus... meet Duststorm. Your father."