"What were you doing?" a familiar voice boomed in annoyance.
Birch opened his eyes to see who was carrying him. His friend salamander. Salamander was a water planet dragon, his scales were midnight black but his stomach, wings, and eyes were a deep watery blue. He was like the parent of their little friend triangle. Always looking out for the other two.
"I was trying to fly," Birch grumbled.
They landed softly on an open field, the grass swaying to the wingbeats of the elder dragon. Salamander was only about 7 months older than Birch but was built like he was 2 years older than him. The fire dragon always told the other he would catch up someday but salamander was doubtful.
"You don't just go jumping off cliffs to practice flying. You can take off just on the ground," Salamander scolded.
Birch rolled his eyes and turned away from the other. His tail flicked in annoyance. A rustling of leaves came from the forest and a happy little earth dragon trotted over to the two males. Birchs face immediately softened and melted into a smile.
"Hey guys," the earth dragon beamed looking at the two. Summer had a muted green coat of fur instead of scales. Her eyes were bright lime green and instead of big, long, horns, she had tiny little stubs. She was a very short dragon, even smaller than Birch.
She took a look at the two of them, an unamused expression was put on display on salamanders face. Her green eyes flicked over to birch, he was covered in dust and little scratches but the worst was across his flank. She stepped closer to get a better look at it, a huge gash cut into his scales.
"Birch, you're bleeding," she yelped.
"Where?" he asked, spinning around to try to take a look at himself.
"On your hip," her voice started to tremble with worry.
A wave of pain began to wash over Birch as soon as he saw it. He felt himself get dizzy. It was worse than he expected. Blood oozed and dripped onto the grass, his entire left hip was a deep ruby red. He let himself sit down on the ground and catch his breath.
"He's losing a lot of blood," Salamander stated quickly. "We have to get him to the earth dragon sanctuary," he demanded.
"It'll take too long to get there with him in that condition," summer spoke back, trying to keep her cool.
"Then you fix him up," salamander suggested, staring directly into summer's eyes.
"I'm just an apprentice," she sighed in shame.
"If we don't do anything within the next hour he'll die,"
Summer's eyes darted between the two males, Salamander could almost see the gears turning. Her thoughts seemed so loud to him. She scanned the area for resources. Some leaves, mud and she would need the eldest to fly down to the ocean below to get some water.
As if the water planet dragon could hear her thoughts, he opened his wings and jumped off the cliff. Moments later he returned with a shell full of water. And just in time, too. Birch started groaning and squirming in pain.
Summer rushed closer to the injured dragonette, she slowly began to rinse the gash with the water. The fire dragon thrashed and howled faster and louder. Once the cut was cleaned, she wrapped the leaves around it, using the grass to tie the makeshift bandage altogether.
"That should hold him off for now," she smiled at her work and the fact the dragon had calmed down.
"You did good," the water dragon stated, padding over to the two. "But we should still take him back to the sanctuary, this won't hold him off for long,"
More often than not, salamander didn't seem to care too much when his friends were hurt. Of course, he didn't just leave them behind, but he never liked to make a big deal about it. However, as they were soaring through the sky together with birch on his back, summer took note of how worried he truly seemed seeing him in that condition. The two males had more of a brother bond than summer and her actual brother had.
"You're staring," salamander stated, not batting an eye in her direction.
Summer flicked her gaze back in front of her just in time to see the sanctuary come into view.
