King of The Dragons (Wings of Fire X Monster Hunter)

Part 1: Chapter 3 & 4

(Clay 3rd pov)

Clay had flown before - short hops around caves, dodging the stalactites and flapping in circles - but that was nothing, nothing compared to this. Everything was so big. The sky was everywhere, it just . . . went on and on and on, like nothing could ever fill it up. It was night, but the light of the two moons was dazzling after a lifetime of caves and sputtering torches. Craggy mountain peaks bit into the sky all around him. In the distance he thought he saw a glimmer of sea.

And the stars! Clay had thought he knew stars from gazing out of the sky hole. He'd never know haw many there were, or how many there were, or how they looked like a silver net cast across the dark.

He felt like he could keep flying up forever, all the way to the moons. He wondered if any dragon ever tried to do that.
'This is what we've been missing. All this time . . .'
Even the sharp lines of pain between his scales couldn't take away his excitement.

"Can you believe this?" he called, spinning in the air. "Tsunami! Isn't it amazing?"
There was no answer. Clay lashed his tail to stop spinning and hovered, his eyes darting around the sky. He couldn't see Tsunami anywhere. She wouldn't have flown off without him . . . would she?

Maybe she'd seen the faraway sea. Maybe she saw her home and couldn't resist. Clay knew she wouldn't abandon her friends, but he also knew how desperately she wanted to return to the ocean. Then Clay realized Stormcaller was also gone.

He glanced down towards the horizon and spotted her, far below him, flapping in a frantic downward spiral. Stormcaller was racing towards her. Something was wrong. It looked like only one of Tsunami's wings was working. 

Clay twisted into a dive and barreled toward her. He tucked his wings close to his body, fighting back the terror as he plummeted. Wind whistled past his face - wind! He'd imagined it all wrong. It was like a live thing: grabbing his tail to throw him off balance, whisking his eyes to blind him, flaring under his wings to slow him down. It seemed to dig icicle-claws into his skin, slicing under his scales.

The waterfall and the cliff shot passed at lightning speed. Was he falling too fast? The ground hurtled toward him, shadows and moonlight mixed in shapes he'd never seen and couldn't understand. he had no idea how far away it was, or how soon he would reach it. He'd never dealt with distances like this before.

Would he be able to stop? Would it hurt when he did? But he could see Stormcaller grabbing on to Tsunami, who was struggling to correct herself. Clay spread his wings and began beating them in wide arcs in an attempt to slow down. Clay watched as Stormcaller covered Tsunami with his wings before they crashed through the trees. "Tsunami!" he yelled before flying after them.

Clay landed as Stormcaller released Tsunami. The first thing Clay noticed was the two things that stuck out when he looked at the two. One of Tsunami's azure-blue wings was crooked and the scales on one of Stormcaller's talons was white! "What happened to your wing? And what happened to your scales?"

Tsunami looked at Stormcaller to see what Clay was talking about. They were the color of snow, or at least the color Clay thought snow was, he'd never actually seen snow before. Stormcaller glanced down at his talon. "I don't know." Was all he said.

"Getting out of the chains," Tsunami said, talking about her wing. "I dislocated it." "And you came after me anyway?" Clay said, appalled. "Why didn't you tell me it hurt?" She shrugged and winced again. "it didn't hurt so much in the river, but once I tried to fly . . ."

"DIRT!" Clay suddenly yelled. 'I'm standing on dirt!' He stabbed his claws into the ground, and they sank right into the earth. A thrill ran through him from his snout. Tsunami sat up to look at him. "Yay?" she said.