Flowers For The Sky

New Faces

The sun was setting on the land of Edenor, painting the sky different shades of orange and pink. Ruby, a 15 year old dragon whisperer, and her dragon, Scarlet, were up in the sky. Scarlet weaved around and through the clouds, Ruby on her back.

Scarlet flew and landed on a small cliff. Ruby took a deep breath of fresh air. "It's nice to stop and take a breather." she said as the wind got stronger, ruffling her dark red hair and making her cloak flow. "Come on. We should gather supplies for tonight." Scarlet said.

"Right." Ruby said. Scarlet dove down into the forest below them, landing heavily on the forest floor. Ruby slid off her dragon's back before going around and looking for some stray branches and stuff that they could use for a fire.

They didn't have any issues with starting a fire, as Scarlet was a Fire Dragon. Ruby looked around and spotted a bush with some yellow berries. She ran over to them, stars in her eyes. "Scarlet, look! Lightning Raspberries!" she called to her friend. There wasn't a response.

Ruby turned to where Scarlet had been standing, but she wasn't there. "Scarlet?" Ruby called. She walked over to where her dragon was and saw tracks leading off into the forest. "Damn it, where did you go?" Ruby asked, drawing her sword to slash through the bushes.

She followed her dragon's footprints until she saw Scarlet in a clearing. "Scarlet, why are you over here? You're supposed to be helping m-" Ruby was cut off by an arrow flying towards her, snagging the hood of her cloak and slamming her into a tree.

Ruby looked at the arrow in surprise. The arrow had a snowflake at the end of it and a regular arrow tip. Ruby looked back past her dragon and saw a girl with light blue hair and an Ice Dragon. The girl had a bow in her hands.

"Don't get any closer! This dragon's dangerous!" the girl said. Ruby looked at her for a moment before smiling. "I know. Scarlet, do you wanna explain to me what's going on?" Ruby grabbed the arrow and started to pull at it, trying to free herself.

"This girl just popped out of the bushes and lured me away with some berries, that's all." Scarlet said. The girl put her bow on her back. Ruby struggled with the arrow until she was able to yank it out of the tree, stumbling forward. "You're one hell of a shot." she said, looking at the arrow in her hands.

"No, I'm not." the girl said. "Uh, yeah you are." Ruby said, handing the girl back her arrow. "You lined that shot up within seconds and was able to dig that far into the tree, snagging my hood along the way."

"I've never gotten praise like that before. Oh! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Shala and that's Felix." the girl said, gesturing to her dragon. "Well, you already know Scarlet, and I'm Ruby." Ruby said. "Nice to meet you." Shala said.

"Anyway, you wanna stay with me for the night?" Ruby asked. "Sure! I can help you gather loose branches for a fire and stuff." Shala said. "Thanks. Come on. I found some Lightning Raspberries earlier. You like those?" Ruby asked. Shala nodded enthusiastically. Ruby chuckled before walking back towards the berries she'd found earlier.

~  ~  ~

Night had fallen and Ruby and Shala had made a small fire, Scarlet providing the spark for it. Shala and Ruby were leaned up against their lounging dragons. "It's strange. I never thought I'd see another Dragon Whisperer." Shala said. "Same. Also, do you have some sort of vague memory of a floating city?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah. It's just a few bits and pieces, though." She double tapped her earring, pulling up a holographic screen of research on the floating city. "I've done a lot of searching, but I've only gotten legends." "So have I." Ruby said, double tapping her own earring to pull up her screen of research.

"The legends call it the Lost City of Caylus. The name sounds familiar, but what's familiar about it I don't know." Ruby closed her hologram. "Exactly, but I've also gotten some other information. There are a few traders around here that know more about Caylus, but they only know a piece of the puzzle." Shala said.

She pulled up a map of the area on her screen. There were a few boxes with X's on them, but there was one that didn't have an X. "The boxes are traders. The ones I've crossed out didn't have any information worth noting." "What about that one?" Ruby asked, pointing to the one that wasn't crossed out.

"That's the one trader that I haven't visited yet. The other traders told me he's a little crazy." Shala said, closing the hologram. "So what if he's crazy? What if he's got good info that we can use? Don't you wanna see what Caylus is?" Ruby asked. Shala sighed. "I guess so. We can go visit him tomorrow."

Ruby nodded and shifted down onto her back so she was looking at the stars. She liked to look up at the stars, see what was there to see. Eventually, her eyelids began to grow heavy and she drifted off to sleep.

~  ~  ~

The next morning, Ruby woke up to see Shala hovering over her. Ruby took a moment to gather her bearings before sitting up. "You ready to head out?" Shala asked. "Sure, just give me a minute." Ruby said, standing up to see Scarlet was already awake. Shala walked over to Felix and got on his back.

Ruby took a minute to wake herself up before getting on Scarlet's back. Felix walked over to them. "It shouldn't be too far. Only about a 30 minute fly, I'd say." he said. "Well, we should get moving. We don't know if he's got good information, and if he does, he's probably got a price." Ruby said.

Shala nodded and Felix and Scarlet took to the skies. "It's only about two clicks northwest." Shala said. "Right." Scarlet said, angling herself to go northwest. There was a wind coming from the south, which was in their favor.

After about 25 minutes a small stall could be seen near a smaller lake. Shala was about to have Felix dive down, but Ruby stopped her. "Wait. We don't even know what he's like. I should go down first and talk to him. I am the one with the cloak, after all."

"Right." Shala said. The two of them guided their dragons down into the nearby woods. Ruby slid off Scarlet's back and put her hood up over her head as well as moved her cloak so most of her was either concealed by her cloak or covered in shadows.

"Good luck." Shala said. "Thanks." Ruby said before approaching the stall they'd seen from the air. The trader inside noticed Ruby approaching. "Ah, good day to you, miss! Can I interest you in some of my wares? I've got some of the finest-" Ruby cut him off.

"I'm not here for your wares. I'm here for your information. What do you know about Caylus?" "That's something I can give you information for, but it comes at a hefty price." the trader said. Ruby looked around the trader's stall and saw stuff from a water dragon such as scales.

"You seem to specialize in water dragon items." she said. She looked at the trader to see he had deep blue eyes along with a strand of blue hair the peaked out from under his head cover. "You're a Dragon Whisperer." Ruby said.

The trader looked surprised. "Yes, I'm a Dragon Whisperer. What I would like to know is what business you have asking about Caylus." "Look, I don't know much about Caylus, and as a Dragon Whisperer myself, I'd like to know what information you can give me." Ruby said.

"Hm... a fellow Dragon Whisperer. Very well. I have a map to Caylus I can give you, but there's a catch. In order for me to give it to you, I will need each of the elemental flowers from across Edenor." the trader said. Ruby thought for a moment before extending her hand for a handshake. "You've got a deal." The trader took her hand and they shook on it.