Wings of Fire: The Legend of Salamander (fanfic)

<<Chapter Three>>

Keentail finished out scratching out a poor map of Phyrria into the dirt, throwing the stick behind him. Salamander crinkled his snout at the sloppy lines, a big X and an O east-southward on the map. Iris was standing next to him, watching where he was pointing eagerly. 

Hmph. He isn't that great.

 "This," the purple NightWing began, pointing to the O on his dirt drawing. "Is where we are currently. South of the east Scavenger den." 
 

Blah, blah...

He then slid the tip of his talon up to the X.
"And this, is the Mud Kingdom borders. We need to get there probably by tonight or tomorrow morning." He explained, wiping the map from the dirt with his hand. Salamander huffed. He could get there by tonight, he had no idea about Keentail though. And Iris, well, she wasn't as fast.
"And if we don't?" Salamander interrupted. He saw annoyance flicker in Keentail's dark eyes.

Hah.

 "Then we wait for your slow tail." He growled. Classic NightWing. Always so moody, the red dragon remembered his father explaining to him.

"Always excuse the NightWing's big ego, for their attitude comes in a large package."

He missed Iguana.

Salamander rolled his eyes at Keentail before unfolding his wings.
"Then I'll get a head start." He mumbled, taking off. He could practically feel Keentail's smirk as he flew.

Stupid NightWing.

 "Wait up!" He heard Iris squeal, flapping her small wings frantically to catch up, Keentail rising behind her not long after.
"Not a bad take off hybrid! Maybe you're half NightWing!"

Maybe you're half jerk-wing.

Salamander ignored him, beginning to fly faster. He heard muffed objections to his pace from Iris, but he was too annoyed to wait up for her and Keentail.

...

That night was difficult.
Iris kept fluttering about Keentail's starry underwings as the sun set when they were flying.

Oh please. They weren't that great.

As much as the red dragonet thought the RainWing princess was annoying, she was good company. Now she won't peel away from her new NightWing best-friend-forever. He scowled to himself mentally.

Don't be jealous of the likes of that dumb dragon.

They were sleeping now. Do he dare look back at them?
Keentail had his tail draped over Iris' thin purple one.

Oh.

Something clawed at Salamander's gut, and his scales shimmered deep red in the dark. No way. Sure, they talked the entire flight, but Salamander was too far ahead to listen in. He'd never guess Iris liked him. Or that he did back. Preposterous.
Even if they did have feelings for each other, he's a NightWing and she's a RainWing. It'd never work.

Stop getting ahead of yourself. Maybe she has no idea he has his smelly tail all over her.

He settled down, letting his wings droop.

I need to sleep to get that off my mind.

 
He thought back back to when he first met Iris. Which was only what, two, three, maybe four days ago?

"My name's Iris. I'm going with you on your journey!"

 Goodness, her voice was annoying.