Let's Play Pretend

Camping

-Have you forgotten how to fucking land? Or is "Taking down half a forest" simply the dragon version of a smooth landing?

Doll was brushing pine needless off of her... Everything. And she was fuming. Aiden was half convinced that if he were to squint, he'd see actual smoke coming out her ears.

She did have a point, though. He had not exactly taken down elegantly, more like some sort of tornado. You could clearly see his improvised landing strip, as there were trees laid flat on the ground for about half a mile behind them. Not exactly incognito, but... hey, he got them down, didn't he?

They had been flying at full speed for about 12 hours, something that wasn't really advisable with a passenger. Or with newly sprouted wings. Or, really, ever. Of course, this meant his wings had started cramping up, leaving him with the choice to either do a semi-controlled crash landing immediately... or just crash. He had went with the former.

-Well, Doll... I am a dragon, not a plane. This comes with certain drawbacks, like a lack of in-flight meals, not much staff, and sometimes there's a crash landing. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

It came out a little more sarcastic and bitter than intended, but with his wings aching from the strenuous flight, and his body feeling battered and bruised... He wasn't really interested in taking any verbal abuse right now. Also, he still hadn't found Jenna.

He had been following their link, but somehow the signal barely got stronger, and only if he pushed himself to his limit. It was as though she was in motion as well, moving only slightly slower than him. He knew that every inch he had gained on her would soon be lost now, but he had had no other choice than to go down. Stupid physical limitations. He punched another tree, knocking it over.

-I thought you were the environmentally conscious one of us, sweetie. It's not the forest's fault that your girlfriend's gone missing!

Had she been anyone else just then, he would probably have responded by stepping on her. But she wasn't anyone else, she was Doll, and she always spoke common sense. He knew this, and somehow it got past his frustration and forced him to think more clearly.

-Yeah. Sorry. I just wish I could keep flying, you know? We're losing her while we're down here... But we might as well do the best with what we got, right? Which is... A lot of wood. First item; building a fire.

They gathered some of the smaller trees and broken off branches, and quickly enough they had a quite impressive bonfire going. Being a dragon, for all it's drawbacks, had certain bonuses too. Like never having to carry a lighter.

While Doll warmed up next to the fire, being semi-frozen by the hours at a high altitude, Aiden went on to build her a hut. While his kind didn't need much sleep, and when they did they could sleep just about anywhere... Doll was more like a human that way. If she didn't get any sleep at all, she got grumpy as hell. He had no desire to deal with that as well once his body had recovered enough to search on.

It took him about an hour to make a shelter out of the fallen logs. Only three walls and a roof, keeping the fourth side open towards the fire. He had layered branches with needles on them on the floor, in effect building a mattress out of them, and topped it with moss. Now, it would probably not be the most comfortable bed she had slept on, but for what they had to work with... He figured he had done well enough.

Doll seemed to echo the sentiment as she, without as much as a word, lay down her long scarf as some sort of makeshift sheet. That she promptly, after taking off her coat to use as a blanket, got on top off. She was snoozing almost immediately.