Fireball

New Friends

The dragons adapted to Khaldar quickly. The island was smaller and much easier to navigate than Khalinor. The lush, tropical setting immediately felt like home. All through the rainforest, the dragons were surrounded by fragrant and colourful flowers, and sweet salt air. News of their idyllic home reached Khalinor and soon more dragons came to live. The island was perfect. The caves were hidden by a dense, tropical forest and there was plenty of food, along with several lakes and a stream as water sources. The sea breeze blew constantly, keeping the dragons cool, and if any dragon needed a change of scenery, the vast ocean was dotted with tiny islands to explore.

The young dragons played mostly on the warm, sandy beach. They were warned not to venture to the other side of the island, because of the volcano. Though it hadn't awoken in decades, the billowing smoke that could often be seen exhausting from its peak, warned of an impending eruption.

"We should be quite safe if we stay on this side of the island." Said Dardon. "You can see where the lava destroyed that half of the island, but this side was spared."

At the beach one day, Fireball and his friends saw three unfamiliar dragons, sitting on a rocky section of the shoreline. The dragons wandered over to meet them.

"This is Endrik and Elyse, and I am Dronin." Said the largest dragon. "We live in the sea caves where the Valzian trench meets the ocean floor. We often visit this beach and sun on the rocks, but we have never seen you here before. This island has been uninhabited all our lives."

Fireball spoke up, and introduced his friends. "This is Drake and Kaida. My name is Fireball. We just moved to this island from Khalinor."

The dragons quickly became friends and met each day to play on the beach. Dronin was about the size of Drake. Endrik and Elyse were a little smaller, though they were all much larger than Fireball, and Kaida. The sea dragons flew well, but not as fast as Fireball and the other land dragons. They were excellent swimmers and divers too. While the sea dragons lived in caves under water, their homes were filled with air. They could stay under water for several hours and they did not breathe fire. Instead they spewed out a powerful concoction of scalding hot water and acid that could melt flesh and bone. Fireball and Kaida could only stay under water for about 15 minutes, before they needed air. Drake, being a lot larger was able to stay under water for almost 25 minutes.

One afternoon, Fireball, Drake and Kaida, brought Fausto, another young dragon, down to the beach with them. Fausto was big and a little clumsy, but very good natured. When they arrived the sea dragons were in the water.

"Come on." said Elyse. "Let's go explore the underwater caverns. Some of these caverns are old wizards' homes that were covered over by the rising ocean water decades ago."

Kaida and Drake jumped right in the water, but Fireball was a little hesitant. After all, he couldn't stay under water long. Elyse laughed, but quickly explained that all the caverns were accessed from below and had air pockets, so you could breathe normally while exploring. So Fireball and Fausto followed the others under the sea.