Fireball

The Flight To Finstock

Fireball flew through the sky in a zig zag pattern. Paranoid he was being followed, his eyes darted in every direction at first. Soon he settled in and then only glanced around occasionally. After flying a few hours, remembering Amos's directions, he was now on the alert for another dragon. Fireball thought spotting another dragon would be quite easy, since few were as small as he was. Most dragons were so large, they could be seen from miles away. A larger dragon could catch up, but like Ashneel, Fireball wondered how Amos would find them.

The morning sun was blinding, but as the sun rose higher in the sky the little dragon was able to stop squinting.

Then he spotted it. "Aha!" He shouted.

He spied a dragon about a mile away. Fireball sped up to reach the beast quickly. When he was right behind the large dragon, the creature turned its head and acknowledged him with a nod, but said nothing. The two dragons flew side by side for about half an hour before the larger one spoke.

"We need to lower our altitude. It's about to get a little humid. We will be well below the clouds. It might become uncomfortable."

Fireball was happy the larger dragon finally spoke to him, but he did not understand why they had to drop below the cloud cover.

"Why do we need to fly so low? It is much more comfortable up here," replied Fireball.

"I'm just doing what Amos asked," said the dragon. "He said more humidity would make it more difficult for wizards to track him."

"You were talking to Amos?" asked a surprised Fireball. "Where is he? I thought he was meeting us. He was going to help."

The dragon looked away from Fireball and said nothing more. He swooped down rapidly. Reluctantly, Fireball followed. The air was heavy and the visibility was greatly reduced. Fireball was just thankful they were slowing down because he wasn't confident that he could see well enough to fly near his full speed.

"Do we have to fly at this elevation all the way back to the island?" Fireball asked the other dragon. The dragon did not respond, so the little dragon asked again. "Hey, can you at least talk to me. Why do we have to fly so low? Amos said he was drawing the bad wizards off in a different direction so they wouldn't try to track us."

Then a voice called out. "They did follow me, but eventually I had to leave. I just wanted you out of their tracking range."

Fireball looked around, but saw only the larger dragon. With a second glance he noticed a figure on the dragon's back. Staring right at him, smiling, was Amos.

"How did you do...?" Fireball stopped mid-sentence. Wizards never ceased to amaze him. Fireball decided he might be more confused if Amos explained how he managed to fly off in another direction and still end up on the back of the dragon beside him. After all, Fireball was one of the fastest dragons around, or so he was told.