We Make it Work... Most of the Time?

Problematic First Mission Brings the Pain and a New Member.

Loud chatter filled the silent corridors as five boys and their dragons made their way to the supply rooms. It had been seven months since the younger two graduated from trainee to dragonrider. Today was going to be their first mission outside of the kingdom. A gang of rogues had been stirring up trouble for a village and the people had have enough of the dragons stealing their cattle and burning their houses. The Dragon Guard had been quick to send for Yongguk to brief him on the mission. Himchan had pouted about not being called for as well, which was met by Yongguk sticking his tongue out at him and the younger members laughing at their childish bickering. They had finally packed all their necessities and were now flying towards the mission location.

"How long until we get there?" Junhong asked for the fifth time. He was feeling a little nervous, but Totomato had reassured him nothing would go wrong.

"About an hour." Himchan sighed, answering the youngest question again.

"I'm going to take a nap." Yongguk yawned and laid back to get in the usual 'I'm riding my dragon, but I would rather sleep ' position he had mastered in his early years of training.

"Really? I don't think now is the time for that." Himchan moved his head to look at their so called leader. " Aaand he's already sleeping. Great."

"I have to say, it is pretty impressive." Jongup was scared for their leader the first time he did this but calmed down when Daehyun told him it was normal.

"I wish I could nap while flying 100 feet above the ground." Daehyun whined, scrunching up his nose with envy. The one time Daehyun tried to nap while flying, he had rolled off Kekemato's back, landing straight into a muddy puddle. Himchan and Yongguk never let him live it down.

After Junhong asked the golden question of "are we there yet" about 20 times, they were finally at the forest's edge. The scouts said the rogue gang were living in a cave, near a pond, 60 meters northeast into the forest. Slowly flying over the treetops, they looked for said place. The location was easy to find, being in a small open area. Yongguk wakes up and leads the others to land just west of the rogue base. They use the surrounding brush for cover as they scout around the area, looking for any sign of the rogues.

"It would seem they aren't home." Himchan stated when they grouped back together. The others nodded in agreement.

"What should we do?" Junhong asked nervously biting his bottom lip.

"We stay low and wait for them to come back. We don't know where they went so going on a wild goose chase would be pointless." Yongguk looked around the group for any disagreements. He was met with nods and a displeased snort form Shishimato but it was the best course of action no matter how much the dragon hated sitting around doing nothing.

They spread out along the west side of the base and cover themselves with leaves and other fallen foliage. Luckily for them, fate was on their side. The rogue dragons returned home after 30 minutes. Unluckily for them, fate also decided it didn't like them.

One of the rogues had spotted Totomato and snuck up behind the duo for a surprise attack. Totomato let out a yelp, getting everyone's attention. Tatsmato was quick to tackle the rogue off the blue matoki but the other rogues were already engaging the others in battle. There were seven rogues in total, so based on numbers the matoki herd should of won easily, but once again fate hated them.

When Tatsmato left Himchan's side to help Totomato, Himchan was going to follow after but another rogue pinned him to ground. Jongup was able to get the rogue off of Himchan by stabbing it in the side and shoving it onto its side, but soon after he was met with the rogue's powerful tail smashing into his side, sending him a few feet away. Jongup was a strong kid so a hit like this was easy to recover from. Landing on his arm weirdly? Not so much. There wasn't a cracking sound but the pain he felt had him clutching his arm tightly, curling in on himself and holding back his scream of pain.