Dragon Riders: Legacy(Book 2) Completed

Chapter 8:Terra:Toph

Toph woke up, and at first she though she was in her room by how warm she was, but then she remembered she was in the cave with the two dragons, the baby one she bonded with making her a Dragon Rider, and its mother.
She attempted to sit up, but the heavy baby dragon on her stomach prevented her from getting up; she never really was strong, since she was blind, and could never build up muscle like other kids, or play like them either because her parents didn't trust her to be alone, or to do anything, thinking she was somehow going to get hurt.
She felt the huge dragon behind her stir, and she felt herself being pushed forward across the cold, hard, bumpy cave floor.
The baby dragon jumped off her stomach and ran off somewhere by the sound of its claws clacking against the stone cave floor.
This time Toph was able to push herself up, and with outstretched arms, she walked around the cave, searching for a cave wall to use as a guide and a crutch.
When she found a cave wall she stayed there, not knowing what to do.

Sandstone's POV
   Sandstone awoke after feeling the scavenger bonded with her daughter stir.
  She had pushed the scavenger away so she wouldn't crush it when she got up for a drink.
   Her daughter had came over to her when she pushed the scavenger away.
   She still needed a name for her daughter, she just couldn't keep calling her "daughter". And she wasn't going to let some scavenger give her daughter a punny name. Her daughter deserved a strong, powerful name that would strike fear into her enemies.
   The sound of patter on stone drew her attention back to the scavenger walking around on its two legs, that seemed incredibly unstable to her, with its paws out in front of it. She wondered if the scavenger was blind because it did that a lot. When the scavenger reached a cave wall Sandstone turned her attention back to her daughter.
   Her daughter was looking at her with a confused expression like she was confused on who she should choose: her mother or her Rider.
   Then her daughter said, "Hooooogrie!"
   Sandstone looked at her daughter with admiration that her one day old daughter could already somewhat speak, it wasn't the clearest, but she understood enough to know what her daughter wanted.
   "I'll go hunting in a little bit, little one." She said to her daughter, nuzzling her with her snout making her giggle in delight.
   Then summing up all the strength she had, she pushed herself up, and walked out the cave, stopping to pick up the possibly blind scavenger.
   Once outside the cave, she went to the nearby stream.
   At the stream she put the scavenger down, and bent her long neck down for a drink of the cool water.
   She saw her daughter do the same thing, while the scavenger struggled to find the stream, but after a few minutes of bumbling around it found the stream. The scavenger scooped up water in its paws and drank the clear water from its paws; it was very strange.
   When they were all done Sandstone took her daughter and the scavenger back to the cave, and told her daughter to stay, and then left to go hunting.

Toph's POV
   Toph had been standing by the cave wall when she felt the big dragon pick he up, and carry her outside, she guessed by the feeling of a cool breeze against her face.
   Then the dragon had set her down by a stream by the gurgling sound the stream was making.
   Then she had heard a loud lapping noise, and she guessed that the dragons were drinking. So she scrambled around on the bank till she found the stream, and drank the fresh, cool water, relieving her parched throat.
   Then the big dragon took her and the baby dragon back to the cave, and then left after some soft roars and growls exchanged between the two dragons.
   Toph went back to her wall, and sat down.
   She wondered if her parents knew she was gone? If so then they were probably going out of their minds wondering where she was. She kinda missed her home, but she hated her parents constant smothering.
   Maybe that would all chance when she became a Rider, then her parents would she wasn't a defenseless child anymore especially with the future large baby dragon at her side. But her future also depended on if the rumors about the Dragon Riders coming back were true. If they were then she would be lucky if she could find or contact them. If not then maybe she could learn from a magic user that she could trust so she could use learn magic, since Riders were rumored to be able to use magic, but no one really knew. But finding a magic user would be a little difficult because most of them were in hiding from the Emperor of Zhong, who ordered that all magic users be put to death; mainly being burned at the stake, beheaded, or hung.
   While she was thinking about how to find a magic user or person in contact with the Riders, a scaly, feathery head brushed her hand, and she felt around with her hand till she felt the baby dragon climb into her lap. She stroked the baby dragon's warm head with her hand, feeling the dust on the dragon's head and feathers due to her sensitive touch.
   The bay dragon hummed with happiness as she continued to stroke it.

   After half an hour her stomach began to rumble with hunger, and she remembered that her last meal had been last night, which she hadn't eaten that much that night for dinner.
   Then a loud clicking noise caught her attention.
   She didn't know what it was.
   She scooted back as far as she could go, taking the baby dragon with her, not wanting the poor, defenseless thing to get hurt.
   The clicking noise got closer and closer till it was practically in the cave.
   She didn't hear the baby dragon growling, so that must mean the clicking noise came from the large, mother dragon of the baby dragon.
   Then a heavy object hit the floor that it made her jump and flinch when the object hit the floor.
   She caught a faint whiff of something stinky and maybe blood, maybe she was imagining the blood part, but something definitely stunk really bad, worse than the cave originally was.
   Then out of nowhere she was bombarded by images in her head: she saw a big, hairy animal with a snout and hoofed feet and a bloody neck.
   The animal was at least three feet tall and  five feet long. She guessed the animal was a boar based on the description she saw to the ones she heard about from the estate's hunters about wild pigs that were big and hairy, and that always people's crops in a night or two. They were considered a invasive species that came from Eura because they ate everything they could get their snouts on, and sometimes they would even attack hunters if they felt threatened enough.
   Then the vision continued: she saw the mother dragon and baby dragon dig into the boar like it was candy.
   Her stomach rumbled with hunger again as she saw the dragons tearing the boar apart. But at the same time her stomach churned at the though of eating the raw, bloody meat. It would surly make her sick and possibly kill her. But her need for substance was too great.
   She crossed the cave with help from the images she had seen.
   When she found the boar, she tore off a small chunk of meat and bit into it, the metallic taste of blood made her want to gag, but she sucked it up, and continued eating her piece of meat till it was gone.
   Then feeling sick to her stomach, she went back to her wall, and curled up, clutching her stomach, and she went to sleep, hoping it would make her feel better.

She suddenly woke up feeling like she was going to throw up.
She quickly got to her feet, and followed the cave wall to the entrance.
When she was barely outside the cave, she threw up, some of the vomit getting on her blood stained robe.
When she finished throwing up, she wiped her mouth with her robe sleeve, and then she walked back to her spot by the cave wall, and went to sleep.

Sandstone's POV
When Sandstone had gone hunting, she had though of many possible names for her daughter, none of which she liked after saying them out loud to herself.
She brought down a boar while hunting, a big enough one to sustain her for about two or three weeks, but not enough for her daughter or the scavenger. She would have to go hunting again next week; hopefully her daughter and the scavenger would eat enough to sustain them till next week when she had enough energy to go hunting again. She just didn't have enough energy or strength to hunt for a growing dragonet and a scavenger, both who needed to eat every couple days, especially the scavenger; she had enough trouble just killing the boar before it ran away, and she had even more trouble bringing the boar back to the cave, limping the whole way.
When she had gotten back to the cave, and started eating with her daughter, she noticed the scavenger eating a small chunk of meat, and then quitting after it finished that chunk, and went to sleep, looking sick.
When she had gone to sleep, her daughter curled up by her side.
A few hours later, she heard the scavenger get up and go outside the cave, and throw up for a few minutes before coming back in and going back to sleep.
Feeling bad for the poor thing, she gently scooped up the scavenger in her talon and set it down by her daughter, surprisingly not waking the scavenger up, it must of been in a deep sleep for it not to wake up.
While she slept she thought long and hard about a name for her daughter that would suit her.
Then it just suddenly hit her while she was thinking of a name her mate suggested when he was still alive: Terra, after his great grandmother, who had been a great warrior among the Terra SwiftWings.
She would name her daughter Terra, after her mate's great grandmother because of his ferocity and strength that she was sure her daughter inherited.
Feeling confident that she chose the right name, she drifted off into a deep sleep, thinking about only one thing: Terra, her daughter, and the future next great warrior of the Terra SwiftWings.

P.S. The Terra SwiftWings are one of the four different groups of SwiftWings. Hydro, Pyro, Aero, and Terra are the four different types of SwiftWings, each one being able to control an element. Again the SwiftWings do not belong to me, and I used the old version of the SwiftWing Tribe because I like that version.
   I'll expand more on why the Emperor of Zhong wants magic users dead in future books.
   Hope you're all enjoying.