Warriors of the Dragon

Nysa

After a while, Isolde found that flying in the dark wasn't that frightening. She and Sabine glided quietly through the cool night air and were both only able to see the stars above and sometimes the moonlight reflecting off a body of water or two below. Isolde had to trust Sabine as she followed the smell and quiet sounds of the other dragons and every once in a while, Isolde could hear that they were nearby with the flapping of a wing or the call of one of her companions as they spoke to each other occasionally over the wind.

They flew for hours and Isolde felt her eyes strain as the light of the dawn sun started to outline the landscape. They had gone higher in altitude than Isolde had imagined and she was glad she had her sleeping furs twisted around her shoulders. It was colder the higher they got especially with the wind, but she could see the landscape below was spotted with many lakes and ponds with no good place to land. Isolde looked over to Turrock who was able to sleep while he flew and watched him glide lazily through the air. The Duvendis dragons were flying much slower than usual and she guessed it was because of Malina's dragon carrying the other. It was definitely struggling and seemed to be gradually dropping in altitude. Isolde knew Sabine had no way of helping carry such a large beast. Sabine was much smaller and her two-toed back feet had no way of gripping around something so large. Her front arms were too small to carry anything larger than perhaps a person or two. The dog-like dragons like Dawn's, Rauka's, and Luna's didn't have as much rotation in their shoulders to be able to easily carry another dragon. Both Turrock and Crow only had back feet and no arms, being both categorized as 'wyverns', but unlike Crow, Turrock had hoof-like back feet which had no ability to clutch onto something. Both Duvendis dragons were only a little bit larger than Sabine and perhaps could carry the dragon together pretty easily if they tried. The unconscious naiad dragon was not much larger than them, but did look heavier with less bulk in its wings and more in its torso, likely an adaptation meant for swimming.

They were forced to let Malina's dragon rest and Isolde was glad to get a moment to relieve herself, despite her fear of getting pulled into one of the nearby lakes. The others were twitchy and none of them felt comfortable enough to sleep even as the sun was rising after flying all night.

Sephira was frustrated at the slow pace and furtively checked to make sure Caius hadn't accidentally killed the naiad he had been carrying. She made eye-contact with Sorin and saw him glance to make sure Quinnelin was alive as well.

"Oryx can carry him." Sorin murmured in elvish to her. She just nodded, but then looked back at Malina's dragon that looked exhausted. She guessed Caius would struggle to carry the dragon alone and would likely let his claws hook into its already damaged flesh, but perhaps Oryx and Caius could carry it together, but not with Oryx carrying the naiad. She was still scheming when Malina's strong-willed dragon huffed before righting itself and looking up at the sky.

It was another half a day at the slow pace they were going and Sephira was fighting the exhaustion that was surfacing. Most of the others weren't having as much success and she looked back to see that both Air Clan children were sleeping in their saddles and Isolde's head kept dropping as she fought sleep. Markus had found a way to sleep while his dragon was asleep beneath him and both veil-less light elves looked more disheveled than Sephira had ever seen an Undine look. She could see dark circles under their bloodshot blue eyes which were obvious on their pale skin and their usually perfectly braided hair had loose strands, illuminated by the sunlight at certain angles. Craven and Rauka were like statues, sitting in their saddles with their determined eyes focused ahead on the sky.

Sephira would've taken them around the villages outside of Nysa if they weren't carrying an unconscious dragon. She could see villagers look up with cries of fright at the sight of their black dragons. She wondered if they could see the naiad dragon carrying the burned dragon, or if they thought he was black as well. They had gained altitude to avoid being too close to get shot at or for the villages to think that they would attack, but the naiad dragon was losing energy and seemed to get lower and lower in the air even as Sephira guided Caius higher at the front of the group. She grumbled to herself as she saw the Air Clan dragons were also dropping and falling behind. Their riders seemed precariously balanced where they slumped in their tall throne-like saddles and their immature dragons were focused on staying with the group, but it was clear they wanted to land and rest rather than keep flying.