[Silver]

Nimbus gave her side a more forceful kick and Stormy finally pulled herself off the ground and into flight. The action seemed trivial for her, despite how much strength it actually took. To her, flying was just like walking. Though she preferred to be lazy and not do either if she could get away with it.

“Finally,” Nimbus muttered to himself. He pushed forward to guide Stormy into flying toward the food storage. She already knew where it was, of course. She had considered robbing it a few times by now, but she couldn’t figure out how to undo padlocks. Normally in a situation like that, she would just burn it all down, but then she wouldn’t have any food. At least she was that smart.

[Silver]

Nimbus felt a brush of fur on his lower arm and he nearly leaped out of his skin. He turned to see the pale blue eyes of Rhythm staring back at him. At some point he had habitually jumped up on the back of the dragon for a ride.

Nimbus had always worried about Rhythm. Perhaps that is why they were so close to this day. The poor boy never did get full use out of his own wings. The muscles that powered them were ill formed, leaving them mostly decorative. If he could catch a nice breeze, he could glide, but he couldn’t manage powered flight.

[Silver]

Then there were his eyes, too. As far as Nimbus could tell, Rhythm couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of his own face at best. His excellent sense of smell and hearing more or less made up for it, but he couldn’t imagine what it was like not to be able to see. Thus was the fallacy of people who relied on sight as heavily as he did. He always held the idea in the back of his mind that he could make him glasses or something, but he probably would refuse to wear them anyway.

It wasn’t long as they traveled through the air until they were at their goal. Nimbus pressed Stormy into landing and hopped off. Rhythm merely slid off her back and landed with a little thud on the grass below. He gave her a dirty look then ran after Nimbus to see what he was doing.

[Silver]

“I think this should be enough,” Nimbus said. He had a huge handful of meaty snacks that he shoved into his already overflowing satchel. He also grabbed a bit of mixed grains and other snacks, in case they needed them.

“Blueberry?” he asked Rhythm as he tossed one. Miraculously, Rhythm caught it, but he didn’t seem to like it too much. He licked the roof of his mouth a few times to get the taste out.

“Sorry bud,” Nimbus said with a laugh.

“Alright, no more time wasting,” Nimbus said. He was really talking to himself, but saying stuff out loud helped him focus. It wasn’t like he had a lot of people in his life to talk to anyway.

[Silver]

Nimbus stepped outside and locked the door behind him. He was surprised to see another creature standing outside the door, eagerly awaiting a snack. Well, perhaps he was not that surprised after all. It was a little Fenling named Kayua who often demanded snacks and attention.

“I’m sorry Kay, but I don’t have time to brush you right now. There’s some crazy stuff going on out there, and I have to see what it is. I know you don’t understand, but I’ll give you double brushing later, okay?”

Kayua blinked her cold white eyes at him and he frowned dramatically. He really hated telling her no. For some reason, he had a particular soft spot for the grey girl with the rainbow tails. None of his other pets were able to be quite so demanding of him and get away with it.

[Silver]

“C’mon Kay, I really don’t have time to play with you right now,” he said. He had wasted too much time already with Stormy and all. Though he may not have thought of it that way. Things in his life always went this way. He was practically never on time for anything. It was probably great that he didn’t have a normal job, considering.

A puff of air sent Kayua’s long fur into a frenzy. She let out a grumbling yip and turned around to growl at the sudden gust of wind. It turned out to be Stormy, who had bent down and given her a sniff. She gave her a warning snarl so she didn’t think of doing such a thing again.

[Silver]

“See? Stormy gets it. Time to go. Stay safe little one,” he said. He straightened the fur on the top of her head and smiled. She was pretty soft… No, he had to stay focused. Brushing her would have to wait.

“C’mon Rhythm, it’s time to go!” Rhythm had been laying nearby watching what everyone else was doing, but he quickly scrambled to his feet and ran over.

Nimbus jumped up onto Stormy’s back and helped Rhythm up as well. To his surprise, Kayua made an attempt to jump up as well. However, she was a bit short, so she slid back off and flopped to the ground. She quickly scrambled back to her feet and tried to look dignified.

[Silver]

“Do you want to come with? Is that what this about?” Nimbus asked. He didn’t think she’d be up for huge adventures, but she had made her intentions clear.

“Well, alright, but I’m not brushing you on the way,” he said with a laugh. Then he reached out his arms toward the ground and clicked his tongue to instruct her to jump up. She happily leaped into his paws and he pulled her close to his chest.

“There we go, you’ll be safe here.” He patted her head and allowed her to settled down into his lap. Rhythm gave them a skeptical look, but he trusted Nimbus and his judgement.

[Silver]

Stormy took off with a tap of his heel on her side. It took only a few strokes of her huge wings to pull her off the ground and into the air. Nimbus slowly guided her toward the fields where the fog was most visible from the air. They were in for a real adventure, it seemed.

Kayua was quickly bored by the monotony of flying around. For a little bit it was exciting and the air was filled with interesting smells. Then it became boring if not even a little irritating. The wind had completely messed up her beautiful, silky fur, and dragons were not exactly comfortable to sit on.

[Silver]

Nimbus idly rubbed along Kayua’s back as they soared along. First they went over his own home, then the forest that surrounded it, and finally a small town that was nearby. He was familiar with the town as a place he needed to trade for goods, but it looked totally different from above.

The people paid them no mind as the huge blue dragon went right over their homes. It seemed that they were too focused on their lives to worry about things like him flying overhead. If someone did notice them, he did not stop to see their reactions anyway. There was too much to do to worry about the thoughts of people.

[Silver]

Nimbus tried to consider what the fog might be. Perhaps it was just a strange facet of weather, but something about it made him doubt that. There was something special about it. Something magical? Nimbus had always felt strongly about things in a way he didn’t understand, and this was no exception. He had learned to follow his instincts.

If the fog was magical, then he dreaded to find out what would be inside. He had the powerful fire-breathing stormy to back him up, and he knew that Rhythm would rather die than let him be hurt, but he still felt an unnerving sense of dread. Especially since he had, at the last second, allowed Kayua to come along.

[Silver]

Now Kayua was one of his closer companions, but he wasn’t too sure about her abilities in a fight. Honestly, he hoped to never have to worry about that. She was so soft and cute that he couldn’t imagine putting her in harm’s way. Why did he bring her along in the first place? It was another one of those things that seemed like a good idea, but he couldn’t really understand why.

Nimbus found himself staring at the shimmering white gem in the center of her head. It was bright and reflective, so he could see his own distorted face in it. For the first time since he met her, he wondered about what it was. He also wondered why he had never thought about it before. It was mesmerizingly beautiful, but it felt like more than that.

[Silver]

It was like it had a life of its own. A strange sort of pull that tugged at his spirit. He wondered if Kayua might be magical in some way. Was the gem somehow magical, or did she have magic which manifested the gem in the first place? He honestly didn’t know, but he felt strongly that there was something more going on than he originally considered.

Kayua leaned her head toward him and licked his hand. That brought him back into the moment as he realized that he had stopped petting her. She looked up at him innocently with her eerie white eyes. That was another strange thing about her that he had never thought about before. All this time they had known each other, and he had never really wondered what she was.

[Silver]

Clearly, she was different than others of her kind. Her markings were different, and her strange eyes certainly stood out. Though he did know that other Fenlings possessed similar crystals at their hearts and heads, he had to concede that he had never before considered their purpose. Fenlings were exceptionally shy creatures, so he was admittedly not too close to his. After this, he would have to make a point to change that.

Kayua was mostly relaxed as they traveled, but that changed very suddenly. Her body tensed and she jumped to standing in an instant. Her normally flowing tails were stiff and her huge ears were pinned back against her head. She wasn’t used to standing up on a flying dragon, though, so she quickly started to stumble.

[Silver]

Nimbus held out his paw to steady her so she wouldn’t trip and fall right off of Stormy. It was nice that she was probable special or magic or whatever, but he didn’t think she was immune to an impact with the ground from this height. He wondered what she was so upset about.

Rhythm was much more used to flying than she was, but he didn’t think that was what she was upset about. He too focused on the ground, trying to smell or hear something out of place. He was looking, too, but that wasn’t about to help him much. His poor eyesight didn’t even let him really see the ground. Just a big fuzzy brown and green blob.