Waveripple rushed over to help Emeraldeyes as she started throwing her pine cones at Indigowings. He was not paying attention to how many times she hit him, because he was too busy concentrating on running towards them as fast as he could without dropping any of his pine cones.
Waveripple dropped all the pine cones that were on his back (between his wings) on the ground, and started kicking them at Indigowings. At least two of them hit, but then Indigowings started throwing some back.
Two pine cones hit Waveripple, so he fell down, pretending to die. He opened his eyes to watch Emeraldeyes and Indigowings continue to throw pine cones at each other, hoping that Indigowings had already been hit four times. They threw their pine cones back and forth, but then one pine cone thrown by Indigowings managed to hit Emeraldeyes. She fell down.Indigowings grinned at them. “The two pathetic hatchlings were beaten by the Vampire,” he said jokingly.
“You won't win when I'm playing for the Vampire,” Emeraldeyes said.
“If that's true,” Indigowings replied, “then that means that I'm right, and the Vampire always wins.”
“No, it will really mean that YOU don't always win,” Emeraldeyes said.
“Let's just start now,” Waveripple said. “Go hide somewhere with your pine cones, Emeraldeyes.”
Emeraldeyes ran off to get some pine cones, and Indigowings and Waveripple started planning.
“We shouldn't use Emeraldeyes's plan,” Indigowings said, “because it is a good plan, but she already knows about it. So we have to think of something else.”
“We should just both follow her, then,” Waveripple said. He looked around and saw some tree bark on the ground. “And we can use this bark as a shield from her pine cones,” he said, walking over and grabbing some.
“Good idea,” Indigowings said, and took the largest piece of bark available. It was only big enough for him to shield his head if he held it up, but it was better than nothing. “She won't expect this.”
After gathering a bunch of pine cones, the two hatchlings started following Emeraldeyes's scent. It was hard to track a small dragon while carrying a large piece of bark and many pine cones, so it took them about fifteen minutes to find the end of the trail.
Emeraldeyes's scent trail ended in a large, grassy field. She was small enough that she could be hiding anywhere in the grass. Indigowings and Waveripple set their pine cones down and waited for Emeraldeyes to attack. Nothing happened.
After ten minutes of waiting for Emeraldeyes, they started wondering if she was really in this field. Indigowings sniffed around along the ground, seeing if her scent trail picked up again nearby. He did not find anything, apparently, because he just walked back to Waveripple.
“Do you think she's even in here?” Indigowings asked. “She might be in one of the trees, making us think that she is in the meadow so that she can jump down from behind us and start throwing her pine cones.”
Waveripple glanced up at the trees but did not see anything. “She's probably in here,” he said. “Probably waiting for us to go into the grass to look for her so that she can jump out from any patch of grass and throw pine cones at us.”
“That sounds like her,” Indigowings agreed. “I think we should go in there, because she's not coming out.”
“Okay,” Waveripple said. “But we shouldn't spread out, because then she could easily beat us by attacking one of us first, and then hiding back in the grass, waiting for the other to come close enough for her to also ambush.”
Indigowings nodded. Both dragons picked up their pine cones. Then they entered the grassy field warily, looking around for any sign of Emeraldeyes. The wind blew strongly against the grass, making it almost impossible to tell if it were moving because of the wind, or because Emeraldeyes was moving in it.
They soon reached the center of the field, but there was no sign of Emeraldeyes. The two hatchlings kept walking until they were almost at the other side of the field, and still nothing happened.
A pine cone suddenly flew out of the tall grass, hitting Waveripple. He jumped backwards and crashed into Indigowings. Both hatchlings nearly fell down. Another pine cone flew out of the grass, but this time it missed.
Waveripple and Indigowings leaped into the area of tall grass that the pine cones were coming out of. They saw Emeraldeyes by a little pile of pine cones, about to throw another.
Waveripple threw two of his pine cones at her, and they both hit. Indigowings dashed over to Emeraldeyes's pine cone pile and scattered all the pine cones away from her. But he had to come very close to her to be able to do that, so she was able to throw a pine cone at him.
Meanwhile, Waveripple kept throwing pine cones at Emeraldeyes. He was able to hit her with two pine cones while she threw another at Indigowings.
Emeraldeyes turned around and threw a pine cone at Waveripple. He did not dodge it, but blocked it with his piece of bark instead. Then he picked up a pine cone and tossed it at her. Emeraldeyes moved, trying to get out of the way of the pine cone, but she accidentally just went even more into its path.
“We won!” Waveripple cried exultantly.
Indigowings got back up. “Yes! Finally the dragon playing for the Vampire did not win,” he said.
“Yeah, if I had won that time, we might have had to lower the Vampire's pine cone-hits-before-dead number down to four,” Emeraldeyes said.
“Yeah, then we would have had to go back to the number that I picked originally,” Indigowings said. He added teasingly, “You wouldn't have been able to stand that.”
“Of course I wouldn't have,” Emeraldeyes said sarcastically.
“Do you want to play it again before it gets too dark?” Waveripple asked.
“Yes, of course,” Indigowings said.
“Okay, we can,” Emeraldeyes said. “But this time we should put a twist on the game. The number of times that the Vampire has to be hit can go down to two–”
“What?” Indigowings exclaimed, staring at Emeraldeys as if she had lost her mind.
Waveripple also thought it was weird. First she wanted the Vampire to have to be hit more times than the others, and now she was saying that it should be lowered to two?
“I didn't finish,” Emeraldeyes said, a bit crossly. “But this time two of us will be playing for Vampires.”
“Oh,” Indigowings said. “That might be funner. But it's basically the same thing–two of us against the third one.”
“Actually, it's completely different,” Emeraldeyes said. “Because the number of times the Vampires have to be hit by pine cones goes down, and this time, two of us are going to be hiding, instead of just one.”
“I think we should do that,” Waveripple said. “But which two of us are going to be the Vampires?”
“For sure, I have to be one,” Emeraldeyes said. “It would be almost impossible for me to win against both of you when we all have to be hit an equal number of times to be defeated.”
“I want to be the dragon hunting down the Vampires,” Indigowings said.
“Okay, then I'll be the other Vampire,” Waveripple said. “Let's go find a hiding place,” he said to Emeraldeyes.
Emeraldeyes nodded, and she and Waveripple walked into the forest, gathering pine cones along the way.
“We should find a cave to hide in,” Emeraldeyes said. Before Waveripple could object, she added, “We don't have to go very deep, or into any tunnels. We can just stay near the cave's entrance and jump out at Indigowings when he comes.”
“Okay,” Waveripple agreed, a bit reluctantly. “But we have to stay very close to the entrance, close enough to be able to jump out in time if there starts to be a cave-in.”
“But then Indigowings will be able to see us,” Emeraldeyes argued.
“Well, that's the only way I'm agreeing to go in a cave,” Waveripple said.
Emeraldeyes seemed to have already known there was a cave nearby, because just then, they walked into a little clearing in the forest. Directly in front of them was a huge cave, or
at least the entrance was huge.
Emeraldeyes walked into the cave, deeper than Waveripple had said he would go, and set her pine cones down in a neat pile.
“Come on,” she said to Waveripple. “There's not going to be a cave-in. There hasn't been one in this cave for a long time, if there has ever been one at all.”
Waveripple shook his head. “I'm not going as deep as you are.” He walked into the entrance as he spoke, but went no deeper. “And if there hasn't been a cave-in here for a long time, it's more likely that one will happen now.”
“You'll ruin the hiding place standing there,” Emeraldeyes complained.
“I'm not coming deeper in,” Waveripple said, shaking his head again.
Emeraldeyes looked at something behind Waveripple. “You could hide over there instead,” she said, pointing with her wing to the thing she was looking at. Waveripple turned around to see what it was.
A large boulder, much bigger than the one he had used to get up in the pine tree, was sitting a few feet to the left of the cave.
“That would be a good hiding spot,:” Emeraldeyes continued. “It would be better if we were hiding in different places. As soon as Indigowings finds one of us, he will automatically think the other one is there, too.”
“Okay, I'll hide behind the boulder,” Waveripple said. He quickly crossed the distance to the boulder, glad that hiding in the cave was not the only option. Indigowings would be coming at any time now.
Waveripple set down the pine cones that he had gathered, and waited for him to arrive.
A few minutes later, Waveripple heard footsteps. He froze, waiting for Indigowings to come closer. Indigowings walked up to the boulder, following Emeraldeyes's and Waveripple's scents. They were both leading him to the cave, because both of them had gone there before Waveripple left to hide behind the boulder. Indigowings did not know that one of them had gone in a different direction. He thought they were both hiding in the same place. It was the perfect ambush.
Waveripple jumped out from behind the boulder, kicking his pile of pine cones at Indigowings. Indigowings leaped into the air in surprise when they came near him, so only one actually hit.
Indigowings swiftly jumped around the boulder and threw some pine cones at Waveripple. One of them hit him. He was about to throw one of them back, but then Emeraldeyes leaped out of the cave and threw one of her pine cones at Indigowings.
“That was too easy for you,” Indigowings said. “You should have had to hit me at least three times, for it to be fair.”
“Okay, then let's continue until you're hit a third time,” Waveripple said. He immediately threw another pine cone at Indigowings, hitting him on the leg. “See, you'd lose anyway,” he said, laughing.
“Very funny,” Indigowings said.
“Actually, we really could continue until you get hit a third time, if you want to,” Emeraldeyes said.
“Yes, I do want to,” Indigowings said, “but not until I say I'm ready.”
Waveripple and Emeraldeyes waited, ready to dodge if he suddenly threw a pine cone at one of them.
“Ready!” Indigowings said, tossing a pine cone at Waveripple.
Waveripple jumped to the side, dodging the pine cone. He picked up a different pine cone and was about to throw it when Indigowings threw a pine cone at Emeraldeyes. She was not able to dodge it in time. They had each been hit one time now.
Waveripple threw his pine cone at Indigowings, but Indigowings quickly stepped to the side. He bent down to pick up another pine cone, but Emeraldeyes threw one at him first.
“Looks like we won anyway,” Emeraldeyes said.
Waveripple noticed that it was starting to get dark. “I'm going back to the lake now,” he said to Indigowings and Emeraldeyes. “Bye.” Waveripple started walking back towards the lake.
“Bye!” Indigowings and Emeraldeyes both called after him.
About an hour later, Waveripple arrived at the lake. It was darker this time than it had been when he got back the day before.
He noticed that it was colder at this time of day than it had been when he had first met Indigowings, and also darker. Soon it would be autumn.
~~~
Whiteswirl left the cave to continue exploring earlier in the night than he usually did. He found an adult Dusk dragon a few miles south of the cave. Since it was still early in the night, the Dusk was flying around instead of sleeping. It was probably hunting.
Whiteswirl kept flying, unnoticed by the Dusk. Soon he found another dragon. It was a dark green Forest dragon that was sleeping at the edge of a lake.
Whiteswirl flew to the nearest tree large enough to hold him and perched in the branches. Even with only one foot on each branch, the branches under him swayed. He almost fell off several times. He watched the Forest for a few minutes from his perch.
Forest dragons were healers. They could cure any injury or disease of any living thing. The only thing they could not do was bring the dead back to life. They were vegetarians, and were quick to heal any animal or dragon in need. This severely weakened them, however, causing them to fall into a deep sleep from which they could not be awakened. The length of this sleep varied depending on what they had healed, and how serious the disease or injury had been. It could last up to two days and two nights if they healed a dragon or large animal of a life-threatening disease or injury.
Watching the Forest peacefully sleeping, Whiteswirl wondered if it had healed something, or if it were just sleeping because it was night.
Whiteswirl flew off, listening carefully for signs that the Forest was waking up. He heard nothing. Whiteswirl decided to head back to the cave.
Ordinarily, the night would have been more than half over by then, but autumn was approaching. Each night was a bit longer than the one before. Whiteswirl would love it when it was winter, and the nights were the longest.
Whiteswirl flew back to the cave, planning to go into the cavern he had found, and maybe to keep exploring the tunnels on the other side. Redclaws was in the cave when he arrived.
“Remember the cavern that I showed you? The one that had a little stream running through it?” Whiteswirl asked Redclaws. She nodded and waited for him to continue. “Well, in the recent earthquake, part of one of the walls was destroyed. There are a lot of tunnels on the other side. You should come and see them.”
“Why didn't you tell me there were other tunnels before?” Redclaws asked, sounding annoyed and a bit angry. “Any dragon could have entered the cave on another side and come through that cavern to where we are. Of course, we could probably kill any dragon that came through, but not if there are a lot of them.”
Whiteswirl shook his head. “The earthquake also caused some rocks to fall down and block the original entrance to the cavern. I moved some of them, but only enough for me to fit through. Very few adult dragons could fit through the hole I made, and we could kill any small dragons that came through.”
“Okay, good,” Redclaws said. “I will come to see how many new entrances to this cave there now are, but after that, we'll move the rocks back so that no adult dragons can fit through.”
Whiteswirl nodded and walked down the tunnel with Redclaws following. When they arrived at the rock pile, both dragons moved rocks away until Redclaws could fit through.
Redclaws then went through the tunnel in the cavern to find all the other exits to the cave. Whiteswirl just stayed in his cavern like he usually did.
The moon was slightly less full than it had been last night, but it still lit up the cavern significantly. Whiteswirl walked into the stream, noticing that it was colder than it had been the last time he had been in it. He stepped back out and just stood in the cavern, looking around at everything, including the moon that was shining through the hole in the ceiling.
About two hours later, Redclaws returned. The night would be over soon. Redclaws and Whiteswirl moved the rocks back into the pile until only Whiteswirl and other hatchlings could fit through. Then Redclaws went back to the c
avern that she usually slept in. A little while later, Whiteswirl decided to go join her. They both fell asleep as the sun started to rise.
A few nights after, Whiteswirl began to grow thirsty again. He was planning to hunt after exploring one of the last places he had not explored near their new home. As he was about to leave the cave, Redclaws walked past him to the cave's entrance.
“Come on,” Redclaws said, leading the way out. “We're going hunting.”
“I was planning to hunt later in the night, but okay,” Whiteswirl said, a bit surprised.
Redclaws started flying as soon as she was completely out of the cave. Whiteswirl followed her up into the sky, flapping his wings harder than usual to catch up to her. She flew to an area of the forest that Whiteswirl had already explored.
Whiteswirl began scenting the air carefully, trying to determine if there were any dragons beneath them. Redclaws dropped down closer to the trees a second before Whiteswirl noticed the scent of Wind dragons. He flew down to Redclaws, where the scent of the Winds intensified. There were two of them, both sleeping in the branches of a tree. A few seconds later, Whiteswirl could see them. Both light gray dragons were sleeping near each other in the same oak tree, draped over several different branches at once.
Redclaws dove down to the closest one and landed on top of it, knocking it from the branches. Whiteswirl dove to land on the remaining Wind. It fell off the branches that were supporting it and woke instantly.
The Wind reacted quickly, falling only a few yards before it managed to pull its wings up and start flying. It shot up, lightning-fast, above the tree it had been sleeping in. Growling softly, Whiteswirl pursued it.
Wind dragons were among the fastest of all dragon species, but so were Vampires. And Vampires were also stronger, so they could flap their wings harder and move farther with each wingflap than a Wind could. Whiteswirl began gaining on the Wind.
The Wind turned its head back to look at Whiteswirl, panic filling its eyes. It let out a screech that sounded remarkably like a barn owl's, and flew even faster.
Whiteswirl glanced around quickly, hoping that no one had heard the Wind's screech, but did not slow down as he did so. He flew as fast as he could to try to catch the Wind, and began to gain on it once more.
Dragon Land: Two Dragon Brothers # 1: The Beginning Page 10