Dragon Land: Two Dragon Brothers # 1: The Beginning
Page 13
“Today is Emeraldeyes's hatchday,” Indigowings told Waveripple. “She's an adult now.”
“Really?” Waveripple asked, surprised. He had not noticed that Emeraldeyes had grown as big as her parents, but when he thought about it, he realized that she had. “Of course I knew that she was older than us, but I didn't expect her to already be an adult, so soon.”
“Yeah, it's a little strange to me, too,” Indigowings said. “Come on. Let's go visit her and wish her a happy hatchday.”
“Okay,” Waveripple said.
Indigowings started flying to Emeraldeyes's tree, and Waveripple followed. He was still surprised that she was actually an adult now. When they arrived at the oak tree, Emeraldeyes flew down from the branches, like she always did when they came.
“Hi Waveripple and Indigowings,” she said.
“Hi Emeraldeyes,” Indigowings said. “Happy hatchday!”
“Happy hatchday!” Waveripple said.
“Thanks,” Emeraldeyes said. She looked surprised; she probably had not expected them to remember that it was her hatchday. “I'm going to go hunting with my parents now. Do you want to come?”
“Yeah,” Indigowings said.
“Sure,” Waveripple said.
Emeraldeyes flew back up to the oak tree to tell her parents that her friends were going to be coming with them. Then she flew back down, with her parents following.
After the hatchlings said hello to Stonescales and Leafflight, the five dragons went off to hunt. The three Dwarves flew in the front, while Indigowings and Waveripple flew behind them. Emeraldeyes kept flying back and forth between her parents and Indigowings and Waveripple, so that she could be talking to all of them.
They reached a small clearing, where the Dwarves in front slowed down. Emeraldeyes flew back to the front with her parents, and all three of them began scanning the ground. Waveripple wondered what they were looking for until he saw a rabbit hopping around in the grass. Emeraldeyes swooped down and grabbed it, killing it with one bite. Her parents started trying to catch the other rabbits in the field, but most of them had already been scared away when Emeraldeyes grabbed the first one.
Waveripple landed and walked to the edge of the forest. He held still, looking for something to hunt. Indigowings flew on to join the Dwarves, making a huge shadow over the field.
Waveripple spotted a small rabbit and started chasing after it. It hopped away faster than he could run, so he started looking for something else. Most of the animals had run away by now, but he saw a large gopher just a few feet ahead of him. He slowly crept up to the gopher and crouched down, getting ready to jump on it. He pounced and landed right on top of it, but the gopher just disappeared, as if his feet had gone through it. Waveripple looked around, confused, but then he noticed that he was standing over a hole. The gopher must have ducked into it.
Waveripple saw that each of the Dwarves had managed to catch something, along with Indigowings. Indigowings and Emeraldeyes were holding rabbits, and Emeraldeyes's parents had each caught a squirrel. He was the only one who had not caught anything yet.
Looking around again, Waveripple saw a robin flying down to land in the field. He crept towards it, and the robin hopped a few steps farther away. Waveripple moved closer. When the robin was distracted trying to get a worm, Waveripple pounced on it. The bird struggled and tried to fly away, but Waveripple bit into it quickly, killing it.
Indigowings flew down and landed next to Waveripple. “Nice catch,” he said.
“Thanks,” Waveripple replied.
Emeraldeyes also flew down after a few minutes. “I think we're going to stop hunting now, unless one of you wants to continue.” she said.
“It doesn't matter to me,” Waveripple said.
“Or to me,” Indigowings said. “I'm going to hunt more later, in the night.”
Stonescales and Leafflight landed next to Emeraldeyes, Indigowings, and Waveripple. The five of them ate the animals they had caught. After they had finished, they went back to the Dwarves' tree and spent the rest of the evening talking to each other. Waveripple mostly talked to his friends, but he also talked to Emeraldeyes's parents some.
When it started to get late, Waveripple said goodbye to the others and headed back to the lake. There was still some daylight left when he arrived, so he talked to his parents until it got dark. Then the three Amphibians fell asleep by the pond.
Waveripple, Indigowings, and Emeraldeyes spent the next few weeks differently than they had before. Instead of playing games like hide and seek, they mostly just talked to each other. Waveripple and Indigowings would be adult dragons soon, and Emeraldeyes already was, and they had slowly stopped trying to think up new games to play. They still enjoyed exploring the forest, of course, and often had hunting contests.
~~~
The nights became shorter again as winter turned into spring, and Whiteswirl was forced to spend less time outside each night. A few weeks into spring, he had mastered fire-breathing, and was now able to burn the bodies of the dragons he killed. So he did have proportionately more time to spend outside at night. He still liked being in the cavern he had found, however, and spent most of his time there.
Redclaws seemed very surprised that any Vampire would want to spend time in the same small cavern every day, instead of being outside the cave. She tried to get him interested in other things instead, like learning how to fight better, but Whiteswirl usually spent a lot of time in the cavern anyway. It was the best place in the whole world, as far as he was concerned. Why would he want to be somewhere else, unless he needed to be?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: HATCHDAYS
One day in mid-spring, Waveripple went to Indigowings's cave as usual. Along the way, he met Emeraldeyes, who told him that it was Indigowings's hatchday. Waveripple was a bit surprised at this, because his own hatchday was in just two more days.
“Happy hatchday!” Waveripple said to Indigowings when they arrived at his cave.
“Happy hatchday!” Emeraldeyes said at almost the same time.
“Thanks,” Indigowings said. “I can't believe I'm actually an adult dragon now.”
“Yeah, you don't act like one,” Emeraldeyes joked.
“Acting like a hatchling is better than acting like one of the oldest, crankiest dragons ever,” Indigowings retorted.
“What do you want to do?” Waveripple asked, interrupting their joke-fight.
“Let's have a hunting contest,” Indigowings said. “The first one to catch five edible animals of any kind wins.”
“Okay,” Emeraldeyes said.
“Yeah,” Waveripple said.
“Then get ready, set, and go!” Indigowings said, darting out of the cave. Emeraldeyes flew out after him, with Waveripple following closely behind.
After a few yards, the dragons spread out from each other. Indigowings flew up high to look for deer, but Emeraldeyes stayed low, probably searching for rodents. Waveripple flew to the nearest pond to catch fish and turtles.
The water was not very cold, but any dragon who was not a water-type dragon would have thought it was. Waveripple was able to catch three frogs and a turtle within a few minutes, but then he did not see anything else, so he left the pond.
Waveripple looked around for rodents that might be hiding in the grass. He had just spotted a meadow vole when Indigowings shouted, “I got five!” Instead of catching the vole, Waveripple hurried back to where Indigowings and Emeraldeyes were waiting.
Emeraldeyes only had three rodents. Waveripple wondered if she had missed a few of them on purpose, trying to let Indigowings win since it was his hatchday. Waveripple probably would have done that, too, if he had thought of it.Indigowings had a young deer, three rabbits, and a songbird. The other two dragons congratulated him on his catches. Then they all started eating what they had caught.
After finishing their prey, the three dragons spent the rest of the afternoon talking to each other. When it started getting dark, Waveripple went back to the lake.
They were both waiting for him at Indigowings's cave when he arrived.
“Happy hatchday!” Indigowings and Emeraldeyes said at the same time.
“Thanks,” Waveripple said.
“What do you want to do today?” Emeraldeyes asked him.
“Let's go hunting–like we did on your two hatchdays,” Waveripple said.
“Okay,” Indigowings said. “Where do you want to hunt?”
“We could hunt in the nearest lake that is not my home,” Waveripple replied.
“Okay, let's go to it,” Emeraldeyes said.
The three dragons flew over the forest until they came to a lake that Waveripple had found while he was exploring the forest. It was about twice as large as the lake he lived by.
Waveripple walked into the water, with Emeraldeyes and Indigowings following. They spread out to look for fish in different parts of the lake. Waveripple was soon able to catch three medium-sized silver fish, but Indigowings was only able to catch two small fish, and Emeraldeyes only had one medium-sized fish. They kept hunting for a while longer, until they had enough fish for the three of them to eat. Then they came back out of the lake and ate them.
Just as they had on the other two hatchdays, the three dragons just talked to each other for the rest of the evening. Then Waveripple went back to the lake.
Nothing was really very different now that the hatchlings were all adult dragons. They still always visited each other, and talked about normal things. They also had prey-catching contests.
But one day in late spring, Indigowings thought up a new thing that they could do. “Now that we're adult dragons,” he said, “we should be able to breathe fire. So let's try it.”
“Yeah,” Emeraldeyes said.
“Yeah! I never tried that before,” Waveripple said excitedly.
They walked to the nearest pond to try to breathe fire there. They had chosen that spot in case their fire started getting out of control. They did not want to start a forest fire, after all.
Indigowings tried it first. He breathed a large cloud of smoke on his first try. When he tried again, he was able to breathe some fire. “Wow,” he said, staring at the fire. Then he quickly kicked dirt over it to put it out.
Emeraldeyes tried next. She was able to breathe a small amount of fire on her first try, and a medium amount on her second. Both times, she breathed her fire into the lake, so that it was automatically put out.
Then it was Waveripple's turn. He was excited about breathing fire, but also a little nervous. He was younger than Indigowings and Emeraldeyes, so what if he was not able to? Also, he was a water-type dragon. He did not know if they were able to breathe fire. He had never seen either of his parents doing it. He assumed that he would be able to breathe fire as long as he was in his land form, but he probably would not be able to do it in his water form.
Waveripple tried it. He was able to breathe a small puff of smoke, so he tried again, encouraged. After a few tries, he was able to breathe as much fire as Emeraldeyes could. She probably would have been able to breathe more than he could, if she were not a much smaller dragon.
Then they thought of all different kinds of things to do with their fire-breathing ability. They had hunting contests where breathing fire at their prey was the only allowed way to catch it. It was a challenge not to just burn their food into ashes.
They also had little contests to see who could send their fire the farthest, sustain it the longest, or hit something with the most precision. Indigowings was the best at breathing fire the farthest, Emeraldeyes was the best at making her fire hit exactly what she wanted it to, and Waveripple was the best at sustaining a small flame for the longest time.
When Waveripple arrived back at the lake the first night after they had breathed fire, he told his parents about it, and showed them. They seemed a bit surprised.
“I didn't even know that Amphibians could breathe fire,” Flowerwater said. “I never tried it.”
“I never really thought of it either,” Splashsail said. “Dragons that live in the water usually have no use for fire.”
“It's pretty cool for using on land, though,” Waveripple said. “Some dragons use it to hunt land animals, or birds.”
Splashsail nodded. “I can see how that would be helpful to them,” he said.
It was already getting dark, so the Amphibians soon fell asleep.
~~~
Whiteswirl kept going into his cavern every night to spend most of his time there. If he went there first, he wanted to just stay there for the rest of the night, so he always went out to spend some time in the forest first. Now that he was almost a year old, he was very good at fire-breathing, and could easily burn the bodies of the dragons he hunted, on the rare days when he was thirsty enough to hunt. He liked the convenience of being able to bury just the ashes instead of the whole dragon.
Whiteswirl and Redclaws kept having to go farther and farther from their cave to hunt. If they hunted in one area for too long, the dragons would notice that a lot of them were going missing. Then they might all decide to leave, and one of the Vampires' hunting areas would be empty. Or they might all gather together at night, so that they could wake each other up if anything came. That would be just as bad as if they had left, if not worse, because, during the day, those dragons would be searching for them, and would all attack if they found them.
The Vampires had to hunt in different areas of the forest each night, and never hunt two dragons that were within a mile of each other. Because they needed a very wide hunting range, no other Vampire dragons would be allowed to come within a few square miles of them. None had come yet, but if they did, Redclaws and Whiteswirl would chase them out.
Eventually, the day arrived that Whiteswirl calculated would be his hatchday. He did not know exactly when it was, and did not ask Redclaws. He doubted that she even cared enough to remember it. He was proven right when spring started ending. He remembered vaguely that he had hatched in spring, but spring was already ending, and Redclaws had never told him which of the days was his hatchday. He did not really care, so he did not mind that she did not, either. He just wanted to be in his cavern, anyway. He did not want anything to change for any reason, including something as ridiculous as celebrating a hatchday. Luckily, no Vampire dragon really cared about things like that.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: FOREST FIRE
Soon it was summer again. Waveripple, Indigowings, and Emeraldeyes kept having their fire-breathing contests and hunting contests. They had fire-breathing contests much more often than hunting contests, because breathing fire was still very new and exciting to them. Plus, they could easily combine hunting contests and fire-breathing contests.
There had not been any more missing dragons for a long time, so Waveripple and the others had almost forgotten about that, and rarely thought of it.
On a cloudy day, they decided to have a hunting contest, in which they had to kill their prey by breathing fire at it. They had done that a few times before, but none of them were very good at it. They usually just had normal hunting contests instead. But this day they decided to do it again, because it was more challenging and interesting than normal hunting contests. They decided that whoever got three prey-animals first without burning them too much to eat would be the winner.
Indigowings and Emeraldeyes flew into the air immediately, and then spread apart. Waveripple flew to a nearby field and started searching for rodents. The grass was green, tall, and healthy. It was not likely to catch on fire if he missed the animal he was trying to breathe fire at.
Waveripple soon found a meadow vole, and breathed fire in its direction. The vole scurried away as quickly as it could, but the fire would have miss
ed anyway. Waveripple had not aimed very well. After a little while, he found a mouse. He crept towards it slowly, and then breathed fire at it when he was close enough. This time, he was able to hit it with his fire, killing it. He kept looking around for other animals, but he did not see any more nearby, so he walked to the edge of the field to continue searching.
Waveripple saw a squirrel at the edge of the meadow. He stalked closer to it, and then breathed fire. The squirrel turned and ran into the forest, and Waveripple chased after it. The squirrel ran up a tree before he could breathe fire at it again. Catching prey this way was definitely harder than just jumping on it and biting it.
After about fifteen minutes, Waveripple was able to catch a meadow vole. By then, all the animals in the meadow were hiding, so he walked into the forest to look for more. Most of the trees around here were pine trees, and their needles were all over the ground, blocking other plants from growing there.
Waveripple soon spotted another squirrel running around in the forest. He crept up on it and breathed fire, hitting the squirrel. Not all of the fire hit the squirrel, however, so the squirrel did not die as soon as the fire hit it. Only some of the fur on its tail was burned. The squirrel ran away up a tree, but Waveripple was not paying attention to it.
Most of the fire had not hit the squirrel, but it did not just disappear when it missed. It had hit the pine needles on the ground, setting them on fire. Waveripple hurried over to the small fire and tried to put it out by kicking dirt over it. He forgot that the pine needles were all over the ground, so he just fueled the fire accidentally.
“Indigowings! Emeraldeyes!” Waveripple called. “Somebody help!” He hoped that a nearby dragon would hear him and come to help him put out the fire. There was no reply, from his friends or anyone else.
Waveripple cleared the pine needles from a patch of ground and started loosening up the dirt. He kicked all the soil that he could over the fire, but it was spreading too quickly. He managed to put out part of it just as it spread in another direction, now twice its original size.