Winglet

1 - The Human and the Dragon

On Mineral Lane, there was a small cottage, but it was just a dot from the Outside World. This small cottage contained the two strange species of the world: a human and a dragon.

The dragon's name was Winglet. He was very little for a dragon, and very gentle, too. If you saw him, you'd probably think he was some kind of animal, like an odd bird or a big, round snake.

The human's name was Crow Father.
He took care of Winglet after encountering him one day while they both were traveling through the forest, both of them just by themselves.

They met because of a similarity between the two, the reason why they both looked after each other. Both were outcasts from their homelands. Both had done things that they'd rather not look back onto, but in that small cottage, they didn't judge each other.

Years had gone by that the two had cared for each other and had even begun to treat each other like family. They both had respect and understanding of the other and knew what life had been like for them. This caused a very special bond between them.

One day, the human decided to go outside. Of course, he went outside every day, but when he went outside this particular morning, he went farther than just the cottage's general area. He walked to the Outside World, the most vicious place a person could traverse.

He'd warned his dragon friend not to go outside with him, and that he'd be back by nightfall. He promised. Winglet had an un-understandable urge, though, to go with the human, to see what the world was like beyond the hay fields and birch wood of the cottage. He wanted to see the Outside World, too.
After a couple minutes had gone by after the human had left, Winglet went on the balcony rim on the second floor and tried to jump off and fly. As hard as he tried, he only slowly made his descent down as he rapidly flapped his wings trying to lift off. He touched the ground, and then thought to himself, "At least I tried, I guess.".

He stood up tall, then started to go in the direction of the human's scent, deep into the forest. While sniffing for their scent, Winglet also smelled other new things. Wet dirt, beautiful aromas of flowers, trees, and more. He walked slowly, admiring his surroundings in this new world until he felt something big and wet fall on his head.

A drop of water.

He looked up and saw as the skies grew dark and more water fell from the sky. Winglet got scared as the water kept falling, hitting him repeatedly. He started to run in some random direction looking for somewhere he could hide away from the rain. Except Winglet, never being outside, didn't understand why there was water even coming out of the sky. He was very confused, until he saw a big flash of light in the distance, followed by a loud noise.

That's when he remembered what Father Crow had taught him. This was a thunderstorm. He remembered when loud strikes of lighting would be outside the house and Crow Father would have to calm him down, stating that it was only loud light and could never hit them in the cottage.

Oh, how much Winglet wished he was back in there at this moment.

Winglet then heard another shot of lighting in the distance, though now knowing what it was, he wasn't as scared anymore. He sat under a giant tree that blocked the water out from hitting him any longer and simply sat there, waiting for when the rain would be over.

Such weird skies. Just minutes ago it seemed so happy until it started to go into tears. He wondered if him leaving the cottage was what made the skies cry so much sadness. He quietly apologized to the skies and promised he'd make it all better by going back to his small cottage, but not before admiring the outside forest a little more.

Only a bit more.

He did nothing more but trample through the forest, now confidently, stomping his paws as he held his chin high and proud.