Risenfall

Two

 I waited for Nuri and Drax on the day we chose to head off lying by my lake, but this time, I wasn't looking at my reflection. Instead, I was focused on the spot on my right arm where a patch of scales was missing, revealing the skin underneath, and where a scar had formed from a past injury... It happened a long time ago, and even though I tend to think about it a lot, it's not a subject I really like to talk about. I didn't have to wait for very long, luckily. I saw their shadow before I even looked up, when I did, they were just going in a circle waiting for me to join them. I grabbed the bag I had bought the other day and stuffed it with some basic things I thought I might need and flew up to meet them.

"Ready to go?" Nuri asked once I reached them, She had a bag slung around her neck and Drax had one strapped to his waist. He had an annoyingly large grin and I was annoyed at myself that his enthusiasm had made me excited as well. "I think so... With the three of us, we probably over-packed, but then again, can't hurt to be overly prepared, right?" I answered, placing the bag around my neck so I didn't have to carry it the entire time we traveled. "Right! Well, as long as one doesn't get weighed down by the extra equipment," Drax said, very quickly making me worry that we did have too much. "Can we get going before Jewel decides to spend an hour double, and then triple-checking her stuff?" Nuri said, smiling in my direction, knowing EXACTLY what I was thinking of doing.

As we flew over the village towards the border with the Kingdom of Drake's colony, I had a strange feeling deep down inside my mind... The only word I can think of, even now, to describe it is bliss. The feeling quickly went away when we neared the closest village inside the colony's borders as it was walled off with large wooden spikes, and armed guards absolutely everywhere, to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I never trusted the soldiers who guarded the colony's villages. "We should land, they won't like it if we just fly over the walls," Drax said, pointing towards the nearest gate that led inside.

"Why would they care? The walls weren't built to stop dragons anyways," Nuri said, she was always confused by the customs of 'modern' kingdoms. "So that they can monitor who comes and goes, to prevent smuggling and what-not," Drax replied as we landed just outside of the walls. "HALT!" A guard yelled as he flew down to meet us, it was pretty hard to tell what he looked like with the amount of armor he wore, only that his scales were pretty dark in color and his eye was a dull brown color. "What business does tribal Drakens and a Driken have here?" He demanded, standing in front of us.

Drax calmly came forward and stood on his hind legs so his wings were free to reach into his bag to pull out a little plastic card. He would later explain to us that it was his ID card, which he showed the guard. "My friends and I are just passing through, here is my information, sir," he said as the guard took the card from him to examine it. He kept looking back and forth between the card and Drax. I had started to worry he wouldn't let us through to the village. "Everything seems to be in order... You can pass," the guard said as he handed Drax his card.

I allowed my wings to relax because apparently, I get EXTRA nervous around dragons with armor and probably super sharp claws. "C'mon, we'll need to find a way to travel to the kingdom's mainland," Drax said as he took the lead. "That'll be easy," Nuri replied as she flexed her wings. "Can't be that far, right?" Drax just shook his head and sighed. "Our world is bigger than you think, the Kingdom of Drakes is several days away by flight, most dragons can't make the journey without a boat or places to rest. We definitely wouldn't make the flight on our own," I replied, in part to ensure that Nuri wouldn't try to go on a suicide flight. "Oh," She responded.

This village was far more organized than the one near my home, it helps when you get funding and access to contractors from a giant country, of course. Each building was made out of a mixture of stone walls, wooden pillars, and tile roofs, each of different shapes and sizes. The bigger buildings are closer to the center of town, probably meant for officials and the more permanent residents. Just surrounding those buildings were the shops, some built the same as the rest of the town, permanent locations to buy goods. Others are much like the market in my own town, built quickly, and can be easily torn down in order to move to another village.