Dragon Rider (#Wattys2016)

Bonds and Leaders

The picture is of the dragon from Storm's mind land

Recap:

I close my own eyes and try to imagine myself elsewhere. Away from the other dragons, back to when I could fly under the night sky... My breathing and heart rate slowed down as I fell asleep.

** Dream/Memory **

Landing I ran through the small gaps between the trees. I can show Thea I can fly! I thought with a smile.

** End Dream/Memory **

End Recap

Storm's POV

** Storm's Mind **

In the back of my mind something told me that everything wasn't quite right. I quickly shook the feeling off, everything was perfectly alright! In fact, everything was better than alright! I was back with Thea and we were flying for the first time in ages.

Every flap of my wings brought Thea and I higher in the air, I did a small swoop causing Thea to yell in excite. A sudden gust of wind under my right wing sent me off balance and into a dangerous tilt. With my wings at odd angles I struggled to keep myself in the air and under control. Soon I was falling through the air and unable to control the fall. A scream echoed in my mind and ears as Thea slipped from her position on my back. I roared in response and struggled to pull my wings closer to my body to gain speed and catch my rider.

The black abyss below swallowed Thea, the darkness seemed to stay out of my reach and too far in front of me so I could see out of it. The black seemed to fold in on itself as I stopped my endless dive and circled above. The black had become smaller and smaller, so now instead of black underneath me making up the ground the blue sky faded to white.

The black solid-looking object starting turning misty and separated into smaller sections of mist. I swallowed nervously and gained some more height, something wasn't write. But at the same time that mist had my rider so I had to do something!

I went to flap my wings only to realise I couldn't, something was holding me in place. I swung my head around to look around me but saw nothing, I appeared to be stuck in the air. Below me a roar caught my attention, looking down I saw that the black mist had turned into a misty creature. I could make out red eyes and snarling jaws lined with large, sharp black teeth.

The beast roared at me again, I roared back at it. I was angry, too angry to realise that something wasn't alright, like my mind had told me earlier. Whatever had been holding me still let me go and I was falling, I desperately tried to twist away and fly out of reach of the monster. But the monster grew in size as I got closer and closer, my wings were failing me and wouldn't move.

I closed my eyes tight and held my breath as the beast swallowed me. A few moments later I opened my eyes only to find myself encased with darkness. I couldn't see a single thing. I looked around me, the darkness covered everywhere. I took a step forward and found I could move with relative ease, I checked my wings. My wings, from what I could feel, were moving perfectly fine now and allowed me fly as well. I glided in the darkness, I was nervous and afraid but I had figured that I was asleep... or back in my mind land.

I felt my body growing warmer, and exiting the frozen state it had been in earlier, with every movement of my wings. I sighed wistfully, peace was a long way off. A spark of electricity ran through me as I sent out a mental probe, seeing if anything was nearby.

The only feeling I got was one of emptiness and vastness. I flared my wings and dropped to the ground, well I didn't seem to lose or gain height and instead just started walking. I stopped as a light square grew in front of me, the square grew larger and into a rectangle, this time showing a forest.