The Silver Dragon (Unpublished, unedited version)

Chapter 5: Silver's Flight

The ocean stretched vastly into the horizon. There was no land in sight, no mountains, no trees not even a sight of clouds. It was almost as if the world had decided to stop creating and just placed water to fill in space. The only difference was the constant moving of the blue ocean as waves were created and destroyed over and over in a never-ending cycle that would continue until the end of days.

Silver watched as the world seemed to end before her, and hesitated. There was still land below her and the sight of the intimidating ocean before her made her hesitate. Never in her life had she seen such an empty expanse of water and it scared her. Metallic dragons were not the best swimmers because their metal shell weighed them down. To fly over an ocean without knowledge of where they were going was nearly a death sentence, yet as she glanced back behind her she knew that she didn't have much choice.

Two dark spots in the horizon were steadily closing in on her fleeing form, and the fact that her metallic shell outlined her so brilliantly in the sun didn't help. She was like a beacon to anyone hunting dragons, and the two planes that had been following her for the past few hours didn't look like they had a chance at stopping, so she continued onwards over the vast blue ocean.

It was the perfect day for flying, under dragon terms. There was slight breeze blowing filled with a strange salty sent that Silver could only think was the sea, and the sun was shining brilliantly. It wasn't to hot, nor to cold so Silver didn't have to worry about her metal shell heating up or freezing. She almost brought herself to smile as an updraft caught her and pulled her even higher into the sky. To any animal or human on the ground she would undoubtedly look like some shooting star.

She continued to fly and the land behind her disappeared into the horizon. Now she was well and truly out in the open. There was nothing else out there but water and she half wondered if she had been the first dragon to find the end of the world. Her dad had said it was round but the huge expanse before her led her to believe otherwise. There was no way there could be anything else out there. If there was then she would undoubtedly see it.

She glanced behind her to find out if she had finally lost the two annoying planes, but the two dark spots in the distance were still following her. She growled in annoyance. Her wings were beginning to tire and every flap was beginning to hurt. She was lucky her dad had forced her into training for long distance flights. At the time she hadn't thought of the significance behind it, but now she was glad for them. She could fly for nearly two days straight without rest at her best, and with her life on the line she knew she could fly even longer, but it didn't stop her wing joints from hurting.

For hours they flew until the sun was at its pinnacle in the sky. Now it was getting hot and Silver felt the metal on her back slowly heating up under the sun. She took a sigh and forced herself onwards, looking out for any sign of land. If she could find something that would help her, like a cave of some sought, then she may be able to hold off until nightfall where the heat wouldn't bother her so. But the hours passed and land didn't show itself.

Silver was getting more paranoid that she had found the end of the world by the minute. But when a long line on the horizon came into view she couldn't help but be overjoyed. Land at last! Pushing herself for more speed she began to get excited. On land she would be able to hide herself and wait for them to stop looking for her. After that she didn't know, but she would think of something.

As she came to the land she noticed the heat had increase exponentially and the metal on her back was beginning to become uncomfortable. She half growled at it, wishing the feeling to go away but it didn't. She was so caught up in her metal shell that she almost missed the movement of human soldiers down on the shoreline. It was only when the first wave of bullets passed her that she noticed.