Dragon Rider (#Wattys2016)

Lose or Win

Thea's POV

Recap:

Fine, you did well, Igraine finally admitted as Storm teased her. Storm laughed at her and she flew elsewhere.

What do you want to do? Storm asked me, I grinned and Storm started flying closer to shore as I told him what I wanted to do. When Storm landed, I was quick to dismount and run into the ocean, other riders soon joining me.

End Recap

When Storm returned from flying with Erin, who'd said he was sorry for stealing my dragon but was busy escaping from Charlie. I'd accepted the apology with a smile, Erin was one of the riders I trusted the most. He just seemed so trustworthy. Storm came up to me and flopped on the sand nearby, seemingly tired.

Didn't you say you had another idea? I asked my dragon who seemed confused for a moment before grinning.

I'd forgotten about that! Storm replied, pushing himself into a standing position and letting out a loud roar. My ears pounded from the roar and I shook my head to get rid of the echoing roar in my head.

A bit of warning next time might be good, I told Storm who lowered his face to look at me.

Sorry, Storm said before looking at the sky where we could both see dragons approaching at a quick pace. Here they come.

What's the plan? I asked Storm who quickly explained it all to me. Pretty easy then, I replied, and a good idea as well. I take it I need to explain?

Storm shook his head, the headache's gone now and I'm feeling a lot better.

That doesn't mean you are better, I replied warningly.

Storm glanced at me and smiled softly, I'll be fine Thea. Besides, there's only days until the next attack.

I nodded my head, very well. Go ahead and explain, I said.

I'm sure you've all enjoyed playing in the ocean so far, but I mean it does get boring after a while. So I thought, why shouldn't we play a game. It's a game I found in Thea's memories it's called Capture the Flag, does anyone know it? Storm said. Most of the riders nodded, it was a quite a widespread game after all. I can recall playing it when I was younger back home in the village. I'll assume that there are different variations and I'll set some rules as well to make it clear what exactly you have to do.

The aim of the game is to capture the flag, as suggested by the name of the game. That being said, the flag is little more a torn piece of fabric. There's a red one and a white one, the flags cannot be placed in any form of liquid, and they shouldn't be able to move. You can't use magic to fight and there shouldn't be any major injuries that others on your team, or yourself, can't heal. You can knock someone out, which means that they are then out of the game for the moment and can be a free player – doing whatever they wish to cause havoc. Now as dragons can't be knocked unconscious, if you can manage to get three shots of paint in the same colour – by touch – the dragon will be out. Anything else that should be covered?

"Have you figured out boundaries?" Erin asked, a grin crossing his face.

Right, no crossing the river at all, if you do you'll end up being closer to the outside of the forest. However, from our current position if we stay within the river boundaries we won't end up near the edge of the forest. Storm said, now just to make this harder I thought up an idea. No dragon and rider will be on the same team. You'll have to communicate through Thea or myself. Storm said, now the teams are as follows: Thea, Ala, Spiritus, Allie, Svala, Eylna, Rachel, Alex, Jayson, Ademar, Charlie, and Toby for the riders. This means that the dragons are Emy, Zenith, Lex, Naloth, Durath, Skul, Camroth, Lore, Una, Kyra, Reid, and Lupe.