DracoStryx Artemis, a comming of age story

Here to turn it around

It was daytime, Helios was starting to reach his highest point but it was not calm and quiet. The DracoStryx was restless and couldn't grasp her sleep, she couldn't enter Morpheus' world of dreamscapes and it annoyed her deeply.

She kept shuffling around in her nest made of feathers, straw and furs. It was soft but nowhere near as nice as her previous bed. Helios' rays also creeped more easily into her closed eyes than before in this new nest. She tucked her head underneath one of her silvery wings, it was darker here and that was nice. Glad she solved the immediate problem, her more relaxed mind slowly started to slip into her dreamscape..

*screech!* Suddenly her body jolted awake again from the noise. She rose her head with a very displeased expression at what was causing this irritating sound and found its source just slipping around a corner of one of the huts. Amazon children playfully chased after one another, right alongside Scyleias hut. Then another pair of young Amazons appeared again, giggling and chatting so Artemis screeched in primal annoyance at them. It startled the pair, not only due to the noise but also at the sight of the big white and silver bulk laying outside the hut of her rider. The Tyto had grown in size, towering over Scyleia when standing upright. They decided not to test the Stryx so they backed off and gave the dragoness her space.

"Noisy hatchlings.." Artemis thought annoyed. She shuffled her body once again to try and find a more comfortable position. It was the end of the afternoon by now, moving towards dusk. Artemis wanted to sleep some more since she did not sleep well at all this day. However, once again, a noise woke her. Horses hooves and nickering this time and that was the last straw! The Tyto jumped up and took on a threatening stance, feathers puffed up and screeching out of pure irritation.

The horse reared up and whinnied in panic.

'Ho! Easy boy, easy' The Amazon calmed her gelding while she looked confused at the dragoness' riled up reaction. Neither she or her gelding did anything wrong, they were just walking here.

'What's wrong with you, Artemis?' Shelala gasped as she was still calming her horse.

Artemis did not pay attention to the pair and stormed off by foot, leaving the still confused and startled horse. The blondes gray Andalusian calmed down more with the threat being farther away and he fell back into his usual breathing. His lush gray mane and tail slowly waving into the breeze again. Shelala shrugged her shoulders and gently spurred her horse to continue on their way.

Not too long after, she came upon Scyleia who just re-entered the village after getting some new supplies from a merchant.

'Hey Shelala! How are you?' the Amazon greeted her friend. She was still seated on top of Tsianina.

'Hey Scyleia' the blonde answered with a smile 'I'm good. Just taking a stroll with Silverdust here. Nothing special' she added. 'However, I came across Artemis when I strolled along your hut and she seemed irritated or startled or something. Restless overall' she finished, explaining what happened just now.

'She did? What happened?' the brunette Amazon curiously asked.

'Well, I was just strolling around and she took on a pretty riled up and defensive stance and even screeched at us. Poor Silver panicked at the display' the blonde further explained. She then saw the concerned face of her friend glancing over her and her horse. 'We're fine, no accidents happened' Shelala reassured her friend.

'I better go check on her then..' Scyleia decided as she spurred on Tsianina.

'Leia wait! She's not at the nest. She took off running afterwards. I think she went to the forest' Shelala told the brunette.