1 The Journey Starts

I woke up to the sounds of birds outside the cave that I and my companion used as a shelter last night. Regaining my senses in the morning I felt cold and alone, checking behind me, I found the reason why, my companion is gone, off to somewhere, where? I don't know. As I stand up I quickly cleaned up our mess that littered the ground.

"Talk about a long night"

I said to myself as I started picking up cups and pans and started the fire. Wanting to eat and stuff my stomach before we go on our way. While I was doing this my mind started wondering about the whereabouts of my companion.

"I wonder where he is," I mumbled.

It is unusual for him to be up early in the morning since he usually sleeps longer than I do and knowing him, he never likes to wake up, especially this early; the one time that I tried to wake him up early in the morning, he almost burned me to crisps!

'So where did he fly off to?' I asked myself.

' No matter as long as he's safe I guess' I thought and as long as he is safe I am fine with him going out early in the morning and Divines know that he needs to!

As I was pondering on my companion's whereabouts I started cooking the leftover meat we had yesterday. The smell of the cooked meat and my ever-growing hunger finally put an end to my thoughts, and I focused on cooking to satiate my ailing stomach.

By the time I finished eating, and clearing the space that we use, it was already late morning. As I was preparing our items and belongings, I heard the flapping of wings outside.

'Finally' I said to myself!

Recognizing those wings beats, I went out of our cave and met my companion outside.

"So where have you been?" I asked him,

Curious about where he was the entire time.

"I was just traveling and scouting the area, nothing much important really." He answered, looking at me with his bright blue eyes.

"I mean, I usually find you sleeping your ass off while I make us some breakfast! Speaking of which, have you had breakfast yet?" I asked.

He was already moving towards me by the time I finished speaking and answered that, 'yes he has not yet eaten' and that, 'no he does not wish to hunt for a meal while there were leftovers from the food that I cooked'.

Putting his snout in my bag, I quickly retrieve the food that I packed and gave it to him.

"It's the leftover of the deer we had yesterday, so I hope you don't get mad at me for not cooking something new," I said to him while patting his head.

"I mean, you never left a note saying what you want for breakfast!" I joked.

I am sure that if his mouth wasn't full, he would have some sassy remarks on my way. Thankfully, all he pretty much can do right now is to roll his eyes in my direction.

While he was busy gorging himself with the food that I made, I check him out for some bad scales or something else, since dragons usually loose scales daily and they sometimes get too irritated with a loose, dead scale, hanging about so I made it my morning routine to check my dragon for any dead scales that may irritate him through the day. While I was doing this, I noticed that his scales have grown shinier than usual, the red colors of his scales were reflecting sunlight, making him almost glow in a reddish-orange tone.

"Huh, hey bud, you're glowy than usual, something wrong? Should I get seriously terrified that my dragon will just combust into flames in a moment?" I jokingly asked him.

With a huff, my dragon finally finished his food and answered my question.

"My scales are just shinier because I'm growing up. It usually happens to adolescent dragons when they grow up into their adulthood. Our scales get shinier the older we get and the colors get more profound." He answered in a matter-of-fact voice.

Thinking about what he said, my mind remembered an encounter we had with an adult dragon one time. I wasn't paying attention to the dragon's scales back then, since we were busy telling him that we mean him no harm. Now that I think about it, the dragon's scales were far shinier than my dragon's and his brown and orange color was far more profound.

"Huh, so I'm guessing you're going to continue to become a literal glow light in the day?" I asked.

Giggling at my joke, my dragon took a swipe at my head with his tail hitting me head-on and causing me to fall.

Laughing at my expense my dragon took off, leaving me behind, amused by his reaction, I quickly stood up and started chasing him.

"Hey, wait for me, you doofus, you know I can't fly!" I shouted, running after him while chuckling all the way.

"Then you should have thought before saying that I look like a damn fairy then!" he shouted from above, his voice covered in mirth.

We continued our journey after we finally settled down from our pleasant banter and after my dragon finally allowed me to climb upon him. Flying above the skies in the sun always makes me feel alive, and I could never get bored with it! And along with my dragon, the sky was our domain! Looking down below I saw the trees of the forest quickly disappearing, replaced by the lush green covers of the meadows and specs of life, from deer to rabbits and sometimes humans and other thinking beings.

Passing by rivers and mountains we continued our flight until we reach our destination, the Kingdom of Arcadium, where the next part of our journey and our lives are about to begin!

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