Here there be dragon!
'It's not every day that we get to ride a dragon, so it's best if we enjoy it, right?' Leo thought, desperately clenching his thighs down around the monster's massive neck while keeping his arms tightly wrapped around Mei's waist, holding her steady as she perched herself up to catch the air with her face.
"YEE-AAAH!"
Her joyous scream was loud enough to rival the roaring of the speedy winds as their extraordinary mount reached the peak of its trajectory, leveled its flight… and then dove down towards the ground, like a hawk diving to snap at its clueless prey.
The reason why a predatory avian would fly in this pattern was most often to simply catch its prey off-guard, and attack it from an angle it could hardly be aware of. The reasons why the dragon… Or, to be more precise, Befolx rose up as far into the sky as he did, were entirely different.