On the Wings of Dragons- Part/Chapter 1

[r7]

 

A/n: Dragon AU! Yay!! Heavily inspired by/ in the same universe as/ prompted by jaycana ‘s dragon picture from kappa77 ‘s prompt! Credit where credit is due!

Zisteau was confused. He couldn't find his dragon anywhere. He’d looked in the stables, the lava pits (their favorite hangout, him and his dragon), the hunting grounds…. Everywhere. He’d even asked Nebtho (the name given to a dragon-rider pair; an equal combination for their names, symbolizing the symbiotic relationship between them) to search the skies for him; but they, the most experienced trackers in the group, couldn't find him.

When he was about to bring the news of his lost dragon to the rest of the group at the daily meeting, he found another distraught rider there. Blame was completely panicked, and seeing him, Zisteau was honestly proud of how calmly and logically he was taking his news. The thing was, Blame’s dragon: Aurey, as she was fondly called by the group of riders, was missing too.

“Great. Just great.” Pause, the unofficial leader of the riders, announced. “Two. I repeat two dragons gone missing in one day…. This can not be good.” He paused for a moment then turned to Blame. “Wait… did you see Aurey at all yesterday?” When Blame shook his head in response, he repeated the question to Zisteau, only to get the same disparaging answer. “Great… not only that, but they’ve been gone for two day as well. Perfect.”

No one was quite sure why Pause led the riders, but it was probably due to the fact his dragon, Guude, was the obvious leader of the dragons. Guude was an average dragon, not the best at anything, but fairly good at everything. Dragons normally went and did their own thing, usually only listening to their riders. Somehow, Guude managed to become the leader (of sorts) of the community of such a free-willed species. How; only the dragons knew, and they weren't saying.

“Don't worry.” Etho said while scratching Nebris behind the spines on the back of his head. “We’ll find them.”

Zisteau wasn't so sure. In fact, he was starting to get worried. Knowing Vechs, he would probably get himself into a whole bunch of trouble. You see, Vechs was the most violent and sporadic dragon in the wing; always picking fights, and significantly more often than not, winning them.

With Vechs’ aggressive temperament, his great fire-breathing ability was likely to get him in more trouble than help. Vechs was by far the best fire-breather in the wing, as many cows, sheep, deer (and other prey) and quite a few unfortunate soldiers will attest to. He could breathe the longest and the farthest, and his bright red flame was the deadliest in the group. He was a decent, but by no means extraordinary flyer, but was the second best T&T (talons and teeth) fighter in the wing. This compilation of traits made him one of the strongest dragons, excelling in two (and actually being half-decent in the third) of the three important traits in a dragon: Flight, Fight, and Flame.

Due to all of Vechs’ violent traits, the group of soldiers that had captured him when he went on a violent rampage were about to kill him (rather than giving him to the riders) when Zisteau came along. For some reason, Zisteau was the only person Vechs let close enough to touch him without either burning them to a crisp or maiming them horribly with his claws. Zisteau had no idea why, and after they were bonded Vechs never told him, so he was still in the dark about that.

Zisteau’s thoughts were interrupted by a low, rumbling growl. Nebris was purring. Yeah, it had surprised Zisteau too when he first found out. Dragons purred, much like cats did. Zisteau looked over to the pair, and instantly felt heartsick, missing Vechs. Etho and Nebris were the oldest members of the band. It wasn't very surprising, given how powerful the two were; but what was slightly surprising was that Etho had only one dragon, and Nebris had only one rider: each other.  

Normally, riders went through a few dragons, especially during the decades that Nebtho had been together. Dragons left as they found mates, had an urge to explore, wanted to meet some non-paired dragons, or in very rare cases (normally with a bad pairing) the dragon got mad and stormed off. There were other things that ended the bond as well, leaving riderless dragons or dragonless riders, but as a deep sadness welled in Zisteau, he decided not to think about them. However, dragons normally said goodbye to their riders before leaving; or, well, except in the cases that Zisteau didn’t want to think about, but even then, the riders normally knew, so the fact that two dragons had disappeared completely was still very worrying.

Zisteau sat next to Blame on the only bench, due to the fact that riders normally stood next to, or sat on, their dragons during the meetings. Slowly the others left, leaving him alone with Blame and Nebtho, but Nebtho were having a telepathic conversation, making them effectively unreachable.

“Oh, nonononono.” Blame was muttering. “This can't be happening, this can't be happening….” Blame was a complete mess. He was the newest rider (though not the newest addition to the group), only having one dragon so far, Aurey. Zisteau was also on his first dragon (which was a good thing), but he had been with the clan for significantly longer, about a decade and a half more. Aurey was also the youngest of the dragons, which couldn't have helped Blame’s condition.

Aurey a bit of an oddity in the wing of dragons they had in their care, for a few reasons. Firstly, she was the only dragon who didn't really fight that well. She was definitely the best flyer in the group, but in terms of talons and teeth, all of the other dragons trumped her. Unfortunately, her fire couldn't help her either, it being her second oddity.

Her fire was beautiful, but not all that useful in a fight. She couldn't blow fire for very long, nor very far. It didn't even burn all that hot, barely above the coldest (relatively speaking) recorded dragon flame. What made it special, however, was its color. Rather than being a reddish-orange like most dragonfire, all colors danced within it, making the most beautiful thing many in the clan had ever seen.

Despite the situation, Zisteau laughed when he remembered the way Vechs had acted when Aurey first introduced herself to the other dragons. Vechs had come home completely smitten, babbling on and on about the new dragoness with the rainbow fire.  

“Why in the world would you be laughing at a time like this?” Blame’s distraught voice rang out, snapping Zisteau back to the present. “Both of our dragons are gone, and you’re laughing!”

“Oh, sorry.” Zisteau replied. “I was just thinking about when they first met,” Zisteau twirled his hand in a circle while pointing at the sky, indicating that he was talking about the dragons. “When Vechs got home he wouldn’t stop rambling about her….”

“Wait, really?” Blame asked. “Thats funny, when Aurey came home she babbling about this red and black dragon she had met….” This reminded them of the third reason Aurey was different: she was the only female (dragon or not) in the clan. Suddenly both riders realized something…. the most common reason dragons left. They looked at each other, coming to the same conclusion at the same time.

“Oh, Flame.” They said simultaneously, using an expression they had picked up from the dragons. The pair jumped off the bench and dashed to their rooms, grabbing their travel gear.

A/n: Yeah, by no means my best work. This is probably due to the fact that it is out of my writing comfort zone,  out of my area of expertise, out of the people I normally watch, heck, it’s even out of the POV (first/third person) that I normally use! Also, due to this being an AU, I had a lot of backstory/exposition to dump, so the story is totally filled with the stuff. On the bright side, this leaves me open to turn this {two parter/one-shot} into a fully fledged story if the community approves! Big thanks to my beta Wild (can I call you that?) for helping get over my mixed feelings with this and help me improve the story.

Dear Salad, I am asking for your assistance. Currently, one of the things that is holding back the next chapter is the fact that I do not have a pairing name (In the style of Dragon/rider) for Kurt and Doc. Both me and my beta can not come up with one, so I am outsourcing to you. Please help me come up with a name to use for the two of them.