Hey, guys! I'm back! On a sad note, I'm discontinuing Sunny's New Story. To any of you guys who actually liked it, I'm sorry. You can still read the old chapters, but no new ones will be published. It's dragging on to long for me and it's getting quite tiresome and dull. For this story, I will try to publish a new chapter at least every week. On a happy note, all swearing from the story is gone! I've gotten complaints, and I decided I'd fix it for you guys! With that out of the way, here's The Pyrrhian Chapters!
Clay
Ahh, Clay thought. Mud. Is there anything better?
Clay and his sibs, Pheasant, Sora, Umber, Reed, and Marsh, all floated lazily atop a pool of mud, with Peril sitting on the edge of it, only dipping her back claws in.
"How do you guys stand that stuff?" Peril asked. "Mud is simply repulsive."
"Hah," Clay replied lethargically, shifting his amber gaze to meet Peril's electric blue stare. "It's the best thing in the world. It's warm, it's comfy, it's everything you've ever wished for."
"Yeah," Umber squeaked, tiny eyes shut tight. "Everything."
"Suit yourself," Peril mumbled, staring uneasily at Clay's sibs. "I wouldn't want to hurt your sibs, even if I liked the mud. I'd fry them. On accident, of course."
With that, Clay's mind started to wander. The toasty mud swathing the MudWing was slowing everything down inside to a crawl, and was so refreshing- like a cool drink on a summer day, only better and more rich. He couldn't think of anything more enjoyable than this- all his sibs and the love of his life, all there with him. It would be the reunion of a lifetime, if Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny were here as well.
"So!" Peril said, stirring Clay and his sibs from their semi-stupor. "Do we have any plans for today?"
"I've got one," Pheasant muttered, her eyelids drooping tiredly. "Let's just stay here all day. I'm perfectly happy with that."
"Do nothing. That sounds about right for you, Pheasant," Marsh remarked, smirking at his sister.
"Lay off her, Marsh!" Sora admonished, her eyes narrowed into slits at her brother. She hissed at him, then slowly turned her head around.
"I want to do nothing," Clay said, verbalizing his input. "I could lay here all day."
Peril shifted uncomfortably on her claws, looking at the ground sheepishly.
"What's wrong, Peril?" Reed inquired, facing the blue-eyed SkyWing quizzically. "You look depressed."
"What tipped you off?" Peril scoffed at Reed. "I hate mud, all right? I kind of just want to do something, you know."
As if to interrupt the thick silence that hung there like fog, Clay's stomach rumbled like a war horn.
"I'm hungry," Clay announced redundantly.
"Actually, I am too," Reed agreed. Marsh, Pheasant, Umber and Sora all seemed to concur.
"Who says we go look for some fruit or something?" Clay asked enthusiastically. "I could use some fruit. Especially mangoes."
"You dolt!" Marsh joked. "There's no mangoes in the middle of a swampland."
"We could go hunt for some food. Groose, thrush, egret, maybe," Reed suggested. "There's a really lush hunting ground over there."
Clay looked over at Peril. "And with Peril here, our meat can be immediately cooked! Peril?"
"I'm fine with hunting," Peril said. "It's not lounging in the mud, so I'm sold."
"What are we wasting time lingering here for?" Umber asked, sitting up in the mud, a thick sheet of muck coating his back. He hopped out of the pool to sit near Peril, who surreptitiously gave Umber a wider berth between them, as not to scorch him.
"C'mon, guys," Clay said, rising from the brown muck, only Marsh and Reed following him. Pheasant still lay there, savoring the mud, and Sora was fast asleep, silent as a fox.
"Don't be impossible like you always are, Pheasant," Marsh jeered. "Get up."
"I don't want to," Pheasant said. "You four can go. Sora and I are happy here."
"Suit yourselves, then," Clay said in a faux sad tone. "I guess you and Sora won't get any of that delectable food."
At the mention of food, Sora's eyes opened brightly. "Hey, I'll come along," she said in her usual timid voice. She got up and joined them.
"I guess you'll be here all alone then, Pheasant," Marsh said, in a mimicking voice of Clay's. "You won't get any delicious thrush. I know it's your favorite!"
"Like I'd listen to you, Marsh," Pheasant rebelled.
"Maybe it would do you some good if you listened for once, Pheasant. To anybody." Clay looked at Pheasant, whose contemptuous glare began to soften after Clay's chiding.
Pheasant rose from the mud, walking slowly to add herself to the hunting party.
"I feel mortified of myself," Pheasant admitted shamefacedly. "I'm sorry I was a jerk."
"Hey!" Marsh jibed. "What's with the sudden personality shift?"
"If you don't shut your trap, I'll revert back to my old ways," Pheasant seethed.
"Why do you two always fight?" Sora asked out of the blue.
There was stark silence. Why would she ask that? Clay thought. It's kinda uncalled for, you know?
"Sora," Clay said. "It's kind of natural, you know? Siblings fight, it's that simple."
The world seemed to exhale in relief as Clay broke the quietness. Birds resumed their chirping; the wind its whistling.
"Oh, ok," Sora said. She didn't speak anymore.
Umber was fidgeting temperamentally, hopping from his left claws to his right and back again. "Are we going to go? Or just stand here?"
"Preferably, go," Peril said, fidgeting also.
"Okay, let's go," Clay said, stepping away from the swamp. His sibs and Peril followed closely behind, eager to go hunting.
As soon as Clay lay his foot down in the field Reed had described, he instantaneously realized why this was such an adequate hunting ground. The fields were lush green, the evergreens and birch trees were being buffeted by the refreshing, bittersweet breeze he mostly adored, not to mention his and the others' back spines, and numerous wildflowers and dandelions were juxtaposed beside one another.
It's beautiful, Clay thought, dazed by the sight placed in front of him. How have I never seen this before?
"See?" Reed said, extending a talon to present the field to them, as if he were a cruise director. "It's the best place for hunting ever. Prey love this field. There's plentiful food for them, too."
"Okay, let's hunt now!" Umber said enthusiastically, running off.
"Hey!" yelled Marsh and Reed in unison, bolting after thier younger brother.
"Boys," Pheasant whispered to Sora and Peril, who laughed at the three MudWings.
"There's prey everywhere you look," Peril marveled, after the group had split up. Clay and Peril had gone off on their own, Pheasant and Sora had teamed up, and Umber, Marsh, and Reed had grouped together. Fish writhed around in the massive lake nearby, nightingales and thrushes sang a chorus in the treetop canopy, and herons lurked sneakily in the reeds.
The white trunks of birch trees pervaded their part of the forest. The leaves on them glowed lime green, indicating the middle of summer.
"This is so picturesque," Peril marveled. "I can barely fathom how amazing this is."
And I couldn't imagine being here with anyone besides you, Clay thought, ogling Peril a little, as her head was turned. I love you, Peril.
"Eeesh," Peril said, hastily eyeing the gnarled black ground she was leaving behind with her footsteps. "I wish I wasn't such a danger to nature."
"You're not a 'danger to nature', Peril," Clay consoled. "Don't sweat it."
Peril's icy-blue look fell on Clay, who felt now as if he were under a spotlight. "Thanks, Clay." She smiled at him, making Clay feel like he was baking in an oven. "You always know what to say."
"Yeah! I do! Hehe," Clay said, a fake confident tone in his voice.
I'm making myself look like an idiot! Clay thought.
Hey! said Clay's conscience. Don't be so condescending to yourself. You don't look like an idiot.
Salvaging some of the courage his conscience gave him, Clay cleared his throat. Peril snapped her head to face the sudden noise.
She's expecting me to say something! Clay thought urgently. What do I say?
"Wanna try hunting?" he managed rather lamely.
Peril looked at him for a second, a bit confused, but replied, "Yes!"
The two dragons split up, as two dragons right beside one another would certainly arouse suspicion in any prey in the area that might see them.
Since the impending thrill of hunting was on the horizon, Clay forgot about Peril temporarily. He ocularly scoured the perimeter of the area for any prey.
Aha! Clay thought. Found you!
In the distance, Clay saw a fat pig that was rolling around in the very same pool of mud he and his sibs had been in just minutes previously. It was the kind of pig you'd normally see being used as bacon, or maybe for pork chops.
Clay almost salivated thinking about eating the pig. His stomach was rumbling like crazy, and he really needed something to quell both the noise and the feeling of an empty hole in his stomach.
Clay stalked the unwary pig as best as a large, glaringly obvious brown dragon could, hiding behind the occasional bush or massive tree. Clay's furtiveness surprised him really- he was usually known for being somewhat of a klutz.
I'm almost there! he cheered silently. Just a few more meters, and I'll be home free.
Eventually, Clay ended up right behind the pig, whose hindquarters faced the russet-colored MudWing.
I'll breathe fire on the nuisance, Clay thought mischievously. It'll be cooked through and through.
Clay taciturnly made the fire-is-coming noise he knew quite well, judging from the constant training sessions he'd (begrudgingly) participated in with Kestrel under the mountain.
Soon enough, the pig felt the searing pain on its rear end and began to run, in a futile attempt to put out the blaze. Clay finished off the miserable hog, feeling quite good he'd been able to pull it off so well.
"I almost never do anything that well," Clay quietly said to himself. He chuckled a bit, and set course to the copse of birches he and Peril had been talking at before their hunting trips began.
Clay sat down, sprawled the fresh carcass in front of him, and started to scorch it a bit more, as he had only gotten the back of the pig. As he finished his work, he heard a dragon's footsteps approaching him.
"Hey!" Clay greeted an emptyhanded Peril. "Didn't you catch anything?"
"No, in fact," she said. "I found a group of songbirds though, all talking and not noticing their surroundings. They felt my heat and flew away just in time. Curse my unluckiness."
"Don't beat yourself up over it, Peril," Clay soothed, urging her to sit down opposite him. "I caught a pig down by the swamp. Wanna share it?" He grinned stupidly at Peril, who giggled a bit.
"Sure, you weirdo," Peril jibed, a grin now stretched across her copper-orange face. "Gimme some." She made a grab for the pig, which Clay pulled away just in time.
"You'll have to wait your turn," Clay fake-taunted. He slowly pulled a piece off the pig, dropping it in his mouth.
Peril's facial expression converted into determination, and the SkyWing made a successful lunge towards the pig, slicing a rather large bit off.
"This is really good pig," Clay mumbled through his fifteenth piece of pork. "The best I've ever tasted, in fact."
"Fact." Peril laughed. "An odd word to hear from you."
"Shut up, squid-brain," Clay jeered, implementing Tsunami's favorite insult into his sentence.
"Listen to us," Peril said. "We sound just like Pheasant and Marsh."
"We do," Clay said, wrapping an arm around his sweetheart.
"Lay off the intimacy, mudhead!" Peril joked, pushing her 'assailant' away from her.
"Oh, be quiet. I know you like it." Clay glanced at Peril, who would have been as red as a strawberry, would she have been able to blush.
Clay and Peril remained quiet for a few moments, just drinking in the scenery. Near the dragons, Clay spotted a sight that reminded him of something, though he couldn't quite place it- a small mud puddle with a single orange blackberry lily poking out from the ground beside it.
"I love you more than anything, Peril."
"I love you more than life itself, Clay."
With that, the lovesick dragons collapsed against one another, embracing each other fiercer than a hurricane, a tiger, and a raging fire all in one. It was simple.
It was true love.