The sand barely stung the though scaley hide that the tan dragon supported as he walked through the stormy desert. he cursed himself for neglecting the sand-storm season, afterall, this is what dropping your guard for a second, and the sand is whirling around you.
He was a dragon of young age, past that of twenty only months ago, the tan coloured dragon now stands a a handsome male in his prime, two curving horns from the back of his head and black eyeridges with near-gold stripes, along with his black birthmarks around his two front legs and under the eyes.
The sand dragon snorted as a gust send the tiny practiles into his sensitive nose, issueing forth a feeling of irony as he trudged on.
His name is Redante, born and raised in the deserts far from the known world. his parents had been stuffing his head with the laws of the desert, civility, and survival. especially the latter. The young dragon quickly learned that he had to pay attention at an even earlier age. As he continued his inner memory lane, he spotted the waving palms of the next oasis. not caring what the sand did, he quickend his pace towards the haven.
Moments later, the sand dragon exhaled a sigh of relief as he rested himself against an steep dune, taking him out the punishing winds. the sand obscured most of his vision, which slightly brought the dragon discomfort, but if he can't see anything then a tail away, so would an hostile creature. even so, he would have to wait until the storm subsided. before long, he found himself drifting off into sleep.
The dragon awoke, coverd in a thin blanket of sand as he looked around; the oasis seemed green once again. the wind brought, and took the sand. no journey was the same here, Redante adored the desert for that fact as he wanderd over to the edge of the water pocket. and took a healty sip of the life-giving fluid. it was then that he noticed how the wind had blown away the sand into a sort of natural wall around the haven. he chuckled privately, then he noticed something in the wet soil: paw-prints! from the looks of it: a dragon as himself.
Redante scratched his head with a wingbarb, Sand dragons barely, if not never, left evidence of a visit to a oasis. especially the females, they were extremely cuatious with their visits, light-footed and skittish. Most likely to avoid rapists or whatnot, he himself had only ran into a female two times: one nearly a year ago, the other yesterday night, who, after a anxious silent moment, Told him about a great city here in the desert. She even commented that she hailed from within it's walls, sparking the curiousity of redante
Ever since, actually yesterday, he has been travelling at the direction of the moon as the dragoness has specified at him, much to his suprise, and relief, the journey to it would be marked by an oasis at every two days of flight. seeing that this one took atleast a third day to find, he began to question his direction as of current. however, he was curious to what have could make such deep imprints in the wet soil here. since it isn't a sand element, it must be a diffrent one, probably an outside element.
Redante quickly decided that if that was true, and not just an overweight sand element, this dragon would have an hard time going around here.
With a might flap of his large, tough wings, he found himself hovering over the oasis as he scanned the horizon, using the ever-present updraft of the scorching heat for a smooth hover.
He stared down at the barely-visible imprints, and then to the outer imprints, using the claw marks to detirmine the direction of aforementioned dragon, or dragoness for that part. It took only a single flap to send him speeding over the dunes as he spreaded his wings once more to catch the heat of the sand under them. He realized that, if he was an outsider, he, or she would have no idea where they were going, and would resort to erratic movements. Redante suddenly felt the wind tug at the cloth around his neck and shoulders as he glided on. the cloth made an excelent container for maps and the ocassional water pouch for long travels, even so, he most used it in the treacherous sandstorms that plaged the desert of late.
And he feared that yet another one may occure. He had to hurry and find the unkown dragon.
He propelled himself onwards higher, where the wind would only pick up more, the tanned dragon gritted his teeth. and continued to scan the endless dune-sea for any sort of form that didn't fit in the sand. As the wind began to softly howl, he saw a glimpse of blue in the sand. frowning, redante came for an clumsy landing as the wind suddenly washed over him, stumbeling heads overheels into a nearby dune, face-first. Muttering silent curses, he pulled himself free from the collection of sand.
He whipped his head around to spot the strange blue glister in the sand. And yes, there it was! actually, it appeared to be a tail with quite an black blade at the end of it. Curiously, the sand dragon cocked his head sideways, and started to dig out the rest of the supposingly dragon. He was in for an suprise.
Out the dust and sand, a completely blue dragon was revealed: a male, probably half-a-head taller then him and atleast a year older he guessed. he looked the blue dragon over, and noticed the pouch with various scrolls on his side. it was then he noticed the form not moving. Redante sighed softly, too late. he left this world too soon...the saddend sand dragon reached for his neck to be positive of the dragon's passing, pressing his pad against the dusty scales.
He's still alive? Well then, there is hope yet!
He only managed to drag the blue dragon with him, silently wondering why this one is so heavy. Luckly for redante, a large trench-like depression in the sand easily shelterd him and the blue dragon. Even if he once again found himself sputtering sand after a face-first landing. But his main priority now was to ensure this fellow dragon's survival, judging by the fact he was unconsious, he needed water. Redante had heard chilling stories about careless dragons sucumbing to the lack of water, fainting was the sign that the body slowly is shutting down to preserve the precious liquid. He peered around the trench which, much to his suprise, contained an exposed body of water. Quickly, he dragged the dragon towards the fresh liquid.
He forced the maw of the unconsious dragon open, allowing for water to flow in as he slightly dipped the head in the water. Redante felt a wave of relief once the blue dragon began to convulse and sputter. Even so, Mister blue remained in his silent sleep after Redante lifted him carefully onto the bank. He found himself staring up at the raging sands above, it almost seems like the desert is agitated by reasons unkown. that, or one of these wind dragons are having an quarrel again. he sighed, remembering the air-dragons but too cearly; it was a clan of richely coloured dragons, who travled as a pack through the desert, for the sand dragons, they only ment sand-storms and hasslements.
A soft groan brought Redante from his mind. He whipped around to see the blue dragon rising up slowly. Redante must have spaced out for ancestors-know-long.
The blue dragon reared himself onto his huanches, rubbing his head with a pad as he let out another groan.
"What in the world did I run into?" He growled under his breath. his eyes snapped open as the blue dragon reminded himself of where he was, his gaze instantly met up with that of the sand dragon.
For a moment, it was quiet. Very, very quiet.
Suddenly the blue dragon exclaimed in glee, catching the tanned dragon completely off guard as the other suddenly was infront of his snout.
"I Knew it! I knew it!" He seemed to be dancing. "There are other elements in the world! Kind sir, it is amazing to meet you!" He shook Redante's paw excitedly. even if the Sand dragon was still dumbstruck
"..No problem?" The tan dragon blinked. However, the blue dragon had already continued his dance. In gleefull abandon. After a moment of a self-taught victory dance, the blue dragon calmed down. A grin that would have death hesitating plasterd to his face. which quickly dissapeared at the dragon seemed to realize that a dumbfounded Redante was tilting his head slowly at him
"Dear ancestors! Where are my manners?" The blue dragon chuckled to himself "I apologize for my...uh..silly moment, it's just that I have been searching for months on end...for new species of dragon." He seemed to beam slightly, Redante nodded softly
"No offence was taken, I kind of found you laying in the desert." The tan dragon replied.
"That was part two of my euphorica, Thank you so much for saving me out there, when the world went black...I seriously thought I was done for."
"Not at all, but if I may ask, what is your name, my friend?"
"Ah, The name is Chilland. I am an explorer for the sacred city of Warfang and it's guardians!" He proudly took a pose. The blue dragon barely was a head taller then Redante, and sported an near-white blue colour, which seemed to deepen in the shadows, four horns line around his face, in an near aerodynamic backwards way.
"Redante, 'Professional' Nomad, fulltime Wanderer and volenteer rescue work. Nice to meet you."
The blue dragon chuckled silently at the subtle joke, and nodded. The tan dragon smiled gently as he looked up at the raging sands above them.
"Excuse me my curiousity." He turned back to Chilland as he glanced at Redante "But you aren't a sand dragon right? So which element do you posses then?" Chilland was slightly taken aback by his question; he had expected that more dragons knew of the primary elements.
"I control and breathe the element of ice." the Blue dragon replied.
"You must have made quite a journey Chilland." The tan dragon lay himself down. "We usually never see any diffrent kinds of dragons then ones of fire, sand and twilight."
"Twilight dragons?" Chilland too lay down in the cool sand "What element is that?"
"I'm not certain, but shadows would come close." he fixed his eyes on the ice dragon "I've only met them once or twice..."
"I see...Shadow element..." Chilland seemed to feel a slight pang of fear in his heart "How are they like actually?"
"Frightning."
O-oh?" The blue dragon now felt uncomfy resting in the shadow of the deep trench.
"Don't get me wrong now, they are quite friendly, scaled black, and frightingly powerfull." Redante tapped his chin softly as he thought on "And, for some reason, like coconuts." he shook his head lightly "They become frightingly nice when offerd coconuts."
Chilland's nerves seem to die down now, as he too, looked up at the sand storm above, seemly subsiding.
"It seems we can move out soon..." He muttred, Redante nodded
As the sand continued to rage on, Chilland explained where he came from, discribing the green, lush valley of avalar, the enchanted forest. and the prestine city of Warfang and the legendary Purple hero, who saved the world. Redante had been listening in awe; the scale colour of blue already struck him as fascinating, but that there was a dragon with purple scales? That took the crown.
"...And as we rebuilded cities, temples and our society itself. The guardians were curious to if there were more dragon survivors out there, and thus I was send out towards the far east." Chilland ruffled his wings. "I was making quite some progress until I was snatched up by an tornado, which brought me to uncharted steppes, and eventually, this desert." Redante nodded, as he reminded hismelf how he found the blue dragon.
"I see, did you find anyone before the tornado? any other dragons that survived?"
"Actually," he sighed deeply. " No one at all, almost as if dragons were whiped out at that end of the world...but..you mentioned you were traveling, to where if I may ask?"
"A suposing city build on and around a massive Oasis here, I started yesterday, following the moon as instructed-"
"until you found me laying about."
"Indeed, I was expecting to arrive at the city within four days or so" he noticed the sand storm had dissapated, and got back to his feet. Chilland followed his example as he hopped out the trench. After taking another healthy sip of the cool water ofcourse.
"But the storms are hindering my movement by night AND day." Redante continued as he scanned the dunes, Gratefull that the sun was setting with the sand. "So I am hoping to catch up to the lost time tonight." Chilland nodded as the tan dragon turned to him.
"I suggest you travel by night my friend, the steppes are a seven day's flight from here. if you move under the cover of that star-" he pointed his wingbarb at a western constelation "-You're route will be marked with oasises, be warned though, the last few hunderd miles are completely barren." Chilland raised an eyeridge.
"How come you know all this?" he partly expected that he travled to enough to know...It did seem quite impossible though.
"We're not alone in this desert." Redante gave a subtle grin. "Others travel far and wide too, and ocasionally I cross their paths. That's how I also came to know about that city."
"I see..."
"Well then, I need to be going. now that the sand still is warm. So should you, my friend."
The explorer seemed to think about his words.
"To be honest, I am curious to this city aswell." Redante blinked, he had a chance to go home, but he prefers to travel with him?
"You seem to know this desert quite well, I think that I won't even make it to the second Oasis." He chuckled softly "Besides, I think that I defined myself as an explorer, correct?"
The tan dragon nodded slowly, somewhere, he felt excited to travel with someone who seen more world then he did. But then again, This explorer could just move on without his knowing to adventures unkown. And to be honest, he would love to see the world beyond the dust and sand. this 'Spyro' and 'Warfang' he spoke of, sound highly intruiging.
"Alright then, together to the city it is!" the tan dragon piped up
With a smile Chilland passed Redante and spreads his wings.
"But, on one condition."
The blue dragon skidded to a stop and turned around.
"I guide you through the desert, but you'll guide me beyond that." The blue dragon raised an eyebrow.
"...Are you asking to explore the world with me?"
"In a way, yes."
"Hmm, I'll think about it, but for now, lead on!" The blue dragon smiled and Opend his wings wide as Redante took off, into the night, followed by the wayward explorer.
And so started the journey towards the rumored desert city, only to become part of a larger journey...