Hello, everyone! You're getting an early update today since I'll be spending most of today and tonight on airplanes. Yep, I'm finally going to Ireland! I couldn't be more hyped. I'll be sure to keep updating this and Shattered Moon, even while I'm on my trip. Make sure to check every Tuesday and Friday, as I don't think Fanfiction has fixed its email notifications yet.
This week's dragon spotlight goes to Bryce from Angels with Scaly Wings. So, this is something I discovered recently: There's a freaking dragon dating sim on Steam! It's very text-heavy, and some of the routes seem more like friendship routes than romantic ones, but Bryce's route was definitely a romance! Bryce is the chief of police in the modern-esque dragon realm your character goes to. He enjoys drinking contests and has a buddy-cop relationship with his coworkers. His blushing sprite is also freaking adorable.
Anyway, enjoy!
Before arriving at the water arena, Weiss opened a new video message from Winter. To her surprise, it was a video of only her sister. Steele was nowhere in sight.
"Good morning, Weiss," Winter said. "Today's lesson will be held with your fellow water Riders. I have sent details to Professor Goodwitch already. Remember when I told you that having an ice dragon on your team will involve making up for the lack of a water dragon?"
Weiss nodded, though she knew that Winter couldn't see her.
"Today is the day you start those lessons. Specter should be strong enough to swim. Even though ice dragons do not have gills, webbed paws, or a flat tail, they can be made into capable swimmers. If you look at Specter's paws, you'll notice that they are almost shovel-like when the toes are pressed together, making them ideal for treading water. Also, since ice dragons are made to endure frigid temperatures and can fly in high, mountainous regions with less oxygen, they can be taught to hold their breaths for long periods of time." Winter glanced at something off-screen. "If you'll excuse me, I am on my way to my morning drills. Good luck."
Weiss smiled down at Specter, who was trotting cheerfully at her side. "I'm afraid you won't get to chew on any ice blocks today," she murmured.
Specter tilted his head up at her and whistled.
When she got to the water arena, she went to stand next to Neptune and Ren, who gave her surprised looks. "Specter is going to start swimming today," she explained.
"You guys can take my turn," Neptune muttered.
"You will do just fine," Ren assured him, managing to keep any traces of doubt from his voice. Truthfully, he was convinced that Neptune would have a panic attack of some sort. This would be the first lesson that would involve the Riders being completely submerged. All of the students, except for Weiss, were clad in swimsuits and had goggles. Neptune was noticeably shaking.
At that moment, Professor Goodwitch approached. "You won't need to worry about swimming this time, Miss Schnee," she explained. "Since your dragon will just be starting to learn, there may be some thrashing. Once he gets better, you will learn to swim alongside him. You will go last today."
Glynda marched across to the arena, which had been altered for the larger-sized dragonets. Half of it was now taken up by a deep, sloped pool. "Today, you will be going underwater with your dragons. They are not large enough for you to sit on their backs quite yet. That's fine, since you will need to improve your own swimming skills. If you need help, wrap part of your arm around the base of your dragon's neck from the back. That's where the saddle will someday go, and therefore has a large muscle mass. Holding them there won't hurt them."
She looked at her clipboard. "Mister Thrush and Barracuda, you will be first today."
Russel grinned as he stepped forward. Barracuda trotted easily at his heels, glancing over her shoulder to sullenly hiss in Ao Guang's direction.
Guang tossed his head and growled a warning, satisfied when the other water dragon padded away. Still, he pressed a little closer to Ren, just in case.
Weiss gave Russel a distasteful look. "Has he apologized at all for that fight?"
"No," Ren replied. "And I doubt he will."
"At least he and Barracuda get along okay," Neptune sighed. "Sage has been telling me about how Cardin treats Mudslide during their elemental class. If anyone should have their dragon taken away, it's him." He glanced toward the pool and winced as Russel and Barracuda briefly resurfaced so that the Rider could take a breath. "That's, uh, really deep."
"Is your fear really still troubling you?" Weiss asked, belatedly realizing how judgmental her voice sounded. Thankfully, Neptune seemed too nervous to be offended.
"Yeah. I've been, uh, doing some extra practices. It's hard, though."
"Isn't it less scary with your dragon?"
"A little." Neptune smiled down at Nymph, who purred loudly in response. His smile quickly faded when Russel and Barracuda finished and Glynda called him to the pool next.
Nymph looked up at her partner as the two walked toward the pool. His face was growing pale and he was starting to shake. By this point, she understood what that meant. He was scared. Initially, Nymph had responded to his fear, thinking that he was seeing something in the water that she couldn't. By now, she knew that the water itself was what scared Neptune. She wasn't sure why, but she would make sure to keep him safe. She was a water dragon, after all.
So, when they got to the pool, she nudged his leg gently while letting out an ongoing purr. That usually calmed him down. She let him set the pace as they walked deeper. When she started treading water with her webbed paws, Neptune froze. The water was past his waist.
"Today please, Mister Vasilias." Glynda's voice held an odd mixture of annoyance and sympathy.
Neptune winced. Just get it over with. Taking a deep breath, he started treading water, then finally dived downward.
His ears pounded and his head felt as if someone was pressing on his skull on all sides. The water caused his vision through his goggles to swim. He couldn't move! He couldn't-!
Something solid touched his hand, and he turned to see Nymph's familiar blue eyes regarding him. He watched her open gills as the water passed through them, took in the smoothness of her scales. His heart was still pounding, but he managed to put his hand on her shoulder, allowing her to pull them both forward.
Feeling the water rushing past him was almost enough to make him start panicking. He tried looking at Nymph, tried focusing on how her webbed paws and flat tail pulled them through the water. Then, he felt his head starting to get light. He moved toward the surface, and Nymph followed.
When they surfaced, he realized that they were halfway across. The sun was on his face and he took in deep lungfuls of air. Again, he became fully aware of where he was, and started to shake. Wasn't this good enough? Could he stop?
"The rest of the way, Mister Vasilias. You're doing well," Glynda called.
Russell snorted. "Yeah. At this rate, we'll be done by sunset."
"Oh, be quiet!" Weiss snapped. "At least he's working to overcome his fear and doesn't feel the need to set his dragon on others in order to feel manly."
A few people clapped in response to Weiss's words. It seemed that Team CRDL wasn't popular with any of the other students or dragons.
Russell's face flushed with anger. "At least I don't act all high and mighty just because Daddy gave me a designer dragon!"
Weiss rolled her eyes, not even gracing that statement with an answer. She noticed Specter giving her a concerned look, and gently patted his head.
Meanwhile, Neptune burst out of the water at the other end of the pool, sputtering and coughing loudly. He hadn't taken a deep enough breath, and ended up inhaling some water. He crawled out of the pool, sides heaving as he spat out a mouthful.
Nymph was at his side, whimpering with concern.
Russel snorted. "Well, I guess you guys will have to hope he doesn't have anything contagious, or both you and your dragons will catch it. He probably puked out half the pool just now."
"Don't be stupid," Weiss snapped. "These pools use water and earth Dust to keep them clean at all times. Honestly, do you ever get bored of constantly spouting idiotic statements?"
Ren bit his lip to keep from smirking too obviously.
Glynda strode over and knelt in front of her student, relieved when she saw that he had already coughed out most of the water he had swallowed. "You're doing better. Keep up the extra practice sessions. You may never get over your fear, but you can learn to master it."
"Th-Thank you," Neptune managed to say, smiling shakily. Honestly, he was just happy to get away from the pool and sit down in the drying area, burying his face in a towel while Nymph's scales caused most of the water on her to slide right off.
When Ren's turn came, he heard Guang take a deep breath and smiled fondly. His dragon already understood the need to be underwater, and was getting better and better at holding his breath.
They ended up surfacing only twice, the first time because Guang had misjudged how much of a breath he had needed to take, the second because Ren had needed air. Glynda was very pleased when they emerged.
"At this rate, people won't be able to recognize his gill problem at first glance," she said, nodding with approval. "Miss Schnee and Specter!" she called.
Weiss walked over to Glynda, awaiting her instructions.
"You won't need to have him swim from one side to the other," Glynda assured her. "This will just be an exercise to get him used to the water. Command him so that he enters the water, and try to get him to swim out a few feet. Even though he isn't a water dragon, all dragons can paddle instinctively on some level. Let's just see how he does and go from there."
"Yes, professor," Weiss replied, leading Specter to the slope. She pointed to a spot in the water. "Specter, forward."
Specter blinked up at her and cautiously touched the water with his forepaw. He sat down and whined loudly.
"Oh, don't give me that!" Weiss said. "It won't hurt you." She dipped her hand in to prove it. "See? Once you get better, I'll be going in with you. Now, go on. Forward!"
Specter thumped his tail on the ground, splashing Weiss in the face with pool water. A few of the other students snickered
Weiss sighed, wiping her face off. "No treats if you don't listen," she said.
Specter froze. The words "no treats" were immediately understood. He looked at Weiss's pointing finger, let out a long sigh, and reluctantly entered the water. He flailed for a moment before realizing that pressing his toes together made it easier to push himself forward. He tried moving his tail up and down like he had seen the water dragons do, but that wasn't working. He splashed around, squawking with confusion. Scrunching his eyes shut, he tried to focus on not sinking. If only the water was colder, more solid…
A crackling noise filled the air and a cool mist rose from the pool. Weiss let out a gasp.
The edges of the pool nearest Specter were freezing. As Weiss and Glynda watched, a thin, icy sheen appeared over the water in a circle around the struggling ice dragon.
Glynda gaped for only a moment before regaining her composure. "You can bring him back now, Miss Schnee."
Weiss nodded and called to Specter. "Specter, come!"
Gladly, Specter made his way back to the shallow side of the pool and scrambled out. Water droplets turned to ice on his scales. It felt wonderful! Whistling loudly, he bounded toward Weiss, surprised when she took a step back.
Weiss was looking warily at her dragon, remembering what her father had said about how cold an ice dragon's scales could get. "Good boy, Specter," she murmured. Seeing his hurt, confused look, she abandoned caution and knelt in front of him, chancing a quick touch to his scales. To her relief, they were cold, but not enough to cause injury. Without hesitation, she embraced the ice dragon. "Good job, Specter. You did such a good job."
Specter nuzzled Weiss's shoulder, purring happily.
When class let out, Ren and Neptune invited Weiss to walk with them, noticing the surprised and pleased expression that briefly passed across her face when they asked.
"So, you're the first one in our class whose dragon started using its powers!" Neptune noted.
"Well, I don't think it counts as the first in this class, since Specter's an ice dragon and not a water dragon," Weiss pointed out.
"Still." Neptune shrugged, glancing down at Nymph. "Thanks again, girl."
Nymph chirped cheerfully.
"You did well," Ren commented. He almost said "better than I thought you would," but managed to stop himself. "I'm only sorry that you didn't get to hear Weiss telling Russel off."
"Wait, what?" Neptune grinned. "I need to hear this!"
Ren briefly recounted the conversation, causing his friend to let out a whoop.
"Ouch!" Neptune said with a laugh. "Hope he's got some aloe vera for that buuuuurn!"
Weiss couldn't help but smile a little.
"Burn? Who's getting burned?" a familiar voice called before Sun, Yang, and Pyrrha approached. Sun was looking at Neptune. "What's the burn?"
"Weiss completely roasted Russel today," Neptune replied.
"Nice!" Sun gave Weiss a thumbs-up. "Knock 'em dead, ice queen!"
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Must you call me that?"
"Yes. Yes, I must!" Sun wrapped an arm around Neptune's shoulders. "So, how was the swimming? You're obviously not dead, so I guess you did well."
"Ha ha." Neptune rolled his eyes, though he didn't make any move to push Sun away. "I did okay. Nymph kept me from freaking out too much."
"Good to hear." Sun ruffled his friend's still-damp hair. "I knew you had it in you- OW!" He jumped when Huo snapped at his heel. "Do you mind?!"
Neptune shook his head. "Maybe he thinks you're a Grimm," he suggested.
"Very funny." Sun rubbed his ankle and grimaced.
Nymph padded over to her brother and firmly headbutted his shoulder, giving him an exasperated glare.
Huo shrugged. His partner had let his guard down.
Nymph shook her head. People didn't need to be on guard all the time! It was impossible. They'd be exhausted.
Huo huffed and rolled his eyes
"How was your class?" Ren asked while Sun checked his heel for any blood.
"We started teaching them to endure higher temperatures using heated pads," Pyrrha said. "Huo did very well."
"Has Dove been giving you a hard time at all?" Neptune wondered.
"Actually, no," Pyrrha noted. "He really doesn't speak unless Professor Port asks him a question. He avoids most eye contact. His dragon is skittish, too, similar to Zircon or Twiggy."
"He didn't take part in the fight," Ren remembered. "It could be that he was stuck with the wrong team."
Neptune looked at Sun as he straightened up. "You okay, dude?"
"Yeah," Sun sighed. "I'm just getting really tired of this."
"Maybe some more exercise would help," Ren suggested. "You could try taking him out for a walk. That always calms Guang down."
"It'd have to be the evening," Sun said. "I don't trust him to not snap at random people."
"Nymph and I could go with you," Neptune suggested hopefully.
"Thanks, but I think it should be just me and Huo." Sun smiled at his leering dragonet. "Let's see if we can bond without Nymph keeping him in line."
Neptune smiled fondly at his dragon. "She is pretty good at that, isn't she?"
Nymph chirped happily when Neptune looked at her, also managing to spare a smug look for her grumbling brother.
Have I mentioned how much I love character and dragon interactions? Because I do. A lot.
If you like what you see and want to show extra support in exchange for rewards, my P/atreon is Solora Goldsun.
Peace out!