Chapter I - Forbidden flowers

Dan stretched his arms and leaned back against the pale, grainy rock. He narrowed his eyes with a sigh, soaking up to his shoulders into the water, warm like a soup.

The steam he exhaled tickled his face.

A nap there would have been ideal.

"A quick stop, you said," Draco grumbled.

Here we go again.

His huge cinnabar body loomed over the spring basin, with his serpentine tail swaying restlessly on the surface. His green eyes stared at him, reduced to a slit.

Daniel took a deep breath. The sulphurous smell of the air pinched his nose. "For once, you might also enjoy life instead of sulking."

"And you could take your duties to Pyrria more seriously, for once."

"Come on!" the boy snapped "All the knights come here when they have to patrol the border. Even Elios and his rider! And I bet that, unlike you, they know how to enjoy the moment".

The dragon's snort rippled the surface of the water. Daniel felt her anger tickle his nerves like a mild electric shock.

"A small hourglass and then we leave. We still have to check The Three Spiers" he said.

He turned to the Sacred Land that lay beneath them. The craggy black volcanic rock wall gave way to a verdant expanse of trees, whose leaves, in the morning light, took on a golden hue. In the middle of it stood out the pastel pink flowers of the magnolias.

Who knows if Runo would have liked a deck of those. Flowers picked in forbidden land ...

A faint shiver of euphoria ran down his spine. The rules, after all, prevented one from treading the Sacred Land, not from flying over it.

"No," Draco said, turning his back to him again.

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"Something stupid, like every time you have that tingle."

Dan snorted but couldn't hold back a giggle. "They should make you an army official right away, boring as you are."

The dragon did not answer, continuing to look at the plain below them.

The boy squinted to enjoy those last five minutes. Maybe even ten if the big lizard didn't bug him.

However, after a while he felt his palms warm. Reflexively, she scratched the rock with her fingernails that sent pangs of pain.

Draco's membranous wings fluttered, and his claws anchored to the edge of the wall. Dan felt him inhale deeply, to probe the air. All the muscles in my arms began to tingle.

He hoisted himself out of the thermal pool and walked over to the pile of his clothes. He hurriedly put on trousers, shirt and chain mail, with a slight tremor running through his hands. It stopped only when he grabbed the hilt and felt the comfortable weight of the sword.

He tightens it until his knuckles whitened and then walked over to his dragon.

"What do you smell?"

"I'm not sure" murmured the dragon "But it's right under that tree".

The horn at the apex of its snout pointed to a magnolia. The fronds rustled softly. Dan drummed his fingers on the leather of the handle.

A dragon with pure white scales emerged from the canopy of the trees. The small and tapered snout was crowned by a pair of horns curved upwards. A crest of pinkish feathers adorned the upper part of the neck, along the spine.

"I've never seen such white scales," murmured Dan. "Not even in the land of Luxa."

Draco let out a growl from the bottom of his throat. "Is very strange…"

He seemed not to have noticed them. He was smelling the magnolia flowers sitting under the tree, with his wings folded at his sides. The membranes were so pale and thin that the capillaries showed, which gave the skin a pink tinge.

Dan sheathed his sword. It didn't seem dangerous.

Draco's nostrils quivered. "It's a she."

"Ah, great. Why don't you go and introduce yourself?" the boy teased him.

The dragon patted him with its tail, causing him to stumble over the rocks. Some stones fell down from the escarpment to the Sacred Land and the intruder.

She immediately jumped to his feet and looked up at them, wings already spread.

"Nice work, Daniel," Draco mumbled.

Of course, it was always his fault, the boy thought.

He mounted the dragon with a snort.

"In the name of the people of Pyrria" Draco began in a stentorian voice "Declare your name and your element ..."

The dragoness did not let him finish. With a leap she soared in the air and flew above the forest. The flapping of her wings caused a small flurry of flowers.

"It seems that she's a bit shy," laughed Dan.

Just in time to grab onto the saddle, Draco plunged off the precipice. The wind pulled his hair back, whistling in his ears.

In a few wing beats they were hard on the dragoness heels.

She turned to look at them. In her eyes, red as rubies, flashed a flash of terror.

"Stop!" Draco ordered. Another energetic wing flap and they were very close to his tail, adorned with a fan of feathers.

It was a moment.

The dragon soaring with spread wings, letting the wind blow back. With a somersault he was behind them.

Dan felt the blood heat up in his veins. He lit a flame in his hand, ready to counterattack.

The dragon, however, veered to one side and continued fleeing.

"What if its element was air?" Dan asked.

"His skin is too white. But she is really good! "

They chased her for a good hour. Every time they got close to her, the intruder found a way to slip away. She moved in the air as if she was weightless, elegant as a heron. More than once they found her dangerously close. If she launched an attack, they would both fall. However, she always just ran away.

"Are you kidding us ?!" snarled Dan. A flame crackled around his clenched fist.

The next time he would be the first one to attack!

"Daniel! Remember the Code! "

Through their bond, Dan felt Draco's muscles throb with fatigue, getting hotter and hotter. His breathing had become heavy, as if a boulder was compressing his chest.

Even in those situations he had to be a moralist!

The dragoness then climbed up to a cloud bank.

"We have to hurry, or we'll lose her!"

"I know it!" Draco snapped.

He gathered his last strength and began the climb. Beat by beat his wings vibrated with the effort. The air stretched the membranes almost to tear them.

The dragoness was less than ten fathoms from them. The cloud was getting closer and closer.

"You won't run away now!" Dan said. He could feel the wind of her wings on his face.

With the last, frantic, wing strokes, however, the dragoness reached the cloud.

The crisp and humid air tickled the nostrils of the knight and his dragon. A dazzling white blinded them for a moment.

The next, they both flew in the middle of a white, vaporous expanse, with no trace of the mysterious intruder.

Author's Note: Hello nerds!

If you enjoyed this first chapter, I ask you to leave a review and save the story as a favorite! I am sure that the most attentive of you have already figured out who the mysterious intruder is! But I won't tell you anything until next week when I will try to update!

PS I changed the name of Drago to Draco in order not to make them redundant.

Vestronia has also been changed to Vestalia for reasons of sonority, I hope you will forgive me