Jake

"I'm bored." Jake mumbled, letting his tail drape over the bank and into the water.
Leighton sat beside him. "Then go find something to do. Help Moria and Gage build the boat or something." he said nonchalantly, biting into an apple. "Ugh, is it just me, or does this just taste less amazing than usual?" he muttered, spitting out the glob of chewed-up fruit and glaring at it.
Jake shrugged. "Maybe we're supposed to be more accustomed to a strictly carnivorous diet?"
The SandWing shook his head distastefully. "I think I remember reading that even the carnivores ate fruit, but never did I read of it tasting this bland."

"Mmm. Maybe the dragons you read about were already plenty used to it by that time, and didn't really grumble that much about something they can't fix," Jake thought out loud, glancing at Leighton and raising an eyebrow. "-Unlike someone."
The pale white dragon rolled his eyes, snorting, and turned away.
They'd came across a river not long after leaving the village's outskirts, having decided to search for Milo in the west. They'd had multiple conversations along the way, such as; Who's morals were more just, the U.S.C.M. or the Epsilon Expanse Rebellion force.
"Well at least we haven't tried exterminating entire races!" Moria retorted.
Leighton, who'd decided to partially defend his employers, frowned.
"I don't recall levelling entire buildings in MY job contracts."
"HEY THAT'S Uh- um…" She faltered. "Fair."
The dragon made an invisible tally mark in the air in front of him. "And the score so far, sports-fans, is Leighton one, contestant zero." He had rumbled triumphantly.

"Well that's hardly fair," Eric muttered. "I didn't think you guys were finished."
"Eh, it's alright." Moria said, waving her hand at him. "I'll get him back sooner or later."
Jake could tell she was smirking under her helmet, because he was used to seeing other people do it so often.
Movement snapped his focus back to the present.
He eyed the bushes suspiciously, leaping to his feet. Quickly making his way to the area supporting his suspicions, he parted the bushes. Upon closer inspection, he realized that there was nothing there at the moment. But what of previously…..
Jake's breathing stopped when he saw them. Tracks. Fresh.
The talonprints were slightly smaller than his, with slight gouges into the soft dirt proving that the dragon had had been using their claws as traction to cover more ground quickly.
Nice tactic. I should try that sometime….
He looked back toward Leighton, the SandWing picking through the apple trees, muttering something about a 'stupid story progression taking too long', whatever that was about.
"Hey, wanna give me some help with this?" Jake asked, jerking his thumb at the trail's direction.
Leighton looked away from his apple he'd just plucked from the nearest apple tree to him.
"Excuse me, what could be SO important that you'd need to interrupt me in the middle of my careful practice of choosing a fruit to suffice my immense hunger for sugar?" He asked, grumbling as he took his time getting there.

Jake poked one of the tracks, smelling a strange, foul smell, almost like…...swampwater….
Peculiar.
"I need you help checking these out. The tracks are recent, and they're none of ours." Jake explained.
Leighton sniffed one of the talonprints. "Smells weird."

"That's what I thought. Smells like mud, and foul water."

"So it smells like manure."
"Fair enough. Wanna find out who made em'?"

He shrugged. "Sure. It'll probably answer some things...or at least distract me from the question."

Jake grinned. "Alright then. Let's go hunt us a dragon."
Leighton frowned, tapping his chin. "You know, on normal circumstances that wouldn't have sounded as weird."
Jake shook out his wings, tilting his head sideways. "Yeeeaaahhh, you're probably right."

"That's weird. They disappeared." Jake muttered, glancing back at the trail of talonprints behind them. The forest looked oddly familiar, almost like the forest where he had to fight…..

It is!
Leighton walked ahead of him, snorting distastefully. "It's stronger here."
Jake nodded, not exactly paying attention.
"Hey, what's that?" The SandWing mumbled, walking further into the trees, which tented overhead almost like a ceiling, only letting light flow inside the forest floor below.

Jake partially ignored him, trying to remember something obviously important.
Sparkwire! Oh shit, I must've lost it before he woke up.

His pulse stopped.
If he woke up.

Oh God, please no….I hope he's still okay. Even better, still here by any chance.
"Who are you?" Leighton shouted, picking up his pace.
Jake snapped out of thought.

Wait, who does he see?

He walked a little faster, closely tailing behind Leighton and occasionally straying away from his barbed tail whenever he got too close.

"You see someone?" Jake asked, halting after the SandWing stopped.
He nodded, rolling his eyes. "Yeah. Obviously someone I didn't recognize, or I would've called them by name of course."

He galloped forward, toward a shape encroached in the shadows of the trees.

Black body and wings…...Sparkwire….?
"Answer me! Who are you!?" Leighton repeated, stopping at least 30 yards away from the shadowed figure.

Jake stopped beside him. "Why haven't they answered yet?"
He didn't look at Jake, continuing to stare straight ahead. "Dunno. Maybe they're deaf?"
They stepped forward in unison, flinching as a snapping noise echoed through the trees.
"What was-"
Leighton was cut off as the ground suddenly shot away from him, ending up above his head as he flailed his tangled wings. Jake fell on top of him, wriggling to get his legs away. Jake realized now that they'd been snatched up in a net trap, made from weaved grass ropes.
They'd been led right into a trap.

The black dragon turned around, standing up from their sitting position slowly, shaking their head.
"Ah….shame. I had honestly thought you would have seen that coming. I guess I overestimated you two." She, flicking her tail.

"Who the hell do you think you are, lady?" Leighton growled.

She frowned. "Nobody of your concern."

"That's the edgiest answer I ever heard. What are you, a wannabe Batman?" He snarled.
The black dragon raised an eyebrow. "What did you just say?"

"I said you're being an absolute piece of-"
Jake kicked him. "Language, asshole."
The SandWing waved his tail threateningly in front of Jake's snout. "No ironic comments in this server."
The dragon's eyes widened. "Hold on, server?"

Jake batted Leighton's barbed tail away. "Shut up before you get banned."
"OH WE'RE GOING THERE NOW, HUH?!" He yelled back.

"YOU BET YOUR LIZARD ASS WE ARE!" The MudWing replied.

Leighton kicked Jake in the neck with his hind legs, causing the MudWing's head to hit the top of the net. Jake snarled, kicking the back of the SandWing's head and feeling the solid impacts.

Leighton kicked harder, growling with smoke fuming from his mouth.

Suddenly, something clicked in Jake's head.
Smoke = Fire.
Grass + Fire = more fire but no grass.
Grass = Grass net.
Well I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before.
He opened his mouth to shoot out a blast of fire, but Leighton's foot caught him in the jaw, causing him to bite his tongue.
God Damn!
Jake roared, causing the net to throb and vibrate as he snapped his jaws at Leighton's tail.

He thought he heard something out of range of his hearing, but ignored it the first time.

The second time though…. "HEY, GET OFF ME!" The female dragon protested.
"Uh. Milo, she's scary, can I please get off?" A timid voice squeaked.

Milo?!

Both him and Leighton froze. "What?" both asked in unison.

Milo's black scales reflected off the sun as he strode into the light. "Um, just hold on for a minute. Who are you two?" He asked, looking up at Leighton and Jake with a skeptical expression.
"A boy-band, and we got lost. Can we have directions to the I-90 please?" Leighton grumbled sarcastically.
Milo grinned. "Riiiiight. What's your band name?"
"Gullible's travels."
Milo grinned, his rows of sharp teeth uncomfortably white and contrasting against his black scales. "So who are you really? I recognise Leighton's voice, because it's hard to forget the voice of a sarcastic asshole," He glanced at Jake. "Your voice is deeper, a tad unfamiliar."

Jake frowned. "I'm Jake."
Milo smiled. "Nice! I like your scales, by the way. Not shiny and reflectivish and blinding in the sun like most dragons I've met." He said, shrugging.
Jake nodded. "Thanks. Uh…." He looked down at Leighton, who was upside-down and glaring at him angrily. "I'm gonna drop us."
He blew a torrent of flame from his mouth, severing the ropes above from the overhead branches.
"Wait, what are you-" Leighton was cut off by himself landing on his head, hard. "OOWWWWWW!" He screamed, just before Jake's large form landed on him. He made a face, then wriggled out from under Jake, who had a sly grin on his face. "I'm never doing that again, especially with HIM." he said, pointing a talon at Jake, who began laughing.

A SkyWing stepped out of the shadows, along with a strange multicolored dragon and-
"Sparkwire!" Jake exclaimed, tackling him. "I was scared for you, buddy!"
The smaller dragon hugged him back. "I refuse to ever let you leave my sight again." he said fiercely.
"Can I get off nowwwwww?" Sidewinder whined.
"In a minute," Milo said, moving to the head of the dragon who'd captured Jake and Leighton before. "First, who are you? And why were you trapping them?"

She sighed, ceasing her struggling under Sidewinder's rather chubby body.

"I assumed they were like the other dragons I happened to just come across. You know, overly hostile, not up for letting someone pass, more into hunting them down." She growled.
"I asked for a name too."
"Zazilie. Now can you please get this overweight simpleton off of me before I bash his brains out?"
Milo grinned. "Oh, it's just Arc's girlfriend."