At Penn Stables, Kitt and Wyldfyr had just woken up. It was almost noon, and Artha and Beau were still deep asleep.
"Looks like the stable boy is still asleep..." She whispered to Wyldfyr as they both looked inside Beau's stable, Artha and the dragon sleeping deeply and unflinching despite the bright of day and the cold air that breezed in the stable.
Giving Wyldfyr a pat on the snout, Kitt led her dragon towards the center of the stables, where she left the whelp to sleep last night.
"You know, I still don't understand what scraped Beau's scales to make him act like that last night..." Kitt muttured at Wyldfyr, crossing her arms. Wyldfyr simply shook her head. "Human Boys, they're all the same, aren't they?"
"Indeed" Wyldfyr chuckled, although he knew that Kitt couldn't really understand him.
As the two approached the stable stall where they left Geeld the night prior, they noticed that the hatchling wasn't all that alone.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Kitt greeted, finally coming into full view of the stable, only to notice it was a bit overcrowded, although most of the space was taken by Cyrano's bulk more than anything else.
"Hey Kitt, we were just... checking out on our guest." Parmon said quickly, turning around.
"I see... where's the little cub anyway?" Kitt said, not entirely convinced by Parmon's behavior.
"Oh, she's right here." Parmon said, pointing at the small stack of hay, which however turned out to be empty.
Seeing the way Kitt frowned at him, crossing her arms, Parmon made double takes as he stared wide eyed at the empty patch of hay. Meanwhile Lance was looking around, searching Geeld.
"Lance, where did the whelp go!" Parmon almost shouted at the young Penn, who simply looked up to him with a frown of his own.
"How am I supposed to know? She was right here!" Lance replied.
"Fracshun, where's the little Geeld?" Cyrano rumbled, looking at the small Energy-class dragon.
"I don't know! A moment she was there on the hay, and the moment after she's gone!" Fracshun squeaked back in defense.
"Guys, will the two of you stop pointing claws to one another and start searching for her already?" Wyldfyr growled, having heard it all.
Before their riders could even notice, Fracshun and Cyrano darted out of the stable and went looking around the compound.
As they noticed, Parmon and Lance were stuck staring dumbfounded by the dragons' behavior. Kitt found herself subconsciously almost planting her hand to her face as she saw the two boys' reaction. Unwilling to comment she just spun around, trying to catch up with Wyldfyr as the red dragon already made his own move as well to search for the whelp.
Unknown to them, Geeld made her way to where Beau and Artha were sleeping.
He looks familiar, Geeld thought as she looked at the red and blue dragon. She slowly paced around the sleeping dragon, looking carefully at both dragon and rider. They were both very familiar, as she already met them, but wasn't quite sure of why. As she completed circling around Beau, she went and sat in front of them, looking at them with wide and curious eyes.
As Artha slowly stirred awake, Geeld slightly tilted her head to one side, looking as the human woke up, his stretching eventually making Beau wake up as well.
Artha slowly opened his eyes, and as he blinked away the sleep he saw Geeld sitting on the stable floor staring at him. The young man found himself catching his breath as Beau moved his large to nuzzle him, motion which was promptly stopped when he saw the whelp with the corner of his eye.
"Beau, calm down." Artha promptly said, as Beau's eyes focused on Geeld, a low growl leaving his throat.
"Go away." Beau growled, but Geeld didn't budge, if not to simply tilt her head the other way around.
"Why?" She squeaked.
"Just go away." Beau insisted, his growling raising in intensity as he stood up.
"Why?" She squeaked again, straightening her head.
"Go. AWAY." Beau this time roared, attracting a startled stare from Artha.
"Beau, what's the matter?!" Artha shouted, as he watched helplessly as Beau clawed the ground, baring his teeth against the whelp.
Of course, Beau's roar didn't go unnoticed, and soon enough Parmon, Lance and Kitt with their dragons appeared at the stable where everything was happening.
"What's going on over here?!" Kitt shouted, hurrying to take Geeld in her arms to take her away from Beau.
"How should I know?" Artha yelled, crossing his arms. "I wake up and first thing I see is the whelp, staring at me and Beau."
"Beau, stop being so rude to the little one." Cyrano rumbled, with Wyldfyr and Fracshun nodding in agreement.
"So long as she stays away from me, I've got no qualms about her presence." Beau, snorted turning his head away.
"Artha, I don't know what's going on with Beau, but see that the two of you sort it out." Kitt said, holding Geeld in her arms. The whelp watched and listened with great curiosity, not really understanding what was going on.
"Kitt, that's the problem! I don't know what's going on either!" Artha said, exasperated. "I don't have any idea of what to do."
"Perhaps you should start working on why Beau doesn't want to stay close to her." Parmon suggested, only for Beau to snort at the notion. "Beau, Connor was very specific. If he comes back and he sees that the situation hasn't changed in the slightest... Well, I'd be very worried about my hide."
"Listen to Parm, Beau." Wyldfyr growled, nodding in agreement like Kitt, Lance, Cyrano and Fracshun. "She's just a little whelp."
"You don't understand!" Beau growled at her.
Watching as Beau apparently argued with the other dragons, Artha shook his head. This is just ridiculous, he thought.
Deciding it was better to not dwell on the problem for too long, Artha proposed to do some practice runs, specially in preparation to the coming races. A bit to his surprise, Kitt seemed to want otherwise.
"Listen, Artha, I know that this might be difficult to do, but you need to get Beau to reason. He can't just shoo away the whelp like that." Kitt said, glaring at Artha, who was frowning back.
"Look, if I could speak dragon, or at least understand it, I would. But since I don't, I have not the slightest clue of what is it that's scraping Beau's scales." Artha argued, but to no avail.
"Artha Tannis Penn!" Kitt shouted, perhaps a bit louder than she actually meant, but she didn't really care at this point. "Beau's your dragon, and you are the Dragon Booster. If you can't reason with Beau, then I don't see how anybody else, human or dragon, can. If you truly are to become one with the dragon, then what is it that's stopping you from going there and having a serious talk with him?"
As Artha and Kitt kept up their argument, another argument was breaking out among their dragons.
"Beau, you're being unreasonable!" Wyldfyr growled loudly at Beau.
"You don't understand!" Beau growled back, matching the red dragon's tone. "I don't want anything to do with her. Period."
"But why?" Cyrano rumbled, sounding perhaps a bit too aggressive as Beau glared at him.
"She's a mockery! She can't be a real gold dragon! She isn't even a Star-class!" Beau finally admitted, causing the other two dragons to stare at him, shocked.
"So that's what you think?" Wyldfyr growled, giving him a heated glare of anger. "Just because she's not a 'pure' gold dragon like you, she isn't worthy of the presence of the dragon of legend?"
"Hmpf, please!" Beau snorted, head held high in a semblance of offense.
"And here I truly thought you were better than others." Wyldfyr snorted, shaking his head.
Turning around, Wyldfyr didn't even look back, hurriedly heading to fetch his rider and Geeld, if he managed to find where the whelp was now. As he swiftly padded across the Penn Stables compound, looking for Geeld, he felt hurt by how Beau coldly acted.
As Wyldfyr found Geeld, which was playing around with Frachun and Lance, it was then that it occurred to him how foolish it was to act like this without Kitt.
"What am I even doing..." Wyldfyr whimpered to himself.
"Artha! You have to try!" Kitt said, her voice slightly drained, as she vainly attempted to convince the young rider. As he kept shaking his head, repeating again why he thought he couldn't, Kitt noticed as Wyldfyr approached them. It was immediately clear to her that her dragon was upset, Wyldfyr's paws heavily stomping along the ground, and his eyes hiding a tinge of anger in them.
"What's wrong?" Kitt asked, as Wyldfyr tried to rub his snout against Kitt's head. "Argued with Beau, huh?"
"Yep." Wyldfyr rumbled. Despite Kitt being unable to understand him, she noticed how both their tones were a match, as both were equally exhausted of talking, although in much different ways.
"Want to go for a walk?" Kitt whispered to Wyldfyr, whose head perked up.
Getting the hint, Kitt motioned for Wyldfyr to mag her, taking her up to his saddle.
"Well, let's go!" Kitt said, only to see how Wyldfyr kept still, his head turning towards where Lance and Fracshun were playing with Geeld. "Huh? Do you want them to come with us?"
As the red dragon quickly nodded, Kitt let out a sigh, surrendering to her dragon.
Slowly, Wyldfyr approached Lance and the two playful dragons. As he eventually stopped, Geeld and Fracshun kept playing, unaware of the larger red dragon watching them.
Turning around, Lance almost fell on his back, finding himself suddenly facing the red dragon, who was apparently more intent on watching the young dragons play as they ran around, trying to catch each other.
Watching on, both Wyldfyr and Kitt were surprised to see that, despite being many years younger than Fracshun, Geeld managed to keep up, almost managing to touch the Energy-class's tail on more than one occasion as they kept running around in loops.
Eventually, though, Fracshun slowed down, to then halt, panting heavily as he tried to catch his breath. Unfortunately, Geeld wasn't just about to stop, and instead she leapt, landing on Fracshun's back, causing him to yelp as her weight came suddenly down on him, pinning him to the ground, legs outstretched. As Fracshun looked up to Geeld, she simply giggled, her tail wiggling excitedly.
"I'll say, she's a feisty one." Kitt commented, causing the two young dragons to turn their heads in surprise.
"Hey Geeld, want to come with me and Kitt for a walk?" Wyldfyr said, as he lowered his head as much as he could without toppling over.
Geeld first looked at Wyldfyr, then at Fracshun, who was still pinned to the ground. The whelp smiled for a moment, tail wiggling even faster, although her smile turned to a frown.
"I want mom and dad..." She whimpered, looking down, as she slowly climbed off Fracshun's back, who stood up.
As Geeld walked away sulking, Kitt, Lance and their dragons all looked at her with pity, especially Wyldfyr and Fracshun.
"Poor Geeld." Fracshun whimpered, then looking up at Wyldfyr. "What can we do?"
Without answering, Wyldfyr reached after Geeld, which had entered the stable where she had passed the night.
"Hey, are you okay?" Wyldfyr rumbled as he slowly walked close to the whelp, who curled up on the small stash of hay that was still there.
"I miss mom and dad." She mewled, curling up tighter on the hay. At first she let out a couple sniffles, before starting to cry.
"Hey, come on. I'm sure they're fine." Wyldfyr rumbled as he got closer, only to lower himself to the ground, laying by his side close to Geeld, who was still sobbing and whimpering as she kept on crying.
Quietly, Lance, Kitt and Fracshun peaked inside, almost in awe at the sight of Wyldfyr nuzzling Geeld, which promptly calmed down and fell asleep.
"I've never seen Wyldfyr act like that. He's really got something for Geeld." Kitt whispered, Lance and Fracshun silently nodding in agreement.
A/N: After some meticolous search in the available 'canon', i've adjusted a few details here and there. Most notably corrected the fact that Wyldfyr's a male, not a female. *sigh*