Chapter 28: Flight

I climbed onto the dragon after he lowered himself for me, but even with him touching the ground I had to climb quite a bit. Once I reached the top I sat in front of May with my back to her. "Where's this labyrinth?" I handed the map to her over my shoulder, and she took it from me, happily. 

"Thank you. It says that the labyrinth is in the Dusty Tundra." Saniel stood up again and I decided to hesitantly ask him, "Do you know where that is, Saniel?" The dragon huffed again and spread his wings in response. It was then I realized that I was riding a dragon, and before I could do anything else he shot up into the air at incredible speed. "Ahhhh!" Both May and I screamed as we continued to go higher into the atmosphere. I tried to find a good grip on his scales and hold on as we bolted through the air.

After a few moments we were above the clouds, and everything became a standstill. I caught my breath as I looked around at all the fluffy white rolls of vapor that were all around us as we gently passed above them. The sun had started to set and its light reflected off of the clouds, making orange and pink spread throughout the entire sky. I was amazed that we were actually flying, and the feeling of it was so freeing like time had stopped completely.

It was quiet and peaceful until Saniel turned his head to look back at us. I could've sworn that I saw him smirk before turning to look ahead again. I wondered why he did that for a split second before I found out. He suddenly started to dive at high speed again, and I barely caught my grip on his scales before falling off. "Ahhh!" We screamed again as the dragon went up and down through the flat layer of clouds, doing barrel rolls and flips every chance he could. He even dived all the way to the ground and pulled up again an inch before we crashed. 

May suddenly lost her grip and flung off from where she was sitting. "AH!" I looked back and saw that she was now holding onto Saniel's tail with her arms and legs wrapped around it as she continued to scream. I swallowed my burning saliva that suggested that I was going to throw up and yelled at her. "Hey, dumbass! You can fly, remember?!" She continued to hold on for dear life as she swung side to side. "Not at this speed!"

Saniel then started diving again and once we passed through some more clouds, a desert appeared in the distance behind where the forest ended ahead. I was surprised how we were already almost there and at the same time sick to my stomach. Later, after even more of the crazy ride, Saniel finally landed in the desert.

He didn't bother trying to slow down and let his feet run through the sand for friction. The sudden stop finally made me fly off of his back and land on a rock. "Ah!" I sat up and rubbed my back while cringing a little. "Of course, I had to land on the only rock among all this sand!" The sound of May flopping to the ground from the dragon's tail reached my ears a moment later, and she slowly got up while holding her stomach. "Ughh... I don't feel so good..." 

I managed to get to my feet as May hunched over and threw up. Normally, I would've felt overwhelmed with disgust from seeing something like that, but I was too focused on the weird sight of a pink sparkly substance escaping her mouth. She straightened her posture when she finished and wiped her mouth. "Sorry you had to see that..." I raised an eyebrow. "I don't even know what I'm looking at. Why the hell is your vomit sparkly?" 

She smiled nervously as she answered me. "Um, well, when I was little I ate some glitter and it apparently created a film on my stomach because I'm still passing it." I crossed my arms in annoyance. "Ugh. If I had a stick I'd bust you open and see how much candy was inside. How are you still passing it? How much glitter did you eat?" She avoided eye contact with me and fidgeted with her hands, nervously. "I'd rather not say."

My attention then shifted to Saniel who was standing next to her. "What do you think you were trying to do back there?! What is wrong with you, you stupid dragon?!" May tried to stop me as I drew my sword and waved her hands in front of her. "Wait a moment! I'm sure the only reason he did that was because he's not used to having a new master!" I continued to glare at him and raised my sword to his neck. "Or he's just a bitch!" 

Saniel growled and I quickly fell back to the sand as he let a mouthful of fire blast toward me. I stared in surprise as I lay on my back and saw the flames shoot over me in massive amounts. Saniel closed his mouth and smoke replaced the fire as he exhaled. I sat up and my surprise quickly became an annoyance. "Is that all you got, flat foot?!" I stood up again, ready to kick some ass when May flew in front of me and held me back by the chest.

"No, please don't fight!" I returned my sword to its holder and raised my hand in frustration. "Why not?! He probably didn't even take us anywhere near where we needed to go!" Saniel then turned his head to look next to us and I couldn't help but follow his gaze. My angry expression faded as I saw an entrance in the shape of a box lying on the sand with a dark stairwell inside that was covered in designs. 

After a moment May decided to speak. "Wow, that's exactly where we needed to go. Hey, if you think about it, Saniel was Theodius's dragon so shouldn't he know the exact locations of all the trials?" I hesitated and my eyes went back to Saniel who was looking at me smugly. "He still made our stomachs go into our feet." May then flew up to him and started petting his nose. "Maybe he just wanted to show off or give us a fun first flight. I really appreciate your effort Saniel." He purred again and bumped her with his snout.

I was still pissed as I watched them mingle like besties but was interrupted by darkness fading the once-bright sky. The sun had passed the skyline, and stars appeared as the pink and orange of the sunset became dark purple. I sighed and grabbed some stones to make a fire. "We're camping the night." May then gasped excitedly. "Oh Saniel! Did you want to snuggle with me?! Being a fairy and all, and traveling with Mr. Cranky pants, sleeping alone has been terrible!"

Saniel gave her a nod as he laid down, and she made a cozy spot for herself under his wing. "Goodnight Dedrin! Goodnight Saniel!" She was already asleep by the time I looked at her, and I shook my head as I built a fire. 'What did she call me? Ugh. As soon as I get the stone she is so dead. Her and Saniel.' I thought.