Chapter 7: The Exploration

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When the morning came, I seemed to have woken up well past our time as one of the adults came over to wake me up. It seems to be almost noon as I looked into the sky and saw the sun blazing ahead over me. I then looked at the dragon who had woken me up and asked "what's going on? Why did you wake me up??" in a confused voice. Mr. Miller then replied and said while also moving his head to look at the sky "well, Mr. Garcia has told everyone to get ready as we will be moving soon". Mr. Miller was a light fury and had yellowish orange colored eyes with baby blue colored markings and pail white skin.

He then looked back at me as he motions with his head to all the dragons that were collecting things that they found interesting or getting their children ready to leave. Mr. Garcia, his wife, and child seem to be at the very edge of the water as they too we're getting ready to leave. After Mr. Miller was done relaying the message, he turned around and started slowly walking to the other teens in the circle before waking them up and telling them about our soon departure as well before going back and getting his things ready.

I was confused for a second but then I remembered the conversation that me and Jay overheard a couple days ago. -right, this must be their final decision on when we leave. I wonder what the world we find ourselves in is like- I thought as I slowly began to unravel my wings while releasing Jay from his worm bed. When I was done unraveling my wings I then began to rapidly tap his head again, and said "Jay, time to wake up, everyone's getting ready to leave we should too". In response, Jay slowly opened his eyes and looked at me before slowly closing them once again.

I scoffed at this before I grabbed him with all four of my legs once again, and rolled off my wing membranes before placing him on the cold hard ground like I did before. Jay immediately began to shiver as I walked away towards the pond to get a refreshing drink of water to start my day. It wasn't long before Jay had reluctantly got off the ground and started following me. I smiled at my small victory as we finally made it to the pond and began drinking and/or splashing our faces with water to wake up.

Me and Jay then began to wait for everyone else to get ready. There wasn't really much to take with us unless we were fascinated by the brightly colored stones or some of the cool colored bark of trees that had weird patterns on them. when the sun had finally reached midday, I heard Mr. Garcia's voice over the crowd of dragons. "we're getting ready to move out anyone that is still not ready please voice that you are not so we may wait for you. If not everyone please gather around so we may set off" said Mr. Garcia, in a commanding tone as his voice reached everyone throughout the small area we were in.

The sudden noise scared me as I jolted along with Jay, as we looked at Mr. Garcia before we along with all the other dragons began to form a circle with the children once again in the middle. "Are you ready for this?" I asked Jay as I looked at him as he was right next to me. "I don't know" said Jay in response as he began looking around. me and Jay were both feeling restless as we were leaving the relative safety that we had found for the past few days. "Man this is nerve-racking" I said, as I shook my body to try to relieve the stress I was feeling. "I know right" said Jay, as he to began to shake his body to any of the stress that he might be feeling.

As we were talking, Mr. Garcia had made his way to the front of the circle facing all the dragons before turning around and saying in a commanding tone "OK everyone here we go stay close and try not to get lost" as he began to march forward. I let out a breath as we begin to follow him along with the flow of the crowd, so you wouldn't bump into anyone. As we walked, everyone was on high alert, ready for any attack from any creature that we have yet to encounter. After we have walked for many hours and still have yet to encounter single creature, I began to think -man, does this world had no creatures whatsoever except for fish?-.

As we walked, I slightly lowered my head to get next to Jay's head and whispered "hey have you heard or seen anything here? I mean, seriously I haven't even seen a bird. It's so eerie". Jane nodded his head as we continued walking as we both looked from side to side to see if we can spot even any sign of life, but apart from trees, there was nothing. I then began to think -what if this is the world before there were land animals- as I continue to look around. I then lowered my head once again and said "hey Jay, imagine if this world doesn't have land animals yet" and in response, Jay froze for split second before continuing to walk as he let out a chuckle nodding his head in approval.

As we continue to walk, the sun began to set and didn't response. Mr. Garcia shouted out to everyone in his commanding tone "Everyone set up camp here we will stay the night and then continue down the river when the sun first peaks over the horizon" and as if something clicked in everyone's head, they all began to scatter in every direction with their families and friends. What I had not noticed was that along the way we were being followed by the white sibling. They were both right behind us throughout the whole journey, listening into our conversation while the others were minding their own business while trying not to hit everyone.

As me and Jay were about to go off into our own direction to pick a spot for our night Noah, then ran right in front of us along with his sister saying "hey, Jay sister I have a bone to pick with you". Me and Jay stopped in our tracks as we both looked at him and I, to the best of my ability raised one of my eyebrows as I stared into his eyes. "Why?" Was the only thing I said as I stared at him trying to put as much pressure onto this tiny dragon as I could muster. "Well, you lied to me" he said, as he looked into my eyes, refusing to turn away for back down.

I was even more confused with this, as I continued to look at him before I slightly glanced at his sister, then back at him and said "when did I lie to you?" with a questioning tone very much present in my voice. "When I first got here you told me we would be the same dragon and yet I am this feminine, smooth, white dragon while you guys are black, beautiful muscular dragons. what's up with that?" Said Noah as he motions to him and his sister before motioning to me and Jay, as he continued to stare at me. me and Jay chuckled at this before I said "I never said we were the same species. I just said you were all dragons".

Noah pause for a second before trying to remember if what I had said was correct or not, then he said "either way you could've told me that there was another option". I chuckled at this and said "there wasn't, you were given this dragon and there was no changing it. Sorry Bucko". Noah paused but right when he was about to say something, his sister intervened and said "why don't you like this dragon? It's so pretty look at my smooth complexion, it's smoother than the time I had skin. We have no wrinkles, we are muscular despite the way we look, we are also flexible and can fly. What is there to be disappointed about?". Me, Jay, and Noah were all taken aback at this sudden outburst from Nora as we sat in silence.

"Whoa" I whispered as Jay chuckled at my remark. Noah had lowered his head while she began ranting, trying to find words to rebuke what she had said, but ultimately not finding any. As me and Jay stood there, Nora began to rant about how Noah was being ungrateful with this opportunity and how it could've been worse, like he could've been female or he could've been an insect. Me and Jay were in admiration with how long she was talking and how much detail she put into the way she described the way he would've lived if he was an insect.

Along the way me and Jay begin to agree with her fully immersed in the story she was telling. When her rant came to an end the moon had already started to show itself and the sky was pitch black along with the stars shining brightly across the sky, lighting up our surroundings. I then stepped up and said "OK. I think it's time to go to bed or I don't think we're gonna wake up in time" as I looked around and saw that everyone else was lying down and almost half asleep or were asleep.

There were two dragons that were staying up to keep watch, but that didn't concern us. As me and Jay began to walk towards the river, Near the river was a small pile of fish that a few dragons were appointed to carry along with us throughout the journey. Everyone could only have about one fish per day right before we slept as there was a limited supply because for some reason, the fish never left their pond and would never go downstream or upstream for that matter. Me and Jay snagged our fish before we walked away into the middle of the crowded spots before I lied down, wrapped Jay up and went to sleep.

The white siblings had followed us, grabbed their fish and also slept around us. I soon realize that they had no adults to wrap them up throughout the nights they were here. They were shivering all by themselves, cuddling themselves to keep warm through all the nights they were here. I could feel a prick at my conscience as they laid next to us cuddling themselves for warm. I sighed before I said "come here of wrap you up so you can get a good night sleep tonight" as I unwrapped my wings as Jay came tumbling out confused at the sudden release.

"There going to sleep with you" I said as I motioned with my legs for the siblings to hurry up so I could wrap all of them up together. Jay said nothing about this as he began trying to make as much room as possible for the two siblings. Nora and Noah were hesitant at first before they quickly ran towards me when a sudden gust of cold wind blew over them. As they all began to cuddle next to each other I did my best to wrap each and everyone of them up making sure no wind could possibly get in to the cocoon. As the warmth began to spread into the cocoon, I could feel the siblings relax as they both let out a sigh of relief before cuddling up to me and going to sleep.

The next morning, I was woken by the sudden noise of the dragons around me as they were getting ready for departure. I then slowly opened my wings as all three of the dragons came tumbling down and the hot air released from inside of the cocoon. I heard groans of disapproval as they all began to cuddle up next to each other, trying their best to once again become warm. I chuckled at this before I soon realized I was in a dilemma. -How am I gonna get all three of these dragons off of my wing so I can get up- I thought as I looked at the three dragons cuddling on top of my wing membrane.

I tucked in my top wing and then I moved my legs to tap all of them on the face repeatedly saying "come on guys. It's time to get up. We're leaving soon" in a voice that I had not realized was soothing. I was sleepy and tried to make my voice commanding, but it did not work as my tired voice refused to have any hint of a commanding tone in it. I sighed at this before just laying there tapping them all on the head so they would get annoyed and leave. This worked as Jay was the first one to get up and go get water and then the two siblings followed soon after. I was relieved when I saw their small backs trotting towards the water before I got up myself and did a cat like stretch, sticking my butt in the air as well as I stretching my wings as well as yawn with my teeth extended.

I had fully adapted to my body as I began to slowly walk towards the river near where Jay and his friends were. -welp, I guess I'm adopting two small dragons into our family- I thought as I arrive next to them and dipped my head into the water to drink. Before long, everyone heard Mr. Garcia's voice once again as he said in his signature commanding tone "is everyone up? Good, we're leaving here in a few minutes, so get everything ready for the move". Everyone soon began to talk as the people in charge of the fish began gathering the fish to their best of their ability, and the parents got their children ready for a long walk as some had began to complain yesterday.

And like this, 10 days had passed with us moving along the edge of the river. Along the way we did find creatures that called this place home, they looked a bit strange but we're similar to the ones from earth. They might have a slightly bulkier and more vicious appearance than the ones on earth, or they might be smaller and faster than their counterparts on earth but all in all they looked pretty similar with slight changes to their fur/feather coloration and/or behavioral patterns. We also encountered a few ponds along the way where we would stock up on fish before continuing to move along the river.

In this time, our family of four had gotten to know each other really well, we practically became inseparable as we slept with each other and walked side-by-side with each other throughout the journey. We had built trust with each other and listen to each others stories and jokes to keep our moods up as the tension from meeting the wild animals of this world would cause some to panic. More than once did we take to the skies to avoid a pack of strange looking wolves or tigers as we continue to fly or glide above the river. It was nerve wrecking as when we didn't move fast enough, some of the animals would straight up attack us and when that would happen, Mr. Garcia would go down and help the dragon that had fallen behind before he too would again take to the skies along with the wounded dragon.

Throughout the 10 days of our travel, we have yet to lose anyone, but it did remind us of the harsh reality that we are no longer in a safe world, but in a world infested with beasts that would hunt us down and eat us given the opportunity.

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