A clay pot, old and brittle, detached from its perch on a narrow window ledge. It plummeted through the still air. Its trajectory was perfect, a bullseye on his sleeping form.
"OUUUUCH!!" the dragon screamed. The pot exploded against his forehead, shattering into a dozen sharp shards. Vireo, a sand dragon of considerable bulk and tan scales, jolted awake with a sound somewhere between a yelp and a roar. His eyes, an amber yellow with slit pupils, snapped open.
"What the hell!?" Vireo groaned. He rubbed his snout with a talon, easing the mild pain. "Great... just great." He blinked, perhaps he was dreaming, but he was met with the same situation as before. His tail, tipped with a wickedly curved, obsidian-black stinger, twitched in frustration.
He began to pile the shards together. When I was sleeping? Why when I was sleeping? He grumbled and facepalmed. This was a terrible start to the day. Mother is going to get angry for no reasonagain, he thought. His mother, Xylia, was a complete nut-job in his opinion. A part of a dumb group that loved crazy traditions. Beheading crazy. Why would dragons do that? He would for sure never know. But if he could clean this up before she got back home, it would definitely be great.
Once he had the shards in a pile, he stared at them, as if they were a offensive pile of dung. The smooth, tan scales of his forehead still throbbed faintly, a reminder of the projectile. He nervously smiled, revealing sharp, venomous fangs, and inherited trait of some sand dragons. His gaze drifted to the now-vacant spot on the window ledge, a narrow, carved piece of rock. Who even put that cursed pot there anyway? It certainly wasn't him. He preferred his sleeping nooks free of ceramic booby traps.
As he was about to scoop up the shards with a pan, the door knocked. Vireo slightly jumped, his spines bristling. A muffled voice behind the door began. "Helllooooo? Vireo?"
He recognized that voice anywhere. It was his good friend, Peyote. One great, or bad thing depending on how you view it about Peyote was that he loved to get Vireo in trouble. Well, Vireo called it trouble, Peyote called it "adventure."
Vireo bounded up the the door and wiped some dust of the floor with a hind leg. He opened the door and was greeted with a familiar face.
"Peyote? What are you doing here so early in the morning?" Vireo asked with a confused face. It was unusual for Peyote to show up at this time. He was the type of dragon to sleep in.
"Well," Peyote responded, gesturing with a talon. "I have some awesome news!"
Vireo stretched. "But this early?"
"Yes," Peyote said, lightly fluttering his wings. "It was so awesome that I wanted to tell you about it as soon as possible!"
Oh, here we go. Vireo felt a familiar tension coil in his gut. That look in Peyote's golden eyes, the slight shift in his posture. Not just minor 'oops, I scuffed a scale' trouble, but 'my mother is going to breathe fire at the sky' trouble. Vireo wasn't sure why he always got dragged along. Maybe it was just easier than arguing.
"I was thinking we could fly over the island off the coast with some of the older dragons at our school," Peyote finished, lowering his voice slightly. "We could see what the island is like."
"What? Older dragons?" Vireo asked, wiping dust of his snout.
Peyote nodded. "Yes!" He did a quick little excited hop. "Nobody told you about it?"
Vireo wrinkled his snout. "I guess not?"
"Well," Peyote said, gesturing with a talon. "I think we should go do it. They said we could come along, because if someone finds out we did it, there isn't a single person to blame! We're lucky to be one of the non-landlocked desert kingdoms." He smiled. "Is that brilliant or what?"
"Brilliant?" Vireo echoed, wiping a speck of dust off his shoulder with a claw. He thought about it. Flying over the open ocean wasn't exactly something sand dragons did for fun. Sand dragon scales were not built for dealing with sea spray and unpredictable winds. "Or just a really good way for all of us to get grounded. If someone finds out we're missing, they'll look for us. And flying off towards the coast isn't exactly blending in."
Peyote flapped a wing impatiently, dismissing the concern like a bothersome fly. "Details, details! The point is, if we're with Apex and Scoria, it's not like one of us convinced the other. We all just happened to decide to go. Besides," he lowered his voice again, eyes gleaming with mischief, "Apex said the island probably doesn't get many visitors. Quick flight there, quick look, quick flight back. We'll be back before anyone finishes their morning routine."
Vireo squinted, the sunlight glinting off a stray grain of sand on his snout. "Morning routine? Peyote, you know my mother's 'morning routine' involves a full census of where every single scale on my body has been. She'll notice. And she'll kill me. You know how she is." He shifted his weight. The thought of the open ocean sent a shiver down his spine that had nothing to do with the pleasant morning breeze. "And what about the ocean? My scales would get all gritty, and what if there's a storm? Or a sea monster?" He heard his own voice rise slightly, sounding exactly like the anxious hatchling he sometimes felt like. "Come on, Peyote." Vireo continued, breaking the silence. "Maybe we should just play Tail-ball?"
Peyote took a step forward. "Would you really have fun doing that?" He pressed, leaning in conspiratorially. "Are you in or out?"
Vireo let out a long, slow sigh, blowing a puff of sand from his nostrils. He imagined the scolding, the grounding, the lecture about his "reckless choices" and "associating with the wrong element" (Peyote). He imagined tripping mid-air and plummeting into the ocean, all because his wings decided to spaz out.
"Fine," Vireo grumbled, trying to sound reluctant, though he felt a tiny spark of excitement deep inside his chest. "But if I get grounded, or if I accidentally choke on a sea-gull, it's on you, Peyote. And you owe me twice as many sun-dried desert berries."
"Yeah, yeah," Peyote replied, rolling his eyes.
Vireo opened his door wider and guided Peyote into his home. "So, when is it?"
"Uhhh," Peyote grumbled, putting a claw on his chin as he walked in. "I think in like two days?"
Vireo frowned and said, "It sounded like you were talking about this instant. Should we play Tail-ball for now then?"
Peyote shook his head. "Nah, if I'm being honest," he said, lazily rolling on his back. "Tail-ball gets boring sometimes." Peyote yawned too, stretching his arms out. "Yeah, like, you always know what's gonna happen. Someone bats the ball, someone else tries to snatch it, then someone usually gets their snout poked. It's just the same."
Vireo flicked his tail, stirring a little cloud of dust around them. "Okay, yeah, I get that. But it's familiar boring. Like, you know what's gonna happen. Nobody expects you to suddenly sprout fins or something."
Peyote chuckled. "Yeah yeah, I just can't stop thinking about that island. It's gonna be sooooo awesome. I feel more jumpy that a frog right now."
"Do they know what the island is even like?" Vireo asked. "Apex and Scoria? I remember hearing about it, but no adult really ever went into detail about it. Mostly just 'the island is a dangerous hunting ground and children must not intervene'." He scratched his flank.
Peyote turned his head to Vireo. "No clue man. I think we just wait to find out." He playfully bumped Vireo's shoulder with a talon. "So we don't spoil it."
Vireo snorted. "Yeah, 'spoil it.' More like 'get us eaten by something toothy and wet.' Are Apex and Scoria even good at flying over open water? What if they get us lost? My internal compass gets confused just looking at a puddle." He gestured vaguely with a claw. "Plus, a squadron of angry Ocean-Claws isn't a spoiler I'd welcome. But, yeah I think it'll be worth it going."
Peyote jumped to his feet, the frill on his back rising. "Yeah, that's the spirit!" He turned to the door. "Let's just go out for now, then."
"Out where?" Vireo asked.
"Uhhh," Peyote muttered. "Just out, like we'll make up the plan along the way." He gave vireo a thumbs up.
"S-sure," Vireo hesitated. He was surprised that Peyote didn't notice the shattered pot on his basking spot. Or maybe he did, and just didn't care. Vireo got up and bounded to the door. "Let's go then."