he sucked in a great gulp of air. His fingers reflexively tightened around the harness in a death grip, and it wasn’t until they were well above the castle walls that he realized he’d closed his eyes. He promptly opened them and looked around. The earth was falling away faster and faster, while the clouds grew closer. His hair was whipping free of the ponytail he had it in, but he didn’t dare remove his hands to try and cage it again, just let it fly free.
Orange, pink, and deep purple painted the sky as the sun sank deep below the horizon. Mountains rose up on one side of them, while the valley with Sonthofen fell away. Ravi smoothly turned them and took off, following behind Warin at a leisurely pace.
Ravi turned his head slightly toward Sora as if checking on him. “Are you okay? Comfortable?”
A bubble of laughter rose up in Sora’s chest.
“Perfect. But I thought wind dragons were fast,” he teased.
Ravi barked out a laugh and then flapped his wings, immediately zooming ahead of Warin and North. The world blurred, and the wind pulled at Sora. There was a chill to it, but he didn’t care. He was flying. He was flying with his dragon! Never in his life had he ever felt so free.
They zipped one way and another, plowing through wispy clouds and then down to skim over treetops on the mountains. There were no people to see them. No Jaeggi to threaten them. No reporters to hound them. No worries.
The only thing that mattered was he was with Ravi. The dragon moved with an almost ethereal grace. Sora tore his eyes way from the sky to look at the dragon beneath him. Ravi was all power and sleek muscles. His hide was slate blue with deep sapphire hints around his wings and streaking along the top of his head.
Reaching out one hand, Sora ran it along Ravi’s neck, feeling the sleekness of his scales, the hard, durable texture. It was a little surprising they didn’t seem as thick as some of the other dragons’. He’d helped his father heal an earth dragon once, and their scales were more like little steel plates, as were metal dragons’ scales. What Ravi gained in speed over the other dragons, he sacrificed in protection. A shiver of fear ran through Sora. Ravi would always need to be faster than his enemy.
Ravi suddenly laughed. “Did you just pet me?”
“I couldn’t help myself. Do you mind?”
A low rumbling hum moved up Ravi’s chest and out his throat. “I love when you touch me. When we land, you can scratch my belly if you like.”
Sora laughed in response at the mental image of a great blue dragon rolling onto its back just so he could rub his stomach.
A shout behind them had Sora looking around. Warin shot out a ring of fire and then flew through it, earning another excited shout from North as he thrust his arms into the air. Clearly, fire dragons had their own way of playing while flying.
“You want Warin to create one for us?”
“No! Definitely not!” Sora immediately replied. He was worried about catching his hair on fire as they zipped through it.
Ravi chuckled. Though the sound was mostly lost to the wind, Sora could feel the humor shaking the body beneath him.
Warin moved ahead of them and motioned for Ravi to follow. They were steadily descending toward a flat region in the forest on the mountains. Sora scanned the area. They had to be a good distance from the castle and the town. He couldn’t see any sign of roads or buildings. As they drew closer, the trees started to part, and he could see the sparkling water of a secluded lake.
Within moments, they were on the ground at the shore of the lake. Sora carefully hopped down from his perch and helped Ravi to remove the harness while North did the same with Warin.
Glancing around, it was clear they were the only ones there. A few cranes lingered at the distant shore, and there was the occasional plop of a fish, but nothing else.
“This is our secret spot. Only the dragons and mages know about it,” North explained.
“It’s beautiful,” Sora whispered, almost afraid to disturb the peace of the place.
A breeze gently stirred the leaves on the tree and the sky had grown darker, wrapping them in a warm, shadowy embrace. It really did feel like they were the only ones on earth.