As they left Genchira, both of their attentions shifted to the dragons.
“You’re sure you know where to find them?” Tauran asked. They’d switched mounts so Kalai rode Isku and Tauran rode their new purchase, a frisky young palomino gelding, since Tauran had more experience with horses.
“Oh yeah,” Kalai said. At least this, he had no concerns about. “Arrow will want to spend the hottest hours near the cliffs by the sea. And even if we don’t find them there, they’ll no doubt find us once we get back on the road.”
Tauran made a soft sound, a line firmly between his brows as he gazed over the golden sandstone cliffs. “Leyra better be with him.”
“She will be,” Kalai assured him. He rarely got to see Tauran this antsy. Tauran seemed ever ready to tackle any problem with an absurd amount of reckless bravery. But he had, Kalai realized, never really dealt with dragons roaming wild, before. Although Itana had been wild, Tauran was used to keeping his dragons close, to always have them come when called and stay within sight.
“What if Leyra didn’t make the flight?” Tauran ran a hand over his hair, tugging strands loose from Kalai’s previously perfectly made ponytail.
“If there had been any trouble at all, Arrow would have found us.” Kalai reached for Tauran’s hand, giving it a squeeze. The smile he got in return was full of gratitude.
And, as it turned out, Kalai was right.
Tauran stayed behind with the horses while Kalai climbed one of the smaller cliffs overlooking a section of the beach below. Kalai’s whistles bounced between the cliffs. For a long moment, it seemed as if no one would show. Then, a bright white form darted from a distant crevice and shot into the air, spinning once before fanning out a pair of streamlined wings tinted faintly pink in the sunlight.
The echoes of Arrow’s call replaced Kalai’s whistles, and a second form appeared. Darker, larger, a little slower and less elegant, but no less eager. Leyra’s legs kicked in the air as she struggled to catch up to Arrow sailing smoothly on the sea breeze.
They landed on the cliff beside Kalai, Leyra bounding for him with little regard for her own overwhelming strength. She pressed her head against his chest, and only Kalai’s swift grasp of her horns kept him from tumbling to the ground.
“Whoa, whoa, easy!” Kalai gasped when Leyra slapped her tongue against the side of his face with enough force for the impact to sting.
Tauran’s voice from below prompted Leyra to leap straight over Kalai and down the cliffs.
“Thanks!” Kalai called over his shoulder, wiping Leyra’s slobber off his face with the back of a hand.
Arrow was far more considerate with his affections, stretching his neck toward Kalai in a silent plea for the chin scratches he loved so much.
“Good to see you again, big boy,” Kalai murmured, pressing his lips to the sun-warmed scales atop Arrow’s head.
Kalai checked the straps of Arrow’s saddle, making sure everything was still in place and nothing chafed. Then he mounted up and rode Arrow down the cliff to the horses.
“Skies, I’m so glad we’re all together again.” Tauran, all smiles, stood beside Leyra and put a considerable amount of strength into scratching between her front legs. Leyra stretched her neck, her eyes closed and the tip of her tongue wiggling between her front teeth in an expression of pure delight.
Kalai smiled. Despite being used to Arrow straying, he had to admit it was nice having their family all in one place again. He wasn’t entirely sure when he’d started thinking about the four of them as a family, and they were certainly an unconventional one. But they protected each other, cared for each other. And if that didn’t make them a family, he didn’t know what did.
They fell into a comfortable travel routine, but this time, they didn’t have to worry about the dragons being seen. To Tauran’s obvious amusement, the people they passed near settlements and villages seemed more intrigued by Tauran’s foreign appearance than they did by the two dragons trailing their horses. Those who knew more about dragons than others sometimes stopped to admire the sight of Leyra, for her rarity. Other times, upon discovering Tauran couldn’t speak a lick of Sharoani, children would run alongside their horses and amuse themselves by making Tauran pronounce complicated Sharoani words, like ‘ishkishkia’, which meant horseshoe, or ‘kouel’kashiy’, meaning bread basket. Sometimes, after encounters like those, Kalai would catch Tauran murmuring the words