Aqua at play

1250 words


Aqua Joltson, hatchling daughter of Azuleton Joltson, prances excitedly around her mother who is walking slowly towards the exit of the cavern.  She was bored with playing inside, having explored most of the interior of the cave.  Aqua chirps impatiently at her mother to get her to move faster. Her tail swishes behind her in frustration, her spade bouncing off the wall of the cave.  She decides adult dragons are too slow.

Azuleton, also known as Blu, Azuless her older daughter and Aqua are Desert lightning dragons, sky blue in color, except that Aqua has a dark blue pattern on her sides. Azuless is just three years older than Aqua, but in development she was far more advanced.  Although it has only been three months since Aqua hatched. 

Aqua growls when she thinks of her sister already playing outside, she should be out there too.  Aqua rushes forward, stumbles and falls, scurries to her feet looking for the chance to get by her mother. Her eyes dart back and forth looking taking in everything.  She bleats several times at her mother, voicing her frustration of not being allowed to go out with her sister, ending with another growl at not being able to talk.

“What does a young dragon have to fear?”She thinks to herself as she prances proudly, and then stumbles. Well other then the softening. The agonizing time when a dragon’s skin softens, signifying a time of growth in a young dragon.  She hated the softening, because everywhere itched, even places she could not reach to scratch.  She only had one softening, but that was enough. 

Aqua is now three feet long from nose to spade, or the spiked end of her tail, almost half the size of her sister. She is quite proud of how big she is, and if growing meant another softening, she wanted to stay this size forever.

Suddenly she sees sunlight at the end of the cave, she darts forward squeezing between her mother and the wall of the cave, squirming, she almost breaks through but mother catches her and holds her as she struggles to get free, Aqua’s high pitched growl follows. 

“Not so fast little one,” mother says softly, “When leaving the cave, even the toughest dragon looks first for signs of danger.” Aqua whines in annoyance looking up at her mother, showing a few of her spiked teeth, that in a full size dragon might look scary, but not with a dragonet the size of Aqua.  She throws her little head around as she tries to wiggle free as her crest horns, not much more then nubs; dig into the dirt behind her head. Mother picks her up to keep her from charging out of the cave. Aqua hisses angrily.

Blu moves to the edge of the cave entrance and looks out into the sunny field.  Azuless is running and leaping into the air and gliding short distances, playing carefree in the field just down the hill from them.  Most of her games include a short glide and trying to land on something or close to something.  Aqua’s games were more geared towards running jumping and pouncing.  Her eyes lock on to a leaf dancing in the wind, she bleats as her struggles are renewed.

“Settle down.” Mother growls, and then lowers her to the ground as she says, “It is safe to go outside.” Aqua lets out a squeal of joy as she charges into the clearing, the one leaf that taunted her while mother held her got away, but the one that followed was not as lucky. She leaps for one leaf, then flips back for something else, there are so many things blowing in the wind.  She dashes after one, pouncing on it, a larger leaf. Leaves blowing in the wind are little evil bats trying to invade her cave. 

She bounds towards a vine whipping in the wind, dangling from a tree branch. She drops to the ground focusing on it, her little head as close to the ground as she can get it eyes wide with concentration. She inches forward slowly. The vine is a snake, taunting her.  She darts forward judging the distance, finally she leaps and lands short of the vine, so she jumps again and bites down on the vine in mid jump.  But the snake is tricky and somehow it makes her flip over, she yelps and opens her mouth in surprise and falls flat on her back.  That’s what that crafty snake did last time...or was it something else?  She hears mother laughing; surely she did not do anything funny, so her sister must be doing something silly. 

Aqua scrambles to her feet and charges after a new leaf that flutters by.  She leaps and lands on the leaf, but her claws catch in the dirt and stop her instantly, she topples forward rolling to a stop.  She hears her mother laughing again. So she sits up quickly looking to see what her sister is doing that is making mother laugh.  Azuless leaps into the air and glides a few yards and lands on a stick she that she was targeting.  Then the snake is waving at her again, she charges back with a vicious growl, actually a high pitched screech and bites down on the vine and shakes it vigorously for making her fall last time.

Aqua’s eyes fix on a leaf blowing away. She had to get it before it escaped. She charges after it, but it was further away and it was getting close to the edge of the woods, the boundary mother would not let her cross alone.  She leaps clamping her tiny wings tightly against her body, and she catches it in her claws in the mid air.  She squeals with delight, staring at the leaf in disbelief. She lands her claws still clutching the leaf, so she tumbles to the ground and rolls to a stop. She lifts her head shaking some dirt from her crest horns, and looks up at the tree next to her. She shakes vigorously to shed the grass and dirt from her body. Then she hears her mother calling.

         “Aqua!” Blu calls to her, “come out of the woods. Stay in the clearing.”

         Aqua hisses in frustration, wishing she could talk, “She is a big dragon now and could take care of...”

         “What was that noise?”Aqua’s head spins around, footsteps, something walking towards her. She squeals in fear and scrambles to her feet.  The beast has short brown fur, white fur on its chest, scraggly horns protruding from its head, like tree limbs, it stops, looking at her, and it paws at the grass with a cloven hoof.  The beast is scary! She shrieks and charges back towards her mother screaming the whole time. Instinctually, her tail flails behind her to ward off any attack.  Mother rushes towards her, why was she smiling?  She hears the beast scramble back in surprise.

“It was shocked at how fast I moved.”She tells herself.

“Aqua. It is alright, it is just a deer.” Mother says kneeling to catch Aqua in a warm loving embrace.

She looks back nervously, the deer lowers its head to nibble on grass.  The beast was not so scary now. Maybe having mother around is a good thing... sometimes.

Aqua looks up sweetly into her mother’s eyes and then reaches up and nuzzles her mother and electricity arcs between their noses and she coos happily.



**Related story-Visiting Blu(Aqua's Mother)