D-2: Salvus

Teeba hadn't stopped to really look at his town in quite some time - in fact, he hadn't stopped at all in the past few weeks. But his dear first dragon Otulius had convinced him to take a break and look out over all that the two of them had managed to build.

'Just head on up the hill there, find a spot to admire the view!' Teeba's first dragon had said early that morning, and the tsotska, after a few minutes of insisting he had dragons to take care of, eggs to hatch, and plans to make, had agreed to make the climb. So now, here he was. He could see Otulius, a speck near the river, talking with some of the more water - inclined dragons that resided in the town of Salvus. He reached out his mind to listen in on the conversation. Seemed that Otulius was asking how their hunting mission had gone. Upon feeling the brush of his rider's mind, Otulius turned his thoughts towards Teeba.

'Are you alright, friend?' the dragon thought in Teeba's direction. Otulius was one of the few dragons Teeba communicated mentally with these days. With so many dragons, he'd had to learn how to stop everyone's inner thoughts from crashing down on him all at once. But Otulius - Otulius was special.

'Yes, I am,' thought Teeba in return. 'I just saw you from up here, is all. Looks like you're handling things well.' Otulius briefly turned his head up in Teeba's direction and smiled, before continuing his conversation with the river dragons.

In his mind, though, Otulius thought one more thing Teeba's way. 'I've been here since the start, haven't I? You should know - I'm always here for you. And I'm sure everyone else is, too.'

Teeba smiled at that. He stayed up on the hill for a few minutes more, and pondered how lucky he was to have such a good family of dragons.

(323 words)