Digging for Gold

The wind battered Kaysro’s face, his nictitating membranes working overtime to keep his eyes free of tiny debris that was floating in the strong wind that was threatening to carry him away. On top of him, Feye seemed to actually be doing fine (to his utter dismay), as she had a full-faced helmet on for this journey. Their destination this time was to find a specific location, just the two of them and Cyniss flying freely on the side, where their Flight had hidden a golden gem that Feye was supposed to bring back. It was a test for her, she had said, in order for her to advance to the next rank in the something-or-other of the Flight- she was being oddly vague about it, and Kaysro was very much fine with leaving the larger Cyniss to needle her about the specifics of said mission. He was just here to get shinies, honestly. 

With a tilt of his head, Kaysro realised belatedly that he was falling behind- Cyniss, with his massive tern-like wings, was speeding along the wind currents whereas his almost swallowtailed wings was having difficulty keeping up. “Slow down!” He yelled towards the larger dragon, and thankfully Cyniss actually heard, because he slowed down for a while until they were caught up again. He offered for Kaysro to ride in his tailwind, which he accepted gratefully. Flying with a friend occasionally has its uses, and this is one of the times. (“You’d fly with Cyniss any time, you adore him,” Feye teased him, to which he promptly muttered for her to shut up without any heat in his voice.)

An agonising few minutes later where Kaysro contemplated all his life choices about flying into a literal floating island, he saw land, and had never been more thankful that he was able to touch down on a solid surface. As Feye was dismounting, Kaysro looked around- he begrudgingly had to admit the scene was beautiful. The floating islands were kept aloft by some unknown force, probably some sort of magic if he could be bothered to learn more theory about it, and mist was pouring down some of the islands that seemed to contain waterfalls. Flocks of birds coasted on the wind currents just like Cyniss before, their chirping echoing in the vast expanse. However, he was soon pulled back to the task at hand with a gentle nudge from Cyniss.

“Alright, so now that we’re here,” Feye was explaining to the two of them, “all the instructions I got was ‘follow your instincts’, which is just about useless because I’m not an Ocean rider. So let’s think of it a different way… You guys got any ideas?”

Kaysro usually left the brainpower part of the missions up to Cyniss to do, and for good reason- the blue dragon was good at it! Sure, it might be also because he’s an Ocean mix, but he was undoubtedly the more willing one as well. “Well let’s start with the obvious,” he was saying, “the most likely scenario would be for them to hide a gem underground.” Cyniss gestured to the large island with the black-and-white tip of one wing. “And as you can see, this island is nearly all mountainous.”

Feye nodded. “I think when we were landing, I saw this island had quite a deep belly as well, so to speak. Kaysro, do you think so?”

Kaysro glanced up from the flower he was examining, which looked suspiciously similar to a fruit he’s had before. “Uhh, I think so?” He replied uncertainly, to which Feye rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. “That’s a yes then,” Feye decided for him.

Together, they decided to search the island for an entrance underground- it was highly unlikely that the Flight would bury the gem somewhere that was only accessible to Earth dragons, for example, just because they knew it was a test- and soon after Kaysro was actually the one who discovered the entrance, having accidentally stepped into its moss-covered hole by accident.

“Over here!” He gestured for the other two to join him, despite them already knowing about his discovery through their mental bond anyway. He poked his snout into the entrance, and was never more thankful to have fire magic as a small burst revealed a large cavernous path leading down into the centre of the island. “That’s not creepy at all,” he remarked with a shiver. 

Feye stuck to their sides as the three of them descended deeper into the cavern, the slightly larger Cyniss tucking his wings in close to avoid getting scratched by the sharp stones. The inside of the cave was surprisingly damp, water dripping from some unknown source and filling the surroundings with a steady drip-drip. Bioluminescent plants grew in rings surrounding the dripping water, and out of the corner of his eye Kaysro spotted something shiny! He bounded towards the shiny thing, leaving his rider and Cyniss in the (metaphorical) dust.

Feye turned to him to say, ‘really?’, before she shut her mouth again audibly with a click. She brushed her ginger hair out of her eyes and squinted- there it was, the gold-coloured gem that she was instructed to retrieve, lodged between stones worn smooth by the water. That was surprisingly easy, she thought.

Evidently, the universe thought so too. Because now there was another situation at hand…

“So uh, does anyone know how to get out of the cave?”