2024-07-13 - Flights Again

Neath feels it before it gets to see it - pure rage, the thump of heavy bodies hitting the sands in the Bowl, the snarl and snap of... What? What are they doing? It doesn't understand, even as the image comes into focus with every set of eyes in the Bowl on the pair of dragons. They're tangled up together in a way that reminds Neath of when Mother and Pertemarth cuddle together, but it's different - they're moving, struggling in a way it hasn't seen before. The green tries to bite the blue's wings, claws at his face, and Neath feels little echoes of what it will later pinpoint as 'pain.'

The blue's rider forces greenriders, the green says, and Neath has to wonder what that means. Forces them to what? And what does he mean by the green having 'the last pick?' Last pick of what? What does that have to do with her rider? Why do so many of the dragons Neath has met seem to have riders - is that the same as their bond? But what does that have to do with having 'the last pick?' There are lots of people without dragons around.

And Flights again. It always comes back to Flights, it seems. The blue threatens to fly the green every time, and Neath has to wonder what this means, too. Issrodeth and Igith had made it seem like a choice, but Yuakajth and this - horrible, it thinks to itself - blue see it otherwise. Which is it?

It ponders this until Pertemarth approaches, then happily turns its focus to him and Mother instead. He seems unharmed. It's glad, but distracted. The fight troubles it. Why had they done that? Why do they hate each other? What did their riders have to do with anything? Why does Gwillanth think the quake has something to do with it? Does stress make people change?

It doesn't want to change. It curls in from the world to think.