Skade's Adventures: Meeting the Sea Gliders

Word Count: 928

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The heat of the sun bore down on Skade’s neck as he trotted through the tall wheat-like grass that liked to grow on salty-water sands. It was the middle of Autumn and the beach brought a briny breeze that swept through the woldren’s fur and kept him cool despite the sun’s waning protests. The woldren slowed to a halt and fell to his rump in the sand, releasing a groan of pain.

Walking in the sand wasn’t anything like walking in the snow. As he pulled his backpack off his shoulders and dug around for his stored water, his shadow shifted unnaturally. It bulged as three large claws dug their way out, pulling the obsidian woldren they belonged to out of his shadow. Skade didn’t flinch as he passed a water gourd to the shadow-made-manifest.

“Already tired?” Thora teased. But Skade wasn’t in the mood for comments like that, joking or not.

“Easy for the dragon riding in my shadow to complain.” he scowled before throwing a waterfall down his mouth.

“Hey, you said it was okay.” Thora frowned and threw her own growl into the mix. Skade huffed, but made no further comment. He ached and he was upset, but it wasn’t his friend’s fault.

“What do you think they’ll be like?” the black woldren asked after Skade had looked to have calmed down. The peach woldren was in the middle of pressing his paws against each other in an effort to massage their pains away. He looked to the sky and then to the ocean line as he contemplated.

“If all of the other dragons are anything to go by? Weird.” He answered.

“Is this about them having scales again?”

“It’s weird.”

“Skade, we’re the only ones covered in fur. If anything we’re the weird ones.” Thora argued.

“At least we don’t have gross webbed crab fingers.”

“You mean wings?”

“Chickens have wings. I don’t know what swift wings have.”

“Bats.” Thora countered.

“Well what do you think they’ll be like?” Skade decided to cycle back to the original conversation instead of having the same argument he and his friends often got into about how odd other dragons were.

“The ship breakers said they’re tiny. But what’s tiny to a ship breaker?” Thora mused. “It honestly doesn’t mean much coming from them. Maybe they’re udin sized? Or dweller sized.”

What Skade and Thora weren’t expecting was something actually tiny. The tote sea glider resting in the sand was barely barely taller than the woldrens’ ankles. It was honestly no wonder that they went undiscovered for so long even with another ocean dwelling dragon roaming the islands.

She raised a hand to them, waving them down for them to join her. But the two woldren didn’t budge. They gave each other a nervous exchange, worried that if they got too close the little thing would get spooked and disappear into the ocean forever. After a moment, the sea glider rolled her eyes, exaggerating so her whole head rolled with them just so that the furred dragons could see it at their distance.

“Can you just come over here already? We don’t have the time for this!” she called, cupping her paws to either side of her muzzle.

Skade raised a brow to Thora before making the first move. She followed after him, copying his body language to appear smaller. The sea glider made a face at them, her mouth pulled into a look of confusion and annoyance at their actions.

“Goodness, I live in the oceans. I can assure you I live with things scarier than your worst nightmares. Can you get over yourselves?” she demanded. “I’m Coral, by the way. Not that I think you guys were even thinking I had a name- treating me like I’m some skittish anemone!”

“Sorry,” Skade mumbled. Despite the shame he felt, he raised his head.

“We heard the reefs are dying.” Thora felt like the best way to move on was simply to move on. “How can we help?”

“We can worry about that in a moment.” Coral shook her head with a smile. “You both seem exhausted. We have a cook out down the beach. We can discuss this over some food.”

“Sure! Food sounds great.” Skade’s ears perked. He had brought granola and ram jerky, but he was always excited to try new foods from the other dragons. He tried to keep his expectations low, since he assumed the sea gliders would eat similarly to ship breakers. And Skade felt like ship breaker food left much to be desired.

He was pleasantly surprised at the beautifully seasoned kebab of shrimp, chicken, peppers and onion that he was passed. There were plenty of sea gliders around fire pits, as well as other dragon types that he had grown accustomed to. Skade was down six kebabs and several kelp-based drinks before Coral had even attempted to talk to him and Thora about the reefs.

“You both look the age that your magic should have manifested. What do you two have?” the sea glider asked.

Skade stopped mid-chew and gazed down the sand. Thora tried to give him a sympathetic look that he intentionally looked away from.

“I have shadow magic. I can hide in shadows and move with them. Based on what my mother can do, it’ll get more diverse as I practice.” she answered. “Skade-”

“Mine haven’t manifested yet.” Skade cut off.

“Some of us just take longer than others.” Coral comforted in a sort of matter-of-fact way. “Maybe you’ll find something while you’re here.”