Flying high above the treetops, the cool air flowing over and under her wings, the blue dragon felt the tensions of normal life slip away. She knew she could be fairly open in this area as it was rare to see a human and even when one did, they typically were of the lowly tribes, with not much in the way of distance weapons. She had seen her fair amount of civilization of humans and elves who did not enjoy her beauty. She had never once attacked any human or elf and yet she was chased and hurt.
Her family had told her that once dragons and elves used to live in peace, but then humans appeared among them and poisoned the hearts of elves against them. They said dragons were not to be trusted with their giant claws and teeth. If you angered one it would be all too easy to for a dragon to just kill the one who angered it. But this was not the ways of dragons and it hurt them all so deeply as elves and humans plotted against them. The humans swore that different parts of dragons could make magic brews all that more powerful. And while elves had lived much longer and known dragons, they fell for this treacherous falsehood. For while, yes, dragons anatomy was different and some dragons seemed to pose magickal abilities, none of their body was more powerful than those of elves or humans and anyone who tried to sell such was just looking for a sucker to part with their money.
These thoughts made the blue dragon huff a steam of water as the memories angered her. She did not want these thoughts to impair her joyful afternoon in the sky. She had nowhere to really be and she was not expected back by anyone. Which wasn’t all that unusual once a dragon was old enough to be on their own. Families stuck together for a few centuries until the elders believed the young ones would be able to handle themselves on their own. She had passed that stage about 50 years ago and loved to go on long trips and see the different lands.
When she reached a land she did not know and did not think had been explored by her kind, she would fly higher than normal so her shadow did not appear like anything to those below. Thankfully this did not hinder her view of what was below since dragons had such wonderful eyesight. The only problem was having to see through or around clouds at times. But, once she was able to find a place to hide she could normally watch from afar for quite some time before moving on.
She had seen many different types of people and creatures in her travels. She liked to think about some of them at times like these as she soared above the wilderness below. To think these wildernesses used to stretch across everything she had seen and people changed that landscape to make it their own. Some found it disturbing, but she found it fascinating.
Swooping down towards the ground, she landed at the edge of a fairly deep river which rushed by. It ran too quickly for most other animals to take a sip, but, as big as she was, she did not fear the rushing water as she bent to drink. The sun was starting to dip and this meant her eyesight would be less reliable for a few hours until darkness came upon the land, but again, she was not in any hurry and did not see any reason to fly during the night.
Finding a clearing about her size she nestled down with her tail wrapped around to touch her nose and her wings spread as if to make a blanket over her. The veins in her wings were warm and would help keep the chill off the main part of her body during the night. Having scouted around the area from up above for a while before deciding on this spot, she had no fear of anyone finding her resting spot that night.
Dawn came and went and as the last of the early birds brought food back to their nests, the dragon began to stir. First, the wings unfurled and then tucked into her back while her neck and tail stretched to opposite ends. The jaws opened wide and the dragon yawned. Blinking to get the last of the sleep out of her eyes she looked around the clearing. There were no animals or people around, which was fine by her. She did not need to feed currently, though before she found new civilization she may want to top off, just in case it took a while to leave said civilization. It would do no good to become hungry and have to steal livestock from those she did not want to know about her.
With that thought in her mind, she sniffed the air. There was the smell of venison on a downdraft which appeared to be on the older side. She rather take the lives of those who had already lived most of their lives rather than those who had just begun to live it. She lifted her head and saw a male deer with broken antlers bent low, munching on the grass in the meadow, not far from the river she had visited the day before. It appeared the deer either was too old to care or did not realize there was a dragon in the area. Or perhaps they had never seen a dragon before and did not realize the danger she could possess. Which was also a sign that dragons may not have visited this area as of yet.
Without taking more than a few flaps of her wings she was up in the air and as the deer looked up to the sky to see what had caused the shadow upon the grass he was eating, the dragon dove and took the deer in her jaws. It only took a few chomps to dismember the deer enough to swallow and she did not even have time to land before the deer had passed from her jaws down her gullet.
Having already taken off, she decided to continue on with her flying, but this time she flew higher as the whiff of smoke had also come to her senses which meant people of some sort ahead.
Chelsea Haller 