Memory Bonds

Harmoni and Fleck rode a dragon to the town West of Xentron City. Oasis. Neither had been in a hurry to go on foot across the desert, and the planet didn’t have many vehicles. In fact, the dragon they road was basically a living taxi.

She'd seen a few dragons pulling wagons or carriages as well, but it wasn't super common.

Not many people wanted to be living transportation, dragon or otherwise. Apparently, a few were up for that though.

They slid off at the edge of the town.

She put some money into a bag. The taxi dragon had few bags slung over him. He nodded, a bit of smoke puffing out in approval. Then the dragon turned, and took off back towards Xentron City.

Harmoni turned and headed into town, looking around. Fleck had been here before, but it was all new sights for her. The buildings were smaller than in Xentron City, and some seemed to be almost entirely underground. The only evidence they were there would be a door or a yard. There was more space between the buildings, and larger yards, but the yards were emptier. Mostly sand and rocks, though a few scraggly things grew under the rocks. And it was quiet.

The hair on the back of Harmoni’s neck rose. She couldn't help feeling nervous. She looked around, straining her pointed ears. She could barely hear anything, except the whistle of the wind. Her ears were good. She should surely hear something. Where was everyone?

Fleck could smell the faint traces of people. And none of the scents seemed dead or injured. This town was somewhat nocturnal. If they had to be outside, they tried to do it at night. That was all.

Sure enough, a moment later, Harmoni heard the soft whoosh of wings behind her. It didn’t stay that silent for long.

“Yee-haw!”

Both Harmoni and Fleck turned around. Harmoni did so quickly and sharply, wanting to see who was coming down. Fleck jumped high, catching some serious air, and was smiling.

The dragon in the sky was about the size and shape of a van. She was golden, like Fleck, with yellow light coming down through her thin wings. But she also had a black stripe around her eyes and going along her back. And her golden eyes matched her scales, unlike Fleck’s gray eyes.

That was Fleck’s oldest sister. The riders called her Glimmer.

Harmoni could certainly see the resemblance.

'Wait,' she thought. 'So you have two older sisters, and the human names for you are Glimmer, Glow, and Fleck?'

'Yes?'

'You sure you didn't get the short end of the stick?'

'Hey!'

Fleck was coming off indignant, but he was playing it up a bit and they both knew it. It was fun, but Harmoni should probably pay attention to the situation. Fleck's sister was coming in.

On Glimmer’s back was a rider. As she dropped closer to the sand, Harmoni got a better view of them. The rider was a human woman. She had a helmet, a leather vest, and leather boots and gloves. But Harmoni could see some blond hair poking out from under the helmet. She had gray eyes and light skin. She was tall for a human woman, and muscular.

And she always smelled like sand.

Harmoni tried not to laugh.

The rider jumped off Glimmer’s back and waved at Harmoni and Fleck.

“Ey there Fleck. Long time, no see. And you must be ‘is rider. Suzan Flin, a pleasure.”

She extended a dust covered glove.

“Harmoni.” She held her own hand out.

The handshake was vigorous.

“Come on, this way,” Suzan urged. She turned towards one of the yards, jerking with her head for Harmoni to follow. “I owe Glimmer some water.”

Fleck climbed onto Harmoni’s shoulder.

‘Suzan has some sort of spring in the bottom of her house. She always rewards Glimmer for her flights with it,’ he explained.

Of course, riders should always do nice things for their dragons sometimes. Keep it an even relationship. But Glimmer worked hard on her flight, and not many riders could just pull clean cold water out of the ground. So the exchange was sort of specific.

Sure enough, Suzan entered a side hatch around the side of her small house. She came up carrying a large bucket of water that she poured into a trough. She made the trip two more times before speaking.

While she did that, Glimmer licked Fleck a few times. “Good to see you little buddy.”

“We weren’t too late, were we?” Suzan asked.

“I don’t . . . think so?” Harmoni said, glancing at Fleck.

“You weren’t.”

“Good. We were just practicing for the Xentron race. We’re going to win it for sure this year.”

That seemed . . . unlikely.

“Sorry,” Glimmer huffed. “My rider is apparently crazy.”

Suzan actually stuck her tongue out at her.

Glimmer shook her head, and turned to Harmoni. “Suzan and I love racing. And flight shows with some of those fancy stunts. But we’re decidedly not the best at it.”

Flexible dragons like Aqua had the advantage there.

“. . .I see,” Harmoni finally managed.

It was quiet for a moment after that. Glimmer drank her water. Fleck took a few laps too. Suzan sat on the door to her cellar.

Getting to understand what was going on was a new and nice experience. He'd been to visit them before, but since he couldn't understand Suzan on his own, it had been pretty frustrating. And Glimmer had probably picked up on that, even if neither she nor Fleck had said anything.

“So, uh, what do we do now?” Harmoni asked, wringing her hands.

“Hmm, tell you what? This is your first visit. 'Ow about a ride?”

“What?”

Suzan shrugged, rocking back and forth slightly as she spoke. “Fleck’s gone with us plenty before, but you should get to experience what racing is like. The wind in your face. The ground and sky equally untouchable. The land rushing by below you. The thrill of competing. The look of defeat on your opponent’s face when you crush them.” Suzan briefly curled her fingers into a fist and glared at it, before relaxing it. “It’s great. And who knows? If you like, maybe you and Fleck can get into racing.”

Fleck liked . . . part of it. He doubted he’d get into racing when his wings grew in though. Like his sister, he was shaped a bit too much like a box anyway, better at pure strength.

But he agreed. Harmoni should totally give it a try.

Harmoni felt her lips quirk up. “Alright. Let’s go.”

“Woo!” Suzan cheered.

She ran inside, and came back out with another pair of gloves and a helmet. The helmet had to be adjusted a lot to fit on Harmoni’s head.

“Trust me, you’ll want it,” Suzan said.

Oh she didn’t have to say.

Glimmer crouched down all the way, belly on the sand. She reminded Harmoni of a cat when they were laying down with just their feet poking out.

Suzan gave Harmoni a boost up, basically flinging her into the saddle, where her feet fell into the large saddle bags.

Considering there were only two stirrups, that was probably the best place for her legs to go.

Suzan put one of her own feet in a stirrup, and leapt onto Glimmer, grabbing the reigns.

‘I thought you’d hate reins?’ Harmoni asked internally.

‘Well normally, yes.’ If you were bonded with a dragon, you didn’t need reins. You and the dragon could fly practically as one. And if you weren’t bonded? Well, dragons weren’t a mindless animal. ‘But for racing or stunt flying it’s kind of a safety thing.’

Fleck climbed onto Glimmer as well, his claws able to get a better grip on the scales than a rider could do.

“Ready?” Glimmer asked.

“Yeah!” Suzan cheered.

Harmoni gripped one of Suzan’s shoulders, and grabbed a rein with the other hand. Then she nodded.

“Ready!” Fleck confirmed.

Glimmer launched them into the air. She moved fast, like a bullet from a gun, and Harmoni was forced back. She gripped Suzan and the reigns a little harder, and when she tried to lean forward, both Fleck and Suzan gave her a hand. It helped that Glimmer was slowing down. That momentum could only last so long. Harmoni couldn’t get a better grip on the reins, but she could cling closer to Suzan, practically hugging her.

Like a sloth.

‘. . .Yeah sure.’

Harmoni had good timing, or maybe Suzan and Glimmer were talking. As soon as she was more secure, Glimmer spread out her wings and flapped, pushing them forwards at higher speeds again.

She kept flapping. Harmoni could see her flap, pull her wings in at least partly, and then spread them out and flap again, many times in a row.

Reducing drag.

Well no doubt about that. They picked up speed with each flap. They shot forward across open desert. A few clouds of sand and dust rose up below them, but it didn’t reach high enough to breath in. Hot wind hit Harmoni’s face. The desert below all looked kind of the same, but she could see the clouds whiz by up above.

It was actually kind of fun, if uncomfortable. Harmoni smiled faintly.

Then the landscape changed. A canyon was coming up. It rushed up on them, and suddenly they were between two steep rock walls, with the occasional jagged edge sticking out.

It felt like they were going to hit something. Then they moved closer to the rock wall. And Glimmer started angling sideways. Harmoni had to squeeze Suzan to make sure she didn’t slide off as the rocks rushed towards them.

Fleck grabbed Harmoni’s shirt in his mouth.

Glimmer hit the wall, kicking off with her feet, and immediately swung the other way to do it on the other side, zig-zagging across part of the canyon.

Harmoni tried not to cry.

Fleck wasn’t worried about death by rock wall. Glimmer was better than that. But this route always made him . . . nauseous. But it would probably change when he did the flying himself. Every dragon flew. Getting nauseous while flying would be like a human getting nauseous from walking.

They were suddenly exiting the canyon. Harmoni had been too distracted by fear (and Fleck’s hurt stomach) to notice they were reaching the end.

Glimmer flapped a few times to clear the edge, and turned around, flying along side it.

This was a short route. Normal races took hours. Maybe Glimmer and Suzan were being considerate. Or maybe Glimmer was already tired. They’d been flying earlier. Or maybe it was too hot. The races were often at sunset or later. It was pretty late in the afternoon, but not that late. Whatever the reason, they were heading back.