Swamp lands

Sheldon and I make our way through the mountain sides and forest. We started following the river back the way we came til there is a fork in the river.

"I'm telling you we came from that way." I insist for the fifth time to Sheldon. We have been arguing for ten minutes. I say we came from the right and he is persistent that we came from the left. 

"The water tastes funny coming from that way so I know we didn't come from this way." He defends.

"You said the water tasted funny from that way when I thought you couldn't breath on land." I demand pointing to the right.

"You know what. We can go that way just so I can tell you I told you so." Sheldon says in a moody way.

Sheldon dives into the water and I follow him up stream. I stumble over tree roots, fallen trees and rocks. The vegetation starts to get thicker and thicker, til I realize I am standing in a swamp. The murky water surrounds me while I'm standing on dirt thats more muddy than anything. My feet are sopping wet from sinking into the ground and stepping in water.

Sheldon swims up and jumps from the murky water clinging to a jagged tree stump. He stares me down.

"I told you so." Sheldon says in a calm way.

All I could do is sigh and hang my head low. "I'm sorry, you were right."

"Thank you. Now we can go ba-" Sheldon stops mid word. Usually when he does this there is something bigger than us nearby. I look where he is looking but see nothing.

"Wha-" I try asking what he sees but Sheldon shushes me. That's when I see a bloop happen in the swamp water. What ever was watching us is now in the murky water. "Sheldon!"

I reach my hand out for him to jump to me so I can carry him. Yet he doesn't jump. The water begins to swirl between Sheldon and I. What ever is in the water just slipped right between us. Adrenaline is pumping while dread sets in as I question myself. Had I listened to Sheldon we wouldn't be in this situation. 

"I'm sorry I should have listened to you! If you can jump to me, I will get us out of here. I promise." I say stretching out farther.

"I don't think you will make it very far." Sheldon looks in horror behind me. I slowly turn my head to see a little bigger than wolf sized, almost the same shape as a wolf but lizard. It's head is more round and it's body looks well armored with tan and brown scales. It lowers its head to point it's short horns toward me.

"Do you think you can at least make it out of here alive? And if you find Sonja tell her it wasn't so bad being kidnapped by her." I say trying to sound strong infront of Sheldon.

"I can try." I hear the doubt in his voice.

"Would you two stop scaring them!?" A small childlike voice yells from over head.

We look up and see a white wingless dragon running down clouds to get close to the wolf like one. The new dragon wasn't more than the length of my forarm, with looks of the old drawings of eastern dragons if they were a pure white instead of crimson red. The little dragon then scampers around on top of the big ones head.

"It's alright you can come out." The white dragon says to the water. "These ones don't have a mean bone in their body."

"How do you know?" Says a voice from the water.

A sleak mossy green dragon with long horns emerges from the water. The underside of it's belly was a lighter green and a wave of purple coloring divided the two colors. It ducks behind the big one and peers out from beside him.

"I have my ways." The little one says with a wink. Then it turns towards us. "Hi! How you doing?" 

"Uhhh, okay?" I'm wondering if they are putting on a ruse. "H-how are you?"

"That's good. Outside of death and destruction to our family, friends and our homes, I would say we are doing alright." The little one states.

Trauma dumping are we?

"Well, that's, uh." I'm lost for words.

"Gilton and Tundra came through your homes too?" Sheldon speaks up.

"Yup!" The little one says. "So where are you two going? The three of us found each other and are sticking together. You're welcome to join us if you want."

"We are trying to get back to some friends." I say.

"Friends?" Sheldon gives me his best skeptical look. "Last I knew they summoned you, kidnapped you and you 'slightly' got lost from a girls house while being chased by rats."

"Oooo there's a girl? This just got interesting." The white dragon sprawls out in-between the big ones horns and rests her cheeks on her claws.

"I-it's not like that!" I snap. "The people that summoned me, well the sister of the summoner, thinks I'm some prophesied dragon. One that will take down this Gilton guy."

"Uhhh I hate to break it to you but you're a human." The white one clicks her tongue and shakes her head. "You know what though? If you're going after Gilton and Tunda, I want in. Do you want me to use my powers on you?"

"You're powers?" I ask a little scared of what's they mean.

"That there is a mountain healing dragon."  States Sheldon.

The little one jumps into the air and clouds form around her feet as she clings and jumps over and around me. A baby rain shower from the clouds and my minor scraps and bumps begin to heal.

"Wow!" I'm in awe watching the cuts and bruises disappear. "Thank you.... what's your name?"

"Us dragons only get names when we get human companions. Didn't Sheldon tell you this?" The white dragon says landing on my shoulder with a plop. We look over at Sheldon.

"I was sorta filled in." I state. Sheldon looks up at the tree canopy.

"Well do you two want to join us and get names?" The little one asks the other two. They nod slowly and walk forward shyly. The white dragon turns with excitement in her voice. "What names are we getting? Huh? Huh?"

"Well you're white as snow so Yuki?" I ask.

"If you name me anything related to snow, I will bite your fingers off one at a time." The white dragon snarls and clacks her sharp teeth twice to the message across.

"That was rude of me! I'm very sorry! How about...." the notice a shimmer in her scales, "Pearl. How does Pearl sound?"

"Pearl?" Asks the mountain dragon that has never seen the ocean.

"It's an item humans find valuable. A piece of sand gets into a clam and the clam protects itself by healing that area forming a white pearl." Explains Sheldon.

"I like it!" Pearl exclaims. "Now what names are the drake and swamp dragon getting?"

"Can I get to know them first?" I ask. "We do have a bit of a hike back to Sonja's house."

"After you get to know them, you're telling me about this Sonja." Pearl smirks.

I just nod hoping I can avoid that conversation entirely. I let out a shiver from the cold as we all begin our journey back the way Sheldon and I came to look for the fork in the river. The big one still scares me but it seems the little one has more bite than he does.