Nicknames

Again. I'm falling off this mountain backwards.

Pearl dives and forms a cloud under me. She pants and huffs after the cloud is formed. I have to help drag her up onto the cloud.

"Lets get back to camp." I tell her.

"No! We-" she is out of breath. 

"We can try again in the morning." I inform her. "You need rest. You won't be able to do this a third time if he flings me off the side. Going back might not be what you want. I know things with Sheldon are rocky but we can work through it."

She sighs knowing I'm right. "Alright let's get to camp."

On the way down the side of the mountain on the cloud, I can feel the cloud getting bigger and more squishy. I try to spread my weight out but my left foot goes through the fluff.

"I hate to say this but the cloud is falling apart." I say concerned.

"I know! That's why I'm hurrying." She shouts.

My left hand punches through the cloud and I'm covered in fluff. I pop my head up best I could and see the camp.

"I need help! We are going to crash!" Pearl shouts to the others.

Sheldon sprays water either to catch me or slow me down but that didn't work. All of the cloud disappears completely. I'm in a true free fall. Til a geyser shoots up from the ground breaking my fall. Slowly the geyser gets smaller to where I can jump off.

I kiss the ground happy to be not so high up. I am a bit chilly now being soaked to the bone though.

"What do you think you were doing? Trying to kill him off?" Sheldon shouts.

"You were the one to take the cloud that was slowing him down completely out from under him!" Learl shouts back.

"Well maybe if your cloud wasn't so flims-"

The fight is cut off with a second geyser shooting the small dragons up into the air. I run to catch Sheldon while Pearl clings to a tree branch nearby.

"No fighting please." I say to them both. I pick Pearl up from the branch. "You both did your best. That is all I care about."

I place them each on a shoulder and gave them a small squeeze of a hug.

"Now I'm not sure if it's safe to be here with geysers though." I state looking the ground over.

"Those came from me." Olive says.

"What?" I'm surprised. I know she said her powers weren't impressive but I beg to differ.

"I'm able to call water up from the ground." Olive says placing her claws in front of a geyser hole. A small puddle begins to form.

"Well thats awesome!" I shout. The dragons are all taken back. "Sheldon, you have gotten better with your water shots! And Pearl! You can do that cloud thing now! Let's not forget about Dre either, he was able to carry me much farther today! I'm so proud of all of you!"

All my worries are fading away. That fire guy isn't as big and mean as the others say. Actually he is bigger than I thought but definitely not as mean thanks to Pearl. These little ones are growing stronger in just the few days we have been together. 

"Maybe the air was too thin for him up on the mountain." Sheldon quietly comments.

"Ha. Ha." I reply dryly then change my tone. "No, Pearl really hit it off with the eternal fire dragon. I think if we all go up there tomorrow we might be able to convince him to join us."

"You really think so?" Olive asks hopefully.

"Yes. He didn't believe all of us could be in the same nest but I want to prove him wrong." Pearl speaks up. "So I'm sorry Sheldon for what I said earlier."

"Me too." Sheldon whispers back. "Lets learn from our mistakes."

"You betcha!" Pearl says tackling Sheldon off my shoulder and into the puddle of water. 

As they play fight, I let out a sneeze.

"Fire. I need fire!" I start to tremble. The cold starts to take hold of me.

Dre prances around a pile of sticks and trees he collected.

"That might be a little too big." I say gently.

Dre looks at the ground bashfully. I pat him on the head. "Lets just move these three and use them later alright?" 

He jumps around playfully and then pulls the three big trees off the pile for me to light it.

🐉□◇🐉◇□🐉□◇🐉◇□🐉

[Flash back/dream. Around the time Pearl is an egg.]

"Eater!" Gretchen calls out. "You get it? Eternal? Eater?"

I do my best to ignore her. 

"I guess you're right. That one's not the one." Gretchen sprawls out on the flat top rock before she starts to whine. Again. "It's sooooo hot here!"

"Then go home for the 5,384th time." I grumble.

"What's the fun in that?" She pops up into the air making herself a bed of clouds to lay on. Her white scales shimmer in the sunlight. Very light streaks of blue are in her mane and tail hair. Her blue eyes are dancing with life.

"Be thankful you have a family." I remind her.

"This is why I come visit you. You're lonely and I don't want the company of ten other dragons." Gretchen says sprawling out on her back. She smacks her tongue and chomps her teeth together a few times after a yawn.

If she goes to sleep it would at least be quiet around here.

"I'm not lonely." I retaliate lightly.

"Yes you are, when I'm not around." She yawns again half asleep.

"Don't you have kids to take care of?" I ask.

"I left them with their father." She states.

"And don't you have grand hatchlings on the way too? Why not visit them?" I ask.

"I'm not walking in on my son and his mate while they are trying for a second egg." Gretchen holds her ground there.

"I can't be mad at you for that one." I claim.

Gretchen chuckles then sighs as her long slender body sinks into her clouds more.

"Blaze." She mumbles.

"What?" I ask.

"Blaze would make a good nickname for you. I'm sorry it took 350 years to figure it out." She murmurs in her sleep.

"Get some sleep while your kids are away. I will watch over you." I tell her.

"Mmmm." Is all she replied with for a thank you.

Blaze. 

I get a hot fuzzy feeling all over. How can this air brain cause me so much inner turmoil. I watch her sleep with a small tug of a smile on her snout. I can't help but feel a tug of one too.

I wake from my dream thanks to shouting at my cave entrance. "Mr. Eternal dragon! We're back! And we have reinforcements!" Pearl's voice bounces off the walls hurting my ears.

I sigh and then grumble as I get up. My joints snap and pop from my age. There is some pain in my back leg from a fight with Tundra not terribly long ago. Pearl did well with the healing but nothing can stop the aging.

Standing outside my cave is four dragons and human. All far too young. I lay down at the entrance and prop my head up on a claw.

"What do you want trespassers?" I ask.