Stop and Smell the Roses (Open)

Streak was happy. He was enjoying a favorite hobby of his: running. Was it strange that a flying creature enjoyed sprinting along the ground? Maybe. But Streak didn't really care. It was what he enjoyed and that was more important. He zoomed along the ground at what would be about 100mph: fast, but not his top speed. He carved a wide circle in the forest he was in, next to the base of a snow mountain.

This would be an odd day for him. On another he might be brooding, angry that his life had been destroyed because of a stupid decision, or mourning the loss of his previously great life, or paralyzed with fear at night, terrified that rustling in the bushes was band of humans coming to kill him.

But today, he was happy.

A small white shadow cascaded through the bushes that surrounded the prairie, her paws barely making any noise as she slithered through the underbrush of the forest on the outskates of the grass lands within the SkyWing territory. The white dragoness, Trinyah, wasn't really trespassing, more or less simply exploring unchecked territory between the IceWings and the SkyWings. It was neutral territory, meaning that the ice dragoness could come here to hunt or simply enjoy herself on a cold January day. Right now she was just looking for a place to relax.

As she traveled through the shadows, she emerged to see a white dragon running in circles, and tilted her head over at him. He was pretty fast, she gave him that, and if Trinyah hadn't been modest like she was, she would have bet he couldn't go as fast as she could, which was neither true nor false. But instead Trinyah watched with awe. Rarely did she see dragons other then herself and SkyWings that could run this fast. Well, except maybe Twilight. Twilight was fast, she had to admit. Trinyah silently wondered if she should approach the running dragon or if she should stay idle.

After a few seconds, she decided to gradually approach the strange dragon, not wanting to scare him or anything. Trinyah moved her entire body out of the underbrush, exposing her dazzling white texture to the sunlight. Despite her youth, she was a quite attractive young female. One of the reasons was because Trinyah was part of a race, the Aurora Ice Dragons, that the females were known for their beauty. The two diamond-like crystals on her back sparkled and reflected the sunlight.

Streak looked up at the sky and considered taking to the air to do some areal maneuvers, when suddenly another dragon stepped out of the underbrush.

She was small... very small. She had white scales (making him guess that she was Icewing) and they glittered in the sunlight. He had to admit, she was beautiful. Out of both surprise and awe he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her... which is bad if your running at 90+ mph. He had just enough time to turn his head before he noticed a large tree coming right at him. What happened next surprised even him.

He made a 90 degree turn straight up, so that he suddenly found himself 20 ft in the air so quickly not even he new how he got there. He hovered there, then flew to the ground in front of the dragoness, speechless.

Trinyah watched the dragon with curiosity, her eyes following him as he sped around. When he noticed her, he seemed to be awed by her appearance, which was the same response she often got from other males, except for FireWings, who hadn't really allied themselves with the IceWings and were less neutral then the other tribes. When she noticed that he had lost concentration and was heading straight for a tree, she called out frantically, "Watch out for that tree!"

Luckily, the dragon, though with astonishing speed, managed to avoid the tree just in time, jumping up twenty feet in the air and soaring there, heading in her general direction. Trinyah backed up a little so that he would have room to land, a please expression on her face that, even though she had just met him, he was safe. Though him almost running into the tree was her fault, making her slightly wish that she had stayed in the underbrush.

When he stared at her with a shocked expression, she trotted over to him, smiling. If dragons could, she would have applauded him on that tricky maneuver. As she got close, she said in a happy voice, "Hi! My name's Trinyah! That sure was cool, what you did back there,"she gestured over to the tree.

The dragoness introduced herself as Trinyah, and seemed impressed by his rocket-like take-off.

"Uh... yeah, I, um, suppose it was." he replied. He was never a very good talker and that little fiasco didn't help.

"My name's Os...Streak. My name is Streak." he said, stumbling over his original name. That didn't happen very often. He must be particularly scrambled. He looked around a bit, and then said apprehensively:

"Am I... in your territory? Because I'll gladly leave if you want me to."

The milky white dragoness shook her head, still smiling as she did so. It had been a while since Trinyah had seen someone near the IceWing territory, or in it for all that matter. The queen, Frostflare, and the lieutenant, Chloe, had not been very active within the territories, which Trinyah didn't understand but had shrugged it off after she had learned more about the politics of the tribe. Solstice was too busy with her hatchlingpups, which Trinyah thought were quite query looking animals, being half wolf and half dragon. Now that Trinyah thought about it, she never really knew why SilverWolf was part wolf, maybe it had something to do with the abundance of wolves in their territory. Who knew. Frostbite also was rarely seen around the palace. All this added up for was a very bored Trinyah.

"No, we are on the border of IceWing territory. This is actually SkyWing territory, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you were on the border, right?" the ice dragoness said enthusiastically, glad to have some company.

Trinyah told him (to his relief) that he was not on her territory. He was actually on the border between the territory of the Icewings and the territory of the-

Skywings. His family. The ones he may never see again. He looked up at the clouds, feeling a mixture of sadness and longing.

"No," he said still looking up, "I suppose they wouldn't."

Trinyah smiled merrily at Streak, and didn't really seem to notice his pause between sentences. Either it had been because she had ignored it, or her own ignorance, which was probably much more likely for Trinyah then the first answer.

Cheerily, she trotted pass Streak, looking over at him from over her shoulder, and asking, "Hey so, do you want to do anything? Like a race perhaps?" she said happily.

Trinyah snapped him out of his stupor. She suggested that they do something, like race. She was asking him to race?

"You know what? I could do a race." He began, a small amount of excitement beginning to bleed through his voice. "It's been a while since I've gotten to test my speed against another dragon." He looked up again, this time with a look of his rising excitement. He locked eyes with Trinyah and spoke again.

"So: on the ground or in the air?"

"The ground will do," came the white dragoness's reply, seeming happy to race even though she had already witnessed that Streak could run at speeds of up to one hundred miles per hour without getting tired. Which Trinyah could do as well, she just liked to watch others do it so that she could enjoy their company more. The grass underpaw made way as the little icewing trotted into the middle of the field, sitting down and awaiting Streak to follow her.

The wind began rushing up in speed, glowing and tugging at their scales. Indeed, now would be a very good time to race. And they had picked a good spot, too, Trinyah having found Streak in a meadow like area, or a prairie, or whatever the place they had found was.

Streak noticed Trinyah walk towards the middle if the field and followed suit. Staying standing, he looked around, trying to find a suitable point to race towards.

"What are we racing towards?"

Trinyah narrowed her eyes as she stared out across the prairie, spotting a tree right in the center about a hundred meters away. It looked as if it had been set there just so that they could race to it, seeming to have nothing but grass surrounding it. Indeed, Trinyah thought it would be a good place to race to, and there was enough shade to relax afterward!

"How about that tree over there?" she suggested.

Streak noticed the tree Trinyah pointed at.

"That will be perfect." he exclaimed before hunkering down into his sprinting pose.

"On your mark, Trinyah."

Trinyah as well took up a ready position, her eyes focused on the tree ahead of her. Wow, when was the last time she had raced!? Her blood pumped viciously with adrenaline as she shook her haunches back and forth, ready to launch forward at the first call.

"Get set... GO!" he shouted, before taking off. He decided to slow himself down a bit, if only to prolong the race.

This was amazing. He'd hadn't felt this excited in quite some time, but then again that was a downside to being a recluse.

Trinyah's body launched off into the air without a second notice, and for a second you would have thought she'd taken flight. But her wings remained glued to her body, and she landed with a thump next to Streak, her legs working powerfully to kick up dust and grass as they went along. Her eyes were wide and happy as the adrenaline pumped through her body.

Quickly she passed Streak, but who knew for how long.

Trinyah passed him quickly. Seems he was pulling back the riens a bit too much. He sped up a bit...

And realized that he had just passed the tree by about 20 meters. Seems he didn't have a very good judge on just how fast he could really go. He zipped back to the tree and sat under the shade.

"Ummm... oops?"

Trinyah was too busy running to notice that Streak was slowing down. Too busy feeling the wind pass through her scales. At least, she seemed distracted enough until something very fast zipped past her and the tree, and she slowed down in shock right before she reached the tree, too surprised to speak when she saw Streak had been the blur.

Then she said in rightful awe, "Wow, that was amazing! How did you manage to go so fast? You looked just like a blur, like a cloud! I've never seen another dragon that could go that fast!" she jumped up and down in excitement as she spoke.

Trinyah was excited. Really excited. This was interesting. He wasn't used to exciting others, so having someone this happy at what he was capable of was... fun.

"Well, yeah, I uh..." he stammered, before finally calming down enough to say "I guess I've always been able to do that."

Cheerily, Trinyah smiled at Streak, wondering if he had ever had as much fun like this before. By the way he stammered over his sentences, Trinyah also wondered if he got out much. Well, she would have, if she had been more serious about things like this. Instead, she simply looked up at the taller dragon and said in her usual happy way.

"So, now what do you want to do?" she asked him curiously, tilting her head as she walked over to the shade of the tree.

Streak thought for a moment. As he thought, he slowly looked up...

"Oh yeah!" he thought to himself. He turned quickly to Trinyah.

"Ok, so I have you beat on the ground..." He began, before zipping up 20 feet into the air.

"But what about in the air?"

Trinyah smiled a warm smile at Streak and nodded her head quickly, deciding she would love to enjoy yet another race with him. After all, who didn't love a bit of adrenaline to the head? It was always invigorating to win races, but it was even more invigorating just to be in one. She spread her wings and followed Streak into the air with a joyful grace, her eyes sparkling as she followed him, her wings dazzling in the sunlight.