Fire Flash let out a loud sigh. He was currently held in the iron grip of the mail-dragon, Derpy Scales, and she refused to let go. To make matters worse, she was crying. The way he was being held now, her tears fell straight down on his head, matting the short fur of his crest. The drake squirmed against the dragin’s grasp, but only managed to shift enough to look up at her. “Can you please stop crying?”
She looked down at Fire Flash, eyes puffy and red. “B-b-but, y-you’re going to die!” She broke into a loud wail and squeezed the drake even harder. “I shouldn’t have woken you up, I should have just let you go peacefully when you were laying in the wreckage.” She pulled him even tighter to herself. “Can you ever forgive me?”
“Hrk!” The drake struggled to pull the grey dragin’s limbs away from him, or at least loosen the grip on his neck so he could breathe. “It’s ok,” he choked out, “I forgive you!” He wriggled against Derpy’s claws to no avail. “Now, let go!”
Derpy loosened her hold on him, but didn’t let go. “But- but-” She lowered her head, rubbing her cheek against his. “But-“
“What are you- Stop!“ He pried at the dragin’s claws. He could barely breathe. Was she trying to kill him now? Strangulation at the claws of an overly emotional dragin was not how the drake had envisioned his life ending. He never really considered that his life would end in anything other than a bloodbath or fireball. “I lied! I’m not going to die!” The dragin stopped moving. The vice-grip she held on the drake’s neck loosened slightly, and he breathed deeply, savoring the cool oxygen that entered his lungs. “Now, can you please let me go?”
Derpy dropped Fire Flash to the ground. The drake stood up and cleared his throat. He then looked up at the dragin, just as she launched an overclaw punch at his head. He didn’t have time to react before the blow collided with his skull, dropping him to the dirt. “It’s not nice to lie! I was worried about you!”
Fire Flash shook the stars from his eyes. “You’ve sure got a funny way of showing it.” He stood up and dusted himself off. This dragin was a confusing creature, jumping between extremes of emotion with the slightest provocation. “Why do you even care? If I was condemned to death, wouldn’t there have to be a good reason? For all you know, I could be waiting for a chance to kill you.”
Derpy tilted her head to the side. “But, you’re not.”
Fire Flash sighed. “No, I’m not, but you don’t know if-“ He shook his head quickly. “Wait a minute! What do you mean I’m not? What is- How did you even come to that conclusion?!” He stepped forward and poked the dragin in the chest. “Look, right now, you’re all that stands between me and freedom. If you think I’m not going to take that opportunity, then you obviously don’t know who I am.”
Derpy brought a claw to her chin. One eye focused on the ground, and the dragin went still, lost in thought. After a few moments, she looked up at the drake. “You’re the dragon who attacked the library, aren’t you?”
Fire Flash pulled his claw back. “You just figured that out?”
The grey dragin nodded vigorously. “Pinkie told me the story before I left, but I didn’t realize that she was talking about you.”
Fire Flash started walking away. How did this dragin miss the link between that story and being asked to transport a prisoner? “Now that you know, you should realize how dangerous I am.”
“Yep!” Derpy trotted off after him. She pulled up alongside him and smiled. “You’re not dangerous at all.”
The drake stopped walking. He hung his head with a low groan. “How in the name of the seven paths did you decide that?” Try as he might, he could not figure this dragin out. What, if anything, was going through her head? “I set a building on fire, I threatened two dragons that had no chance at fighting back, and if help hadn’t shown up when it did, they would have been incinerated. Tell me again, how am I ‘not dangerous?’ ‘Cause, I’d really like to know.”
“That’s easy!” The dragin closed her eyes and smiled at the drake with the most annoyingly happy expression he had ever seen. She opened her eyes again and lifted a claw, extending a single digit. “First of all, you attacked the library first, avoiding the two dragons.” She extended another digit. “Second of all, a little bit of fire isn’t really gonna hurt anydragon.” She extended the last two digits. “And, um…” She looked down at her claw and sat down. Using her other claw, she took hold of the smallest digit on her raised claw. She raised and lowered it a few times while humming to herself. “We were on number three, right?”
“Oh, for cryin’ out loud!“ The drake stomped away in a small circle, turning back to face the dragin. “Yes, it was three, how could you forget that?!”
“Practice?” Derpy cleared her throat dramatically, and struck a pose, holding the claw with three raised digits in front of Fire Flash’s face. “Third of all, all in all, overall, et cetera,” she cleared her throat one more time, “you lied again.”
The drake stood there grinding his teeth together. “So?” He asked through clenched teeth. He raised his eyebrows. “Do you want to hit me again? Or do you plan to explain what you’re getting at?”
“Hah!” Derpy crossed her claws in front of her chest. “Pretending to be angry won’t get you anywhere.”
Fire Flash’s eyes went wide. “Who’s pretending?!” He clasped a claw to his head. He didn’t know how much longer he was going to be able to put up with this… eccentric dragin. He took a deep breath, calming himself as much as possible. “Alright, what did I lie about?”
Derpy pointed at him. “Popcorn.”
Fire flash blinked. He blinked again. He chuckled lightly. Then, he blinked a third time. He then broke into wild laughter, clutching his head as he bellowed, “That’s it! I’ve figured it out!” He spun in place, looking up at the sky. “It makes so much sense!” He galloped over to Derpy and threw one claw around her shoulder. He tapped her one the nose with the other. “I died.” He shook his head slowly, holding his face so close to hers that their noses were almost touching. “That crash killed me, and this is punishment.”
Derpy stared at him for a moment. “Um, Mr. Flash, I’m sorry about this, but…” She took a deep breath and shoved him away. She then launched a haymaker at his chin. It launched the slightly smaller drake through the air, and he hit the dirt a good distance away from where he started. Derpy walked over to him, inspecting the downed drake carefully. “Are you back to normal?”
Fire Flash laid on his back, staring up at the sky. His eyes matched those of the dragin looking down at him. “Punishment is supposed to hurt.”
Derpy blinked. She sat down and brought a claw to her chin. “Good point.”
The drake shook his head, returning his eyes to their proper orientation. He then rolled over and stood up. He sighed as he brushed off the debris that clung to him. “Don’t just agree with me.” He sat down heavily and started inspecting the forest around them. Trees several times taller than either of them surrounded the two dragons. Sounds of life filled the air, birds, frogs, and the occasional cicada. It was still daylight, but the light was starting to take on the golden properties of a waning day, catching the leaves in the tallest limbs in a glittering display of plant life. He sighed and looked down at his claws. Rich, earthy leaf litter crunched beneath them. It teemed with life as well, as he sat and watched a small salamander, the namesake of his type, crawled over his claw and hid beneath the leaves on the other side. “Fine, this place is too nice to be punishment.”
Derpy sat down next to the drake. “So… I guess you’re alive again?”
Fire Flash looked over at her. Somehow, he felt like he had aged over the last few minutes. At the very least, he felt worn out, like he was being ground down in a slow deliberate manner. “Yeah, I guess.” If he tried to argue with her, or resist the random machinations of her whims, he would just end up going insane. He had no choice but to go along with it. “So, are you going to explain what popcorn means?”
“Popcorn, that purple thing?” Derpy scratched her head. “Or was it ponicorn? That thing that lives at the library now, it’s small, furry, and all purple and green.”
The drake groaned. “Of course, that thing.” It seemed to the drake like he couldn’t escape that thing’s shadow. It was always there, always a step above him. How? It wasn’t even a dragon. He sighed again. There was no point in worrying about that now. He looked over at the grey dragin with a small smirk on his face. “Popcorn’s the right word for it. So, what about it?”
“Well,” she scratched the side of her nose, “you said the two dragons would have been incinerated if he didn’t show up, and he took a direct hit with the fireball you launched, right?”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” The drake glanced behind him, wondering how comfortable the forest floor would be to lay on. He didn’t really get a chance to appraise it after getting knocked over by the brute of a dragin he was talking to. Not that it really mattered, he had put up with much worse through his life. “And?”
Derpy smiled at him. “And, he was standing a good distance in front of Twilight and Rarity, wasn’t he? If he hadn’t shown up, the only thing that would have been incinerated was grass and dirt.” The drake sighed, but the dragin kept going. “I don’t think you wanted to hurt anydragon.”
The drake let out a tired sigh. He lifted a claw and flexed it, traces of dirt and leaf litter falling from his scales. “Wanna see how wrong you are, bubble brain?”
The mail-carrier held up a claw, waving it in front of the drake’s face. “Close, but the word you’re looking for is breath.”
Fire Flash rolled his eyes and flopped onto his back. Leaves and small twigs crunched under the dragons weight. The forest floor was actually pretty comfortable, and much softer than it seemed. Despite the cushioned surface, a jolt of pain coursed through his injured wings. He wouldn’t be flying anytime soon. “I give up. Everything I say seems to be wrong, so I’m just gonna lay here and let you talk.” He flexed the muscles in his limbs. The injuries in his arm and leg still hurt, but he could live with it, even if he had to move around. He looked over at the dragin. “You can start by explaining why I was supposed to say breath.”
The dragin didn’t respond with words. Instead, she took a deep breath and drew her lips together. With a soft, “foo,” she released the breath she held in the same way one would to cool off over-heated food, and a single, shimmering bubble popped out of her mouth. A rainbow of colors swirled over its surface, exactly like a normal soap bubble, and exactly like a normal soap bubble, it burst when Fire Flash tried to touch it. “See? Bubble-breath.” The grey dragin pointed at her mouth. “I have different oils in my saliva that let me blow different types of bubbles. It’s a lot of fun.”
Fire Flash rolled his eyes. “Interesting ability, too bad it’s completely useless.”
“Oh, yeah? Watch this!” Derpy stepped away from the surly drake. She took a deep breath and spun around, releasing a steady stream of bubbles as she twirled. The bubbles filled the clearing, creating a field of tiny stars as they caught the golden light filtering through the trees. The mail-carrier fell to the ground, dizzy from her frantic spinning, but bubbles she released drifted around with abandon, colliding with each other and anything else that crossed their path, breaking into a shower of golden sparks as they popped. The bubbles that managed to avoid any obstacles continued to drift away from the dragin that created them, floating through the forest in lazy paths of light. Once her dizziness started to subside, Derpy raised a claw towards the remaining bubbles. “See? Isn’t it pretty? I love the way the bubbles catch the light.”
The red drake lifted his head a little off the ground. After a second, he relaxed the the muscles in his neck, his head fell to the dirt with a soft thud. He repeated this movement a few times, beating horned impression into forest floor. “I am definitely going crazy.”
Derpy rolled onto her side and lifted her head to look at him. “Good crazy, or bad crazy?”
Fire Flash turned his head towards the dragin. “Only you would think there could possibly be a good kind. Sure, it’s pretty, but how does that make bubbles any more useful?”
The mail-dragin blushed and brought her claws to her cheeks. “You really think I’m pretty?”
“Gah!” Fire Flash slapped a claw to his face and slowly scraped it down his snout. “The bubbles, you air headed dolt, the bubbles were-“
Without warning, Derpy launched herself at the drake. She landed atop him twisted, straddling him and clamping a claw over his mouth. “Shh.” Her head bobbed from side to side as her eyes scanned the surrounding forest in a dizzying frenzy. She raised her head high and took a deep breath. She held it for a moment, then inhaled again, still holding her previous breath. She breathed in one last time, taking in as much air as her puffed out chest could hold. She let her head droop like wilted flower, and blew a bubble straight at Fire Flash’s chest. Unlike earlier, she only blew one bubble. It expanded outward, oily surface gliding effortlessly over scales as it grew between the two dragons and eventually engulfed them. When it stopped expanding, the bubble made a sphere large enough for the two dragons to move around in. Anything beyond the bubble was tinted pink, far deeper than could be explained by the day’s waning light. In addition to the change in color, everything took on a weird, flowing distortion, almost like looking through a lens that was melting.
The drake twisted out of the mail dragon’s grip, an effort greatly aided by the greasy sheen now coating his scales. “What did you just do?!” He tried to wipe at the glossy coating on his body, but his claw just slipped right over it. Ugh! I’m covered!”
“Quiet,” the grey dragin hissed, gesturing frantically for the drake to stop making noise.
“Why?” The drake brought his arm up and gave it a tentative sniff. He immediately started gagging, eye bugging out as tried to hold back his bile. He stumbled towards the bubble’s boundary. “That’s nasty! I’ve got to-“
Derpy tackled him, pinning him to the ground. “I’m sorry! But please, be quiet.” She clamped her claw over his mouth as best she could, and leaned in close to the drake. Please,” she whispered,” I know it smells, but please, just put up with it for a few moments.” Something rustled on the far end of the clearing, and the dragin’s head snapped up to face it. “I’ll do anything you ask, but please, don’t make any noise.”
Fire Flash craned his neck to look as the rustling became more pronounced. The dragin’s claw slipped from his mouth, but he remained silent. Whatever was coming, it had her scared. Given that she was undoubtedly more familiar with the area than he was, he had no choice but to heed her judgement.
“You sure it was over here?”
Fire Flash’s eyes narrowed to slits as two dragons entered the clearing.
“Yeah, didn’t you hear it?” One of the dragons walked into the middle of clearing and looked around. He was a dull maroon color, stout, bipedal, and had a thick steel plate, patched with rust, strapped to his chest like armor. He was nearly as tall as Fire Flash, and had scars all over his body. His face was flat and ugly, more befitting an ogre than a dragon. “Sounded like voices.” His eyes came to rest on Fire Flash for a moment. No, the bright red drake realized, this other dragon was looking past him like he didn’t exist. The armored drake walked back to his companion, revealing several manners of sword, mace, and other weapons strapped to his back, a personal armory. “I hate this forest, it’s making me hear things.”
The other dragon, a tall, dark green creature with cat-like features sniffed at the air. “It smells like rotted fish. A Hydra probably passed through here.” He was slightly larger than derpy, and his weight was much lower to the ground than was normal for a dragon that size. As he moved, his scales rippled over the muscles beneath. There was no mistaking it, he was a hunter. He turned away from the clearing. “There’s nothing here. We’ll meet back up with the others, then resume our journey.”
“You sure?” The brutish dragon gave the clearing a quick once over. “I know I heard something. What if it’s somedragon from town? We’ll be in trouble if-”
“I’ve indulged you more than enough.” The green dragon turned to face the other dragon. “You have good instincts, but you need to learn something about our group.”
“Heh, yeah?” The armored drake turned to face his cat-like companion. “What’s that?”
“Listen, and whenever I say something,” the green dragon lifted his claw and tapped on the metal plate strapped to the ugly drake’s chest. “Don’t. Talk. Back.” He sliced a single claw through the steel plate, tearing out a jagged line of steel, scale, and flesh. With a shriek of pain and shock, the armored drake fell to his knees. He clutched at his chest with trembling claws as blood started to pour from the wound. The green dragon brought his bloody claw to the other dragon’s chin and lifted his head to look him in the eyes. “Think you can remember that?”
The maroon drake’s nostrils flared and contracted as he shivered in agony. “Y-yes, I’ll remember.”
“Good.” The green dragon let go of the other drake’s head, letting collapse to his pain. He turned around and walked back into the forest, glancing back at his fallen companion. “We’re heading back, now.”
The injured drake crawled over to a tree, and used it to support himself as he lifted himself up. He then shambled off after the green dragon, leaving Fire Flash and Derpy alone in the clearing. They stayed where they were for several minutes, not daring to move, in case those other two dragons were still close. The red drake looked at the mail dragin on top of him. He wasn’t exactly sure what just happened.
Derpy edged her way off of Fire Flash. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “there wasn’t time to explain.”
The red drake stood up slowly. ”How did you know they weren’t just travelers?” He was careful to keep his voice down. “And why didn’t they see us? Was it because of the bubble?”
The grey dragin gestured towards the edge of the oily dome surrounding them. “Go take a look, it won’t break if you step through.”
Fire Flash hesitated for a moment, and Derpy shoved him forward. He tumbled through the slick film that made up the bubble, receiving a fresh coat of oil on his scales. “Ugh!” He scrambled to turn around, and was met by the sight of an empty clearing. He sighed as he swatted at his oily scales. “Ok, so it is a useful ability. You never mentioned that the oil could bend light like that.”
The bubble burst silently, revealing the mail dragin within. “I told you I could make different kinds of bubbles.” Her voice was grim, lacking its previous energy, as she stared into the forest, eyes glued on the blood-stained patch of the forest floor where the armored dragon once stood. “We have to go back to Dragonspyre. We have to warn them.”
“Warn them about what?” Fire Flash glanced at the blood, slightly unsettled by the memory of the encounter. “So, there’s some hunters who don’t get along. They’re free to do what they want.”
“They’re not hunters.” Derpy forced her gaze away from the stain, and looked at Fire Flash. “This section of the Everfree is a wildlife preserve, and off limits to everydragon, except for the Forest Guardians. We’re not even supposed to be here.”
Fire Flash smirked. “So, you’re afraid of a pair of poachers? Sure, we may not want to mess with them ourselves, but just send your Forest Guardian in to clean up. That’s their job, right?”
The grey dragin shook her head slowly. “They weren’t poachers.”
“Huh?” The drake looked back at the forest. The dragin that was once an annoying glob of migraine inducing energy was now sitting there, solemnly staring at the forest in near-total silence. What changed? For her demeanor to change this much, what were those two dragons? “Derpy?”
The dragin looked down at her claws, body shaking as she dug her claws into the forest floor. “I know that green dragon. Hi-his name is Koro.” She brought a claw to her face, holding it over her wayward eye. “Fifteen years ago, he attacked Dragonspyre.”
“A bandit, huh?” Fire Flash took one last glance at the forest where the two other dragons had disappeared into the trees. He started walking in the opposite direction, tapping Derpy on the shoulder as he passed her. “Come on, we need to find a defensible location. Sitting in the middle of a clearing is just gonna get us killed.”
The grey dragin followed him into the woods, ducking a moss-laden branch as the drake led her through the trees. “You’re really going to help me?”
“I’m not doing this for you, or your precious town.” The drake stalked through the trees, steps as silent as shadow as he watched the terrain. It was almost night, and they needed to find shelter. That dragon mentioned that there were hydras in the area, and he didn’t feel like going up against one in his current condition. “We’re a little bit safer if we stick together, but the moment the opportunity comes up, I’m gone.” He watched the forest floor for signs of stones or boulders, searching for any sign of caves or animal dens. “Do you know how far we are from that town of yours?”
Derpy followed him. She didn’t know what he was doing, but she didn’t have much of a choice but to trust him. “If we have to walk, we should be able to make it back in about a day.”
“What do you mean if we have to walk?” A large stone caught the drake’s eye, and he walked over to it. The top of the stone was covered in feathery, green moss, and its side was covered in deep scratches. “Manticores, there should be a den around here somewhere.” He started searching the area for a hidden entrance. “Unless I missed something, I’m injured, and you don’t have wings.” Beyond a nearby fallen tree, Fire Flash found himself looking down a small dirt cliff, overgrown with sickly, brown vines. “Over here.” He climbed down carefully and searched the crust of plant matter until he found an opening cut into the cliff face. It would be a squeeze, but they would both be able to fit through it. The cavern was sure to be roomier farther in, but there was something the drake had to check first.
He started gurgling deep in his throat, working up a chunk of phlegm. He spat into the cave, bodily fluids igniting on contact with the air. The chunk of flaming spit splattered against the floor of the cave, spreading liquid fire across the dirt floor, and lighting up the inside of the cave. It was empty, save for a half-mummified manticore corpse in a far corner. This cave had been abandoned for a long time. That was good. Even a large group of manticores would have been little more than a meal for him and the dragin he was traveling with, but the fight would have left evidence of their presence in the forest.
Fire Flash looked over calmly as Derpy joined him in front of the cave by unceremoniously tumbling over the fallen tree at the top of the cliff. She hit the ground next to him with a soft thump and a puff of leaves. “I take it back.” Fire Flash walked into the still flaming cave. “I’d probably be safer on my own.”
Derpy picked herself up and followed him in, dusting herself off before squeezing through the aged cave entrance, and covering herself in a fresh coat of dust. The inside of the cave was larger than the entrance, but it was barely enough room for the two dragons to move around in. Derpy shuffled around the cave a bit, extinguishing patches of flame with her claws and tail before laying down.
Fire Flash set about putting out the rest of the flames. It was almost completely dark outside, and he didn’t want the light giving them away. Every so often, he would steal a glance at the grey dragin sharing the cave. As the cave grew darker and darker, the dragin barely even moved, staring at a patch of flame in front of her on the cave floor. Once he finished extinguishing the rest of the small fires, he walked over to the one in front of Derpy. “I’m not complaining, but you’re awfully quiet all of a sudden.” He put out that last flickering light, and laid down as far from the other dragon as was possible in the cramped cave. “Who is that Koro guy? To you, I mean. I get the feeling he’s not just some random bandit.”
Derpy looked away from the drake. “What do you think of my face? Of my eyes?”
Fire flash rolled his own eyes. He had all but given up on getting a straight answer out of her, but it would be nice to not have to play these games every time he asked a question. “Who cares about your eyes? It’s your teeth I’m scared of.”
The mail-carrier smiled and looked over at him. “Thank you, but be honest, they’re unsettling, aren’t they?”
The drake sighed. “Dizzying is more like it.”
“They weren’t always like this.” Fire Flash rolled onto his back, ignoring the momentary pain in his wing as Derpy continued talking. “When I was younger, they were normal, like everydragon else’s.”
The drake yawned. “So? What happened?”
Derpy lifted her head and crossed her claws on the ground in front of her. “I never knew my parents. When I hatched, my egg was abandoned on the shore of the Sediero Sea.”
Fire Flash nodded as he listened. He should have known he was going to get a life-story. “I can relate, but I would have given anything to have been born near water.”
The mail dragin laid her head on her claws. “Well, I had to support myself for my entire life. For the first few years, I didn’t even know there were other dragons. I just lived wild, off the land. After I learned about civilization, and learned to speak, I found out that I was pretty strong for my size. I used that to get jobs. At first, I would do grunt work, mostly; construction, deliveries, anything that required brute force. Then, as my wings developed, I started focusing more on making deliveries.”
“Wait a minute.” Fire Flash shook his head. “You don’t have wings.”
“Yeah, I do. It’s just…” The mail carrier scooted over to the drake and turned so he could see her back. Just above her shoulders, two bat-like wings stuck out. In addition to looking like bat wings, they were about the same size as a bat’s wings. They were also covered in little blue polka-dots. “When we crashed, I think I landed in some poison joke.”
Fire Flash stared at the two mini wings. “So, when you say we crashed, you mean that-“
“I crashed, and I was carrying that box you were in?” Derpy scratched at the back of her neck. “Yeah, pretty much.”
The drake rubbed a claw against his face. “Just how big are your wings, usually, for you to make it as far as you did.”
Derpy craned her neck to look at her wings. “A lot bigger than this. And I would have made it all the way to Dragartha by now, but I was attacked by a flock of Pteroqs.”
Fire Flash narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t those extremely rare? Like, to the point of being nearly extinct? And you were attacked by a flock of them?”
Derpy nodded. “We’re in a wildlife preserve, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.” Fire Flash noticed that the dragin wasn’t making any move to go back to her original position in the cave. “Well, this brings back memories.”
Derpy looked at the drake, tilting her head in confusion. “What does?”
Fire Flash chewed his lip for a moment. He didn’t really want to talk about his past, but at this point, what did it matter? “I’ll tell you, if you finish telling me about Koro.”
The mail dragin looked down. “Promise?”
The drake sighed. It seemed she didn’t want to talk about the past either. “Yeah, I promise.”
“Thank you,” the mail-carrier exclaimed happily, “where should I start?” Derpy rolled over, placing her side against the drake’s and snuggling up against him. “So, I already mentioned that I did a lot of deliveries, so, right now, I should probably tell you about-“
“No.” Fire Flash gave the dragin a solid push, but wasn’t able to move her. “Right now, you should probably give me some personal space.”
Derpy looked up. “What’s, ‘personal space?’ I hear that a lot, but nodragon ever wants to explain it.”
The drake rolled his eyes. “Of course they don’t. Personal space is the space around a dragon that is personal. It belongs to that dragon, and others are supposed to stay out of it.”
“Oh.” The dragin put a claw to her chin. “That makes sense.”
Fire Flash sighed. “Good, so-“
“Oh, right! I need to finish my story. I don’t mind sharing personal space.” Derpy cleared her throat. “Anyway, you already know that did a lot of delivery work when I was younger. I worked in several large cities, and got to see all sorts of amazing things. There was this one time, in Dragartha, I bumped my head on the ceiling and dropped a box of-“
Fire Flashed waved his claw for the dragin to stop talking. “Look, just cut to the chase. I just want to know about this Koro that we’re hiding from, and you seem to be talking about everything else. Who is Koro?”
Derpy swallowed hard and rolled away from the drake. “Are you, uh, sure you don’t want the background? Some parts of the story might not make sense if I skip around.”
“No!” The drake sat up as tall as he could in the cramped cave. “Nothing you say makes sense, so I really doubt it can get any worse. Our lives are at stake. Tell me what I want to know.”
Derpy shrunk back. “I- I should really just, uh-“ Her tail hit the wall of the cave and immediately rolled up beneath her.
After seeing her reaction, the drake regretted his words. He needed to know what he was up against, but he didn’t have to terrify her to find out. He leaned down a little, making himself a little smaller. “Derpy?” He moved towards her slowly. “Are you ok?”
She looked away from him. “I, uh-“
Even in the dim cave, Fire Flash could see her shivering. Why was she acting like this? He reached out a claw to put on her shoulder, a small gesture of reassurance. “What did he do to you?”
“Don’t touch me!” Derpy shrieked as she smacked the claw away. She backed into the cave wall, trying to get away from the drake. “Don’t touch me.” Unable to back up any more, the dragin pressed herself to the wall and slid to the floor. “Don’t…”
Fire Flash backed away from the dragin, staring in shock as she broke into tears. He sat down as far away from her as he could, not wanting to upset her anymore. He sat in silence for a moment, then surprised both of them by breaking it. “You reminded me of somedragon, somedragon very important to me." Why was he telling her this? "You reminded me of someone I lost. She was loudmouthed, pushy, and convinced she was always right, but then again, she usually was. No matter how much we fought, I couldn't stay mad at her."
Derpy didn't look up from the floor, but calmed herself down enough to ask, "What happened to her?"
Fire Flash shrugged. "Who knows? I left her, and by the time I realized it was a mistake, I couldn't find her again. I don't even know how long I've been searching anymore."
The mail carrier pulled herself away from the wall, watching the red dragon closely. He didn't look like he was lying. That meant this was some dragon that knew what it was like to care for another. "I'm sorry."
"What are you apologizing for? I was the one that yelled at you."
She shook her head. "I just didn't want to talk about Koro. I hate him. I hate his memory. I just want it all to go away."
Fire Flash nodded slowly. There were certainly memories he would rather forget, but things didn't work that way. he pointed to the mouth of the cave. "He's out there right now. That's not going to change just because you want it to."
Her once smiling face twisted into a snarl. "It would if I killed him." She dug her claws into the ground. "He deserves it for all he's done." The grey dragon's face wasn't designed for anger, and after a few seconds, her snarl broke, along with her composure. She buried her face in her claws. "Who am I kidding," she cried, "he almost killed me last time. And he killed the farmers I was working for. Their children grew up alone because of me." Fire Flash remained silent, and let her continue, "I have a daughter. I don't want her to be alone."
"The father?" Flash probed, as gently as possible.
"I tell her she doesn't have one. Saying he died before she hatched is easier than telling the truth." She took one last shaky breath to steady herself. "Koro's the father."