32A/N: When I first posted When a Human Catches the Dragon Flu, I didn't expect anyone besides Prophe-Cass to know the show I was talking about. Well, not only did people know about Rescue Riders, they wanted more! 0w0 You all made my day, and encouraged me to continue in this -verse.
Now, this story is to have a mix of one-shots told from the perspectives of various characters. (Dak and Leyla will get their turn, but not until they are older. I don't dare even try to write from a three/four-year old's perspective. If someone wants to have a go, have at it and just let me know when you post it!) My hope is to include many chapters of adventures between the twins and their dragon friends, but anyone who follows my stories know I can be a bit distracted. So, if this only turns out a few chapters long, please don't be disappointed.
Really, the only reason this is rated T is because I will eventually reach the point of what I think happened to Winger's mom.
Finally, I have a lot of theories involving Swiftwings and Winger's mom. Some could be null come a new season of RR, but we'll see. If there's something you think really won't line up with what canon has given us so far, please let me know!
Glow loved flying in storms as much as the next Swiftwing, but she and her young son had been flying for some time now. She didn't dare to stop, but she was getting tired herself. She could only imagine how exhausted he was.
Spotting a broad sea stack below, Glow led the way into a small, sheltered section of the sea stack in the lee of the wind. Glow landed and scooped the small blue Swiftwing against her body, feeling him pant for breath and shake.
"How are you doing, Winger?" Glow asked.
Winger gave her a brave smile. "I'm fine, Mom. But how much further?"
"I don't know, son," Glow said sadly. She blinked away tears and nudged him. "Rest. We'll wait for the storm to slow, then continue."
"Mom?" Winger rose on his hind legs. "Mom, what's wrong? Why are we so far from the roost?"
Glow sniffed and looked away. Winger had always been so observant and curious. "Our nest… isn't safe anymore. We're heading out on our own. Like the stories I told you of when I was younger. We'll travel wherever we please.
Winger stared at her. "Is it because Dart and Windy went missing?"
"Yes, Winger." Glow hugged him closer, thinking of Winger's friends who had vanished the previous day.
"Is that why everyone was leaving the roost? But what if Dart and Windy come back? How will they find the flock?"
Glow closed her eyes, remembering the ships she'd seen on the horizon earlier that day. Winger was too young to know about the dangers of Hunters, but Glow had seen the havoc they could bring first-paw.
"Mom?"
Glow opened her eyes. Winger was sitting up again, gently pressing his paws around her scarred, blind right eye.
"Is your eye hurting you, Mom? Did you get something in it?"
"No, Winger," Glow told her son. "I'm just tired."
Winger looked at their meager shelter. "We can't rest here!" He pointed to Glow's hind paws, her claws digging into the stone to hold them both in place. "You'll slip when you fall asleep."
"I will be fine without sleep until we find a proper nest," Glow assured him.
"Let's keep going, then. I'll be fine, too," Winger said.
"Oh, Winger." Glow nudged him. "You need your rest."
"You, too," Winger insisted. "I can make it, Mom!"
Glow smiled gently. "I know you can, son. Alright, let's go."
Glow unfolded herself from the shelter, letting Winger take to the sky first. She followed close behind him, positioning herself to block Winger from the wind as much as she could.
"You'll see, Mom!" Winger called over the wind. "We'll find a new nest in no time!"
It was starting to get dark, and the two Swiftwings still hadn't found a new place for a nest. All Glow could see were sea stacks, and none had a cave big enough to be comfortable.
Glow shook her head and peered through the driving rain. Where were they? The storm must have blown her much further off course than she'd thought. There weren't any islands in sight!
Glow looked at Winger, drooping and shivering in her wake. He couldn't make it much further. She couldn't. They needed to stop… somewhere… Glow's eyes swept across the crashing sea once again, but there wasn't-
Wait!
Glow dropped lowered, and realized her eyes hadn't deceived her. A human ship was wedged in between two sea stacks, sitting precariously several lengths above the water. Had the waves thrown it there?
"Mom?" Winger asked tiredly.
"Stay close, son," Glow said. "I see shelter, but there may be someone else there."
Winger nodded and followed Glow to press against the lee side of one of the sea stacks. Glow scanned the ship, but nothing moved. For the ship to be in such an odd place, Glow doubted any humans would have stuck around, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.
Glow landed softly on the ship, making the wood floor creak. She wrinkled her muzzle. Humans were so weird, with their floating dens and strange language, but she wasn't going to pass up this shelter.
Glow sniffed around the ship, knowing there was usually a passage to lead inside the den. She growled in pleasure when she found the steep, dark passage. The walls had been broken in the wreck, making the entrance large enough for even Glow.
"Mom, what is this?" Winger asked. He tapped the ground, ears pricking up at the hollow thumping it produced.
"It's a human ship," Glow said. She stepped into the passage and listened.
"Aren't humans dangerous?"
"Some are. I've seen humans attack dragons, and some just ignore us. It's best to just leave them alone."
"So… why are we in their den?"
"Humans don't keep their dens on sea stacks. This one must have been thrown her by a storm." Glow nodded. "I don't hear any humans. This could be an old wreck, long abandoned."
"Cool!" Winger said, briefly forgetting his exhaustion.
Glow smiled at her son, then led the way down the passage. The passage abruptly ended, but it dropped into an open space. Between the lateness of the day and storm, Glow couldn't see much.
Glow closed her eyes and focused. A surge of power filled her chest, like when she formed a power blast. Instead of shooting a bolt of concentrated energy, she let it rush through her body. When she opened her eyes, the small den was illuminated by the blue glowing markings on her body.
Winger watched her with wide eyes. It would be years before he could form his markings, and he was always in awe by Glow's markings.
With the light, Glow scanned the den. It was small, but big enough for her. Human objects were flung against one wall of the den. Fish bones showed that the wreck had been there long enough for fish flung in by the waves to have rotted or been eaten by some other creature. Long enough for no humans to be around.
"Humans are messy," Winger said, wrinkling his muzzle against a rank odor.
"They are," Glow said with a chuckle. "But their den will do for us to rest in."
Glow chose a dry, empty corner near the exit and curled up. Winger squirmed under her jaw and sprawled out with a relieved sigh. He was asleep in seconds. Glow smiled at him and closed her eyes to follow suit.
Thump.
Glow's eyes shot open. Her markings, which had started to dim, flared back to life. Her good eye scanned the den for the cause of the noise.
"Who's there?" Glow asked, baring her teeth.
There was a hushed rush of voices that Glow didn't understand, then the pile of rubbish across the den shifted. Objects clattered to the floor, and a small creature tumbled out with a yelp.
Glow leaped to her paws, dropping Winger and startling him awake. She held back a growl, recognizing the creature to be too small to be a threat. Had a Nipper taken shelter in the den as well?
Glow walked toward the creature huddled and whimpering on the floor. She was nearly in reach, when there was an outraged yell from the rubbish. Glow jerked her head up as a second creature leaped out of the rubbish. It landed between Glow and the first creature, and batted Glow with soft paws.
Glow stared, then a rumbling chuckle escaped her.
"Mom?" Winger crept between her paws, then ducked away. "What is it?"
"Two humans," Glow said.
Winger cocked his head. "Kind of small, isn't it?"
"These are young ones, barely more than hatchlings." Glow lifted a paw to push away the human's small ones. "Come now, just calm down."
The small human -a male, Glow determined from his scent- gave an outraged shriek. He stumbled backward, tripping over the second young human, this one a female. The female whimpered, prompting the male to crouch over her.
"Do humans abandon their hatchlings?" Winger asked, wide-eyed.
"No." Glow scanned the den again, but it was long empty. "Perhaps the wreck scared the rest of the humans off."
The male screeched again, like a challenge. He narrowed his green eyes and bared his teeth, despite the strong scent of fear wafting off him.
"Ah, little human," Glow said, amused. "You can't fight me."
The male stood, giving Glow a good look at him. He was scrawny compared to most humans, with bright red-orange headfur and pale skin. His skins -humans always wore animal skins- were torn, dirty, and the source of the stink. He had a scabbed-over cut down the right side of his face.
The female whimpered again, louder. Glow looked down at her. The female was as filthy as the male, and had the same color of headfur. She was shaking from either cold or illness.
"I think they've been here a while," Glow realized aloud, looking again at the fish bones.
It was odd for such young humans to be alone. On a ship, no less. Most likely, the other humans weren't returning. Either the sea had taken them, or they really had abandoned the hatchlings.
While Glow was thinking, Winger crept out from under her. When the male human spotted him, he made another challenging noise.
Winger laughed. "He wants to fight, Mom."
"He's just frightened," Glow said.
"Why're they alone?" Winger asked, cocking his head to see the female.
"Probably lost," Glow responded.
"Are we going to take them home?"
Glow looked at her son, startled. "What?"
"You know, like the Spike-Flinger hatchling we found. Or when a whole flock of Fire-Furies got lost. We helped them," Winger said. "Are we going to help them?"
"Yes," Glow said, on instinct. She took a moment to think, then smiled gently. "Yes, we're going to help them."
"Yay!"
Winger's yell startled the male, who scrambled backward. He grabbed a loose piece of wood and held it in front of him as some form of weapon.
Glow shook her head. "We aren't going to hurt you."
Unfortunately, humans understood dragons as well as dragons understood humans. The little male continued to make threatening noises
"Aw, it's alright," Winger said, stepping forward.
"Winger, wa-"
Whack!
Glow winced as her son was smacked over the head with the wood. Winger sat down hard and blinked, dazed but unhurt.
"Come now, you little fighter," Glow said.
Glow swiftly leaned over the male and grabbed the back of his skins, since humans lacked a scruff. The male screeched and waved the wood until Glow swatted it out of his paws. She then scooped up the female with one paw and made her way back to the clear corner of the den. She sat down, placing both humans between her paws.
The male's furious shriek was cut off when Glow gave him a firm lick across the face. He blinked up at Glow, his face several shades lighter under the dirt. Glow licked him a couple more times, cleaning his hair and the cut, then moved onto his sister.
The male had settled under Glow's washing, but she could sense him tensing when she sniffed the female. They were probably siblings, Glow figured.
The female whined and curled into a tight ball. If she knew she was being held by a dragon, she wasn't afraid; she was hurting.
"Is she okay?" Winger asked, sitting beside Glow.
"I'm not sure yet. Here, watch her brother for me, could you?"
Glow moved the male to beside Winger. The male gave a protesting yelp, but didn't try to "attack" again. While Winger sniffed him over, the male closely watched Glow.
Using the tips of her claws and soft croons, Glow gently coaxed the female into relaxing enough to get cleaned herself. Glow found a few small scratches and bumps, same as the male, but nothing major. She sniffed the female over, and detected a sourness in the female's breath.
Glow looked at the fish remains, the broken passage, then at the small humans. Whatever storm had swept away the adult humans and trapped the ship, had prevented the human hatchlings from getting outside. They would have gotten hungry, and Glow wondered if they had eaten some bad fish.
"You'll be fine, little one," Glow said comfortingly.
The female's eyes opened. They were green like her brother's, and didn't hold a trace of fear. She stared up at Glow with open curiosity. She reached up with her paws and, when Glow lowered her head, gently pet Glow's muzzle.
"You're a little fighter, too. I can tell," Glow said. "Don't worry. You'll be well soon."
The female made a noise similar to Glow's, then rifled through her skins to pull out a small, human object. It had a hard wooden armor that the female peeled back. Inside were rectangular pieces of something thin and white, like a white leaf. Human scratchings filled some of the leaves.
The female flipped through the leaves until she found whatever she was looking for. Making an excited noise, the female turned the object to show a picture scratched onto a leaf. It looked… kind of… like a Swiftwing.
"Is that yours?" Glow asked, cocking her head.
The female said something in her language, hurried and excited. She waved a paw, probably to make a point, then broke off with a cough. Her muzzle twisted in a grimace, and she fell silent. She tucked the object away in her skins and curled around her stomach with a miserable grumble.
Glow flicked her tail over the female, who laughed and stroked the fins. With the female distracted, Glow looked at Winger and the young male.
The lateness and long flight was finally catching up to Winger. Even with the new and interesting human beside him, Winger's eyes were drifting shut. The young male, apparently seeing his sister was in no danger, leaned against Winger and wasn't much further from sleep.
Glow curled a paw around Winger and the male to pull them closer. The human grumbled sleepily, but tucked himself closer to Winger's warm body. Winger, giving a wide yawn, wrapped a paw around him.
Glow studied the young ones as they drifted to sleep. Once the storm ended and she got her bearings, it would be easy to locate a human nest to leave the human hatchlings. It would be significantly harder to safely land in the nest long enough to leave the hatchlings, and Glow didn't want to risk Winger to a human's anger. Did she dare leave him on the ship? No, it was close to toppling into the ocean as it was. She couldn't leave Winger on the sea stacks, either. He was too young to defend himself if something were to happen.
Glow thought through various plans for awhile, but she kept coming to the same conclusion. She'd have to find a safe place for Winger first. They needed a nest, then she'd bring the humans to their own nest.
Decision made, Glow curled around Winger and the humans to rest.
A/N: Since these stories are told from a dragon's perspective for the most part, I use the dragon version of dragon breeds. A couple you'll see are:
Nipper: Terrible Terror
Spike-Flinger: Deadly Nadder