MAZE - The Endless Quest 694 - A day as a Wyvern

Hera and her friends were all back on top of the pillar where they ca from, sitting around a small pyre that was currently burning thanks to Hera's grease fire spell to fuel the flas. With the exception of Adriel, everyone was eating grilled fish. The elf was a bit tired of seafood and opted to take so of the power bars they had as a al. After all, it wasn't like they wouldn't have other chances to have seafood

As they ate, Luna ca flying by to check on the new kids, "Hey, you managed to get so fish!" she looked around, seeing only one fish for each. The Wyvern frowned, "That was all the fish you managed to get?"

Helena nodded, "Yeah. We were lucky to find so big ones," the mage had a large salmon on a stone stick half eaten. It was almost 500 grams of at, and she was already feeling full.

"Big ones? Those are tiny. You can eat them in a single bite, well. I can, your mouth is kind of small," Luna got closer to Helena, but her nose caught a whiff of sothing else. Turning to Adriel, "What are you eating?"

"Oh, this is a food we got before getting here. Want to try?" the elf took another power bar from his bag, opened it, and passed it to Luna.

"Sure, it slls tasty!" the Wyvern replied with a smile and took a bite. She started chewing while opening her mouth a lot as if she was struggling, "Iht's Rheally Drhy."

"Dry? Yeah, do you want so water?" Hera pulled her cup, getting a nod as a reply, and poured so water into Luna's mouth.

When she was finally done, she smiled again, "Thanks. It's tasty, but you definitely need so water."

"I agree. Those are too dry. I wish we still had the ones with fruit," Blue sighed.

"What is fruit?" Luna turned to the controller.

"That… is kind of hard to explain," Blue frowned.

"Do you know what sweet is?" Bonnie asked.

"You an soone who is being kind to you for no reason?"

"No. I an about taste."

"How can a taste be kind?" the Wyvern asked.

"Oh boy… that one is going to take so effort," Shane sighed.

"Do we have anything sweet on us?" Blue turned to the group.

"I don't think so. We only have rations and dried at. Sammy didn't let us bring the food he made with us. Sothing about it only existing inside his area of influence or sothing," Alex tried looking through her bag.

After a few monts where the party just talked about different things that she didn't understand, Luna spoke up, "Well, it's fine. I ca here for a different reason. My friends are going to play tag. Do you want to join? It's a great way to get used to flying, and it's a lot of fun."

"Is that what we have to do here?" Mylo asked.

"Not have to. You can do whatever you want. But since you are new here, I figured you might want to join. That way, you can et the others, too," Luna smiled.

"I think that's a good idea. But are we in danger of getting hurt?" Helena asked.

"Maybe a little bit. We try not to smack anyone too hard, but if you are chasing soone doing so acrobatics, accidents might happen. But you don't have to worry, the grown-ups are watching over us, so if anyone is about to fall, they will step in."

"Let's go then," Hera got up, "Actually, Luna, could you help us find a place to stay later? I could make one, but I don't want to do anything that might upset anyone."

"Sure! You can sleep with . My parents gave a cave already. It's pretty big and empty. I would love the company."

"You already have a cave? Aren't you kind of young?" Adriel asked.

"I am, but that's how things go here. When you get big enough to fly by yourself, you get your own place until you find a mate, and I have no intention of having one any ti soon," Luna stretched and jumped up, beating her wings to get so altitude, "I'm going to go play now. Follow if you want to join."

The party didn't wait long and followed the Wyvern right away. Soon they arrived where she and her friends would play. There were two other Wyverns called Zakri and Cornelius. Having dark red and brown scales, respectively. Totorino is a Lung Dragon with a wingless snake-like body and green scales. And one full-blown Dragon with black scales called Marron.

Luna introduced everyone, and the different dragons nodded, but they couldn't speak. Not with Hera and the others, at least. Luna herself could understand and talk to them perfectly. The odd thing was, even without being able to talk, the Empress could understand the other dragons, and she wasn't the only one. They couldn't hear their words but understood the overall aning of their sentences. Things like thinking it was nice to et them or being annoyed to be babysitting dragons who couldn't even fly.

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With the introductions out of the way, they started their ga. Zakri was the first to chase, and they ran after Cornelius, flying around the pillars and making wide curves. At tis, it felt more like a race than anything else. Cornelius started making riskier moves to lose Zakri, turning closer to the walls, passing by so of the large dragons to annoy them into interfering, and even diving into the water to try to hide. Eventually, the brown Wyvern was able to hide inside a cave that was just by the water as Zakri dove into the ocean and continued going. Their next target beca Marron, who was the closest by. They started doing the sa thing, first trying to win over each other with just speed, but when it beca clear who was the fastest, they would start going for acrobatics instead.

The draconic creatures continued playing, so getting caught and beginning their chase and others able to escape. Luna was the chaser two tis before she realized that Hera and the others were not participating in the gas. Not because they were not ready for it but because the others just seed to ignore them, even when they were right there and could easily be caught.

She stopped the ga and talked with the other four before splitting off and going back to the party, "They are jerks!" Luna huffed.

"Why? Are you the one chasing?" Shane was ready to start running.

"No. Well, I don't know. They don't want to play with you because you are not flying by yourself. Saying they don't have to babysit a bunch of newborns. I'm especially angry with Marron. He just learned how to fly last week, and we always played with him," While Luna spoke, her tail moved around wildly, almost like she was gesticulating with it.

"Oh, that's ok. We can play amongst ourselves," Bonnie tried not to sound too excited, but the whole idea of playing tag with dragons was not that interesting to her.

"No, that's not right. I told them that if they don't want to play with you, I don't either. So here is the deal. We are going to have two of us chasing, and just to make things fair, each chaser needs to chase a different dragon. They can't both be after the sa. That way, we have more of us playing," Luna did a loop to celebrate a good idea.

"I like that," Alex smiled.

"So do I," Blue nodded and started stretching again.

"Even better, let's make three of us chase. The first ones are , Blue, and Alex," Luna smiled and turned to Hera, her eyes turning to that of a predator, "I'm going to count to three, then we start. The rest of you can run already."

Hera didn't need a second warning. She bolted or flew away as fast as she could. Soon Luna yelled, 'Go!' and the chase began. The Empress had yet to understand properly how to speed up, but she did try her best. Rembering the feeling of being on Nimbus' back. The wind blowing against her hair, and the sound that covered her ears.

Luna was kind enough to give Hera a chance, but that had its limits. After just a minute, the Wyvern touched the Empress, making her 'it.' Hera tried catching Luna back, but it was simply impossible for her. Their new friend was too quick and too used to flying for her to have any chance of catching her. Instead, she went after Bonnie, who was still being left alone.

"Why are you coming after ?" the researcher gasped as she tried to move away, still feeling awkward in her flight form.

"Because you are too serious. We are flying. Let's have fun," Hera had a big smile on her face. It was one thing to have Nimbus flying her around, another to be flying by herself. She felt sew-free, so detached from everything. It was a feeling like no other.

"That's the spirit! Don't think too much, just feel it," Luna was following the Empress and giving so pointers, "Don't focus on where you need to go. Just get there."

Hera was a bit faster than Bonnie, and she decided to do the sa thing Luna did. Instead of just rushing to tag her, she let the researcher get used to it and try to escape. When it seed like both were close in speed, the Empress tagged her and moved away. This ti, no one was after her, and Luna was now helping Adriel, who was chasing Alex.

They continued playing for a couple of hours, and everyone began to enjoy it. There was an unspoken rule that they shouldn't use any skills or spells that all of them seed to follow, but eventually, the chases beca more intricate. Not just due to their speed but also the way they were moving. The dragons all were used to making large movents, even when they were trying to hide or dodge. But the adventurers were not stuck to those ways. Blue would fly towards a mountain head-on, and instead of turning at the last second, she would spin, hitting both her feet on the rock and pushing to the side to avoid being caught. Surprisingly, Mylo took a slower approach. When he decided to stop running away, he would just sway side to side, dodging anyone who was incoming to get him. Almost like they were trying to catch a falling leaf.

Adriel also had an interesting approach. He would fly parallel to a pillar and run with his own legs stepping on the wall. That allowed him to move around with a bit more freedom when close to the mountain, but he had to watch out for caves, or he would faceplant in the rocks. Despite not being able to be as fast as Luna, she was caught a couple of tis through so trickery, and with their abilities to change directions faster than the Wyvern, they were able to tag her. Eventually, the other dragons who refused to play with them ca by to watch, even a couple of the full-grown Wyverns and Dragons seed interested in this new group and started playing tag amongst themselves attempting so of the moves used by the adventureres. A past ti that every single being in this dungeon enjoyed.

When the sun began to set, they stopped to go get so food again, then followed Luna to her cave, where they would all spend the night. Like she said, it was a very empty space, one that was considerably large, and everyone quickly understood the reason. Luna's parents, Mond and Fengari, were a pair of massive silver Wyverns getting easily to 15 ters in length. Luna's cave was so big because she would, one day, be as big as her parents.

As they were getting ready to bed and looking for a place to sleep, Luna stopped everyone, "Why are you all so far away from each other?"

"We are not far. This is kind of close," Blue gestured to the space between Hera and her.

"Oh… Ok," the Wyvern looked down with a sad expression, "I thought we would all be hugging. I was excited about that."

Hera glanced at Blue, who just sighed, "Ok, we can all gather up."

"Really?" Luna perked up, her tail wagging like a dog.

"Really, where do you want to be?"

"Back here! Co," Luna showed everyone a considerably large bed of seaweed that she had made. Most of it was already dried out, like autumn leaves, and she took her place in the middle. Everyone else found a nice spot to sleep with her. To make sure they could rest, Hera also called her court out to protect them during the night. Despite not spending any mana to fly, everyone was dead tired, and it took only a few monts before they were in a deep slumber, getting ready for the next day.