Sailing Seas With Noodles and Bats

"Are we supposed to be this far?" The cyan colored noodle asked, his large tail propelling himself forward in the dark water as his darker colored blue rider looked around. Her bauble moved slowly as she looked up to the faint orb in the sky that served as their only other light source. They had been off looking for an abandoned ship when the sun faded away, but that was hours ago as the pair kept swimming in hope they were going the right way.

"Yeah..." Angel responded, but as her voice drifted off it was fairly obvious that she herself wasn't sure. "Let's just head to the surface to double check, what's the harm in that." She was too proud to admit they may be lost, but her dragon didn't need to hear her say it to know it. He minded not, just liking to swim around, but Angel may become frustrated with time if they swam for too long. Then no one was happy.

“Sounds like a good idea!” Drifting towards the surface, he led the way to the open air where the moon and stars were more easily visible, hoping their locations would provide aid to them.

Rory clung tightly to his wyvern, the dragon skimming close to the surface. His wings took up the air from the sea and it kept him aloft better than thermals...but it wasn't going to last much longer. Rory pet the dragon's neck fur to console it as he felt it let out a sigh. They had been practicing flight in a storm; It was something all storm dragons could do. Or, at least, were supposed to be able to do. Turned out there was one tiny exception, and that exception was his little Cloud. It's because you're inexperienced, Rory insisted. It was your first time in a storm. Everyone has trouble starting out...probably.

But now I'm tired, and I don't see any land. The dragon also didn't sense any doors to the Chronoscape. That meant they needed to find land before he grew too tired to fly. And, well, that time was quickly coming. As positive as Rory was trying to be, he knew it too. Cloud's echolocation spotted a disturbance in the water. He flapped up and took a glance at it with his eyes. Rory's vision was a bit better in the night sky; He made out two figures from the deep. Sharks? Whales? At least they were still able to fly instead of dealing with sea monsters. Cloud prepared to ascend and escape the reach of these sea creatures.

Breaking the surface as Speckle’s snout emerged from under the water, the pure ocean dragon was looking around curiously as Angel still hovered under the water. Her glowing bauble was visible even from the air even if she wasn’t above the water's surface.

“Does anything look familiar?” He asked his rider, who was muttering to herself before her head came above the liquid wonderland.

“Not really...” Huffing to herself, she didn’t want to admit it but with them out and not sure of where they were she supposed it would be good to admit it. Even if she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to distress her dragon that actually already knew, only getting a nod as he looked around in the sky.

Squinting into the dark sky, he moved one of his larger fins from the water to motion at the lighter colored things flying around. He could tell they were a creature and a humanoid shaped thing but not much more at the height they were.

“I think we have another dragon close by? I can’t really tell but the one has leathery wings?”

“A bat maybe?” Angel mused, but climbed onto her dragon she leaned up, confirming that was indeed a something, though just as clueless as to what.

Humming, she debated how to get up. Laying on her dragon a moment more as Speckle looked up to her, his fins shedding water as he focused, a small bridge of water extending up into the sky that had the noodle like dragon rider going ‘oh!’ before she became very clearly excited and dove off to go up and investigate.

Rory pulled back on the reins, trying to make Cloud pull up higher, but the curiosity of the bat won over. It swooped closer to the water, using its acrobatic skills to zip and zoom around the channel. The Rider did his best to control the dragon, but it just wasn't happening. Cloud squeaked out his echolocation and a sea-faring form flooded his vision. I don't want anything to do with that, Rory hissed to him.

Cloud giggled a bit and stuck his nose in the water, making a small splash. It seems like a friend, though.

You're going crazy from flying too long. Rory gave up on messing with the reins. Cloud clearly had full control of the situation.

Slowly but surely the spout of water twisted and turned up in the air, curving slightly as Speckle lost focus but was soon high up enough that Angel could pop her head out, almost floating on the spiral of water that defied gravity. Closer to the shape she couldn’t make out at first, it appeared to be a dragon and their rider! A rather crazy dragon who was trying to move closer as the rider tugged on the ropes but was ignored completely.

“Oh, you have such lovely clothes!” She told him as she looked over the light colored and golden clothes that stood out against his skin. Looking back to Speckle who agreed, though, he was currently looking like a light blue colored island speckled in koi colors that didn’t blend well with his base color. He without a doubt made looked like he belonged in the sea, which being a pure ocean dragon did make sense.

Rory looked at the waving tunnel of water and suddenly realized. You can use storm magic to rest on the ocean. Just freeze the top of it. It was a very fleeting thought, since Angel popped her head out so quickly. Rory nearly fell off his dragon when the sea monster spoke. He was so surprised, he couldn't hide his blush, his tan cheeks swelling with a hint of pink. "Thank you, they were custom tailored," he said out of instinctive courtesy. "Wait, no...what are you?" Was he hallucinating as well? Some sort of shared hallucination between them? Maybe that was a thing that could happen. His dragon was a storm element. He looked down at Speckle and became increasingly nervous of that theory.

Cloud chuffed and rolled his shoulders. That's definitely a real creature, he insisted. To demonstrate, he flapped down and--in a grace that defied it's silly attitude--landed on the back of the giant. As expected by the dragon, but completely unexpected by the Rider, it was a solid landing. Rory still stuck to the saddle, even though his butt was sore and he was quite ready to stand up or lay down or do anything that wasn't sit in the saddle. He looked up at the sea monster and watched what it would do. He just wanted to go home to his fluffy bed and forget about all this.