Hunting Partners by Oridian

Hunting Partners

Oridian, Adolescent, Bodypaint, Camouflage, Character Development, Cute, Dragon, Dragoness, Drake, Female, Friendship, Game, Games, Heat, Hunt, Hunting, Infatuation, Kiss, Kissing, Love, M/F, Male, Male/Female, Non-Anthro, Paint, Relationships, Romance, Straight, Tail, Tailplay, Teenager, Teenagers, Young Love, Young Romance, crush, friends, teamwork

#5 of Breakhorn (Series)

Out on a training hunt, Nerlin and Pyxis spend another morning out in the wilderness together.

Featuring the adventures of a pair of dragon fledglings who are almost completely oblivious to their budding young romance. Warning: May contain high levels of unintentional flirting and/or sexual tension. Also known to contain dragons.

This story is part of a series, but the previous chapters were standalone short stories which you don't need to have read.

Holding the tube with a forepaw, Pyxis squeezed out a dollop of green paint onto the pad of her other paw. She carefully put down the paint tube, rubbed her paws together, and began applying the camouflage paint onto her scales. Beginning with her forelimbs, she started covering her natural blue colouration with a stealthy green that would be harder to distinguish amongst dense forest vegetation.

A dozen fledglings were sitting around across a grassy field. Just as Pyxis was, most of the young dragons were applying camouflage paint to obscure their naturally bright scale patterns in preparation for today's training hunt. Such a disguise wouldn't be necessary if they hunted from the air, but it was essential if they wanted to stalk prey on the ground.

Pyxis smeared the camouflage paint over her chest, and then she used even more paint to cover her neck and frill. She paused to squeeze out more paint from the tube, and then she closed her eyes and began rubbing the thick liquid onto her face and muzzle.

"Hello! I see you're already putting your makeup on," said a cheerful voice beside her.

Opening her eyes, Pyxis found that one of her fellow fledglings had walked over--her friend, Jarzyl. "That is correct. Shouldn't you be doing the same?" Pyxis asked.

"I will, I will. There's plenty of time." Jarzyl sat down, picked up the paint tube, and squeezed a line of paint directly onto the back of her neck before spreading it around with her paws. "So I heard that you caught a breakhorn last week?" Jarzyl inquired.

"That is also correct. It was just a calf, but no one else managed to bring down a breakhorn that day!" replied Pyxis, with a tinge of pride audible in her voice.

"Colour me impressed. I suppose you separated it from the herd first, but then how did you actually bring it down?" asked Jarzyl. She had opened her wings and was now smearing camouflage paint across her flight surfaces. "I also heard that you were partnered up with Nerlin? Do tell."

The memory of last week's training hunt made Pyxis's neck frill perk up. She was proud of how well she had flown, and she had definitely enjoyed hunting alongside Nerlin. "Yeah, Nerlin is a great flyer. I could just watch him fly all day. And taking down the breakhorn wasn't as hard as you might think! The real difficulty was in isolating the calf from the herd. It was... We worked together to scatter the breakhorns by just diving and, uh, swooping down at them. Then once we had the calf separated, Nerlin smashed into its back to bring it to the ground, so I could just land and..." Pyxis snapped her jaws, imitating the killing bite.

"Nice! Must have been fun." Jarzyl grinned back at her, but then her neck frill drooped slightly and she frowned. "I asked Drak Tasilus and he said that today we'd only be hunting in the forests, so probably only deer and boars. Oh, I wish I'd been there last week when you got to hunt breakhorns. I envy you, Pyxis!"

While it had been quite exciting to hunt down a large prey creature like a breakhorn, Pyxis didn't think there was anything about herself which Jarzyl ought to be envious of. In fact, she thought that the opposite was true. if there was someone who had something to be envied, it would be Jarzyl--she was the sort of person who made Pyxis feel decidedly average. Jarzyl's scales were a fiery orange, the amber colour of a sunset, and her wings and tail were all gracefully proportioned in a way that made Pyxis feel vaguely inadequate.

No, stop thinking about that. I'm satisfied with who I am and the talents that I have. I really should try to be more self-confident, Pyxis decided to herself. Aloud she said, "I'm sure we'll go hunting breakhorns again sooner or later. What happened to you last week that made you drop out of the training hunt? When you didn't turn up for flight school the next day, I was worried about you. I tried to visit, but you weren't at home."

"Aww. Thanks!" chirped Jarzyl. She nudged Pyxis playfully, leaving a smear of green paint on Pyxis's side where she hadn't yet covered her blue scales. "Nothing to be worried about. It turns out that it was just my magic developing. I have puppet affinity. It's great! I've been showing it to everyone. Check this out..." Jarzyl's outline seemed to shift, and suddenly she appeared to split into two dragons who appeared identical in every aspect; they had the same orange scales, the same smears of green paint, and even the same cheeky grin on their muzzles.

Pyxis's jaw dropped open. "Wow, you've got your magic?!" She couldn't actually tell which copy was the real Jarzyl and which was the magical doppelganger. Of all the different affinities, this was one of the rarest, and she couldn't help but feel excited on behalf of her friend. "That's crazy! Look at that! How are you so lucky?"

"I wish I knew!" replied Jarzyl. "But it's so cool I couldn't even believe it. There are two of me!" Her doppelganger snapped out of existence in a flash of magic, and Jarzyl went back to putting on the camouflage paint. She had now begun to use a paint tube with a different colour, smearing stripes of black across the green to break up her outline. "Could you help me with my back?"

"Sure." Pyxis turned to Jarzyl and started rubbing the green paint onto her back, covering all the spots that were difficult to reach. Another thought occurred to her as she was helping her friend. "But couldn't you just use your puppet, though? You don't really need me."

"I could use my puppet, but I prefer to ask a good friend. Magic is good, but friends are better. So of course I need you! You're the best," said Jarzyl.

Pyxis inclined her head, feeling pleased at the compliment. "Thanks. But now you've got magic, so you know what that means, right? You're not a fledgling anymore--you're a drakka!" Pyxis wondered how she would feel when she got her own magic in whatever form it took. "So, drakka Jarzyl, how does it feel to officially be an adult?" she asked her friend, using the formal title that referred to adult female dragons.

"Well, fledge_Pyxis, to be honest, it's not that different? Maybe I can do some magic now, but I've got no idea how to act grown up. I don't feel ready to stop being a child," Jarzyl admitted. "Besides, I'm not really an adult till I have my first heat cycle too. That'll be another weird and unusual experience to look forward to. Hey, uh, if it's not too personal for me to ask--have _you ever gone into heat before?"

Now this was something about which Pyxis could feel more mature. She started applying the camouflage paint to Jarzyl's wings and tried to play it cool. "Oh, it's not _that_weird, to be honest. I had my first cycle just last week, actually," she said, casually dropping that fact as if it wasn't a big deal.

"What?! You're in...?" Jarzyl glanced around quickly to check that no one was near enough to overhear their conversation, and then she twisted her head around to stare at Pyxis and spoke in a quieter, conspiratorial manner. "You're in heat right now? Seriously? You aren't pulling my tail, are you?"

"I'm serious! You can't even see any difference, can you?" replied Pyxis. "I used the test strip things and got a positive result, so now every few hours I have to apply a deodorant so that my scent is blocked. It's simpler than you think," she explained.

"Interesting, interesting!" Jarzyl leaned in and sniffed at her friend. "You don't smell any different, but I guess that's the idea. Does it feel different to be in heat? I've heard that it makes you feel more passionate."

"Passionate? I just feel flushed and hungry most of the time. And warm! They don't call it heat for nothing," said Pyxis.

Jarzyl tilted her head slightly. "Alright. So you don't feel more...lustful? The sex education lessons from a few years back did mention something about that, but I don't know how bad it gets or what to expect. How do you feel?"

The question made Pyxis pause to think before she replied. Oh. So that's what Jarzyl means by passionate. She's asking if I'm getting aroused all the time. "Maybe... maybe I'm just a little bit more excitable than usual? It's not something I normally do, but I did try to... touch myself and relieve some tension." This was a bit of an understatement. Every night as Pyxis lay in bed, she had been stimulating herself to a climax before she fell asleep, and also every morning just after she woke up, and then one more time in the afternoon when she got back from school classes or training. Her heat was like a constant itch that could not be satiated by scratching, yet rubbing provided some immensely satisfying relief. But she wasn't going to give Jarzyl all the specifics, and she most certainly wasn't going to mention the fact that Nerlin (her hunting partner from last week) had shown up in quite a few of her sexual fantasies. Nope, that particular bit of information was going to stay a secret. "It was just--just to know what it would feel like when a drake, uh, does his thing. I was just a bit curious," Pyxis insisted.

"I know exactly what you mean. I've been curious plenty of times before," said Jarzyl, flashing a sly, toothy grin.

There was a lull in the conversation, and Pyxis started using the black paint to draw stripes across Jarzyl's back. Pyxis had already finished camouflaging most of her own scales, except for her back and wings where she would have to ask Jarzyl to return the favour once she had finished her friend's camouflage.

Jarzyl's neck frill perked up again as she thought of another conversation topic. "Oh! Are you going for the hunting survival expedition in a few weeks? I'm really looking forward to it!"

"Uh, I'm not sure if I want to go," Pyxis replied.

"Whaaat? Why not?" Jarzyl used her tail to poke at Pyxis's side. "Come on! How often do you get to leave the city? Think about it--they'll fly us out on an airship, and then we'll be left to fend for ourselves and make our way back home on our own. It'll be so fun! I'm going to stop by as many of the Outer Colonies as I can, as long as it isn't a huge detour."

From what Pyxis had heard from her older brothers, she knew that the survival expedition was an informal rite of passage amongst young dragons on the cusp of adulthood. The event was planned out by the master hunters (under the oversight of the city's Education Division), but she'd be on her own. If she chose to go, she'd have to survive for several days out in the wilderness, hunting wildlife for food and finding clean water to drink as she flew back towards home. It was a chance to be independent and her first real opportunity to be completely on her own--not relying on her parents, her clan, or even on civilization as a whole.

"I don't know. It does sound fun, but also a bit dangerous. What if you eat something bad and get food poisoning? Or mess up a landing and sprain a leg? You'll be all alone with no one to help," Pyxis said.

Jarzyl grinned once more. For her, danger was fun. "Exactly! That's the exciting part, isn't it? You could die and all that. It's great! But don't worry, the master hunters will be tracking us and ready to come save us if we really need it. You won't even be completely alone, either. Everyone goes out in pairs, so you've always got a partner to rely on in case you get in trouble."

"Pairs? I did not know that," Pyxis admitted. She had imagined being all alone in the expedition, but being paired up with another fledgling wouldn't be so bad. If she could pair up with Jarzyl, for example, then Pyxis felt reasonably confident that they would be able to make it back home without too much trouble. Of course, Jarzyl probably already had an expedition partner, but she would ask her friend just in case. "Uh, if we have to be partnered up, who are you going with?" Pyxis asked.

"I'm going with Caden. I wanted to fly with Atlas, but it turns out that the nocturnals will have their own separate expedition in a few months since they all have to fly at night," said Jarzyl. "So you are going for the expedition, right? You should go. I'm going! Everyone's going."

"Everyone?" asked Pyxis. She didn't want to be left out if most of her fellow fledglings were going to fly on the survival expedition. Peer pressure, and all that.

"Yep, most everyone." Jarzyl began listing names to prove her point. "Knaster is going, Dezioneste is going, Flicher is going unless his chest infection starts acting up again, Graye definitely is going too. Uh, Piper's coming along as well even though she's one year senior because she missed last year's expedition..."

"Hmm, I wonder if Nerlin is going," Pyxis thought to herself, and it was as if her friend could read her thoughts.

"Nerlin is probably going," Jarzyl continued, placing special emphasis on Nerlin's name for some reason. "I was talking to him earlier today. He wants to go but he doesn't have a partner yet, same as you."

"Oh. Well, I'm sure he'll be able to find someone to go with," Pyxis replied.

"Yes, yes he will," Jarzyl said. "Now if only there was someone else who also didn't have an expedition partner yet. Someone who has hunted with him before...? Maybe someone who hunted a breakhorn with him...? Just last week...? Hint, hint."

Pyxis stopped in the middle of painting a black stripe over Jarzyl's left wing. "What? You mean me?"

"Yes, obviously I mean you." Jarzyl glanced back over her shoulder and give Pyxis an imploring look, and then she started prompting more directly. "You should ask Nerlin to go with you as expedition partner."

"I, uh, maybe..." Perhaps it was time to change the topic. Pyxis drew one final stripe across Jarzyl's back, and with that her friend's camouflage was finished. Jarzyl's orange scales were completely obscured, and her whole body was a stealthy dark green and black colour from nose to tail. "Hmm. Ok, you should be done. Can you help me out with my back?"

"Of course." Jarzyl turned around and walked over to stand behind Pyxis, but she didn't start rubbing the paint onto her back yet. "But you are going to ask Nerlin to go with you, right?"

"I... I can't just _ask_him! I'm not that good a hunter. What if he says no?" Pyxis muttered. Not that she didn't want to go with Nerlin--quite the opposite, in fact. Nevertheless, the thought of being rejected made her anxious.

"You're not a good hunter? Excuse me? You two caught a breakhorn together, and no one else managed to do that. He won't say no," Jarzyl insisted.

"But... but what if he _does_say no?" Pyxis repeated. She looked around until she spotted Nerlin--he was standing near the middle of the field, putting on his own camouflage paint with one of the other male fledglings. Pyxis's hearts seemed to flutter in her chest as she stared at him. Nerlin wasn't the largest or most muscular of dragons, but he was lithe and agile with a nimble confidence in the way he moved. Especially when flying! Pyxis loved watching Nerlin fly. He didn't just mindless beat down on the air and use brute force to keep himself aloft; he swooped through the air as if he'd been hatched with wings open.

Jarzyl followed Pyxis's gaze and saw the target of her attention. "I'm pretty sure he won't say no. And even if he does reject you, you can just ask someone else. It's not the end of the world. What have you got to lose?"

"I could be humiliated! What if he laughs at me and makes fun of me for asking him?"

"He won't do that--Nerlin's a nice person and you know it. But if he does laugh at you, then he wasn't worth your time anyway and you wouldn't want to go on the survival expedition with him. Worst comes to worst, I'll just beat him up for you. Come on, Pyxis, this isn't difficult! All you need to do is walk over there and ask him. Here, let me draft up a script for you. Ahem..."

Jarzyl cleared her throat, and she pretended to trot up to Pyxis as if she was approaching her from afar. "Sit down next to him, raise your neck frill, and say this: 'Hi, Nerlin, it's nice to see you again. You're looking good today. It was fun to hunt that breakhorn together last week, wasn't it? We make a great team, don't you think?' Now at this point he'll be nodding and agreeing with you, so just ask him straight away. 'Hey, so I was just wondering if you want to be my partner for the wilderness survival expedition coming up?' Then he'll say yes, and it's as simple as that."

"That's not simple!" Pyxis replied.

Jarzyl shook her head and grinned. "It is simple! It's so simple. Just be bold! You can do it--I believe in you!"

"But... but I'm not confident like you are! I'll just stammer over my words and say something silly."

"Don't think about that! Just smile and be yourself, even if on the inside you are dying of embarrassment and want to hide your head under a wing. Remember--you are only ever as embarrassed as you appear to be. You don't need to _be_confident, you just need to _act_confident," Jarzyl explained.

Pyxis shook her head and spread her wings in exasperation. If that was the grand secret to being fearless and suave, it was extremely unhelpful. "That's easy for you to say! You're already a confident person!" she retorted.

"And you are going to ask Nerlin to be your expedition partner. He will say yes," said Jarzyl, nodding her head as if this was a proven fact. "I mean, he clearly likes you, so he's not going to turn you down," she added.

This sudden revelation made Pyxis stammer. "I... Wait, what? Nerlin likes me?"

"You can't tell? It's really noticeable. He always tries to sit beside you, and he can't take his eyes off you whenever you two are together. Let be honest--the fact that he likes you is almost as obvious as the fact that you like him."

Pyxis thought she had been subtle about her crush on Nerlin, but apparently not. She pawed at the ground, finding it rather difficult to hold eye contact with her friend. "I...um..."

Jarzyl grinned knowingly and winked. "Are you going to deny it? Don't even bother. It's really obvious to everyone."

"Everyone?"

"Ok maybe not everyone, but it's really obvious to me," said Jarzyl. "So just go ask Nerlin to be your expedition partner, knowing that he's going to say yes. Keep your chin up and hold your wings loosely but don't let them droop. Be coy, but you can flirt with him a little if you want to be extra sure. Bonus points if you can nuzzle his neck like this." Jarzyl affectionately leaned her head against Pyxis's neck, and she made a soft purring noise from deep in her chest. "Mmrrr... Trust me--if he turns you down after that, he's probably gay. Oh, you can also try curling your tail around your paws; I think you can definitely pull off the 'awkward but cute_'_ look."

"How? How do you even come up with this stuff?" asked Pyxis. She couldn't possibly imagine doing any of those things, but Jarzyl just seemed to naturally radiate an aura of grace and easy confidence. Pyxis shook her head. "I don't know if I can do this... I can't do it. I can't. He's talking with his friend--I can't just go up and interrupt their conversation."

"Alright, that part I can facilitate. I'm great at interrupting conversations." Jarzyl reared up on her hindlegs and began signalling with her wings and forepaws. "Hey! Hey!! Nerlin! Over hereee!!!" she shouted, gesturing him over. "Nerlin! Nerlin! Ner-lin! Help me out with something!"

"What?! What are you doing?!" squeaked Pyxis.

"I'm calling him over, obviously. This is your chance to ask him. You are welcome!" replied Jarzyl, grinning at her friend.

Pyxis saw that Nerlin had noticed Jarzyl's beckoning, and he was walking across the field towards them. "I, uh, I don't think this will work. I don't think he likes me! This was a bad idea!" Feeling anxious, Pyxis grabbed her tail in her paws and wrapped her wings around herself.

Jarzyl snapped her wings closed, returning them onto her back in a smooth motion. "No fear, no fear! Don't listen to your doubts, listen to your heart! Unless your heart is also unsure, in which case just listen to me. Shy or not, you can do this."

One moment earlier...

"Since we were told to wear camouflage, I suppose we'll be hunting in the forest. I'll be happy if I can catch a deer," Nerlin decided.

"Just a deer? Why not hope for something bigger? I'm sure there are wild boars in this part of the forest--I'm aiming to catch one of those!" said Indry, the fledgling sitting beside Nerlin. Both of them had finished applying the paint onto their scales, so now they were just waiting around for everyone else to get ready and for the master hunters to begin the training hunt. Unlike Nerlin, whose scales were bright red and had to be completely concealed, Indry was a nocturnal dragon and he had scales of a dull grey, with faint violet highlights on his wings. He only had to obscure the violet and he was sufficiently camouflaged.

"It's been a while since I've eaten venison, so I'd be fine with catching a deer," Nerlin said, explaining his thinking.

"Fair enough. But I think boar meat tastes good too, as long as you fry it. Oh, hehe..." Indry suddenly chuckled and smirked at Nerlin. "Then again, you might as well go right for the biggest catch of all--pair up with Pyxis, and see if she'll let you mount her again like you did last week," he added, making Nerlin sputter in surprise.

"Pyx...? Wh--what? Mount...? I didn't mount her! It was just a friendly duel so we could decide who got to eat the breakhorn. There's nothing indecent about that." Nerlin glared at his friend. After their duel, he and Pyxis had been left in a position that was slightly suggestive, but it hadn't really been intentional. Ok, maybe just a bit, but Pyxis had been on top of him so she was equally or more responsible for how they'd ended up.

"A friendly duel? I suppose you two were definitely getting very friendly with each other," retorted Indry.

"No, we weren't. I don't know why you're interpreting a duel as something other than just a bit of harmless fun. I'm sure everyone has been in a duel at least once, you included. Therefore if you count pinning someone down in a duel as mounting them, then that means I've also mounted _you_before, haven't I?" grumbled Nerlin. This was simple common sense.

Nevertheless, Indry refused to be dissuaded. "There's a difference between a mock duel and what you two were doing to each other. You were pressed up belly to belly and snout to snout. She was definitely mounting you. There was humping involved."

"There was no humping_involved!" exclaimed Nerlin, waving his paw dismissively. Yet despite all his protests, he wouldn't actually have objected if there _had been humping involved. Pyxis was cute, very clever, and she was also a surprisingly good hunter. If he was listing her merits, might as well add the fact that she was a beautiful colour and her tail was nice and slender...No, no, no. Stop thinking about that. Don't be creepy. "I admit we hunted a breakhorn together, and then we had a little duel to decide who kept the meat. She pinned me down on my back. That's it. Nothing more happened between us. We're just friends."

"Friends who hump each other," muttered Indry. He used the tip of his tail to subtly point across the field. "Look at that--Pyxis is staring at you right now. See?"

Nerlin immediately glanced across the field, although he did try to make sure he didn't appear too curious. Pyxis was sitting with a mutual friend, Jarzyl, and the two of them were putting on their camouflage paint. Was their gaze focused here? It was difficult to tell. Furthermore, Indry was a nocturnal dragon, which meant that (during the day) his eyes didn't have as much visual acuity as a diurnal dragon, and he also had to wear dark-tinted goggles over his eyes so the sun wouldn't blind him. Nerlin suspected that his friend was just teasing him. "She's not staring at me. They're looking around the field and waiting for everyone else to be ready, just like how we're doing."

"Maybe Jarzyl is looking around the field, but Pyxis is definitely staring at you. You should do something about it," Indry suggested.

Running out of patience, Nerlin brought this conversation topic to a swift end. He wasn't going to embarrass both Pyxis and himself by pretending that she was interested in him after a single innocent incident that was being misinterpreted. "For the last time, Pyxis and I are just friends and nothing more. Stop insinuating otherwise, Indry. That's enough already!"

"Alright, alright! Calm down, I don't mean you any disrespect." To Indry's credit, he did change the topic instead of pressing it further. "Did you see yesterday's race? Majlen made it to the semi-finals! I was down at the circuit watching her myself, and the whole place was packed."

In the City of Wings, the most popular spectator sport was aerial racing, where dragons flew through competition circuits and obstacle courses to race against each other. Nerlin wasn't an obsessive fan, but he did follow along with the most interesting sporting developments. "Yes, I heard the news. I'll admit Majlen is good, but I'm still not sure if she's good enough," he replied.

"She's the best racer I've ever seen! You or I could practice flying for a hundred years and we wouldn't be anywhere near as good as she is. She's amazing." Indry sighed dreamily at the thought of his racing idol. "Huh... First the sceptics said she'd never get into the preliminary qualifiers. But then after she did that, they said she'd never make it past the first round of the championship. Now she's at the semi-finals, and next it'll be the finals. It's history in the making."

Majlen was a rising star who was quickly making a name for herself amongst the racing championships. She had speed, agility, and skill in flight, but that alone would hardly differentiate her from any of the other racers. What did make her unique was the fact that she was a nocturnal dragon, just like how Indry was.

Nocturnal dragons were a niche subspecies that made up one fifth of the total drakken population. They possessed night-sensitive eyes and duller, stealthier colours, but most notably their wings were optimized for silent flying rather than pure speed or aerial manoeuvrability. This wasn't a drastic loss of flight capability (they were still dragons, after all), but in the highly competitive racing scene, conventional wisdom held that even this slight disadvantage would leave nocturnals unable to contest against diurnals. Nocturnals had their own smaller racing competition, but they rarely ever qualified for the normal races, let alone making it all the way to the semi-finals. But now there was a nocturnal who had done just that, and it was turning heads. Many dragons enjoyed watching the aerial races and Majlen had quickly attracted a large following, particularly amongst her fellow nocturnals.

There were some diurnal dragons who held animosity against nocturnals, and there were some nocturnals who felt the same way back about diurnals, but most of the dragons in Avaeria got along just fine and treated each other as equals. Nerlin didn't understand all the fuss. "I don't see what the big deal is. Majlen is a good flyer, sure, but you wouldn't be such a huge fan if she wasn't a nocturnal."

"Exactly! She is a nocturnal and that's the big deal! There are clear, proven differences between you and me since I'm a nocturnal and you're a diurnal. I fly quiet, you fly fast. Yet even with her silent flight scales, Majlen is proving that it is entirely possible for a nocturnal to be just as capable a racer as a diurnal. She's setting a new standard for equality and what can be done..." Indry explained. Suddenly he paused midsentence and pointed across the field again. "Hey, um, I think Pyxis is waving at you."

"Not this again! Why do you keep bringing Pyxis up? Enough is enough," Nerlin snapped in annoyance.

"No, no. Look," repeated Indry. He didn't sound like he was joking or teasing this time, so Nerlin followed his gaze and found that he was mostly telling the truth. Of the two dragons sitting at the far end of the field, one of them was waving and shouting his name.

"Jarzyl is the one waving, not Pyxis," Nerlin said.

Indry shrugged his shoulders, making his wings bob up and down. "They're halfway across the field and their scales are all painted green. It's hard to tell them apart."

This not an issue which Nerlin was experiencing; he could clearly distinguish Jarzyl and Pyxis apart even at this distance. Of course, if it had been in the middle of the night he wouldn't be able to see anything at all, whereas Indry's nocturnal eyes would then have the advantage. "What do you think she wants?" Nerlin wondered aloud.

"You should go find out! I think she wants you to go over. Hehe, I wonder why?"

Nerlin stood up and began walking across the field. Teasing aside, it would be rude to ignore someone waving directly at him. "You wait here. Also, stop spreading rumours about me and Pyxis."

Indry nodded, suppressing a grin. "It's too late anyway. All the rumours have already been spread."

Jarzyl partially unfurled her wings and waved them. Holding her wings parallel to the ground, she raised her left wing up and dropped her right wing down, then she quickly reversed the action, raising her right wing up and dropping her left wing down. This was the most simple of drakken greetings because it was easily visible from afar, and could be performed even whilst in flight.

"Hello!" Jarzyl chirped, sounding confident and at ease, in the exact same way which Pyxis wasn't. Pyxis still had her wings unfurled and wrapped around herself defensively--at least until Jarzyl leaned close to her and whispered, "Close your wings. And act natural!"

Pyxis managed the first action, but not quite the second. All of a sudden she found herself feeling incredibly self-conscious, as if all her body's flaws had become amplified. One of the flight scales on the trailing edge of her left wing had moulted off just a few days ago, and its replacement was still growing in. Pyxis nervously wanted to check if her wings' control surfaces looked asymmetrical, but she resisted this urge. Before she could think of anything else to worry about, Nerlin arrived.

"Hey, Jarzyl. Hey, Pyxis," said Nerlin, nodding to each of them in turn. His gaze seemed to linger longer on Pyxis, or perhaps this was just her imagination being wishful. "You called?"

Pyxis felt Jarzyl nudge her side. That was probably the cue for her to say something, but her brain's speech centre didn't seem to be working at the moment. Normally she wouldn't have a problem talking to Nerlin, but now she was feeling nervous beyond reason. What is this? Why am I nervous? What sort of dragon gets so nervous over just speaking with another dragon? I'm an apex predator! My ancestors conquered the skies! Oh no, say something before he thinks you have brain damage! "Um, hi..." she managed to say.

The awkward pause dragged on for a few seconds before Jarzyl broke it. "So, Nerlin, I see you've already got your camouflage paint on. Could you help Pyxis with her paint? I was going to help her myself, but I need to go speak with Atlas. Urgent stuff."

Wait, what? Pyxis didn't know why Jarzyl had suddenly brought up the subject of camouflage paint, but she still didn't know what to say. Presumably her friend knew what she was doing.

Nerlin looked equally surprised, but he nodded his head. "Paint? Sure, I can do that..."

Jarzyl grinned and passed the tubes of paint to Nerlin. "That would be great, thanks! Just rub her down and finish off the concealment. I'll leave you two alone. See you later during the hunt!" She leaned in close to Pyxis and whispered to her, "No fear!" Then the orange-scaled drakka was gone, trotting off before either of her friends could think about what she'd set them up to do.

Nerlin stared at the two tubes of paint he was holding--green and black, the exact same shades that were already concealing his own red scales and most of Pyxis's blue scales. "You're mostly painted up already," he commented, looking over his friend. It took some deliberate effort for him to focus on only her colours, rather than admiring her body.

"Just act normal. I'm cool and confident--maybe if I keep thinking that, it'll become true. Maybe," Pyxis thought to herself. If she didn't think about asking Nerlin to be her expedition partner, it was much easier to get her mouth working. "Yes. It's only my back that hasn't been camouflaged. If you could just rub the paint onto my back, that's what Jarzyl was going to help me with. It's just a small thing, but, uh, yes..." she replied.

"Oh, right. Of course," thought Nerlin. He nodded and walked around to sit behind Pyxis. He couldn't have known what Jarzyl and Pyxis had been talking about beforehand, so he approached the problem as it had been presented to him. Pyxis needed help because she couldn't reach her own back, so he'd help her out with that. He didn't even consider that camouflage paint might not be the real reason he had been called over. "Sure, sure. I'll just do a coat of green then layer some black stripes on top. That should be enough."

Pyxis looked back over her shoulder to watch as Nerlin uncapped the paint tubes and started smearing the paint across her back. The thick liquid was initially cold, but Nerlin's paws were warm as they rubbed her shoulders. "Um, thanks for this."

"No problem." Nerlin wasn't going to admit it to Pyxis, but he was secretly enjoying being so close and even getting a chance to touch her. When she turned her head back forward, he snuck a quick glance down towards her tail and her haunches, and then immediately felt very guilty for doing so. Even though he'd fantasized about Pyxis before, now that he was actually with her again, the only thing he wanted to do was spend more time with her. She trusts me as her friend to help her, I shouldn't be thinking about her in that way. Although she is pretty. Look at those blue scales--like an ocean! "This is such a nice blue, it's almost a shame to cover it in all this green," he said.

"Oh, thank you!" Pyxis murmured, feeling disproportionally happy on hearing the compliment. That was a compliment, right? Or was he just stating a fact? Wait, it would be an opinion, not a fact. I'm probably overthinking this. Ok, ok, ok, stay focused! I'll just ask him to be my expedition partner. What was it that Jarzyl told me to say? "Hey, uh, you know that breakhorn we hunted last week? That was fun, wasn't it?" she said, trying to start up the conversation.

Nerlin gladly took the prompt. "Yeah, it was great! A breakhorn--I honestly wasn't expecting us to be successful, but we actually did it! Maybe a bit of it was luck, but we definitely hunt well together. We should do it again."

"You... you think so?" asked Pyxis.

"Definitely. Some people can just, you know, work well together. I think we make a good team." Nerlin had finished painting the green on Pyxis's back, so now he moved onto the upper surface of her wings where it was also hard to reach with her own paws. As he was spreading the paint, he could feel Pyxis's back and wing muscles tensing slightly, so without quite thinking about it he used a bit more pressure than was strictly necessary.

As was the case with any dragon, large flat plates covered Pyxis's back and wings. Her flight scales were mobile and could rise up to deflect and redirect airflow during flight, which was an essential part of how dragons controlled their motion through the air. Flight scales were highly sensitive to the pressure of moving air, but the firm touch of paws made them react in an entirely different way.

Pyxis felt a shudder run down her back and she inhaled sharply. The caresses felt much better than she'd expected and it almost felt like Nerlin was massaging her wings. But if she actually asked him if that was what he was doing, he might stop, so she just let him do it. It made her relaxed enough that the question slipped out of her mouth. "Can I ask--do, uh, do you want to be my hunting partner? If you think that's a good idea?"

Nerlin grinned and nodded in agreement. He'd been on the verge of suggesting just that. "Sure. I think that's a great idea," he replied.

He agreed! Pyxis felt a surge of elation, until her friend's next statement dashed her hopes.

"I'm not sure what today's activity is going to be. Probably ground stalking? Although if we catch anything, it's my turn to take it home since you got to eat the breakhorn last week," Nerlin said.

"_Oh, uh, right. Of course, that's... that's only fair. Yes. Right," Pyxis agreed. _Whoops. He thinks I'm talking about this week's training hunt, not the survival expedition coming up in a few weeks. Did I say expedition partner or hunting partner? I am so terrible at talking. She tried to think how to properly explain herself, but now she was feeling anxious again because this conversation wasn't going according to plan. Talking was hard.

An even coat of greenish paint was now colouring all of Pyxis's scales, so Nerlin picked up the tube of black paint and began adding thick stripes that would break up her outline. He ran his paw from the leading edge of one wing, down across her back, and then ended at the trailing edge of her other wing. He added a few stripes until Pyxis was well camouflaged all over, and then he added a few more strips just as an excuse to keep rubbing her back, but then she was definitely fully camouflaged and he had to stop. "Alright, your camouflage should be good. Hmm, are you looking forward to today's hunt?" he asked suddenly.

"A little bit, but not more than usual. Why do you ask?" said Pyxis, glancing back to stare at her friend.

Nerlin pointed down towards the grass and grinned. "Your tail is twitching. Hehe, that's cute. You must be pretty eager to begin the hunt."

Pyxis realized that in her nervousness, the tip of her tail had begun to swish from side to side. She immediately made it stop. Oh, that's embarrassing. I'm acting like a hatchling. "I'm not impatient, I'm nervous. Really, really nervous!" she muttered.

"Nervous? What's there to be nervous about?" Nerlin walked forward and sat by Pyxis's side. He knew that she was normally a shy person, but this seemed beyond her normal behaviour. She was acting more tense and skittish than normal. Was something wrong?

Pyxis decided she would forget about being subtle or witty and just try for complete honesty. "Ok, I'll just... tell you, I guess. Don't judge me. I don't know. Nerlin, I'm really nervous because, uh, because--"

"Skrryah!" However, before she could begin her explanation, one of the master hunters let out a trumpeting roar to declare that the training hunt was about to begin. The distraction was enough for Pyxis's sentence to lose its momentum entirely.

Nerlin felt a stab of irritation. Something was clearly agitating Pyxis and he could tell that she had been about to say something important before being cut off. "You were saying...?" he prompted, but it seemed that he would have to wait a bit longer to hear what the issue was.

"I, hmmm... I can--it can wait. We should go listen to the training briefing," Pyxis replied. I still haven't asked him to be my expedition partner! No problem, no problem. We've got all of the morning together. I'm sure I can find some opportunity to ask that question. She stood up and hurriedly headed towards the middle of the field where all the other fledglings were beginning to assemble.

Nerlin followed after her, still baffled about what was perturbing his hunting partner.

"Good morning, all! Welcome back to another lovely day in the mud. As you can obviously see, we have two separate hunting groups working together today. For those of you who aren't from my group and may have forgotten my name, I am master hunter Tasilus. And for those of you who are not familiar, this is master hunter Beritae. Together we will be overseeing today's activity..."

Twelve fledglings were sitting in a semicircle and listening to the master hunters giving their briefing. Before they began the hunt every week, the master hunters would talk about what sort of prey had been recently spotted in the area, as well as dictating what sort of techniques the fledglings ought to be practicing.

Training hunts were extremely varied. The only common theme was that the young dragons flew out a short distance from the city and into the wilderness that was untouched by magic or technology alike. Sometimes the fledglings would hunt from the air and sometimes they hunted from the ground. Most times they worked in pairs, but sometimes they stalked alone, and sometimes the whole hunting group was expected to cooperate together as six (or even as twelve, if two hunting groups were working together). They had hunted all manner of prey--everything from breakhorns stampeding across the plains and deer hiding in forests, to fish swimming through coursing rivers and rabbits that lived amongst the hills. Sometimes they didn't even hunt, and all they did was learn how to forage for berries, mushrooms, or nuts.

Pyxis was sitting with Nerlin directly to her right and with Jarzyl directly to her left. As she listened to the briefing, she felt a tap on her left side. "So, have you asked him?" Jarzyl whispered to her.

"Um, no..." Pyxis whispered back.

"Why not?" came the reply.

"I tried, but it didn't work."

"What? He turned you down?"

"No, but he misunderstood me because I messed up my words! Then I should have just explained it right away, except I didn't, so it became awkward if I explained it because I waited too long," whispered Pyxis, directing her voice to the left so Nerlin wouldn't hear what she was saying. "Jarzyl, I told you I was bad at this! I'm not confident like you."

"What? Are you serious?" Even without turning her head, Pyxis could see in her peripheral vision that Jarzyl had collapsed her neck frill and was slowly shaking her head in exaggerated (yet amused) disappointment.

"Shh! We should be listening to the briefing," Pyxis insisted.

"...a little bit different, and hopefully more exciting. Today your quarry won't be mindless prey animals. Instead, you will be hunting each other to practice your teamwork, stalking, and general attention. Should be quite fun. Pair up as usual and put on camouflage paint if you haven't already..." the master hunter had been saying.

Jarzyl clearly wasn't listening to the briefing. She flicked her neck frill back up to its normal position and nudged Pyxis again. "But come on! Just ask him. Nerlin likes you and you like him! What is the difficulty here?"

"The difficulty is that when I talk to him, I worry that I'm going to say something silly so I start overthinking and then I do say something silly because I'm stumbling over my words," muttered Pyxis.

The fledgling who was sitting on Jarzyl's left side (two places away from Pyxis) leaned her head closer. "What are you two chatting about?" she inquired.

Jarzyl leaned over to explain. "Pyxis needs a partner for the survival expedition coming up in a few weeks."

"Oh, really? Hey, you should ask Nerlin. I don't think he has a partner either."

"Exactly! That's what I told her," agreed Jarzyl. She leaned back towards Pyxis. "Just ask him. You could even ask him right now."

"I can't ask him right now! We should be listening to the briefing," Pyxis replied. She turned her focus away from the conversation and back towards the master hunters who were addressing them, but her attention quick drifted towards the red-scaled fledgling who was sitting to her right. I wasn't even this nervous during the important examinations last year, or when I was going for that internship job interview! I shouldn't be so worried about something so simple! Jarzyl is right--I could just ask Nerlin, and he'll probably say yes. Well, unless he doesn't, in which case I was correct to be worried. But it isn't that big a deal, right? It's just a trip away from the city. It's not like I'm actually courting him, even though it is sort of like a date. A bit...

Suddenly Pyxis had her thoughts interrupted when Jarzyl nudged her side, and she realized that everyone else had gotten to their feet to start heading towards the forest. The briefing had ended and the hunt had begun. Pyxis hurriedly stood up and ran after the main group of fledglings.

Nerlin was waiting for her just a few paces away, a concerned expression on his face.

"Sorry. Sorry, I was lost in thought," Pyxis said.

Nerlin nodded. That much had been obvious. "Is everything alright? You seem distracted today. Is there something on your mind?"

"No, no. I'm fine," Pyxis told him, and then she paused as something else occurred to her. Wait a moment! He literally asked me what I was thinking. That was the perfect opportunity to have asked him to be my expedition partner. Damn it. Quickly, quickly! Use the words! "Actually, yes there is something... Well, I mean... That's not to say that I'm not fine, but it's just that, uh, I... Never... never mind. I'll tell you later," she stammered. So many words but none of them make sense! Social interaction is hard. Pyxis shook her head in frustration and glanced away as they walked towards the forest, hoping that Nerlin didn't think her a complete fool.

On his part, Nerlin was just confused. Something was clearly bothering Pyxis. He wanted to ask her what the problem was and if there was anything he could do to help, but would that seem like he was prying? He didn't want to appear rude or presumptuous. Pyxis usually kept to herself, and he didn't want to force her to talk if she didn't want to.

"Maybe I'll just keep quiet for now and see how the training hunt goes," both young dragons thought to themselves.

Indry used a forepaw to fiddle with the pair of dark goggles that were covering his eyes. "This is clearly unfair..." he grumbled to himself.

The nocturnal fledgling was strolling around a small clearing in the forest. Instead of just hunting wild animals as usual, today the master hunters were having the fledglings practice their stalking by having them try to hunt each other. As part of today's training hunt, Indry was one of two fledglings selected to act as 'prey'. Their job was to slowly patrol the clearing and keep an eye out for their fellow hunters who were hiding in the vegetation all around them. The others would be trying to stalk closer and closer while waiting for the opportunity to pounce if the prey targets weren't paying attention.

"Atlas, do you see anything?" Indry asked, directing the question to the fledgling who was walking at the other side of the clearing, about two dozen metres away.

"No. If I saw someone I would call them out," replied the other fledgling.

Both of the prey targets were nocturnal fledglings, and Indry doubted that the master hunters had chosen them by coincidence. Most likely they'd been selected because they made easy targets during the day, and were something simple to start off the training hunt.

"Hmm. It's too bright! I can't see anything. They could be watching me right now and I wouldn't know," Indry muttered to himself, squinting at a nearby shrub that looked suspicious. He estimated that it had been approximately twenty minutes since the ten other fledglings had flown off to begin stalking from a short distance away, and he fully expected that someone was going to spring out at him from behind a bush and try to pin down his neck. It was only a matter of time.

"Ok if there's anyone in that bush watching me right now, I saw you! Come out! You can't pounce on me. You've been spotted," Indry told the suspicious looking bush. He waited a few seconds, but no one came out of the foliage, so it was probably just his imagination. Dense forest vegetation surrounded the clearing in most directions--trees, bushes, shrubbery, and all manner of groundcover served to provide easy concealment for well-camouflaged fledglings aiming to sneak closer.

Dragons didn't have very good hearing, nor was their sense of smell highly attuned like some lowly creature that sniffed in the mud. Instead, their most critical sense was vision. A dragon's eyesight was superbly capable even at enormous distances. Such keen visual perception was the only way to detect their natural prey (deer, breakhorns, and so on) from up high in the skies, and that was how they kept track of their target as they swooped down through the air to catch it.

However, nocturnal dragons were supposed to hunt at night when it was dark and shadowy, not in the blinding light of day when their eyes were overwhelmed. Without dark goggles it would have been very difficult for nocturnals to roam in the daylight, but even wearing the protective lenses did not always bring their vision to full capability. On a clear sunny day, even the semi-shaded environment of the forest clearing was simply too bright.

As a direct result, Indry had never had great success with the training hunts during the day. Yet he still attended them because it was enjoyable to spend time with other dragons of his age, and the majority of dragons were diurnals. And now those other fledglings were hunting him down. Lovely.

"We should repeat this exercise at night, when they're the ones who can't see anything, and we're the ones who can sneak around..." the young dragon mused. It was an unfamiliar and discomforting experience for any apex predator to know that they were being hunted. His natural instinct was to take to the skies, but he wasn't allowed to just fly off. That would be cowardly, and it would certainly ruin all the fun of the activity. Training hunts were, in the end, just elaborate games to practice various skills.

Indry swept his wings open and closed, flexing his muscles in preparation for an attack he knew would be coming. His vision was better if he stayed near the sides of the clearing where the forest canopy provided some shade, but that also meant he was putting himself at greater risk because the vegetation provided more cover for the hidden hunters.

"Did you see which way they flew off? Which direction should we be watching?" Indry asked. When there came no response, he swept his gaze from the forest and looked across the clearing. "Atlas? Hey, where did you go? We're supposed to stay in this clearing."

Even though they had been talking just a minute ago, there was now no sign of the other nocturnal fledgling. Looking to locate him, Indry took a few steps to walk around a large tree that was partially obscuring his vision of the rest of the clearing. And just like his fellow prey target, he didn't even get the chance to shout a warning before he was pounced on.

"Ghhrk!" Indry let out a choked exclamation as a huge weight dropped onto his upper back and pushed him to the ground. His head was shoved down into the grass, and he felt the sharp points of teeth biting around his neck. Before he could even comprehend what was happening, another weight dropped onto his rear half and grabbed his tail. It was a surprise attack that was perfectly executed--there wasn't even time to struggle. "Ok! Ok! Yield... I yield...!" he squeaked.

"And you are dead. That was easy," Nerlin muttered. He was sitting on Indry's tail to keep the appendage pinned down and immobile, although that didn't appear to be necessary given what his hunting partner was doing.

"Grrr..." Pyxis growled softly, her jaws still closed around Indry's neck. Her instincts were telling her to bite down hard, but she deliberately kept the contact light. She didn't need to choke Indry. It was obvious that they had caught him completely by surprise, and it was two versus one. The fight (if you could call it that) was already over before their prey had realized what was happening.

Besides, Indry wasn't the fledgling she wanted to lay her paws on. For a brief moment Pyxis felt a strange desire to pounce on Nerlin and tussle with him instead, but then the urge passed. It's just the excitement of the fight, Pyxis thought to herself. She let go of Indry's neck and sat back on her haunches next to the prone fledgling. "Kill confirmed. What about Atlas?"

"Looks like one of the other hunting pairs took him down. I think it was either Jarzyl and Caden, or Knaster and Graye," replied Nerlin.

"You were... You were supposed to sneak up through the forest, not attack from the skies! That's cheating!" Indry exclaimed.

Nerlin was entirely unmoved by his friend's indignation. "We didn't attack from the skies. All we did was climb up a tree and jump from branch to branch until we got close enough to drop down on you. That's allowed. You should have looked up." Nerlin released Indry's tail and nodded towards Pyxis. "Nice pounce! I don't think you even needed me," he said to her.

"Uh..." Pyxis shuffled her paws uneasily and took a deep breath. Her anxiety had abated briefly while they'd been prowling through the trees and focusing on the hunt, so perhaps it was time to try again. "Nerlin, can I just...talk to you for a moment? Alone?"

"Sure." Nerlin followed Pyxis to walk a short distance away from Indry, who was still lying on the ground and complaining.

"Yeah, you two just go ahead and chit-chat. Leave me here. No need to help me up, I'll just lie here in the dirt where I belong..." grumbled the nocturnal fledgling, evidently still feeling bitter about his defeat. Even though Indry had been expecting someone to try and pounce on him, it was humiliating how quickly he'd gone down. He hadn't been able to put up any resistance whatsoever.

"Quiet, you. You're supposed to be dead," Nerlin told Indry, before he turned to Pyxis again. They moved some distance to the side of the clearing. "So, what's up? There was something you wanted to say before the training hunt began, right?"

Pyxis realized that her tail was twitching again, but she was too nervous to make it stop. Hence begins attempt number two! I can do this... She tried to look Nerlin in the eye and sound confident, but despite all her efforts her speech still sounded hesitant. "So, I just... You know... Coming up in a few weeks, there's going to be the wilderness survival expedition, where we leave the city and have to make our way back through the wilderness. It's supposed to be about independence and using survival skills. Yes. About that..." She paused to take a deep breath. "I was just wondering if... Do you, uh, want to go with...me? The expedition is supposed to be in pairs. Since you said that we can hunt well together, I just thought that maybe we could pair up again...?"

Nerlin nodded once. "Ok, sure. It sounds like fun."

His reply was so quick and immediate that for a few moments, Pyxis wasn't sure what to say. Just like that? That wasn't so hard. Wow! A giddy feeling of excitement seemed to rise in her chest. Her tail was still twitching, but now from excitement rather than anxiety. "Really? So we're expedition partners, then."

Nerlin nodded his head again, slower this this time. "I'm all for it if you are. We're good hunting partners, so I'm sure we'd be good expedition partners too."

"Great! That's... that's... yeah. Wow, that's a load of my mind," Pyxis admitted.

Nerlin suddenly realized that this was exactly why Pyxis had been acting so anxious--she was anxious about him. This unexpected epiphany was both flattering and confusing at the same time. "Wait, this is what you've been nervous about? The survival expedition?"

"Yes! I've been spending the whole morning wondering how to ask you to be my partner," admitted Pyxis. Feeling self-conscious, she rubbed at a leaf that had gotten stuck to her side, but she ended up rubbing away a tiny patch of camouflage paint as well. "Words are hard!"

"Really? But... but why would I say no? You were acting so nervous that I thought something serious was wrong." Nerlin couldn't help but smile. He had assumed this was all small talk before Pyxis got into what was bothering her so much, but he certainly had no objections to being her expedition partner.

Pyxis wanted to tuck her head underneath her wing and hide from Nerlin's amused gaze, but she settled for just shuffling her wings around on her back. "I don't know? Don't judge me! I couldn't just assume you'd want to go with me--what if you wanted to go with someone else?"

"But you're a great hunter, probably even better than me, and we make a good team! The training hunts prove that we can hunt well together," Nerlin said.

"You're just saying that to be nice," Pyxis replied, but Nerlin shook his head.

"I'm not just saying it! It's true. I don't think either of us is the fastest, the strongest, or the very best hunter amongst all the others, but I think we can work together better than anyone else can. If I could choose anyone to be my expedition partner next week, I'd still choose you." Nerlin was quite proud of how eloquently he phrased this, and it was deeply thrilling to see the effect his words had on his friend.

"You would? Really? Hmrr..." Pyxis made a soft noise that sounded very much like a purr. She glanced away, looking flustered. "That is good to know."

"Anyway, it's not just about hunting skill. There's a big difference between going on a routine training hunt and going on an expedition out to the wilderness. If we're partners on a training hunt then that just means we hunt together for a few hours, but on next week's expedition we have to survive entirely on our own and rely on each other for at least a few days_,_ even if we rush back," continued Nerlin.

Pyxis's neck frill rose up ever so slightly as she considered the time they'd be spending together. "I don't think we need to rush back. I wouldn't mind spending some time away from the city. As you said, it sounds like fun."

"It'll be just the two of us, all alone together on a long flight home," said Nerlin. Then he thought about what he had just said, and wondered if it sounded like he was making advances on Pyxis. Was that creepy? Now it was his turn to sound hesitant and nervous as he tried to think of the correct thing to say. "I mean... I just mean that when you're on the expedition, you'd want good company--someone you can talk with and trust. Um, not that I'm presuming we're really close friends. Although, I... I do like to think that we're friends..."

"I like to think so too," agreed Pyxis, with a faint grin crossing her muzzle. "I really like you," she confessed.

"Good. Great! So we're friends, and when the time comes, we'll be expedition partners. I'm sure it'll be fun. We'll get to know each other much better and closer, and um--" Nerlin cut himself off, immediately realizing that this remark sounded even more euphemistic than before. Ok, that definitely sounded like I'm trying to get under her tail. "Sorry, that was...I didn't mean to, uh..."

"Didn't mean to what?" asked Pyxis.

"You know..." muttered Nerlin.

"I know what?" repeated Pyxis. There was something endearing about seeing Nerlin embarrassed. Now his tail was the one twitching nervously. Acting on a sudden impulse, she reached to poke Nerlin's twitching tail tip with the tip of her own tail, but the contact went a bit differently from how she imagined. Suddenly they weren't just sitting side by side; their tails were partially entwined.

"I wasn't trying to, uh, flirt. I value our friendship and I understand that--" Nerlin looked back to see what was touching his tail, and when he realized what it was, he was taken completely by surprise. He glanced at Pyxis and froze up. Did she just grab my tail? Wait, what does that mean? That's not just friendly, that's straight up affectionate or maybe even romantic. Oh, wow, wow, wow. Her eyes are so blue, just like her scales. Pyxis was slightly shorter than him, but her neck frill was raised all the way up, which made the height difference less apparent. Nerlin hadn't thought about how near they were sitting until now, but all of a sudden he was completely aware of just how close Pyxis was to him. He could easily raise his wing and wrap it around her shoulders, or he could even lean just a bit closer so that their muzzles would meet...

Pyxis was also completely paralyzed. She didn't know what hidden instinct had driven her to entwine their tails, but that playful suaveness was failing her now. Did I just do that? I think that definitely counts as flirting, so that's a first. Nice. But now what do I do? Is he going to... Or should I...? But I don't know... Her gaze jumped from Nerlin's left eye to his right, but she didn't know what to say or do. She wanted the moment to drag on forever, but at the same time she wanted something more to happen...

The moment hung for a few long seconds as they just stared at each other, both waiting to see what the other did. It felt like the whole forest had gone quiet in anticipation.

"Go on, kiss!" exclaimed Indry. The nocturnal fledgling had walked up behind them and was now standing a short distance away. At the sound of his voice both Pyxis and Nerlin jumped apart, their tails untwining quickly.

Pyxis got flustered again and she couldn't make eye contact with either of the other two fledglings. If it was possible to drop dead from embarrassment, she thought she would do so right there and then.

Nerlin was just as embarrassed, but he concealed it better and shot Indry an annoyed glare. "Indry! You, uh, what are you looking at?" he grumbled. He felt irrationally angry with the nocturnal fledgling for interrupting whatever had been going on between him and Pyxis, but he couldn't quite enunciate this frustration. He didn't even know what had been happening between the two of them.

"What are you two waiting for? Go on. There's nothing to be ashamed about." Indry had a self-satisfied smirk, the sort of facial expression that screamed, I told you so. "Incidentally, you two make a really cute couple, and I totally called it earlier--ahh!" Whatever else Indry had been planning to say was abruptly cut off when one of the other hunters leapt at him from behind and tackled him down. Just as he had been a few minutes ago, Indry found himself lying on the ground.

Jarzyl jumped onto Indry's back and used her leverage to twist and pin down one of his wings to the ground. It was an impressively graceful display of violence which kept him completely immobilized in a tight hold. "Hah! Got you! Too easy. It is just too easy!" she declared, much to the amusement of everyone except Indry.

The nocturnal fledgling spat grass from his mouth and squawked an objection. "Pfft. Hey! HEY! Not again!"

The sudden reappearance of her friend managed to jolt Pyxis back into speaking. "Nooo, doesn't count! You can't have Indry, we got him first."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I was just practicing for the next round of stalking." Jarzyl grinned, and she patted Indry on the head as he lay on the forest floor. "Not much of a challenge at all. You can have this kill, I don't mind."

"I'm nobody's kill! I'm a free independent drake, and I can do whatever I want," insisted Indry despite all evidence to the contrary. He tried to struggle against the dragon who was pinning him down to the ground, but he entirely failed to loosen Jarzyl's hold on his wing. So instead the nocturnal fledgling shot a glare towards Nerlin. "Ow. Can I get a little help here? Are you just going to let her sit on me?"

"I'm not helping you! You deserve it for interrupting!" Nerlin fired back. He heard Pyxis chuckle softly, but she glanced away shyly and didn't say anything when he glanced to her.

"Interrupting what?" Jarzyl inquired. She turned an intrigued stare towards the other two fledglings, and Indry was happy to fill her in on what she'd missed.

"Well, well, well! Just before you decided to launch an unprovoked assault against me, Nerlin and Pyxis were getting real friendly with each other. Their tails were entwined, and I'd bet my scales that the two of them were just about to ki--"

"Nothing! Nothing!" interrupted Pyxis. Fortunately she was still covered with camouflage paint, or else her scales would have been visibly tinted from her natural blue to a blushing magenta. "He saw nothing! We were not... We were just talking about, ah, the hunt," she insisted. There wasn't much point denying it to Jarzyl, but she tried anyway.

"Reeeally? You two were going to_...?" asked Jarzyl. She looked between Pyxis and Nerlin, and their embarrassed expressions told her all she needed to know. "Oh, you _were!" she gasped, before turning back down to Indry and twisting his wing just a bit further. "Wait, but then you interrupted them? Indry! What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know--I was trying to be encouraging? Ow, ow! Stop it! Torturing prisoners is a war crime!" exclaimed Indry.

"Why did you have to be so stupid? Do you have no sense of subtlety?" Jarzyl adjusted her stance, reversed her grip on Indry's wing, and in one smooth motion she went from holding him to the ground to pulling him up into a sitting position.

Atlas (the other 'prey' target) and Caden (Jarzyl's hunting partner for the day) came to join in the conversation. "Hey, what's going on? What has Indry done now?" asked Caden.

"Pyxis and Nerlin were having a moment together, but then Indry decided to ruin it!" explained Jarzyl.

"Wow, seriously? That sounds like exactly the sort of thing Indry would do. Typical Indry," said Caden. She was clearly siding with Jarzyl, which was expected.

"If I hadn't said anything, then Jarzyl would have been the one ruining the moment. She pounced on me five seconds later!" grumbled Indry. He tugged his wing from Jarzyl's grip and furled it onto his back.

"Not the same," Jarzyl said. "If you hadn't already interrupted the moment, then it would have been just Nerlin and Pyxis alone, and I would certainly not have pounced on them. I think you'd better get used to being lonely, Indry, because you're forever going to stay single if you are always so tactless."

"I am not tactless! I am full of tacts. Uh, I mean tact. I'm very tactical," retorted Indry. "Also, there's nothing wrong with being single. It's certainly better than being with you and your violent tendencies. I pity the sad drake who you'll eventually end up bullying into becoming your mate."

"That's not nice," commented Atlas, speaking up for the first time. Indry responded by giving him a look of disappointment. Atlas was a friend of both Jarzyl and Indry alike. Perhaps he was a closer friend to Jarzyl, but he was also a nocturnal dragon and he had just been pounced on by her and Caden. This therefore made him a neutral party, and Indry had been hoping that Atlas would have sided with him in the argument.

On her part, Jarzyl was more than willing to engage in a verbal spar. She gave Indry a dismissive look. "Yeah, right! you can keep telling yourself that. And I pity the drakka who lowers her standards enough to tolerate someone as terminally unromantic as you," she retorted.

"That's also not nice," Atlas said.

As the banter continued, Pyxis tried her best to blend into the forest and disappear from the discussion. The other fledglings were now discussing whether she and Nerlin were in looove, and she wasn't even sure herself what the answer to that question was. "So, uh, this is embarrassing," she remarked.

Nerlin was sitting beside her (not as close as before, but still quite close) and he nodded his head in agreement. "Sorry," he said, although he wasn't quite sure whether he was sorry that they were both embarrassed, or sorry for not acting faster before they had been interrupted. Maybe both.

"No, this was my fault I think," Pyxis replied. At least she had discovered her maximum limit for embarrassment; now there was nothing she could say or do that would make her feel any more awkward. She wasn't sure whether this would make her more or less shy in the long-term, but at least she had done something. "I should be the one apologizing. I don't know why I... I was just..." Her voice trailed off.

"You have nothing to apologize for."

"Maybe we should just pretend nothing happened," Pyxis muttered.

"Maybe..." Nerlin's voice trailed off too, as completely out of the blue he was struck by the realization that it was his turn to take action. Pyxis had made it amply clear that she was interested in him, so now he had to indicate that he was also interested in her. It was his turn to reciprocate.

All the other fledglings (who had been slower to stalk into the clearing) were now walking out of the forest, accompanied by the master hunters. So Nerlin decided that (as he had learned during countless training hunts) patience was crucial. He would wait for the right opportunity.

Regardless, by now all the twelve fledglings had re-entered the forest clearing, and the master hunters declared the start of the second round of the day's training hunt. "Ok, good job you four. Everyone else, try harder next round. Let's do this again with someone else. Since you got the first pounce, you two--" one of the master hunters gestured to Jarzyl and Caden "--will be the next targets. Wait here and keep your eyes open. Everyone else prepare for round two. Try to be sneaker this time..."

Picking a direction at random, Nerlin stood up and walked out of the forest clearing. Pyxis followed behind him, and she deliberately avoided his gaze when he glanced at her. That white hot burn of embarrassment was slowly fading away, though she was almost terrified to think about what Nerlin was thinking about her.

Together, the two fledglings prepared to start the next round of stalking and hunting together.

Jarzyl strolled around the clearing with a forced patience. Her movements seemed measured and calm, but beneath the surface she was itching for something to happen. Though the young drakka projected the appearance of being bored and inattentive, she was carefully watching the vegetation she walked past, hoping that one of the other fledglings would just try and pounce on her.

Let them try and take her on! She was ready. Seeing something above her, Jarzyl froze and snapped her head upwards, but it was just one of the master hunters who was circling in the skies and watching the fledglings as they conducted their training hunt. She lowered her gaze back down and resumed walking around the forest clearing.

There! She spotted movement--just a slight twitch of a leaf on the small bush in front of her. It might have been the wind, but it might also have been a hidden dragon fledgling who wasn't being as sneaky as he thought he was.

"Did you see that?" Jarzyl murmured, speaking softly to Caden, her hunting partner for the day, who was pacing beside her.

"See what? You saw someone? Who? Where?" Caden whispered back, furtively glancing around.

"Mm. Someone's hiding right behind that bush over by that trio of saplings."

"I don't see anything. Do you want to call it out?" Caden suggested. As part of the rules which the master hunters had set for the training hunt, the 'prey' targets could try and call out where they thought they're fellow fledglings were hiding.

But Jarzyl decided that disqualifying someone wasn't fun. "No, no. Let's bait them out. I bet we can take them. Hey, look to the left and pretend you're not paying attention as we walk past."

"Can do! Heh, this is exciting. We're being all sneaky," said Caden. They two fledglings strolled closer towards the bush, not giving any outward indication that they knew what was up.

Come on, come on. I know you're there! Stop hiding. Right when they were in easy range of a pounce, Jarzyl deliberately (but casually) glanced away, acting as if she was distracted by something else in the forest clearing. She presented what appeared to be an easy opportunity for someone to jump at her flank and take her down. And then just as she had expected, the hidden fledgling took the bait.

There was a soft sound of rustling leaves, and that was their cue to move. Jarzyl instantly dropped to her belly and rolled to the right. Only a fraction of a second slower, Caden dodged to the left, and the attacking fledgling went right between the two of them. It appeared that he had been aiming to leap at Jarzyl, but instead he missed, and Jarzyl snapped open her wing and slapped the fledgling on his rump as he slid past them. "Hah!"

"Oh! Oh, I knew it!" grumbled her attacker, stumbling away and crouching into a defensive stance. "I knew you saw me! That damn branch caught on my horns, or else I would have caught you by surprise for sure!"

"Excuses, Knaster. Excuses!" retorted Jarzyl, grinning widely and raising her neck frill. Knaster's pounce had actually been closer than she'd thought, but she had managed to dodge out of his attack. One hunter down, nine more to go.

"Yeah, you call that a pounce?" added Caden, sharing a victorious nod with Jarzyl.

"I'll show you a pounce!" Knaster retorted, his neck frill drooping in irritation. He circled around the two females, acting as if he was planning to jump again. Technically he had already lost because he'd missed his stalking attack, but it was all just a game anyway. The best games had rules that changed as needed.

Jarzyl willingly played along and circled to keep Knaster at a distance, but she could already tell where this was going. Some people were just terrible at deception, but yet Caden didn't seem to realize what was up. Jarzyl wanted to signal to her hunting partner to be cautious, but Caden's gaze was fully focused on Knaster--all her attention was on him, which was exactly what he wanted.

Before Jarzyl could voice her warning, Knaster lunged forward. Caden leaned back to meet his charge, but Knaster was only making a feint. Jarzyl saw where he was staring--not at the two of them, but at a different bush that was just barely in her peripheral vision. There was no sound this time, only a flicker of motion to act as warning.

Jarzyl instantly ducked her head down and swung around to the right, dodging underneath the second assault as it came. Graye--Knaster's hunting partner--had being trying to get the jump on them while Knaster distracted them. Graye was a larger, bulkier fledgling, but Jarzyl spun under his leap and evaded. Two hunters down, eight more to go.

Unfortunately Caden didn't move quite as fast. She let out a scream as Graye managed to tackle her side, and the two of them went down in a mess of tangled limbs. "Ahh! Nooo!"

Before Jarzyl could enter the brawl and help her partner out, Knaster leapt into the fight. "Quick, quick! Pin her down! That counts as a kill!" he excitedly exclaimed.

"Cheap trick!" spat Caden, thrashing her wings about. "Big stupid oaf!"

"Oh yeah? Well you just let a big stupid oaf sneak up on you!" retorted Graye. Neither male nor female fledglings had an advantage in size or weight as a general rule, but Graye was larger and heavier than average and he used his mass to pin Caden's left wing down. Knaster managed to pin Caden's right wingtip as well, and that meant she was pretty much completely immobilized.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid! Dirty, cowardly tactics!" yelled Caden, but she was pinned on her back. She shook her head from left to right, which made her horns dig short grooves in the forest floor. "Jarzyl, help me get him!"

Knaster was grinning proudly at his victory, and he raised a forepaw to gesture right towards Jarzyl. "Come closer and we'll pin you too!"

Jarzyl growled in return, but then she realized that this was just yet another trick. A tactical misdirection? How exciting! Maybe Knaster did actually have a plan after all. There was motion from the tree canopy above her, and Caden let out another yell. "Jarz, behind--!"

Caden's warning was too late, but it was unnecessary. Jarzyl was already in motion, lunging ahead to dodge the pounce. Another pair of fledglings dropped from the trees onto the spot where she had been, but their claws caught only grass and leaf litter. This pair consisted of two other female fledglings, and Jarzyl's tail just barely slipped out of reach as one of them tried to bite at the appendage. The hunter's jaws snapped closed on nothing but air. "Hah! Not good enough!" Jarzyl declared. Four hunters down, six more to go.

"That didn't work!" exclaimed one of the new arrivals.

"She saw us..." said the other.

"Oh, you don't say?!" Knaster grumbled. He wasn't looking so victorious now. An incomplete victory was hardly a victory, and Jarzyl had gracefully dodged four different attacks so far. Though she was still pinned on her back, Caden smirked and let out a barking laugh at seeing her hunting partner's successful evasion.

"Not even a scratch! Come on, come on! Who's next?!" Jarzyl asked, rearing up on her hindlimbs and spreading her wings open. Twisting her wings, she did a quick backflip just to show off. All this moving around was smearing the camouflage paint from her scales, and her natural amber colouration were becoming visible in patches. Forget camouflage! She didn't mind if her fellow fledglings spotted her; let them try and take her down.

At the other side of the forest clearing, hidden behind a fallen tree, Indry was watching the theatrics with eager anticipation. "Ooh, Jarzyl just dodged both of them! Wow, I thought Dezioneste would get her for sure. Let's go help them out!"

Atlas, the other nocturnal fledgling who was Indry's hunting partner for the day, shook his head. "Isn't this training hunt supposed to be about stealth and deception, not brawling?"

Indry made an indifferent sound. "Eh. She beat me in the first round, but now this is my chance to beat her! Vengeance! Justice! Glory! We can take her down!"

"No, we actually _can't_take her down," Atlas replied. "I do not foresee any scenario where we charge at Jarzyl head-on and succeed." Atlas was an old friend of Jarzyl's, having known her since they were both young hatchlings, and he knew that catching Jarzyl by surprise was the easiest way to win a fight. Unique amongst all the fledglings, Atlas was a three-legged dragon--he was a cripple missing his left foreleg. He was still agile in the air, but on the ground he knew his limits, and he was not a good fighter.

However, rather than being weighed down by a realistic assessment of their chances in open combat, Indry chose to use optimistic thinking. "Ok, perhaps yes, she's a better fighter, and also she has the advantage of bright daylight and we're nocturnals, and maybe she's just avoided four attacks in a row, but you have to look at it with a positive mental attitude! She can only pin one of us down at once, right? That's like a fifty-fifty chance of success! ONWARDS!"

With that declaration, Indry leapt on top of the fallen tree they were hiding behind and roared a challenge. "Raaahh!! Have at you!" The nocturnal fledgling charged across the clearing, spreading his wings open to make short leaping glides. The violet highlights on his lower wing surfaces were visible in brief flashes as he sprinted towards Jarzyl.

Atlas was quite sure he knew how this attempt would end, but he stood up to follow Indry and show solidarity with his hunting partner. "She's going to wipe the floor with us," he muttered. Because of his missing leg, Atlas couldn't run anywhere near as fast as Indry did, but he did walk briskly to try and catch up. There wasn't much he could add to a fight, anyway.

But right as he moved forward towards the clearing, Atlas stopped and made a detour to the side as someone else waved him over.

Jarzyl heard someone roar, and she whirled around and instantly spotted Indry dashing right towards her. "Ryah!" She responded by roaring back--a trumpeting sound that was loud and proud. Aha! So it'll be you next. Jarzyl dropped back down onto all fours and bent low, acting as if she was going to spring upwards and undercut Indry's leap. But then as the nocturnal fledgling approached into close range, she leapt backwards and made him overextend, and then she spun around to finish him off.

Before Indry could react, Jarzyl's tail swiped low and swept him off his feet. In a move that seemed so casual it looked rehearsed, Jarzyl gracefully finished her spin and jumped onto Indry's back as he tumbled to the ground. "Why, hello again, Indry!" she chirped.

Indry tried to struggle, just once, and then he gave up and slumped down on his belly. "Hello. Gah! I really thought I had you there..."

"Five hunters down, five to go," Jarzyl thought to herself. Perhaps she might actually stand a chance of winning this round. It had started off as two prey versus ten hunters, but the hunters only got one shot to surprise her and make their pounce, and they didn't appear to have any real skill at stealth attacks or deceptive tactics.

Then Jarzyl glanced up and spotted the hunting group's other nocturnal fledgling. Atlas had come to a halt a safe distance away, and now he was sitting back on his haunches and watching her. Jarzyl grinned widely and waved a wing at her friend. "Hey, Atlas! Are going to pounce on me as well?"

"Is there even any point?" asked the three legged dragon, pointing the tip of his tail towards Indry, whom Jarzyl was still sitting on.

"May-be?" Jarzyl teased, her neck frill rising in amusement. "You won't know till you find out..."

From his place on the ground, Indry shouted encouragement to his hunting partner. "She's full of nonsense! Take her on! Come on, Atlas! Pounce her!"

A short distance away, the four other hunters (plus Caden) stood by the side to watch. They were all out of the game now, but that didn't mean they couldn't give advice and support.

"Yeah, you can do it!"

"Get her, Atlas!"

"Show her how it's done!"

"I really don't think I can beat you. But I can try." Atlas looked hesitant, but he stood up and took a step forward, and the other fledglings cheered him on. Not that they genuinely expected him to beat Jarzyl, but this was all a game in good fun.

Jarzyl watched Atlas closely, inwardly adding her own encouragement. Perhaps she might even just let him win! In front of everyone, it would certainly help her friend's courage. Yet instead of charging forwards, Atlas just took slow, small steps forwards towards her. Jarzyl felt disappointment; she couldn't just roll over and let him pin her throat. At the very least, he needed to fight to earn his victory.

Yet even as Jarzyl watched her friend limp forwards until they were less than a bodylength apart, Atlas still didn't charge at her or attack. He was close enough now that she could see the minute detail in his jet-black scales--every single scale plate was a hexagon shape arranged neatly in alternating lines of tessellation, dark as soot. Come on! I know you can run faster than that. Are you going to pounce or not?

"I'm really not sure what I'm doing..." said Atlas, his voice soft enough that only she could hear him. Jarzyl could still see the other fledglings in her peripheral vision, but they had all gone quiet, even Indry. Atlas was definitely in range of a pounce now, even for a three-legged dragon. Her gaze was locked with his, and his gaze was locked on hers--neither dragon able to look away from the other. Jarzyl didn't know what to say or do. What was he playing at? Why come so close if he wasn't attacking?

One moment earlier...

Crouched high up in the branches of a large tree at the side of the forest clearing, Nerlin was watching the scene carefully. He had already seen two pairs of fledglings try to catch Jarzyl by surprise, but all of the hunters had failed so far. His attention was briefly diverted to the side as the tree shuddered slightly; Pyxis was climbing up into the branches, using her claws to dig into the bark as she pulled herself upwards. "You told him?" Nerlin asked as she got within audible range.

Pyxis nodded quickly as she carefully tugged herself onto a thick branch directly adjacent to the branch Nerlin was crouched on. "Yes. He'll try and keep her distracted enough so we can pounce from above." The two hunters had been waiting in the trees for the prey targets to approach closer, but now a distraction had been arranged.

"Alright then," said Nerlin.

Both of the two young dragons were focused on the hunt, acting as if nothing special had happened in the previous round of the day's training hunt. Both of them were still trying to comprehend what had happened, and what they needed to do next.

As the two of them watched from high up in their tree, Indry charged directly at Jarzyl and failed completely. Nerlin winced as the nocturnal fledgling was smoothly swept off his feet and pinned down to the ground by Jarzyl. "Yep. Jarz took Indry out no problem. That was a really elegant twirl. How is she so good at fighting?" Nerlin wondered.

Pyxis felt a flash of jealousy at hearing Nerlin compliment another female, but she dismissed that thought quickly. Jarzyl was their friend, not a competitor. "I don't know. Some people are just good at these things. Like how you're so good at flying, I suppose."

"Me? I'm not _that_good at flying," Nerlin said.

"Yeah you are!" Pyxis said, keeping her voice quiet but insistent. Both of the fledglings had their wings partially unfurled to help them keep their balance, and she carefully opened up her left wing and extended it towards Nerlin. She tapped her wingtip against his right wing, poking directly at the muscle base where the wing joint met his body. "Look at this--it's all muscle under here. That is pure flight power," she muttered.

Nerlin grinned, but he shook his head modestly. "It's not muscle! It's just soft fat and some thicker scales. If you used your paws you could feel the difference."

"It's not fat. If I used my paws to rub you, I'd bet I'd feel something hard," Pyxis replied. Once again her mouth was working faster than her mind, and she felt herself blushing under the camouflage paint as she realized what she had said. "Wait, no. That so sounded wrong. I meant muscles, not your... your hard, uh, um..." Pyxis glanced away, feeling embarrassed under her hunting partner's amused gaze. "Maybe... let's just focus on the hunt before I lose my balance and fall out of this tree."

Nerlin was feeling thoroughly tickled by Pyxis's remarks, as well as by how she'd been poking his side. "Good idea. We can save the flirting for later."

Pyxis opened her mouth to deny that she'd been flirting, but then she closed it again without saying anything. Better to keep quiet rather than dig herself further into a hole of social embarrassment.

Down in the forest clearing, their plan was beginning to unfold. Now that Indry had been swiftly and summarily neutralized, Atlas was approaching with a cautious stance. The three legged nocturnal fledgling was slowly walking towards Jarzyl, look hesitant and awkward in both his posture and motions. Atlas had never been very nimble, but now he was deliberately trying to look vulnerable and draw Jarzyl's attention.

"What is he doing?" Nerlin asked. He'd been expecting Atlas to charge at Jarzyl to try and keep her engaged, rather than just walking right at her. "I thought you told him to distract Jarzyl?"

"I did, and Jarzyl is looking pretty distracted, isn't she? We'll use the same plan as the last round--I'll get her neck, you get her tail. Just glide high and don't flap your wings; try to be quiet so she won't hear us coming," Pyxis said.

Nerlin nodded, grinning at his hunting partner and preparing himself to move. "Ok! Ready to go?" he whispered back.

"No, wait a moment. Let Atlas get just a bit closer to her," Pyxis decided.

Nerlin frowned as he watched the scenario playing out in the forest clearing. "If we wait, she's going to pounce on him and then we lose our distraction."

"Jarzyl's not going to pounce on Atlas first. That would be against the rules--he's the hunter, she's the prey," Pyxis explained. "And besides...she's definitely got a soft spot for him," she added, murmuring to herself.

"Hm? What was that last bit?" asked Nerlin.

"Just a hunch." Pyxis unfurled her wings completely, preparing to fly. "Ok, Jarzyl's looking plenty distracted. Hopefully she doesn't see us. Let's go!" Pyxis leapt from the tree, quietly gliding down towards the clearing where the other fledglings were assembled. Nerlin spread his wings and leapt after her, following her lead.

In the very next moment, Jarzyl discovered exactly why Atlas wasn't pouncing at her. It had all just been another distraction, and for some reason she couldn't quite explain, she had taken the bait.

Leaping from high up a tree at the edge of the forest clearing, Pyxis crashed into Jarzyl's side and knocked her off Indry and onto the ground. Without hesitation Pyxis closed her jaws around Jarzyl's neck to pin her down. Nerlin was right behind her, and together they held Jarzyl down on her side even as she tried to struggle.

"No! Damn it, damn it, damn!" Jarzyl exclaimed. She flailed her wings, but the blind blows failed to connect.

Growling softly, Pyxis applied a bit more force into her bite, but this didn't make her friend stop struggling. Jarzyl kept trying to kick her legs or trash her wings until it was amply evident that she couldn't fight her way free. She made a frustrated nonverbal noise halfway between a scream and a groan. "Ngggraaahhh! Yield! I yield! You win this round. Ahhh! HOW DID I FALL FOR THAT?!"

Pyxis giggled, and then she released Jarzyl and gave her friend a friendly, consoling lick on the neck. "Haha. Looks like I'm not the only one feeling distracted today, right, Jarz?"

Jarzyl snatched her tail from Nerlin's grip and shook her head in annoyance. "Yes? No... Yes! That was another dumb trick... I should have known!" She turned to glare at Atlas, baring her teeth and letting her neck frill droop flat. "You traitor! Abuse of friendship! I thought you were going to... well... I don't know what you were doing, but you... you stole my attention!"

Atlas faced the accusation with a slightly embarrassed shrug of his wings. "It's just a game. Sorry," said the three-legged fledgling.

On hearing this, Indry jumped to his feet and thumped his tail against the ground in an applauding manner. "No, no, no! Don't apologize, it was worth it. I hereby declare victory!"

Caden helped Jarzyl up, and she brushed off some leaves that had gotten stuck to her hunting partner's side. "Victory? You didn't do anything, Indry. This was all on Pyxis and Nerlin."

At that remark, Nerlin placed his left wing behind Pyxis's back and repeatedly bowed his head in an overly exaggerated manner. "Thank you, thank you!"

Feeling cheery from their second victory of the day and maybe also the fact Nerlin was touching her, Pyxis leaned into his embrace and let out a soft, rumbling purr. "Hmmrr..." No one else noticed except Nerlin, but he was the only one who needed to notice. Even better, his wing tightened slightly, pulling her even closer towards him.

Meanwhile, Indry was explaining how he had supposedly helped take down Jarzyl. "I wasn't useless! I was the distraction. That counts as a kill assist."

"Being a carpet doesn't count as being a distraction," Caden retorted, "Atlas gets an assist, but you don't."

Before Indry could argue further, there was the distinctive sound of flapping wings and then the two master hunters landing in the clearing. They had been overseeing the training exercise from above, and now they declared it done. "Alright, this round is over," announced master hunter Tasilus, in his deep booming voice.

"Wait, so what's the score?" asked one of the fledglings who had just entered the forest clearing. All twelve young dragons had now reassembled.

"Score?" The master hunter frowned as he thought about it. "Jarzyl and Caden got one point from the first round, while Knaster and Graye got one point from the second round. Nerlin and Pyxis have gotten kills in both first and second rounds, so that's two points for them in total."

"Do assists count?" asked Indry, sounding hopeful.

The master hunters exchanged looks, and then one of them nodded approval. "Sure. Teamwork is commendable. Atlas gets half a point for being a distraction, and Indry you can share that half point since you two are hunting partners."

"Ah, yes. Fantastic! I love teamwork!" Indry agreed, bobbing his head happily.

"Very good. Now for the third round--since they won points in the last two rounds, Nerlin and Pyxis will be the targets for this round. Everyone else, remember that you should be trying for stealth and coordination, not just fighting."

The ten other fledglings spread their wings and took to the air, as did the two master hunters, which left Pyxis and Nerlin all alone in the forest clearing. "So it's just us two..." Nerlin commented.

"Yup," replied Pyxis. For a moment both of the fledglings just stared at each other quietly, then Pyxis nodded her head and stood up. "I guess we'll see who gets pounced on first--you or me."

Nerlin was still sitting down, and he hadn't taken his gaze of her. "Pyxis, wait." But when she paused and turned around, Nerlin wasn't sure what he had been planning to say. "Uh, good luck with...not getting pounced on."

"Thanks, you too," Pyxis said.

The two of them stared at each other, still right next to each other, both not quite sure what to say or do. Nerlin finally decided that he was going to break the silence and do it decisively. "And about what happened earlier? Just after the first round, when you entwined your tail with mine?"

Darting her gaze away, Pyxis sat back down and began stammering out an explanation. "Oh, that. Sorry about that. I shouldn't... I don't know what I was thinking, but I just... It was just that your tail was twitching, so I tried to poke it and, um, not that it's your fault. It's my fault. I didn't mean to embarrass us. I thought that maybe... I hoped that you might--"

Nerlin cut her off. "It was nice."

Pyxis managed to halt the avalanche of words coming from her mouth. "What?"

"I said, it was nice. I like it, and I like you too," Nerlin repeated, and then he leaned over and kissed the side of Pyxis's snout. It was just a gentle peck, nothing more than him licking the side of her muzzle, but it made her eyes go wide.

And she completely forgot everything she had been trying to say. "Oh! Oh, hey that's... mmh... Yes." Pyxis murmured, rubbing a forepaw against the spot where he'd kissed her. Dragons sometimes licked each other's necks or snouts as an affectionate greeting, which derived from how parents would lick clean the scales of hatchlings when they were young and incapable. However given the context, it was fairly obvious that what Nerlin had just done was not a mere friendly greeting.

"Sorry, I think I just embarrassed you again," Nerlin said. His hearts were racing, but he was quite pleased with what had just transpired. Well, that'll show her!

"Wow, you just...! Oh, that's... Hmm, ok. Hehe..." Pyxis realized she was babbling, and also grinning like a fool, but she didn't care. Her neck frill was standing all the way up, surrounding her head, but she made no effort to droop it down. After what had just happened, nothing could dampen her elation. She hummed in pleasure, and tapped her forepaws against the ground. "Hmm, hmm! When I woke up this morning, I did not at all imagine that this was how my day would be going."

"In a good way or a bad way?"

"Good. Very good," Pyxis said. "You really are bold, aren't you?"

Nerlin grinned back. "I'm not bold. You're the one who grabbed my tail and entwined it with yours."

Pyxis immediately wanted to deny this, but after some consideration she realized it might be true. She had been the one who'd made the first move, and so far things seemed to be working out great. Nerlin really did like her, and that was probably the best feeling in the world. "If I knew that you were interested me, I would have done it last week right after we caught that breakhorn. You should have said something."

"But I didn't know that you were interested in me. You should have said something too," Nerlin replied.

Pyxis shrugged and had to concede that this was also true. Didn't matter now! "Ok, I guess we should be patrolling the clearing. The others will be here soon, looking to pounce on us."

Nerlin flicked his wings open and closed, then he nodded. "One last thing--we should make it a challenge! How about this--between the two of us, the first who gets pounced on has to buy the other lunch? Speaking of which, do you want to go get lunch after this hunt? Just the two of us. If you're free. If you want."

Pyxis blinked and opened her mouth, then she closed it again and nodded. "I... I... Yes."

Nerlin grinned. "Great. Alright! Good luck with this round. Try not to get pounced on."

Pyxis didn't know what to say. She simply nodded again, like an idiot. "Yes..." she replied, because there was really no way she would lose out, no matter who got pounced on first. Although it'll probably be me who gets pinned down first, since I've got the more distracting view.

Walking apart, the two fledglings patrolled their respectively sides of the clearing, slowly circling each other and occasionally throwing coy glances to each other.

END

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