A Fledgling's Discovery
A young dragon begins the slow process of growing up.
After learning how to fly for the first time, a young dragon discovers another new activity that comes along with adulthood. (2,106 words)
Sabel trotted into his cave, excitedly bouncing between his four paws. Technically this wasn't quite his cave, it was just an offshoot chamber which branched off from his parent's cave and served as bedroom for the young dragon, but that still counted as a cave. Every proper dragon needed a cave--someplace to live and sleep and do things--a home base from which to roam and hunt.
But if there was one thing which defined a dragon most of all, it was flying, and that was why Sabel was so happy. Walking over to the large messy pile of blankets and cloths which made up his bed, he flopped down on his side and stretched out his wings. "I'm a fledgling!" he exclaimed happily, speaking to no one but himself.
As Sabel lay down on his bed, he spotted something half buried in all the blankets and other bedclothes. It was a large stuffed toy shaped like a dragon, about a quarter the size of a real, fully-grown dragon--but since Sabel was just a hatchling (no, a fledgling!), the stuffed toy was almost as large as him.
Sabel stretched out his neck and bit the stuffed toy's tail, so he could pull it free of all the blankets. "Hello. Long-time no see," he said to the toy. And it had been a long time. Sabel hadn't played with this toy in almost a whole week, because he'd been travelling with his parents as they all went to visit extended family elsewhere. But now they were back home again, and Sabel hugged the stuffed toy dragon against his chest. "I've missed you, Red!"
Despite the toy's name being Red, it wasn't red coloured at all. The main body of the toy was made from felt fabric dyed a dark blue, as were the four stubby legs and its tail. The underside was a flat black, while the toy's flimsy little wings were made from dark green cloth. In fact, the total lack of red colour was what had inspired Sabel to name the stuffed toy Red in the first place, as he'd found this a very funny name back when he'd first received it.
That had been many years ago, and back then Sabel had been so small that Red had even outsized him. Now he'd finally come to (just barely) outgrow the stuffed toy, and he was definitely growing up in other ways too, whereas Red just stayed the same. "Good thing you didn't come with us on the trip, Red, I think you'd have been bored," Sabel said.
Red didn't say or do anything in response, but Sabel was always happy to have a conversation partner who never judged or interrupted him. "That was the best trip ever! Except for all the boring parts. The other clan was so boring. There wasn't anyone my age, all just old dragons who wanted to sit around and talk about boring things. Boundaries and...and trade and stuff."
Sabel pushed himself up into a sitting position and spread open his wings to stare at them. "But this is the best part which made it all worth--I'm a fledgling now, Red!" he proudly insisted to his stuffed toy. "I can fly! So that means I'm not just a hatchling anymore, I'm a fledgling."
Sabel turned the stuffed toy and stretched out Red's fabric wings, comparing them against his own extended wings. "See? My wings are much bigger than yours. I can fly. I can! You can't." Sabel gently tossed the toy across the bedroom, but Red just spun about loosely and bounced off the wall, nothing at all like proper controlled flight.
Hopping off his bed, Sabel ran over and snatched up Red in his jaws, before scampering back to his bed. Halfway across the room, he made a running leap and flapped his wings as hard and fast as he could. He fluttered through the air before landing right on the large pile of blankets that made up his bed. This wasn't much of a flight, but Sabel certainly felt like he'd had some control over his trajectory.
"That wasn't just a jump. That was a flight! It counted. And even if it doesn't count as flying, I was definitely flying earlier today," Sabel said to Red. "On the way back home, Mother let me try riding on her back instead of having to sit in the... on the... flight harness pouch she was wearing over her chest, and so I could try flying! It was so... It was amazing!"
The dragon fledgling dropped the large stuffed toy down on the bed, positioning it belly-down with cloth wings open. "She was flying like normal, and I was riding on her back. Like this, except you're much smaller than Mother. And you're soft too." Sabel jumped up and stood over the stuffed toy, kneading the soft material with his paws and feeling the cloth sliding past his claws. "Then the air was going all fast because she was flying, and I could just... I opened my wings and I could feel all the air going past, and it felt so nice. And then suddenly the air just... the air _caught_my wings, or my wings caught the air, and then I was flying!"
Sabel giggled as he remembered the excitement of that first moment of being airborne. Still standing atop Red, he unfurled his wings and stretched them as wide as he could. Then he made a small hop and tucked his arms and legs in against his sides, so that he was just balancing on his chest and belly, pressing his underside against the stuffed toy. "It was like this, except that there was moving air because I was riding on Mother's back. And the air kept pushing my wings and lifting me up, so I was flying! And it was amazing. Father kept flying close by and watching me because he thought I would lose control, but I didn't."
Sabel tried flapping his wings, which made him bounce up and down as he lay on top of Red. "I'm a fledgling! I can fly. Sort of. Hmrr!" He made a happy, rumbly sound from his throat and rubbed his snout against pleasing soft material which made up Red.
Then Sabel prodded at a small bit vertical cloth sewn onto Red's neck. He used his other forepaw to reach behind and feel the back of his own neck. "Oh, and my crest fin is really starting to grow in. See?"
Stretching from the back of Sabel's head, a thin vertical membrane traced his spine and ran behind his neck. This particular anatomical feature hadn't been there when he'd been much younger, but over the past couple of years it had started to grow in. It was weird to have a body part there which hadn't been there before, but a crest was something which fledgling and adult dragons had, so Sabel knew this was yet more evidence he was growing up.
As Sabel had learned from his parents and his clan elders, a dragon's crest fin was made from the same sort of membrane which made up their wings. Sabel's crest felt extremely sensitive as he used a paw to play with it, even more so than his wings did. It felt ticklish to the touch, yet not in a bad way that made him want to stop.
As Sabel had also been told, a dragon's crest was sensitive to detect even minor disturbances in airflow, just like their wings were, but a crest could also be used to express emotion. Sabel hadn't yet achieved the muscle control to voluntarily raise or collapse his crest, but he felt his crest start to automatically perk up as he played with it. It felt oddly pleasant to pat down his crest and feel it spring back up, creating a tingly feeling which sent a shudder down his back. "That feels... That feels nice," Sabel muttered.
The dragon fledgling kept stroking and playing with that sensitive membrane running down the back of his neck. Each touch created more of that tingly, pleasant feeling, and that feeling ran through his whole body but especially seemed to echo through his underbelly. "Why does it feel like that?" Sabel wondered aloud, speaking to Red but mostly just to himself.
Feeling a strange urge to move, Sabel flapped his wings. This seemed to encourage that tingly feeling as he rubbed his underbelly against the soft cloth of Red's stuffed body, and without thinking about it Sabel started repeatedly beating his wings, bouncing himself up and down. With one forepaw he kept touching his crest fin, stroking that sensitive membrane and enjoying the curious tingles of pleasure that created. He didn't know why it felt nice to play with himself like this, but it did.
Sabel had gotten distracted from telling Red about his trip with his parents, but this was so unusual and so unexpected that he decided to investigate. It felt like there was a tingly sense of tightness building inside him, and it just got worse the more he kept going. Every time Sabel flapped his wings and pressed his underbelly against the softness of his stuffed toy, it felt like that tingle inside him got just a little bit better than before.
Simultaneously that tingle felt like it was localized right in his underbelly, but it also felt like it was running through his whole body and making him feel good all over, and somehow touching his sensitive crest fin with his paw made that tingly feeling _even_better. Sabel kept his tail pointed straight behind him and his legs tucked up close, encouraging that weirdly nice feeling as he kept humping his soft toy. The tension kept building up, and Sabel instinctively wanted to get more of it.
Flapping his wings, he imagined that he was flying higher and higher in the air, rising above everything so high above the world. He was panting slightly from the exertion of continuously flapping his wings and moving his body, but that tingly feeling was rewarding enough that he didn't care. "Hah... Huh. That feels nice... Oh..."
Then out of nowhere the pleasant sensation skyrocketed, and Sabel went completely stiff from the sheer intensity of it. If earlier it had felt like he'd been climbing through the air, then now it was like he'd fallen into a dive, burning away all his gained altitude in exchange for extreme, dazzling speed.
The young dragon felt so overwhelmed that he couldn't react at all as that tingly feeling exploded into a deeply intense, twitching sensation that seized control of his body. His jaw dropped open and he could feel his crest fin perking upwards as hard as it ever had in his whole life. Muscles in his tail and especially his underbelly suddenly started to twitch to a regular beat, and Sabel gasped and shuddered from the incredible intensity of the sensation.
He couldn't do anything at all for a few seconds. For just a brief moment it felt like his mind and body had been completely scrambled and weren't working correctly, then finally the twitching feeling stopped and that overwhelming intensity faded away. Sabel let out his breath in a gasp, and he slumped limply against Red.
"Oo... What was that?" he wondered. That tension and all the tingly feelings were gone, but somehow they'd been replaced by a sensation of relief. Sabel yawned widely, and he playfully gnawed on Red's neck and pretended to choke the stuffed toy. "Gnnahrr..."
Now his exhaustion seemed to catch up with him all of a sudden, making him feel lethargic and sleepy. It was only just past sunset and the sky was still faintly lit with orange hues, visible through the cliff-side balcony window which ran along one side of Sabel's bedroom cave, but still he felt like he could sleep. After travelling for most of the day, even if much was just being carried by his parents, his muscles felt tired and well-used.
Rolling onto his back, the dragon fledgling unfurled his wings into a more comfortable position. Glancing down at his underbelly, he noticed that right between his legs, his genital slit seemed slightly puffier than normal. Idly he stored this fact into memory to be wondered about later, but right now he felt too satisfied to do anything at all. He grabbed Red and snuggled up against the toy.
As Sabel lay on his bed, his thoughts all meandered and started to grow blissfully incoherent. Before he knew it, he was fast asleep.
END
For more random young dragon discoveries that are actually wholesome, try Flight School, which is a story about learning how to fly.
Otherwise try Twin Discoveries, which is basically this story but with twin brothers instead.