'When I was little, I used to lie outside, reaching my hands up to the sky above, convinced I could touch the great moving clouds if I just extended my arms a little further,' Wilder said as he lay on his back, listening to the sound of the elves' chatter.

Kulkan chuffed with laughter, before growing sombre. 'What a terrible thing, to be unable to fly.' He raised his snout to the sky and stretched his white-veined, webbed wings across the dew-drenched grass.

'Now, if you were brave enough...'

'It is not a matter of bravery. My feet belong on the ground, not on the sides of a dragon. Did not you yourself say you were no steed?'

'True, but we would reach our destination faster flying together than on that strange beast you call a horse.'

'I think you'll find that you are the strangest beast in this land. I never dreamed...never even imagined that dragons existed. And now I'm on some fool-hardy quest to a realm I've never even heard of, unsure if I'm doing the right thing.'

'You are,' Kulkan said confidently. 'You're saving an entire species from extinction. And then you shall return home, to rule as King.'

'I do not wish to be King!' He thumped his fist on the ground, using the other to brush off the flecks of grass.

His raised voice drew the attention of Söröña. 'Are you not well?' Her forehead creased into a frown as she sat cross-legged besides him.

'Nothing you can heal.'

They sat in silence for a while, before she spoke once more. 'You should fly with him.'

'Are you crazy?'

'Kulkan chose you. It is an insult not to fly with him.'

He swallowed. 'I'm... not all that comfortable with heights.'

A small smile twitched at the corner of Söröña's mouth. 'So all your cousin needs to break you is to force you to stand at the top of a very tall tower.'

'Not funny,' he grumbled, 'not funny at all.' As he mounted the back of the dragon, he winced as the hard, green scales rubbed against his legs, scraping off a layer of skin. Wilder gritted his teeth. 'What now?'

'I suggest you hold on tightly,' Söröña said.

'To what?'

'To whatever you can.'

'Worry not, hatchling,' Kulkan added, 'I will not let you fall.'

'Wait-'

With a giant leap, the dragon took off from the ground, twisting in the sky as Wilder scrabbled for a handhold.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight off the wave of nausea that rose from his stomach to his throat.

'Bad idea,' he muttered, 'this was a really bad idea.'

Oblivious to Wilder's discomfort, Kulkan let out a roar, small jets of flame bursting forth from his maw, singing the tail-feathers of a wild duck that dared fly too close.

'Never again,' Wilder said, 'never am I doing this again.'