#red flight

DWC February 2025 Day 4: Salty/Euphoria OC: Lilliana Whitedawn, Sin'dorei "Felblood" @daily-writing-challenge

There was a certain joy to being high in the sky, soaring over Azeroth with one's best friend - a freedom... an unbridled joy to feeling like there's simply... nothing else. Just the clouds, and sky that stretch on and on into an unknowable horizon - and it's all just for you.

It had been some time since she and Erythraestrasz had taken the time to simply take to the skies like they had... before. Before her fall. Before her daughter. Before it all got so complicated.

Back when it seemed so much simpler, but it was all too much for me, anyways.

She'd known the euphoric high of sitting astride a dragon, and taking to the skies for years and years, before the Dragon Isles saw mortals working closer with dragons than almost any time before... but there was a certain little warmth in her chest, as she thought of others experiencing... not just the joy of flight, and the freedom of it all... but the friendship of a dragon. Well and truly knowing these 'people' who love and live just like anyone else... whether or not they have four legs, and a pair of wings.

Eryth was family, at this point. When she'd been too far gone, struggling with her demonic transition in the early years... he'd practically raised Caitiri. He was the closest thing to a father her daughter had ever known, and... Lily was proud of that. Who else could better guide her daughter in how to be kind, patient, loving... in being forgiving, and compassionate? She couldn't have done better than he had, in truth - and at the time, all the dragons had known was that they would never see another egg hatch. Eryth was delighted to have a 'whelp' to tend to, and oversee during that time - in a way, it had even benefited him to have some place to let all that nurturing out. To distract himself from a future where dragons died, but none were ever born again.

The thought came upon her, and stung her eyes with tears - but that fear was gone, now. The dragons were healed... whole again. It meant Eryth was more often away - aiding in the restoration of the Dragon Isles, the acclimation of the Dracthyr, and mingling with his family in a way he hadn't been able to in... well, not for the entirety of Lily's lifespan, at least. She still remembered the Orcs enslaving the Red Flight, and burning Eversong, and how hard she'd fought beside them in Northrend on more than one occasion... no, the Red Flight, among the lot of them... had always had it rough.

Too much compassion, however - too much forgiveness - can kill. That would be the unfortunate lesson that she would have to impart to her daughter, in time.

"...Blasters have stun settings." And Hobbie's was trained directly on the girl who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Hera never liked this part of her job. Lying to Imperials was one thing; there was a certain satisfaction in knowing she had them fooled. But hiding information from her own allies was difficult, especially when she knew they could tell something was up (and they often did; being so good at deception tended to make you good at spotting it in others). She hadn't liked it back when she was leader of her cell, and she didn't like it now as leader of a squadron.

"Believe me, Lily. It's true. None would have cause to doubt more than my own people - but we know - even I can feel it. And so, I've spoken to the Dragonscale Expedition already - they're scrambling to gather capable minds and willing bodies for their initial forays into ancient, uncharted territory."

He knew what he was doing. And he knew she'd already agreed, even before he'd baited her with fresh thoughts of knowledge, and exploration; with thoughts of history even more ancient and enthralling than that of the High Elves - Dragons.

"Obviously you knew I was going to agree, or you wouldn't have accepted a spot on the expedition for me, now would you have?"

The towering Elven visage he'd taken crooked a toothy attempt at a sheepish grin, "We haven't gone exploring just for the sake of it in too long, you and I. And what if... what if there's a way to heal my brood? All of the flights, really." Here, the look the drake levelled at her held equal parts sorrow and hope, "You know what it's like to lose something at the core of you. And for us, it's just out of reach... so maybe it's there. Maybe it's waiting for us, at home."

He sounded so hopeful that it stung her eyes - when the Sunwell had fallen, she'd sounded much like that, herself. Desperately, pitifully full of hope - and in time, hadn't that hope come true? Too late to stop the downhill slide of addiction for her, but dreams came true sometimes.

And so why shouldn't dragons hope?

The Dragon Isles had been a mere legend, before now - but they were real. And she had a direct invitation from the dragons, themselves, to be among the first to lay eyes on it. Of course he hadn't thought of how this news would rock the rest of the world; because even among the oldest of elves, none had ever been able to confirm the existence of the Dragon Isles.

None.

And now... now they were just here. And she was... simply invited along, as history was being made. Easy as that.