SWNOVELS Dragonia: Rise of the Wyverns – Chapter 37
A blue wyvern lay on the ground in front of Devarius. Aquila stood next to him, a hand on his shoulder. He welcomed her touch, but he was ready to get started. He took a step forward.
“Are you sure about this?” Aquila asked.
“What? Paedyn doesn’t get to have all the fun. Why aren’t you worried about him?”
“I am worried that he’s going to catch himself on fire playing with that wyvern. But he’s not the one I’m most concerned about.” She touched his face.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” He smiled.
Devarius took a deep breath and walked forward. He sat in front of the wyvern and stroked its nose with his hand. The scales were cold to the touch, completely different from the red wyvern’s hot scales.
“It’s all right, girl. I just want to take a look at your oil gland.”
The wyvern opened her mouth wide. Devarius held his breath as he reached into the wyvern’s mouth and touched its uvula. It burned him when he touched it. He recoiled. It wasn’t hot, but cold, so cold that it burned. Devarius frowned as he reached for a leather glove and jar.
“I don’t know if this is going to hurt, girl, but I’m going to squeeze your oil gland gently to collect a little oil. All right?”
Devarius glanced to Ayla, who nodded. He reached back into the wyvern’s mouth and squeezed the gland. A translucent blue liquid streamed out. He dared not squeeze any harder, but he kept the pressure consistent, and filled the entire jar. After it was full, he stepped away and held the jar up to the sun. It looked completely different than the translucent orange-red liquid from the red wyvern. He reached into the jar to touch the liquid with a bare finger. When the liquid touched him, he immediately recoiled, nearly dropping the jar. A single drop stuck to his index finger, and his entire hand began to turn blue with frostbite. Unsteadily, he rushed to the small campfire and put his hand over it to warm himself. He set the jar next to him and stared at it with wide eyes. The wyverns were indeed different. He began to wonder what they could all do, but he imagined it would take a long time to learn what each wyvern’s talent was.
Ayla sat by his side and rubbed against him.
“You’re a blue wyvern. Whatever this oil is … you have it inside of you. Whatever this wyvern can do, you will be able to do also.”
His hand began to turn black. The fire wasn’t warm enough for his chilling bones. He tried to rub his hand with his other to warm it, but nothing worked. Devarius became worried that he would lose his hand to frostbite. He moved his hand toward his face and saw the small dot of translucent blue oil still on his fingertip. His eyes clenched tight.
Ayla climbed up him and sniffed his hand. A low whimpering came from inside of her. She nuzzled his hand open. Ayla studied him carefully, then licked the oil from his index finger.
Devarius felt immediate relief. His hand didn’t turn back to its normal brown, but the burning began to fade. He smiled as he exhaled. Reaching down, he brought Ayla to his face. He pressed his head against hers.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Aquila dropped to the ground next to him, grabbing his hand. “Oh my … what has that wyvern done?”
Devarius showed a faint smile. “It’s not her fault. I was the one foolish enough to touch the oil. The fire oil was warm, but not hot. I didn’t think this oil would be so cold.”
“That’s enough experiments for you,” Aquila said.
Devarius’s eyes lit up with glee. “I’m just getting started.”
He stood, glanced at his hand, which had mostly turned back to its normal hue, and ambled off toward the wyvern, the jar of cold liquid in his other hand. The wyvern turned its head to study Devarius. He grabbed a stone from the ground and dipped it into the oil.
“I want you to exhale your breath on this rock as I throw it. Do you understand?”
After a long pause, the creature nodded. Devarius secured his right hand in a glove, turned the rock so the oil faced the opposite direction, then threw it as hard as he could into the sky.
The wyvern watched the rock as it flew ahead. Right as it began to dip down, the wyvern lunged its neck forward and exhaled.
Devarius could see disoriented air in the path of its mouth, similar to that of heat waves, or the heat from the red wyvern. When its breath reached the stone, it soared further, surrounded by blue ice and snow that rushed forward in a narrow beam. A bird flew in its path, and when the ice and snow reached it, it froze mid-flight, turning blue and becoming encased in ice. The block of ice with the bird inside dropped from the sky. It crashed to the earth and shattered into a million pieces. The bird inside was no more.
“That was bloody sweet.” Devarius turned to Ayla. “You’re going to be able to do that?”
Ayla raised her head high and beamed.
“All right. That was fantastic … but this time, I want you to do it without the oil. You need to learn how to excrete the oil yourself to make ice breath.”
The wyvern nodded.
Devarius grabbed another rock from the ground. “Are you ready?”
The wyvern dipped its head.
Devarius threw the rock as a light snow began to fall.