[Statistics] [Boy] [Mage] [Candidate] [Hatchling] [Adult]

Illiaen walked into his apartment, sniffing the air cautiously. A curious odour seemed to have permeated the room. He wrinkled up his nose, but gritted his teeth and followed the smell to it’s source. A large, copper-hued dragon.

“'Tan!” he turned away in disgust.

Alotanath could have blushed. “What’s wrong, Illi?” As if he didn’t know. Illiaen glared at him, his hand firmly over his nose. He tried to smile innocently, but instead came up with, “Did you know mud feels nice on your hide?”

Illiaen groaned. “Cob od,” he said through blocked nose. “Let’s go wash.”

The ashamed 'Tan nodded meekly and followed his rider outside where he mounted up. The smell wasn’t so bad outside. He made a mental note to clean out the entire apartment before anything else that afternoon.

Flying over to the nearest lake, which wasn’t very far, Illiaen decided that it must have been a bit more than mud that his dragon had rolled in. “Where exactly did you find this... mud, 'Tan?”

“Oh,” he replied instantly, “At that farm by the river.”

Illiaen groaned. “Alright, 'Tan, thankyou.” Then he added, “Next time you feel you want a mud bath, tell me?”

They reached the small lake, hidden from the air by a thick tangle of vines and foliage, and settled next to the cliff that marked it’s elusive presence.

Illiaen led the way while the odorous Alotanath followed suit, making sure not to put one foot wrong. As they reached the cool, if humid shade of the huge trees that surrounded the lake, Illiaen relaxed for the first time in weeks. He had become an all too tense boy over the past months, giving in to the stress of raising a dragon from hatching. He had been through the feeding, the training, the testing, the saddling, the strapping, the riding. He had been through the accidents, mistakes and bad-luck of growing up - all over again. But most of all, and best of all, he had been through the love and devotion that a rider shows his dragon, and vice-versa.

“Illi, can you scrub my back, please?” Alotanath’s inquiry interrupted his train of thought and it fluttered away through his grasp.

He nodded and proceeded to grab a handful of grit and scrub every pore clean of smelly mud (and that which may be contained within).

Kimiya, Ophel and Phyra popped in about halfway through to add their help, and it was not even dark by the time that Alotanath was his beautiful shimmering Copper self again.