Chapter Text
The others had long gone off to hunt, leaving him alone with Pomegranate who had come down sick after several days without sunlight. Now that they were back in mudwing territory they had set up camp to rest for a while before they continued their travels. During that time, he and Pomegranate had been told to stay at camp to ‘soak in the sun’. As a Mudwing; Boulder didn’t quite need the sun as much as he did just warmth in general, but sunning on a rock worked he guessed.
The Rainwing lay beside him, scales finally resuming their color shifting after the days of their travel underground. Oranges and yellows seeping across the base colors a sun starved Rainwing wore. Regardless he kept the dragonet close, thick tail curled around the other as they warmed up.
After having been sufficiently warmed, Boulder took a moment to look over their surroundings. They had set up camp in a clearing with a field of rocks nearby, and where there was exposed earth there was mud. And there, a short ways down the hill of rocks they sat atop of was the beginning of the mud that made up the main part of Mudwing territory.
With a sigh he pulled himself back onto his feet, his knees popped as he went, damaged from years of work. Pomegranate stayed where he was, more interested with sun bathing then paying attention to him. But that didn’t save the Rainwing from being included, Boulder grabbed the dragonet by the scruff. Pulling him with to the mud waiting for them, Lazuli would probably grumble about having to clean Pomegranate but that wasn’t his problem.
He didn’t put up a fight as Boulder dragged him to the mud pits, dangling limply from the Mudwings jaws. He set the small rainwing at the side of the mud, and then with all the grace of a goat falling down a mountain he flopped into the puddles.
It was almost a relief to be submerged again, the warmth and weightlessness easing whatever pains he had kept from their travels. Pomegranate joined him after another while of resting in the sunshine, choosing to rest in the shallows to keep the sun on himself. It was odd to see the Rainwing have so little energy, but Boulder couldn’t blame him, not with how tired he felt himself.
The others hadn’t looked much better, only Entropy remained unaffected by the several days they had been underground. Lazuli had jumped into the first river they had found and even Scorch had taken a moment to enjoy the fresh air. Usually the Sandwing hybrid was stoick about all things that could be seen as a weakness.
For the several days they had been traveling underground there had been many fights. Not amongst themselves but with the group of scavengers they had encountered. When Pomegranate and his pet scavenger Gorgamungar had tried to negotiate it had only escalated things. In the end the group had been killed, leaving the dragons to continue their journey in relative peace.
Boulder sunk a bit deeper into the mud in an attempt to forget those memories. Seawings always talked about how water washed away bad things when it was really mud that helped. Lazuli could keep her cold lakes and rivers to herself, he would choose a mud pit any day of the week.
Pomegranate seemed to agree with him, happy in the shallows. Finally the Rainwing stood up, shaking himself off to get off the larger amounts of mud before pulling himself back onto the rocks. That put them both in the perfect spot, the Rainwing sunbathing and the Mudwing laying in mud.