Callessa-

 The seasons were changing once again, as they always do. The air in the mornings was chillier than it was a week ago and the days were getting shorter. Autumn was coming and after that the snow would begin to fall. Fall and winter have always been my favourite times of year, simply because of how beautiful the world looks. The colours of fire in the forests before the leaves die and the trees become bare. The glimmering snow and ice that covers the world and makes it glow in the light. I find it so incredibly gorgeous and there is no better view to see this than on the back of a dragon high in the sky. I stood up from where I was sitting in my little clearing in the woods and released a long high whistle and waited. After a moment I begin to feel a slight breeze until it slowly becomes stronger and the flapping of massive wings can clearly be heard. The dragon landed in front of me and lowered his head so I could be at eye level with him. walking up to him I ran my hand across his nose and over the ridge above his eye before leaving it to rest as the base of his horn. 

 "Are you ready to go back now?" Tanix spoke in my head. Thankfully because of our close bond we were able to communicate better than most telepathically. It also helped that he was a pretty powerful dragon, especially for his age; we all knew that once his age reached the triple digits he could easily be one of the most dominant dragons in existence. I nod my head in response to his question and reply aloud "Yes, I think I've had quite enough of sitting around doing nothing all day, and if Axan says otherwise he can come out here himself and do nothing for hours on end". I knew that he made me come out here and do this for my own good to try and strengthen my magic, but it just made me restless. I'd rather be at the aviary or the stables surrounded by dragons. Or, best of all I could be up in the clouds with Tanix. 

 Tanix then bent down nice and low so I could pull myself up onto his back. We don't like to use saddles at our stable as we find them annoying and cumbersome to both rider and dragon. Once I'm good and secure at the base of his neck on his back I whistle short and low to signal that I'm ready for takeoff. stretching his wings wide so that they span the entire length of the clearing, he lifts them before striking them down hard and fast. lifting into the air he begins a leisurely pace as we fly higher and higher into the sky.

Now that the bumpy part is over, I let go of his spikes that I used to hold on and lay back to feel the wind rush over my face. I've grown accustomed to the cold over the years and now only need a few thick layers to keep warm. It also helps that Tanix himself is always warm like a nice toasty fire. I can feel Tanix’s joy through our mental bond as he dips and turns and circles through the air. To me, this is home.

 ----

 As Tanix begins to slow down and lower himself closer to the ground I sit up and see that we are nearing the mountain that our stable is located on. It's a massive building and can be seen for quite a distance. As the biggest dragon stable in the kingdom such a big building is a requirement. Landing in the main courtyard, a few of the stable hands reach out to bring Tanix in for a cleaning but I wave them off. I prefer cleaning him myself at the end of the day to calm down and use the time to strengthen our bond. "You know you should probably find Axan before he finds you" Tanix warns with amusement. When I get back from a ride or from training I'm supposed to report to Axan immediately. He is the one who took me in and raised me from a baby and I consider him to be my father. He worries about me, that's all. 

 Making my way through the bigger part of the stables we slowly wander towards the main building where both Axan and my own quarters can be found. Axan luckily lives on the bottom floor for easy access so I don't have to climb any stairs. Leaving Tanix behind I walk into Axans office and realize that he's busy reading over some documents that were likely sent over by the king or his son. So busy in fact, that he doesn't realize I've entered the room. 

 Perfect. 

I creep over to his desk keeping close to the wall and only moving when noise from outside filters into the room to mask my steps. Just as I make it a couple feet from his desk, he lets out a sigh and stands up. Staying frozen so as not to be noticed, I wait until he is close to the door before I sprint towards him and launch myself at his back. He stumbles before he shouts and twists around trying to figure out what exactly has happened, until he sees that it was me.

"Callessa! you nearly scared me to death. You almost knocked me flat on my front. Honestly, you're 25 now! I can’t believe your still pulling these stupid little pranks" he scolds while trying to pull me from his back. Refusing to let go I hold on tighter and say "but papa, it's so much fun! The temptation is too much. I did just as you've always said 'if you see an opportunity grab it with both hands and never let go', and so I'm really only following your instructions" I say in a sweet innocent tone before I let go and drop to the floor.

 "Is she misbehaving again?" Tanix asks through both the bond he has with both Axan and I. While my bond with him is stronger, he can communicate with others just not as precisely or skillfully. 

"Yes. She attacked me and I almost died" he responded dramatically to him in his head so that only Tanix and I could hear. We could then hear Tanix 'laughing', which for him is just a bunch of snorts and grunts with the occasional burst of flame shooting from his nostrils. we even hear one of the guards stationed outside shriek in surprise. 

Reaching across the desk I grab the papers he was reading over earlier and glance through them quickly. 

"What does Bastian want this time?" I ask him as I hand the papers back. "He requested that we accomodate a group of his soldiers for some time. Apparently they might be needing some of our dragons for an upcoming battle" Axan explained. "If he wasn't the prince, I'd probably just turn him down. Unfortunately though Bastian himself will be coming as well to take a look at how everything is going here".

 "Bastian is coming? And you haven’t told me this why?! Papa, you should know by now that I need time to set up his welcoming party. When will he arrive?" I was slightly flustered. 

"He and his entourage of soldiers should arrive tomorrow if everything goes according to plan" he replies which sends me into a bit of a panic. "I didn't want to tell you in hopes you would give up on pranking him this time. When will you finally give in and stop? The two of you have been at this since you were kids"

"I'm not stopping unless he surrenders first!" I shout before standing and striding  from the room to find Tanix waiting for me outside. We walked back the way we had originally come and found a spot where I could hose him down and give him a good cleaning. 

 As I started to fill up buckets of water to take back to clean my dragon friend, I thought about Bastian. Bastian is and has always been my best friend. Axan is the head dragon master and a close friend of the king so when Bastian was born and he was introduced to me I immediately took a liking to him. Or at least that's what our fathers say. I am 2 years older than him and some of my first memories are of us playing together. Over the years it became a sort of tradition that when I was visiting the castle or when he was visiting the stable, we would scare each other. It was an unspoken rule that whoever gave in first and missed a prank was the automatic loser, and I sure as hell wasn't losing. We'd been at this for over 20 years and anyone who knew about our tradition was always careful to stay away when we got together in hopes of avoiding the aftermath. Luckily I was decently skilled in illusion magic which was quite helpful when scaring someone. I smile as I remember all the times I've scared him. His reactions are always the funniest.