"The night was not yet coming close to its end when Tule Eir went around in the house screaming to wake up and throwing people and Stryx alike out of their warm beds into the chilly embrace of the humid nocturnal air. Both the young ruffled up Stryx weren’t really happy to wake up before dawn, although not as much as Zarya who wasn’t wearing her winter clothes because the days before weren’t that cold and she surely wasn’t expecting such a quick temperature drop. She got out of her house and dropped dead-weight on the ruffled chest of her enormous Stryx who was cleaning her feathers, just to be mimicked by the smaller Stryx who almost crushed her handler into a loving hug. Tule Eir jumped out of the ground and startled both Nebbia and Mist enough to make them back off and let Zarya fall on her behind, much to the spirit’s enjoyment.
“No slacking now, you gotta get ready for the race and I ain’t gonna wait for the next one!” Tule Eir said while grinning at Zarya “You know I don’t like waiting” and darted out of the room.

“As if an immortal spirit has something to worry about waiting a couple of months or so” muffled the human as she got up and shoved Mist out of her nest after she got back in it.

The only reason they were waking up so early was to participate in the Tribute to Daius, but the weeks of preparation didn’t include waking up earlier. The warm-up exercises that early in the morning were really hard and the Stryx were clearly half asleep until Tule Eir jumped out of the nearby river holding a couple of big fish. The dragon sisters suddenly opened their eyes and started chasing around the clever laughing spirit.

“Well, that’s one way to get them to work.” said Zarya while she went back into the house to get something to eat for herself too.

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After Mist and Nebbia had their breakfast Zarya put the saddle on Mist and climbed on it. She decided that Tule Eir would have been the one to ride Nebbia since she was still a bit too young to properly carry a human due to Harpias growing slower than Corvas do.

As soon as Zarya said “Ready girl?” Mist flew up in the air. There was still some training to do with her, but at least she did the right thing. Nebbia followed soon after with Tule Eir floating near her.

They arrived at the designated place around half an hour before of the sunrise. Tension was as thick as the fog that was rising up, but excitement was stronger and everyone was warming up. The rules were simple: run up to the edge, jump on your dragon, swoop until the end of the cliff and fly as fast as you can to the finishing line. The starting place for the race was again in a valley where a small river that run through the forest created a lake right under the cliff, so it was pretty easy.

Zarya recalled being told by someone at the market that the previous time organizators put the Tribute’s starting line in a different location and lots of Stryx crashed into the trees below during or right after the dive due to the wind. Luckily no one got seriously hurt, but they probably decided to make the start a bit easier since lots of the riders were quite young this time and if half of the participants get a late goofy start Daius would be ashamed by them.

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A whistle broke through the air and everyone started running. Mist and Zarya were slightly further than Nebbia and Tule Eir, who was wiggling her fake legs while floating to fool the judges into thinking she had them. Adrenalin filled her bloodstream in the moment Zarya grabbed the reins of the saddle and jumped both in the void and on Mist’s back. Wind lashed in her hair and on her skin as she pressed her body against the dragon’s and for some endless seconds in which she fought to keep her eyes open everything was filled with the wind’s screams. Then, in the fraction of a second, Mist opened her wings and with a single twirl she adjusted herself, flying up above the misty lake and forest while making happy smacking noises. Zarya looked back and saw Nebbia and Tule Eir catching up with them in the same way. Tule Eir was hugging Nebbia’s neck, creating a simil-saddle made of mist, and grinned at her human friend as they flew right under them and Daius rised from behind the mountains, bathing everything in golden light.

“Let’s go!” screamed Zarya, knowing that the race had just begun, and both Stryx darted forward."

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Tribute to Daius for my Draco Stryx Mist and Nebbia.

Finally working on tributes for my babies <3