Nightflight

A wrote a bit of story to go along with this one.
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Ikaros silently slipped outside. Or rather, as silently as a young dragon could manage in the middle of the night when he didn’t dare to light up the area in case it woke somebody up, which all things considered weren’t that silent at all. But luckily for him the others slept pretty well at this time of the night, and he knew the way, so he didn’t really risk being scolded for being up so late. It was only the clattering of claws and heavy breathing that disturbed the sounds of nocturnal wildlife. And the occasionally barely supressed chuckle from Ikaros.

It was a cloudy night and the moon was barely visible. He sniffed the air and spread all three pairs of his wings to get a feel for the air. It smelled faintly of rain and felt a bit like thunder in the morning. It was good weather for a nighttime flight he thought to himself with a smile. But to tell the truth he almost always thought it was good weather for a flight. There was barely enough wind to ruffle the feathers on his wings, but dragons needed magic to fly no matter what, so it didn’t matter much. And if it rained, he could always reshape them to a form that wouldn’t absorb water like the feathered ones he usually preferred did. Reshaping wings was pretty simple magic, and Ikaros theoretically had plenty with the three sets of wings, but most of this potential was left unused.

Getting off the ground demanded some coordination and a bit of magic, but after that it just took a few determined beats of his wings to get above clouds, where Ikaros could relaxe and let the magic do most of the work. Not that he actually did that, but knowing he was up high enough not to disturb or, more importantly, be disturbed, made flying a lot more fun. He swam trough the air like an obscurely colored and rather funny looking fish. It was too late to chase birds and he was up too high to chase bats, so he just chased shadows and the same starlight he tried to out-glow. The clouds around here were soaked by magic and acted differently than natural clouds, so Ikaros amused himself by painting patters with his bony tailtip and watch them fade away. He couldn’t help himself and kept having to try to supress a delighted laugh. He didn’t get to fly at night that often, but most of the adults had been really busy lately and slept more soundly than usually. Ikaros knew they’d only shake their heads and scold him if he was discovered, but he still preferred not to start conflicts, however minor they were.

Since he was pretty occupied Ikaros didn’t notice he wasn’t as alone as he’d thought until he heard the sound of heavy wings and troubled breathing. He steadied himself and hang half covered in clouds as he tried to determin who had taken the trouble to fly up here and where whoever it was came from. Even in the low light provided by himself and the stars it didn’t take Ikaros long to spot a familliar form in the sea of grayness. He stayed where he were and tried to focus better by closing and opening one set of eyes at a time. Dragon eyes were not meant to see well at night, and even with the help of the light he could provide and the way his vision was split meant little. It wasn’t before she was pretty close he could determine that it was Zoë, and even then it made little difference if he had both sets of eyes open of closed, so he just used them both as he usually did.

“Ikaros Starchaser!” she said when she caught up and steadied herself, attempting to sound serious, but loosing some of the effect because she was a bit short of breath “What are you doing up here chasing shadows at this time of the night?”
Ikaros couldn’t help himself and laughed. “Two names? I must be in trouble. Sorry?” He responded merrily, looking not-at-all sorry. Zoë didn’t look very amused, in fact, Ikaros was pretty sure she looked more concerned than amused, but Zoë always seemed more or less concerned to him. Right now was a case of more. “Stop it Ikaros. You know I Don’t like getting you into trouble, but I’ll have to tell them.” Ikaros sighed and attempted not to roll with his eyes “I know, I know, you’re just doing whats best for me. Gods forbid I ever have any fun”. He knew the saddened expression she had at those words, he knew it was there even if he couldn’t see her clearly in the darkness and he had dimmed his own light when Zoë came closer so it wouldn’t irritate her eyes. He knew, and he didn’t feel proud, but the dissapointment of being discovered made him say it anyway.
“We should get back and get some sleep.” She just said, but Ikaros knew she really meant “sorry”, she just couldn’t say it. He folloed her back down below the clouds in silence, painting trails in the sky with his tail.

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And that's all I've got to say for now.