Fictober Prompt No.4 & No.5 | Fine, I Give Up & I’m Not Saying I Told You So…

Photo by Alexander Cifuentes on Unsplash

​A roar, a crackling burst of flame, and a yelp brought Dana abruptly out of her book. She looked up to see Yasmin scowling at Wildflash, who flicked her tail and turned her back pointedly on her trainer.

“Fine, I give up,” Yasmin grumbled, stomping away and hurling to the ground the gently smoking bridle she’d spent the last three days trying (unsuccessfully) to slip over Wildflash’s head. 

“I’m not saying I told you so…” Dana murmured, shutting her book.

Yasmin shot her a venomous look and threw herself down upon the grass beside her friend. “Dragons are meant to be ridden,” she snarled. “Wildflash is just…stubborn.” 

Said dragon ruffled her wings languidly before settling down on her forelegs, stretching out her neck, and to all appearances sinking into a nap in the sun, which made her dark green skin glitter like starlight was captured in their ridges. 

“Not unlike her owner,” Dana wryly remarked. 

Yasmin sighed and buried her face in her hands. “No one ever said bridle-training dragons would be this hard,” she moaned. 

Dana snorted. “Actually, you’ll find that I did. Several times.”

Yasmin kicked her in the shin, which Dana conceded she rightfully deserved and didn’t bother trying to dodge. “Give it some time,” she told her friend, patting her arm comfortingly. “Wildflash is...well. Wild. She’s not like your dad’s stock, born and bred to be trained. You need to give her time to lose some of her feral-ness.” 

“I know,” Yasmin sighed, letting her hands drop. “It’s just—nobody thinks I can do this. I don’t want to prove them right.”

“Well I think you can do this,” Dana said. Yasmin raised an eyebrow in disbelief, and then it was Dana’s turn to scowl.  “I do. I just didn’t think you’d get her rider-ready as fast as you wanted, that’s all!”

Fictober is an event hosted on tumblr where writers respond to a prompt a day for the whole of October.
You can find the prompt list here.