“Oh you like that? You like that you little bitch?" Her excited voice in his ear made Luke smile and he found himself eager to show off, his heart beating faster as he focused on the task at hand. “You want to hold me down, do you? You're gonna need more than just your two buddies. Fuck, are you close? I need you!" she added desperately.

“I'm close, I'm really close." Luke called back, a sense of urgency in his voice as his fingers worked frantically to help her. “I'm just about to finish this dragon cunt."

“Oh God, this dick!" She cried out in frustration. “I just can't take him! Oh?! Oh! Oh yeah, that's it! That's it! Get in you fucker. You want this?"

“I'm….almost…. There!" He cried out as he maneuvered his dragon character around a spire on the map. The digital avatar banking steeply, while rockets fired from its back and searched out the red glowing dragon ahead of him. 

With the happy, rapid hitmaker sounds, he knew he had downed the enemy player and swooped down to help his teammate on the ground. As the ground rushed towards him, he could make out the familiar blue gamer tag of his dragon's rider. The agile kobold ran across walls and rooftops while being pursued by two of the enemy team's riders, every few seconds her character would spin and unload a magazine of the dual SMGs before returning to running and reloading.

“Oh my god, fucking no reg! Where are you?" Called the voice of Flying_Tea_404, or as he called her Tea. 

“Almost there, coming in hot!" He called while holding shift and boosting towards the ground. A quick glance at the lower left of his screen confirmed his abilities were off cool down and he spammed the keys. The mechanical clicking filled his otherwise quiet bedroom and his screen glowed brighter as his dragon character unleashed a salvo of unguided rockets at his teammate and her pursuers.

The screen quickly became a kaleidoscope of colors, explosions and damage numbers until the kill feed read out his kills and the assists from Flying_Tea_404.

“Fuck yes!" They cried in unison as the virtual smoke settled to reveal the dead players who were being sent back to the lobby. Slumping back in his chair he breathed a sigh of relief, as the final scores for the game appeared on the screen, his gamertag at the top of the list just above hers. “That's how we do it! First game in how long?" He asked while stretching his fingers on his computer desk and feeling his thumbs click. 

“Oh, give me a break. I had to move house." replied Flying_Tea_404. “But I see why you missed me… ya needed me to carry your lazy ass."

“Carry!?" Luke exclaimed with a laugh, “Who is at the top of the board, Huh? Who is that?" He bragged playfully. 

“Oh, yeah, DevilDog05 is a great name for someone who has a negative K/D." Replied Tea with a giggle and a rustle of a chips packet.

Shocked, Luke scanned the rest of the scores and indeed he had done the most damage and kills, however his survival rate was dismal. “Hey-hey-hey, the dragon is meant to support, the rider is meant to get the kills. Yet I got more rider kills than you."

“My support is spending more time on the respawn screen than supporting me." She retorted without skipping a beat. “Without you near me for extraction, I'm just a glass cannon." 

“If you would stop running off, I might be there to extract you." he retorted with a grin.

“Ain't my fault you can't keep up." Tea replied with a laugh as the game changed from the scoreboard to the lobby. The stunning virtual vista showed their two characters flying through clouds, while they queued for the next match.

His dragoness character yawned, the detailed scar on her lip giving her a fierce expression as her fangs were revealed. Snapping her jaws shut, she blinked and returned to her default bored expression, while the rocket launchers mounted on her shoulders cycled different types of rockets into the tubes. 

Meanwhile the sassy, submachine gun wielding kobold nimbly walked up and down the dragons back while it flew, before reaching into the dragoness' tail bag to retrieve more magazine. With a flick of her wrist she sent the magazine into the air and held one of her guns upside down to catch it in the magwell. The guilty look the kobold had, when she failed to catch the magazine, made Luke smile. The way Koba whipped her head around to see if the dragon had noticed her mistake gave the sense that these characters were more than just video game avatars.

The sound of rain and the low rumble of thunder made its way through Luke's gaming headset. Lifting a cup from his ear he confirmed his suspicions. “God, I wish this rain would fuck off. I've been trying to get to the shops but the roads around me are just muddy tracks." 

“That sounds like a skill issue." Tea replied cheerfully.

Glancing over to his second screen, he looked at the stuffed teddy bear that she used as an avatar and shook his head.

“If it makes you feel better though, it's pouring down here too. It's giving the solar panels a good wash though." She added. 

Her positive attitude always made him feel better, there was a flash of lightning out of his window and he found himself counting the seconds before the low rumble reverberated through his body. “It seems like it's right on top of me." While waiting for the next game he slipped his phone out and saw that the weather was optimistically clear for tomorrow. “So how have you been? You said you moved house or something?"

There was a brief pause while he heard her eating something before her voice came through his headset again. “Ah yeah, my apartment kinda went to shit so I moved out of the city." She said cryptically. “Figured I would let you grind some levels on this battle pass without me."

Luke laughed at the audacity of his teammate. Clicking on the screen he reviewed his progress and scanned ahead for any cosmetics that caught his eye. “Honestly, this season is kinda trash. Most of the skins are for the riders, give me a cool dragon skin any day." He said, much to the amusement of Tea. 

“You and your dragons." She chuckled. “Anyone would think you had a thing for them." She added along with a crunch of corn chips.

“Me?!" Luke exclaimed defensively. “Out of all the riders, you picked Koba: The close quarters kobold, that's like, the most dragony one out of all the riders."

“What? I like her abilities!" Tea retorted, “And the voice lines are solid."

“Eh, her voice is kinda a little squeaky." Luke replied while looking out his window at the heavy rain outside, his security light reflecting off of the haze of water. 

“True, but what about you? Your main is Dragnaught, you got a thing for strong dragonesses?"

Luke was glad she couldn't see his face as his skin became flushed. “No! I just like her rockets." 

“Uh-huh. It's okay, your allowed to say you like staring at her rump-"

“I-I don't!" Luke replied unconvincingly. “My folks would disown me if I brought home a 'ness. They are pretty old school."

There was a brief pause where he wasn't sure if he had offended her, before her voice came back through his headset, this time muffled with food in her mouth. “I think they are pretty cool. Flying over the countryside and being free is kinda neat."

“Oh I bet." He said happily, glad that he hadn't somehow offended the woman. His eyes became unfocused as he thought back to his own interactions with the ones he knew. He swallowed. “Have you ever flown on a dragon?"

He could hear a playfulness in her voice which he didn't quite understand. “Oh, yeah." She chuckled before clearing her throat. “I used to hang out with this drake and his boyfriend, they gave me rides all the time." She giggled.

Luke blushed and smiled, “Sounds hot." He said flatly and chuckled along with her. Staring at the spinning icon he sighed just loud enough for the mic to pick up. “I swear, this game is kinda dead. I hope they make Riderfall 3."

“Yeah, me too. It's been long enough." Replied Tea with a hint of nostalgia in her voice. The pair continued to watch their characters, while hoping that the spinning icon in the corner would change. 

“So, you moved house?" Luke asked to pass the time. He could hear Tea quickly crunching some chips, her eating was always really loud for some reason.

“Ah, yeah. Moved out of the city and found a nice place up north." She answered proudly. “No more exhaust fumes or trash in the street, it's great."

“That's cool! You work remotely then?" He asked, he knew she had mentioned ages ago that she worked for Drag'n'drop in some capacity. The large e-commerce company hired countless dragons to deliver packages, but their head office consisted of an almost exclusively human workforce.

Tea audibly swallowed her mouthful before replying. “Yeah, that's it." She said simply. “It took a while for my internet to get hooked up here though, they had to lay a new cable."

“Oof, that's never fun." A flash of lightning lit up his otherwise dim room, followed immediately by a roar of thunder. “Damn, this storm isn't messing around."

“Oh, really?" Tea asked before he heard a rumble of thunder come through his headphones. His brow furrowing as he wondered where it was she lived, not wanting to probe further however for risk of sounding like a creep.

He was about to reply when a happy noise came from their game. The small spinning circle in the corner of the screen spun frantically as it loaded the assets and familiar text appeared over their characters. “Prepare for Riderfall!"

As the text faded, they watched as Tea's kobold character holstered her submachine guns and straddled his dragoness' neck while his dragon called Dragnaught pulled the straps on her harness to ensure they were tight. With a friendly pat on the neck of the dragoness, the kobold leaned forward and the camera shifted to be behind them as they plummeted through the clouds. 

The small circle in the corner of the screen spun rapidly as all of the players joined, the clouds that the pair flew through obscured the world below as it was being loaded. Holding Tab on his keyboard he could see the names of the various players joining the server. “Ah shit, they have Reaper26 on their team." 

“Well, now it's a fair fight!" Tea said happily, a hint of competitiveness coming through in her voice. 

He smiled as he imagined her sitting up straighter and quickly adjusted his chair to do the same. He adjusted the volume on his headset as the rain outside became even louder, the rush of wind and distant explosions from the game competing against the white noise. 

As the two teams filled up, the animation of their characters subtly shifted from an idle loop to his dragoness closing her wings completely and bursting through the bottom of the clouds to reveal the war-torn landscape below. As the two virtual characters hurtled towards the ground Tea's kobold character unhooked herself from the saddle and made its way to the long slender tail of Dragnaught. 

“Take me deep." She said, ignorant of the innuendo.

With a few button presses and a drift of his mouse he angled them further towards the enemies' bases. As enemy dragons and their riders began to close in, he pressed shift to boost his speed before he double tapped another button. With a hard rock of her wings, a twist of her body and a sharp flick of the dragoness' tail, the kobold was sent flying towards an enemy base. 

He could hear the clatter of her keys as she rapidly mashed buttons to stabilize her descent while he moved to intercept a clearly low level duo, which had not separated yet. 

“Did you get a new keyboard?" He asked while pursuing his prey. Glancing to the bottom left of his screen he could see her avatar of Koba, her health and an icon to say she was playing with a controller. Frowning, he wondered if the game had just failed to update her profile as she continued to tap away frantically. 

“Nah, controller. But I bought a new one and it needs breaking in a bit." She replied while sounding distracted. Her icon in the corner of his screen flashed to symbolize she had begun to engage the enemy.

“You should really go keyboard and mouse, hey, it's way more accurate." 

Tea chuckled, “Nah, gotta give you a chance to keep up." She retorted while making the first kill of the match.

With the game announcing first blood, he saw his character's abilities become available as he swung his dragoness in behind the two new players. With a cheerful tone he locked onto them and fired rockets. With a flash and puff of smoke, they were sent back to the respawn screen while also unlocking abilities for Tea to use. The cooperative nature of the game was what drew the pair to Riderfall 2, but also led to some jokes over who was carrying who. 

“Nice double!" Tea exclaimed while her kobold ran along the walls firing her SMGs down on a group of bots. 

“See? Mechanical keyboards, they make a difference." He teased while scanning for his next target. 

“Pfft, whatever. I don't see your score getting any better." She retorted while her character fetched new magazines from the small tail bag at the base of the kobold's tail. “I'm starting to see why you…" her words drifted off as she engaged another player, quickly dispatching them by mag dumping them at point blank range. “Missed me! You need me to carry your ass."

Luke chuckled while firing rockets into another player controlled dragon. “You know it, playing with randoms is horrible. They all want to play the dragon." 

“Well, not me! The controls for flying are trash." She explained. 

Luke smiled, “They wouldn't be if you got a decent-"

“Shut up! Controller is way more comfortable for me!" Tea retorted, “And I'm still beating you in kills! Oh shit, it's Reaper." She added, her aggressive style faltering as their nemesis began engaging her. 

“Yup, I've found his dragon." Luke confirmed and glanced to the corner of his screen to see her icon flashing and the health bar starting to drop. Confirming his dragon's abilities were off cool down he banked hard and began to swoop down to help Tea while the enemy dragon dove after him. 

He found himself leaning forwards in his chair, streaks of wind swirled past his dragoness as she dove straight down towards the ground. With wings tucked in close, he held down the button to search for a lock on Reaper26, but the skilled player bounced and slid across the ruined rooftops, trading shots with Tea. 

His screen pulsed red as tracer rounds zipped past his character from behind him, the enemy only just outside of gun range. With his enemy having the faster dragon, he knew it was only a matter of time until he ran out of luck. “Come on… just a bit more!" He whispered, the small glowing red box hovering over Reaper26 for a moment before shifting off as the game toyed with him. “Lock up, lock up." 

With a happy tone, Luke mashed all of his dragon's abilities to send a salvo of rockets down to the ground. Bullets from the dragon behind ripped into his dragon's back as suddenly his monitor went black. 

“Fuck!" Luke exclaimed, his computer which would normally glow in a collection of rainbow lights now sat dark. The security light outside was out and his entire room was plunged into an eerie darkness. The small LED on his monitor faded to black as a rumble of thunder shook his windows.

With a sigh, he took off his headphones and dropped them on his desk in frustration. Kicking back in his chair he pulled out his phone, the glow from the screen the only source of illumination, as he opened a chat with Flying_Tea_404. 

L: “Power went out! I totally had him."

Tea: “hahaha, gitgud."

There was a brief pause before the green dot next to her name changed to a symbol of a tablet.

Tea: “...mine went out too." 

L: “Stupid storm, we totes had that."

Sighing, he turned his phone's light on and placed his phone next to his computer to illuminate his room and began getting ready for bed. Hanging on his walls was a collection of patriotic memorabilia, a large flag pinned to the wall along with a collection of photos. Stretching, he figured it was late and with no power there wasn't much else he wanted to do and began to undress. 

He had stripped down to his boxers when his phone vibrated with an incoming message. 

Tea: “it seems like they needed god on their side to win."

He chuckled out loud and picked up his phone before flopping heavily onto his bed. 

“Valid strat." He typed as his room flashed repeatedly with the lighting outside, he counted in his head until the deep roar of thunder rumbled through his house. “Is it still thundering your way?" He asked. He knew she was somewhere in his timezone due to her often going online at the same time he did, but had never asked exactly where she lived, some thing's online are best left unspoken.

Tea: “oh yeah, big flash just lit up my room."

There was a brief pause while he lay on his bed, fingers hovering over his phone's keyboard. 

Tea: “oh wow, sounded like a hungry dragon."

He chuckled at the imagery, another flash of lightning illuminated his room and he began counting in his head once more. When he heard the thunder he tapped away at his phone. “10 seconds between the lighting and thunder for me. That's like 2 miles from memory." 

There was a brief pause while she typed before she stopped typing. He stared at his screen for a minute before he switched apps to scroll through some short videos, his eyes snapping to the notification bar as she finally replied. 

Tea: “Hey, do you live north of Crestmead?" 

His eyes widened in surprise, Crestmead being the closest town in the rural area he had grown up in. Tapping on the notification he returned back to the conversation. “Maaaybe, why's that?"

He watched as she began typing, the small three dots bouncing in a pattern as she formulated her response until finally, his phone vibrated in his hand.

Tea: “i think I live near you. thunder was 20 seconds for me."

Luke smiled, finding himself feeling giddy as he tapped away at his reply. He asked her where she lived and was half way through asking if she wanted to meet up before stopping himself. Even though they had known each other online for years, there were still so many things they didn't know about one another. Holding his finger on the backspace key he erased his message and began typing a new one. “Oh snap, what are the odds? I guess it's why our pings are so similar now." 

He watched her type for a minute before rolling his eyes at her reply. 

Tea: “Yeah, it's a bit worse than my old place. But now you have no excuse for being trash. :D “

He chuckled as he reacted to her message with a crying emoji and wondered if he had ever accidentally run into her in the street. The rural town of Crestmead still had its country charm but had become busier in recent years, expanding to the point that he didn't recognise many of the faces in the street. 

He saw that she was not typing and her status turned amber, signaling she was away from her tablet. Tapping the keyboard on his phone he sent off a final message for the night while stifling a yawn. 

L: “Well, it was good to see you back online. I'm gonna head to bed, shopping tomorrow if I don't get bogged in the mud."

After a moment's pause he locked the screen of his phone and connected it to the charger next to his bed. Frowning when it didn't buzz, but remembered that he had no power. 

Rolling over, he clutched his pillow and began to drift off to sleep, lost in his uneasy dreams of flying on the back of a dragon. 

The Sun streaming through his windows made Luke slowly wake up, his whole body tensing as he inhaled deeply, the faint sounds of birds chirping happily outside his window subconsciously told him that the storm from yesterday had passed. 

Squeezing his pillow tight he arched his back in a stretch and let out a sleepy groan. Rolling onto his back he kept a pillow tucked under his arm and reached for his phone, his eyes blinking awake at a series of missed messages from Flying_Tea_404.

Tea: “hey, sorry i was finding snacks. just saw your msg, have a good night!"

Tea: “hey, I'm heading into town to get some supplies. Did you want to meet up in person?"

Tea: “sorry if that is weird. it's okay if you don't."

Tea: “ignore me, i think i have a thing going on anyway."

Luke could see that her status was marked as away but tapped at his keyboard anyway. “Hey, sorry I was dead to the world. If you wanted to meet up, that would be cool. But if you're busy it's all g."

Rolling out of bed he made his way to the shower, to begin getting ready for the day. Promising himself that the sooner he did the shopping, the sooner he could get back to enjoying his weekend with more gaming. 

Stepping out of the bathroom, he made his way back to his room with nothing more than a towel around him. With the door closed he began getting dressed to go out, he paused with one leg in his jeans as his phone vibrated again. Hopping over he picked it up and smiled when he saw Tea  had replied to him.

Tea: “hey, yeah. I'm free, meet at the water tower?"

Without pausing he quickly began typing his response. “Awesome yup! I'll cya there around 10?"

He felt relieved as her response came back almost instantly. “sounds good!"

Slipping his pants on, he buckled his belt and reached into the pile of laundry on the floor for a clean shirt. Pulling his shirt over his head he pushed his arms through the sleeves and picked up his phone again to send another message, “I'll be wearing a Claws and Roses t-shirt." and smiled when she gave a thumbs up in return. Grabbing his deodorant he slipped it under his shirt and sprayed each armpit for longer than usual.

The country roads were still muddy and slippery after the bad weather and despite making it to the town center, large splatters of mud now covered the exterior of his parents old truck. When he had moved back in with his parents, his father had needed something more comfortable and gave him the old girl. While lacking many modern comforts, it had never missed a beat and had allowed him to take over his parents business.

Closing the driver's door with a firm shove, Luke didn't bother locking the old vehicle. The tool boxes in the tray were always locked and if the cab was broken into, the cost of replacing the glass window was more expensive than the random junk he had littered in the cabin. The faded sign for his irrigation company on the side of his truck needed replacing but that was a job for another day. 

Walking towards the water tower, he paused to let a dragon land on the pavement ahead of him. The large creature gave him a curt nod of thanks and then walked into the bakery. It seemed like every year, more and more dragons were taking up residence in Crestmead. With many of the farms in the area being purchased by large corporations, the dragons that once lived on and worked the land had been displaced. Compounded with pressure on employers to pay dragons a fair wage, automation and machines were quickly becoming more affordable. The result was many of the rural areas quickly becoming subdivided from the demand of dragons who needed places to live. 

Checking both ways, he stepped out into the road and walked towards the water tower, the small town only boasting a single set of traffic lights. The large cylindrical structure stood proudly above the small buildings on four spindly metal legs. At its base a collection of park benches and gardens formed a perfect place for meeting friends. 

Luke slipped his phone out of his jeans pocket and checked to see if there were any messages from Tea. Her status was offline and the time showed he was a few minutes early, so he locked the screen and slipped it back into his pocket. 

Taking a seat on one of the benches that looked back at the town he began scanning the people for any woman that could be Tea heading towards him. A part of him was nervous, he hadn't shared a lunch with a woman in a while, but the rational part of his brain kept reminding him that this wasn't a date and he was just meeting a friend. 

Scanning the other side of the road he nervously patted his hands on his knees before making sure his shirt clearly displayed the band's logo. He glanced over his shoulder as a dragon walked past from behind him, his gaze lingering on her gray scales for a moment too long, before he quickly returned to looking at the people on the street. 

The gray dragon paused in front of him, her face clearly feminine with amethyst coloured eyes and gracefully curved horns. She was thin and lithe with very little muscle on her body. Her harness, which wrapped around her chest, was a nylon affair with a complex hexagonal pattern stitched into the straps. The thread was the same color as the purple markings on her paws, legs and tail.

“Hey, um, hi? Are you waiting for someone?" said the dragon, her voice sounded oddly familiar yet very different without the compression of her microphone and his headset. 

Luke's eyes went wide and he looked around in bewilderment. “Um, hi. Ah yeah, I'm waiting for a friend." He said. If he had been standing, his shoulders would have been at a similar height as hers, but with him sitting she was looming over him from an intimidating height.

“Would that friend be Tea?" She asked with a smirk, revealing her ivory teeth as his eyes widened even further in realization. 

“Wait…" Luke said and rose to his feet, the dragoness quickly took a step back and sat down on her haunches to appear smaller. “You're Tea? Flying_Tea_404?" He asked and was surprised when she nodded. “Oh! Um, sorry! I just… didn't realize that you were… a… um…"

The dragoness laughed playfully and waved a paw at him dismissively. “What. Didn't think a dragoness could get a higher K/D than you?" 

Luke felt himself go red in the face in embarrassment, “No! I mean, sorry. I was just expecting a girl- a-ah-a woman. Sorry, that came out wrong." He flustered, much to the enjoyment of the dragoness who was smiling at his awkwardness. He shook his head before holding out his hand. “Hi, I'm Luke."

Looking down at his hand she lifted a dainty paw and placed it in his grip, “Hi Luke, call me Teeba."