Did you see that! Did you see?! Malvayth's soft voice bubbled with excitement in Cazan's head. She knew in her gut that the dragon had just done a roll in mid air, spinning like a top, but looked up from her work on the leather straps anyway. Show me again, can you do it while you're flying sideways instead of just straight down?
I can! Watch! The gold dragon spread her wings, beating them furiously to gain speed before she tucked one wing in then the other, performing the barrel roll like she'd been flying for years rather than a couple of month or so. Cazan watched the display, marveling for a moment at how quickly her tubby little gold ball had turned into the monster soaring overhead. Fourteen feet tall at the withers and twenty seven feet long, far too big to sprawl on her lap anymore though the gold did still try to get as close as she could sometimes with just her chin crushing her rider's legs. The growth spurt had brought other changes too, Mal was much leaner now, and if Cazan hadn't been there from the beginning she would have had a hard time imagining how tubby the dragon once was. Her hide was getting brighter with every oiling, turning almost orange in some places.
Cazan reached up to scratch at her jaw and realized the itch wasn't hers. Very nice. You should come down and either take a swim or let me oil you. Probably both. The reply was a whine that threatened to turn into a tantrum. But I'm having fun! Caz sighed and shook her head. I know you are, and you are such a good flyer that it's a shame to have to bring you down, but you're starting to get a bit dry. You can go back up if you want after I give you a good oiling, okay? Hopefully Mal would realize she was getting tired by then and settle in for a nap. The dragon had been rather sensitive of her intellectual shortcomings when she was younger, that now that she finally had found something she excelled at she never wanted to stop. Some of their classmates had to be encouraged to fly, Mal had to be coaxed back down. Not that Cazan minded. It gave her a little bit of time to do some more leatherwork.
The gold gave one more excited roll in the sky, wings flaring out dramatically before she made her way back down towards the pond to splash into it playfully. Caz put away the straps into her bag and pulled out the oil as she waited for Mal to finish playing around so she could get to work on her oiling. Hopefuly afterwards there would be a nap and she could get some more work done uninterrupted.