Cheetah was flying.  She wore a dark, hooded cloak, to hide her face, but boy, was it hard to fly in!  She finally landed, panting, at the gates of a city called Strength.  She'd been here many times before.  It was the most strict of any city she'd been to, but it was also the only one directly on the path to the kingdom of the sea.  She pulled the hood tighter over her face and went in. 

Go in, get water, get out.

She walked straight up to a stall covered with tall glass water jugs.  Too tall for the dragon behind to see past.  She walked by briskly, discretely taking a jug and thing it to her pouch strap by the handle.  As usual, she got away from it, and when she was around the corner, she drank a good quarter of it down and put the cork back in.  Time to go, she thought, and took off.

"Wait!  You there, hold!"  Cheetah stopped abruptly.  Every instinct told her to fly away, but she couldn't look suspicious.  She spiralled down to land in front the two soldiers—one SkyWing and one SandWing. 

"Take off the hood," the SkyWing ordered. 

"W-why?" Cheetah asked, forcing her voice to be higher than it really was.

"Why not?" The SkyWing challenged.  "If you aren't who we think you are, then there's no reason not to."

"Come on," the SandWing intervened.  "This isn't Cheetah.  If it was, her IceWing would be here too."

"Doesn't hurt to check," said the SkyWing, nodding at Cheetah.  "Hood off.  Now."

Suddenly the SandWing barrelled into his companion, knocking him to the side.  "Run!" He roared as the SkyWing pounced on him.  Cheetah turned, but a roar of pain from the SandWing made her freeze.  He saved me, she thought.  That SkyWing is a lot bigger than he is.  I have to help. 

She leapt at the SkyWing, throwing him back into the wall just as a stream of flames shot from his throat.  Her talons tearing up his underbelly, she grabbed his head, gripped his snout closed, and smashed his head back against the wall until he collapsed, unconscious, in a pale orange heap of scales.  Cheetah jumped away from him, met the other SandWing's eyes, and spun away, taking off.  She fixed her hood, realizing it had been thrown back in the fight. 

Soon, she heard wingbeats behind her, and whirled, but it was only that SandWing guard.  Both of his front legs were bleeding, and he looked like he wanted to talk.  She spiralled down to land in the grass below. 

He panted, trotting up to her.  "Hi," he greeted. 

"Hi..." Cheetah responded suspiciously. 

"Thanks for helping me.  I thought you'd just fly away," he admitted. 

"You did tell me to," Cheetah pointed out.  "Luckily for you, I'm not the type to abandon dragons who save me."

"I'm Masai," he said.  "And you're the infamous Cheetah."

"Yes," Cheetah nodded.  "I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm on a rather important mission."

"I can help!" Masai answered.  "What's the mission?"

"It's... sort of private," Cheetah said carefully.  "But I'm going to the Kingdom of the Sea to look for skya berries."

"Aren't those only used to cure diseases?" Masai asked.

"Someone really close to me is sick, and this is her only hope."

Masai nodded.  "Well, I can still be useful.  We stand a better chance together."

"Okay, but if you slow me down, I will leave you behind."  Masai nodded.

Cheetah flicked her tail.  "Come on, then."

Three days later, they had finally arrived at the Kingdom of the Sea.  Masai was actually good at keeping up.  And he was quite funny, as well.  Now, after three days, Cheetah would consider him a friend. 

"Now we just have to find a SeaWing willing to help us," Cheetah growled. 

"Ready to tell me why we need skya berries at all?" Masai asked hopefully.

Cheetah sighed.  "You know about my girlfriend, Ice," she said.  "Well, she's got something called the "Blazing Sickness".  She'll be dead in a week if I don't get the berries back to her in time."  She might be dead already. 

"Oh," Masai said awkwardly.  "Well then, we ought' to hurry."

They lit a fire, and waited for a SeaWing patrol to find them.