Thistleback Wyvern Derby — Wyvern Racing Team Reference Sheet

The story of Thistleback Wyvern Derby

A fictional story inspired by the artwork.

At the Thistleback Derby the slowest racer carried the starting flag. This suited Orra perfectly. She liked the view from the rear and the smell of crushed thistles lifting from the hillside. She had never mentioned that she could finish faster because nobody had ever asked her to.

Halfway around the course a gust tore the ribbon from a marker. Five racers banked toward the orange flash and vanished into a narrow canyon. Orra watched the loose ribbon tumble against the wind. Something in the canyon was drawing air toward it with the steady breath of a sleeping animal.

She climbed high enough to see the cause. An old mill had lost its roof. Its great wheel was spinning in the open shaft and pulling loose cloth straight down. Orra wrapped her pennant around the wheel's outer tooth. The cloth tore into strips, but the wheel stopped. Five astonished racers glided out through the settling dust.

Nobody at the finish could decide who had come first. Orra suggested they award the race to the mill, since it had caught all six of them. The miller hung the trophy over his new roof. At the following derby six orange pennants lined the canyon rim, each firmly knotted by a racer who remembered why.

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