The Color of Rain

Chapter 1

Rain woke up to the bright sunlight of the rainforest. 

She stretched her wings, letting the colors of early morning yellows and greens and blues swirl through them freely. 

"Dad?" she asked, leaping out of her room to the hut down below, which belonged to her father, Sinensis. He looked up from what he was doing with a smile, his orange, pink and green scales brightening her day already. 

"Yes, sweetheart?" 

"First of all, I'm too old for you to call me sweetheart," she said, counting off her talons, "And second of all, can I go to the village to play with the other RainWings my age?" 

"Sure," he shrugged, flicking his tail. It's tip turned a grayish blue-purple, but the flicking movement made it hard to discern if that was just a trick of the light. 

Rain spread her wings to their full length and leapt into the sky, shimmering into a cloudy white and light blue, matching the endless ocean of sky around her. 

She soon spotted the RainWing village; for most it was hard to spot from above; for her it was easier than reading her own name. 

She quickly dove down, gaining speed. Then at the last second as she would've hit a branch, she spread her wings and did a loop-the-loop around it using her tail as a anchor. She then let go and launched herself into a middle of the village, in front of a group of indigo-colored dragonets. One orange dragonet with purple wings smiled and began clapping, turning a brilliant shade of yellow and gold and pink. When no one else joined in, he returned to his normal colors then went to dark blue and orange, eyeing the crowd quizzically. 

"Why aren't you clapping?" he asked. "That was amazing. I couldn't do that, and I've been training with Harpy and Verglas breathing down my neck all year. Verglas at school, and Harpy in the summer." he shivered. 

"She's not like us," one brave RainWing dared to say. The nice dragonet suddenly turned dark and menacing red with clouds of lime green and jagged lines of black cutting across his scales. 

"Say that again," he growled, stepping in front of the RainWing, who was now green and blue with faded white around his wings, "to my face." 

The other dragonet screamed and ran away, disappearing into the underbrush. 

"Any other objections?" 

The rest of the crowd began clapping and hooting, but it was forced and scared, and soon all departed except for Rain and the angry one. 

"I'm Mango, by the way," he smiled winningly. "I get what it's like to be weird. Partly for my own reasons, and partly because I went to Jade Mountain until war broke out. But frogs and flowers, I sure do miss my friends." he sighed sadly. 

"I'm Rain," Rain said, not sure what else to say. 

"I've never seen you around the village before," Mango said, returning to his normal colors. 

"I don't leave home often," she admitted. "I mostly roam around in the jungle, and my dad goes out to buy things at the market. Sometimes I leave, but no one seems to like me and they all just ignore me instead." 

"Well," he spread his wings. "I don't. Now, come on, I'll take you to my favorite place." And with that Mango grabbed her wrist and dragged her through the rainforest. Rain was on her first adventure.