The Color of Rain

Chapter 3

Rain spent the following weeks with Mango, trying to figure out what the dream meant. 

"Maybe you accidentally ate one of those blue frogs that make you hallucinate," Mango offered. "Do you have any siblings?" 

"No, why?" Rain asked, confused. 

"Well, I was thinking they might have snuck one into your food. They do that sometimes." He sat there a moment, as if thinking about his siblings. Eventually he said, "I always think better by the ocean." 

"The ocean!" Rain exclaimed, sitting up and flaring her wings in surprise, "How in the three moons would we get there?" 

Mango shrugged, his wings turning a light greenish color. 

"I don't know. Sometimes I forget the war is still actually going on. It seems so normal here." 

"Well, we could go on a ridiculously long journey," Rain offered. "Across the Kingdom of Sand, to their coast." 

Now it was Mango's turn to fall out of the tree. 

"You're insane!" he exclaimed, then caught his balance and thought a moment. 

"I like it," he admitted. 

They burst into laughter, scales blossoming with pinks and yellows and oranges. 

"But I'm serious," Rain said once they stopped giggling. "We should go to the ocean. Some travel would do us good. Besides, we're nearly seven, and," she pulled a scroll out of her bag, "the Dragonets of Destiny went on this trip when they were six, too." 

"Hmm," Mango took the scroll and looked at it's cover, which had a picture of a MudWing in flight. "This history series? The author was insane, probably. She wrote it like she was there, noting every little detail, which is impossible, and she was a RainWing, which was also even more impossible for the time that it was made. These things have been around for eons," he spun around, motioning to the rainforest around them, "back then RainWings didn't know how to read or write, and these trees were all babies." 

"Well, they're still used in most history classes," Rain replied, "so let's just go with it." 

Later that day they pulled out a map of Pyrrhia. 

"Do you remember where there are areas that we need to avoid?" Rain asked. 

"Here," Mango pointed to a stretch of mountains above Jade Mountain, "here," he motioned to the Night Kingdom, on the Kingdom of Sand's Southernmost border, "and here." Finally he tapped his claw on a random spot in the middle of the Kingdom of Sand. 

"Why not there?" Rain asked, confused. 

"The map doesn't show it, but there's a town there. Not a dragon town, but a scavenger town. It was recently discovered by some archaeologists digging for stuff, and they were nearly killed. Came back bloody and bruised." 

"Ooh," Rain crinkled up her nose. "Okay, not going there. Got it." 

After some packing and convincing, Rain and Mango, unbelievably, were granted access to the coast of the Sand Kingdom by Queen Condor herself. When the two RainWings went to Queen Rosa for travelling permission, she sent a letter and the reply was, thankfully, "yes". 

So today was the day. 

"Into the great beyond?" Mango grinned like an idiot, something that Rain had learned from many witnesses was something he didn't often do. 

"The great beyond," she smiled, spreading her wings and letting colors rush through them. 

"I bet no one ever thought that two RainWings would go all the way to the other side of the continent on their own," Mango said. Rain nodded. 

They took off, wings pumping toward the mountains. 

"You have great power... and you will need to know how to use it in the coming weeks," a voice slithered into Rain's head. 

Shut your snout. I'm fine on my own. 

There was no reply, and Rain continued flying. But she couldn't help thinking about it as they landed just beyond the Rainforest Kingdom to sleep for the night. 

I know ya'll think that Raingo is a thing, but don't get your hopes up... there's going to be some monkey wrenches thrown into this whole perfect scheme...