Wings Of Fire: Spotlight

Chapter Nine - Familiar Faces And Forging Friends

And then a dragon dancing on a table with a crowd of three below him. The (who appeared to be a Rain-Sand hybrid) dragon was catwalking across the birch table, turning and flaring his pale silver wings. He winked at the crowd below.

"Yes Koala, slay!" A blood red SkyWing cheered, flickers of beetle shades from under her scales.

The other two, an IceWing and MudWing hybrid, and another MudWing, giggled, and Mako heard the voice of Bear.

Bear made eye contact with Mako and grinned, waving. "Mako, come over here, I want to introduce you!"

Mako shrugged and swept across the floor towards the group. She bowed modestly and waved, then shot a wink at Koala. "Hiya, I'm Mako of the Jade Winglet. Nice to meet you all!"

The SkyWing waved shyly before drawing back. The IceWing hybrid greeted a deep 'hi', and Koala flared his wings.

"Are you testing me?" Koala lashed his tail with a smirk.

"Maybe." Mako grinned back.

"No." The SkyWng ordered. "Bad Koala."

Koala slumped his wings, which faded into a silver-blue.

"He's like that." The SkyWing apologized quickly, her blood red tail flicking in light-hearted embarrassment. "Anyway, I'm Grackle, and this moose next to me is Wolverine."

"Moose?" Wolverine grumbled, his shock of spikes rattling like icicles as he shook his head. He flexed his burly form as he lashed his contrasting whip-thin tail.

"Yeah, hotshot!" Koala flared his wings, baring his long black fangs in a failed attempt to look menacing.

"Do you even know what that means?" Grackle arched a golden brow.

"Yeah!" Koala boasted. "It means... Uh..."

"An arrogant dragon." Wolverine finished gruffly.

"Yeah, and Wolverine is the least arrogant dragon here, so shut your trap!" Grackle cackled.

"That prize goes to Bear." Wolverine motioned his massive claw at Bear, who ducked bashfully.

Mako turned to whisper to Bear. "These dragons are...-"

"Vicious?" Bear guessed. "Rough? Loud? These younger dragons have known each other since hatching, and Wolverine was a tutor for them a while back."

"But he's a dragonet." Mako pointed out, puzzled. She'd seen most of Drizzle's tutors, and they were all adults.

"There's a program for older or smarter students." Bear cleared up. "They can sign up and get the opportunity to meet younger dragons and get them used to the school, or they can tutor them academically. It's called Pals. They filled me in when I got here."

Mako looked back at the group. They now seemed... almost like siblings to her. Like her and Drizzle. Inseparable. She watched as the dragonets twirled and tackled each other, tumbling like wolf pups. Laughter echoed and mingled like salt in stew with the buzzing of conversation around the polished black cavern.

This is what I should have had. Mako thought bitterly, then immediately cringed internally with disgust for herself. Why are you thinking about your own mother like that? Do you want to be like her? Mako found her talons idly dragging her around the room, gazing at her soon to be fellow actors. Wow. Fellow actors... That sounds WEIRD.

She caught sight of a small group of three, two of which were Borealis and Flowerhat. The other was a purplish-gray NightWing, on the slim side, with glittering teardrop scales by the corners of her cornflower eyes. A citrine armband was clasped lopsidedly around her slim wrist, and Mako squinted to read the words engraved in it.

Heartspeaker - Citrine Winglet

Oh! Mako connected the dots. That's the NightWing Flowerhat mentioned!

Mako's gaze snagged like a fishhook on Flowerhat's indigo gaze, and the rainy gray SeaWing brightly waved at the hybrid before sidling away.

Another group, This time including Pine, a cherry red SkyWing, Butterfly, the MudWing from her gym class, and a new golden SilkWing. Mako tried reading their armbands, but they were too far from her line of sight. However, she could see that one was an ancient jade, one was a clear diamond, and one was a creamy amethyst. Fine, no new dragons today.

But as she was about to walk away...

"Mako! Wanna hang out with us?"

Oh right, Butterfly saw me. She knew there was no getting off the hook, so she trudged over. "Hi, Butterfly."

"Ok guys," Butterfly introduced, tail curling over her small, silver speckled talons, "this is Mako. We saw her earlier. Mako, this LeafWing is Pine, the SkyWing I'm with is my BEST FRIEND Swift-" She cut off due to a light thwack on the side. Swift was looking at the ceiling as if nothing happened, and Butterfly continued. "MudWing gal over here is Caramel and the SilkWing is Swallowtail-"

"YOU KNOW IT!" The two yelled, sticking out their tongues and holding talons into the air. A wild duo, they seemed, twining tails and swiveling their ears.

"They are crazy." Swift complained lightheartedly. "But you'll get used to them."

"Yeah." Pine sighed, seeming tired.

"We're a power duo." Swallowtail stared at Caramel with a wide, cheeky grin, her teeth glittering like the ocean surface from below.

She chuckled. Maybe this school was a safe place with these dragons. Maybe it would be as fun and wild and adventurous as she'd dreamed.

And she was ready when she heard the clap.

Luna's clap.

It was time.