Whistling wind and ivy tendrils clawed at Mako's face as she tore through the forest. Branches seemed to reach for her wings, as if they wanted to snatch Mako and drag her into the inky blackness mere feet beyond. Pounding talonsteps sounded closer, but the blood roaring like lions in her ears drowned out the sound.
Then her foot caught on a mangled tree root jutting from the ground.
Air flew from her lungs as her chest hit the feathery earth below. Dust whipped up into miniature twisters, swirling against Mako's azure vision.
But the last thing she could see for sure was a shattered gem.
An actual shattered, lucid violet gem. Looking all too familiar...
And then a gong tore her dream like dragon claws.
"Mako, wake up!"
Mako groggily blinked open her eyes, vision hazy and misty. Her vision focused, and she caught the azure SilkWing, Butterfly. The dark cerulean dragoness was shaking the SeaWing by the shoulder.
"Whattt..." Mako groaned, sitting up. she stretched her wings to near their breaking point and yawned, sending a peaceful rush of ice across her body.
"School's over." Butterfly quickly explained. "That means it's time."
"Time for what?" Mako cocked her head to the side, before realizing with a dull spark of elation. "Oh!"
"Yeah, so get up!" Butterfly grabbed Mako's wrist and began dragging her towards the door. With an exaggerated lunge, she flopped on the floor, and Mako laughed and helped her up. Butterfly snapped back into her usual excitement and bounded for the door. "C'mon, we can't be late for auditions!"
"Wait, Tsunami isn't back!" Mako called. Butterfly flicked her tail as if swatting away her words and proceeded through the winding halls. Mako sighed and swept after her.
The SeaWing shot and curled through the stone halls, her wings spread wide and valiantly like an eagle. Her eyes darted around the roof, looking for the Drame Cave.
"This way, featherskull!"
That was Butterfly's voice, sounding from behind her. Mako sighed and swung around in midair, before barreling directly into another dragon. The two hit the floor with a crash and painful thud, and Mako sat up, vision reeling before coming into focus.
"Ow..." The dragon behind her groaned.
"You okay back there?" Mako questioned, sitting up and turning around. The dragon on the ground was a magnificent, dusty, chocolate brown. He had peanut and emerald flecks over his body, and his extremities were dyed the violet hue of twilight. The LeafWing nodded, his hazel brown eyes flickering. Mako suddenly realized who this was, and she rose to point. "Wait... I saw you earlier!"
The Leafwing bowed his head again and rose to his talons. He was a good two heads taller than her, and his shadow was dark, looming over the art hall to Mako's left. His voice was honey as he spoke. "Are you heading to auditions?"
"Yep! And you are too, I don't care what you say. So c'mon!" Mako beamed with pride, fluffing her pale cerulean wings. A new joy flooded her mind, like liquid sunlight. She whisked around and bounded away (or, more of a skip), heart beating more violently than a thrashing trout. This is it!
She pushed through ivy tendrils like defective jellyfish tentacles and skidded to a halt. The room was absolutely crowded. A group of NightWings there, a talonful of SandWings by the closet, an IceWing and RainWIng sharing frozen raspberries under a table.
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.