Second Chance

Chapter 7

The stadium was noisy. It was completely filled so that it was almost impossible to push through. The fans shouted loudly, everyone supported their favourite. Unit 919 was no exception.

The guys came to support Hawthorne at the dragonriding competitions. They had never had to attend such events before, and they were looking forward to the upcoming activity. Although Morrigan was distinguished by some restraint, but even she could not resist loud exclamations. Cadence was sitting next to her, arms crossed over her chest and sometimes wincing at all this cacophony of sounds. She did not scream like all the other members of Unit, but watched everything with interest and from time to time bit her lips, which betrayed her excitement.

"Where is Mahir and Lam?" - Morrigan asked, looking at the two empty seats. - "I thought they were going to come".

"This morning they decided to go look for information about..." - Anah looked around, not knowing whether to talk about it in front of everyone, - "In general, you know what".

"So we definitely won't see them in the near future" - Thaddea let out a chuckle. - "I don't understand how digging in books can give someone such pleasure?"

"It gives you great pleasure to get involved in fights, or, simply put, everything that is associated with getting injured. Everyone has their own entertainment" - Cadence shrugged.

Thaddea only snorted in response.

"Shh" - Arch shushed them and nodded at the playground, - "It's starting".

The announcer's voice was heard in the loudspeakers, who greeted the participants of the competition and the fans. Dragon riders had to perform in a certain order. Hawthorne was the tenth, which meant that the guys would have to wait quite a long time to see a friend.

But the performance of each participant was so unique and fascinating that the guys did not even notice how quickly time flew by.

Here came the ninth participant. He was wearing a copper-colored outfit, and was about the same height as Hawthorne. Morrigan didn't hear his name properly because of the screams, but that was the case with most of the participants. He held up his right hand, indicating with a gesture that he was ready to start. Then the rider went to his dragon, whose scales shone golden and glittered in the sun, and saddled him. Compared to the rest of the participants, he looked much more agile and graceful. He was clearly one of the leaders. Morrigan thought he was even a little better than Hawthorne, but of course she wouldn't say that out loud. At the end of his speech, the entire stadium applauded without exception. Admittedly, Morrigan was also very impressed.

After the rider bowed and left, the man from the loudspeaker announced Hawthorne's name. Unit 919 clapped and shouted joyfully, welcoming him.

Hawthorne's dragon was greenish in color with black inserts on the wings. His performance was in no way inferior to his predecessor. He performed tricks of varying degrees of difficulty, then gaining altitude, then lowering. Each trick was accompanied by several oohs from the stands, everyone watched Hawthorne with bated breath.

Cadence leaned over to Morrigan and whispered.

"It looks like there are basically only two riders competing here" - the girl grinned.