Wings Of Fire: Fallen Kingdoms (Book 1)

Chapter 3

     Stratus was well-liked by all of her friends, other than Aconi, thankfully.

     They all believed his story and they all sympathized with him and the "loss of his dearest mother, Tilly". 

     Aconi and Jellyfish were both VERY against this all.

     They tolerated him when they all hung out, though. It had been a week since he had arrived, and he had settled in nicely and was given a better cave to live in. It sounded like he was here to stay- in Jellyfish's life.

     "Why the long face?" Bermuda asked, bumping Jellyfish's wing.

      "Oh, you know," Jellyfish rolled her eyes. "The usual."

      Bermuda sighed. "Try seeing him just as a dragon, personality, and ideas alone, no crazy backstory. I'm sure you'd get along well."

      "Too late for that," Jellyfish grumped. "He already hates me."

      "Maybe," Bermuda said. "But dragons change, and so should your immediate opinion on him. He's really friendly." 

     Jellyfish snorted and rolled her eyes.

      "Just try," Bermuda smiled, and went off to join the rest of the group.

     Jellyfish only had a moment alone before smooth and soothing scales leaned against her.

      "Hi," Aconi said. 

      "Hey, love," Jellyfish smiled. Aconi rolled her eyes and blushed.

      "You know you don't have to listen to her, right? You can have an opinion," she said. "I think Stratus is full of bullshit."

      "I know," Jellyfish said, rolling her eyes. "I have to be nice and tolerate him for everyone else though."

      "See, that's the problem," Aconi said, glancing at the group as they all laughed at something Cloudy said. "Do it for you, not everyone else."

     "Yeah," Jellyfish said, following her gaze. The SkyWing bumped wings with Jasmine, and from here Jellyfish could see her eyes sparkle at Stratus. "Yeah," she repeated. "I'll do it for me. I'll tolerate him, but that doesn't mean we're friends."

     "Sure," Aconi said, stepping towards the group. Jellyfish followed.

     "Heyyy," Jasmine said lazily and stretched across the floor. "Finally decide to join us?"

     Jellyfish's ears were hot. "Yeah, I'm not feeling so good." She knew she wasn't imagining the look Jeweldreamer and Bermuda exchanged.

     I'm dealing with it for you. Be grateful. 

     Jeweldreamer narrowed his eyes at her, reading her thoughts.

     "Well," Stratus said, brushing his talons. "Now that we're all here, I wanted to bounce some ideas off you guys."

     "What do you mean?" Jellyfish said, trying to sound polite. 

     "Like, what could be the cause of the strange things? I thought maybe you'd like to hear it since you're not convinced." He said.

     Jellyfish tried not to make a face. He sounded genuine, but reality and the story Stratus was describing were completely different.

    "Sure." Jellyfish said, sitting down, stretching out her wings in the open space around her. Aconi scurried under her wing, stopping her stretch.

    "I was thinking maybe there's some leftover breath of evil where you live. It doesn't explain the yellow squirrels or glass zombies at all, but it's the best we got." Cloudy said, tapping their chin.