Shards of an Icewing

Chapter 5

Lucas was so thankful that Copper had come up with the idea of going to an art festival with Shard. He knew that his friends and hers had been trying to set them up, and he didn't not want that!

Lucas had grown up around an obnoxious group his entire life. There was a Bringer who was always trying to set people up and specifically aimed at Lucas and Copper! Weakart was the one who spoiled everything. Zealous was always pushing at Lucas for this and that! Sky was usually helping her brother in shipping. Finally, Bubble was mostly there to ruin good moments of friendship between him and Copper.

Still, these were his friends and he was happy with them. Plus, he now had Shard as a new friend who so far didn't seem too bad. He was only getting into fights with Lucas' deranged sister.

Lucas knew that his sister had problems and was worried that Shard would be in serious trouble if he kept getting dragged into these things. Sandstorm was a bully and not even Lucas' parents could change that. Not that they would change that.

Growing up, Lucas' parents always favorites his friend and never seemed to think of her as a bad child. They never punished her, made her do things for others, and unlike her Lucas felt alone each night with no one.

The simple lesson was his parents weren't exactly the best. Sure, he loved them and would do anything for them, but they weren't the same with him. He'd spent his whole life alone and unwanted.

He shook himself of the horrible thoughts and focused on what he was doing. The three were almost at the cave filled with different artworks and Shard and Copper seemed to be super focused on it, both looking in awe.

"Never seen art, eh?" he asked them.

"It's so much!" Shard gasped. "How do they do all of that?"

"I know right!" Copper laughed. "We need to check this out."

They flew down to the entrance of the cave and landed one by one. Lucas had only been here once before and yet again gaped in awe at all of the surroundings. So many works of talented dragons around and so many works that they covered the walls of the cavern completely!

They walked through as dragons tried to sell their panting, sculptures, and tapestries. Lucas felt a little feeling to buy something, but also knew he'd probably get a huge lecture from his parents on good money conservancy.

"And it's not like I would ever care about it anyway."

So, he and his friends just continued their walk through the massive show. Eventually, Copper said she was going to go look at something, so Lucas and Shard decided to walk somewhere else  instead of waiting for her.

"What do you want to see?" Lucas asked. "Anything special that caught your eye yet?"

"Meh." Shard answered. "I did see my old friend Peacemaker, so we could go and talk to him."

"Works."

Lucas didn't know Peacemaker as well as others considering the Nightwing-Rainwing hybrid spent most of his time in the Rainforest. He'd only met him thanks to the fact his mom seemed to know him pretty well.

Lucas also knew that his parents and parents close friends seemed to be a little weary around the young dragon. When he was around, Lucas noticed them always watching him closely and asking weird questions like if anything particularly new had happened.

"But knowing why isn't my business."

As they walked over to him, he seemed to noticed them and wave.

"Yo Shard!" he yelled. "What are you doing here?"

"We saw you and thought we'd say hi." Shard said.

"Wait a minute." Lucas stopped. "I thought you said you didn't have any friends before us!"

"Well I did, it's just he wasn't a friend I had all the time." Shard explained.

"Huh."

"We'll what do you guys want?" Peacemaker asked.

"We're we're looking around." Lucas told him. "There's a lot of stuff in this cave, huh?"

"You bet!" Peacemaker agreed. "So many people want to do this! I tried to talk my mom into letting me skip, but she decided that the education would be good for me! IM ALREADY GOING TO JADE MOUNTAIN LADY!"

"Your going to Jade Mountain too?" Shard asked.

"Yep! I have to miss the first week because of this though." he sighed.

"Cool! Well then we'll see ya there!" Lucas called as they left.

As they found Copper, the group left the cave and headed back for Jade Mountain's school grounds. Something weird happened though before Lucas could leave the place.

I know you can hear me, Lucas. I'm glad because this is going to an interesting ride for you and me. 

Someone was in his mind!