A Vision of Happiness (Book 1)

Chapter 15

"Oh. He's already up." The one in the front, a dark blue dragon with strange glowing stripes on her body, blinked at Visioner with surprise. "Well. Do you recognize him, Glory?"

A tall, lithe dragon with turquoise, red, and orange scales studied him for a long moment, and Visioner took a step back. "No. Where's his sister?"

"Over there." The blue dragon nodded to a bed where the dark purple dragonet laid, unconscious. "She was in a pretty bad state. He was practically carrying her in before he fainted, too."

Brightness! Visioner limped forward, hurrying to the bed. His sister was curled up in the soft leaf folds, her breathing shallow but steady. Long, brutal scars were crisscrossed over her entire body, and her underbelly was wrapped in soft bandages. Her eyes were closed, but her mouth opened and closed silently. 

"Woah, there." A bulky, mud-brown dragon laid one talon gently on Visioner's shoulder. He flinched, expecting something painful. He was surprised to feel nothing but warm scales. "You're still recovering. Hey, aren't you hungry? I'm hungry. You must be hungry. You look like you haven't eaten in a week!"

Visioner guessed that he actually hadn't eaten for a week. His stomach gave a quiet growl, and a small golden-yellow dragon held out a mango. He took it hesitantly, and when she didn't do anything, he gobbled it up in a few rapid bites.

"Thank you," He whispered. Visioner noticed that the golden dragon was guiding a black dragon with bandages covering his eyes. The black dragon sniffed the air, his snout twitching. 

"Who are you?" Visioner asked. 

"I'm Tsunami," The blue dragon introduced. "Head of School, so you should listen to me. And follow my rules. Which are awesome, ahem, Starflight. The hungry one's Clay, small golden SandWing with no tail-barb is Sunny, black dragon that's blind is Starflight. Oh, and that's Glory. She's queen of the RainWings and NightWings. What's your name?"

"Visioner," Visioner said. "Um. You said queen?"

"How come I don't know you?" Queen Glory squinted at him. "You don't look familiar. I know every dragon in my tribes."

"Tribes?" That strange word again. "Do you eat other dragons?"

"Of course not!" Tsunami let out a snort that made Visioner jump. "Who would eat other dragons? I mean, Clay could, if he was hungry enough."

"Huh? Me?" He looked up from a cow that he was eating. "What did I do again?"

"Oh, Clay," Glory said affectionately. She turned to face Visioner. "You seriously don't know anything about dragons, do you?"

I grew up in a cave with a father that barely even taught me to survive life, He thought. How much could Starspeckle do?

He felt the familiar pang of grief as he thought about his dead mother. She never stood up to Destroyer, but she still cared about her dragonets deeply. 

Someone nice, like the dragons he'd met here, in Jade Mountain. 

"No," He said. "What are you going to do with Brightness?"

"Well, we have good news." Sunny beamed at him, and Visioner was amazed to see someone so energetic and happy. "We've agreed to let you and your sister join Jade Mountain Academy."