Ibis

Chapter 3

Ibis was in the art room. It was very nice in there. The room had windows on one wall that filled the space with natural light, and shelves held clay sculptures and art supplies. Low circle tables with light green cushions for seats dotted the room. Ibis and her friends sat at one of these tables. Magnolia was telling a story to Marmot and Calypso, but Ibis wasn't paying attention. She was busy drawing and stealing glances at Beetle. 

Why do I keep looking at him? She questioned, It's not like he's anything special. Sure, he's a hybrid and thus a little weird-looking, but that's it! 

She shook her head, but the image of Beetle's face wouldn't come out. It wasn't like she had a crush on him or anything, she just had this feeling. A feeling in her gut that said: "Hey! You and this strange glasses-dragon might interact a lot in the future!" 

Ibis sighed and focused on her drawing. She erased the light sketch of a parrot, which was terrible, and began to work on something new. She sketched out a long, thin shape. Then, at the top, she drew five banana-shaped petals. Soon enough it became a tiger lily. Ibis flipped the paper over and decided to draw a sloth hanging from a tree. She was just starting to draw the base shapes when...

"What are you drawing?" 

"EEEP!" Ibis jumped in her seat, her scales turning lighter for a moment. She looked over her shoulder to see who had given her a heart attack. 

It was Beetle. 

"Sorry!" He said, "Guess I'm sneaker than I thought, huh?" He laughed awkwardly for a moment. "Are you ok?" 

"Yes, I'm fine." Ibis said, "Just gimme a second to wait for my heart to drop down from the ceiling." 

Beetle laughed for real this time. Ibis noticed he had a nice smile. 

"So, you're Ibis, right?" Beetle asked as he sat next to Ibis, leaning his arm on the table. 

"Yep!" Ibis replied cheerfully, "And you're Beetle?"

"Yeah." 

You would think that judging by how well these two were getting along, they would have erupted into a full-blown conversation. Well, nope. There was an extremely awkward and extremely long silence after that. Ibis started drawing again and Beetle stared awkwardly around the room. 

So much for a first impression. He must think I'm REALLY weird now! 

"So....umm..." Beetle said, tapping his claws together, "What do you....like to do? Never mind, that's a stupid question. I mean, obviously, you like drawing. So...what's your favorite color?" 

"Yellow." Ibis said, "What's yours?" 

"Red." 

"That's nice. You know, we have species of huge red flowers in the Rainforest. They smell really bad though. You probably wouldn't like them" 

"Yeah, I probably wouldn't," Beetle made what Ibis's sister called an ew-face. Ibis almost laughed, but she had a question. 

"So, I obviously grew up in the Rainforest, where did you grow up?" Ibis asked.

"Well, I was born in Pantala," Beetle said, "My parents decided to move to Pyrrhia when I was a few months old. So they packed up our stuff and crossed the ocean. I still remember it! There was blue everywhere. Blue sky, blue ocean, blue screaming  SilkWing dragonet. Blue blue blue." 

Ibis glanced self-consciously at her wings. 

"When we got here, we moved to the Sand Kingdom right away, and I've lived there ever since." 

Beetle smiled, "Now you tell me your backstory." 

Ibis opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't get to because Magnolia suddenly dragged her out of the room with a quick, "We're going to the library!" Ibis looked over her shoulder, waving goodbye to Beetle. 

Beetle waved back, smiling.