The Hatchling

Streamers

I wondered if I had made the right decision, breaking apart Aiden and Beck, as I lied in bed that night.

Ferren had come, watched from afar with his steely eyes and jaw tight with disapproval. He had commended me for my bravery to stand up to someone like Beck, but it hadn't sounded genuine.

Beck and Aiden had shifted back down, and Ferren had decided to speak with Aiden first. I heard Aiden begin to explain to root of the situation as they strolled off while Beck was placed in cuffs like a prisoner.

I couldn't get his ragged, apoplectic, and indignant roar out of my head. It sounded more sad than anything. Like a lion being caged again, he had apparently been placed in a holding cell, so said Milo, who had lingered behind long enough to eavesdrop.

We had all returned to our room silently, each shaken by the lengthy day's events. I could already hear Halli's chipper voice as she would grill me with questions the next day.

As I began to slip off into sleep, a beep startled me.

"Emira to the main foyer please," a cold female voice said.

I could hear her hang up the intercom, not awaiting any response. Why did they need me? Groaning, I slid out of my warm embrace of a mattress and slipped out of my dorm, trying not to wake the others.

Shuffling down the quiet, dark hall, I felt very isolated and vulnerable. This place had turned into a ghost town as the night had come.

I tried to comb my unruly hair with my fingers to no avail as I waltzed into the lobby where I'd first come in the very beginning of the day.

Ferren was perched on a roost several stories above me. He swooped down, completely silent, and shifted as he walked to me.

"Beckette is of a different kind, you know," he sighed. "Very outspoken and very driven, we expected him to be a prime soldier, but none of us could have predicted how good he's become. It's all a mental thing now. That child can't obey orders."

"Why am I here?" I stopped him, cutting to the chase. I was much too tired to listen to him babble all night. My bed was still beckoning to me.

"Aiden said Beck had wanted to train you to prove himself. You probably know he's under suspension for violating his commanders orders and almost blowing our cover during a covert mission, correct?"

"I knew he was suspended," I mumbled, now feeling uncomfortable knowing the new information.

"Yes, well he's been on a campaign ever since to prove his ways work. I've been deaf to his cries of injustice. Well, deaf until now." Ferren stared at me for a long moment. "You have similar skills like Beck did when he first arrived here. We prize those with black scales. It wasn't a mistake you were born with those. Your parents must have perfectly timed when they took the heat from you in the egg to give you the advantage. We tend to place darker scaled dragons in special forces."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Patience!" He snapped at me. "Look Emira, we need more dragons like Beck, but we need them to be team players. I've been thinking about letting him train you, and I've made my decision. I know you want to succeed here. You come from two successful soldier parents, so you have genetic potential. You have mental drive. You have the potential physical ability. We don't want you to end up like him, on and off suspensions and never getting any deployments. We need someone on our side with his skill. Does this make any sense?"

"What about my squad?" I asked, worrying about my group's future.

"They'll be briefed in the morning. Aiden already knows. You'll still lead that squad. That's a part of our experiment as well. I'm not supposed to let you know, but your squads first spar is in a week. I have high expectations of where you all will be ranked. I hand pick each squad. Usually I give a team a specialty, but your group is unique. There's a few more like yours, but I won't say which squad. What's going to make or break your squad is you. You're their leader now. You'll decide where they head, whether that be up or down in rankings."

Ferren shifted back to a dragon and adjusted his wings. "You'll be training with Beck, but remember who's side you're really on. I expect you to keep this conversation strictly confidential, and that means from Beck as well."

"He doesn't know?"

"No. It'll be a little surprise for him in the morning. Just let him think I'm letting him have his way. We'll see how that settles with him." Ferren began to walk to the doors. "You will meet with your squad on Saturdays. Spend that day well."

The burly dragon beat his wings, almost knocking me over with the wind, and flew back up into the shadows of the lobby till I could no longer hear his wings anymore.

Intentionally black? They would've told me if they had done that, right? And now I was training with the psycho with ego problems. This was too much to handle all at once. I had only been here a day. Why did it seem like everything was coming down on me all at once? Why was I their guinea pig to experiment with?

So many questions and no one to ask them to. I rubbed my temples with my fingers, fighting the incoming migraine I was sure to get, and wandered back to my dorm.

At least I could go back to sleep.

"Hey cap'n! Wake up!" Yuri's voice broke through the cloud of sleep hanging over me.

Had I fallen asleep again?

"Huh?" I asked, coming off my bed. My freshly clean hair had left a wet spot on my comforter.

"Come on. Breakfast is being served," he encouraged me, holding my door open to let me through.

My mouth stretched into a long yawn as I stumbled past him, still sleepy and exhausted. Six hours of sleep was not enough for me to still function properly.

We all made our way down the hall, through the sea of people, and into the dining area.

Not seeing Beck, I said "I'll catch up with you guys in a second. I'll be right back," and slipped away before they could ask why.

I was sure Aiden would tell them.

Walking quickly to Beck's room, the guards saw me and went ahead and opened the doors. He was probably sleeping.

At the second set of doors, I shoved them open myself and went inside. The room was dark again with only that one little lamp to illuminate it.

"Beck!" I shouted, hoping to wake him. "Beckette!"

There was no response.

"Beck I have important news to tell you!"

It was like being hit like a train. I felt it before I saw him. Beck had knocked me down and back with his tail. The air flew out of my lungs as I slammed against the floor. I blinked and he was over me, forked tongue flicking in my face.

"You dare come in here after what you did to me?" He screeched at me, almost making my ears bleed with the volume.

Rage fueled my courage, and I shifted beneath him and blew fire in his face. I knew it wouldn't burn him, but it would get him off of me.

He coiled back as my fire combusted in the air around his face. When I clamped my mouth shut, the rest of it trickled down in the air like streamers.

I shifted back down, beginning to speak. "If you would listen to me, you'd be happy to know..."

Again, I was knocked down, but this time it was a human Beck hovering over me, knee digging into my thigh and hands pinning my arms above me.

His face looked much more handsome up close, and it was merely centimeters from mine. I could feel the air just crackle with energy.

"You'd be happy to know you got your way," I breathed.

His molten gold eyes suddenly softened.

"Ferren said you can train me. Don't screw it up."

It was in that moment that Beck pressed his lips on mine and my brain stopped working.