Misfits of Vernada ~Wattys2016~

I

Moon.

Her head on her paws and her wings dropping down her back, a small dragon watched the moon as it shone in the sky.

"Why'd he have to ruin today?' she thought, a tear dripping down her purple muzzle. 'My hatching day of all days.'

"Moon," a voice called from in the cave she was sitting in the entrance of. The owner of the voice, a bronze dragon called Zappy, walked out from the cave. "Hey Moon, you okay?" he asked, settling down beside her.

Turning her head to look at him, she shrugged.

"Sparkles just has to ruin every thing, doesn't he," she said with a sigh.

"You're still worried about that?" Zappy asked, gently laying his tail on hers. He was careful not to cut her tail with the large circular disks at the end of his.

Moon nodded.

"It's my last hatching day with you!" she said, turning back to the moon. "I just wanted it to go perfectly."

"Sometimes things don't go perfectly," Zappy said. "And besides, my hatching day is still to come."

Moon yawned, revealing her venomous teeth. She turned, scratching at a spot on her belly with the small horn on her head.

"Yeah." She sighed again. "I guess I'm also worried that all the other Stormriders will be like Sparkles."

Zappy snorted.

"Huh, at least they wouldn't be wusses like my tribe," he said, grinning.

"Mmmm," Moon muttered, yawning again. "He just came barging in like he owned the place. Burning my favourite scrolls and books. He even ate the cake!" she cried, lashing her tail.

"Calm down Moon. It's over now. And I'm sure that the Stormrider city will be way bigger then here, and you can stay away from him."

"Huh, with my luck, the Stormriders will decide who gets who as mates, and he'll have to be mine," Moon muttered, and yawned again.

Zappy had to laugh.
"I doubt it," he said, grinning. "Come on, you seem really tired. Let's go to sleep." He stood and walked inside. Moon followed with another yawn.

********

The next morning, Moon woke before dawn. She lay in her nest for a while, listing to Zappy's steady breathing. She was so glad that her egg had been placed in the same cave as his. The colourless Egg Guardians tried to keep the two tribes apart, but sometimes they made mistakes.
Zappy was different to the other Sharpshooters she had met in the large cliffs. For one he was bronze, not the usual golds, blues, and greens most of his tribe were.

For another, he wasn't as much of a wuss as most Sharpshooters. He was cheerful and friendly, always ready to cheer the often down Moon.

Moon herself was easily discouraged, and the black Stormrider, Sparkles, did nothing to help her cheer up.

When Sparkles chose his name, he was still a NoColour, and he said, "I like things that sparkle, and I want to sparkle too!" So he had called himself Sparkles. But when he saw the inky black that began to take over his scales at four years, he grew angry.

"I'm never going to sparkle with these colours! I will change my name to Fang." But the Egg Guardians told him that he would get a new name once he was in his tribe. After that he grew surly and grumpy, often bullying the younger dragons, and Moon and Zappy.

"Moony Moony Moony Moon!" a cry pulled Moon from her thoughts. One of the older NoColours, a young dragon called Cricket, bowled into her, waking Zappy.

"Hey Cricket," Zappy called, yawning loudly.

Ignoring the Sharpshooter, Cricket turned to Moon.

"Loooook!" he shouted, turning to reveal a tiny spot of red. "I'ma Stormrider!" He kept up and flew to the roof of the cave, then back down again.

"Yay!" Moon said, she was glad that Cricket would be coming with her. "Do you want to come with me and Zappy to visit the NoFlyers?" she asked.

"Blech, no thanks! They might be Sharpshooters!" he cried, shuddering.

"Sharpshooters aren't that bad!" Moon cried, sticking up for her friend. "You've been spending far to much time around the Egg Guardians."

The Egg Guardians were dragons that never grew out of the NoColour stage. They stayed colourless and without a tribe. So, they looked after the eggs.

"Huh, isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" Cricket asked. "Anyway, I need to go tell Steam."

He flicked his tail in farewell, leaping off the cliff the cave was in. They saw him soring up soon, and he flew to another cave.

The huge cliff in which they had lived all their lives was pocketed with cave and tunnels. Two to four hatchlings of around the same age lived in each one, and they stayed in that cave until they could fly, at a year.

It was these dragons that Zappy and Moon were going to visit.

"Come on," Zappy said, walking to the edge of their cave. He dove off, angling his wings so that he could fly. Moon dove after him, waiting till she nearly hit the ground before catching herself.

"Okay!" she cried, flying up to the level Zappy was. Together they flew to the NoFlyers' caves.