Clay didn't think he was the right dragon for a Big Heroic Destiny.
Oh, he wanted to be. He wanted to be the great MudWing savior of the dragon world, glorious and brave. He wanted to do all the wonderful things expected of him. He wanted to
look at the world, figure out what was broken, and fix it.
But he wasn't a natural-hatched hero. He had no legendary qualities at all. He liked sleeping more than studying,
and he kept losing chickens in the caves during hunting practice because he was paying attention to his friends instead of watching for feathers.
He was all right at fighting. But "all right" wasn't going to stop the war and save the dragon tribes. He needed to be extraordinary.
He was the biggest dragonet, so he was supposed to be the scary, tough one. The minders wanted him to be terrifyingly dangerous.Clay felt about as dangerous as cauliflower.
"Fight!" his attacker howled, flinging him across the cavern. Clay crashed into the rock wall and scrambled up again, trying to spread his mud-colored wings for balance. Red talons raked at his face and he ducked away.
"Come on," the red dragon snarled. "Stop holding back. Find the killer
inside you and let it out."
"I'm trying!" Clay said. "Maybe if we could stop and talk about it -"
She lunged for him again. "Feint to the left! Roll right!
Use your fire!" Clay tried to duck under her wing to attack
her from below, but of course he rolled the wrong way.
One of her talons smashed him to the ground, and he yelped with pain.
"WHICH LEFT WAS THAT, USELESS?" Kestrel bellowed in his ear. "Are all MudWings this stupid? OR ARE YOU
JUST DEAF?"
Well, if you keep that up, I will be soon, Clay thought. The SkyWing lifted her claws and he wriggled free."I don't know about other MudWings," he protested,
licking his sore talons.
"Obviously. But perhaps we could
try fighting without all the shouting and see -" He stopped,hearing the familiar hiss that came before one of Kestrel's fire attacks.He threw his wings over his head, tucked his long neck in, and rolled into the maze of stalagmites that studded one corner of the cave.
Flames blasted the rocks around him, singeing the tip of his tail."Coward!" the older dragon bellowed. She smashed one of the rock columns into a shower of sharp black pebbles.
Clay covered his eyes and almost immediately felt her stamp down hard on his tail.
"OW!" he yelled. "You said stomping tails was cheating!" He seized the closest stalagmite between his claws and scrabbled up on top of it. From his perch near the roof, he glared down at his guardian.
"I'm your teacher," Kestrel snarled. "Nothing I do is cheating. Get down here and fight like a SkyWing."
But I'm NOT a SkyWing, Clay thought rebelliously. I'm a MudWing! I don't like setting things on fire or flapping around in circles biting at dragon necks.
His teeth still ached from Kestrel's jewel-hard scales."Can't I fight one of the others?" he asked. "I'm much bet-
ter at that." The other dragonets were his own size (nearly),and they didn't cheat (well, most of the time). He actually liked fighting with them.
"Oh, yes? Which opponent would you prefer, the stunted SandWing or the lazy RainWing?" Kestrel said.
"Because I'm sure you'll get to choose out on the battlefield." Her tail glowed like embers as she lashed it back and forth.
"Glory's not lazy," Clay said loyally. "She's just not built for fighting, that's all. Webs says there's not much to fight about in the rain forest because the RainWings have all the food they want. He says that's why they've stayed out of the war so far, because none of the rival queens want
RainWings in their armies anyway. He says -"
"STOP YAMMERING AND GET DOWN HERE!" Kestrel roared. She reared up on her back legs and flared her wings so she suddenly looked three times bigger.
With a yelp of alarm, Clay tried to leap to the next stalagmite, but his wings unfurled too slowly and he
smacked into the side of it instead. Sparks flew as his claws scraped down the jagged rock. He let out another yowl of pain as Kestrel snaked her head between the columns, seized his tail in her teeth, and yanked him out into the open.
Her talons closed around his neck as she hissed in his ear. "Where's the violent little monster I saw when you hatched?That's the dragon we need for the prophecy.""Gawp," Clay squawked, clawing at her grip. He could feel the strange burn scars on her palms scraping against his scales.
This was how battle training with Kestrel always ended - with him unconscious and then sore or limping for days afterward. Fight back, he thought. Get mad! Do
something! But although he was the biggest of the dragonets, they were still a year away from being full grown, and Kestrel towered over him.
He tried to summon some helpful violent rage, but all he could think was, It'll be over soon, and then I can go have dinner.So, not the most heroic train of thought.
Suddenly Kestrel let out a roar and dropped him. Fire blasted over Clay's head as he hit the floor with a thud.
The red dragon whirled around. Behind her, panting defiantly, was the SeaWing dragonet, Tsunami. A red-gold scale was caught between her sharp white teeth. She spat it
out and glared at their teacher.
"Stop picking on Clay," Tsunami growled. "Or I'll bite you again." Her deep blue scales shimmered like cobalt glass in the torchlight. The gills in her long neck were pulsing like they always did when she was angry.
Kestrel sat back and flicked her tail around to examine the bite mark. She bared her teeth at Tsunami. "Aren't you sweet. Protecting a dragon who tried to kill you while you were still an egg."
"But luckily you big dragons were there to save our lives," Tsunami said, "and we sure appreciate it, because
now we get to hear about it all the time." She marched around to stand between Clay and Kestrel.
Clay winced. He hated hearing this story. He didn't understand it. He'd never want to hurt the other dragonets. So why had he attacked their eggs during hatching? Did he really have a killer monster inside him somewhere?
The other minders, Webs and Dune, said he'd been ferocious when he hatched. They'd had to throw him in the river to protect the other eggs from him. Kestrel wanted him to
find that monster and use it when he fought.
But he was afraid if he ever did, he would hate himself, and so would everyone else. Thinking about what he'd nearly done to his friends made him feel like all the fire had been
sucked out of him.
He didn't particularly want to be a violent angry monster, even if Kestrel thought that would be an improvement.But maybe that was the only way to make the prophecy
come true. Maybe that monster was his destiny.
