Otherlands Short: The Shadow Racers

Back to School

Windrunner sighed and opened one black eye.

River prodded her wing again expectantly.

"Come on, lazy, It's time to go to school," the black and blue dragon cheered, flapping her claw-tipped wings. Her lighter colored friend closed her eye again.

"Whyyyyyyy..." Windrunner mumbled. "Too eeeearlyyyy..." She would be excited to go back to school, but last year a new dragon came, named Mudslide. He had a brother, Avalanche, and both of them were really mean. To everyone, really. It probably had something to do with the fact that Windrunner had Red-pupiled eyes, meaning she was at the highest strength of magic, but she almost never used it. Unlike literally everyone. The big problem was that only rank Red or Violet dragons could ascend the throne of their clan, so everyone had very big expectations for her. But she didn't act like a future queen; she acted like a normal dragon, to her parents annoyance. There were actually many different clans, though only a few were known.

There were Wavegliders, the dragons of the ocean, which could shoot a mouthful of venomous spikes, boiling water or acid that can blind or kill you, and they could swim as fast as a lightning bolt. The Weblights, who could harness lightning and shoot it, and could fly as fast as Windrunner's species. They could spit sticky webs or glue, and they had venomous fangs that could literally turn your insides to pulp. And the Shimmerscales, who had shining scales in any color of the rainbow and spikes colored like gems. Windrunner had seen only two Shimmerscales in her life---and as a matter of fact, one of them was standing right in front of her.

They could shoot fire that would instantly harden into crystals as soon as it hits anything, and could see the future. They could bend the universe to jump from place to place using portals. And there were the Thornflies, Windrunner's species. They had huge wings and could harness the air, drifting from one place to another as light as a feather. Windrunner was especially good at mastering the sky, and was the fastest dragon in the school. Well, I am Rank Red. Thornflies could summon rain clouds and shoot torrents of boiling water at her enemies. She never did, though, because she had no enemy, aside from her troublesome classmate, Mudslide. And I'm pretty sure that "no hurting other dragons" is at the top of the student handbook, she thought.

"Come onnn!" River barked. "We're going to be late!" Windrunner shot a puff of steam from her nose and said, "All right, I'm coming." River wrinkled her nose at her friend and Windrunner rose up. The Shimmerscale grinned excitedly and darted to the door. Stalactites glittered coldly overhead, dripping water on Windrunner's head.

"I wish I was excited about school as much as you are," She sighed. A breeze whistled past the entrance, with it a few leaves. The sky shined blue, begging all the dragons to stretch their wings and fly. She unconsciously studied River's face, which was silhouetted against the glowing sky. She had a long elegant snout, tipped with a little beak. Some of her teeth protruded from her upper jaw, and at the back of her mouth she had a comical little overbite with three teeth. Her scales were dark blue, almost black, and streaked here and there with white, which was how she got her name. Her crystal-spikes were light, diamond blue, and glittered with rainbows when the light shined through them. Lining the back of her head were a series of slightly curved spikes, shining like polished obsidian. Her neck was long, and even though Windrunner was older, River towered a head taller. Her pitch black eyes had light blue centers, meaning she was a rank behind Windrunner.

There was Green or Black, which was the weakest magic Rank. Then there was Brown or Blue, which was somewhere in the middle, and Red or Violet, the strongest.

Windrunner wasn't sure if anyone even knew what River was. The Shimmerscales were thought to be extinct, wiped out by a massacre performed by the Weblights about 27 years ago. Windrunner was 6, and River was 4, but neither of them knew much about the massacre, probably due to the fact that they weren't.