Rainbow Dragon (Dragon Rider #2) | On Hold | Pending Rewrite

Chapter Eleven: Libraries and Heroes

"Do you not have others to carry out your manual labour?" Leif grumbled, dropping yet another book open on the table. "I am not some servant. I am a prince of the city you reside in. You should be showing me some respect."

Sora turned the page in the book, humming in acknowledgement of his words as she continued her reading. She ran a finger over the pages, careful not to ruin them with the sharp claws. Ruined books would only bring Oz down on her head – quite literally too. "Could you pass me the map Oz gave us?" she asked, holding out her other hand, eyes fixed on the letters in front of her. Her mind was working overtime, focus solely on the pile of books she had been assigned – knowing all other pairs would no doubt be hard at work. And, being the leader, she couldn't let them down.

"You didn't hear a word I just said, did you?" Leif grumbled, begrudgingly doing as she asked.

"Nope," Sora said, nose still buried in the books. "Though I might be more inclined to listen if you read a few of these books," she continued, lifting one of the heavy tomes from the pile next to her. "The sooner you do, the sooner you can go back to swanning about like the princess you are."

"I am not a princess, and I do not swan about," he grumbled, snatching the book she held up, viciously opening it to the first page. "I simply remind you all of your lower statuses."

Sora sighed for what had to be the thousandth time that day. "You do know we're up against the necromancer guy, don't you?"

"Of course. I'm not incompetent," he said tartly, eyes thankfully fixed on the lines of texts and pictures in front of. "But do tell me what significance that has with me simply reminding you of your inferiority?"

"The fact that someday we might be the only ones standing between you and him," Sora said, smiling blithely as she continued in her reading, a small part of herself cackling in glee at the sudden silence of the irritating boy next to her.

"Hmph." Leif folded his arms. "Interacting with you commoners is hardly that easy."

"You could try calling us friends and acquaintances rather than peasants and commoners – that's a place to start," she suggested, flicking through another page, scowling as none of the map locations. "It's less demeaning, and it might actually score you a few points."

"Why would I need to score points?" Leif demanded. "What do points have to do with anything here?"

Sora groaned. "How thick and clueless are you?"

"NEITHER!"

"Ugh!" Sora threw her hands up, resisting the urge to face her irritating teammate and shake him back and forth. She wanted to shake some sense into him. How could anyone be so socially inept? "Didn't your father teach you anything about interacting with the public? He'd hardly be a good king if he couldn't—"

"That man has never taught me anything," Leif spat, and Sora raised an eyebrow as she watched him out of the corner of her eye.

"OK... I'm sensing some daddy issues there..." she began oh so tactfully, only to be cut off by her teammate's spluttering.

"I do not have daddy issues!"

"You so totally do. It's written on your face," she said, heedless of how he bristled like a cat. "But you know, if you actually had friends you could rage about it with them... and possibly find some support and a shoulder to lean on."

"I need no shoulder to lean on – especially not that of a commoner. Royalty are meant to lead those – we can hardly tear up on them," Leif grumbled. "And I do not, for the last time, have any daddy issues. Sure, I may find a few faults with him—"

Sora leant over, breath brushing against his ear as she whispered. "Daddy. Issues."

Leif snarled, spinning around in his seat to face her, hand twitching in front of him as he waved it about in front of her. "I do not have daddy issues!"

"You literally just said you do," Sora said with a smirk, smugness radiating through her as the precious prince stopped acting so very princely. She was very much enjoying riling up her new teammate, if only for all the wonderfully new information she was finding out about him. If integrating him into their team involved breaking down that lofty attitude of his, then break it down she would.

"NO I DID NOT!"

"YES YOU DID!"

A hand clamped down on her head, fingers digging into her scalp, and a glance at Leif showed him in a similar situation. Her head was forced around until she was staring back at the book open in front of her. "Might I remind the pair of you," Oz began, "we are currently inside a library... and what are libraries supposed to be?"

"Fountains of information?" Leif suggested.

"Technically correct," Oz said, not loosening his grip on their heads in the slightest – and his grip was ridiculously strong and just the slightest bit painful. "But not the answer I'm looking for."

Leif glanced over at her from the corner of his eye, their eyes locking as they puzzled it over for a few moments before Oz decided to finally put them both out of their misery.

"The answer is quiet," he hissed, grinning down at the pair of them with a smile that made shivers run down Sora's spine. "So stop shouting at the tops of your voices... unless you'd rather I change one of your nicknames to Daddy Issues," he said, staring down at Leif, and Sora did her best to conceal the snort which escaped her lips at the expression of pure, undiluted horror on Leif's face. "Troublemaker..." Oz said, and Sora sat dead straight in her chair as she felt those eyes fix on her. "Stop antagonising Princess. It doesn't matter how much amusement you get out of it – if it continues you'll be in for a world of pain."

Sora gulped, nodding jerkily as best as the hand on her head would allow.

"Good," Oz purred, vanishing back from wherever he came seconds later, and the pair breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ugh. Commoner..." Leif grumbled, rubbing at his head. "Why my father made me join this team I have no idea..."

"Well, he did, and despite whatever issues you might have with him – I'm afraid you're stuck with us. Be useful or get punched, that's how it's going to go from here on in."

Leif raised an eyebrow at her, book on his lap as he seemingly made himself useful for once. "Has anyone ever told you how alarmingly similar of a mentality you have to our delightful instructor?"

It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. "Do you want me to punch you?"

"Case in point," Leif muttered, rolling his eyes as he went back to his reading. "But I suppose that's not a terrible thing."

Sora blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Oz is a hero... and if you turn into anything like him..." Leif trailed off, huffing as he looked away from her. "Well..."

"Hero?" she queried, looking over at her somewhat unwilling partner. She'd never heard of Oz being referred to that way before, and it made her curious. Oz never talked about himself or his past and, being the curious person she was, she was intrigued.

Leif blinked. "Well, that's what my father always calls him. He played a large part in the last war or so I hear, despite how young he was at the time..."

Sora turned her focus back to her book. "I don't know much about the history of the Dragon Wars..."

"Well, fortunately for you, peasant, I do." He stuck his nose up in the air, an aura of pride radiating from him. "My tutors—"

"I'll go and look it up," Sora said pointedly, ignoring the squawking behind her as she rose from her seat to search for books relating to the Dragon Wars. Anything related to the necromancer would only help with their little search for whatever exactly was going on.