Lotus

Chapter 11

I had just left the Healing Center when I felt a light tap on my left shoulder. It surprised me so much, I jumped nearly out of my skin, yelping slightly in the process. It's bad enough when other dragons approach me and I know they're there, but it's a whole other matter when I don't know they're there, and am not expecting them to be. I quickly turned to see who had startled me so bad.

"Sorry to scare you," the SeaWing said. After a moment, I realized that I had met him before, but I couldn't quite put a talon on what his name was.

"Oh, hi..." I trailed off. What was his name? Lionfish? Lobster?

He then provided the answer. "Lamprey."

"Right, Lamprey. Sorry about that, I'm usually pretty good at remembering names."

"No big deal. This kind of thing happens to me pretty often." Honestly, and not to be rude, I wasn't really surprised why. The creepy vibe I got from him probably made dragons want to forget he even existed.

I chuckled a bit, awkwardly. "Uh...yeah."

Neither of us quite made contact. My eyes eventually found his tattoo. The rings of teeth circled around one of his glowing scales, and the rest of the long, fishy body weaved back and forth between the other scales below the glowing one. I still wasn't really sure what it was. I considered that it had something to do with his name, but I wasn't really sure. I didn't really want to ask either, though.

"So," I said. "Did you, uh, need something?"

"Yes. I had a question." He crinkled his snout a little, looking uncomfortable. "How do you help someone?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, take Razorflight, for example. You just went up and helped her. You were able to treat the cut she got, making things better, I guess, for her. I don't quite understand how you are able to do that for someone."

"It's just something I do, I guess?" I shrugged, frowning slightly. "I'm still not entirely sure I get what you mean."

His face scrunched up, as if he were trying hard to piece something together in his mind. He then shook his head. "Nevermind." He slinked off, muttering to himself. "I'll just have to figure out how to help her myself, then. Can't be that hard, right?"

I watched as he walked away, confused by that entire conversation. "Well, that was weird."

"What was?"

I jumped again, not realizing Walnut had come up behind me. "By the Achiote, Walnut! What was that for?"

"What? I thought you knew I was there!"

I huffed, but let it go. It wasn't that big a deal. He seemed to think the same thing, going back to his earlier question. "So, what was weird?"

"Lamprey."

"You're just getting that now?"

I smacked him on the back of his head with my tail.

"Ow!"

"You deserved it."

"Yeah, I guess I did." He rubbed the back of his head. "Anyway, what was so weird about Lamprey?"

"He asked me 'how do you help someone'."

He made a face at that. "Odd. He asked me the same thing earlier, and I think Khaki as well." He thought for a moment, then a look of realization came over his face. "I think he likes the SeaWing in my winglet or something. I don't really know her that well, but I've heard she's had a pretty rough past. He probably wants to help her out, but doesn't know how."

I nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. Still, he really weirds me out."

He laughed. "He does that to everyone. I'm pretty sure the teachers are even weirded out by him."

We both laughed at that, picturing an uncomfortable-looking Copper trying to talk to Lamprey.

"Whatcha guys laughing at?"

This time, thankfully, I only jumped slightly as another dragon came up behind us.

"Oh, hi Cairo," Walnut said. "We're not really laughing at anything in particular. Anyway, how's your day been?"

"Oh, it's been great! I checked out a new scroll from the library called Foe of Dusk. It's super good, but kinda spooky. You should read it sometime!" She looked past Walnut and at me. "Hi!"

My nerves started to jitter. Here we go again. I had been doing so much better at keeping down my anxiety, but the moment the SandWing addressed me, I knew all of that progress was gone. I started to fidget with my talons again.

Walnut cleared his throat, looking pointedly at my talons. I stilled them, and Walnut smiled slightly, then looked between Cairo and me. "Oh, I don't think you've been properly introduced yet. This is Cairo, the SandWing in my winglet, and Cairo, this is--"

"Kamala, right?" I nodded, and her face lit up. "Awesome! I was hoping to meet you again. I wasn't able to introduce myself before, because, you know, we kinda had to get you to Razorflight first. My brother has told me a little about you, though."

"Brother?" I echoed.

"Yeah, Kosan. You know him, right?" I nodded. A little bewildered by this new information, I started down the hall. Cairo and Walnut followed a few steps behind. "Anyway, you seemed like you've been doing the whole healing thing for a while."

"Yeah, I guess that's true."

"I've wanted to ask, have you ever seen dead bodies before? I mean, I would guess that you haven't been able to save everyone, right? What were they like?"

She walked with us the whole way back to the sleeping caves, bombarding me with questions I had no clue how to answer. Eventually, she peeled off to find some other friends.

"Wow," I said once we reached my cave. "That was...intense."

He chuckled at that. "Yep. That's Cairo for you."

"How she's related to Kosan I will never understand."

"I don't think anybody will." He grinned, and started walking towards his cave. "Anyway, see you tomorrow!"

"Bye!" I called back. I then went over to my bed and collapsed onto the pile of leaves, utterly exhausted by the crazy mess of a day I just had.