Lotus

Chapter 16

Several days passed without another word about Gemini being a hybrid. I waited uneasily for it to be mentioned by someone outside of my winglet, but my worry seemed to be for nothing. No one knew about it.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for very long. Just as I thought that we would never have to hear about it again, the whispers of Gemini's heritage started. I didn't know how, but I had a feeling it wasn't because of anyone in my winglet. I figured it probably came from outside of the school, considering the line in the letter about 'complications keeping this hidden'. Either way, it didn't matter now. It was almost as if someone had blown a small spark into a highly flammable field.

"Did you hear about the hybrid? It turns out there's another one in this school."

"Really? Who is it?"

"Gemini."

Almost within a matter of minutes, everyone knew and was talking about it. I had never seen anything spread that fast. Even Sienna, who was a master at getting information around, seemed uncomfortable by it. Or maybe it was because she knew what would most likely come of it.

"There's no way this is going to end well," she said, shaking her head. "You'd think that in a place like this, where dragons are supposed to come together as one, that they would be okay with this. Ironic, isn't it? Even with you, most dragons were able to somewhat come to terms with it."

I frowned a little. "Yeah. I don't really understand why they're making such a big deal out of Gemini, and not so much me."

She shrugged. "I guess...they were just expecting it in your case." After a moment, she shrugged again. "Who really knows, though?"

We were walking down the halls to the library, and there were other dragons at almost every turn whispering about the new turn of events.

"Can you believe that there's another one? I mean, honestly..."

"--such an utter--"

"--that just tops it all off. Great job…"

My frown deepened.

It wasn't just whispers, though. We turned a corner to find Agonus and Java talking about it in an obnoxiously loud manner.

"A SkyWing and a NightWing?" Agonus said. "Why can't you just pick one?"

"Right?" Java replied. "I mean, what's the point of it?"

"They just like to pretend they're better than us."

"Which is obviously not true." 

"Yeah, you'd think they'd have common sense, especially enough not to mingle with other dragons."

"Common sense? Look who's talking." I jumped slightly as Sienna called out from next to me. 

Java and Agonus just looked at each other, confused. "Um...us?" Java said.

Sienna rolled her eyes. "Clearly. Anyway, you want to tell me why you two, a SandWing and a SeaWing, are talking about how different dragons shouldn't interact with each other?"

I stifled a small laugh. "Now that's ironic." Sienna and I both looked at them expectantly.

They both had surprised and flustered looks on their faces as they tried to think of what to say next. After just slightly too long of a pause, Agonus spoke back. "Yeah, well, uh, that's big talk coming from, uh…"

Java stepped in. "The walking irony!" They both laughed.

Um...what?

"Was that supposed to be a comeback?" Sienna asked, trying to keep from smiling.

They both looked pretty uncomfortable at that, but before they could respond, Sienna motioned forward, and we continued past them without looking back. Once we had gotten out of earshot, we erupted in a fit of giggles.

"That…" I tried to stifle the laughing enough to get my words out. "That was so funny! The look on their faces when you said that--" I had to stop because another fit of giggles came over me.

"Well, when you have four smart-mouthed younger siblings, you learn to be pretty good at keeping them in check."

We continued laughing, not stifling it until we were shushed by Gulper when we entered the library.