Wings of Fire: Secrets Shattered

Chapter 3

Atlantic turned a green so pale that she surprised herself. Is this rejection? Does she hate me? I'm staying here for a week! What am I going to do?! were the thoughts that filled her head. 

Atlantic had never really been worried before. At the little island she lived on, there was nothing to worry about except whether to go swimming or explore the forest, stupid little worries like that. But lately, Atlantic was having big worries. She had never met her stepmother, Cobalt, or her stepbrother, Pacific. She didn't know if they would like her, or what they would think of a "dirty, vile hybrid" like her as Cobalt had put it. And Cobalt just seemed to confirm that all of those worries were true.

"Oh, don't worry! We have another-" she paused as if to think of the correct word. "treat for you."

Atlantic let out a sigh of relief and let her normal blue color ease its way back into her scales. Maybe her mother just forgot to tell Cobalt that she wasn't strictly vegetarian like some RainWings?

Cobalt went into the kitchen and searched around in the cabinets. Atlantic heard her say "Ah ha!" and she pulled out a big glass container. The container was a bit green in color and the glass was fogged up. Atlantic tried, but she couldn't see what was in it. 

Cobalt placed the container on the table and reached her claws deep down into the it. Finally, she pulled out a...small, slimy piece of seaweed. It was revolting. Atlantic should have gone with her gut, Cobalt hated her.

She lost her appetite. Who wouldn't after they saw the seaweed? 

"Go on, eat up!" Cobalt said sweetly, but Atlantic could tell that the sweetness in her tone and her smile was fake.

She didn't want to eat it, but she knew that she would be hungry later. Even though it was small and gross, it was better than nothing. Atlantic turned a dark green color in disgust as she shoved the nasty seaweed down her throat. She swallowed it with a gulp. 

"I think I'm going to be sick!" Atlantic gasped and rushed to the nearest wastebasket.

She brought it to her room where she spent most of the evening throwing up and then passing out afterwards. She vaguely remembered collapsing on her bed and waking up a few hours later to Pacific wrapping a soft blanket around her and falling asleep again. Her dreams were weird and disoriented. She was sick for two days afterward. 

She finally felt better on her fourth day of staying at Pacific and Cobalt's house. Pacific was always vigorously apologizing. Cobalt tried to feed her more gross food for breakfast, but Atlantic was smart and decided not to eat, despite the hunger gnawing at her stomach. She went back to her room to work on her NightWing carving. Pacific came in soon after.

"I brought you some of my breakfast."

"Thank you, but you don't have to give it to me, it's your food and Cobalt obviously doesn't want me to have it."

"You're so skinny though! You must be so hungry."

That was true, when she was sick she lost a lot of weight and you could see her ribs peeking through her skin. She lost her appetite when she was sick, so she was very hungry now. Atlantic heard the sound of talons scraping on the wooden floor in the hallway outside of her room.

"Hurry!" Pacific whispered frantically. "Cobalt's coming!"

He shoved the scraps of fish in her talons. Atlantic gulped it down hungrily and swallowed it just as Cobalt opened the door. 

"Pacific! You better not be giving that sea scum your breakfast!" Cobalt snarled.

"I didn't Mom! Look, I don't have anything in my talons and Atlantic doesn't have anything in her mouth!" 

Atlantic opened her mouth for Cobalt to see. She flinched and backed away at the sight of Atlantic's sharp fangs. 

"Okay," she grumbled and walked out of the room.

"I'm sorry about my mom." Pacific said for what had to be the fifth time that day.

"I told you, it's okay! She has a reason to hate me."

There was an awkward silence.

"Soooooo, what's being a hybrid like? What are your powers?" Pacific broke the silence.

"I can breathe underwater, I have a strong tail, and I have glow-in-the-dark scales like a SeaWing.  I have a partly prehensile tail, I can change my scale colors but only to shades of blue and green, and I have venom, but it can't kill dragons, just injure them. It can kill animals smaller than a dragon though. I can see in low-light areas, I can speak Aquatic, and sun gives me energy. Oh! And I have this!" she said, pointing to the ruffs on the sides of her head.

"Cool!"

"What is your life like?"

"Nothing much happened. Cobalt and I lived in this house since I was born, nothing really changed except Carp moving in with us on weekdays. I have a turtle named Sandy, but you've already met him. What's your life like?"

"I live on a small island off the coast of the RainWing kingdom called Tide Isle. On that island there are 15 dragons including me and my parents. There are 5 SeaWing-RainWing hybrid dragonets including me, 5 adult SeaWing-RainWing hybrids, 3 RainWings including my mom, and 2 SeaWings including my dad. The island is beautiful and the water is crystal clear. It's almost always sunny. No hybrid was discriminated and we all knew each other well. My best friend is a hybrid named Tropics who lived on the isle with her parents too. Sometimes a merchant or something would come and it would be very exciting. Almost everything on the island was made there and you had to go to the mainland to get more advanced things. A few weeks ago, Queen Glory came to the island. No queen that we knew of had ever come to the isle! We were all so excited! She told us that there was a new winglet at Jade Mountain Academy, a school the Dragonets of Destiny had started. The winglet was called the Geode Winglet and it was looking specifically for hybrids. She would observe the hybrids on the island, especially the dragonets, and in a week she would make her choice. In a week, she chose me! I was so excited I turned a super duper bright blue and was flipping out, literally, I was doing flips in the air. My parents and I had to read a scroll telling us stuff about Jade Mountain Academy and then sign it. I'm supposed to be going in two months! I'm so excited!"

Pacific's eyes widened. "I'm going to Jade Mountain in two weeks too!"

Atlantic shrieked with glee and turned bright blue. "What winglet will you be in?"

"The Jade Winglet!"

Pacific danced around the room in excitement and Atlantic flew up in the air and did flips like she normally did when she was excited. 

Bang! Bang! Bang! went Pacific's talons on the floor.

Wham! went Atlantic's tail as it knocked jar full of sea glass to the floor.

Crash! went the jar when it hit the floor, shattering into a million pieces and scattering sea glass all around the room. 

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF PYRRHIA ARE YOU DOING?!" came a shriek.

Pacific immediately stopped dancing and Atlantic immediately flew down to the ground. They saw Cobalt standing at the door. A look of fury and annoyance was on her face. 

"We're sorry!" Atlantic said, hanging her head in shame. "I'll clean the mess up!"

She picked up a small brown sack that seemed to have fallen out of the jar.

"NO!" Cobalt screeched, knocking the sack out of Atlantic's talons. "I'll clean it up! Just...go outside and don't bother me! You too Pacific!"

Pacific ran out of the bedroom and outside. Atlantic went to go outside too, but Cobalt grabbed the leather straps that Atlantic started wearing around her horns. Atlantic got yanked backward.

"You better stay out of my scales and be good, you chunk of dirt." Cobalt growled in her ear and then pushed her off to go outside.

Atlantic turned a pale green color and rushed outside to play with Pacific.