Serendipity (wof fanfic)

CHAPTER 3 partners

Saguaro strolled through the training grounds wings held high, the patches on his wrists and tail tip were a light pink tinted with flecks of yellow, his happy colors, the rest of his scales stayed a sandy tan, he was finally going to meet his new training partner no more practicing with dragonets or dragons who went easy on him. According to Starshore this partner was, "more of a challenge" the previous day during school the majority of Saguaro's time was spent daydreaming about his new partner. Often training partners ended up as friends for life, but Saguaro totally had tons of friends, definitely, he had at least like three. Ok so maybe Saguaro wasn't the most popular dragon in the world, maybe he did brag soooometimes and according to his sister was an arrogant blowfish, but he could make friends if he wanted to, the flecks of yellow on his wrists shifted to an uneasy green. Saguaro didn't get it, why didn't anybody like him? He was in the top ten of his class at the training center, and it certainly wasn't a matter of ugliness, even his sister centipede admitted he was rather handsome, though thinking back she may have been teasing, he looked down at his long black claws his wings drooped a little. But this training partner would definitely be his friend, he secretly hoped it was a girl, most of the boys at his school were jerks to him, not that the girls were much nicer but at least they didnt stuff broccoli up his snout at lunch like capybara did once. The door to the training center was already open, weird, Starshore hated it when flies got in, "ouch!" Saguaro rubbed his shoulder a dragon was standing in the doorway, her scales slowly shifted to match saguaros own instead of the open door, "owww she said in a mock voice" Saguaro glared as his sister skipped off giggling, unlike Sagurao she had full control over the colors of her scales and used this to tease him relentlessly. The inside of the building was decorated with various trophies and awards, dedicated to dragons who had completed the most difficult training courses or gotten all A+'s on every report scroll. a silk banner showed off scenes of every head trainer who served the peacewing tribe wearing crowns of poison ivy and holding a thick book, at the very top was the first head trainer who started the training exactly 523 years ago, Starshore looked up from her desk, "did you need something," her tail flicked impatiently, "I'm here to be assigned to a training partner...?" "oh Saguaro its you, my eyesight isnt that great, say have you see my glasses by any chance?" "uh, no sorry." he frowned impatiently, "umm... so do you know where my dad is?" "oh yes sorry he's assigning partners in building B2," she waved him off with one talon in the direction of the room, and then resumed her hunt for her glasses. Saguaro padded off in the direction of the building. a tiny little green dragon with bright yellow spikes flew over Saguaros head, a pair of pink dragons who resembled nightwings were chatting in the corner, a random scavenger was strolling around with a scroll in hand, one dragon who was talking in a very loud voice announced that the pink nightwing on the left would be paired with a nervous looking dragon who was brown and black, with a turquoise sail running down his back, Saguaros father was standing beside the loud dragon and pointing at some of the dragonets in the center of the room, his tail was lashing, and his ears were laid back, for some reason his dad was extremely annoyed, he followed his dad's gaze up to the branches of a tree growing in the center of the room, a spiky dragon with silver scales splattered amongst his blue hue was napping, nestled in the branches while his partner tried to jump up and reach him, the partners wings were twisted at an odd angle, Saguaro assumed he couldn't fly, he felt bad for the disabled dragon, mostly because his partner was a lazy coconut though. If his partner was sleeping Saguaro would bite him. Not paying attention to his feet, he almost stepped on the scavenger who threw her scroll at him and walked of grumbling something in her language, the loud dragon, who was still announcing partners, suddenly noticed Saguaro, "HI" his orange tail seemed restless, and his eyes were bright and energetic, Saguaro noticed a mug full of coffee next to his seat, "Did you hear me? Sorry if I'm too quiet, I said HI," Saguaro silently noted the fact that if he wanted to maintain his hearing, to never give this dragon a bullhorn, "Yes, I heard you loud and clear," "That's GREAT," he seemed to be literally shaking with energy. "are you here for a partner? I remember when I got my partner. It was GREAT." He took another sip of his drink, "Saguaro swore he could see his pupils growing larger with every sip, He wondered what would happen if Strawberry his younger cousin ever drank coffee, well if she ever had, everyone would probably have lost there minds, as the dragon in front of him babbled on, he thought he might just lose his mind. "Um what was your name again," the orange and green dragon blinked his eyes in an innocent way, "I just told you, I'm Howler Monkey" "how fitting" muttered the lazy dragon who had wandered down from his tree and was now eavesdropping, not that this was a hard task, Howler monkey made a face, Saguaro couldn't tell if it was annoyance, or amusement. He cleared his throat, "Aaaaanyway, I have to get this young dragon to his partner now don't I." Saguaro breathed a sigh of relief, finally! "ok well follow Dusk back here and we'll go on and determine your partner." Saguaro padded after Howler Monkey, and his father, into an empty room, moss was padded along the walls and floor, Saguaro noticed a splash of blood on one of the moss pads, for the first time he started to feel nervous, Dusk walked back out into the main room and brought back with him a purple dragon, who snarled at him, and smiled, baring wicked sharp fangs. "Saguaro, Sharpears, you are going to fight to determine wether or not you will be partners, and remember the less blood spilled the better, Dusk winked at his son. What was that supposed to mean? Sharpears lunged for him talons outstretched, her hind legs were more powerful than he had anticipated, she landed on Saguaros chest knocking him over. he turned his long neck to face her and used his claws to rake her shoulder he sunk his teeth into her forearm, Sharpears stumbled back in pa, Saguaro turned in surprise at the sound of coffee being slurped loudly by Howler Monkey, accidentally giving Sharpears, the advantage she stamped her back talon on the spot just above where his flesh met the outer shell of his tail barb, he yelped in pain, she planted her claws on his chest and lowered her teeth to his neck, but just because she had him pinned didn't mean she won, he opened his mouth and spat at her, of course he didn't spit actual venom, but if he had, he would've won, "Eww what was that." "It was spit you dolt, and if it was venom spit you'd be dead. Good job Saguaro, not that anyone's counting, but that was a sure victory." Saguaro winked back at his dad, it felt good to praised, and his dad only praised when he meant it. He turned to sharpears. "And Sharpears, that was very good keeping his tail pinned, but in battle you must always remember to clamp the enemy's mouth as well, a face full of frostbite or fire, or venom, would probably hurt, a lot. sharpears frowned and stalked off towards the exit, muttering about something about camel nosed idiots, Howler monkey ensured him that she was talking about herself. A big dragon wearing thick glasses shuffled into the room. "Am I fighting her?" The large dragon was light green with golden spirals on her wings, and orange freckles on her snout.  "No dear I'm here to-" She was cut of by Howler Monkey. "SIS YOUR HERE!" He started bouncing on the pads of his talons, and his face lit up like the brightest night. "Oh hi Howler . I just came to treat any wounds, Oh I have some ointment that tail looks sore," The dragon came closer to Saguaro and rubbed some minty substance on Saguaros chest and tail, then she leaned forward and kissed Howler Monkey on the cheek. "Good to see you brother, but you really need to lighten up on the coffee I can see your wings shaking." Howler Monkey gave his mug a doubtful look, then shrugged and took another sip. "Kiwi you know I cant get up without this stuff its like animus magic for my brain!" She sighed then left the room, Saguaro expected to treat the large bite he had left for sharpears to deal with. He wondered if she knew he had done that. Dusk left the room once more in search of a different dragon to fight Saguaro. Most dragons fought at least five dragons before they found the perfect partner, His sore chest protested the idea of fighting four more dragons. About five minutes later Saguaro entered the room with a handsome young dragon with white scales and dark green eyes, a golden earing dangled from his left ear, as he entered the room, the white dragon carefully took out the earing and placed it on a small table containing a bowl of water and a necklace somedragon had forgotten, hi smiled nervously at Saguaro and picked at a small scrape on his talon. "Saguaro you will fight quartz to determine wether or not you will be partners." Quartz looked around the room, obviously wondering if it was okay to attack yet, Saguaro leaped towards him and pinned him easily, "his face contorted in pain." Saguaro stepped back worried that he had hurt him, badly. Quartz leapt to his feet and slammed Saguaro in the neck with his tail. He had fallen for the oldest trick in the scroll. Stumbling sideways, Saguaro just managed to avoid another tailslam from Quartz. Instead he pushed his own shoulder into Quartz's side Knocking him over, he clamped one talon over his mouth and pushed his face down exposing his neck, his back talon was held firmly over Quartz's tail and he lowered his face to his neck, Quartz made no attempt to fight back, Dusk nodded and he let go of his snout and tail, Quartz looked up at the trainer knowing he had lost. "Quartz that tail slam trick was very smart, but your strength was mediocre at best. Saguaro good but predictable, unlike the tail slam. overall it was ok" Saguaro knew two praises in one day wasn't gonna happen but he still felt a little sad when his father addressed his performance as, "ok" Dusk sighed again, and left once more to find a partner, Saguaro had a good feeling about this one. Almost fifteen minutes later Dusk came in followed by-Saguaro blinked at the little thing following his dad, it was TINY, it was the size of a two year old dragonet, it should definitely NOT be here, she bounded into the room an elated expression on her face her little tiny antennae were right up in the air and her stripes glowed a happy yellow and her green eyes sparkled, "Hello let's be best friends!" Saguaro looked up at his dad, and noticed Starshore was behind him, "umm is this a joke...? I mean this is a dragonet whos like what two" The dragonet made a very rude sign at him with her front talon. "all right lets get this fighting over with then shall we. "Howler Monkey looked almost as surprised as Saguaro did when the tiny dragon said this." Starshore cleared her throat, "Saguaro you will fight to determine wether you will be partners with-"  The little dragonets eyes suddenly turned cold and her cute posture suddenly seemed more like the stance of a full grown dragon, her striped sunshiny glow faded and her scales bubbled into a deep menacing purple, a sickly sharp barb was balanced on the end of her tail. "I am no joke and I'm no dragonet either, make the mistake of calling me one again, and you'll never call anydragon anything again." He gulped what was this thing, a dragonet who issued death threats? He inched away from her long curved claws, "and if that wasn't clear to your tiny lizard brain, that means you'll be dead." As she hissed cold steam escaped her mouth, frostbreath, how could this dragon have obtained a tail barb frost breath seawing stripes and antennae, from her ancestors.? it didn't make sense most dragons didn't have more than three abilities. Gills flared on her neck the stripes steamed, of course she had gills and possibly firescales too. The dragon lunged at him she could have torn out his throat, she was faster than a falcon, her claws were sharper than anything Saguaro had felt, and he still knew she was not using her full potential. He pushed her off his throat and grabbed her snout. Her scales melted into the background, he felt a sharp pain in his arm, she hadn't used her tail had she? Except he didn't feel like he was on fire or even much pain anymore, he felt tired. He released her snout his arm hanging useless at his side. His wings started to fold and droop, and he attempted to force his muscles to cooperate trudging forward toward the little dragons general direction from what he could sense, he couldn't lose to her. his front leg locked up and gave out. He felt himself stumble to the floor, the tiny dragonet appeared again. She stuck her tongue out. She was toying with him. He tried his best to get up but he couldn't his feet seemed glued to the floor, he did the best he could manage to turn his head and saw that his back talons were tied together with some sort of silk rope, His front talons were bound in a thick stem like plant. The little dragonet smirked, then just because she was evil she said, "awwww did the wittle dwagonet beat youuu, with your big scary fangs, and your poisonous taaaail." and just for good measure stepped on his already sore tail. Saguaros shoulders wings and neck had gone numb, but the nerves in his tail were still fine, if you can call stomped on twice and then tied to the floor fine, and bye the look on her face she knew exactly what she had done. He tried to yell at her but it came out as, "gerromeeyuuuunooshanse" which in his head sounded more like, "get off you nuisance" "Oh im sorry did you say something, its hard to understand you when you talk like a dragonet." The dragonet stabbed him again and he worried that this time his tail whole body would go numb, not just his shoulders and legs, instead he felt his muscles relax, he could feel his self again, and along with it all his bruises and soreness, he opened his mouth to spit at her but she instantly dodged out of the way, faster than before, her claws seized his snout before he could even try to get the ropes off, Dusk blew a whistle, she took off some of the pressure but didn't release him yet, the she cut the ropes with her serrated claws, Saguaro felt them slide off, she hadn't cut his tail yet, instead he felt the same paralyzing stab right below the barb, then higher up his tail, the one that had made his muscles relax, what was she doing? Why was Father letting her? She then proceeded to cut the rope, he couldn't move the end of his tail, but he could still drag it, so that's what she was doing. he streched his wings to work of the last of the paralysis but still kept a eye, and a ear on the dragon who had beaten him so easily. Dusk looked down at him from his seat, "I'm sorry father... I don't know what happened." Saguaro knew very well what had happened but he could'nt exactly tell his dad it wasn't fair to put him up agains't a dragonet, especially if she had just kicked his butt. He glared at her again, She responded with her stupid smug smile. "Father who is this anyway?" He expected him to say, oh just a test not to worry! you're real partner will be coming soon! but when he looked up at his dad, he knew the real answer. "Saguaro meet you're new partner, Junebug.