Events of Arrival

Episode 2: Helpful Insight

 Her alarm chirped. And chirped. And chirped.

"Moon, for the love of fuck, shut up." Calder slurred, rolling over in her bed and folding the pillow over her ears.

The chirping continued. Calder released her head from the pillow taco and stared straight up at the ceiling. It was just as bland as every other day, except for the room being a little darker.

She turned her head to the source of the noise, mom glare ready. But instead of the troublesome juvenile dragon warming up his vocals for a day of screaming, the bedside table was occupied by her phone.

Huh, okay. Apparently it took a month for her to consider the useless brick hers.

She reached for it, blinking blearily. The alarm was still going. Calder's eyes had to refocus a number of times before her vision cleared up enough for her to read the alarm label.

Tryout?

Oh.

Oh, FUCK!

Calder was on her feet in a flash. She'd slept through both morning tryouts last week. She would not allow another encore.

Her phone's clock read 7:04. Okay, okay. Calder forced herself to calm down as she hastily dressed and tied her shoes.

7:10

FUCK!

***

"Supposed to be over there already, hm?" Benjamin taunted her as she grabbed a bagel on the drive-by and took off sprinting again.

"Slept through my first alarm!" She yelled over her shoulder. "Gold, I want you waiting for me on the runway," she said at a normal volume to herself. Gold was generally punctual. She could trust him to actually be there.

Calder burst through a set of double doors and into the bright rising sunlight. Gold was indeed waiting just outside, full sized, crouched and waiting to spring into the air. She chomped down on the bagel and grabbed hold of Gold's neck with both hands. He wasted no time, launching upwards and leaving Calder to fully mount mid-air.

She tore off a bite of her breakfast now that her hands were free, sighing as the wind made a total mess of her hair. This time of morning was genuinely beautiful. The sky hugging the horizon was still gold, though by now the sun was mostly risen. Light was reflected off the clouds, painting them pale oranges and pinks. Why did she never appreciate sunrises very often?

Oh yeah, because she sucked at waking up.

The coliseum had been in sight from the beginning, but now it filled her vision. Gold coasted close to the ground, then firmly sprinted along the grass as he tucked in his wings and slowed first to a trot, then to a walk and then a full stop. Every dragon had their favorite way of landing. That was his.

Calder stuck the last bite of her bagel in her mouth and hopped from her mount's back. She nodded her head in the direction of the door and he disappeared into a portal, reappearing from a smaller one as the perfect size to perch on his foster mom's shoulder. They disappeared into the coliseum, only to run into a wall of other people.

Calder stopped suddenly, swallowing her breakfast and nerves. This was a large group, and in the hurry to get out the door she'd left her hat somewhere in her room. Okay. This was gonna have to work.

Upon further observation, they weren't in line. Most of the people here were holding a manilla folder with a name written on it in someone's semi-neat handwriting. Calder squeezed her way to the front of the room and found a desk.