Wings of Fire: Revenant

Chapter Nine

"Just admit it!" Cliff said, hopping along the tunnel beside Peacemaker. "Say, 'Cliff, I was wrong, and you are an amazing singer! I will never question your extraordinary abilities ever again.'"

"You are seriously milking this," Peacemaker replied, "that was two classes ago."

"And I'm going to keep it up until you finally admit you were wrong," Cliff said.

"You'll be at it for a long time, then," Peacemaker told him as they exited the tunnel and came out into the Great Hall.

"Oh no," another voice said, "what have you two done now?"

Peacemaker felt a spark of fierce joy alight in him as Seeker approached from the other side of the cavern with Auklet at her side.

"Oh, nothing serious," Peacemaker replied, letting his wings brush hers. "Just Cliff causing a disturbance as usual."

"Me?! You were the one that started singing that weird strawberry head song in your voice that sounds like someone brutally murdering a herd of goats." He turned to Auklet with a slightly traumatized expression. "I'm glad you weren't there to suffer through it with me. If you see any students with their ears gushing blood, you know whose fault it is."

"Aw, I'm sure it wasn't that bad," Auklet said kindly, giving Peacemaker a sympathetic glance.

Peacemaker snorted with laughter. "Oh no, it was. But I would like to point out that he asked – nay, demanded – that I sing with him, even though I explicitly told him that I don't have a very strong voice."

"I figured you were exaggerating," Cliff said. "Congratulations on proving me wrong."

"All right, break it up," Seeker said, nosing her way between them. "I'm not going to spend my whole break listening to you two bickering. Now, Auklet and I are going to go out and stretch our wings, and you boys are welcome to come with us if you think you can behave yourselves."

"All right, Mother," Cliff drawled, and Auklet leaned into his shoulder in a fit of giggles.

Seeker turned to Peacemaker with an expression of feigned annoyance.

"The nerve of some dragons," he said, grinning at her.

"You're one to talk," she replied.

The four of them then left the cave together, laughing as they took off into the brightness of the day. The sky outside was cerulean blue, tufts of torn clouds scattered at the edge of the horizon. The wind carried with it the scent of evergreens and wildflowers, and felt as soft as rainforest moss beneath Peacemaker's wings.

Cliff shouted with delight and did a flip in the air, sunlight glinting sharply off the gemstones scattered across his scales. Auklet flapped up beside him, glowing like an emerald in the bright blue sky, her luminescent stripes flashing joyfully. Seeker angled her wings and swooped over and above Peacemaker, going into a roll so that she leveled out right beside him. The darkness of her star-speckled black wings against the blue made her look like a piece of the night sky breaking through the day.

Peacemaker had never imagined that he could make friends like this here. Playful Cliff, kind Auklet, and clever Seeker were the most special dragons he could imagine. He felt inordinately lucky to have found them, and even luckier that they had decided he was worth spending time with.

Cliff beckoned the others to land on an outcropping of rock near the summit of the mountain, in view of a wide valley below. The sun streamed down here in a broad sweep of gold, and the edges of the stone were dotted with wildflowers in various shades of yellow and purple.