Rainbow Magic (Dragon Rider #1) {EDITING}

The Training Camp from Hell

The ceiling Sora woke up under was bright, the lights nearly blinding her as she blearily opened her eyes. She worked out where she was in seconds, the stench of antiseptic assailing her nose as she pushed herself onto her elbows.

The hospital.

Memories came rushing back to her, a low groan escaping her lips as Oz appeared around the blue curtain, eyes narrowed. He wanted answers, and what better way to drag them out of her than interrogating her sleepy self.

"You wanna explain?"

"Not particularly." Her brain rebooted in an instant, scrambling to find an excuse as she sat on the narrow bed.

Oz folded his arms in answer, glaring pointedly at her as she squirmed under his intense stare. "Not what I wanna hear, Truant."

Sora rolled her eyes at the name. "We got a wee bit lost and ended up in a weird cave." She shrugged, settling for telling him a partial truth. "It took us a while to get out."

"Hmm?" One eyebrow rose.

"Don't look at me like that!"

"I'll look at you however I like."

That time around Sora was the one with the raised brows. "That sounded wrong."

"And you have a dirty mind."

"Huh?"

"I thought we were pointing out the obvious..." Oz said, smirking as her jaw dropped.

"You—"

"Get up." He folded his arms. "We're going to meet the rest of the team..." A malicious grin made Sora freeze, her addled brain figuring out why he was smiling an instant before he reminded her. "We've got a training camp to get to... run by yours truly."

***

Her lungs felt like they were collapsing in on themselves, and Sora wasn't alone in that feeling. Oz had been merciless, and she had a suspicion it had something to do with the fact the other groups were laughing at them behind their back. The other instructors had been teasing him, and no doubt they'd passed that sentiment onto the impressionable teens under their care.

Their cloaks had been silent too, having remained in their coat state ever since they'd come out of the forest, leaving them with no sort of proof about their little adventure in the so-called Palace of the Dragon.

Even if they'd had them, Sora wasn't sure she'd have wanted to tell anyone about them. The instant her own cloak had hit her shoulders she'd felt it—an ancient sort of power. The spirit of the Monster inside was old, dangerous, and not to mention incredibly powerful.

So why hadn't they been told about those cloaks?

They'd never heard anything about them, and neither had Silver despite her upbringing. Evidently the rest of her team had come to a similar decision to keep their mouths shut—if only because nobody would believe them.

Which meant they'd been forced to attend a training camp from hell.

That was when they learnt something rather important—Oz had no idea about limits. He'd forced them to run around the edge of the city, following the route he'd made, promising a new form of training on whoever he passed on his own 'light jog'.

Every single one of them had sprinted like their lives depended on it—and they kind of did—but Oz still out-lapped each of them mercilessly.

"Come on." Oz stood over their half-conscious forms. "Don't tell me this is all you've got..."

Sora glared.

"Hmm... If you have the energy to glare, then you have the energy to continue." He said, smiling as her face contorted into a grimace. "You've got six more days of this to look forwards to, so don't give me that look."

"Not our fault."

"Actually it kinda is." Oz said. "You're the ones who failed to get a cloak—and a team specialisation... so now you have to train until you can..."

Sora bit her lip, shaking her head at Raelynn ever so slightly as she clenched her fists. Out of all of them, the blonde girl was the one who Sora worried about the most. She'd barely managed to persuade her to keep her mouth shut at the beginning of their training camp by claiming it'd be 'cool' to have a group secret. Mercifully, she'd bought it, but with her temper... Sora shook her head, eyes wide as the other girl opened her mouth to give Oz a piece of her mind, but another voice cut her off before she got the chance to.

"Ma, leave the poor kiddies alone, Ozzy."

The semiconscious teens on the ground all stiffened, wondering who'd have the guts to call their leader Ozzy. Even Raelynn hadn't tried something as stupid as that.

"I don't see how this is any of your business, Becky." He turned to the approaching man, scowling at him. "What do you want?"

"Aside from making sure you don't kill your cute little squad?"

"Get to the point."

"The Keeper sent me." 'Becky' smiled, already used to Oz's blunt ways. "Seems one of your kiddies' eggs is hatching."