Rainbow Magic (Dragon Rider #1) {EDITING}

Curious Little Cats

The second time she woke up, everything was back to normal. Raelynn was hovering over her, telling her that Oz said it was time for breakfast, and a loud growl from her stomach got her moving. Her arms twinged, and she knew if she unwrapped the bandages there'd be a nice assortment of blisters and burn marks underneath.

Silver's hands looked to be in a similar condition, though she wasn't stirring in the slightest. Not even when Raelynn grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her out from under the covers.

"Oy," Raelynn muttered, prodding Silver's face. "Wake up already!"

"Umm, Rae..." Sora spoke, yawning as she trailed off. Remnants of the dream from the night before ate at her. Raelynn and her little Salamander—who hadn't been quite so little—had been carrying her cloak.

She'd seen her future, but she hadn't seen herself, and the thought made her stomach twist itself to knots. Why was she believing the old woman's words in the first place? She had no answer to that. Only a gut feeling... and if there was one thing she'd learnt over the years it'd be to trust them. They hadn't led her wrong just yet.

There was a first time for everything, though.

And some small part of her hoped that it was.

She didn't like the thought of not existing in her own future.

"Maybe I just sent it to the drycleaners and Rae was picking it up for me..." she mumbled, ignoring the odd look the girl in question was currently sending her way. "Yep. That has to be it... I mean, I'd want it to look good if I was going out to fight some enemies..."

"Umm... Sora..."

"It can't be anything else... I mean, I have to be alive if it's my future. It's not like I could've been... a ghost or something."

"Sora." Raelynn gulped.

"So I'm fine. I have to be..."

A throat cleared behind her.

Sora stiffened. She'd recognise that cough anywhere—the one that Oz did to Raelynn when he was trying to get her attention. "Rae, I think Oz wants to talk to you," she said, flinching in the next second as pain reverberated through her skull.

"No, you idiot, it's you I want to talk to." Oz sighed behind her, muttering incomprehensible words about 'kids these days'. "Come on. I need to change your bandages while you're at it."

"Cool."

He led her downstairs and into the bar of the small inn they'd stayed at, hoping into one of the booths in the quieter area of the establishment. Not that there were many guests in the first place. His hands got to work quickly, unwrapping the yellowing bandages covering her arms, not even flinching at where the bandages had stuck to her skin.

Sora gritted her teeth, trying to keep as calm an expression as him—and she failed spectacularly. Fortunately the game of tug and pull at Sora's bandages ended fairly quickly, and she was left staring at two newly bandaged hands.

"You won't be able to do much with those hands... in fact, you aren't going to be doing anything with those hands," Oz said, glaring at her when she opened her mouth to protest. "I've told Blondie to pack yours and Granny's stuff away. We're leaving as soon as everything's packed."

"What about Silver...?"

"She'll be fine. She just needs to rest for a while," he said, brushing off her concern.

She bit her lip, knowing in an instant she wouldn't be able to get another word out of him about Silver's condition—whatever it was. "OK..."

"It's not my tale to tell." Oz shrugged. "So just chill and do whatever truants get up to until I come and get you, OK? Don't get into trouble," he said, and then he left the room.

Sora blinked, glancing around at the other occupants of the bar. It was eerily quiet and Sora didn't like it. Something about the unnatural stillness of the place just sent her instincts into a panic, so rather than staying inside she wandered out instead.

The breeze was chilling and made the hairs on the back of her neck prick as she wandered towards the edge of the small village, smiling slightly as she saw all the children running about—just like she'd used to before the nightmare of being a dragon rider came along.

It should've been a blessing, but it felt more like a curse.

Especially with her weird egg.

She sat down on the nearest bench, scowling slightly at her arms—the reason Oz wouldn't let her do anything remotely helpful. Sora felt helpless... and she didn't like it one bit. So she could only watch as the village kids ran around, climbing trees, messing around in the sandpit of the park she could see.

Shivers ran down her spine, her eyes narrowing as her mind whispered that something was wrong there. Very wrong.

It only took her ten seconds to figure out what.

The trees. The dry dead wood that crumbled to dust when Raelynn had tried to step on it... and the village children were climbing them without a single issue.

An answer came to her as she spotted one of the boy's hands.

Because without the shade of the tree hiding it, there was no mistaking it. The hand had no skin and no muscle. All the kid had for a hand was bones.

And it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.

Trees that crumbled to dust the second something living touched it.

The answer was simple.

They could climb those trees because they weren't living.

They were already dead.

Sora stood suddenly, eyes wide as she turned to sprint back to the inn they were staying at, but something stopped her dead in her tracks.

She felt the power first.

The kind that radiated from his skin like a thick cloying ooze—one that made it hard for her to breath, let alone stand in his presence.

His oddly familiar presence.

Her heart dropped to her toes, her eyes widening as she remembered exactly where she'd felt this sensation before.

The battle.

The same one that'd struck fear into her heart.

Fear of exactly what gold magic could do.

And fear of him because of what it couldn't do to him.

"I did tell you, curious little kitty... all those years ago..." A voice as smooth as silk rang out, shudders wracking her spine as she felt him step ever closer to her, his breath brushing her ear once he'd closed the gap between them. He remembered her. Of that there was no doubt. "Curiosity killed the cat."