Rainbow Magic (Dragon Rider #1) {EDITING}

A Misfit Meeting

"—obviously awake," Silver's voice broke through the haze.

Raelynn's was the next to sound – loud and obnoxious as usual. "Look, her eyes are twitching!"

Sora groaned, cracking her eyelids open, wincing as light hit her eyes... though it wasn't the harsh hospital light she'd been expecting. Instead, she was met with the sight of a training hall which was mostly blocked from view by Raelynn's face.

"You're awake!"

Sora winced.

"Quieten down, idiot," Silver muttered. "Honestly, don't you have a volume control? Or are you permanently stuck on the loud setting?" Silver shook her head, sighing loudly when the girl rounded on her instead. Bandages still adorned her hands – wrapped up tightly like a mummy.

"What happened?" Sora asked, sitting up gingerly, rubbing her sore back.

"Oz dragged you in here bout an hour ago," Raelynn said, shrugging. "He told us you were fine, but we decided to stay with you just to make sure."

"Actually you decided that." Silver folded her arms. "I was already stuck here, thanks to these hands of mine."

Raelynn bit her lip.

"Oy! Blondie!" Oz called, looking over at the three of them. "Sora's awake now, so get back over here. You've got twenty more laps to run."

"The others only had to run five!" Raelynn groaned, staring around the gigantic hall. It could've easily qualified for a building by itself. It was certainly large enough.

"You aren't the others. Now hop to it." Oz folded his arms, glaring at her pointedly until she trudged away from the pair wrapped in bandages.

"I swear this is favouritism," Raelynn muttered, begrudgingly doing as she was told, flashing a brief smile at the duo.

With a fair bit of effort, Sora returned the smile and pushed herself to her feet. She ignored the way the bandages rubbed against her burnt skin, instead focusing all her attention on Oz.

"Sit back down, idiot." He sighed, walking over to her. "You overdid it... by a lot."

"I guessed," she muttered dryly.

"Right now your pathways aren't used to having anything in them... so they became overloaded when you decided to empty a whole cloak's worth of magic into them." He folded his arms, glaring at her until she sat down. "You need to build it up slowly... otherwise you'll keep ending up like this – or worse."

"I get the idea."

"Do you?"

"Yes!" she all but yelled, wincing in the next second as she received the customary knock on the head.

"Cut the attitude next time."

"Cut the attitude next time..." she mimicked bitterly.

"What was that?"

Sora gulped. "Nothing."

"Good. Now, I'm heading off... Don't let Raelynn mess about," he said, eyeing the girl still running around the room.

"Where are you going?"

"To check on those annoying little dragons of yours and how Ran's getting on with teaching them." Oz shrugged. "I can't have them blowing fire everywhere once we start our group training."

"But what about—"

He smiled. "Don't worry Sora. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he said, walking out of the door, leaving her and her teammates alone in the room.

Naturally, they waited for Raelynn to finish her training before they began their scheming – and Raelynn, being Raelynn, just had to point out that they needed a secret base.

"Our cloaks are awesome, therefore we're awesome—"

"Do you even know what therefore means?" Silver asked.

"Shut up!" Raelynn hissed.

"So you don't know what it means..."

"I do!" she yelled, red-faced and breathing heavily as she rounded on the other members of her team. "Now, like I was saying before some idiot interrupted me..."

"I'm not an idiot. You are."

Sora sighed. "Could the pair of you knock it off... please?"

"Oh, sorry Sor," Raelynn squeaked. "Anyway, we need a secret base of sorts... y'know... to discuss what the hell we should do. I mean... these cloaks, obviously there's more to them judging by Oz's reaction."

"We need to interrogate him." Beatrice folded her arms.

Eir scoffed, glancing over at her exhausted twin. "And how do you propose we do that?"

"Duct tape?"

"Whatever," Silver muttered. "We're all hot and sweaty... mostly... so why don't we continue this delightful conversation in the bathhouse..."

Sora blinked. "There's a bathhouse here?"

"Yes. Problem?"

She shrugged. "They're not very common in the Eastern Section."

"Well, I suppose I'll just have to introduce you to the delights of bathhouses," Silver said, leading the group out of the building and onto the streets.

"Umm... guys..." Callum spoke hesitantly as they navigated the paths of the Outer City.

"What's wrong?" Raelynn turned to him.

"We're... going to bathe..."

Beatrice stared at him. "Do you want to stay sweaty or something?"

"They're separated by gender," he said, scratching the back of his head.

Silver nodded. "I know one where we can get a room to ourselves."

"I think you're missing the point," Callum stuttered.

"You're an honorary girl." Eisa patted him on the back. "Don't worry."

His shoulders slumped. "Why do I even bother?"