Rainbow Magic (Dragon Rider #1) {EDITING}

A Group Training Exercise

"What are you nitwits doing?" Oz sighed, folding his arms.

Six dragonettes stared back at them, heads popping up one after another, ears flapping in the monstrous wind whipping past them.

Sora would've thought it cute too, had they not been on the edge of a mountain some considerable distance from the ground. They'd traversed the rocky path, despite their numerous protests, and now they were edging along a narrow mountain ledge.

Oz called it group training.

They called it hell.

"Sora, you still there?" Raelynn called, a few steps ahead, shuffling along.

All of their backs were pressed against the mountain behind them, none of them daring to do more than shuffle along... well, aside from their dragons and Oz.

He made the damn climb look easy.

It was like there wasn't a gigantic drop only centimetres to the right of his feet.

"Barely," she mumbled, feeling like she was about to be swept away by the wind. Something told her the weather was only going to get worse for their 'fun camping trip'.

They were only a few hours in, but she was already hating it.

With passion.

Not only had she been separated from her precious egg, but she was stuck on the side of a mountain in the middle of storm.

"We're all fine, idiot," Silver muttered from behind Sora. "You wouldn't happen to be struggling, would you?"

"Of course not!"

Sora sighed. "Can you not get into an argument with me between you while we're on this damn path?"

Silver scoffed. "Can you even call this a path?"

"If our great leader Oz says it is, it must be so..." Raelynn rolled her eyes.

Knuckles cracked. "What was that, my cute little team member?"

"Nothing!" Raelynn barked, shuffling faster.

Oz smiled. "Good. I'd have hated to lug your dead weight up this mountain."

Sora exhaled, edging after Raelynn, sparing a glance at the rest of the group behind her. The twins were holding hands, sidestepping up the mountain trail in sync, no doubt muttering between themselves. Callum and Beatrice were a bit further back, and she could safely say Beatrice was the bravest of them all.

She walked along without a hint of fear, her hand clasped tightly around Callum's bony one, a thin rope looped between them.

If one fell, so did the other.

Sora found that adorable, yet slightly worrying. They were attached at the hip, only now Beatrice had taken that saying to a whole new level and had actually attached them together.

"How far till the top?" she called, eyeing Oz's back as he waited a few metres ahead of them.

"Not far."

"You said that fifty minutes ago!" Raelynn yelled, glaring at him.

"Well if you lot weren't a bunch of pansies..."

"I'll show you a damned pansy!"

"Raelynn..."

"I didn't say anything," she said, backtracking at the glare Oz sent her way. "Honest!"

One eyebrow rose. "Just hurry it up. The weather is only going to get worse."

Sora scowled. "Just brilliant," she grumbled, shuffling as quickly as she safely could, silently debating whether it'd be easier to just crawl along. She didn't really care much about her dignity anymore. She just wanted the camping trip over and done with.

Light was fading quickly, and Sora hated the fact they'd set out so late into the day.

It was all her fault too, and she'd earned a nice knock on the head for her troubles. Her alarm hadn't gone off.

So now they were on a perilously narrow path at sundown...

"Let's go, Sora," Raelynn said, hesitantly prying her back away from the safety of the rockface behind them. "We need to reach the top of this mountain before the light fades."

"You worked that one out for yourself, huh?" Silver mocked.

"I swear, as soon as we're off this narrow bit, I'm pounding you into the dirt!"

Sora shook her head. "I'll punch you both into the dust if you don't shut up," she muttered. "Come on."

"I told you, twin," Eir's voice reached them, "Oz is clearly making her into a miniature version of himself..."

Sora spun, already irritated to the point of no return. "What was that my cute teammates?" she asked, cracking her knuckles. "Are you calling me a boy?"

"Truant..."

She turned, blinking when she realised Oz was now directly in front of her with his fist at the ready. "Um—ow!"

"Don't mock me."

"I wasn't!"

"You called your teammates cute."

"It just slipped out!"

"Only I can call all of you cute."

Sora blinked.

"Now hurry up and get to the top of this path already, my cute little students," he said, skipping up the narrow incline. "Unless you'd rather sleep on this narrow ledge..."