Rainbow Dragon (Dragon Rider #2) | On Hold | Pending Rewrite

Chapter Two: A Slightly Bigger Bundle of Scales

Sora blinked.

Her teammates blinked back, along with two people she'd never met before in her life.

She pulled her knees slightly closer, shielding as much of her body as she could, feeling awfully exposed while she sat in the remnants of the egg she'd just broken out of – her egg. Her body felt strange, oddly weak, and there was a lot of air brushing again her skin.

"S-S-So-Sora!" Raelynn pointed at her, face morphing into an expression Sora recognised far too well. Her eyes lighting up, a wide grin pulling at her lips. "Oh my god!"

"Eh?"

"You have scales!"

Sora blinked, eyes falling to her hands and feet in shock. "I have... scales..." she parroted, swallowing audibly, her throat feeling awfully dry as she stared down at herself. What the hell was going on? She clenched her fists, marvelling at the moving shimmery scales. Whenever she tilted her hand they seemed to be tinted a different colour.

Raelynn was next to her in a flash, her face alarmingly close. "So cool!"

Silver looked oddly puzzled. "You have a tail too," she pointed out, watching on rather calmly as Sora patted her backside, finding a large tail instead of the curves she was used to. She shifted her rear, blinking in amazement as she felt the extra appendage move. It was weird. She could feel muscles she'd never had, yet somehow it felt like she'd always had that tail.

"Why?" she whispered, staring down at where smooth skin transformed into sleek scales at her chest. There were a light smattering of those same metallic scales across her face, branding her cheeks and eyes like a bad case of eyeshadow.

An unfamiliar set of legs appeared in her peripheral, dark green eyes peering at her curiously. "What is this thing?"

Sora felt her eye twitch. Thing?

"Oy! Sora isn't a thing! She's... um..." Raelynn stared at her, trailing off as she took in her new dragonish features.

"She?" the unfamiliar boy spoke, bending down, prodding at what was exposed of her chest with a single finger. "It looks male from the top half."

"Brother, you are a complete idiot and I have no sympathy for you," the man in the doorway said, shaking his head. "I leave you to your fate," he continued, walking down the corridor and out of their sight in seconds. "Ta-ta."

One scaled hand clenched into a fist. "What did you say?" she asked, smiling sweetly.

"Abort mission, twin," Eir whispered, backing into the corner of the room. "Things are about to get violent."

"She looks a bit like a dragon, don't you think, twin?"

Eir nodded jerkily. "And dragons are very strong..."

"Didn't you hear me, stupid?" the boy asked, sneering down at her. "You look male..."

Sora snapped to her feet, fist slamming out at record speed, burying her scaled hand in his face before he could blink. He flew back, colliding with the wall, knocking loose plaster and brick. "I'm a girl, you idiot!" she snarled, baring her teeth.

Raelynn was in her face in seconds. "You've got really sharp canines too!" she yelled. "It's—"

Sora's fist moved on instinct, attempting to preserve what it could of her hearing. "Don't shout in my face, dammit!" she hissed, slapping her hands over her ears as she stared down at the unconscious form of her teammate.

"Well, I can't say that was too surprising," Silver said, staring between the two unconscious bodies. "Blondie had it coming. The other imbecile too..."

"You've even got scales down there too," Beatrice chimed in, throwing an arm around Callum's shoulders, blinking in confusion when he sagged into her. "Um... Callie?" she mumbled, shaking him back and forth like a rag doll. "Callie, you OK?"

"He's unconscious, imbecile," Silver muttered, rolling her eyes. "Put him on the ground... clearly he's a bit shocked."

"Aren't we all?" Eir questioned.

"Scales down where?" Sora paused, stiffening as she realised she was standing... whilst being completely naked. "Dammit, get me some clothes somebody!" she shouted, curling back up into a ball.

Eisa scurried over to her wardrobe, throwing out a pile of clothes which Sora scrambled to pull over her sticky skin and scales, freezing when she stared at her knickers and trousers. "Um... Silver, do you have any scissors or something?" she asked, staring between her tail and her old clothing.

"Why would I have—"

"Here." Beatrice held out a pair of red scissors. "Always be prepared for every eventuality," she said smugly, scurrying back over to Callum seconds later.

Sora picked up the red handles, biting her lip as she eyed her trousers. Would this really work?

"Oh for crying out loud, imbecile," Silver said, snatching the scissors from her. "I'll do it, and only because you don't know how big your tail is. That's all. Don't treat this like a regular occurrence, OK?"

Sora nodded blankly, her brain still half fried from all the thinking she'd just had to do. She'd just hatched from an egg. Normal dragon riders weren't supposed to do that... so what did that make her?

A freak?

She sighed, her shoulders slumping as she watched her teammate snip away at her favourite bottoms. Her ears twitched, hearing the sound of booted feet slapping against tiling. Someone was coming.

"Here." Silver held out her new trousers.

"Thanks," she mumbled, yanking them on just as a very familiar figure strolled into the room.

"Right my cute students—" Oz froze, eyes locking on Sora as she stood there awkwardly. "Sora?"

She smiled, nodding once. "Yep."

Dimly, she heard the sound of a palm meeting someone's face.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST MONTH, HUH?" A fist slammed into her head, a fond smile pulling at her lips as she fell to the ground. His hits were stronger than ever, and for some strange reason she'd missed them in the darkness of her egg. "Wait... Why the hell do you have a tail?"