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

Chapter Seven: A Ridiculously Large Library

Calling Oz, or was it Ozrin, Rinny had not been the greatest of Raelynn's ideas. It had ended with a broken wall and their lovable blonde on the wrong side of it, before she'd been carted off to the hospital... while Oz had... vanished. His face had been twisted, fear and agony written across his expression as he stared at the crumpled blonde before he'd given them some information to look for and promptly stumbled out of the room, and out of their sight, though not before giving them strict instructions to take her to the nearest hospital.

Silver had gone with Raelynn, muttering about how she needed "to keep an eye on the imbecile so she doesn't do anything even more idiotic."

Never had their been truer words spoken, Sora mused, eyeing the reading list Oz had given them before he'd scarpered. There were a ridiculous number of books on there, as well as the name of a hotel for when they were calling it a night.

"So..." Leif said, looking like he'd just bitten into a lemon. "Our instructor wishes for us to read? A task that could easily be accomplished by just you peasants..."

Sora scowled, grabbing him by the ear as she turned to go and locate some of the books in the gigantic library. "Come on, Princess," she grumbled, fed up of their wonderful princeling's complaints. "We've got books to read."

"Let go of me, commoner!"

"Well, twin..." Eir's voice rang out behind them. "That's one problem dealt with."

"Right you are, twin... right you are..." Eisa mumbled, the sounds of their voices growing further and further away as she and her unwilling partner went to go and locate a book about interesting places around Astal, and another about the mechanisms of defence for the continent. Sora had to find something for the irritating boy to read too, if only to keep him quiet.

She walked through the library, searching for any free seats, her captive trapped in her iron grasp all the while. Her tail swished behind her, cloak flicking from left to right, and if anyone had been standing near them, they might've been curious, but the library was practically empty. Fortunately, nobody was, so it was just her and Leif – who had apparently made it his mission to be the most annoying dragon rider to ever walk the earth. It made Sora want to punch him, but after what had happened with Raelynn, she didn't particularly want any more of her teammates in the hospital, no matter how annoying they were.

Eventually, she spied what she'd been looking for, a smile lighting up her face as she guided her unwilling teammate towards a set of table and chairs. "Sit," she ordered, pointing him towards a chair. "Unless you'd rather I make you."

Leif rolled his eyes. "Like a peasant—"

Her leg slammed into the backs of his knees, arms pushing the chair forward so he landed neatly on the cushion. Annoying teammate he might've been, but she didn't particularly want to injure him. They'd had enough injuries for one day, and Oz probably didn't deserve the stress of all the paperwork it'd likely cause.

"Ouch... Do you have to resolve everything with those muscles of yours?" he asked, glaring at her as she slumped into the seat next to his.

"Do you have to respond to everything with that obnoxious mouth of yours?" she shot back, slamming one of the books down in front of him. "What's that? No. How fantastic... Now could you please stop trying to give me a headache and just read the damn book. You're our teammate. Act like it."

"I'm a prince—"

"You're our teammate now," Sora grumbled, opening her own book, peering at the map spread across two pages, eyeing the odd red dots spread across the parchment. It brought back memories of their first little test inside a damned forest... before Leif had joined them... before she'd grown a tail and scales. "Welcome to the humble life of a commoner, Princess."

"I'm a man!"

Beatrice chose that moment to approach them, another two books in her hands. "Pfft..." She sniggered. "You're a man...? Sure. Yet somehow Sora has more balls than you."

"Those two ours to look at too?" she asked, silently measuring up how long it'd take her to read them all. Leif was apparently either a ridiculously slow reader, or he was lacking the right motivation. Personally, Sora would bet on the latter.

"Yep." Beatrice nodded. "Have fun with Princess over here."

"Will do," Sora muttered, cracking open the next book, looking between the two tomes open in front of her, not bothering to watch as her teammate retreated, leaving her all alone with their resident princess. "Now, get reading... unless you want me thinking you're illiterate," she said, sliding the two other books towards her least favourite teammate.

"Pssh. Hardly." Leif grabbed the books. "I can read far better than you'd be able to with that puny brain of yours."

Sora felt her face twitch. "I'll show you puny."

"What was that?"

"Prove it," she said, staring back at her own reading materials. "Prove you can read and understand things better than me then... otherwise you're just all bark and no bite."

"Don't mind if I do."

Sora smiled, settling back into her reading, keeping a silent eye on their disgruntled prince as they buried themselves in their reading. They had a lot of things to cover before Oz came back from wherever he'd vanished off to.

AN: Apologies for the lack of updates, but I've finished my exams now. My updates might be slightly slower and shorter than usual until I get around to editing them, since I've gotten a little rusty in my writing over the last two months. I just wanted to get some more chapters up before I go off on holiday (with zero WiFi) in a couple of weeks.