43 - Invisirails

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I froze for a second before grabbing Piper's arm and sprinting away. She fought me. Why was she trying to pull away? Maybe she had a better plan than running, a good hiding spot I hadn't seen on the grassy grounds. I let go of her arm and looked to her for direction.

She stopped running. "What are you doing?"

Eva screeched in frustration, apparently realizing the same thing I did. Piper must not've been wearing her glamour glass. She couldn't see the dragon. I grabbed her arm again and started running.

"Stop it," she shouted, yanking her arm out of my hand.

"There's a dragon," I shouted back.

She just blinked at me, obviously confused. "A dragon? Where-" She looked back at where we'd come. The dragon was watching us, still standing where we'd left it.

Piper started shaking. Not from fear, no. She was laughing. "Lilly, that's a wyvern, not a dragon."

"What's the difference?"

"Besides the fact that wyverns don't have forelegs? They're true magical creatures. They generate their own magic, like witches and fairies and everything. They don't need to eat magical creatures to survive."

I crossed my arms. "Unlike monsters?"

She looked uncomfortable. "Officially, monsters are called parasitic magical creatures, but yeah." She waved at the wyvern.

The wyvern waved back with one of its wings.

"That wyvern we just ran away from is a friend of mine. I told her I'd let her borrow my notes since she was sick on friday. You should come and meet her. There are a decent number of wyverns and other draconian variants around here. You should get used to them."

"If you say so." I followed her back to the wyvern.

"Hey Blagg, I've got the notes right here." Piper took off her backpack and rifled through it.

Blagg leaned forward to look at me. She sniffed the air with huge nostrils. Her snout was a lot shorter than a dragon's. Eva shivered on my shoulder. I fought the urge to flee, and Blagg seemed to notice.

"Why so afraid?" she asked in a deep, gravelly voice.

Piper glanced over her shoulder at me. "Oh, she's never met a wyvern before. Lilly Hemlock, didn't I mention her?"

Blagg nodded. "Do you want a flying tour? The campus is amazing from the air."

"No thank you, I've got class really soon."

"Uh huh."

Piper held up a notebook. "Here it is. Just get it to me at lunch. I'll be eating outside by North Dining."

"Thanks." With surprising dexterity, Blagg used two wing claws on one wing to pinch the notebook and tuck it into a pouch on her stomach. Not a bag pouch, like a pouch pouch, kangaroo style.

She nodded at Piper. "See you later." And she took off.

"See, that wasn't scary at all," Piper said. She turned to give me an annoyed look.

I stuck my tongue out. "How was I supposed to know she was a wyvern, which is apparently completely different from a dragon? I've never been around Otherworlders. My parents didn't even let me read fairy tales when I was younger. I had to catch up on all of that this summer."

"Fine, fine." She held her hands up in surrender. "I don't really blame you. Just remember, no one here is going to hurt you. There aren't any monsters on the rosters, which either means there aren't any in the school, or they're so good at acting normal that no one notices they're pretending to be magical creatures. Either way, you're going to be fine. There haven't been any murders here in like forever."

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