By: Bethany E. Blackstock
Prologue
Sunny stared at the sunset. Again. With a sigh she turned her head downwards and watched the waves lap over her claws. Again. This was getting so boring!
Sunny had interrupted Deathbringer when he was writing on some bark paper and he got so, so annoyed but then he suddenly decided that he had a surprise for her that he could show her just about now. He flew her over to a beach and told her, “Wait here until I come back!” and flew away.
Sunny was starting to think he wasn’t coming back at all. She was just about to get up and leave when a shimmery object caught her eye.
It was an egg. Sunny waded into the water and grabbed the egg before swimming back to shore.
“I wonder what type of dragon is inside this tiny egg?” Sunny whispered.
The egg was unlike any egg she had ever seen before. The shell of the egg was shimmering with all the colours of the rainbow, and the patterns were unique to any dragon egg she had seen before. There were star shaped cracks at the top and a zig zagging crack at the bottom.
“Hello?” Sunny whispered to the egg. “Hello?” she tried again.
Suddenly the egg started to wobble. Then all the pieces fell away to reveal a small rainbow coloured dragonet.
The dragonet had the most beautiful scales Sunny had ever seen. They were shimmering pink and orange to dark aqua and purple. The baby dragon didn’t match any of the tribes.
There were strange spikes all over her, with the biggest on her horns and tail.
But the strangest thing was she didn’t have wings. On one of the bits of broken egg there was an inscription that said, “The Forbidden Dragonet.”
ChapterOne
Opal was the kind of dragonet who wouldn’t go down without a fight. Sunny said she was like Tsunami. Tsunami said she was like Glory. Glory said she was like Clay. Clay said she was like Starflight. Starflight said, “Opal can’t you see I’m reading?” And then Opal would say “But you’ve read that scroll a thousand times!”, and that would usually get her banned from the library for weeks at a time.
“Mom, I want blackberries not raspberries!” Opal complained.
“I know you do, but dad couldn’t get them at the market,” Opal’s mom, Silverwash, told the little rainbow dragon.
Opal’s dad’s name was Flipper and he was a Seawing, while Opal’s mother was a Silkwing. The family all lived together in Sanctuary happily and stayed in touch with the dragonets of destiny.
“I guess…” Opal whined and slunk out of the room.
She slithered through the halls and finally emerged into her bedroom. In Opal’s bedroom the walls glimmered with jewels of all sorts. In the corner a neat scroll holder and bookshelf was tucked away perfectly with a polished wooden desk set right next to them. A huge sky light was carved in the centre of the roof which let in bursts of sunlight that lit up the room.
At the back side of the room, past all the cushy chairs and dusty books, was a beautiful crystal ledge all drenched with sunshine and adorned with soft silk cushions and blankets that Opal called her bed.
Opal marched across the velvet matt that covered the centre of the sapphire floor and threw herself onto her bed. She was having the worst day ever.
“Dad isn’t back home yet, and I don’t get the berries I always get on days like this one! This is the worst day ever!! Humph!” Opal hissed.
She sat up, took her favourite journal off the shelf and scribbled a few sentences for the day: Momdoesn’tcareaboutanyofmytroubles.
Opal liked to fill that book with things about her days. As soon as she could write she started a new routine that she called “stories of the day.”
“Well, I think I should call it a day.”
Opal dug herself into her bed. With a sigh she closed her eyes and let herself fall into a fast muddle of dreams.
Chapter Two
The next day Opal woke up as early as she could. She wolfed down a quick berry breakfast, and then grabbed all her schoolbooks, put them in a bag and hurried into the bustling, crowded streets of Sanctuary.
She rushed down the walkways and past lots of different structures, some half in water, some up a tree. Finally, she arrived at a huge, beautiful structure. It was her school.
When Opal got inside, her two best friends, Shimmer the Rainwing and Vortex the Skywing, were already waiting for her.
“Opal!” Shimmer and Vortex shouted in unison.
“Hi you guys!” Opal replied, smiling at her besties.
The three friends spent the morning in class, chatting, playing and doing schoolwork. When it was finally lunch time, Opal felt as if her brain was going to explode!
Suddenly a plume of smoke rose up out of the classroom that Shimmer was still in! Shimmer was in a different class than Opal and Vortex and her class was the last to be let out for break time.
A blood-curdling scream echoed through the courtyard. Everyone dropped their things with a shriek and bolted for a full-grown teacher or an exit. Some were even so panicked they took flight and zoomed off campus.
A few dragons flew over and dove through the smoke to get to the classroom and save everyone in it. Opal grabbed Vortex’s talon, lept to her feet, and ran into the cloudy, grey, ominous swamp of smoke.
“Shimmer!” Opal called, as she and Vortex hurried through the cloud of smoke, trying to find the classroom
“Opal!” a voice asked from nearby. Shimmer emerged from the shadows.
“Shimmer! What happened?!” Vortex exclaimed.
“Vortex, Opal! I’m so glad you’re here! I don’t know what happened! One moment we were learning about ‘the ancient history of our world’, and the next, the room was on fire!” Shimmer blurted out.
“Shimmer, are you OK?” Vortex asked.
“Yup! and so is everyone else. I think they made it out safely,” she replied.
“Ok, then fly for your lives!!” Vortex yelled. The three friends darted out of the smoke and crashed into Mrs Tulip.
“Girls!” Mrs Tulip yelped as the dragonets hopped back to their claws.
“Mrs Tulip?!” Shimmer said, surprised to see her.
“Kids into the music room!” She instructed.
After the four dragons got into the room, Mrs Tulip started talking.
“Kids, that explosion was the fifth one in a week. I’m glad you’re safe, I really am, but I know that whoever is doing this must be caught and brought to justice!” Opal very much agreed.
Chapter Three
The next day, school was closed, but that didn’t stop Opal. She, Shimmer and Vortex snuck into school grounds and waited for an explosion.
They perched high on the observatory roof, so they could spot anyone coming or going.
When the smoke started draining out of the building, Opal, Shimmer and Vortex jumped up into the air and flew over the school, chasing a dark shape that they saw coming from where the explosion had erupted.
“Guys? I have to tell you something!” Shimmer yelled over the wind as they flew.
“What?” Opal yelled back.
“I know how the explosions were set off. In my classroom, there were dragon flame cactus seed pods flying everywhere! This means whoever did this must be a dragon with fire, and they have to be in my class!” Shimmer explained.
“That’s great but-” Opal started to say when Vortex cut her off.
“Look!” The Skywing dragonet yelled, pointing at one of the towers. The mystery dragon crashed into it and fell down to the building rooftop.
“Stormling?!” Shimmer cried as the three flew down to meet the dragonet who was shades of white, blue and pale red.
“Hi,” she said wearily, breathing some frost breath on a cut on her wing.
“What?! She’s a hybrid of some sort, but it doesn’t look like she can breathe fire!” Vortex said, looking at Shimmer.
“She can’t…” Shimmer replied.
Now everybody was looking at Stormling, and Stormling was looking very guilty.
“I… can. I can breathe fire because I’m part Skywing, not just Icewing. I admit I set off the bombs, but you don’t understand why!” Stormling said.
“There are some kids in our class, and they were part of a group that destroyed my village.”
“It was a few years ago, and my family – my whole family including me – were living in a northern Skywing village when those kids and a bunch of others came into town. We thought they were just normal travellers, but we were wrong.”
“The next morning, we all woke before dawn with the whole village in flames! We all scrambled to flee. We lost our home, our belongings and even the lives of dragons we loved. I just couldn’t forgive them!”
“I didn’t want to hurt anybody except those dragons when I set off the bombs. I’m so sorry!” Stormling blurted out to Shimmer.
“It’s okay, we’ll get those kids punished. But I think you also have some apologies to say and explaining to do.”
Stormling nodded as Shimmer and Opal helped her to her claws. She may have got a few scratches when she flew into the tower, but she could still fly just fine. Opal knew Stormling just wanted payback, but she did it the wrong way.
Chapter Four
After Stormling had told the teachers at school what she had told Opal and Opal’s friends, the teachers understood. Storming’s parents were notified and Stormling got six months’ detention, but the punishment for the dragonets who had destroyed Storming’s village was on a whole other level.
That night, as Opal nestled down into her bed, she felt like she had just saved the world, even though she knew that wasn’t true. Still, she had helped the whole school feel like they were safe, and not about to be blown up.
It was hard work and involved some rule breaking, but it was worth it.
The next morning, Opal received a letter from Sunny requesting she come and meet her at the Sunrise Lagoon, which was a lagoon high up in the mountains. It was the perfect place to talk privately, which was exactly what Sunny wanted to do, according to the letter.
The letter said to meet at sunrise and told Opal to bring a blanket in case she got cold. Sunny also said to bring food because they would meet early in the morning around breakfast time. To be extra ready, Opal packed her bag full of warm blankets, yummy food and fresh water, even though they’d be right beside a lake.
Chapter Five
When Opal arrived at the Sunrise Lagoon, Sunny flew down from a high rock to meet her.
“Opal! You’re here!” she cried with delight.
“Uh, yeah. Hi.” Opal replied flatly. “What did you call me here for?”
Sunny smiled sadly and ushered Opal over to the big rock on which she had been waiting for Opal. Opal flew up, settled down on the rock beside Sunny and bit into a mango.
“Opal, do you know how special you are?” Sunny asked, helping herself to a bowl of dried apricots.
“Yes, yes, I know. My teachers always remind me that I’m so good at all the subjects and am
an awesome help. Oh, also… I saved the school from being blown up. Why?” Opal said, her mouth full.
“Because that’s not why you’re special Opal.” Sunny explained to her.
“I think it’s time you knew the truth. When I found your egg, it was in the water near the southern rainforest Coast.”
“What?! Why was it in the water?” Opal exploded. But Sunny wasn’t done.
“When I picked up your egg it started to hatch. You looked… different. But even though you didn’t look to be from any known tribes, that wasn’t what alarmed me. On a piece of your broken eggshell, was an inscription.” Sunny paused, letting all the words sink in.
“Wait, does this mean my parents are not my real parents?!” Opal yelled, panicking
“Yes,” Sunny said solemnly.
“Oh,” Opal whispered. Sunny smiled reassuringly as she popped another dried apricot in her mouth.
“But they still love you,” Sunny reminded her.
With her tail, she nudged the box of apricots over until it slid into Opal’s talon. Opal looked down at it, then at Sunny, then at it again, and grabbed some to drop into her mouth. Sunny smiled and put a talon on Opal’s.
“Well?” Opal said looking at Sunny. “What did the inscription say?”
Sunny continued the story. “I was alarmed by what it said. It was just three words, but still!”
Sunny looked straight into Opals eyes, Sunny’s full of fear…
“The note said… The Forbidden Dragonet!”
Epilogue
To the left, to the left, to the right… or was it left for a third time?
Crimson always got mixed up about how to get through the tunnels. Crimson was the granddaughter of the Skywing animus who had helped make the forbidden egg.
Because of that, Crimson was considered a celebrity in her home in Skydaggar Mountain, hidden high, high up in the clouds. It was enchanted to stay afloat forever and there was only one rumour about how to make the mountain fall.
But back to the tunnels. They were just so, so confusing! They were like a huge underground maze! The walls were made of a white-grey
stone and there were little carvings etched into each brick to make a beautiful and delicate pattern.
The tunnels were built to protect the chamber that
the queens of the old times ordered the forbidden egg to be put in until it was time for the egg to be destroyed by the ten animuses of the ten tribes.
After what felt like thousands and millions and quadrillions of years of walking, Crimson reached the chamber of the forbidden egg. But what she saw was not what she was expecting. She saw a huge wave flood through the tunnels. It was a skywave, formed of cloud water that sometimes flooded the mountain!
Crimson saw the forbidden egg get washed off its pedestal and swept out an air vent, towards the sea that led in the direction of Pyrrhia.
The water was moving too fast for Crimson to do anything to save the egg, so her only hope was that a Pyrrhian dragon would find the egg, rescue it and look after it until Crimson and the other Starwings (that was what the Skydaggar mountain dragons were called) could come and get it from them.
Crimson stood watching the egg float away and hoped that the dragonet inside it would be alright far from its home.
They didn’t know it yet, but this dragonet would change the world.