Fire Islands: Chapter Seven: The Notfish

Chapter Seven

The Notfish


    They were dragonets. About five, bouncing, enthusiastic dragonets. And one exhausted-looking SunWing, his gold scales standing out in contrast to his dark red scales. "Quiet down!" he hissed-whispered at them all. "This is the Hatchery! You have to be silent!"

    "Is there trouble, Bask?" Flicker's voice drifted from the darkness. She emerged from the back of the room. She held herself almost regally, back straight and head high. She seemed to have put on a mask in front of this SunWing. Her eyes were steely and no amount of the humor she had had while playing with Shade could be seen on her.

    "Flicker!" The SunWing jolted in surprise, then regained his posture and bowed his head. Tsunami frowned. Flicker seemed to be someone of high importance. Maybe Shade was the number one general or something. "No. No trouble. We just received word that the Boulder Dragons were here, and everyone wanted to see them."

    Flicker nodded. "Here they are." She swept one of her giant wings towards Clay, Starflight, and Tsunami, and the dragonets yelped and yipped with excitement.

    One of the dragonets bounced over to Tsunami and eyed her curiously. "Are you fish?"

    "We're not fish," replied Tsunami, startled.

    "No, no, no." Another SunWing dragonet corrected the first in a regal fashion. "They're Notfish."

    "Ooh," muttered Flicker quietly, her mask slipping for a moment. "I don't envy you. It looks like you're stuck as Notfish, whatever those are."

    Clay grimaced and nodded as the two dragonets jumped on each other and fell into a squeaking heap. Little cries of, "Notfish!" could be heard.

    The SunWing, Bask, Starflight guessed, groaned and rubbed his forehead. "My apologies, Flicker." He looked around the Hatchery as if looking for inspiration. "Who wants to go paint?"

    All the dragonets started squealing in excitement. One of them jumped on Bask and he dragged him off as if he did this every day. "But we can only go if we're silent." The squeaking stopped immediately and the dragonets froze.

    "I hope it does not inconvenience you if we follow," Flicker said, back to her regal mode. "I think that these three will find it interesting."

    "No, of course not." Bask nodded to her again and flicked his tail as a dragonet tried to pounce on it. He turned and frowned at the dragonet. "Behave, or I'll tell your mother."

    Flicker motioned to the three dragons with a slight smile, which was quickly extinguished as Bask turned back to her. She lifted her chin and swept out of the Hatchery, leaving Tsunami, Clay, and Starflight to walk along behind her. She moved confidently through the twisting streets, sometimes nodding in acknowledgement to passersby. Suddenly she came to a stop. Tsunami gasped and Clay leaned in to whisper to Starflight what was in front of them.

    It was a giant gray boulder, about the height of the nearby trees. On it were beautiful paintings and sketches of the dragons of Pyrria. They were everywhere, in all different positions, from SeaWings flashing Aquatic at each other to SandWings fighting each other in battle practice to RainWings hanging by their tails from branches.

    Flicker leaned towards them and whispered, "This is the reason we know about you."

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