Jewel was oddly comforted by the fact that she wasn't the only one who enjoyed feeling Topaz's SandWing-warm scales against her own.
She studied the pale yellow shimmer of her friend's side, darkened to a deep reddish-orange by flame, as it rose and fell in the rhythm of sleep. She smiled as her eyes lingered on the black scales that littered her face and rested around her closed eyes, the pattern unique as far as Jewel knew, though she had only met the SandWings from the academy so far, and it wasn't like there were many scrolls on them in the rainforest.
Topaz's head lay nestled under Jewel's wing, tucked against her shoulder. The RainWing was glad that her neutral scale color was pink, because if it wasn't, she'd be a very unseemly shade of it now, with her scales showing off her affection for the friend sleeping peacefully beside her. The prospect was embarrassing, but openly showing affection didn't seem all bad. If only Topaz knew.
Her eyes rose to look at the dragon on Topaz's other side. The dragoness's back was curved neatly against the stomach of the SkyWing who had also taken a liking to her. Jewel's eyes rose a bit higher, and she tried not to jump when she saw that Spinel was glaring back at her with open hostility in her bright orange eyes. After taking a moment to recover, Jewel grinned in retaliation, and her intentional flash of her venomous fangs seemed to startle Spinel, who let a small puff of smoke out of her nostrils, her eyes widening slightly. Anger soon replaced the look of moderate surprise on her features, and she leaned forward to growl quietly, "Don't try to threaten me, Jewel."
"Oh?" Jewel's interest was piqued as she shifted just slightly to lean forward, trying her best not to wake Topaz. "Are we on a first-name basis now, SkyWing?" Her whispers were soft, but there was a teasing edge to her words, her eyes holding a spark of mischief.
Spinel's snout poured even more smoke as she glared at Jewel, then she sat back and let out a derisive snort. Then, to the RainWing's absolute surprise, Spinel cracked the tiniest of smiles. "You're not as bad as they say, RainWing." There was a pause, then, in a voice so small that Jewel had to lean in even farther to head, she said, "You really care about Topaz, don't you?"
Jewel's scales rippled to a shade of red that could challenge Spinel's as she slowly nodded, hesitantly at first, then more willing to answer. She was being entirely serious for once, because she knew this was a serious matter to Spinel. "I do," she murmured, glancing fondly at the SandWing. "She's the most lovely dragon I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, with a heart of gold that she gives and gives, a sense of humor that would allow even Death a good laugh, and a voice that sounds like the sweetest music. Of course she has her faults, like anybody - she's way too generous sometimes and sometimes she doesn't know when to stop trying to crack jokes about a situation, but that doesn't make her worth any less to me." There was a brief pause, and then Jewel put on a gentle smile and said very earnestly, "You come in a close second for the most lovely dragon I've ever met, you know. Well, perhaps third - Jellyfish is really pretty."
This last part was clearly meant to tease Spinel, and the SkyWing swung her head away with a scowl on her face. Jewel could almost feel Spinel's scales heating up in her embarrassment. "She talks about you a lot," Spinel said after a moment, still not meeting Jewel's eyes. "She's always saying, 'Jewel this,' and 'Jewel that.' You mean a lot to her."
"You're saying that like she doesn't do the same for you!" Jewel huffed, the frills around her neck flaring a bit. Despite that, there was a smile on her face, showing that she was still only teasing Spinel. "Don't you think I get tired of hearing her go on and on about how totally awesome you are, and how your wing muscles are so defined, and wow, did you see how fast Spinel was when she took down that deer this morning?" Jewel quieted down a little bit as she heard the other dragons shifting around them, having raised her voice a little too much, and someone mumbled, "Shuddup!" in a voice that sounded a lot like Permafrost's. Once everyone had settled back down, Jewel went on in a soft whisper, "Okay, so the one about the muscles was me." She grinned at the dumbfounded look on Spinel's face. "I just think your skull's a little thicker than a mountain when it comes to learning how to be nice to people is all. But you're halfway nice to Topaz, so I'm sure you can manage being a little kinder to the rest of us."
"Yeah, well-" Spinel seemed to be searching for a way to retaliate, and finally shot back, "It's not the SkyWing way. Didn't your clutchsitters ever tell you about scary Queen Scarlet? Anyway, you could stand to be a little less nice. This is probably the first time I've ever heard you talk back to someone!"
"Our clutchsitters talked about Queen Scarlet like she was in the past, and she is. She's no longer a threat to anybody, and Queen Ember is one of the best queens you've ever had, according to most of our classmates. I listen to what they're saying despite what some of you think," Jewel said stubbornly. "Besides, this isn't what we were talking about. We were talking about how amazing Topaz is." She was more than a little smug when she saw Spinel's eyes flicker down to Topaz and soften for a moment, showing affection, doubt, and a very troubled sort of worry. Then her gaze hardened again, and she scowled as she sent Jewel a death glare.
"Topaz is just a SandWing that I happen to be stuck with on this quest, or whatever this is turning out to be," Spinel growled. "Just another one of her kind, that's all." It was obvious she didn't mean what she was saying as she glanced guiltily at the SandWing.
Jewel's ears flicked in irritation as she glared daggers right back at Spinel. "Why can't you just be honest for on-"
She was cut off as Topaz suddenly surged upward from her resting place, enveloping both of them in her wings to draw them close and pulling them back down with her as she lay down again. "We get it, you love me," she muttered, half-asleep. Jewel didn't think she'd even opened her eyes. "You can continue this fight in the morning, but for now, shut up and go to sleep."
The RainWing's eyes widened as she turned a deep shade of red, looking at Spinel only to see that she had her face buried in her talons. She seemed to be equally as embarrassed as Jewel. But neither of them spoke again until after the sun rose, even though it took them both a good deal of time to get to sleep. It was a bit difficult, after all, when they knew what Topaz knew, and for once they were on the same page as they hoped she'd forget by morning.
I've kind of been playing around with this for a while and finally finished it :'D It's just a short little thing that kind of goes into the overarcing story for my Wings of Fire OCs. Jewel, Spinel, and Topaz are pretty great together and I like writing about them a lot